Bonnie (brenzi) reads to 75 and beyond - 3

Welcome all! I'm happy to "see" you.

Hi, I’m Bonnie, LT member since 2009 and retired since 2011 and really enjoying retirement living. I love reading and listening to audiobooks, drawing, and journaling. I’m a pretty active retiree in that I walk nearly every day and play pickle ball three times a week which has opened up an entirely new group of social friends. So dinner with friends and movies are often on the schedule too. Oh and I babysit three days a week for my two grandchildren Mia, 6 and Cole 3 1/2, the loves of my life. I’m pretty darn busy, much busier than when I worked somehow, but seem to always have time for reading. Oh and puzzling. Almost from day one of our shutdown I started doing puzzles and I'm enjoying them so much. As a matter of fact I've done 43 of them since March 11.

Mia reading to Cole



Mia and I did a thing last week

Books Read in 2020

January

1. The Spy and the Traitor - Ben MacIntyre - audio - 4 stars
2. The Game of Kings - Dorothy Dunnett - Kindle - 4.6 stars
3. A Start in Life - Anita Brookner - OTS - 4 stars
4. Tin Man - Sarah Winman - audio - 5 stars
5. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel - audio/OTS - 5 stars
6. Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You - Alice Munro - Kindle - 4 stars
7. The Man Who Saw Everything - Deborah Levy - Kindle - 4.2 stars
8. Curious Toys - Elizabeth Hand - Kindle - 4.1 stars
9. The Cold Dish - Craig Johnson - audio - 4 stars
10. Last Orders - Graham Swift - Kindle - 3.8 stars
11. Sabrina & Corina - Kali Fajardo-Anstine - Kindle - 4.3 stars

February

12. The Patient Assassin - Anita Anand - audio - 3.8 stars
13. American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins - trade - 4.2 stars
14. A Very Stable Genius - Phillip Rucker/Carol Leonnig- audio - 4 stars
15. Queen's Play - Dorothy Dunnett - Kindle - 4 stars
16. The Yellow House - Sarah Broom - Kindle - 4.3 stars
17. Providence - Anita Brookner - OTS - 3.8 stars
18. American War - Omar El Akaad- audio - 4 stars
19. News of the World - Paulette Jiles - L - 4.7 stars
20. Running Against the Devil - Rick Wilson - audio - 4 stars
21. Im a Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson - Kindle - 3.7 stars

March

22. Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel - audio/OTS - 5 stars
23. Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell - Kindle - 3.8 stars
24. Disco for the Departed - Colin Cotterill - audio - 3.5 stars
25. The Last Man in Europe - Dennis Glover - L - 4.2 stars
26. The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel - 5 stars
27. Look at Me - Anita Brookner - OTS - 4 stars
28. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah - audio - 4 stars
29. Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano - audio - 3.8 stars

April

30. Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain- audio - 3 stars
31. Mrs. Tim Gets a Job - D.E. Stevenson - Kindle - 4 stars
32. The Splendid and the Vile - Erik Larson - audio - 4 stars
33. In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez - L - 4.7 stars
34. Long Bright River - Liz Moore - audio - 4 stars
35. Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid - audio - 4.3 stars
36. Family and Friends - Anita Brookner - OTS - 4.5 stars
37. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood - audio - 3.8 stars
38. The Sacrament - Olaf Olafsson - Kindle - 4.3 stars
39. Nothing to See Here - Kevin Wilson - audio - 2 stars

May

40. Secondhand Time - Svetlana Alexievich - audio - 4.5 stars
41. Weather - Jenny Offill - audio - 4 stars
42. The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng - Kindle - 4.2 stars
43. Simon the Fiddler - Paulette Jiles - audio - 4 stars
44. A Spy Among Friends - Ben MacIntyre - audio - 4.5 stars
45. Death Without Company - Craig Johnson - audio - 4.2 stars
46. This is Happiness - Niall Williams - Kindle - 4.7 stars
47. The Misalliance - Anita Brookner - OTS - 4 stars
48. 11/22/63 - Stephen King - audio - 4.5 stars
49. The Book woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michelle Richardson - audio - 3.8 stars
50. The Outlander - Gil Adamson - OTS - 5 stars

June

51. Once Upon a River - Diane Setterfield - audio - 3.5 stars
52. Hiding in Plain Sight - Sarah Kendzior - audio - 4.5 stars
53. The Way of All Flesh - Ambrose Parry - Kindle - 4.2 stars
54. Anarchy and Old Dogs - Colin Cotterill - audio - 3.5 stars
55. All Things Consoled - Elizabeth Hay - audio - 5 stars
56. Kindness Goes Unpunished - Craig Johnson - audio - 4 stars

July

57. Little Big Man - Thomas Berger - Kindle - 4.5 stars
58. The End of October - Lawrence Wright - audio - 3 stars
59. A Friend from England Anita Brookner - OTS - 3.5 stars
60. Dominicana - Angie Cruz - audio - 4.2 stars
61. Plainsong - Kent Haruf - OTS - 5 stars
62. Surviving Autocracy - Masha Gessen - audio - 4.5 stars
63. Eventide - Kent Haruf - OTS - 4.5 stars
64. Another Man's Moccasins - audio - 3 stars
65. Benediction - Kent Haruf - OTS - 4 stars
66. Too Much and Never Enough - Mary Trump - audio - 4 stars

August

67. Writers & Lovers - Lily King - Kindle - 4.5 stars
68. Lady in the Lake - Laura Lippman - audio - 4.5 stars
69. Latecomers - Anita Brookner - OTS - 4.5 stars
70. On Tyranny - Timothy Snyder - audio - 4.5 stars
71. After I'm Gone - Laura Lippman - audio - 4 stars
72. Caste - Isobel Wilkerson - Kindle - 4 stars
73. Twilight of Democracy - Anne Applebaum - audio - 4 stars

September

74. Longbourne - Jo Baker - audio - 4 stars
75. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid - 4 stars
76. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell - Kindle - 4.6 stars
77. The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths - 4 stars
78. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo - 4.6 stars

October

79. All the Devils Are Here - Louise Penny - Kindle - 4 stars
80. This Tender Land - William Kent Krueger - 4.5 stars
81. Lewis Percy - Anita Brookner - OTS - 4.5 stars
82. A Burning - Megha Majumdar - Kindle - 4.2 stars

November

83. Mrs. Bridge - Evan Connell - OTS - 4.2 stars
84. Here We Are - Graham Swift - audio - 4.5 stars
85. Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata - audio - 3 stars
86. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - OTS - 5 stars
87. Valentine - Elizabeth Wetmore - audio - 4.7 stars
88. Brief Lives - Anita Brookner - OTS - 4.8 stars
89. Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart - Kindle - 5 stars
90. Hid From Our Eyes - Julia Spencer-Fleming - audio - 4 stars

December

91. How to Pronounce Knife - Souvankham Thammavongsa - Kindle - 4.2 stars
92. Jack - Marilynne Robinson - Kindle - 4 stars
93. The Volunteer: One Man, An Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz- Jack Fairweather - audio - 3.8 stars
94. One by One - Ruth Ware - audio - 4.2 stars
95. A Closed Eye - Anita Brookner - OTS - 3.8 stars
96. The Jane Austen Society - Natalie Jenner - audio - 4 stars
97. Memorial Drive - Natasha Trethewey - audio - 4.5 stars
98. The King at the Edge of the World - Arthur Phillips - Kindle - 4.5 stars
99. Old Baggage - Lissa Evans - audio - 4.2 stars
100.Snow Hunters - Paul Yoon - Kindle - 4 stars
101. A Promised Land - Barack Obama - audio - 5 stars

Stats

Total Books: 101

Author Gender
Male: 39
Female: 63
Joint: 1

Author Status
Living: 82
Dead: 21

Publication Medium
Hardback: 4
Trade: 20
eBook: 29
Audiobook: 51

Category
Fiction: 79
Nonfiction: 22

Source
Library: 77
Mine: 26

Translation: 2

Currently Reading:



Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

And on audio:



Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

#32.

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson (narrated by John Lee

This was a terrific behind the scenes look at Churchill, his family and his advisors during the early years of WWII. Larson is such a terrific writer and I found the details about Winston and his family to be fascinating.

One thing that was detailed in the books was a scene in a nightclub in London when it was hit by the German bombers and it appeared to be the exact scene I read about last year in Dear Mrs. Bird. I love when things like that happen.

At any rate this was an excellent book and highly recommended.

My latest puzzle: I have to say I really loved this one from Buffalo Games which is located just a few minutes from my home.

Happy new thread!! How fun that you are so involved in your grandkids lives. Happy Easter, I mean if you are into chocolate and jelly beans. My kids are almost all in their 20s, but I still hid the eggs this morning. : )

Happy new thread, Bonnie!

Hi Bonnie! Happy Easter!! and happy new thread :)

Hi Bonnie and Happy New Thread! I love the thing you and Mia did last week. :-)

I don't know if you saw my late comment on your prior thread. I purchased a copy of In the Time of the Butterflies a few weeks ago in response to Beth's praise for it. I'll look forward to your comments and hope to shoehorn it into my own reading soon.

Happy Easter!!

Happy new thread and Happy Easter!

Happy new thread!

HAppy new one!

I finished listening to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez and enjoyed it. I thought it was going to be a novel but it read more like a series of linked short stories. They all fit together so it worked. What really made it work for me was the fact that the stories from the different girls (4 of them) were read by four different readers. That made it interesting to listen to. It is a good look at the ways in which immigrating changes things for the children of immigrants as much as it does for the parents. I can see why this book was and is so popular. Now I have to make room for In the Time of the Butterflies.

Happy new thread, Bonnie! Happy Easter too!
Nice puzzle! How many pieces?

>8 Berly: Hi there Kim, I'm pretty sure hiding eggs is a life long activity haha.

>9 katiekrug: Thanks Katie🙂

>10 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you Reba😊

>11 EBT1002: Hi Ellen. I need to go back and check the other thread. I think you'll like In the Time of the Butterflies. I've got less than 100 pages left so hopefully I'll be finished soon.

>12 quondame: Thanks so much Susan 😊

>13 drneutron: Thanks Jim🙂

>14 figsfromthistle: Thank you Anita😀

>15 benitastrnad: you've convinced me to give the audio of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents a whirl Benita even though I have the book on my Kindle. It's sounds like a very different book from In the Time of the Butterflies.

>16 Carmenere: Thanks Lynda. That puzzle has 1,000 pieces.

>17 brenzi:
I was surprised that the book was not translated from the Spanish. Garcia Girls was written in English. It had lots of fun moments in it and was a family stories kind of book. There were also those chapters that were full of the cross cultural things that make life puzzling for immigrants, but I liked the recorded version and think the book worked well in that format. It's not long either.

Happy new thread, Bonnie xx

Happy New Thread, Bonnie. I hope you had a nice Easter, with the family. It looks like we both loved the new Larson. Such a good read. Looking forward to your thoughts on Long Bright River. I really enjoyed that one.

I am reading another translated book now. This one is a Japanese novella and it is really fun. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. I am finding it really funny - in a weird way, but the heroine makes me laugh with her observations about modern life. This one came recommended by Suzanne and Marianne and they were spot on with this one.

I have been reading lots of novellas this spring. That was not planned, but I am having fun with it and am finding more of them in my collection than I thought I had.

>21 benitastrnad: I read that one a few years ago, Benita, and still had to chuckle at the mention of its name. Thanks for reminding me of it.

And thank you, Bonnie, for giving me the little push I needed to get to The Overstory which I though was excellent!

I need to get to Overstory as well, but I keep getting sidetracked by these littler books. They have been fun and by a very diverse set of authors.

Happy new thread, Bonnie!

Happy new thread Bonnie! Happy reading too!

Happy new thread, Bonnie. I love the puzzle. I'm glad you are enjoying In the Time of the Butterflies.

Happy new thread, Bonnie!

