NinieB Enjoys the Roses in 2022

I'm Ninie (rhymes with shiny) and I'm an avid reader in beautiful upstate New York.

I love roses--the way they smell (the good ones anyways), their beauty, everything about them. The thread celebrates some beautiful roses that match my categories.

My categories this year are somewhat changed from last year. I'm trying to move away from obsessively listing my books by the year they were published. I have a Classics (pre-1900) category, a 20th-century category, and a 21st-century category. I'm also giving two categories to mysteries, one for the Keating list (I've read over 50%!) and one for all other mysteries. CATs and KITs are getting a category of their own, as is BingoDOG.

Picture credit: Jebulon, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Classics



1. The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope
2. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
3. Olive by Dinah Mulock Craik
4. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
5. King Lear by William Shakespeare
6. Tales of All Countries. First Series by Anthony Trollope
7. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
8. Tales of All Countries. Second Series by Anthony Trollope
9. The Gentle Euphemia by Anthony Trollope
10. The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope
11. Nina Balatka by Anthony Trollope
12. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
13. The Annotated Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
14. Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs. Oliphant
15. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
16. The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins
17. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
18. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
19. The Perpetual Curate by Mrs. Margaret Oliphant
20. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

20th Century



Picture credit: Roozitaa, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

1. The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley
2. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
3. Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell
4. Quicksand by Nella Larsen
5. Jalna by Mazo de la Roche
6. Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
7. Sheeps' Clothing by Celia Dale
8. Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer
9. The Cliff Hangers by Janet O'Daniel
10. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
11. Copsi Castle by Norah Lofts
12. Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman
13. The Sheltered Life by Ellen Glasgow
14. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
15. Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham
16. The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield
17. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
18. The Malletts by E. H. Young
19. My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley
20. The Rector's Daughter by F. M. Mayor
21. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
22. Thalia by Frances Faviell
23. The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson

21st Century




1. Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
2. These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
3. Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
4. The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
5. This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer
6. The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer
7. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

Keating Mysteries (books on H.R.F. Keating's list of 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books)



1. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
2. Murder against the Grain by Emma Lathen
3. Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
4. The Green Ripper by John D. MacDonald
5. More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham

Other Mysteries



Picture credit: T.Kiya from Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

1. Appleby and the Ospreys by Michael Innes
2. Death of a Swagman by Arthur W. Upfield
3. The Night of the Twelfth by Michael Gilbert
4. Double, Double by Ellery Queen
5. The Sheriff of Bombay by H. R. F. Keating
6. Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason
7. Cradled in Fear by Anita Boutell
8. All Creatures Dark and Dangerous by Doug Allyn
9. Killing Floor by Lee Child
10. The Origin of Evil by Ellery Queen
11. Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Michaels
12. Ammie, Come Home by Barbara Michaels
13. Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels
14. The Missing Man by Nathan Dylan Goodwin
15. Rendezvous in Black by Cornell Woolrich
16. Under a Monsoon Cloud by H. R. F. Keating
17. The Lake District Murder by John Bude
18. Points and Lines by Seicho Matsumoto
19. The Third Encounter by Sara Woods
20. The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon
21. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
22. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
23. The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
24. The Shakespeare Murders by A. G. Macdonell
25. Murder at the Cat Show by Marian Babson
26. Though I Know She Lies by Sara Woods
27. The Third Lady by Shizuko Natsuki
28. Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle by J. A. Lang
29. Final Notice by Jonathan Valin
30. Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo
31. Arrest the Bishop? by Winifred Peck
32. Hidden in Snow by Viveca Sten

CATs and KITs



AuthorCAT
January (indigenous authors): Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
February (19th century authors): Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
March (debut over 40): The Enemy by Lee Child
April (debut work): Quicksand by Nella Larsen, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
May (from own country): The Cliff Hangers by Janet O'Daniel
July (Asian authors): Points and Lines by Seicho Matsumoto
August (Prize winners): The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
October (authors in translation): The Third Lady by Shizuko Natsuki
November (backdrop of real events): Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo

CATwoman
January (auto/biography): The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley
April (women of color): Quicksand by Nella Larsen
July (women in science): Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham
September (women in wartime): My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley
October (women in crime): The Third Lady by Shizuko Natsuki
November (women's issues): Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo

AlphaKIT
January (R, H): In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
February (A, B): Cradled in Fear by Anita Boutell
March (P, S): Death Stalks Door County by Patricia Skalka
April (J, L): Jalna by Mazo de la Roche
July (E, T): The Third Encounter by Sara Woods
September (K, I): Though I Know She Lies by Sara Woods
October (V, N): Final Notice by Jonathan Valin
November (G, U): The Green Ripper by John D. MacDonald; More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham

MysteryKIT
January (series): Appleby and the Ospreys by Michael Innes
February (cold case): Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason
March (small town): Death Stalks Door County by Patricia Skalka
April (hard-boiled/noir): Rendezvous in Black by Cornell Woolrich, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
July (Golden Age): The Lake District Murder by John Bude
September (Animals): Murder at the Cat Show by Marian Babson
October (Food): Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle by J. A. Lang
December (Holiday Mysteries): Hidden in Snow by Viveca Sten

RandomKIT
January (home): In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
February (cats): All Creatures Dark and Dangerous by Doug Allyn
March (hobby): Hiding the Past by Nathan Dylan Goodwin
April (rain): Under a Monsoon Cloud by H. R. F. Keating
May (flowers): Copsi Castle by Norah Lofts
July (dogs): The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon
August (Canada): The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
September (a time for harvest): Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
October (what's in a name?): Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs. Oliphant
November (city): Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo

ShakespeareCAT
January (King Lear): King Lear by William Shakespeare
February (Much Ado about Nothing/romantic comedy): Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer
March (modern retelling): These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
April (Hamlet, revenge): Rendezvous in Black by Cornell Woolrich
May (history plays): Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman
July (justice): The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
September (sonnets and other poems): selected sonnets, including Sonnet 18, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day and Sonnet 55, Not marble, nor the gilded monuments; Though I Know She Lies by Sara Woods
October (Macbeth): Macbeth by William Shakespeare
November (about): Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
December (Winter's Tale): Hidden in Snow by Viveca Sten

BingoDOG






1. (award winner) Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason
2. (published year ending in 2) Cradled in Fear by Anita Boutell
3. (modern retelling) These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
4. (love to see the movie) The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley
5. (features a dog) All Creatures Dark and Dangerous by Doug Allyn
6. (title contains a Z) Rendezvous in Black by Cornell Woolrich
7. (published year I joined LT) Hiding the Past by Nathan Dylan Goodwin
8. (a favorite author) The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope
9. (long book) Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
11. (title contains month) The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
12. (weather word) Under a Monsoon Cloud by H. R. F. Keating
13. (Read a CAT) The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
14. (travel or a journey) Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
15. (sisters or brothers) Jalna by Mazo de la Roche
17. (flowers on cover) Copsi Castle by Norah Lofts
18. (translation) Points and Lines by Seicho Matsumoto
19. (nonfiction) Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
20. (character with name of friend) The Missing Man by Nathan Dylan Goodwin
21. (set in a capital city) Ammie, Come Home by Barbara Michaels
22. (children or YA) Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
23. (set in another country) Appleby and the Ospreys by Michael Innes
24. (LGBTQ+ author) Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
25. (silver/gold on cover) Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Michaels

Special Projects



Virago Reading Plan
January (nuns, teachers, governesses): In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
February (North American)
March (Just one Virago by author): Sheeps' Clothing by Celia Dale
April (Name in title): Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
May (story of a life): The Sheltered Life by Ellen Glasgow
June (by a Virago author): The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield
July (Irish): Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
August (journey): The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
September (family relationships): The Malletts by E. H. Young
October (in print with another publisher): Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs. Oliphant; The Rector's Daughter by F. M. Mayor
November (set in Australia/NZ): The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson

May Historical Fiction Readathon
1. From your country: The Cliff Hangers by Janet O'Daniel
2. From another country: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
3. From your favorite time period: Copsi Castle by Norah Lofts
4. From an unfamiliar time period
5. With a speculative element
6. Real historical character/specific event: Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman
7. Classic
Bonus: Over 500 pages

Victober
1. Bildungsroman: Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs. Oliphant
2. Disability: The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins
3. Book with TV/movie adaptation: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
4. Short story: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
5. Poetry

Welcome, everyone--the door is open!

Stopping by to admire the roses -- and drop my star, of course! Looking forward to seeing your thoughts on the Keating mysteries especially.

Love the roses. Hoping to follow along for another year's great reading.

I love roses as well although I never had much luck in growing them. Gorgeous pictures and great categories!

Beautiful photos! I can't choose my favourite but the one in CATs category might take the prize. Looking forward to following along.

Lovely theme and such gorgeous roses! I would love to have some, but the potted ones on the balcony always wither away. Happy reading!

Great categories and beautiful roses! I see you are from upstate New York...my best friend was born and raised in Saugerties.

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes!

>11 christina_reads: So happy you'll be coming by this year, Christina! I'm looking forward to more Keating choices as well.

>12 Helenliz: Happy to have you here again, Helen!

>13 DeltaQueen50: Right now I have hardy roses, Judy. They seem to be doing their thing just fine without much help from me, which is for the best!

>14 VivienneR: I'm a sucker for a cat picture, Vivienne, I admit it!

>15 MissWatson: It's so hard to keep potted roses adequately nourished, Birgit. I've had mixed success myself.

>16 Tess_W: As a transplant, I still have much exploring of New York in my future. I've been to the Hudson Valley and marveled at the size of the river--I'd love to go again!

Best of luck with the challenges. I love the roses. Oh... special projects? Sounds mysterious!

>18 majkia: Thanks, Jean! Special Projects gives me space to track something that comes up during the year, like a one month challenge.

>19 NinieB: Oh, good idea!

Happy reading in 2022. I'll be checking out your mysteries and classics categories in particular.

>21 pamelad: Thanks Pam--looking forward to having you along!

Ooh, the special projects rose is probably my favourite! I love that delicate shade of pink. Hope everything comes up roses in 2022!

>23 rabbitprincess: I agree, it's a lovely shade! Thanks for the good wishes!

Hi, Ninie!

I need another list like I need...something I really don't need, but that Keating's list is so tempting...

>25 scaifea: Muahaha . . . temptation lurks in every post, Amber!

Great pictures of the roses.

>27 hailelib: Glad you enjoy them too! I had fun adding color to my new thread.

Best wishes on your category. Looking forward to your mystery categories especially.

>29 thornton37814: Thanks Lori! I always watch your mystery categories too!

Gorgeous images! Looking forward to following your reading. Like Amber, I am tempted by that Keating's list.

>31 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie, happy to have you along. I should be reading more Keating honorees soon!

Deleted!

