What are you reading the week of July 16, 2022?

I finished A Sportman's Notebook by Ivan Turgenev which was a really lovely book. Then I read Maigret and the Old Lady which was a lot of fun. Now I've started Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev.

I have a beautiful paperback edition of A Sportsman's Notebook on my shelf. I really should get to it one of these days!

I've just started Isaac B. Singer's second novel, The Family Moskat, as part of my project to start each calendar year and each July with a Singer novel until I've read through them all. There aren't that many, all told, as Singer was best known as a short story writer. Anyway, the one I'm reading now will take me long enough, as it's 607 pages long. I'm about 35 pages in and already very much enjoying it.

Just finished Emory Upton: Misunderstood Reformer, Besides chugging along with Central Asia: A New History..., some short works like These Prisoning Hills and The Fairey Battle are also going to get knocked off.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli
Book on CD performed by Michael Crouch
3.5***

Simon Spier is a fifteen-year-old gay high school student who is not yet out to his family or friends. But in his secret email account he’s found a friend (boyfriend?) who’s apparently also a student at the same high school. They use pseudonyms and have vowed NOT to reveal their true identities, but small clues seem to have given them an idea of who the other is.

The major problem for Simon is that he used a school computer to send the most recent email and a fellow student found the message when he used the same device. Simon had forgotten to log out. Now, Martin wants a favor (or two). Of course, he says he won’t reveal Simon’s secret gay life, which “isn’t really a big deal anyway,” but Martin did take a screenshot of it, and he is pretty insistent that Simon help him hook up with Simon’s friend Abby.

Ah, the drama of high school relationships, gay or straight, friends or lovers. Been there, and don’t want to relive it, thank you very much. Still, this is a engaging and entertaining story. There’s a lot to digest here, from family dynamics to first love to what it means to be a true friend, and Albertalli handles it pretty well. I can see why this would be a popular YA title for any teen.

Michael Crouch does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. Though the format of emails between Simon and “Blue” does get tedious to listen to, with a repeat of the to/from addresses and subject lines for each entry.

Murder 101 – Maggie Barbieri
2.5**
Alison Bergeron is an English professor at a small, private college on the banks of the Hudson River in the Bronx. She’s recently divorced from a fellow professor, and even more recently without a car, since her aging Volvo was stolen from the campus lot where she parks. Then the police arrive at her office with good news: her car’s been found. And with bad news: there was a body in the trunk – one of her students had been murdered.

So far this is pretty typical for the cozy mystery scenario, where the heroine (or her best friend) is a suspect in a murder and, therefore, she MUST investigate to clear her name. Of course, the Detective (Bobby Crawford) is handsome and obviously interested in Alison in ways that have nothing to do with the investigation.

My main problem with this book is that Alison is an idiot, and one with a weak stomach (she seems to vomit under stress, which happens frequently). Her best friend Max also has little to do, other than loan her a car towards the end.

As a mystery, this was not very well plotted, and I found the reveal completely unrealistic and dissatisfying. But I did find the nascent romance between Alison and Crawford interesting. And I might read another book in the series just to see how that pans out.

Starting this cozy hoopla audio ~
Nipped in the Bud (An Orchard Mystery, #12)
by Sheila Connolly
(series finale/winter/towns I live near are the setting for this series)

and

Continuing to enjoy this 'Christmas in July' Kindle selection ~
Christmas to the Rescue! (Heartsprings Valley Winter Tale, Book 1)
by Anne Chase

I'm reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. I love a good book about books, especially when it's a unique adventure like the one I think January is about to take.

The People's Princess by Flora Harding
Lady Diana Spencer, soon to be married to Prince Charles, reads a personal diary left by Princess Charlotte of Wales in the 1810s. I preferred reading Princess Charlotte's story since there isn't as much written about her.

Still reading The Man Burned by Winter and Shadowed Souls.