>3 brenzi: I love the "thing" you and Mia did.

>18 benitastrnad: I'm not too surprised it wasn't written in Spanish Benita. Alvarez moved to this country in 1960 when she was a young child so I'm sure she speaks and writes English quite well.

>19 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul.

>20 msf59: Thanks Mark. I'm enjoying Long Bright River

>21 benitastrnad: I've wanted to read A Convenience Store Woman since it came out Benita so I'll look forward to your thoughts.

>22 RebaRelishesReading: oh I'm glad you liked The Overstory Reba. Such a powerful book.

>23 benitastrnad: I've been reading fairly short book too Benita. They're suitable for me right now.

>24 FAMeulstee: Thank you Anita.

>25 mdoris: Thanks so much MARY.

>26 BLBera: I loved it Beth.

>27 karenmarie: Thanks Karen. We had a lot of fun doing that. And now it's snowing out. Gah......

#33.

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

In 1960, the three Mirabal, sisters, Minerva, Patria and Maria Theresa (Mate) were murdered by members of the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic. Their sister Dede survived mostly because she was not a political activist in the same vein as her sisters. This book by Julia Alvarez tells their story and it's so very well done, really just excellent historical fiction.

Last year I read Mario Vargas Llosa's The Feast of the Goat, another excellent historical fiction, which revealed a lot more about the horrors of Trujillo, who was a truly evil man. Alvarez kind of took it for granted that the reader already knew a lot about this despicable man and his regime and concentrated on the well known Mirabal sisters who are martyrs in their country now. And Dede, as the survivor comes across as such a sympathetic character that she's the natural to end the story with her grieving because she has to go on, alone. So on that level it was a much more personal book and to me, more enjoyable. Highly recommended.

4.7 stars

Currently reading:



Family and Friends by Anita Brookner

>29 brenzi: Great comments, Bonnie. I'm so glad you loved it! I can't wait to read Alvarez's new one, coming soon.

>29 brenzi: Ooh, good review of The Time of Butterflies, Bonnie. Just missed the 5 star mark? Good enough for me and I just snagged it on ebook, a week or two ago.

Passing through and waving, Bonnie. I hope your week is going well.

I finished one book last night and started on When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago. This book is often required reading in some of the courses in the College of Education and I have had it on my TBR list for a long time. I literally grabbed this one off the shelves of the library on my way out of the door last month. Since last night I have read 80 pages in it.

This one is a memoir and is about a girl who was born and raised in a shantytown outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico, moved to the U.S. as a teenager, and graduated from Harvard.

Happy new thread!

I finished another book yesterday. This one has been on my TBR list in LT since 2011. When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago turned out to be surprisingly good. It is the first of three memoirs by this author, so of course, I read one book, and added two to my TBR list! As soon as the library reopens I will be getting the second book, Almost A Woman, as we have it in our collection.

This book was published back in the 1990's and has been required reading for some of the courses in the College of Education in past years. Every time I went to get it off the shelves it was checked out. I literally grabbed this one on my way out the door of the library back in March. I didn't expect to like it, but I did. It is about the childhood of the author in a shantytown in Puerto Rico and ends with her acceptance to a prestigious High School in New York City.

This title also fits into the April Non-Fiction Challenge here on LT and it also fits into my unarticulated challenge of reading some of the Latino and Latinx authors that have been languishing on my shelves for a long time. I moved these titles up, largely in response to the brouhaha surrounding American Dirt. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a good book about the Caribbean immigration experience so if you can find it I would recommend adding it to your reading list.

Bonnie, I loved the vibrant scene in your latest puzzle. I wish I had the patience to work puzzles. So what is Buffalo Games?

Hi Bonnie, I have the new Larsen on hold at the library. Some day, when the library reopens, I’ll pick it up. I think I also have an Overdrive hold, but it’s longer. I’ve never read Julie Alvarez but I think I need to give her a try.

>7 brenzi: I have that puzzle - all those little horses! I love the Buffalo Games puzzles, especially the Charles Wysocki art. I own quite a few. :) Here’s my current one:

>31 BLBera: Hi Beth, I'm so happy I finally got to In the Time of The Butterflies. I really enjoyed it so thanks for the encouragement. I will read How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents before I get to her new one.

>32 msf59: I hope you like it too Mark. Something tells me you will.🥴

>33 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba, I hope YOUR week is going well too.

>34 benitastrnad: When I was Puerto Rican sounds like a good one Benita.

>35 richardderus: Thanks Richard.

>36 benitastrnad: .......and When I was Puerto Rican is now on my list. Thanks Benita.

>37 Donna828: Hi Donna, BuffaloGames is a manufacturer of puzzles that started here in Buffalo in 1986. I believe they've been bought out by a bigger conglomerate but they're still manufactured here so I'm just rooting for the home team. We do that here. A lot lol. Anyway, I've only been solving puzzles a few weeks. I started when the governor closed down our state which I believe was March 11. My daughter gave me three puzzles, two of which were Buffalo Games. Now I've purchased a few more. I'm really enjoying my new hobby and I do mean new. Other than children's puzzles, I'd never done one before. And yes, I jumped on the bandwagon.

>38 Copperskye: Oh...oh...ohh I have that one coming from Amazon Joanne. Along with three others. Three out of four are Buffalo Games (all Charles Wysocki) and one is Ravensburger.. I'm working on a Dowdle right now and it's been a lot harder for me because of the funny way they cut the pieces. I didn't like it at first but it's grown on me now that I'm closing in on the end and I'm thinking I'll probably get more from them at some point. Here it is:

I finished another Anita Brookner book this morning and I have to say this one is my favorite so far. Now I can see her growth as an author as this is the fifth one I've read mostly in order of publication.


#36.

Family and Friends by Anita Brookner

"Reading, to Alfred, means his cool back bedroom at home, with a curtain blowing in front of the open window, and a white counterpane on his soft bed and his dead father's desk in the corner, waiting to be made his own. Reading, for Alfred means a dream of home that he is condemned to lose, to forfeit, in some unsought trial of manhood. Reading means his sister's voice drifting up the stairs and the polite clapping of the visitors and the faint chink of coffee-cups. Reading means Mimi knocking at his door and handing in a glistening slice of cherry tart. Only Mimi bothers to knock. For this, Alfred loves her best. His mother must never know this." (page 30)

Sofia Dorn runs her London household with a firm and formidable hand in the years between (and after) the wars. Her oldest son, Frederick, is a happy go lucky, uninspired but congenial young man who is running the family business with the help of his right hand man. Frederick has no intention of making this his life's work. He doesn't have the gumption for that kind of responsibility whether his mother realizes that or not. That job will fall by default to young Alfred who has dreams of being an intellectual/artist/anything else. Young daughter Betty, has no use for anything but amusement of all types and will never fulfill her mother's hopes and dreams. And older daughter Mimi will eventually be saddled with responding with respectability and common sense to make up for her sister's lack of both. This is their story.

Written as a brilliant character study of these four people Brookner is at the top of her game with this book. I was angry and sympathetic; amused and intrigued; flabbergasted and understanding. She was able to bring these people to life in an incredible manner while at the same time making their lives seem very very ordinary. Very highly recommended.

4.5 stars

I'm enjoying following your path through Brookner's oeuvre, Bonnie! I have a few of hers on the shelf and really need to get to them, obviously.

I love that Calgary-themed puzzle in >39 brenzi:. I found anew source of puzzles and seemed to have just placed an order for four. Ah well - I have a birthday coming up! :)

#35.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (narrated by a full cast including Jessica Beals and Benjamin Bratt)

This was just so much fun but if you choose to read it you must go with the audio. I don't actually think a print read would be very good. That said, I just loved the audio.

There is no Daisy Jones and the Six. This is not a memoir. It's fiction but I didn't realize that until I downloaded it. It's the story of a rock band coming to life in the 70s so lots of drugs, sex and....well, rock and roll. All the ups and downs of the different personalities that go into such a concoction: The vying for attention, the climbing to the top, the clash of personalities, the mind numbing road trips and the partying. The bad decisions and the brilliant choices. But somehow, it wasn't a drag it was fun. I loved it..did I already say that? Well I did. You probably will too because although I am a wild child of the sixties I shouldn't have enjoyed this book this much. I listened to it all in one day, mostly as I did a puzzle. It went a lot faster than the puzzle. Perfect for the life we're now living.

4.3 stars

Thanks Mark, for the recommendation of a book I never would've read otherwise.

>41 katiekrug: And I just had a birthday that involved cash gifts so...... I've ordered from Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Dowdle so fess up Katie. What's your new source? Not that I need to order anything right this minutes but for future reference.

I am really enjoying Brookner. I don't think she's for everybody but I love this kind of book.

Sorry - wasn't trying to be coy, I swear! I ordered from seriouspuzzles.com. They have a lot of dreck, but a few that appealed to me. I had previously ordered some directly from Ravensburger, but their website now has a notice up that they are unable to fulfill orders at this time.

Also, you got me with Daisy Jones and the Six. It hadn't appealed to me before, but you make a strong case for it (on audio, of course)!

CURRENTLY READING



The Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson

AND ON AUDIO:



The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

>41 katiekrug: and >45 katiekrug: Oh I didn't mean to suggest you were being coy Katie. I just really wanted to know the source for my own personal nosiness lol.

I hope you enjoy Daisy Jones and the Six as much as I did. Just so darn good.

I'm really enjoying your Brookner journey, Bonnie. Family and Friends sounds like a good one. And Daisy Jones might be a future pick for one of my book groups so I was interested to read your take.

>42 brenzi: i was waffling about Daisy but your review made me at it to the list. Audio almost always works for me so I'll go with that recommendation too. Thanks Bonnie!

Happy New Thread, Bonnie!

So much good reading you're doing!

I thought I'd read In the Time of the Butterflies, but from your review I think I had it mixed up with some other one. I've got it, so I'll fix that. It sure sounds good.

>42 brenzi:
When I was home for Christmas (2019) I stopped in at my local county library and talked to the librarian there. I asked her what she as listening to and she told me that she had just finished listening to Daisy Jones and the Six and she loved it! She said it was perfect for audio and that when I got a chance I should listen to it. I have had it on my TBR list since then. It sounds to me like this is an audio book that really clicks with readers from everywhere.

I just finished reading Icarus by Deon Meyer. He is a detective thriller author from South Africa whose Benny Griessel series Paul and I have been reading and following for a few? years. (not sure when we started reading them.) I have enjoyed all of his books. This latest one was not his heart thumping usual book, but it was a very good methodical entry in the series that allowed some of the secondary characters in the series to shine. This one was written in a different kind of style than what the author usually does, and it did keep me guessing about the ending and the outcome.

What intrigues me about this series is that they are written in Afrikaans and translated, so as a reader, you get a different kind of insight into South Africa.

If you are looking for a different kind of murder mystery series, (which you probably aren't because your shelves are full of books from other authors that you want to get to) I would put this author on your radar. These are good ones - but there are so many good ones out there waiting for me to read them. (sigh) 😔

>40 brenzi: BB -- Family and Friends has now been ordered :)

Hi, Bonnie. You are definitely getting my attention with Brookner. Family and Friends sounds really good. I am so glad you enjoyed Daisy Jones, maybe more than I did. LOL. It did remind me a lot of Fleetwood Mac. Looking forward to your thoughts on The Testaments. I loved the Aunt Lydia sections.

>48 lauralkeet: I'm so glad I decided to take up this personal Brookner challenge Laura. I'm enjoying it immensely. Several years ago I listened to a book podcast with Thomas Hogglestock and Simon something or other and Thomas would just go on and on about Anita Brookner and how she never wrote a bad book. I took it all in but didn't make a move to acquire her books. Until recently. No idea what made me finally pick them up but I'm so glad I did.

>49 vivians: Hi Vivian, I hope you enjoy Daisy Jones and the Six. It was a delight.