>34 NinieB: Gorgeous pic, and a healthy, peaceful and amazing reading year to you, too!

>35 kac522: Thanks, Kathy, for such good wishes! I hope you have the same!

>34 NinieB: Beautiful card! Wishing you a happy new year as well :)

>34 NinieB: Happy 2022!

>37 rabbitprincess: I like the rosiness of it :) Happy New Year!

>38 Tess_W: Happy 2022 to you as well!

Happy New Year!

>40 DeltaQueen50: Thanks Judy, and happy new year to you!

Hi, Ninie - best wishes for the New Year! I love your gorgeous roses. I'll be looking forward to hearing about your reading and hopefully sharing a few books with you. :)

Hi Liz, thanks for stopping by, and for the good wishes. I'm sure we'll enjoy some good books together!

Beautiful. Happy New Year.

>44 mnleona: So glad you like the roses, Leona! Happy new year to you as well.

For some reason it took me several days (I started it in 2021) to finish Appleby and the Ospreys by Michael Innes.

Another one of Sir John Appleby's neighbors, Lord Osprey, manages to get himself murdered in his library. With reluctance, Sir John visits the scene of the crime and ends up helping Detective-Inspector Ringwood to solve whodunnit. It's a pretty good mystery, complete with red herrings and a surplusage of numismatists. I'd call it better than the previous one in the series.

It's the last novel in the Inspector Appleby series and therefore I'm counting it for MysteryKIT's January challenge of a book in a series. It's also set in England so it occupies the "set in another country" Bingo square.

The Flame Trees of Thika is Elspeth Huxley's fictionalized memoir of living in East Africa (now Kenya) during the years 1912-1914, as a small child (age 5 to 7). Her parents started a coffee plantation and to some extent this is the story of European pioneering in east Africa. It is also Huxley's lyrical tribute to the nature and peoples of the east African world, and I loved all these aspects of the book.

Given the place and setting, it's not surprising that some, not all, of Huxley's characters express the racist attitudes of the early 20th century. A couple of them use offensive, derogatory terms to refer to the indigenous peoples. Therefore, while I can't recommend this book for everyone, I most heartily recommend it for those who are prepared for this encounter.

>47 NinieB: I really enjoyed The Flame Trees of Thika and went on to the read the sequel, The Mottled Lizard, which I also liked. Your Elspeth Huxley reminder has led me to the third book in the series, Out in the Midday Sun, which I now plan to read for this month's CATWoman. Thank you.

>48 pamelad: Awesome! Yes, I read this for CATwoman. And I have a copy of The Mottled Lizard waiting so I'm glad to hear it's also worth reading.

>47 NinieB: We were assigned that novel in college--I did not read it! Perhaps I should now.....just about 40 years later!

You got me with The Flame Trees. Adding that to The List. Lovely review.

>50 Tess_W: Better late than never!

>51 Crazymamie: Thanks--I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

In This House of Brede (1969) by Rumer Godden, a novel, tells about the nuns at the monastery of Brede in England during the 1950s and 1960s. There's a soft focus on Philippa Talbot, who first comes to Brede as a postulant when she is a 42-year-old widow, but we get successive focuses on many of the nuns including their back stories. A few, like Dame Catherine Ismay and Sister Cecily Scallon, we see across the years, as we do Philippa.

This novel is quite lovely. I cared deeply about the characters and I'd still like to know more about them.

This is on my Mount TBR. I really need to get to it! A beautiful review!

>53 NinieB: This books seems to be getting around lately. My library doesn't have it, but I think I can get it via ILL. Of course after I read the other way-too-many books from the library.

>54 Tess_W: Thanks Tess! Yes, I do recommend it highly! I have yet to read a bad book by Rumer Godden.

>55 kac522: It checked several boxes this month--your RandomKIT, AlphaKIT, Virago . . . hope you can find it and fit it in soon!

>53 NinieB: That was my I introduction to Godden more than a decade ago - I fell in love with her style but for one reason or another failed to read much more by her. Thanks for reminding me of her. :)

>57 AnnieMod: You're welcome! My first introduction to Godden was through her children's books when I was small, but I hadn't returned to her until last year.

A few days ago I finished Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese. In this novel by an indigenous author, the kid--16-year-old Franklin Starlight--takes his dying father Eldon to a remote spot in the mountains. Franklin has little relationship with Eldon, having been raised by an older white man. Eldon has done much damage to their relationship through his alcoholism, which is now killing him.

Wagamese wrote the novel in a beautifully clear fashion. Thanks to the several Canadian readers in the category challenge who have brought him to my attention. I look forward to reading more by him.

Death of a Swagman by Arthur W. Upfield, a Bony novel, is set in the southwest of New South Wales in the small township of Merino, where Bony investigates undercover the murder of a stockman. Bony himself then discovers the dead body of a swagman at the same location.

A typical Upfield mystery set in a bush location. The motive is a little far-fetched but Bony's detection in the natural setting is always interesting.

The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope is the fifth of the six Barchester novels, although much of it takes place outside Barsetshire. Allington is in the neighboring county. Lily Dale, her mother, and her sister live in the Small House on the property of Lily's uncle, the squire. At the beginning of the novel Lily's cousin Bernard introduces her to Adolphus Crosbie, civil servant and man of fashion from London. Lily and Adolphus promptly become engaged, with Lily deeply in love. Adolphus, however, disillusioned when the squire refuses to give Lily any money, accepts an invitation from Lady Alexandrina de Courcy to stay at Courcy Castle in West Barset.

Meanwhile, young, awkward Johnny Eames from the neighboring town of Guestwick is also in love with Lily. Like Adolphus, he is also a civil servant but at a fraction of Adolphus's salary. Adding to his woes, he has become entangled with his London landlady's daughter Amelia.

Trollope shows his prowess at interweaving multiple storylines in this lengthy novel. These storylines don't end up where one might expect. I found Johnny's storyline particularly engaging. It's not that the scenes set in his London boarding house are great, but instead his character growth is noticeable and interesting.

Mostly just dropping in but you have read some good books since my last visit and the library doesn't have them.

>62 hailelib: Hi Tricia! Yes, I have had a pretty good reading month.

>61 NinieB: I need to read the entire series again. And The Small House at Allington was my least favorite, so it probably deserves a re-read more than the others.

>64 kac522: I had mostly forgotten it from the first time I read it, so it was worth it.

The Sheriff of Bombay is the 13th Inspector Ghote novel. Ghote stays in Mumbai this time, with most of the book set in the red-light district Kamatipura. The sheriff is an honorary position which in the story is held by a famous polo player. While giving a visiting movie star a tour of the red-light district, Ghote sees the sheriff leaving what turns out to be the scene of the unpleasant murder of a prostitute. Ghote sets out to prove the sheriff did it.

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope is the story of Alice Vavasor and the two men she considers marrying. While she loves John Grey, she thinks she will make him unhappy and regrets that he's not interested in politics. Her cousin, George Vavasor, is interested in politics, a way of life Alice feels she can support.

It's also the first book in the Palliser series, with the story of the early years of the marriage of Plantagenet and Lady Glencora Palliser. While Mr. Palliser loves his wife, he is in love with politics and the business of governing England. For her part, the heiress Lady Glencora was strong-armed into the marriage by her relatives and still has deep feelings for the handsome spendthrift Burgo Fitzgerald.

The first time I read this book, a dozen or so years ago, I did not like Alice. I appreciated her more this time around, even though she still seems to be trying her best to make herself unhappy. I'm also glad I read this book immediately after The Small House at Allington. Trollope wrote these two books at almost the same time, and used Allington to introduce Mr. Palliser.

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason is a cold-case mystery featuring Erlendur, an Icelandic detective. A skeleton is found buried on a hillside outside Reykjavik. Erlendur and his team start investigating who lived in the vicinity 60-70 years previously. This is a dark Scandinavian mystery, with a theme of domestic violence and dysfunctional families.

Silence of the Grave won both the Glass Key Award for Nordic crime fiction and the Gold Dagger of the British Crime Writers Association.

>67 NinieB: Ahh....Alice and George Vavasor--there are some Trollope characters that have stayed with me for years, and these are two excellent examples. I have to say, I was frustrated with Alice, but I never did like George one bit. I didn't realize that Can You Forgive Her was written before The Last Chronicles of Barset. I'll have to remember that when (sometime this century) I get to my re-reading project of these 2 series.

>68 NinieB: That one sounds good. I've read some of that series. I thought that plot sounded familiar, and I was correct. I've read that one!

>61 NinieB: I read The Warden last year and decided to go on with the Barchester Chronicles, but I don't when. So much to read! I do like the sound of this book, although it will take a lot of time to get there.

>68 NinieB: This is a series I haven't heard about - I will check it out and may put it on my WL.

>69 kac522: Yes, I agree--Alice and George Vavasor are memorable! I read an Oxford edition's introduction comparing George to Ferdinand Lopez of The Prime Minister, which is a pretty good comparison. Ferdinand has also stuck with me, as has his wife.

The Small House at Allington was published serially in the Cornhill from September 1862 to April 1864, and Can You Forgive Her? was published in parts from January 1864 to August 1865.

>70 thornton37814: I found it very dark, but good enough that I read it through in one day.

>71 MissBrangwen: I've found it's been paying off to re-read the Barchester novels close together, as the characters recur in many scenes. I hope you can find time soon for Barchester Towers!

Silence of the Grave is really worth reading as long as you like dark. However, I liked the previous one in the series, Jar City, a bit more.

In Cradled in Fear by Anita Boutell, newlyweds Sherman and Molly Prescott go to his family home, an ugly old mansion on the Connecticut shores of the Long Island Sound. There, mysterious happenings interfere with their honeymoon, and the house's residents start hinting that Sherman's got a problem that Molly didn't learn about before she married him.

It's a mildly entertaining romantic suspense story from 1942. If another Anita Boutell came my way, I would read it, but I won't be specially seeking her out.

All Creatures Dark and Dangerous by Doug Allyn is a collection of mystery short stories, in which the amateur detective is Dr. David Westbrook, a veterinarian. Most of the stories involve a cat or a dog. David is particularly prone to rescuing animals, such as Franken Kat the cat and Roadkill the dog. I enjoyed these stories; the veterinarian setting was interesting and different. Also, the stories mostly take place in northern (not upper) Michigan. This geographic setting is a functional part of several of the stories. Recommended.

>73 NinieB: I see that you're the only person with this book, and its popularity is 6,646,129. Well done! An excellent entry in the obscurity stakes.

>75 pamelad: Haha, obscurity is one of my reading specialties. I am also one of only ten persons who have >74 NinieB:

I usually avoid bestseller-type thrillers because I find them kind of cookie cutter and frequently they involve gratuitous gore and so forth. But I couldn't resist re-reading Killing Floor by Lee Child after watching the new Amazon TV series Reacher. I was curious how close the show was to the book (it had been a long, long time). They're actually quite close, except some stuff toward the end has been modified. And yes, both the show and the book involve plenty of gratuitous gore, but probably the show wins in this particular category.

