What are you reading the week of July 2, 2022?

I read My Friend Maigret this week, and I've started Ivan Turgenev's A Sportsman's Notebook. I've particularly enjoying the Turgenev.

I've had a stressful week. This past winter, I learned that my dog has bladder cancer. He's been on chemotherapy all spring and into summer. Last weekend he began experiencing terrible pain when going outside. I was distraught and got an immediate appointment at the Mass Vet Referral Hospital with his oncologist. I fully expected to have to put him down, but after four hours the vets came out and told me he had kidney stones. I guess just because you have cancer doesn't mean you can't have other problems. He's getting better, but the painkillers really knock him out.

A revisit with the O'Brien clan via this hoopla audio ~
Flowers on Main by Sherryl Woods

and a

'Christmas in July' audio selection via OverDrive ~
Christmas in the Alps by Melody Carlson

Finished The Lost Region this morning, working on Hitler at Home, Last Exit will come after that.

>1 fredbacon: I hope your dog continues to feel better. Poor thing!

I'm still reading Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell.

>1 fredbacon: I hope your pup is feeling better, Fred! That’s a lot of stress for you both. Several years ago, I had a golden on chemo. We had some good quality time while she was in remission. Wishing you all the best.

This week I’m reading A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark and the latest stand alone by Rhys Bowen, Where the Sky Begins.

The Water Keeper by Charles Martin

>1 fredbacon: Best to you and your dog. I know how special they are.

Still reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. A great read but slow reading because of so many details.

Blood of Elves
Andrzej Sapkowski
4/5 stars
Queen Calanthe commits suicide during an attack on the capital city and her granddaughter, Ciri manages to flee from the burning capital. Emhyr var Emreis, Imperator of Nilfgaard, has sent his people to find her. Young Ciri is wanted because of her royal blood, but she also has elven blood and possibly will be able to perform magic. Geralt of Rivia, a witcher vows to find and protect her. Exciting!

Still reading All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay and Mother Dear by Nova Lee Maier.

Getting ready to read the Alienist? Has anyone read it?

>11 TRIPLEHHH: I haven't, but I hope you like it!

>1 fredbacon: Sending good thoughts to you and your pup.

This week I finished the audiobook of All the Light we Cannot See, which was dazzling. Such a beautifully written book.

I have just finished the e-book of Nevil Shute's The Far Country. I really like Nevil Shute. This is the third book of his I've read and I will seek out others. It was a simple tale in the end: a romance against an exotic background, but told in such a way that I was instantly engaged by his writing and felt the same sense of comfort that I have with his other, better known books.

I think I'll next be reading Gyles Brandeth's most recent update on his biography of Prince Philip, which includes the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes for my dog. 💓

>11 TRIPLEHHH: I read The Alienist by Caleb Carr many years ago. I loved it. I also enjoyed the sequel The Angel of Darkness. Hey, it turns out that there are two more sequels that I didn't know about. Hmm...

>11 TRIPLEHHH: I read The Alienist sevral years ago and enjoyed it. Interesting fictionalized look at the beginnings of psychological profiling of serial killers.

Just wrapped up Big Summer yesterday and felt it was not as good as Weiner's usual stuff. She did a genre-switch in the middle, which would have been okay, but the characterization of several of the folks in the story was inconsistent and wrapping up all the loose ends required more coincidences than were credible.

Started another LTER today, The King's Druid, though it's kind of hard to consider it an "early" review, since it was an April selection that I didn't actually receive until the very end of June. Off to a good beginning. Not sure where Grove is going with it.

I finished the disappointing LTER Our Mothers of Invention. The short descriptions of 16 women and their inventions might be suitable for a teenager although the writing sorely needed editing. Asides made by the author were distracting

Finished Mother Dear by Nova Lee Maier. Meh. Started An Eye for an Eyeby Carol Wyer.

>1 fredbacon: Best of luck with your dog and bladder cancer. One of our cats, well, the good news is that it's *not* large cell lymphoma. Still waiting for final test results. I am sympathetic to what you're going through.

>11 TRIPLEHHH: I'm about to start The Alienist too! I started it once, kinda sorta remember it, and then I was cleaning bookshelves and decided to read it finally. I look forward to sharing this reading journey with you!

So The Alienist and I started reading Brian D. Anderson's The Bard's Blade while taking my car in for the recall stuff ahead of its first car inspection.

And I really need to pick back up with The Once and Future Witches.

Just about done with Last Exit (and am somewhat underwhelmed), so I've started Wings for the Rising Sun.

A Stir of Echoes
Richard Matheson
4/5 stars
Tom Wallace was an easy going man with a wife and a son. At a party, he was hypnotized and now he is having headaches but he can also hear people’s thoughts and he starts seeing aberrations. Why is this happening to him and is he and his family in danger because of this. Compelling!