>50 jnwelch: Hi Joe. I haven't been reading as much but what I'm reading has been very good so I'm pretty happy with that. In the a Time of the Butterflies is just an excellent book so I hope you get to it at some point. It's a great representation of the Trujillo era, without the gore.

>51 benitastrnad: >52 benitastrnad: Hi Benita, well now I'm intrigued with the Deon Meyer series so thanks for that. I was actually very surprised at how much I enjoyed Daisy a Jones and the Six.

>53 RebaRelishesReading: Yikes....I hope you like it Reba. I'm feeling the pressure now.

>54 msf59: Yes Mark, Aunt Lydia is hitting it out of the ballpark. I think Daisy Jones was just the right book at the right time. Plus I'm an old (really old) rock and roller and flower child lol.

Well here's a picture of my two munchkins that I never thought I'd see. Here in NY we have to wear a mask if we go out in public. They never get out anywhere but they're prepared. Mia is even prepared for the sudden opportunity to go swimming.

>55 brenzi: that's funny, Bonnie, I was a fan of that podcast too. At the time I had only read Hotel du Lac (because Booker Prize), but Thomas' love for Brookner stuck with me. The Readers podcast is no more but it looks like Thomas and Simon are still blogging and doing bookish things separately.

The only Brookner book I have is Hotel Du Lac but I pulled it out last weekend and put it with my small pile of novellas. It has less than 200 pages so it qualified as a novella for my purposes. I have been trying to read one novella per weekend since this whole thing started. That means that I will get to this one fairly soon.

>56 brenzi: Gotta love her optimism!

>55 brenzi: " No idea what made me finally pick them up but I'm so glad I did." -- well I know what made me do it and it was you :) And I'm most grateful. I've read two so far and really like them both. So...thank you :)

>56 brenzi: That photo really brought a smile to my face. I love him in his sweats and her in her bikini -- not quite sure what the weather is gong to be like if they ever get outside? Hooray for masks -- we're required to wear them to enter stores (those that are open) and encouraged to wear them everywhere outside the house although some leave them off if they're walking alone on quiet streets,.

The city did re-open some neighborhood parks yesterday -- not for groups of course but for walking in. Still there were something like 15 new deaths yesterday so I don't think we're nearly the end yet.

>57 lauralkeet: Oh you were probably the one who clued me in about that podcast Laura. I semi follow Thomas' blog occasionally. Wow, that sounds like almost no commitment which is exactly what it was. Lol.

>58 benitastrnad: all of her books are under 200 pages Benita so they make for a quick read. Hotel du Lac was my first Brookner. I read it in December and immediately knew I wanted to read all of her books.

>59 richardderus: I hope her enthusiasm doesn't get squelched by this quarantine Richard. She misses school and her friends terribly.

>60 RebaRelishesReading: I'm so glad you're enjoying Brookner too, Reba. My daughter made us all masks but I don't really go anywhere to wear it. I'm sure I will at some point because I think we'll be wearing them for a long time. I'm trying to imagine how they will open the schools and the mind boggles. We're getting to be a bit of a hot spot here. Of course not on the scale of NYC but still..

>42 brenzi: Thanks for the audio recommendation, Bonnie.

>56 brenzi: What a pair of cuties! I like Mia's optimism.

I loved How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents as well, Bonnie. I think that novel is Alvarez's first one and autobiographical.

Hi Beth, I probably won't wait too long before I read How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. You seldom steer me wrong. I have to decide if I want to go with the audio or just read the copy on my Kindle. First world problems, I know.

Bonnie, thanks for explaining about Buffalo Games. I could only imagine a theme park in your area with fox hunting as the "game". I am so not into the puzzle world.

>56 brenzi: Love the grandkids with their masks. It's about 50-50 here on the mask wearing. It's not a requirement…yet, but I look for it to be one as more businesses reopen.

I'm curious to see how you are liking The Testaments and The Sacrament. I thought they were both thought-provoking but had some issues with the plot development.

I think In the Time of the Butterflies and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents are her two best novels, Bonnie, but I have loved all her work. I might have to buy (in hardcover!) her new one if the library doesn't reopen soon, and I kind of think it will be June before it does.

>29 brenzi: Now I want to read both In the Time of the Butterflies and Feast of the Goat.

>56 brenzi: Adorable!

Going off to google Buffalo Games puzzles, especially Charles Wysocki. Jigsaw puzzles are new to me but I am totally hooked on them. They're almost as fun as books!

I ordered a 750-piece Buffalo Games puzzle, Wysocki's Cats. Because, you know, cats. :-)

Bonnie, I just shared this on your FB timeline but thought I'd post here as well. I haven't read any of Julia Alvarez's books but I saw this event and immediately thought of you.

An Afternoon with Julia Alvarez on Afterlife
TODAY, April 26, 4pm EST
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/an-afternoon-with-julia

>66 EBT1002: They are both great, Ellen.

>64 Donna828: Hi there Donna, we're all masked here. You seldom see anyone without one. You can't go into a grocery store without one. And you can't go into any other store because they're closed. I try to get grocery pick up so I don't have to get out of my car or delivery but I resent paying both a service charge and a delivery fee so I've only had delivery once. Scheduling is a nightmare so last week I put my gloves and mask on and went to Wegmans at a time when I thought it wouldn't be busy. Bwahahaha what a disaster. Oh well.

I really quite enjoyed The Sacrament and will be looking for more by Olaf Olafsson. The plot might have been a little thin but the writing really drew me in. The Testaments was saved for me by the phenomenal audio production with Ann Dowd but I'd describe the book as nothing to write home about.

>65 BLBera: Hi Beth, you've convinced me to read How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Soonish.

>66 EBT1002: >67 EBT1002: You may have to read The Feast of the Goat while averting your eyes Ellen. Trujillo was truly an evil man.

While I do love the Wysocki puzzles I'm really struggling with the vast amount of sky in the one I'm presently doing. Grrrrr. Good to give the cats a try. I think was famous for them.

>68 lauralkeet: Thanks Laura. Naturally I forgot all about it but I'm able to use the link and watch it anyway. I've watched part of it and it's making me want to read her newest book.

So I've finished a few books:

#37.

The Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson

Sister Johanna is retired and tending to her rose garden and her cat George Harrison in the south of France when she is summoned by the cardinal to go to Iceland to investigate an incident that occurred twenty years earlier. At that time, she had been summoned to investigate another incident.

I loved the writing in this novel. I was a bit put off by the different threads taking place at different times but I finally got used to that and found it less annoying. This is a writer I would like to read again because I loved his style.

4 stars

#38.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (narrated by Ann Dowd, Derek Jacobi and a full cast)

Well everyone knows what this book is about: part two of The Handmaid's Tale. I loved the first book and I loved the narration of this book. Ann Dowd was phenomenal but this tale was just not as good.

It was interesting that Atwood decided to turn the hated Aunt Lydia into a sympathetic figure as she writes her memoirs and actually brings down Gilead. Aunt Lydia is the star here and although I'm not much of a fan of the tv series ( gave up after a few episodes of season two) I really enjoyed her parts in the story. The young women left me scratching my head because they seemed to be poorly developed.

3.5 stars

#39.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (narrated by Marin Ireland)

Ok this might be the dumbest book I've ever read. Fortunately it was very short. The less said about it the better. Not recommended. It just wasn't for me. Others might like it.

2 stars

CURRENTLY READING



The Gift of Rain by Twan Eng

AUDIO



Second Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

>70 brenzi: I'm glad you were able to watch the recorded author event, Bonnie.

>72 brenzi: This made me chuckle. Thanks for taking one for the team.

>56 brenzi: This is absolutely adorable! Go munchkins!

Hi, Bonnie! I hope you are well. We have very similar feelings about The Testaments but I really enjoyed Nothing to see Here. I thought there was more to chew on here, under the surface. I hope you love Second Hand time, as much as I did.

My print reading has fallen off the past few days, due to other distractions. This is rare for me. I hope to get back on track.

Saw this yesterday and thought it summed up our standing in the world perfectly. They pity us now.

Irish Times
April 25, 2020
By Fintan O’Toole

THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT

Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.

However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.

Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”

It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.

The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.

If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.

Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?

It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.

Abject surrender

What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.

Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.

In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.

Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that the virus can be spread by people without symptoms until the last 24 hours.”

This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.

It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.

Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.

The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.

Fertile ground

But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.

There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.

And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.

That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.

And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.

As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.

Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.

>76 brenzi: Powerful, true and so, so sad!

>74 lauralkeet: The premise was just so bonkers Laura.

>75 msf59: My print reading has fallen off Mark but my audio reading is way up because I'm listening when I put together puzzles. Not a bad trade off. And I know you liked Nothing to See Here. I expect better from you. Hahaha. Just kidding. I'm sure I'm in the minority.

>77 RebaRelishesReading: It is true, isn't it Reba. If this were a normal presidency we'd be leading the rest of the world out of this mess. Instead we're here wallowing in it.

>76 brenzi: The American Century, 1945-2008. Killed by the goddamned GOP.

>76 brenzi: Amen Richard. I just told my daughter I don't know what I'll do if he gets re-elected. Honestly, I can't begin to think about how bad it would be.

>56 brenzi: Love the photo!!

>72 brenzi: My bookclub actually had a fun time discussing this one. What does it take to be a good parent; privilege; politicians and how much can they really be themselves (how much do they have to hide); friendship, etc. Sorry it wasn't your cuppa.

>76 brenzi: Sad, but so true.

Hi Bonnie!

>73 brenzi: The Gift of Rain is on my shelves. I’ll be interested in seeing what you think of it.

>76 brenzi: Ah, I was wondering when we’d see something like this. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence. Well put.

I have retreated into the world of spy thrillers. I am on my third one in a little over a week-and-a-half. So much better than watching any TV or listening to the stuff on the radio. Thanks for the editorial. It was a good read, but so sad. We have truly squandered our inheritance.

Hi Bonnie! Hope you'll forgive me for my comments on Nothing to See Here :>

>81 Berly: Thanks Kim. I thought I might be the only one to not appreciate Nothing to See Here. Wrong book, wrong time maybe.

>82 karenmarie: I thought the editorial was incredibly well-written, timely, and important. Terribly depressing too.

>83 benitastrnad: Squandered our inheritance...indeed, Benita. I'm glad you've found a respite with spy novels.

>84 RebaRelishesReading: it's fine Reba. We can't agree on every book and I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority.

>76 brenzi: Wow, Bonnie. That is amazing. And so sad.

Hi, Bonnie. Love the photo of the little ones in their masks. As Richard says, Mia's optimism about swimming is precious.

The Gift of Rain - so good! I hope you enjoy it. I read his The Garden of Evening Mists first; what an accomplishment to write these two books. It's been a while - I'm hoping that he has a new one come out soon.

>86 BLBera: Hi Beth, sad but not unexpected is it? It's been a few years since our allies counted on us for....anything. They've figured it out.

>87 jnwelch: Hi Joe, I read The Garden of Evening Mists several years ago and loved it and I purchased The Gift of Rain some time after that for my Kindle. I'm enjoying it for sure.

I finished another puzzle.. I thought I'd go insane with the sky in this one but somehow it all came together for me last night.

>90 brenzi: and so we ordered in this evening.

>90 brenzi: I had a breaded chicken breast, brussels sprouts, and a baked tater. Not too shabby.

Spend a fabulous Friday, Bonnie!

>90 brenzi: Ha! That's great, Bonnie. I enjoy cooking but I do tire of having to plan meals and deal with shopping under the current circumstances. So far we've managed to limit our takeout dinners to once a week, so they feel like a treat and not just a "cooking cop out" ha ha.

>89 brenzi: - Nice puzzle!

>90 brenzi: - We are having fun cooking, but only because we can do it together so it doesn't feel like a chore. And thank goodness for delivery and takeout when needed!

>90 brenzi: Yes!

Sweet Thursday, Bonnie. I also really liked The Garden of Evening Mists. I also have a copy of The Gift of Rain on my Kindle. Maybe, you will supply the nudge, I need.