Completely different from >77 NinieB: is The Origin of Evil by Ellery Queen. Ellery is writing his new book in the Hollywood Hills overlooking Los Angeles when he is interrupted by Laurel Hill, whose adoptive father has recently died. Laurel argues he was murdered because he had a heart attack after someone left a warning on his doorstep. Ellery doesn't buy it until it turns out that the father's business partner is also receiving warnings but refuses to talk about them. With this we're off for another twisty-turny exercise in deduction.

You all know I enjoy these twisty Ellery Queen stories. While the structure here was interesting, however, there's a big chunk of investigation that is wholly leaped over. Not only is the reader not going to be able to make the leap, there's really no way that Ellery or the police in the story could have made the leap.

The setting of Be Buried in the Rain is an old house, Maidenwood, not too far from the James River in Virginia. The story opens with the discovery of a young woman's skeleton on the road near the house, along with a baby's skeleton. Both are dressed in antique clothes, and the incident is chalked up to young people playing a joke. A couple of weeks later, Julie Newcomb, med student, comes to stay for the summer with her unpleasant grandmother, Martha Carr, who is confined to bed after a stroke. Also around are Julie's cousin Matt, up-and-coming politician, and Alan Petranek, Julie's former lover and the archaeologist eager to dig up colonial Virginia in Maidenwood's grounds.

I love Barbara Michaels' novels, even though they are now starting to feel a wee bit dated (this one is from 1985). They are a blend of mystery, suspense, romance, and horror. Be Buried in the Rain is up to Michaels' standard and has a great finale.

I felt like reading more of the same, so--

Ammie, Come Home by Barbara Michaels is a ghost story with some romance. The setting is an old house in Georgetown (in the District of Columbia). Ruth Bennett has inherited the house and enjoyed it peacefully. The troubles begin when her niece Sara comes to study at a local university. One evening Ruth looks into Sara's eyes and doesn't see Sara. Many more ghostly manifestations take place in the house before Ruth, Sara, and their friends Pat and Bruce solve the mystery of why the house is haunted.

Shattered Silk by the same author takes place in the same house, almost 20 years later. It's pure romantic suspense. Karen, Sara's younger sister, has come to DC after leaving her husband. At loose ends, and needing a source of income, she's working in her old friend Julie's vintage store when she meets her old lover Mark Brinckley, now a congressman. Determined to start her own vintage clothing business, Karen is baffled and frightened when someone keeps breaking into the house and messing with the clothing she has collected from various sources.

Popping in to say hello.

>81 pamelad: Hi Pam! Sorry to be so long; I just saw your message today. I've been taking a little LT hiatus but I think I'm ready to come back.

While I was out I read most of a cozy mystery series, The Forensic Genealogist by Nathan Dylan Goodwin.

Hiding the Past
The Lost Ancestor
The Orange Lilies
The America Ground
The Spyglass File
The Missing Man
The Wicked Trade

Morton Farrier is a professional genealogist who undertakes research on difficult problems of the past. Usually he ends up attracting unwelcome attention from bad guys who don't want him to uncover long-kept secrets. The books are structured with dual narratives, one set in the present and one set in the past. The present narrative tells about Morton's research and misadventures on the current case but also tells the ongoing story of Morton's discovery of his own family past (he's adopted). This continuing story line means that the series really needs to be read in order. I've been enjoying it and I would have continued right on through to the end except I need to find a copy of the next in order.

I also read Death Stalks Door County by Patricia Skalka, set in a resort community on Lake Michigan. While it has lots of small town atmosphere, it's definitely not cozy, instead being hard-boiled noir. The protagonist, Dave Cubiak, former Chicago police detective, has taken a job as assistant superintendent of the local state park. He's a real mess, though, because his wife and daughter recently died in a terrible accident. It seems that he can't get away from murder: bodies start showing up in the park and in town, threatening the annual Fourth of July festival. It's a little bit overwritten and on the gloomy side, but I will read the next in the series.

>83 NinieB: I've read the prequel, 1, and 2.5 in the series. I plan to read the 2nd soon. It's all the challenges that keep me from getting to it, but I will get to it sooner or later.

Welcome back. I've added Hiding the Past to my Overdrive wish list.

>85 thornton37814: I liked The Lost Ancestor--hope you can get to it soon!

>86 pamelad: Thanks! I hope you enjoy Hiding the Past.

Olive by Dinah Mulock Craik is a sentimental novel of 1850. It starts with the birth in Scotland of the title character, Olive Rothesay, and follows the first thirty years of her life. Olive has the misfortune to be born with a spinal curvature, as well as being small and rather plain. When fortune does not favor the Rothesay family, Olive becomes its main support. This novel has quite a bit of tears and religion, as well as purple prose, but I nonetheless enjoyed Mrs. Craik's plot.

It looks like I didn't write up The Enemy by Lee Child. It's set during Jack Reacher's military police days, when the Berlin Wall fell. A two-star general is found dead in a sleazy motel near a North Carolina Army base. While there's no doubt the general is dead due to natural causes, it's also evident that someone else was there who disappeared with the general's briefcase. Then a special forces sergeant is brutally murdered on base--but Reacher is ordered to declare the death a training accident.

Lee Child's books are highly readable and this one was no exception.

I didn't have any Shakespeare retellings on my shelf for March's ShakespeareCAT, so I checked These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong out of the library. It's Romeo and Juliet in 1920s Shanghai, with a monster. Their families are warring gangs who have split the city between them. Roma and Juliette are brought together when a mysterious disease causing people to rip out their own throats threatens both their families.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, despite reading reviews here on LT, and I'm still not sure what genre it is--maybe horror/fantasy? I found it noirish and somewhat slow to draw me in, but I read most of it in one day once I was able to focus on it. Juliette's character is quite tough and dark; I was a little bothered that her back story doesn't really explain how she got that way.

Rendezvous in Black (1948) by Cornell Woolrich is a noir tale of revenge. Johnny Marr and his girl meet by the drugstore every night in their small town. On the verge of marrying, they have always loved each other. But one night when Johnny arrives she is terribly, unrecognizably dead.

What follows is almost a linked collection of short stories--each a "rendezvous"--with a strong overarching structure. Well written for the most part, the novel reflects Woolrich's own recognizable noir (not hard-boiled) style. I found one of the rendezvous so sad I had to stop reading for a couple of days, but yes, this was a very good book.

Inspector Ghote is Under a Monsoon Cloud for much of the book. In the first part we get the story of what happened when Ghote was placed temporarily in charge of the station at Vigatpore, a remote hill town; in the second part the inquiry that followed. Ghote undergoes severe internal struggles for much of the book. Not my favorite Ghote but definitely not the worst one, either.

I decided to participate in Books and Things' May #HistoricalFictionReadathon, as I have lots of historical fiction sitting on the shelf. I should be able to read most of my usual CATs and KITs, too.

Here are my short listed books for each category:

1. Read a work of historical fiction set in the country you’re from
Seneca Falls Inheritance, The Way West, Genesee Fever, Ailsa Paige
2. Read a work of historical fiction set in a different country to the one you’re from
The Murder of the Maharajah, Oscar and Lucinda, In the Wilderness
3. Read a work of historical fiction set in your favourite historical time period to read about
True History of the Kelly Gang, Gap Creek, Giants in the Earth, Inheritance, The Distant Music
4. Read a work of historical fiction set in a time period you’re less familiar with
Segu, Absolution by Murder, Thais, The Last of the Wine, The Poisoned Crown, The Strange Cases of Magistrate Pao
5. Read a work of historical fiction with a speculative element
Grendel, Orlando, The Crystal Cave, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
6. Read a work of historical fiction about a real historical figure or a specific historical event
Theodora and the Emperor, Memoirs of Hadrian, Never Call It Loving, Count Belisarius, Time and Chance
7. Read a classic work of historical fiction
The Betrothed, The Cloister and the Hearth, To Have and to Hold, For the Term of His Natural Life, Thais, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The History of Henry Esmond, Miss Miles, The Story of Gosta Berling
Bonus: Read a work of historical fiction of over 500 pages
Coming Home, Here Be Dragons, The Forest

>93 NinieB: I love this idea from Katie--such a fun one. Ambitious and interesting list! From your list, I've only read (and loved) 2 books: Oscar and Lucinda and the Master of Hestviken trilogy. I've been meaning to read The Betrothed for years. And I'm intrigued by Inheritance--never heard of it, but it sounds fascinating.

I don't plan on following the challenges, but I've put together a list of possible historical fiction reads for the month--if I read 4 of these, I'll be ecstatic:

Romola, George Eliot -- medieval Italy
A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens (a re-read from many years ago) -- French Revolution
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams -- the making of the OED (turn of the 20th c.)
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders -- Abraham Lincoln
Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell -- Shakespeare's family
Jamaica Inn, Daphne DuMaurier -- 19th century Cornwall
March, Geraldine Brooks -- story of Mr March from Little Women--US Civil War era
Mr Mac and Me, Esther Freud -- Charles Rennie Mackintosh (architect/designer) circa WWI
Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka -- WWII California--Japanese interment camps

and I hope I have the courage to read something by Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, The Talisman or Waverley), an author I've been afraid to try! Maybe this will be the month...

>94 kac522: If I can read a book from each category, including the bonus, I'll be ecstatic! I read the first part of True History of the Kelly Gang in Granta many years ago and found it riveting, so maybe this will be the month. And 12-year-old me thought A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court gloriously funny so it would be interesting to reread.

Your list is interesting too. I've read Jamaica Inn and liked it but what I remember most about it is that the plot's totally different from that of the Hitchcock film! My one finished Scott is Quentin Durward, which I don't recommend, but like you I've been tempted by Ivanhoe.

>93 NinieB: I own two of these and plan to read them this year: Segu; The Story of Gosta Berling. Recommending Oscar and Lucinda.

>94 kac522: I also liked Jamaica Inn and somewhat liked Lincoln in the Bardo but prefer George Saunders' short stories and bemoan the changes in eligibility for the Booker. Couldn't get into Romola. Ivanhoe is teetering on my wish list. Waiting for a report!

>93 NinieB: Oh dear, another tempting challenge. I'd love to try that...

>96 pamelad: Hmm, two recommendations for Oscar and Lucinda. I need to prioritize it.

>97 MissWatson: My first thought was--I don't have time! Then I thought--I have a lot of historical fiction to read! I will be actively trying to match up reading for this challenge with reading for the CATs and KITs.

>98 NinieB: Same here, so I will take a quiet moment to scan the shelves...