I finished Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass. I'd waited far too long to finally read this classic and powerful testimony of the evils of chattel slavery in America. The memoir is also a testament to the enduring possibilities of the human spirit. Anyone with a doubt as to the absolute evil of American slavery will be disabused of such doubts after reading these searing 126 pages.

Next up for me will be a reread of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. It's my turn to make the selection for my reading group this month, and I've been wanting to reread this novel for a long time.

I finished A Far Cry from Kensington. The more I read, the more I liked it.

Also finished Rhys Bowen’s latest, Where the Sky Begins. Meh.

Now I’ve started Remarkably Bright Creatures and I think we’ll get along fine.

Eye Of the Needle – Ken Follett
Book on CD narrated by Eric Lincoln and performed by a full cast.
4.5****
From the book jacket: One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life.
My reactions:
Wow. Just, WOW.

Fast-paced and engaging, this was Follett’s first successful endeavor as a novelist; he wrote it when he was only 27 years old!

Follet uses three story arcs which converge in a heart-stopping scenario. He begins with Henry Faber, the pseudonym used by the German spy known as The Needle, and quickly shows the reader just how determined, ruthless and dangerous this man is. Then he starts the story of Percival Godliman, an aging professor of history, with a background the British want to employ to help them catch spies, and Detective Inspector Bloggs, who will act as Godliman’s man on the ground during the big chase. And finally the third side of the triangle: Lucy, a young woman about to be married and embark on the life of a war bride. Follet continues to craft the story moving from one story line to the other, keeping the reader off balance and eager to find out more. Virtually every chapter ends in a cliffhanger.

The audiobook is much like a radio drama. Erik Lincoln narrates the story, but each time there is dialogue, internal or external, the character is played by a different, talented voice artist. I found it a little off at first, but quickly grew used to it, and I found it really entertaining in the end.

Finished All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay. Enjoyed it. Next up is Servant Mageby Kate Elliott.

How the Penguins Saved Veronica – Hazel Prior
Digital audiobook performed by Helen Lloyd, Andrew Fallaize, and Mandy Williams.
3.5***

Veronica McCreedy is an eighty-five-year-old woman living alone in her large home in Ayrshire, Scotland. She’s estranged from her family, and has a testy relationship with her housekeeper Eileen. She’s set in her ways and feels entitled to live her life as she pleases. She’s recently discovered that she has a grandson, but when she decides to visit him, she finds him less than desirable; Patrick is mostly unemployed and a frequent marijuana smoker. Veronica is not about to leave her millions to a drug-addled bum! A documentary she sees about scientists’ efforts to save penguins in Antarctica captures her attention. So, she decides to visit the scientists and see their work up close and personal before leaving them her millions.

The plot is outlandish and unrealistic but completely engaging and heart-warming. Veronica reminds me of many other cranky, outspoken elderly main characters (Ove and Olive Kitteridge to name two). She’s not about to lie down and die, though she recognizes that her time is growing short, and she’ll damn well do whatever she pleases in the meantime. She’s opinionated, rigid, and without tact. But she’s also a caring person, whose maternal instincts – in this case – are stirred by a tiny orphan penguin chick she names Patrick (and later, Pip). I just fell in love with her and was cheering her on. I felt outrage on her behalf when learning about how she had been treated in her youth. No wonder she walled off her heart.

The experts in the Antarctic hardly know what to do with her, but they DO need that grant, and they try their best to shelter Veronica from the worst effects of the harsh conditions under which they work and live.

Everyone learns a lesson or two about cooperation and teamwork, and about opening one’s heart to the possibility of love.

The audiobook is performed by a trio of talented voice artists. The bring these characters to life.

The book was originally published in the United Kingdom under the title Away With the Penguins.

The Alienist was the basis for the Emmy award winning TV series on TNT from 2018-20. It ran for two seasons.

Here are the novels in the "Laszlo Kreizler and John Schuyler Moore" series so far:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/caleb-carr/laszlo-kreizler-and-john-schuyler-...

Finally !!!!! finished The King's Druid, which I thought was never going to end. Had it not been an LTER, I would have bailed out. It was just incredibly slow and lacked any kind of character arc.

Currently reading Montana 1948, which I will probably finish today. (It's short but impactful.)

One more LTER on deck from the June wins after that.

Oh, wow. As expected, I finished Montana 1948. What I didn't expect was that it's my third five-star read of the year, and will be with me for a long time. Highly recommended.

Next up is He's No Angel, the next LTER, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to start it. I want to savor Watson's book a little longer.

Finished Servant Mage by Kate Elliott. It was OK. Next up is Diving Into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

The new thread is up over here.

>29 LyndaInOregon: I love Larry Watson's writing!