>76 brenzi:

But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.

As a non-American, I don't quite agree with the tarring of you all with the same brush. One of the good things about your democracy is that whoever it is can only have two terms and I honestly don't think the incumbent will get a second. It is what you do next.

I have long sung the praises of The Gift of Rain, Bonnie, so I hope you enjoy it.

>76 brenzi: What a depressing editorial, but oh so true. Like you, I’m so afraid he will claim victory in November (voter suppression, etc), and I don’t know what I will do then. For sure, I don’t think the country can survive another 4 years of Trump.

>90 brenzi: LOL. I’m cooking a bit more now but not that much. Cook, leftovers, leftovers if enough left or ‘wing it’ – each responsible for her/his own food. Lather, rinse, repeat. I’m going to go grocery shopping on Monday or Tuesday, early in the morning, for produce and the potentially-elusive meat.

We’ve had takeout 3 times since lockdown and may bring some home today.

Well Bonnie, I won't be seeing you this summer :(. The Chautauqua Board of Directors met yesterday and decided no season this summer. They are going to try to do a lot on line, which will be nice but not, of course, the same. We weren't sure we were gong to try a cross-country round-trip this summer anyway but now it's definite. Here's to 2021!

>91 ffortsa: That got old real fast for me Judy.

>92 richardderus: You are more ambitious than I am Richard. I hope you're having a great weekend.

>93 lauralkeet: Treat...yeah I guess but honestly I got tired of that right away Laura. Take out is not the same as going to a restaurant with friends. It is a lot easier though.

>94 katiekrug: I'm glad you've found a way to enjoy getting through this disaster life we're living Katie. Have fun in the kitchen.

>95 BLBera: Hi Beth!

>96 msf59: I'm enjoying The Gift of Rain but it's been a slow go for some reason Mark. The plot is starting to heat up at this point though.

>97 PaulCranswick: You have no idea how much I hope that he doesn't get a second term Paul because if he does we're doomed. I've heard you sing the praises of The Gift of Rain.

>98 arubabookwoman: It's scary to just think about the possibility Deborah. I mean REALLY scary.

>99 karenmarie: Meat is almost non-existent here Karen. And by meat I mean chicken.

>100 RebaRelishesReading: I just saw that on the local news tonight Reba. I was really looking forward to it but you're right, let's raise a glass to 2021.

#40.

Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich (narrated by a full cast)

This was the second oral history by Alexievich that I've listened to and just like Last Witnesses it was absolutely brilliant. It was also a good book to read at this time because it made me appreciate the fact that as bad as a quarantined life may be it can't compare to what the people in Russia suffered through. Last Witnesses dealt with survivors of WWII but this book picked up after the war and through Perestroika, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, the Chechen War, Afghanistan and the demise of the Soviet Union. Compelling and just incredibly well-done.

4.5 stars

I moved right on to this audiobook:



Weather by Jenny Offill

This is a really short book and I'm already about halfway through it and have been laughing out loud almost continually so far.

>102 brenzi:, >103 brenzi: Your reads are routinely good, at least, even if they're ear-reads. *disapproving frown*

That is not Real Reading, you know.

*skedaddles*

>103 brenzi: laughing out loud is good! I'll look for it.

>102 brenzi: That one looks really interesting. BB for me.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday

>89 brenzi: Dang those blue skies! In puzzles at least. ; ) I sent a book title puzzle to my Mom for Mother's day.

>103 brenzi: I could use a laugh--off to check out Weather!

It's unfortunate that I ignore my own thread so much. Oh well...I finished and enjoyed Weather by Jenny Offill. Sort of stream of consciousness or maybe written as little vignettes about Jenny, a librarian and part time wannabe therapist who spends a great deal of time trying to help her drug addicted and ne'er do well brother Henry to the detriment of her husband Ben and young son Eli. It was very short and the audio was well done by Cassandra Campbell whom I recognized from Where the Crawdads Sing. The first half of the book was funny and engaging. The second half was more or less about climate change in a kind of veiled way, I thought and not very funny. But overall very enjoyable. I'm going to look for Offill's Dept. of Speculation

Now I'm listening to Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles. And I'm closing in on the end of The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng which has been languishing on my Kindle since 2015. It's been good, but long and I'm learning a lot about a part of WWII that I was unfamiliar with, namely the involvement of Malaya in the war.

I'm being consumed by puzzles which is why my listening to audiobooks has increased exponentially and my print reading has fallen off. My latest:

>104 richardderus: Blah, blah, blah....oh hi Richard.

>105 ffortsa: It's not meant to be rollicking funny Judy but the subtle humor it started with did draw me in.

>106 figsfromthistle: It's wonderful Anita. It depicts Russian history in the best possible way...from the mouths of its citizens, unblemished and honestly.

>107 Berly: Like I said Kim, it's not really meant to be funny but Offill's got a way with words that I found to be very engaging.

Is your mom enjoying puzzles as much as I am? I hope to get a book title puzzle at some point.

One of my book club buddies loved The Gift of Rain, Bonnie. I keep meaning to get to it. One of these days...

You're making me want to find a place to do a "real" puzzle -- but I really don't have room so I'm going to be strong and keep with my computer puzzles. I am!! I am!!

Bonnie, you haven't been around here for quite a while -- is everything OK? Hope you and family are all well and that you're just really busy with books, puzzles and grandchildren.

>110 brenzi: *smooch*

>109 brenzi: I’m going to start that one next! It looks so cheerful and I really need cheerful right now. Is that a puzzle table you have it on?

>111 BLBera: It's a good one Beth. You'd like it I'm sure.

>112 RebaRelishesReading: well Reba, I haven't done any on my computer so I can't give you an opinion on that but as long as you're enjoying it keep on keeping on.

>113 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul.

>114 RebaRelishesReading: Everything is fine Reba. I've just been lazy as far as keeping up with LT. Hopefully I can catch up tonight.

>115 richardderus: Hi Richard!

>116 Copperskye: That one was so much fun Joanne. And yes, very cheerful so I really enjoyed it. My son sent me that puzzle table for my birthday last month. It has legs that fold down so you can sit in bed or on the floor and use it but for the most part I fold them up and put it on my table. I pretty much stand and move around the table when I'm doing puzzles. I finished this Dowdle not too long ago:

I'll be back tonight to update my reading.

Yay! A Bonnie sighting! It's nice to see you.

I love the puzzle table.

Sweet Thursday, Bonnie! I hope all is well with you. Hooray for Secondhand Time! What an incredible achievement. I hope to get to Weather, as soon as my library opens up. I hope you are enjoying Simon the Fiddler as much as I did.

>119 lauralkeet:>Hi here Laura. Good to see you too.

>120 BLBera: I love it too Beth. It has four drawers for sorting so it's great.

>121 msf59: Hi Mark, Secondhand Time was an incredible audiobook that'll stay with me for a long time. I want to get to her book on Chernobyl. She has had lasting medical effects from researching that one.

So I actually have done some reading and I'll just say a few words about what I've read.

#42. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng - (Kindle) this book taught me a lot about a phase of WWII that I knew very little about, namely, the invasion and occupation of Malaya by the Japanese. The protagonist is a Chinese/English man whose family runs a long established family business in Penang and he decides he must make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save them. His sensei is a Japanese man who teaches him the importance of honor and leaves him with a vital legacy. Long but wonderfully written. 4.2 stars

#43. Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles (Audio narrated by Cassandra Campbell) not as good as News of the World but that book would be hard to follow up. Simon is a fiddler (obviously) shortly after the end of the Civil War in Texas. He falls in love with an Irish woman from afar and pretty much follows her as she takes up her job as a governess for the child of a General who is hideously unimpressive. The point of the book is the back and forth of will he get the girl or not. 4 stars

#44. A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (audio narrated by John Lee) this may be my new favorite Macintyre supplanting Agent Zigzag. I loved learning how Kim Philby became a spy for the Soviet Union and how he got caught. 4.5 stars

#45. Death Without Company by Craig Johnson (audio narrated by George Guidall) is the second book in the Walt Longmire series. Set in Wyoming, the Sherriff is faced with a murder that takes place in a local nursing home. I have to say Guidall is getting to be my favorite narrator. His gravelly voice is just perfect for this series and Walt and his cast of characters are just wonderful characters. Really, really enjoyable. 4.2 stars

CURRENTLY READING



This is Happiness by Niall Williams

Audio:



11/22/63 by Stephen King

Oooh, I like the sound of that puzzle table. I may have to look into something like that. Right now, I do puzzles on our "dining" table, which has been repurposed into a gaming table in the library. I always have a puzzle going so now when we want to play cards or a board game, we have to play on the kitchen peninsula, which is kind of a pain...

>123 brenzi: I'm not sure if you have any interest in the idiosyncratic type of twisted historical novels that Tim Powers writes, but re:#44 A Spy Among Friends, Declare is a re-envisioning of Philby's career.

It took me a long time to warm up to Guidell. The first time I heard him read a book was when he narrated some of the Tony Hillerman books. They were of poor quality and Guidell slurred his words so much that you couldn't understand him. They were awful. Those books have now been remastered and they are much more understandable. Guidell also narrated the first recorded versions of American Gods, and they were not very well done. I think the new version of this book is narrated by Neil Gaiman and that would have to be an improvement. It was understandable why I avoided listening to any of the Longmire books that he narrated and why I simply couldn't understand why people liked Guidell as a narrator.

When the Longmire book Highwayman came out it was at our public library in the recorded version. I saw it there, and decided to try it, because it really was a novella and not a novel so I wouldn't be wasting much time on it. Listening to that recorded version was a completely different experience than listening to any previous Guidall book. It was very well done. The next Longmire book I listened to was Land of Wolves narrated by Guidell and it was very well done.

All of this has taught me the importance of good sound engineering and editing. It takes time and money to make a good recorded book and it is clear that they are not all created equal. The audio book industry has really improved since the 1980's when I was trying to listen to butchered up recorded copies of Tony Hillerman's excellent mysteries. Mostly because the publishers are putting time and effort into the making of these recordings. That is a good thing.

I am not sure that I am a Guidell convert because I don't think he sounds anything like the people I know from out West, who tend to talk with a midwestern Chicago accent. To me he sounds more Texan than anything else, but he isn't flat out bad either.

>123 brenzi: Have you read Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists? I loved that one.

Deleted

>123 brenzi: Bonnie, I cannot believe you just read A Spy Among Friends because, I kid you not, it is in my "on deck circle." My husband loves Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (both the BBC series and the more recent film), so I thought he'd enjoy this book. I guess I was wrong, because it has languished on our shelves. I came across it recently and thought yes, this would be a good read. I'm glad to see you enjoyed it -- that always bodes well for me.

Hi, Bonnie. Agent Zigzag and A Spy Among Friends are my top Macintyres, too. I'm not sure which one I'd put at the top, but A Spy Among Friends might have the edge for me, too. I've recommended Agent Zigzag in the past; it shows my age, but Eddie Chapman always make me think of Errol Flynn.

Hi Bonnie!

>123 brenzi: 4.2 stars for The Gift of Rain. Good to know.

I have read the first Longmire and seen the series, love Walt & company, but for some reason haven’t continued. I have beautiful trade paperback copies from one of the Friends book sales and even know where they are.

>124 brenzi: I hope you like 11/22/63 as much as I did – I’m stingy with stars but gave it 4.5.

Oh, 11/22/63...my goodness what an ending. I still mist up thinking about it.

Good morning Bonnie! Have you read Elephant Company by Vicki Croke? Since you expressed an interest in the southeast Asia theater of WWIII I think you might like it. It was a ***** read for me.

Bonnie, I envy you reading This Is happiness and 11/22/63. Both of them are excellent in very different ways. Very cool puzzle table. I would think those sorting compartments would come in very handy. I think I mentioned that I like the idea of puzzles and the end result, but totally lack the patience. However, with an audio book keeping me company, I could see me becoming a convert. So many beautiful puzzles out there.