I read Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym. Jane is a country vicar's wife more likely to quote Marvell than attend the Mothers Union tea, and Prudence works in a London office and has love affairs. The references to vicarage literature amused me, especially Jane's comment:

'I was going to be such a splendid clergyman's wife when I married you, but somehow it hasn't turned out like The Daisy Chain or The Last Chronicles of Barset.'

I confess that the beginning, set at a reunion at Jane and Prudence's Oxford college, had me waiting for a murder to take place, or at least some Gaudy Night-style mysterious doings.

Quicksand by Nella Larsen follows Helga Crane, a biracial American woman, through her search for a place where she feels she belongs. She experiences the Black South, the north, Harlem, Europe, all unsuccessfully.

Larsen's writing is beautiful, so graceful and clear. The ending, though, left me a little baffled.

>93 NinieB: Just stopping by to take a look around. Good luck with your Historical Fiction Readathon plan. I also saw the post by Katie for the May reading challenge. I'd like to be more ambitious but suspect I'll probably only get around to reading one or two HF books in May.

>102 Ann_R: Nice to see you here! I enjoy the planning process. Also Katie's 1900-1950 readathon last year did great things for my reading mojo, so I'm hoping for a similar effect this year!

Jalna (1927) by Mazo de la Roche was the first book published in a series about the Whiteoak family of rural southern Ontario. Jalna is their house and estate. Renny Whiteoak is the head of the family, which includes his 98-year-old grandmother and two uncles, as well as 4 half-brothers and a sister. The focus of the book is on relationships among the family members. Some of the characters are more likable than others, which is as it should be in an ensemble book of this type.

The entire series was extremely popular in its time and I can see why. I would like to read more about the Whiteoak family, and am looking forward to the next volume, Whiteoaks of Jalna.

James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice is a short, sharp novella of pure noir. Transient Frank Chambers tells the story of how he wanders into a roadside lunchroom with a gas station where he meets owner Nick Papadakis and his wife Cora. Nick wants a gas station attendant; Frank wants Cora; Cora wants to be rid of Nick.

Cain's tone is perfect throughout the book. Highly recommended.

Back in January I read four of the five acts of King Lear for ShakespeareCAT. Then real life intervened and I did not pick it up again until yesterday.

This play was really difficult reading. I used the Oxford School Shakespeare edition which was very, very helpful--it has definitions and interpretations of difficult passages running parallel to the text, detailed synopses, and discussion of why the play is great. But it was still difficult reading.

>106 NinieB: Difficult emotionally or textually?

>107 AnnieMod: Ah, textually. I tend to read quickly, which does not serve Shakespeare well.

Someone at a Distance (1953) by Dorothy Whipple is about a happy, privileged, family in postwar England, and the family's destruction. Avery North comes from a wealthy manufacturing family and has bought a partnership in a publishing house. The family chooses to live in the country, where Ellen happily gardens and not unwillingly does the housework with the help of daily women. Teenage daughter Anne comes home on holidays from boarding school, while son Hugh is doing his compulsory service and plans to join the publishing house after attending Cambridge. Avery's mother lives near by and feels neglected, so she answers an advertisement placed by a Frenchwoman offering companionship and light domestic duties. Louise chooses to come to Mrs. North's house and while she quickly ingratiates herself with Mrs. North, everyone else finds her rude and unpleasant.

Whipple uses the first half of the book to develop the characters and set the stage for the disaster that strikes midway. This disaster is both a relief and the start of new miseries for most of the characters. In the second half of the book the characters struggle to find their way in their new reality.

I loved this book for its character development, its psychology, its exploration of emotions. While neither Avery nor Ellen makes the choices that I think I would make in their shoes, those choices seem authentic for their characters, class and era. I look forward to reading more Dorothy Whipple.

Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer is one of her historical romances, set in 18th-century England, around 1750 or so. Philip Jettan, son of a country gentleman, is determinedly uninterested in fashionable society, until the girl he loves, Cleone Charteris, turns him down. She's been charmed by the foppish neighbor Henry Bancroft. Philip's uncle takes him to Paris where Philip quickly picks up on how to be the toast of society. Now it's time to find out--has he transformed into what Cleone wants?

A delightful short novel from Heyer's early years.

Tales of All Countries, First Series, is a collection of Anthony Trollope's short stories, originally published in magazines in 1860 and 1861 and as a book in 1861. "La Mère Bauche" is set in the French Pyrenees and is a strong start to the set, if a bit melodramatic. "The O'Conors of Castle Conor" and "The Relics of General Chassé" amused me, and "Miss Sarah Jack of Spanish Town, Jamaica" was pretty good. Otherwise, I found these stories on the forgettable side.

This morning I finished Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe . . . and I actually liked it. Right off the bat Moll tells us that her real name is prominent in the records of the Old Bailey and Newgate. She never tells us that name, though, nor that of most characters in the story. Her fictional autobiography is filled with adventures both criminous and not, but always reflecting a well-founded concern for not having the economic means to live. In practical terms this means moving from man to man. Some die, some leave Moll, some Moll leaves. One disturbing aspect was the number of children Moll has and abandons or never mentions again, which gives the sense that child life was of minimal value in the early 18th century. But Moll is so filled with joie de vivre that I couldn't help liking her nonetheless.

The edition I read uses the text of the first edition with a few changes but preserves the erratic spelling, capitalization, font, and punctuation of the original, which made the reading a bit challenging.

For part of the silent movie era, the small city of Ithaca, New York, hosted a movie studio. The Cliff Hangers by Janet O'Daniel builds on this history. The fictional studio of Lambert Brothers has director Matt Hillyer shooting movies in upstate New York. Matt has successfully made a star out of Bessie Fowler doing Perils-of-Pauline-type serials; now they've snagged the beautiful Marian Vance, dancing star, who wants to go into film. Matt's got his hands full trying to figure out Vance's acting style and keep leading man Bunny Adair away from the girls of Ithaca. Meanwhile, although many Ithacans love the movies, local lawyer John Caldwell and doctor Bernie Klinghorn are determined to protect Ithaca from the unwholesome influence of motion pictures.

I enjoyed this laid-back novel. It's fun reading fiction set 100 years ago in a city I'm familiar with. The silent movies background is interesting as well. I'm happy I finally got around to reading this one off my shelf.

>112 NinieB: I was also surprised to like Moll Flanders, and was inspired to follow it with Tom Jones, which I also liked. Checking out your and Kathy's historical fiction plans in >93 NinieB: and >94 kac522:.

>114 pamelad: My 18th century plans are shaping up nicely. Up next is Eliza Haywood, who was writing novels at the same time as Defoe.

I have completed one of my historical fiction picks in >113 NinieB:.

>115 NinieB: Eliza Haywood is new to me. Will be interested to follow your thoughts on her work.

>116 kac522: I'm not sure I'll get to her this month, but certainly next month.

Tales of All Countries. Second Series by Anthony Trollope is a second collection of stories set in a variety of locations. They are from 1861, published in book form in 1863. Once again Trollope is experimenting with different styles. Probably my favorite was the one set in Devon, "The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne," which reminded me more of his novels. "The Man Who Kept His Money in a Box" had a nicely ironic tone. "George Walker at Suez" is unusual in that the main character is from a lower social class. One that did not work for me so well was "Mrs. General Talboys."

ETA. I also read a short story by Trollope, not collected in a book in Trollope's lifetime, The Gentle Euphemia.

>115 NinieB:

I've been trying to get to Eliza Haywood properly forever, not least because of the attacks made on her and contemporary female writers for "immorality" (of writing, therefore of behaviour). Haywood's reinvention of herself as a didactic writer in the 1740s is fascinating.

>119 lyzard: I have a Broadview edition of Love in Excess, which I hope will provide context for her early work.

>120 NinieB:

That's the exemplar novel of what they were complaining about! :D

It took me 9 days to read Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, but I'm glad I persevered. The time is the mid-19th century, the place is England for Oscar and Australia for Lucinda. Both have odd childhoods. Oscar determines he is to become an Anglican minister, despite his evangelical dissenter father. Lucinda inherits a fortune and buys a glass factory. Both develop gambling habits. They meet on a steamship bound for Australia. Thereafter, their paths continue to cross.

Carey is doing much more than writing a historical novel, though. One of the themes is the clash between European society and the Australian bush, and there's satire of Victorian society as well. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

>122 NinieB: Glad you found Oscar and Lucinda worthwhile.

>123 pamelad: Thanks for the recommendation! I'm now more eager to read True History of the Kelly Gang; probably won't get to it this month but next is likely.

When I was a teenager I enjoyed Norah Lofts' Bless This House as well as her trilogy about The Town House. So I was a little disappointed by Copsi Castle, which just wasn't as good. The Copseys have lived at Copsi Castle for 700 years (it's now about 1835), which is one of the reasons it's so distressing to Sir Harald Copsey that his only son and heir Magnus is both stupid and apparently somewhat demented. When Magnus stubbornly insists he wants to marry Hannah Reeve, a tenant's daughter, all Sir Harald can think is that an heir might save the Castle from escheat to the king.

It's not Gothic, it's not romantic . . . Not really sure what it was. There's a nice twist towards the end, but this is just OK overall.

>125 NinieB: Off topic, but I love seeing the word "escheat" out in the wild!

>126 christina_reads: Ha! I hesitated a bit but couldn't think of a better word.

Finished tonight--Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman. The story follows Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine from 1156 to 1171, 15 eventful years in Henry's kingship. Penman writes highly detailed accounts about living, breathing people. In addition to Henry and Eleanor, we have the family of Lord Owain of Gwynedd, and for fun the fictional story of Ranulf, Henry's half-uncle.

>128 NinieB: I read that series last year and loved it!

>129 Tess_W: I've been missing the world of Time and Chance since I finished it.

The Sheltered Life by Ellen Glasgow is about the lives of the Birdsong and Archbold family members, last of the old guard living in a Virginia city neighborhood that's gone downhill. Jenny Blair Archbald is a self-obsessed child (age 9 in the first half of the book) and young woman (age 17 in the second half). She nonetheless adores Eva Birdsong, who was considered the most beautiful woman in the city when she was young. Eva's marriage to the philandering George Birdsong has worn her down but she continues to put on a brave face. Jenny Blair also adores George. Jenny Blair is the granddaughter of David Archbald, whose life began before the American Civil War. It's hard to say more than this without spoilers.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the characters are quite interesting, particularly David and Eva. Not a lot happens in the novel, though, and I was hoping for a bit more plot. Nonetheless, I'll probably read more by this author.

>131 NinieB: Ellen Glasgow has been on my wish list since I read The Provincial Lady, who was quite a fan of Glasgow's books. I'll follow your Glasgow reads with interest.

>132 pamelad: I will probably read Vein of Iron next. I started it once before but got discouraged by my edition, what with the small type on heavily tanned pages. But now I'm more curious.

