May AlphaKIT - O and D

Welcome to the 2022 AlphaKIT. This is an unofficial challenge for the 2022 Category Challenge Group. Each month has two letters selected for you to use however you choose.

There are no rules. Just have fun and enjoy reading.

and

Please remember to update the wiki with your reading:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2022_AlphaKIT#May:_-_Letters:_O_and_D

>1 majkia: Thanks! I am planning to read A Day with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory and Murder in an Irish Churchyard by Carlene O'Connor. But then again, I might read several of the Oxford Tearoom Mysteries, which would fit both letters in one title.

I believe I'm going to plan on Darkest Whisper by Gena Showalter for my 'D' book and Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz for my 'O' book.

For "D", I'm lining up The Black Tulip (by Alexander Dumas and;
For "O", The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens).

My possibilities for 'D' are:

The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos
The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo

My book club's choice for June is On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, so I may read that early. I have The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa down for reading in April, but I might postpone it.

My plans for my series reading in May will be:

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Unexpected Night by Elizabeth Daly

Can't wait to get to these!

✔Batten Down the Belfry
✔Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 1: Egypt's Fire
✔Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle
✔Dewey Decimated
✔Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss
✔Diva Wraps It Up
✔Double Chocolate cookie Murder
✔Half-Baked Alibi by Devon Delaney
✔Hint Of Mischief
✔Murder On the Half Shelf by Lorna Barrett
✔Murder with Darjeeling Tea
✔Simmering with Resentment by Darryl Wood Gerber
✔Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
✔Tony's Bread by Tomie DePaola

I've got an O for MysteryKIT, so for that, I'll read:
- The Council of Twelve / Oliver Potzsch

Not sure yet about D.

I'm considering Detroit Is Our Beat by Loren D. Estleman, set during World War II.

Couple of options for me. I might finally get around to Demelza who has been hanging around, unread, for a while now.

My plans for May AlphaKit are:

D = The Devil's Closet by Stacy Dittrich
O = The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

My monthy plans change so often but right now I am planning on Two Old Women and probably Death on the Nile.

Read Miranda Warning by Heather Day Gilbert

Starting The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction by William Doyle

Starting Different Seasons, an anthology of four novellas by Stephen King: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body and The Breathing Method.

I was reading Where Eagles Dare for an April challenge but didn't finish. I'll add it to this month's AlphaKIT!

COMPLETED The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction by William Doyle

Completed Dinner with a Perfect Stranger and Two Down, Bun to Go in the Oxford TeaRoom Mysteries.

Just finished an O book, By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate. Not bad, but I wanted more.

For O, completed Scratch One by Michael Crichton

I just finished One Last Stop for O.

COMPLETED The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

I just read In a Dark, Dark Wood by Cece Louise for D. It's a decent YA fantasy with gothic vibes.

Just finished The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter.

I finished another D book last night, Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean. A strong historical mystery; I'm looking forward to continuing with the series!

I finished The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

COMPLETED The Baztan Trilogy by Dolores Redondo

Starting The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor

Finished Different Seasons (by Stephen King; narrated by Frank Muller) for the letter, “D” and;

Started The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser) for the letter, “O”.

Another D book, Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose by T.A. Willberg. I was hoping to like this one more than I did.

I finished Demelza for D.

I've finished Unexpected Night by Elizabeth Daly

COMPLETED The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor

I've finished Winter's Orbit.

June AlphaKIT is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/341767

The Council of Twelve / Oliver Potzsch
4.25 stars

In the late 17th century, the hangmen of Bavaria are gathering just outside Munich for their guild council. They don’t often get to meet because, being the dishonourables that they are, no one wants to host their meetings. On this occasion, they happen to be near Munich as the dead bodies of two young girls are discovered, murdered in various styles of execution from the time. As more bodies are found, the hangmen, of course, are suspected. Jakob Kuisl, his daughter Magdalena, and her doctor husband Simon, try to help figure out what it going on.