Bonnie, without the libraries open and the bookstores closed, I admit I'm becoming a little lost as to what to read next. I've been considering This Is Happiness, but I'm a bit reluctant to fork out $35 dollars and find out I don't like it. Is it a very slow book, mainly about nature - or is it more character driven? I"m not sure what to read next. I love your puzzle.

>125 katiekrug: I needed something portable Katie so that I could put it away when Cole is in the house or disaster would certainly ensue. My daughter also gave me one of those roll up mats that she happened to have which serves the same Purpose as far as portability goes. I haven't used that yet. I pretty much love the table. Great for sorting with the four drawers.

>126 quondame: I've never read Tim Powers Susan but that certainly sounds like a good one.

>127 benitastrnad: I haven't read any of the Hillerman books Benita but, coincidentally, John LeCarre, in an afterward, spoke about Guidall's narration of those books and the fact that he enjoyed the narration immensely. At any rate, I'm really enjoying the series.

>128 SandDune: Hi Rhian, I read The Garden of Evening Mists when it was nominated for the Booker and loved it.

>130 lauralkeet: I'm a huge Ben McIntyre fan Laura so it probably wouldn't have mattered which of his books I read I'd be sure to like it. This was my fifth McIntyre I think. Anyway, I hope you like it.

>131 jnwelch: Oh yes Joe, Eddie Chapman was something. With that mustache, I could see the comparison to Errol Flynn.

>132 karenmarie: Hi Karen, I'm going with the audio for the Longmire books. I've watched all the episodes of the tv show and I must say this Longmire is quite different from the one portrayed in the series. The same goes for all the secondary characters. Very enjoyable though.

>133 richardderus: ok then, something to look forward to a Richard..I've got a long way to go lol.

>134 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba, I'll add Elephant Company to the list. I'm planning to read The Narrow Road to the Deep North later this year too. Finally.

>135 Donna828: I think I may have you to thank for This is Happiness Donna. It was absolutely wonderful. Just the kind of book I love. I loved every minutes of it and only hesitated to give it five stars because the ending fell a bit short for me. Average LT rating: 4.74....how could anyone go wrong. I'm pretty much hooked on these puzzles now and really find that I could care less about all the stress around me when I'm going blind trying to fit a piece in haha.

>136 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah, I wouldn't say it's about nature at all. Isn't there a cheaper option for you? What about an eBook? Or don't you read electronically. At any rate, the book is wonderful and I think you'd love it.

And yes, I managed to crank out another puzzle:

I'm putting this link to The Guardian's piece on Puzzling in the Time of COVID-19 on several of y'all puzzlers' threads.

>138 brenzi: Love it -- you are all making me want to get a puzzle but I MUST RESIST!

>139 richardderus: Thanks for that link Richard. Very interesting and now I've added Margaret Drabble's The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History in Jigsaws to my Overdrive list. My Daughter-in-law just sent me one she recently completed of bookshelves in the Bodleian library that I may do next.

>140 RebaRelishesReading: Resistance is futile Reba lol.

>141 brenzi: transAtlantic book-bullet ricochet achievement: unlocked

>141 brenzi:
I like Margaret Drabble as an author. I want to read more of her work, but it keeps getting pushed aside and now you have made me add the works of Anita Brookner to my list of authors. Along with Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, and Eudora Welty my list of women authors with oeuvre's keeps growing. And that doesn't even cover the male side of the author's with oeuvre's. What am I going to do?

>142 richardderus: 🥴 Thanks Richard

>143 benitastrnad: Well Benita, I spent 2013 reading all of Barbara Pym's books in order of publication. That's where I got the idea to do the same this year with Anita Brookner. Some people have said they're similar but I don't find that to be the case. Pym had an ironic sense of humor that I don't find in Brookner's books. Brookner, on the other hand, writes with such style and elegance that I find her books to be just delectable. I like both authors immensely and will reread Pym in 2023, I hope anyway. If not for Pym, I may not have realized the importance of the jumbo sale. As I noted in one of my Pym reviews:

I’ve grown used to the inclusion of fine details and minutiae, the seemingly unimportant detritus that turns out to be very important in Barbara Pym’s world, this being my fifth Barbara Pym book. They just add to the pleasure of being among the indexers, excellent women, clergy and available men who always turn up. Jumble sales, bed-sits, you know, a world where ”life’s problems are often eased by hot milky drinks.” And I will continue to lap up all that she wrote with great pleasure.

As you can tell, she's a real favorite.

Hi, Bonnie! I hope all is well is your world! This Is Happiness sounds really good. My cuppa? I loved 11/22/63. I hope you feel the same.

>144 brenzi: I haven't read Pym in ages - maybe not since I've been on LT! I do have Excelelnt Women on my bookshelf, so maybe a reread is in order.

Brookner is new territory for me. Have you found it worthwhile to read the books in order of publication?

>144 brenzi: If your ”life’s problems" aren't "often eased by hot milky drinks.” then you're in a world of hurt. Really, give me a foamy latte or let me pour Ceylon tea over warm cream, and so many owies doze off.

Well, I am almost 150 posts behind and not even trying to catch up. I remember the good old days when I read every thread every day. I think that is physically impossible any more :)

I am currently reading The Splendid and the Vile so I am glad to see that you enjoyed it.

Happy Wednesday, Bonnie!

>145 msf59: Hi Mark, I don't know why I haven't written anything about This is Happiness. After all it was nearly a five star read for me and yes, it would be your cuppa. I'm enjoying 11/22/63 more than I expected. I haven't read King since probably the 90s.

>146 ffortsa: I think I expect to see the progression and growth of an author by reading them in order of publication Judy, but I have to say I'm not sure it really matters much. I do love to find an author that appeals and read their whole oeuvre.

>147 quondame: Bwahahaha yes Susan, agreed. What a perfect description. I think Pym would agree.

>148 alcottacre: I'm not currently caught up with anyone Stasia. I can't even keep up to date with my own thread so I wouldn't worry if I were you lol.

Impressed with the puzzles - mine is still in its box.

At the close of Ramadan I give thanks to all my friends for making this place a special comfort to me. x

>117 brenzi: I love that puzzle table. I work mine on the living room coffee table, and although I certainly don’t need to worry lately about anyone stopping by, it’d be nice to be able to move to the family room (where the TV is) sometimes.

I remember reading about the Margaret Drabble book a few years ago but forgot all about it. Glad to see it mentioned here!

I’ve had This is Happiness on my kindle ever since Donna recommended it. I read and loved 11/22/63 a couple of years ago. Glad to hear you’re enjoying them both!

Whew I see that once again I've ignored my own thread as well as everybody else's. I don't really have a good excuse, if I need one which I'm not sure I do. At any rate I've been reading some pretty darn good books:

#46. This is Happiness by Niall Williams was a terrific book told in the first person by 78 year old Noe as he remembers one summer when he was seventeen and spent it with his grandparents. If you want a book to just sink into and enjoy immensely for the wonderful writing and soul sucking plot this may be the book for you. I thought it was going to be a five star read but the ending veered off a bit. Still....

4.7 stars {Thanks Donna!}

#47. The Misalliance by Anita Brookner. Continuing my journey through Brookner's oeuvre, this book took me awhile to get into. I don't have a lot of interest in divorce novels but since Brookner is such a master of characterization I was eventually drawn in and was enjoying her luscious prose when BANG...she got me with the ending. How do I forget from month to month that her signature is the totally unexpected ending?

4 stars

#48. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (audio narrated by Craig Wasson). I was a pretty big reader of King back in the late 80s early 90s but haven't read anything since. This one was so much better than I expected. Actually I didn't know what to expect but so many others loved it I thought I'd give it a whirl. Time travel is not usually my thing but this was just so well done. Obviously, the protagonist wants to go back in time and prevent JFK's assassination but so much else is going on that I could hardly wait to get back to it. Really well done.

4.5 stars

#49. The Book woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (narrated by Katie Schorr). I'm not sure how I learned about this book but it was a good story about life in Appalachia during the Great Depression and Cussy Mary is a young woman who delivers library books to hard to reach patrons by mule. Lovely story about a little known rare genetic disorder and living in incredible poverty.

3.8 stars

#50. The Outlander by Gil Adamson. Now here's the five star book I was looking for and, better yet, it's been sitting on my shelf since 2008. Well worth the wait. Mary Boulton is a young woman on the run through the Canadian west in 1903. What she is running from and why is pretty much what the book Is about. Along the way, we meet a cast of unique characters in addition to a protagonist that continually rips your heart out. I absolutely loved this book and have once again proved that the best books are the ones already on my shelf.

5 stars

>150 PaulCranswick: Well, open the box Paul haha.

>151 Copperskye: it's funny Joanne, the first puzzle I did I was sitting at the coffee table but then my son sent me the table and I ended up standing when I put puzzles together. Now I can't imagine sitting to do it hah.

Happy Sunday, Bonnie. Love the lightning round. You have been reading some very good books. Glad you had such a good time with the King. That is a terrific read, as is The Outlander, which I read in early 2009.

Hi Mark, I have been reading some good ones, haven't I? The King was doubly good because I just didn't expect to like it that much.

Now here's a puzzle that everyone can relate to. And boy was it hard. All books from possibly the 1920s or so and the titles were repeated on shelf after shelf. And for Barbara Pym fans, the book shelf is from the Bodleian library.

CURRENTLY READING



The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry



Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield (audio)

Bonnie--You are killing both the puzzles and the books! I have read Once Upon a River--have fun with it.

I have The Outlander by Gil Adamson on my shelves somewhere. I have been chewing through the books this month, mostly spy thrillers and fun stuff, but still I have quite a pile of books to return to the library when they open. I even made a really good smelling beef stew today. I have books and food! And I am pretty sure my paycheck was deposited today, so I am doing well. I am happy even if they reinstate our quarantine for another 2 weeks due to really high numbers.

I'm glad you enjoyed The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. I liked that one a lot.

This is Happiness sounds good. I added it to the WL.

>152 brenzi: Good thing I read your thread after I had been to the bookstore or the pile in quarantine wold probably be higher!

>156 brenzi: Love the puzzle but I can well imagine it was a devil. Not sure my patience would stretch that far!

Lovely meditation on the appeal of 11/22/63. I don't recall reading The Misalliance, though hearing you describe it as a divorce novel probably explains that.

The puzzle made my eyes water and my fingers ache.

Happy reads ahead for the first week of June.

>152 brenzi: You're welcome, Bonnie. Now read History of the Rain by Niall Williams. It rang the 5-star bell for me!

>156 brenzi: Gorgeous puzzle. You are tempting me.

I forget about my thread from time to time as well. I don't worry about keeping up like I used to once I realized the impossibility of the task. Besides, to be honest, I'd rather be reading!

Great thoughts on 11/22/63 and The Outlander, both books I was pleasantly surprised by when I read them.

>156 brenzi: - That would be such a fun/challenging puzzle!

Looking forward to finding out what you think of Once Upon a River.

>152 brenzi: Yes you have been reading some pretty darn good books, Bonnie. I've never read anything by Stephen King, but 11/22/63 sounds like one I might try. I don't like horror.

I have This Is Happiness sitting on my desk. I hope to get to it soon.

Missed you so far this month, Bonnie. I am keen to see how you got on with your latest reads.

Bonnie, I've been thinking of you. I hope all is okay in your neck of the woods.

Hi Bonnie!

>152 brenzi: I’m glad you liked 11/22/63. I read another book with an almost identical title, November 22, 1963 by Adam Braver. Here’s the Amazon blurb:

November 22, 1963 chronicles the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination and explores the intersection of stories and memories and how they represent and mythologize that defining moment in history.

Jackie's story is interwoven with the stories of real people intimately connected with that day: a man who shares cigarettes with Jackie outside the trauma room; a motorcycle policeman flanking the motorcade; Abe Zapruder, who caught the assassination on film; the White House servants waiting for Jackie to return; and the morticians overseeing President Kennedy’s autopsy.