>132 pamelad: It was Charlotte M Yonge that E. M. Delafield mentioned, and she doesn't appeal at all! But Ellen Glasgow was certainly mentioned in something else I was reading at around the same time so she is on my radar. Vein of Iron is on Gutenberg Australia but not in a useful format, only as a web page. I suppose it's possible to download it onto an iPad?

>134 pamelad: Charlotte M. Yonge makes more sense for the Provincial Lady!! I suppose Glasgow would be public domain in Australia since she died in the 1940s. Could you add the web page to your reading list on your iPad?

I've finished exactly one book in the last month:

The Belton Estate is about Clara Amedroz, daughter of an impoverished gentleman whose estate (as in the title) will go to a distant cousin when he dies, leaving Clara with zip. When the cousin, Will Belton, comes to visit, he promptly falls in love with Clara, and being the kind of guy who doesn't waste time, he proposes. While Clara already likes Will quite a bit, she doesn't accept as she loves someone else. Soon, she has the opportunity to follow her heart--but it doesn't work out quite as she expected.

This is a solid standalone Trollope. It's about the same length as Rachel Ray and like that novel focuses mostly on the heroine's navigation of her romantic problems. It left me ready to move on to the next Trollope, Nina Balatka.

The most significant thing that's happened in the last month is the arrival of two new friends.



They're three months old and as yet unnamed (we're indecisive).

>137 NinieB: They are SO PRECIOUS!!!

>138 rabbitprincess: Yes! And super sweet, too!

>137 NinieB: Such sweet kitties. Congratulations on the new family members.

>140 lowelibrary: Thank you, April!

>137 NinieB: They look adorable!

>142 MissWatson: I agree!

Forgot to mention that they are brothers.

Two very adorable looking brothers!

>144 DeltaQueen50: Just had a good laugh over their first experience with laundry folding. They're great.

Aww, kitties! You'll definitely have to report back once they're named. :) Also, The Belton Estate looks interesting! I really need to read more Trollope.

>146 christina_reads: Yep, I'll report back as they're my favorite topic right now :)

>137 NinieB: Awww! Great friends!

>148 thornton37814: They are really good friends - always hanging out together.

>137 NinieB: Congratulations on your new family members.

>150 pamelad: Thanks, Pam!

I went ahead with reading Nina Balatka, one of Trollope's oddball novels. This one is set in Prague. The protagonist, Nina, is Christian, but has fallen in love with Anton Trendellsohn, who is Jewish. They are engaged but everyone they know is determined to talk them out of it or trick them out of it. The situation is complicated by the business relationship between the two families. Anton's father claims to own the property in which Nina and her father lives. However, he doesn't have the deeds, which he believes are in the possession of Nina's uncle--or are they? Nina and her father are impoverished to the point that Nina has to pawn the family jewelry to buy food, but she refuses to take money from her aunt or from Anton.

I did not expect much from this novel, so I was surprised when the plot quickly engaged me. I don't recommend it however, except to experienced Trollope readers who are prepared for the prejudices expressed by each family toward the other. Also, it's not in Trollope's typical style, so it's not good for trying out Trollope. The writing style has a vaguely archaic quality, and it's told strictly in third person--no narratorial voice occasionally speaking in the first person.

>152 NinieB: I read this last year, and I appreciated the descriptions of Prague. Trollope usually doesn't spend a lot of time describing a place, so I found it interesting in that way. But I agree that this is not typical Trollope.

>153 kac522: Yes, Prague itself gets some attention. You might be interested in Trollope's Tales of All Countries for their places.

For July's MysteryKIT, Golden Age, I read The Lake District Murder by John Bude. At the beginning, the dead body of a garage owner is found, an apparent suicide by carbon monoxide. But the evidence and circumstances soon suggest to Inspector Meredith that the death was in fact murder. Circumstances also suggest that the dead man and his business partner were engaged in some kind of illegal activity, leading to investigation of the petrol company supplying the garage.

Not everyone likes this kind of Golden Age mystery, in which timetables, alibis, and (in this case) how long it takes to transfer a couple hundred gallons of petrol all come under investigation. Fortunately I do; I thought that Bude did a good job of keeping his facts straight.

>155 NinieB: Like an old-time arithmetic problem. If the tap is running at x gallons per minute, and water is leaving through the plug hole at y gallons per minute, how long does it take to fill the bath?

>156 pamelad: And I hated word problems when I was a kid. But somehow it just feels right in a mystery, at least mysteries of this kind.

Love the new additions. Any names yet? or has cat1 & cat2 stuck??

>155 NinieB: I quite like that sort of analytical detective fiction, which seems to have gone out of fashion.

>158 Helenliz: For awhile they were Mr Orange and Mr Gray, but now we're going with Buster Kitten (for Mr Orange) and Charlie Catlin (for Mr Gray). They're true comedians.

Glad I'm not the only one who likes these mysteries!

Love the punny cat names!

>160 christina_reads: Great choices!

Excellent, I hope Buster & Charlie are very happy.

>160 christina_reads: What can I say? We couldn't resist the puns.
>161 MissWatson: Thanks! The names just seemed to fit them.
>162 Helenliz: I hope so too! Things seem to be going well!

Absolutely beautiful kittens! Love the names. I'll look forward to lots of news updates about them.

>164 VivienneR: Thanks Vivienne, we think they are pretty special. They both enjoy sitting on the keyboard though, which makes typing out news updates a bit more difficult!

Yes, cats and kittens have a strong influence on what we do. When they sit on the keyboard, we have to find something else to play with. The worst is when they fall asleep on your book and you can't turn the page.

>166 VivienneR: Of course, less keyboard time for me is a good thing (and gets me to pick up books). They don't seem to have the same fascination with books.

Life is sweet when you've got a good mousie.

Irish author Molly Keane wrote several novels in the 1930s and '40s as M. J. Farrell. And 30 years later, she resumed publication as Keane. Good Behaviour was her first novel after the hiatus. It's set in the world of impoverished Anglo-Irish gentry, before and after World War I. The narrator is the daughter of the house, Aroon. She tells the story of her childhood and young womanhood. Aroon maintains all kinds of illusions (delusions?) about herself and her family. Trying to see through these illusions is half the fun for the reader, while the dark humor of the story is the other half.

Another alibi-based mystery, this one with railroad timetables--Points and Lines by Seichō Matsumoto was originally published in 1958 in Japan. A man and a woman are found dead on a Japanese beach, an apparent joint "love suicide". While officially the case is closed on this basis, a police officer is dissatisfied, and what he uncovers does not reassure him.

>168 NinieB: Awww happy kitty :)

Oh my goodness, your kitties are completely adorable!!!!

>155 NinieB:

I haven't read John Bude (yet) but that one sounds like some of Freeman Wills Crofts' Inspector French novels.

Actually, so does this:

>170 NinieB:

Very interesting! Is that a standalone or part of a series? (Because, you know, I desperately need more series...)

>171 rabbitprincess: They love playing with mice!

>172 lyzard: I agree, the kittens are adorable! Right now they are curled up on a chair together with paws wrapped around each other.

Yes, both these authors channeled Crofts. I have read a much later Bude from the 50s which is not so much, so unsure how much other Budes are in this style. And you're in luck, the Matsumoto is a standalone and a quick read to boot.

>170 NinieB:, that sounds intriguing.
>173 NinieB: And you're in luck, the Matsumoto is a standalone even better!

>174 Helenliz: Excellent--I hope you enjoy it!

The Third Encounter by Sara Woods was not exactly what I was expecting. Woods wrote 48 mysteries about barrister Antony Maitland in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I read some of them many years ago and they were straightforward courtroom detective stories. Number 4 to my surprise is more of a spy thriller. There is a mystery twist, but I couldn't help feeling (for reasons that would be a spoiler) that the solution could have been reached much more simply. On the upside this book was well-written and I'll continue to read the ones on my shelf.

Also an early work (#6) in a lengthy series is The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon. Maigret investigates a series of murderous incidents in a Breton port city, Concarneau. The setup and story are noir, with the weather (icy rain, dark gray skies, streets filled with mud) emphasizing the action and mood.

>173 NinieB:

Thanks! I feel like Asian authors are a gap in my reading that I ought to address so that might be one to chase up.

>177 NinieB:

And you remind me to get back to Simenon, too. :)

>178 lyzard: Both worthwhile reading experiences, but very different!

For ShakespeareCAT I read The Merchant of Venice. I knew very little about this play other than Shylock, etc., and I was particularly interested in Portia, since women lawyers in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were frequently referred to as "Portias". I found it quite interesting and am looking forward to reading another Shakespeare play next month.

Murder against the Grain by Emma Lathen is from the John Putnam Thatcher series. Thatcher is a Wall Street banker who somehow keeps running up against murder in the course of his work. In this one, set in 1967, the US and USSR have agreed to a trade deal--the US will sell the USSR grain. Thatcher's bank pays the money for one of the shipments, only to discover that the papers presented for the payment were fraudulent and the money has been stolen. The police (with Thatcher) begin investigating, only to have someone turn up murdered.

I have read other Thatcher mysteries and enjoyed them. This one was all right but not great.

I loved The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield. In this novel of 98 years ago, we meet the Knapp family. Evangeline Knapp, the mother, stays home with the children, unhappily, while husband Lester works, unhappily. Their roles are switched when Lester is in a serious accident and cannot work.

Canfield did a wonderful job creating the characters, both major and minor, in this novel, and the writing is lovely. My quibble with the novel is that the plot is unsubtle; Canfield had a point that she wanted her readers to understand. I'm OK with that! Now I'm looking forward to reading the other Canfield novel on my shelf, Seasoned Timber.

>182 NinieB: I agree about the subtlety. After I read it, I wrote This book is for people who enjoy a clear moral, repeated often, don't mind sentimentality, and can do without subtlety.

>183 pamelad: It's true, I don't mind sentimentality!

I did a nostalgic re-read of The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and greatly enjoyed it. Mrs. Pollifax is a bored widow in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who wants to be a spy. So she talks her way into the CIA, volunteers herself, and is assigned a courier job in Mexico. When things don't go as planned, she finds herself a prisoner in an Albanian mountain fortress. Put baldly like that, the book sounds terrible. But if you enjoy light-hearted adventure, you might enjoy Mrs. Pollifax.

I enjoyed my visit with Mrs. Pollifax so much that I binge-read the next 7 books in the series.
The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax Mrs. P takes a passport to a defecting Soviet agent in Istanbul.
The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax A trip to Bulgaria turns dangerous when the Bulgarian government imprisons a young American.
A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax Mrs. P gets a nice vacation at a Swiss clinic while hunting for a plutonium thief.
Mrs. Pollifax on Safari The safari is in Zambia.
Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station I don't think I've read another book set in the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang.
Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha Slightly less light-hearted than others in the series.
Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle The CIA horns in on Mrs. P's Thailand vacation.