I've just started The Alienist by Caleb Carr or, since I saw the bookmark still sitting where I left it, I'm re-starting this book. I have no memory of having read this book all those years ago and I'm finding it intriguing. It may be the book tie-in to the TV series of that name?

Also about to start The Vixen: A Novel, Yule gift from DH.

I'm reading Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey, A Much Married Man by Nicholas Coleridge and Darling Monster, letters from Diana Cooper to her son. All are very enjoyable in between weeding and gardening. :)

Went camping, expected to get lots of reading time, did not. So I've not read in days. I did get sunburned and mosquito-bitten, so it wasn't a complete wash! I have Casey McQuiston's latest book I Kissed Shara Wheeler sitting on the coffee table, waiting for me to read it. She writes YA romances with LGBTQ characters; I enjoy them greatly despite my advanced years.

Gorky Park– Martin Cruz Smith
2.5**

As the snow begins to melt, three frozen bodies are found in Moscow’s Gorky Park. They’ve all been shot, and their bodies mutilated to hamper identification. Investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, honest, and cynical, but he’s a professional and acknowledged, even by his enemies, as a stellar investigator. But to solve this case, he’ll have to battle the KGB, the FBI and the New York City police.

This is the first in a series, and Smith gives us an interesting cast of characters, including a dwarf who does reconstructive sculpture from bones to help identify crime victims, a mysterious young woman working with a film crew, a rogue NYC cop, and a rich, ruthless and well-connected American mogul. Renko, for all his skill and tenacity, is flawed, and suffering through the end of his own marriage.

The plot starts out with a bang, but Smith throws in so many side shows and plot twists, including considerable political intrigue, that I began to lose interest. And I found the ending somewhat anticlimactic. I doubt I’ll read more of the series.

>13 BookConcierge: A good movie, though. Lee Marvin! What's not to like?

Starting this OverDrive audio selection ~

A Sunlit Weapon: A Novel (Maisie Dobbs series, Book 17)
by Jacqueline Winspear
(Eleanor Roosevelt is included in this historical fiction installment)

State Of Terror – Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny
Digital audiobook narrated by Joan Allen
3.5***

Adapted from the book jacket: Novice Secretary of State Ellen Adams, has joined the administration of her rival, a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage. A series of terrorist attacks throws the global order into disarray, and the secretary is tasked with assembling a team to unravel the deadly conspiracy, a scheme carefully designed to take advantage of an American government dangerously out of touch and out of power in the places where it counts the most.

My reactions:
Clearly Clinton provided the behind-the-scenes information on the workings of government on this scale, while Louise Penny crafted the plot. I wish Clinton hadn’t relied so much on taking digs at # 45, because the basic plot would have worked without that, and it just makes the book seem like a thinly veiled criticism of our former leadership.

The plot was fast and furious and held my attention throughout. And, as a fan of Penny’s Gamache series, I was tickled by the various Easter Eggs in the plot. It ends with a hell of a cliffhanger, so I am guessing there will be a sequel.

Joan Allen does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I liked her interpretation of Ellen Adams.

Finished Shadowed Souls edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes. Light reading but mostly enjoyable. Next up is Into the Narrowdark by Tad Williams.

Just finished When France Fell, a case study in how not to run your diplomacy.

Finished The Man Burned by Winter by Pete Zacharias. The execution was flawed, but the concept was interesting. It needed a tad tighter editing, but I liked what the book could have been. Next up is Kismet by Amina Akhtar.

Baptism of Fire
Andrzej Sapkowski
3/5 stars
Geralt is still on the search for Ciri and fears that she has been captured by the Nilfgaard Court. A new female character, Milva an archer joins in the search for Ciri.

The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
Sy Montgomery
5/5 stars
This is the delightfully true story about Sy Montgomery, naturalist, writer and radio commentator, who along with her husband raised a pig who was sickly. With the help of their neighbors providing food and support, he recovered quickly, grew to 750 pounds and was a friend to the neighbors, a local celebrity and a beloved pet.

The new thread is up over here.