No time travel, just a beautifully written little book. I gave it 4.5 stars, too.

So where are you? Bonnie - hello?

Sharon and I are heading up to Western New York at the end of July even though Chautauqua isn't open. We will only be staying for two weeks this year then heading back to Alabama.

Missing you Bonnie and just a little bit worried.

I did see though that you updated your reading on the 21st.

In this difficult year with an unprecedented pandemic and where the ills of the past intrude sadly upon the present there must still be room for positivity. Be rightly proud of your country. To all my American friends, enjoy your 4th of July weekend.

I think I recently acquired a copy of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. It sounds so interesting.

Hi Bonnie. I love all the puzzles you've been doing, especially the book-themed ones like >156 brenzi:.

We've been doing lots of puzzles, too, and so enjoying them. Work has been so relentless, though, that we're taking a break now. But here's a cool thing: we put some puzzles we'd completed in our Little Free Library and folks have picked them up. Now some have started adding puzzles to the LFL! It's become a puzzle exchange!

>172 EBT1002:
That's a cool idea! A great way to spread the puzzling joy.

Hello all, just wanted to say I've been in touch with Bonnie. Real life has required her full attention lately but she is okay and hopes to be back on LT soon.

Thank you for that, Laura. To be honest, I was getting a little worried. xx

>174 lauralkeet: - Good on you for checking, Laura. I've seen her pop up on Twitter so wasn't too worried, but it's good to have confirmation.

>174 lauralkeet: Thank you!

Sending good wishes to you and your family, Bonnie!

I too have missed you, Bonnie. Thank you, Laura, for easing our minds.

>174 lauralkeet: Thanks so much for the update, Laura. Like many of us here, I was getting concerned. I did send a PM, awhile ago but never heard back.

We miss you Bonnie!!

Thanks for the update, Laura.

Bonnie. I know you're awfully busy but hope you're well -- missing you!

What Reba said!

Hugs!

Missing you, Bonnie! : )

Me too!

Ditto!

Hi Bonnie. Come home, all is forgiven.

>186 richardderus: Or at least forgotten.

Missing you -- hope all is well.

Hi, Bonnie! I can relate to your absence here. I hardly get to LT at all these days.
Best wishes!

Hi Bonnie. Best wishes from me, too.

Still missing my Queen of Reviews.

Whisking away the cobwebs, sprucing the place up a bit......Have I really been away from here since June? To be honest, until a couple of weeks ago I felt like I couldn't breathe and then thank the Lord....well, you know what I mean. The disaster that was the president got his clock cleaned. Eighty million people couldn't take one more minute of the jackass and we were saved. Can we get used to the new normal? Sure feels good.

Thanks to all of you who kept my thread warm and checked up on me. I'm fine now but real life can be a real b....urden and anxiety can is a real downer.

My reading during the last few months suffered mainly because I was listening to a lot of political podcasts and that took up my time. I'm back of track now I think and I'm looking for all of your book recommendations. Of the books I did read or listen two recently a few stand out.

I reread Plainsong by Kent Haruf which I first read about twenty years ago, and then continued right on and finished the trilogy. Wonderful!

Except for September I've managed to keep up with reading Anita Brookner every month and actually find myself enjoying her books, which I'm reading in order of publication, more and more with every one. She is absolutely a master of characterization and her writing is salubrious. The last two I read, Lewis Percy and Brief Lives were just terrific. I'll try to read two in December to make up for September. She was prolific enough to carry me through next year.

I must mention Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Set for the most part during WWI in France, it was an excellent description of what made that war so savagely violent in ways that make it entirely different from WWII and also all the wars that preceded it. Add to that the heartache of loving someone who doesn't really love you and you have a quintessential war book. Excellent.

Oh and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

I recently listened to what will undoubtedly be my best audiobook of the year, Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore. Set in Texas in the seventies, I would describe it as gritty and brutal and really, really compelling. It was narrated by Cassandra Campbell and someone else whose name I can't recall but Campbell was familiar to me from Where the Crawdads Sing. She is a master of the southern dialect and I could listen to her all day.

I hope to do a better job of making an appearance here and trying to keep up with your threads too. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

WELCOME BACK BONNIE!!!

I'm so happy to see you here. I've missed you terribly. Birdsong is one of my all-time favorite books (read pre-LT), so I am delighted that you discovered it. I also loved Hamnet.

I'm sure you've read Gilead and the other books in Robinson's cycle. Have you read the latest, Jack, yet?

Happy Thanksgiving, my friend!

Oh Bonnie, it’s wonderful to hear from you! 2020 has been a mess, but the orange menace will soon be gone from the WH and that is quite a relief. I only wish it could be sooner.

Wasn’t Hamnet stunning!? It will definitely be my #1 of the year. And I also just finished Valentine, although I read it. I found it deeply moving.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friend!

Good to see you back!

While you were gone I discovered the Sugar (two books - the second is This Bitter Land) by Bernice L. McFadden and those will be on my best books list. I also finished reading the Cemetery of Forgotten Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and the last one - Labyrinth of the Spirits is absolutely the way to end a series.

Mostly, I have been trying to finish reading several series that I have started and have the last book to read. I have just been reading and reading like a house-a-fire. Most of my reading has been murder mysteries and spy novels, but they have been a really good escape place. In the months of April, May, and June when I was off work, I just devoured books at an incredible rate. In May I read 14 books! All together this year I have read 125 books!

I continued my "short book/novella" project this year and have read some really good stuff in the short form. I'm not a real fan of short stories, but I have liked the novella format and so keep trying to read the ones I have stacked up.

The public library used book store reopened a month ago and I found 4 books by Anita Brookner and so, of course, had to buy them. I hope to make them a "book project" next year. I have a copy of Birdsong and hope to get it read soon. It is setting in my close to being read shelves under the TV in my living room, so it is inching closer to actually being read.

I so wanted to go on my annual Thanksgiving Get-a-way this year, but alas. Instead, I will be having Thanksgiving Dinner with two other single women who work with me a the library. I am making the sweet potato dish. Good to see you! And Happy Thanksgiving!

Appropriately I can give thanksgiving today that you have returned to the group. xx

Bonnie!! So glad you're back!!! Hope you're well and that you're having a lovely Thanksgiving today.

You got me hooked on Brookner but I'm not reading them in order and haven't read nearly all of them yet -- so much pleasure to come there and many opportunities to think of you :)

>193 lauralkeet: Thank you Laura! I have Jack on my Overdrive list and may get to it in December. I'm looking forward to it as I've loved the other books. Birdsong was a pleasant surprise since it's been sitting on my shelf for ages. I have to get around to the threads although I've lurked a bit in the last week. Happy Thanksgiving!

>194 Copperskye: Hi Joanne, Hamnet was wonderful and I even managed to get some friends to read it. As far as Valentine goes it may be the most compelling book I've read this year. And I love gritty so there's that. Heartbreaking too though. Happy Thanksgiving!

>195 benitastrnad: Hi Benita, Thanksgiving will certainly be different this year. We can all make up for it next year and go all out. I hope you enjoy Anita Brookner as much as I do. She was a great find for me. Sugar sounds very good. I'm going to add it to my list. Happy Thanksgiving!

>196 PaulCranswick: Thank you so much Paul. And thank you for your vigilance in trying to keep my thread going. I doubt you are going to see much in the way of reviews lol.

>197 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba, so good to see you and so good to be back. I would think Brookner wouldn't work for everyone but for those who appreciate excellent character study and lovely prose with not much action it works very well. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Happy Thanksgiving, Bonnie! It is so nice to see you posting, even if it is temporary. I always enjoy hearing from one of my very favorite LTers. I really NEED to get to Birdsong! Maybe, next month?

Hi Mark, so good to see you again. I think you'd like Birdsong. I need to get over to your thread. I'm looking for some good NNF audios and you're usually the go to guy.. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

CURRENTLY READING:

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart and on audio Hid from Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Oh goody good good, Bonnie's returned! And reading Shuggie Bain, no less, what a delight to see.

I hope your day is lovely and luscious.

>202 brenzi: OH YEAH, that's the Bonnie I remember!

I just bought Shuggie Bain for my Kindle the other day, but I have a few other books I want to read first. I loved the Julia Spencer-Fleming book -- it was worth the wait.

Happy Thanksgiving, Bonnie! What a lovely - and most welcome - surprise to see you posting.

I snapped up Valentine in a Kindle sale a few months ago. I've only heard good things about it.

I read Birdsong ages ago - way before LT - and remember liking it, but I don't recall anything much about it, so I think I might give it a re-read.

>203 richardderus: Hi there Richard. I'm really enjoying Shuggie Bain. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day.

>204 lauralkeet: Hi Laura, the narrator for the Julia Spencer-Fleming book is not the best but still the story seems solid. Shuggie Bain is excellent but harrowing. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

>205 katiekrug: Hi Katie, so good to see you. Birdsong is a real war novel, not pleasant in many respects yet thoughtfully done and quite brilliant. You'll probably fly through Valentine. I certainly did. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

This Brit wishes to express his thanks for the warmth and friendship that has helped sustain him in this group, Bonnie.

Glad to see you posting again Bonnie!

Great to see you back, Bonnie. I also loved Hamnet and Valentine. My reading also suffered in the lead-up to the elections, but I'm trying to wean myself from news now. Soon we will have grown ups in the WH again!

So nice to see you back, Bonnie. It's certainly been a difficult year, but there's hope on the horizon, both politically and with regard to the vaccine. Two of my favorites this year are Hamnet andShuggie Bain so I'm glad to see that you're enjoying them.

>207 PaulCranswick: Thank you so much Paul. All the very best for you and yours too.

>208 SandDune: Thanks Rhian, it's good to be back.

>209 BLBera: Hi Beth, isn't it great to think we won't have to wake up every morning and think...wait what disastrous or norm breaking atrocity happened since I last saw the news? Boring will be very welcome.

>210 vivians: Hi Vivian, yes a very tough year but thankfully we'll be able to move on. I still worry that this time of online learning has been too hard on my little granddaughter and we won't know how lasting the effects are for some time. I'm winding down Shuggie Bain and I won't forget it soon. Sort of like I won't forget Hamnet.

And now we need you to peruse the mighty (short) Piranesi.

>212 richardderus: Uh well, ok then Richard.

**After further investigation I think your touchstone goes to the wrong book. Actually I'm positive it does lol.

Still the love of my life. Mia - six and waiting for the school bus early in November when she still had school two days a week. All virtual now and I worry about it a lot. And Cole-three and in run mode from the minute he gets up until the minute he goes to bed. Just try to keep up.

They've grown so much, Bonnie. What a couple of cuties.

Hi Bonnie! Nice to see you back. Belated congrats on reaching 75 in September!

>202 brenzi: I read all 9 Clare/Russ books this year and although I had a few quibbles with it here and there it was overall very satisfying.

>214 brenzi: Sweet pictures, sweet smiles.

>214 brenzi: What a pair of cuties!!

I went to the Used Book Store this morning and came back with two Anita Brookner titles. I got Latecomers and Family and Friends. I can add to my growing accumulation of her books. Now I will need to start reading them.

>213 brenzi: Ha! Yeah, no, wrong touchstone indeed.

Piranesi the Susanna Clarke novel. I made *sure* the touchstone was correct this time.

Hi Bonnie - It looks like Mia and Scout have similar tastes in clothes :) Scout has just started being online as well, probably until January. She had been entirely face to face, which was great for her. I feel so sorry for the little ones who have to be online.

>215 lauralkeet: Yes Laura, Mia is continually measuring herself up to me because she's sure she'll surpass me sometime soon which isn't really a stretch lol.

>216 karenmarie: Hi Karen, I had to reread my last couple of reviews to remind myself of what had been going on with Russ and Claire since it's been so long since the last book was published. This is the first one I've listened to and the narrator isn't that great.