In 2020, I read A Question of Upbringing, the first of Anthony Powell's 12-volume sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. Finally this summer I picked up volume 2, A Buyer's Market. I cannot truthfully say that I enjoyed it, but I'm planning nonetheless to go on to volume 3 sometime in the next couple of months.

>186 NinieB: I thought the series peaked with the WWII books - The Kindly Ones, The Valley of Bones and The Soldier's Art - and had declined by the last two - Temporary Kings and Hearing Secret Harmonies. Do you think Anthony Powell, like Anthony Berkeley, is a misogynist or just clueless? I'm beginning to beware Anthonys.

>187 pamelad: Your experience confirms what the ratings suggested, that the series gets better, so I'm going to keep going! I'll have to defer my thoughts on Powell's misogyny or cluelessness until I've read more. I did enjoy the sugar episode (or was it salt?) in this one.

>185 NinieB: Yaaaay!!! I love that series. Should re-read some of the ones I haven't read in a long while.

>189 rabbitprincess: A long-time favorite of mine, too!

>185 NinieB: I had been wondering about Mrs. Pollifax for a while and you have prompted me to get the first one - it's next up on my TBR list I think.

>191 CDVicarage: I hope you enjoy!

>185 NinieB: I have the first one in the series and after reading your review(s), I'm off to my shelves to find! I will try to get to it this month!

>193 Tess_W: I think you'll find it earned its shelf space!

Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish finds Mrs Pollifax in Morocco. Something has gone wrong with a network of seven informants. Mrs. Pollifax's assignment is to travel across the country finding each informant and confirming the informant has not been replaced. While she's supposed to do this in the company of agent Max Janko, it's immediately evident that Janko is hostile to Mrs. Pollifax, and that's only the beginning of Mrs. Pollifax's troubles in Morocco.

Sense and Sensibility is a Jane Austen that I read at some time in the distant past. I also saw the Emma Thompson movie when it came out in 1995. Yet on re-reading, nothing seemed familiar.

All that said, I greatly enjoyed this book from 1811. It's about the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, who exhibit the sense (Elinor) and the sensibility (Marianne) of the title. Over the course of the novel, both are in love and experience disappointment; they respond differently based on their individual characters.

I read David M. Shapard's Annotated Sense and Sensibility and found the annotations useful. Shapard is careful not to include spoilers in his notes. The Chronology in the back, however, is full of spoilers and should only be used after reading the novel.

>196 NinieB: Interesting about Shapard's annotated S&S. I read his annotated P&P, and one of my comments on reading that edition at the time is that there were spoilers in the notes! Perhaps Shapard corrected that for his later annotated editions, but I wouldn't recommend his P&P edition for someone who hasn't read the book first.

My favorite S&S adaptation is the 2008 mini-series with Hattie Morahan, Dan Stevens and David Morissey:
https://www.librarything.com/work/8582281

>197 kac522: Agreed. Excellent miniseries. I thought that Emma Thompson was too old and too much herself in the 1995 film version.

>198 pamelad: Exactly...and ditto Hugh Grant (not too old--just too Hugh). Alan Rickman is excellent, though.

>197 kac522: >198 pamelad: As much as I love Alan Rickman, David Morrissey will be my Colonel Brandon. If there were a way to knit Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton’s Mr. and Mrs. Palmer into the 2008 miniseries, that would be perfect.

>200 rabbitprincess: Oh, totally agree about Morrissey--just wanted to acknowledge Rickman's performance in a movie that otherwise just didn't cut it for me. I've forgotten Mr & Mrs Palmer--you very well could be correct, but not sure it's worth it to watch again to make an assessment.

>197 kac522: I remember that in your comments . . . Maybe that's why it was on my mind.

>197 kac522: >198 pamelad: >199 kac522: >200 rabbitprincess: >201 kac522: I do remember Emma Thompson being too old for the role. But mostly I remember my husband liked the movie, which was a win since he's not big on Jane Austen adaptations! I'll have to keep an eye out for an opportunity to watch the 2008 series.

>201 kac522: I agree, Alan Rickman’s performance is excellent 🙂 I do like to watch the movie from time to time, especially if I don’t have time for the full miniseries.

>204 rabbitprincess: And coincidentally I just found a copy of the Emma Thompson movie (still in its wrapper!) at a library sale last weekend for $2, so I'll be re-watching it soon.

My goodness, where has August gone?

I have partly read a couple of novels:

The Diviners by Margaret Laurence is the fictional life story of Morag Gunn, a Canadian woman.

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn is a time travel story in which the protagonists travel from the future back to Regency England to meet Jane Austen.

Nothing wrong with either book, I just haven't had it in me to focus on a novel.

Despite something of a reading slump I'm also rescuing books from the trash:

Bad Hugh by Mary J. Holmes
More Tish by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives by Gerald Durrell
The Golden Journey by Agnes Sligh Turnbull
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim

Margaret Laurence is my favourite Canadian author! I hope you enjoyed The Diviners.

Good work rescuing those jewels from the trash!

>207 VivienneR: Vivienne, I still haven't finished The Diviners. I'm stuck in a reading slump and Margaret Laurence through no fault of her own has been on hold. It's a long weekend here in the US--maybe I'll find a good opportunity to pick it up again.

I love rescuing books!

>206 NinieB: I just finished Father and loved it. An excellent rescue choice.

>209 kac522: Good to hear! I was so pleased when I saw the author of the book.

Two more rescue books:
The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer
Greenstone by Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Finally, I completed The Diviners by Margaret Laurence. While I spread the reading over probably a month, I actually read it on probably five days because I consistently read 100 or so pages each time I picked it up. And make no mistake, it is a marvelous book.

Morag Gunn is a middle-aged author living in rural Ontario. Her 18-year-old daughter, Pique, is traveling. Much of the novel is the story of Morag's life, told in flashback. The orphaned daughter of farmers, Morag is raised by the scavenger of small-town Manawaka, Manitoba.

An unusual touch is the "album" at the back of songs written by Pique's father, Jules, and by Pique herself.

I almost gave this book 4.5 stars, then realized that I had nothing negative to say about it--no wishes for improvement, no sense of anything off. So, I gave it 5 stars. Thanks to Vivienne for giving this novel a plug when I needed encouragement to pick it up and finish it.

The Shakespeare Murders by A. G. Macdonell was not what I was hoping for. I was looking forward to a Golden Age mystery, and yes, it's from 1933 and yes, it's a mystery ... but I wanted some classic detection. After all it's a country house mystery, so classic detection, right? and instead I got a thriller. A British thriller complete with Chicago gangsters. On the upside, the pacing of this one is excellent, no mid-story sag.

The first-person narrator of Murder at the Cat Show by Marian Babson is Doug Perkins, a freelance public relations officer who has signed on to do the PR for a cat show. I'll cut to the chase--there's not a whole lot of PR in sight, nor is there much detection. But there are cats! Pandora, Lady Purr-fect, Silver Fir, Precious Black Jade, Mother Brown. It's a pleasure to get to know them over the course of the book. Obligatory warning that one of the cats does not make it to the end of the story.

Much of the focus of The Misses Mallett by E. H. Young is on the contrasting characters of Rose Mallett and her niece Henrietta, and how their relationship is affected by their characters. The novel is set in fictional, pre-World-War-I Radstowe, where Rose lives with her elder half-sisters, Caroline and Sophia.

At the beginning, Rose turns down her childhood friend Francis Sales. Francis goes to Canada and several years pass before he returns with a bride, Christabel. But this isn't your typical love triangle. Instead, Rose's niece Henrietta, daughter of her estranged brother, is introduced to the family, and as noted, her relationship with Rose becomes crucial to the story.

I would have liked to see a bit more plot in The Misses Mallett, but that says more about me than about the novel. I have two more Young novels on my shelves (Jenny Wren and Miss Mole) and I'm looking forward to reading them.

>214 NinieB: I loved Miss Mole; it has a bit more plot, and has some very funny parts. Jenny Wren has interesting characters, but has less plot like The Misses Mallett, but I still enjoyed it, as well as its sequel The Curate's Wife. I loved William as well; very little plot there, but such interesting character observations--a father watching his grown children navigate life.

The only one of hers I have not enjoyed was The Vicar's Daughter. And I still have Chatterton Square to read.

>214 NinieB: Oh, and I love how the bridge plays a part in The Misses Mallett. I visited Bristol once (my grandfather was born there), and was totally impressed by the Clifton Suspension Bridge. When reading her books, I have the bridge in my mind's eye, and the houses on the cliffs over-looking the River Avon.

>215 kac522: I actually would have read Miss Mole rather than The Misses Mallett if I could have found my copy! I'm not discouraged about Jenny Wren because I just need to pick the right time to read it.

>216 kac522: I'd like to visit Bristol! I had trouble fitting the divide between the Sales house and the Mallett house into the plot of the story; interested if you have thoughts on how that worked in The Misses Mallett.

>217 NinieB: I read it a couple of years ago, and to be honest I don't remember where the houses fit into the story. I will have to look it over and see what comes back to me.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett appears on all the lists: 1001 Novels, Guardian 1000 . . . I read it because it's on H.R.F. Keating's list of 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books. It also fit this month's RandomKIT theme, A Time to Harvest. On the harvest theme, all you may need to know is that the "red" of the title refers to blood. I'd love to know if there are crime novels out there with a higher body count--Red Harvest clocks in at somewhere in the 20s.

My main pleasure in reading this was the knowledge that I would be able to lay claim to another spot on all those lists.

Last weekend I read selected Shakespeare sonnets, including Sonnet 18, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day and Sonnet 55, Not marble, nor the gilded monuments. I find Shakespeare's sonnets relatively easy reading, perhaps because they're only 14 lines!

>219 NinieB: Yeah, Red Harvest is definitely way over-the-top! I was happy to check it off the list as well.

>221 DeltaQueen50: That's a good way to describe it!

One thing I should have mentioned is that my old paperback edition had a major spoiler on the back, which I regret.

Though I Know She Lies is one of the many Antony Maitland mysteries by Sara Woods. Antony's uncle Sir Nicholas Harding is defending beautiful Barbara Wentworth on the charge that she murdered her sister. The defense is that the dead sister committed suicide. Dissatisfied, Sir Nicholas asks Antony to investigate.

I like these old British legal mysteries. Scott Turow they are definitely not, and that's fine with me.

>211 NinieB: I'm so glad you enjoyed The Diviners, sometimes it requires the right moment for a book to fit.

When I finished Miss Mole (back in 2018 I see) I immediately bought The Misses Mallett which has been sitting on the shelf unread ever since. You have reminded me to move it up.