Meantime, there is also a group of people distributing counterfeit money, and Simon (whose reputation as a mystery-solver has preceded him) has been asked to find the lost dog of a local “royal” family. Really, this turns out to be the young prince’s dog, who befriends Simon and Magdalena’s son, Peter. And Jakob’s younger daughter, Barbara, is at an age where she should be getting married; although, Magdalena was lucky and found someone above her station, Barbara is likely to have to marry one of the other executioners or their sons.

I really like this series and I feel like it gets better and better. I believe I am now caught up in the series, so it’s hard to say when I will get to the next one (I am assuming there will continue to be more – I hope!). The book switches points of view (though never first-person) quite often, but I like that it gives me the feel of all of these things happening, as different characters go about their business, at the same time. Of course, for suspense, it often cuts to a different character/scene just as something exciting is about to happen or happens.

So far in May I have read A Forgery of Roses by Jessica S. Olson and The Coloring Crook by Krista Davis. I also read two more Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gilman.

Offshore / Catherine Dook
3.5 stars

Catherine and her husband John live on a boat off the coast of British Columbia. This book details a few short sailing trips they took, mostly with the intention of being gone longer than they were, turning back mostly due to weather issues (and not really being very good sailors!). On the trip where they’d hoped to sail to Hawaii, they brought two additional crew members, Aussie John and Kiwi John; at that point, Catherine’s husband was “John Darling”.

This was short and I had to shake my head a bit at the foibles. But it was entertaining and a bit amusing with some humour thrown in. I enjoyed it.

So far, I have several Ds and one O:
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Mao II by Don DeLillo
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Currently reading The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos

COMPLETED The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos.

Currently reading "Whistle in the Dark" by Emma Healey

I have completed my O and D reads with When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka and The Devil's Closet by Stacy Dittrich.

>41 DeltaQueen50: I've never read Otsuka, but I plan to read The Buddha in the Attic for my "O" book next week. I see she also has a new book out The Swimmers, which I believe is about a parent with Alzheimer's.

>42 kac522: I have read The Buddha in the Attic previously and found it very good as well. I hope it resonates with you.

I read Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa for another D

The Dutch House / Ann Patchett.
3.75 stars

Danny and Maeve are young when their mother just up and leaves to head to India. There is a seven (or eight?) year age difference between them, but they become very close, especially after their father remarries Andrea and Andrea and her two daughters move in. Danny is still only 15-years old when their father dies. The story is told from Danny’s point of view and goes back and forth in time between them as adults and growing up.

Wow, Andrea is the modern-day evil stepmother from hell, isn’t she!? Like many others, I listened to the audio, which was done so well by Tom Hanks (I’m upping my rating by ¼ star due to his narration). I never lost interest, though it is a slow moving book. I didn’t much like the interaction between Celeste (Danny’s wife) and Maeve, either. I identified more with Danny’s feelings near the end than Maeve’s though I can sort of understand why she would feel the way she did. There were other interesting happenings at the end of the book, as well.

COMPLETED Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey

Starting "Kissing the Demons" by Kate Ellis

Our Souls at Night / Kent Haruf
3.75 stars

Louis (pronounced Lewis – I listened to the audio) is surprised when Addie, whom he doesn’t know well, though he knows who she is, approaches him to relieve lonely nights by sleeping together (literally sleeping side-by-side). They are older and their spouses are gone, and they are lonely. Louis decides to give it a try. It’s not long before Addie’s son, Gene, and his wife decide to separate, so Gene brings his 6-year old son, Jamie, to live with Addie for a while, so Addie and Louis now have a grandson in the house, as well.

This was good. I loved the relationship between Addie, Louis, and Jamie (and the dog!), but wth is wrong with Gene!? How can he be so awful to his mother about all this? My grandpa, some years after my grandma died, had a lady friend/companion, and I don’t know that either my mom or her sister (Grandpa’s daughters) had an issue with it. Really Gene? Can you not let your mother be happy? Ugh!