>217 RebaRelishesReading: They're little busybodies Reba. Lol

>218 benitastrnad: Family and Friends is a real favorite Benita. It's stayed with me in a way that many books don't.

>219 richardderus: That's more like it Richard. Looks quirky which I usually like so I'll look for it.

>220 BLBera: Hi Beth, if you mean by "taste" flouncy, pretty, dressy dresses then you're absolutely right. I am very worried about this whole online learning thing and how much is being lost both academically and socially.

Bonnie - I don't worry about the academic part as much. Our girls have families that will help them. I do worry more about the social and emotional toll this isolation is taking. Scout is an only child, and she get lonely.

Yes, I am talking fancy. And shiny shoes.

Of course, it is no surprise that I loved Shuggie Bain. Along with Hamnet, my two favorite novels of the year. You mentioned How to Pronounce Knife, which caught my attention. I also have been really enjoying a couple of story collections myself, F*ckface: And Other Stories which I am currently reading and Dinosaurs on Other Planets which I recently finished. Irish short fiction, that packs a punch.

>222 BLBera: Hi Beth, Mia asked for Jessie boots for her birthday. I didn't know who Jessie was but she's a character in The Toy Story movies. I told her I couldn't find her size but ended up getting them. Red cowgirl boots covered in glitter:



Not a great picture but the only one of those boots.

>223 msf59: oh boy Mark, Irish short fiction that packs a punch? That will have to go on the list for sure. I also loved Hamnet. It was the reading highlight of a dismal summer and will certainly make my list of top reads for 2020. And I will have to put together a couple of thoughts about Shuggie Bain. Besides wonderful, I mean.

Mia and Cole are so big! And adorable. Love those Jessie boots.

I’ve got Shuggie Bain on my shortlist. How could I not with all the raves from both you and Mark!

So I finished two books over the weekend.

#89.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

If you're looking for a book that'll tear your heart out, this may be the book for you. Shuggie is a sweet little boy growing up in 1980s Glasgow, trying to take care of his alcoholic mother. His father has walked out on them and they have very little to live on, just the little that the government provides. But most of that his mother takes because booze isn't free. In addition, he's trying to figure out why he isn't normal, like other boys. He knows he's different, but how?And why? Wonderfully written with a thick Scottish brogue it was dismal and loaded with such tough stuff and yet I felt hopeful at the end. Shuggie will prevail in some way or other.

5 stars

#90. Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Having read the previous eight books in this series I listened to the audio version of this one. I really didn't care for the narrator much but I decided to keep on with it and she grew on me. I thought Claire's role in this book seemed diminished compared to previous ones but it's been so long once I read the others I could be mistaken. She's a mother now and busy with other things. The mystery itself is solid, drawing connections with previous murders in 1952 and 1972 and Russ, as chief of the Millers Kill Police Department is fighting off attempts to dissolve the department. I enjoyed it and I think the author planted a seed for the next book in the series which I would certainly welcome.

4 stars

CURRENTLY READING:

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

ON AUDIO:

Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb

>226 Copperskye:. Hi Joanne, those two keep me pretty busy. I hope you enjoy Shuggie Bain although that's not quite the right word.

>227 brenzi: I am also well into Shuggie Bain, Bonnie and it is an excellent novel, I must say.

Jesse in Toy Story is a great character -- a strong female figure with kick-a** boots. Yay Mia!

I am looking forward to reading Shuggie Bain, especially since you enjoyed it so much. All the glowing reviews are really tempting me, but I have a some library books and reading commitments I need to pay attention to. And I'm thinking it's maybe not the ideal Christmas read? So maybe I'll get to it in January.

I'm also glad you enjoyed the latest Spencer-Fleming. I agree Clare took a back seat in this one, but then the whole Clare & Russ dynamic was starting to overpower the previous books so maybe this balances the scales a bit?

>224 brenzi: That looks like a familiar dress mode, Bonnie. I love it! And my daughter swore that her kid would never wear frills. :) Needless to say, I think it's hilarious. And it is fun to find dresses for Scout.

Scout has silver glitter boots.

>229 PaulCranswick: I'm glad you're enjoying it too, Paul.

>230 lauralkeet: Probably best to wait on Shuggie Bain Laura. It's a bit of a downer for most of the narrative. I kept thinking Clare should be doing more sneaking around and sticking her nose in where it may not belong. That's how I recall her role in the past but I'm sure you've got that right. By the way, I'll be starting Jack tonight. Looking forward to it.

>231 BLBera: yes I also have a daughter who said her child would never wear frills either. Bwahahaha. Right. Ohhh silver glitter boots.

>224 brenzi: My daughter went through a red cowgirl boots phase, although it was before Toy Story. Gotta love ‘em – both the girls that want them and the boots themselves.

>227 brenzi: I loved the 1952 and 1972 murders aspect of this book.

Hi Bonnie! I'm glad you appreciated Shuggie Bain. It's another book like Mill Town that I try to think of a way to talk about without ragey spoilery fury...and so far I'm dry as a ditch in Dallas.

Anyway, Mia's boots are fabOO and she is, as I know you know, the definition of precious.

*smooch*

Yes, Bonnie, we can enjoy our daughter's struggles from a distance now.

>227 brenzi: Hooray for Shuggie! Good review too and 5 stars is just about right.

Thanks to you, I finally pulled down and dusted off my copy of Birdsong. 50 pages in and I am loving it. See? This is why I needed you back.

>233 karenmarie: I thought that look back at the previous crimes was very well done Karen and important to the story. I'm glad she left herself an option for another book in the series too.

>234 richardderus: Hi Richard, I want to say the Booker judges got it right this time but I haven't actually read the other books on the short list so I'm not sure. At any rate, Shuggie Bain was a good one.

>235 BLBera: that's the best part Beth lol.

>236 msf59: Oh I hope you like it as much as I did Mark. Btw, I take no responsibility for the erotic passage in part one lol. I thought it could easily have been left out.

#91.

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

This short story collection by Canadian poet Thammavongsa recently won the Giller Prize and I can see why. The collection describes the lives of Laotian immigrants and to say I was totally unaware of their existence wouldn't be quite right but I cant say I'd given a great deal of thought to such a people. The author tells their stories in short snippets of stark, heart rending prose. They all demonstrate what life is like in a new country, unknown language, different lifestyles, and living among complete strangers. So hard. And what was life like in Laos that made them leave for a foreign land?

"She listened as her father worried about his pay and his friends and how they were all making their living here in this new country. He said his friends, who were educated and had great jobs in Laos, now found themselves picking worms or being managed by pimple-faced teenagers. They'd had to begin all over again, as if the life they led before didn't count." (page 4)

The book is short but packs quite a punch.

>224 brenzi: I want those boots for myself! Except that it’s too hot in Florida where I am now to wear them.
And I loved Snuggie Bain too.

>3 brenzi: What a great artistic endeavor to accomplish with Mia. My, she really has grown.

I agree with you regarding retirement. After working many extra hours in academia, it is lovely to stay in bed late, get things in order when I need to do so, and overall enjoy life.

>239 arubabookwoman: Hi there Deborah, where are you in Florida? I must catch up with your thread.

>240 Whisper1: Hi Linda, they keep growing even though I'd like to keep them small lol. They're changing all the time. It is nice not to set an alarm but I can't really say I sleep in much. I'm usually up by 7:00-7:30.

I'm now reading Jack by Marilynn Robinson and listening to The Volunteer: One Man, An Underground Army and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather.

Also I'm still doing puzzles. Here are the last couple:

I especially love that first puzzle, Bonnie.

Hope you have a great weekend!

>243 katiekrug: Hi Katie, isn't that a great puzzle. I also have Green, Pink, Orange, Red and Purple. It's an addiction almost as strong as books lol.

>244 brenzi: I bought a couple of puzzles, ostensibly to do with Belle, but I am loathe to open the boxes because i know when I start it will consume me wholly.

Have a lovely weekend.

>214 brenzi: Love the photos of the grandkids! So cute.

>242 brenzi: Wow! My sister and parents are way into doing puzzles lately, too. Those look like fun ones, with not too much blue sky. LOL

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Wow that puzzle on the left would drive me crazy! It's fun to look at completed but not one I would ever try to put together. The one on the right though...that one I could imagine doing. Either way, "nice job" !

I love the puzzles, Bonnie. I'll add How to Pronounce Knife to my WL for next year. Great comments.

>245 PaulCranswick: Of course they'll consume you Paul. That's what they do hahaha.

>246 Berly: Hi Kim, I usually avoid too much sky, water or grass. That's why I like ones with lots of little details like the one on the right.

>247 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba but I really favor ones with lots of little details. So much fun to find the little teeny tiny things lol.

>248 BLBera: Hi Beth, oh I hope you like How to Pronounce Knife. It was an excellent collection.

When your sister is your only playmate because of COVID and she tells you to put on a dress and wig.

So cute!

>250 brenzi: Oh those smiles!

>250 brenzi: OMG priceless! They are totally adorable, Bonnie.

>238 brenzi: That looks an interesting short story collection. We nearly went to Laos for a few days when we went Thailand last year. We went as far as buying a guide book and researching places to stay. The guide book’s take on the Laos medical system was that if you had anything wrong with at all that might require the services of a hospital it was time to get back to Thailand as soon as possible and make use of the facilities there! I suppose that’s one reason people might want to leave!

>242 brenzi: I read The Volunteer last year. Pretty harrowing.

>251 Berly: >252 quondame: >253 lauralkeet: I have to say I never know what to expect from those two but most of the time it's smile inducing.

>254 SandDune: Hi Rhian, soooo not the best health care in Laos. That might be one reason. That collection is staying with me and I find myself thinking about the unique characters often. Harrowing just about sums up The Volunteer

>250 brenzi: ...that will show up in sibling blackmail ere too long...

>250 brenzi: :) Scout recently told me that she was the only kid in her class who doesn't have brothers or sisters and IT'S NOT FAIR. (her words).

>256 richardderus: You may well be right Richard lol.

>257 BLBera: Oh yeah Beth, I'll bet she thinks it would be great but there are two sides to that coin. Sibling rivalry is real lol.

>242 brenzi: Hi Bonnie. Your puzzles are quite an accomplishment. I always to to Ohio for Christmas to spend time with daughter Amy and family. We spend time together putting together a 1,000 piece Christmas puzzle.

Sadly, because of Covid, I don't feel comfortable flying out when the numbers in Ohio are exceedingly high, and I would have layovers both going to Ohio and coming home.

I really will miss our traditions.

I've added The Volunteer: One Man, An Underground Army and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz to my tbr pile.

>250 brenzi:. I imagine the children in there outfits made you laugh right out loud.

>242 brenzi: The puzzle on the right is one of the first puzzles I put together when I started doing them just before the pandemic started.

>250 brenzi: Oh boy, those giant grins! What a cute pair!

>257 BLBera: >258 brenzi: Only children have been quite successful in the sibling rivalry arena. Becky sometimes calls Gertie the little sister she never wanted. While I don't consider or refer to Gertie as my baby, child, or kid, Gertie is quite clear that I'm Mommy.

>259 Whisper1: Hi Linda, I know what you're saying about traveling. I haven't seen my son and his wife in a year and I don't know when I'll see them. I'm hoping for the spring if we get the vaccine widely distributed. I should finish up The Volunteer tomorrow. This was another WWII phase that I was totally unaware of.

>260 Copperskye: That's a Wysocki Joanne and I'm fond of them so I've managed to pile up quite a few.

>261 quondame: Hi Susan, I would say you play your role well lol

>262 brenzi: You and me both, my friend!

Almost-Wednesday *smooch*

>263 Copperskye: 😉

#92.