>224 VivienneR: Isn't that the way it happens--we get interested in an author and next thing you know it's four years later and the books are on the TBR!

In the And Now For Something Completely Different category, I took a BB from Amber's thread and ended up mainlining a four-book YA series:

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is 15-year-old Miranda's diary of the year after the moon was struck by an asteroid and knocked closer to the earth. The increased gravitational pull causes massive earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. Millions of people die; the supply chain is destroyed, leading to famine, then epidemic. It's a post-apocalyptic parade of horribles. Miranda's family does relatively well but only relatively. I found myself choking up over the misery.

Next is The Dead and the Gone, in which we cover roughly the same period of time but with a focus on 17-year-old Alex Morales in New York City. Both of Alex's parents go missing in the initial disasters, so Alex ends up looking after his two younger sisters.

This World We Live In continues the stories of both Miranda and Alex. Where the first two books focus on survival, family relationships, and the angst of adolescence, this third entry shifts away from survival.

The fourth, The Shade of the Moon, again features Miranda and Alex and their families, but the narrative sticks to the POV of Miranda's younger brother Jon. With this entry the series veers into dystopia, which was only hinted at in the second and third books. I found this dystopia, and the characters' attitudes towards it, way too organized and entrenched given that it's been a mere four years since the asteroid-moon collision.

>226 NinieB: That series sounds intriguing, especially after the asteroid hit last week. They are BBs for me.

>227 VivienneR: I hope you enjoy the series--just be prepared for some darkness.

My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley offers the memories of Vera, an awkward English girl coming of age during World War II. The story is not told chronologically; in the first segment Vera goes to a job at a school where she can bring her daughter with her. This doesn't work out and we gradually start to get Vera's memories of her own boarding school, then her years as a student nurse at a large hospital during wartime.

This novel is more "literary" than the other Jolley book I read. I felt a little disconnected from Vera's story; I'm not sure if that's me struggling with the unchronological narration, or the result of how the story's told. I do like Jolley's writing nonetheless and will continue to read the books I have by her.

Daigo, a Japanese professor of hygiene, is visiting France for a conference. There, in a deserted restaurant lounge, he meets a Japanese woman whose face he never sees. Their encounter is intense and each leaves knowing the name of someone the other wants dead. . . .

This is the setup of the Japanese crime novel The Third Lady by Shizuko Natsuki. I found the plot intriguing and stayed up late to read the book. Your mileage may vary, though, since the plot is not exactly realistic for a number of reasons and you might be disappointed that little is either mysterious or suspenseful (although there is a good twist at the end). But if you enjoy unusual plots you might enjoy the story.

I started Gulliver's Travels awhile back (maybe in August? July even?), and I've been reading it in small chunks when I'm commuting on the bus. Today I finally finished it. Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon, is a man with a love of the sea, despite a predilection for choosing the ship that will encounter difficulties, resulting in his encountering an unknown people each time. In the spirit of the age (the early 18th century) he duly collects information about these people. The Lilliputians are tiny, only a few inches tall. The Brobdignagians are huge (Gulliver is, relatively speaking, only a few inches tall compared to them). And so forth.

Gulliver's Travels was really Dr. Swift's opportunity to skewer English culture. I missed most of the references as I chose to read the book without any annotations. That's OK--probably the book was more fun this way. I liked Swift's writing style, which was surprisingly smooth and uncomplicated for 1726.

>230 NinieB: I think your touchstone goes to the wrong book. That does sound intriguing.

>232 Helenliz: Thanks, Helen, I've fixed the touchstone.

Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle by J. A. Lang is a light-hearted cosy murder mystery set in the Cotswolds. Chef Maurice, proprietor of a French restaurant, is disturbed when his usual wild foods and foraging vendor, Ollie, fails to make his delivery. Ollie's cottage seems unoccupied and the back door is broken in. But the police constable, Lucy, reassures him that Ollie had reported the break-in. But in a surprise turn of events, Maurice discovers rare white truffles in Ollie's refrigerator. He becomes convinced that Ollie had found a truffle bed in the nearby woods. After adopting a micro-pig at the local shelter, Maurice and his friend Arthur set out on a truffle hunt.

I picked this up for free on Amazon Kindle and enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a great way to participate in this month's MysteryKIT.

It's been a long time since I read a Wilkie Collins novel. The Dead Secret predated Collins' famous bestseller, The Woman in White, and it offers a puzzle and several common elements of the sensation novel.

When Rosamond Treverton dies in 1829 at the Cornish mansion Porthgenna Tower, she tries to force her maid Sarah to tell her (Rosamond's) Secret to her husband, Captain Treverton. But Sarah only complies with the letter of her oath to Rosamond and flees to avoid being forced to tell the Secret.

Fast forward 15 years. The Trevertons' daughter, also Rosamond, has just married blind Leonard Frankland. Leonard's father had purchased Porthgenna Tower from Captain Treverton. Now Rosamond and Leonard plan to live at Porthgenna Tower. Imagine Rosamond's surprise when she's warned not to go into the Myrtle Room.

While I wasn't surprised by the revelations in The Dead Secret, I did enjoy this early example of the sensation novel.

>236 NinieB: I picked that one up at a library sale recently, so I'm glad to hear it worked for you--I'll bump it up on the TBR. I hear so many different takes on Wilkie Collins: everyone enjoys The Moonstone and The Woman in White, but his other books seem to get mixed reports.

>237 kac522: As long as you're not expecting realism and know what to expect in a sensation novel, you should be fine!

>238 NinieB: Ha! OK...

Final Notice by Jonathan Valin is the second in a 1980s hard-boiled private investigator series which is set in Cincinnati. Harry Stoner has been hired by the local library to catch whoever is cutting up the art books. The search turns grim when Harry uncovers evidence that connects the library cuttings with the murder of a young woman two years previously.

*I'm sure if I knew Cincinnati I would enjoy the setting of this series . . . .
*The public library setting is interesting since it's a pre-automation library (1980). The library staff stereotyping is irksome, but injects a lighter note in the book.

The Rector's Daughter (1924) by F. M. Mayor tells the story of Mary Jocelyn, who lives most of her life in an insignificant East Anglian village. Mary spends her 20s and early 30s carrying for her developmentally disabled sister. The heart of the book focuses on the years thereafter, when Mary meets Robert Herbert, the rector of a neighboring village. The book explores Mary's relationships with her father, with Robert, with young, beautiful Kathy Hollings.

I perhaps admired this book more than I enjoyed it. I related to Mary's character (we both like to read Trollope, among other things).

>241 NinieB: I had a similar response. The characters came to life, so I agonised for that poor woman and was disgusted by the selfish men, but it was so dismal, and she made choices that made her unhappier still.

>242 pamelad: Yes to all of that! "Agonised for that poor woman" sums it up precisely.

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories is a Penguin collection of Oscar Wilde stories. In the title story, Lord Arthur Savile is told by a cheiromantist (palm reader) that he will commit a crime. His reaction is unusual. In another story, The Canterville Ghost, the ghost is no match for the American family that moves into his English country house. These were my favorite two stories in the collection. It also included some fairy tales which didn't do so much for me, and "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", in which literary detective work is the focus.

I just finished The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. I had read it before, but it had been long enough that I had forgotten much of it. I was pretty confused the first time around, as well, since the first quarter or third is only loosely connected sketches. Thereafter threads are carried forward so that by the end it all feels magnificently planned. Of course a few bits and pieces are never picked up (surely Sam's valentine would cause trouble for Mr. Pickwick . . . ?).

>246 NinieB: I hope to get in a re-read of Pickwick (on audiobook) before the end of the year. I will be following Katie's (Books and Things on youtube) 2 year plan to read all of Dickens on audiobook. I may skip a couple, but will try to keep up.

My first reading was similar to yours--rather confused, and a bit bored, actually. I hope this time I get more "in the flow" of what the book is, instead of expecting one long story. I do remember that Sam Weller was the character I liked best.

>247 kac522: I'm on the 2 year plan as well! It will give me a chance to read some I've never read and also to revisit some I don't remember very well.

This time around I started read Pickwick very slowly--it was my bus book for awhile, so 15 minutes twice a day--then I started wanting to read more of it at a time. Today I spent most of the day gobbling the last 20 percent.

>248 NinieB: Isn't that the way--so often the last part of a book flies by. I just finished re-reading The Mayor of Casterbridge (again on audio), and after listening to it in the car the other day, I sat in my parked car in front of my house to hear the last chapter--there was no way I was going in without hearing the end!

"Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?"

Macbeth is an amazing play. At my beginner reading level, it was fun to see so many familiar phrases and lines. But I also appreciated the power of Shakespeare's psychology and (when I wasn't checking what they meant) of his words.

Two more books finished in October:

I read Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant in a Virago group read. This novel of 1866 examines the life of Lucilla Marjoribanks (pronounced Marchbanks) between 19 and 29. Lucilla returns to her home town of Carlingford eager to become a leader of society, which she promptly does through her aptitude for managing.

One aspect of the story we discussed quite a bit in our group was how Oliphant negatively portrays marriage in the novel. I thought Oliphant did a great job of breathing life into Lucilla's character and some other characters as well.

I had planned to read The Enchanted April back in August but hadn't got around to it. In fact it's an easy read that took me a mere two evenings. It was written and published in 1922. Two middle-class women, experiencing different kinds of unhappiness in their respective marriages, plan a month in Italy without their husbands. With money a bit tight, though, they advertise for two more women to join them in their rented seashore castle. All four women blossom under the sunny skies of Italy.

It's easy to see why a movie was made in the early 1990s from this story, as many of the situations and scenes have romantic comedy potential in the best possible way. I greatly enjoyed this book, both for the happiness it exudes and for the writing--Elizabeth's garden writing reminds me a little bit of L. M. Montgomery.

John D. MacDonald had written 60 or so novels before he wrote The Green Ripper, his 18th Travis McGee. McGee is a private investigator in the hard-boiled mode who lives on a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At the beginning of this one he's got a girlfriend, Gretel, he's seriously committed to. When she brings home the story of seeing at work a man she last saw at a religious cult in northern California, McGee is interested. The next day Gretel is hospitalized, desperately ill, and in a few days she dies. Now, Gretel's story is the only clue McGee has to what happened to her.

I read this because it's one of Keating's 100 best crime and mystery novels. While it was rather more violent than I want to consistently read, I'm still interested in reading more Travis McGee. From reading the LT reviews, I may have been missing out by jumping in at number 18.

>252 NinieB: The Travis McGee books are variable. I liked The Deep Blue Goodbye but loathed Nightmare in Pink, briefly reviewed here.