COMPLETED Kissing the Demons by Kate Ellis

Yesterday I finished Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier after watching the latest adaptation on netflix last week. I love Lily James, but Armie Hammer plays the same guy he always does, just like the recent version of Death on the Nile.

I've read Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd and Five Decembers by James Kestral.

My May books:
D:
Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure, Arthur Conan Doyle
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (re-read)

O:
The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories, Sarah Orne Jewett
Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka

D&O:
The Order of the Day, Eric Vuillard

The Wilderness Warrior / Douglas Brinkley
3.25 stars

President Theodore Roosevelt was a bird lover, a lover of nature in general, and also a hunter. As president from 1901- 1909, he created numerous national parks and monuments and expanded more; he brought in laws protecting birds, as well as created hunting seasons and licensing. He admired Darwin and his theories. He did a lot for conservation in the United States in the early 20th century.

Sadly, I also felt he was very contradictory due to his joy of hunting (including trophy hunting!) Yes, he did a LOT for conservation, but that was dimmed (in my opinion) by his love of hunting, particularly big game, in many cases just to put the animal’s head on his wall. Even in some of his parks, he still allowed hunting, but only of predators, not prey. This was a very long book at just under 1000 pages, so there were times I lost interest. I did learn some interesting things, too – I didn’t know “teddy bears” were named after him (but he didn’t like being called “Teddy”, either).

The House from Hell / Genoveva Ortiz
3.75 stars

It was the 1960s in Indiana. Gertrude Baniszewski was a single mother of seven who took in two teenaged sisters while their parents were travelling around the US for work. Unfortunately for the sisters, Sylvia and Jenny (particularly Sylvia), no one realized how abusive Gertrude was, and it was ramped up to infinity as she took a dislike to Sylvia. Not only did Gertrude torture Sylvia, but she encouraged and coaxed others, including her children and their friends, to do so, as well.

This book is fairly short and written in a simple style to make it easy for anyone (regardless of reading level) to be able to read; this is explained in the introduction. This may have led to the very straightforward way of telling the story, all the horrible torture and all. It’s hard for me to rate this book because of all the violence and awful torture Sylvia was put through before she finally died. I read a lot of horror and true crime and other dark things, but this was tough to read – and it really happened! The book is part of a true crime series, and I would be willing to read others, even though it was hard to read the details in this one.

I managed another O book, One and Only by Jenny Holiday. A good, but not extraordinary, contemporary romance.

May
Death on the Nile
Two Old Women
and I expect to finish by the end of the month a twofer
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

I was able to get my "D" books in with The Black Tulip (by Alexandre Dumas père and Different Seasons (by Stephen King) but; my "O" book, The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens) will have to carry over for a late finish in June.

I read One Bad Day After Another by Max Folsom that hit both letters.

Terrific debut from Folsom (aka mysterymax here at LT). The plot is complex enough to keep it interesting while staying coherent. And the characters are captivating, especially Baker Somerset, who is a strong, intelligent leading woman. Her background is that of a detective at Scotland Yard but she's now running a private detective agency in Ottawa. Folsom merged the cultures seamlessly. I'll be watching for more from this author.

One more D book -- a reread of Mary Balogh's Dark Angel. I liked it, even though I'm not usually a fan of the "hero seduces heroine for revenge" plot.

One last D book for me, We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor.

LOL, it’s unlike anyone is still following this thread; but I finally finished The Old Curiosity Shop (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Anton Lesser)! - This Classic tale of the orphan Nell and her grandfather follows them from their curiosity shop in London through the travails of living the life of beggars on the road. Daniel Quilp, a nasty bit of business, pursues them out of avarice and the sheer delight in tormenting them (and everyone else!) Despite dragging my feet on this one, I still give it 4 solid stars for a tension filled story arc and incredibly detailed descriptions of the time, place and people.

>60 Tanya-dogearedcopy: It's the only Dickens I've read that felt a real chore to get through, so well done