>253 pamelad: I love that you described Nightmare in Pink as "sexist, overwrought and sentimental." Interestingly, in Keating's book, he compares MacDonald's writing in The Green Ripper to Dickens: "It is Dickens the novelist of feelings, of sentiment, and of sentimentality, that MacDonald brings to mind."

>254 NinieB: Ha! I don't like Dickens.

I was delighted to discover that I could read one book for three categories: Seneca Falls Inheritance has a city (Seneca Falls, NY) in the title (RandomKIT); it's set against a backdrop of real events, the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention (AuthorCAT); and it's about a women's issue (CATwoman).

So how was the book? It's Miriam Grace Monfredo's first book in her historical mystery series featuring librarian Glynis Tryon, set in antebellum upstate New York. Glynis discovers a dead woman in the canal behind her library. It soon becomes apparent she (the dead woman) has a surprising connection to a farming family that has made generous money and book donations to the library in the past. Meanwhile, Glynis is helping her friend Elizabeth Stanton gauge interest in a convention on woman's rights, something that has never been done before.

I always hope historical mysteries will be enlightening on the past, but they do seem prone to historical anachronisms and ahistorical ways of thinking; this one was no different. I nonetheless enjoyed learning about the Woman's Rights Convention and having Elizabeth Cady Stanton among others as a real character.

Arrest the Bishop? (1949) by Winifred Peck is a Golden-Age-adjacent mystery that was republished by Dean Street Press. One snowy December soon after World War I, clergy have gathered at Bishop Evelake's Palace for an ordination when an unpopular priest, Ulder, shows up all ready to do some blackmail before moving on to America. But he's taken seriously ill and has to stay the night, which proves fatal. Did the bishop do it?

This mystery stands out for its characters--the author paints them well. I would really have appreciated a map to the Bishop's Palace.

I started reading Thalia (1957) by Frances Faviell because it was a free ebook (this week only on Amazon!) that was handy on my phone for the bus. I quickly became engrossed and couldn't put it down. Eighteen-year-old Rachel, an art student, has agreed to spend a year in Brittany as a companion to 15-year-old Thalia. When Rachel arrives, she discovers a tense family situation. Thalia's father Tom is returning to his Army post in India while mother Cynthia, Thalia, and younger brother Claude are staying in Brittany for the winter. Thalia and Cynthia do not get along--Cynthia lavishes attention and love on Claude while seeming to ignore Thalia. At the same time Thalia is developing a serious crush on Rachel, Rachel meets two men, the much older Terence, who knew Thalia's family in India, and Armand, son of a wealthy Breton farming family. Meanwhile Cynthia is picking up where she left off with Terence and otherwise spending her time playing bridge and attending cocktail parties.

I loved this book--as noted I couldn't put it down as I cared so much about what happened with the cast of characters. I am now eager to read more of Faviell's writing!

>258 NinieB: Thank you! I've just downloaded it because I enjoyed Frances Faviell's two non-fiction books about WWII and its aftermath, a Chelsea Concerto and The Dancing Bear.

The touchstones disappear so often! They're there, and when I click Save Message, they're gone.

>259 pamelad: I just learned a couple of weeks ago that Dean Street Press makes one of its ebooks free each week.

>258 NinieB:, >259 pamelad: Yes, I loved A Chelsea Concerto. Thanks for the nudge to read The Dancing Bear. My library doesn't have any of her other books, so I'll have to search them out.

>259 pamelad: >261 kac522: I've got a print copy of A House on the Rhine and an ebook of The Dancing Bear; I'm going to try to prioritize them over the next couple of months.

It has been years since I read a book by Margery Allingham, but what I recall is that her style varies from book to book. So I was not sure what to expect from More Work for the Undertaker, which I read as one of the Keating 100 Best.

Her amateur detective, Albert Campion, is on the brink of becoming the governor of an unnamed British colony when he is asked to go undercover. The mysterious death is in the peculiar Palinode family, most of whom are elderly brothers and sisters living in their old family home--which is now a boarding house--in suburban London. Also involved in the story are neighbors, including the banker, the pharmacist, and of course the undertakers.

I had some trouble getting engaged in this book. Allingham's writing can be a bit obscure, for example it's hard to tell who said what sometimes, and she uses slang that I don't always understand. The number of characters was a bit challenging as well. I do like the title, which is from a music hall song.

I really enjoyed Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt. I hardly ever read nonfiction and when I read a good one like this I wonder about that choice.

Will in the World is sort of a biography of Shakespeare, but the real emphasis is on how his writings illuminate his life. While we know the bones of Shakespeare's life from records, he did not live in an era when celebrities were relentlessly stalked, and he did not leave any overtly autobiographical writings (or even any letters). So, for example, Greenblatt uses Hamlet to explore how Shakespeare felt about the death of his young son Hamnet.

While some knowledge of Shakespeare and his plays and time will help the reader, Greenblatt doesn't assume much knowledge. I'm now eager to do some more play-reading, so I'll try to fit some more in next year.

>264 NinieB:: Have you read Hamnet? I wonder how Greenblatt's vision compares with O'Farrell's.

>265 kac522: I have not read Hamnet so I was wondering the same thing!

>266 NinieB: I recall that it ends with a performance of Hamlet. It's one of those books that I immediately made a note that I need to read it again, since some of it I didn't quite grasp.

>267 kac522: I should read it sooner rather than later, while I have Will in the World fresh in my mind.

The Getting of Wisdom (1910) by Henry Handel Richardson tells the story of Laura's years at a Melbourne girls' boarding school in the 1880s. Laura is a country girl whose mother struggles to pay her school fees. She herself struggles at the school, both with making friends and in understanding what the teachers want of her. She manages to do both superficially; thus the book's title is ironic.

>269 NinieB: We read this at school and always used its alternative title, The Wetting of Gisdom.

>270 pamelad: Hah! It will be hard to forget that!

I had all kinds of reading plans for December, based on the fact I was taking the first two weeks as vacation. And guess what? I didn't read a thing, except on the plane. But last night I finally finished one of the chunksters I have underway.

The Perpetual Curate by Margaret Oliphant is one of the Carlingford novels, focusing on Frank Wentworth. Frank is the title's perpetual curate, which is a specific kind of curate (Anglican minister) assigned to a district that does not have a rector. This district produces very little income . . . which is a problem here since Frank is in love with Lucy Wodehouse. More problems develop for Frank over the course of the novel when one of his parishioners accuses him of immorality. Lucy encounters her own difficulties.

I thought this one dragged some. And the plot line involving Frank's brother Gerald was quite interesting, but did not resolve in any satisfactory way. Aside from those quibbles, though, I found the Carlingford setting and activities very enjoyable.

>272 NinieB: I always find I read less on vacation despite thinking I will have more time for it! Good work on finishing that chunkster.

>273 rabbitprincess: Yeah, if I had just thought about it, I would have known I was being unrealistic. Now engaged in triaging my end-of-year goals!

Another reason I've fallen behind in my reading is that I've been reading Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740) by Samuel Richardson for the last month or two. I finally finished it yesterday. This novel is one of those that is still read because of its position in the history of the English novel. In the 18th century, readers were fascinated. The most common reaction in online reviews by today's readers is appalled horror.

Pamela is a 15-year-old maidservant whose "master," Mr. B----, develops a lust for her that she has extreme difficulty deflecting. Things take a disastrous turn for Pamela when Mr. B---- deceives her into thinking his carriage is taking her home but instead has her taken to his Lincolnshire house, where she is effectively imprisoned as part of Mr. B's sustained assault on Pamela's virtue. Pamela, however, withstands all efforts, including a written offer to make her his mistress for financial compensation, and Mr. B's disguising himself in her bedroom as a maid (she faints, which discourages him). Finally, Pamela's virtue (derived from her religious belief) wins Mr. B over and he falls in love with her. Pamela returns his love (for no apparent reason) and they marry. Pamela has one more trial, though, which is Mr. B's sister Lady Davers, whose pride makes it very hard for her to accept that her brother has married a servant. Finally, Mr. B lays down 47 rules that will make Pamela a good wife.

While I can't say Pamela is enjoyable, there is something about the first half or two-thirds that fascinates. The latter half gets rather dull, though. Moreover, Richardson was not an experienced writer, and his sense of pacing was poor. He was also inclined to repetition. The 18th-century style generally makes for difficult reading. It's a period piece of academic interest. In short, don't read this book unless you're tracking the development of the English novel!

>276 kac522: I read about half of Clarissa and gave up. I basically felt the same way--lots of repetition and events dragged out way beyond their useful life. I think that Charles Grandison was one of Jane Austen's favorites, but I don't think I could endure it.

>275 NinieB: Kudos to you for persevering! Literature from that period is mostly a slog to read.
>276 kac522: I started reading Clarissa after watching the TV movie with Sean Bean. I gave up pretty soon, I confess.

>276 kac522: Fortunately Pamela has an interesting plot, at least for the first half. Otherwise I'm not sure I could have continued.

>277 MissWatson: Thank you, Birgit. It probably helped that I took a couple of weeks off part way through.

I'm still planning to read Clarissa, but not for awhile. Its size (3x as long as Pamela!) is daunting.

>278 NinieB: I also admire you for making your way through it. I do recall years ago in college we read several chapters of Pamela, and it didn't do much for me then. I'm probably done with Richardson, since in my mind reading half of Clarissa is like reading one normal sized book ;)

>279 kac522: Thank you! Interestingly--you may have read an abridged version that Everyman published, or else the Norton version which is Richardson's 1762 edition, both of which considerably change Pamela's originally somewhat lower-class speech into more "accepted" English. Richardson was a tinkerer and couldn't stop editing. And I actually think half of Clarissa is 2 or 3 normal size books!

>275 NinieB: Congratulations! Your staying power is admirable!

>281 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne! I'm happy to have completed it.

>280 NinieB: Now that's the kind of information that makes me curious to have a look...

>283 MissWatson: I recommend the article about these different versions in the London Review of Books: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v24/n24/john-mullan/high-meriting-low-descended

I needed something digital so I started Hidden in Snow by Viveca Sten, which I got for free from Amazon Prime. Turns out I *really* needed some easy reading, which this was. It was a real treat.

It's set in Åre, Sweden, which is north of Stockholm in the mountains near Norway. In December it's already cold and snowy, so the ski slopes are active when a body turns up on the lift one morning. We then gradually meet the two lead characters in this new police procedural series, Hanna Ahlander and Daniel Lindskog.

I liked the leads very much and the mystery wasn't bad either. Just a warning, a theme of domestic abuse runs through this novel. If you're OK with that, you may enjoy this as well.

>284 NinieB: Thank you! That puts it on my wishlist.

Congratulations for finishing Clarissa. I'd like to read it one day but its length is truly intimidating. The information about the different editions is interesting.

>287 mathgirl40: I'll take credit for Pamela, thanks! ;) I agree, Clarissa is truly intimidating.