Jack by Marilynne Robinson

This is the fourth book in the short series that started with Gilead and if you've been reading them you kind of know what to expect: quiet desperation, slow moving plot all described in brilliant prose loaded with lots of words you may need to look up. Luckily, I read this on Kindle which makes looking up words seamless. Anyway, the eponymous hero is familiar from previous volumes. A ne'er do well son of the Gilead minister, a frequent drunk, a fly by night employee, he's just getting by in St. Louis where he falls in love with a black woman, Della, a school teacher, after spending the night in a local cemetery. Unfortunately, mid-20th century America made a relationship like this almost impossible especially since it was illegal in much of the country. But somehow these two characters think they can make a go of it, even over the objections of her family. We don't know what Jack's father might think of this situation since he has no relationship with him and never bothered to go home for his mother's funeral.

Robinson is such a gifted writer that it almost doesn't matter what she writes. I could probably be happy reading her grocery list. But I have to say I have no idea what Della saw in Jack. You'd be hard pressed to find a more useless, sleazy character, few redeeming characteristics, a liar although she's not aware of the extent of his lying, and yet she is drawn to him. I get the idea of forgiveness but I'm not sure that's even the point here. And yet.....I enjoyed the reading of this volume and wouldn't mind reading another volume if Robinson decides she's got another book in her.

4 stars

>264 richardderus: Hi there Richard!

>265 brenzi: I think I liked Jack a little more than you did, Bonnie. Somehow I felt sympathetic towards him, despite his numerous flaws. I'd love it if her next novel was about Della.

I have read Home and Gilead and enjoyed both of them. I haven't read the rest of this series, but like you, I love the way Robinson writes. It is beautiful. I also think that she manages to capture much of the spirit of the small town middle part of the country when it comes to morals and ethics.

>268 lauralkeet: Well I tried to have sympathy for him Laura but somehow it just didn't happen. I think it was the lying. I'd love to read about Della but, idk, appropriation??

>269 benitastrnad: Hi Benita, my favorite Robinson book is actually her first novel, Housekeeping written in 1980 and which I read way before she wrote this series. She didn't publish Gilead until 2004! That's a long time between books. She's been pretty steady with these four though.

>270 brenzi: fair point, Bonnie. It will be interesting to see what comes next.

Well Laura, last night I watched the movie "Loving" which told the story of the black woman and white man who married in Washington D.C. in the late 1950s and then returned to their home in Virginia. Shortly thereafter they were arrested because miscegenation was illegal. They went on to get an ACLU lawyer and took their case to the Supreme Court where they won their case. You probably knew all that but I purposely wanted to watch it in conjunction with reading Jack and it really was a wonderful movie. (Netflix) Interestingly all the things Jack worried about, as far as having children anyway, didn't seem to matter to the Lovings. Of course Richard was very used to be around and socializing with black people and I don't think Jack had much experience with them. Anyway, as I watched the movie I kept thinking that Richard was Jack. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.

>272 brenzi: I've heard of that movie, Bonnie, but haven't watched it. I'll keep it in mind!

#94. One by One by Ruth Ware (narrated by Charlotte Church)

Whoaaaa...can you say thriller extraordinaire? I was on the edge of my seat from almost the first hour of this book. Ski vacation for employees of a small London tech start up....business problems due to potential buy out....avalanche!....secrets, secrets and more secrets and one Murder after another. It all adds up to a romp in the French Alps where the bodies pile up.
I really enjoyed this one.

4.2 stars

>274 brenzi:
I have One by One by Ruth Ware maybe this is one I should move up on the pile.

Hi Bonnie!

>250 brenzi: Sweet girls, very cute picture.

>257 BLBera: That’s funny about Scout feeling deprived of siblings. Our daughter is an only child of an only child of an only child (what interesting weekends we had when Bill’s mother visited and I was surrounded by only children!) and although I’m one of three Jenna never, ever complained about not having siblings.

>262 brenzi: I’m sorry you haven’t seen your son/wife in a year. I can relate – Jenna’s not coming home for Christmas because of Covid so it will probably not be until late spring early summer 2021 until we see her.

>265 brenzi: I keep meaning to start Gilead…

>274 brenzi: I’ve only read The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ware and really need to read more.

Added One by One to my library WL!

>275 benitastrnad: I've also read The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Turn of the Key too Benita. I enjoy her books.

>276 karenmarie: Uh the little girl on the left is actually a little boy Karen, hahaha. The Death of Mrs. Westaway is the only Ware I haven't read yet.

>277 katiekrug: I hope you opt for the audio Katie. The narration by Imogene Church is excellent.

Hi, Bonnie! The Old Warbler has returned. Back to the retirement grind. Grins...I loved both Birdsong & Valentine. I can see why you are a big fan of both. I read the latter in print but I am glad to hear you loved the audio, as well.

Great review of Jack. I have this and Transcendent Kingdom waiting for me at the library. I plan on finishing the year with a bang. I will start Jack soon.

>274 brenzi: I will add one by one to the tbr pile, and hope my local library has this one. It is sad that you haven't seen your son and daughter in law for a year.

My daughter, grand daughter and son in law live local. We will celebrate here with dinner and fun. They are solid family who care about each other and laugh a lot. It is good that they live a few miles from me.

My grand daughter usually stays with me for three days a week. She is a big help, and I love her so. Even if she is studying in her bedroom, just knowing she is here makes me happy.

Hiya Bonnie!

Just swingin' by to leave these.

>279 msf59: I'm glad you enjoyed those two books Mark. I'll look for your remarks about Transcendent Kingdom. I haven't gotten to that one yet.

>280 Whisper1: Isn't it wonderful to have grandchildren for company Linda? They really do soothe the soul. Mine are local too and I feel very lucky.

>281 richardderus: Why thank you Richard. How beautiful. And thoughtful.

#95. A Closed Eye by Anita Brookner

I finished this one this morning and have been thinking about it all day. Brookner always has an unexpected ending and as I read along I try to guess what it might be. I was dead wrong about what happens at the end of this one and am trying to backtrack to see what hints I might've missed. Not only was I wrong I had contrived an entirely different ending in my mind.

As usual, the character development is the important thing because the whole book consists of the thoughts, mostly Harriet's thoughts, a very insecure woman who settles, rather than marries, and regrets the decision and mulls over what could've been for the rest of her life. The love of her life is actually her daughter, Imogene, who cannot be bothered with her mother almost from the day she is born. But what may seem boring to some is nirvana for me because Brookner was just so skilled at characterization. Each character is allowed to be developed slowly, over the course of the book, until you feel like you really know them. Tiny details that another author may consider mundane or unnecessary make Brookner's characters come to life.

Not my favorite of the 11 Brookners I've read, but that only means it's better than so many other books.

3.8 stars

CURRENTLY READING

The King at the Edge of the World by Arthur Phillips

AUDIO:

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

>283 brenzi: I've had my eye on The King at the Edge of the World since Vivian read it recently. And over on her thread, Katie just pointed out that the Kindle edition is $1.99 today. I knew what to do.

ETA: I also meant to say I always enjoy reading your Brookner reviews.

>284 lauralkeet: I probably should pay more attention to the deals on Kindle books but I'm seldom aware of them. Luckily my Overdrive request came in and I'm on my way. About 32% in I'm really enjoying it.

Something interesting happened to me yesterday. I got a call from the county health department because they were contact tracing. Ok. The name didn't ring a bell then suddenly it did....my hairdresser! Eeeekkk! The thing is I haven't seen her since late October because when I was supposed to go for my appointment everything was shut down due to COVID. So I have no idea why I was on the list. At any rate I know some people are refusing to give the contact tracers any info because of course they are. Most likely they're people who also refuse to wear a mask. Because why not do something to make this terrifying period last as long as possible. Grrrrrr

Hi, Bonnie. I have been hearing reports that areas of NY have got slammed with 40-45 inches of snow. YIKES! Is this the amount you received?

I am closing in on the halfway point in Jack. Lots of fine writing but I am not sure this will be a favorite. It is no Lila.

>285 brenzi: I should probably pay more attention to deals as well, Bonnie. I don't really have a good method to do that, so I tend to rely on LTers posting about them.

>286 brenzi: yikes, that's disconcerting although I can't imagine why you'd be on the list given you'd seen her such a long time ago.

>287 msf59: I don't know who got that much snow Mark but I sure didn't. We may have gotten 2-3". And it won't stick around very long judging by the upcoming temperatures. Jack was such a flawed character that I had trouble feeling much sympathy for him. But Robinson's writing is the draw for me. Just so good.

>288 lauralkeet: maybe she just gave them all her customers. I don't know. I haven't gone to her that many times. ShMy favorite hairdresser ever decided he couldn't deal with all the new COVID rules and retired just before the restrictions were lifted in June. So she's relatively new to me.She might've just given them a list of all her clients.

>285 brenzi: I signed up years ago for daily emails, one from Early Bird Books and the other is BookBub. Every now and then there’s a gem. I won’t pay more than $2-3 for an ebook so it’s nice to know when they’re cheap!

>286 brenzi: Glad you didn’t go in for a cut recently!

At least it is your hairdresser. With me it was my mother who refused to wear a mask. She got it and told the contact tracers that she had no idea where she might have gotten it. The timing however, points to a doctors appointment where she sat in the waiting room with her mask pulled down under her nose. I am not a happy camper and right now neither is she.

>286 brenzi: If they were contact tracing maybe they were looking at all the salon's customers to see where it came from. Or she didn't give them details, just a list. If she is ill she may not be at her most efficient, and in any case is probably upset.

I've had some luck with ebooks from 'modern Mrs. Darcy', but recently disengaged because so many of the books on that listing and the ones mentioned by Laura are filled with stuff I'm just not interested in. The filtering got to me. Then again, I'm wondering what's for sale!

The record snowfalls seem to be at Binghamton, so halfway between us. We got about 7 inches in Manhattan, ending a long snowless drought, but in Manhattan at least the streets were clear by morning so we didn't get to see much sun glinting on snow, alas.

>290 Copperskye: Hi Joanne, Yeah I was signed up for those too but somehow lost track of them or I just don't get the offers any longer. I'm pretty happy with Overdrive.

>291 benitastrnad: Well I don't go anywhere Benita so if I get it I should be able to figure it out fairly easily but sitting in a doctors office is probably an invitation to disease of all sorts. I remember not wanting to take my kids to the doctor because of fearing that they would catch something I the doctors office. There's no sitting around in an office here right now. You sit in your car or you check in and go straight to the examining room.

>292 quondame: Yes Susan, I think she might've just given them a list of clients.

>293 ffortsa: I've seen enough sun glinting on snow Judy, way too much actually. Lol. We're more likely to get heavy lake effect snow than the Nor'easters that hit the east coast. I think I got tired of pawing through all the eBook offers, most of which didn't interest me just like you.

Yeah baby!!!!

Hi, Bonnie! Good to "see" you here. Wow, you make me want to read One by One.

I really need to read Jack and Hid From Our Eyes. Ah, my series reading really took a hit when FictFact went under.

Hi Terri, good to see you. I really miss FictFact too. I feel fairly scattered in my series reading.

#96. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner, narrated by Richard Armitage

Absolutely delightful! Set shortly after WWII, in the village where Jane Austen lived for a time and wrote, I was completely swept up by the lives of these characters as they attempt to found a society dedicated to maintaining a definitive collection of her works and the property where she did much of her writing.

These lives are each impacted by Austen, in various ways as this village is a hot spot for tourists and even though they have their own grief to deal with, in one way or another. I had a smile on my face when the audio ended.

UP NEXT ON AUDIO:

Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey

HI Bonnie, I write from NE Pennsylvania where we were hit with 12 inches of snow. And, it is freezing cold outside. I need to finish up some shopping. I keep putting this off because I feel old and want to stay warm and comfortable in my house reading a good book.

I send all good wishes for a wonderful holiday time,

This image is from one of the books written and illustrated by Gennady Spirin. He is incredible!

>298 brenzi: My sister gave me this for my birthday. Good to know. Maybe I'll get to it over break.

Hi Bonnie!

I’m returning after the embarrassment of my mistake in >276 karenmarie:. Sorry about that. I lose track of who has how many grandkids of what gender sometimes.

>286 brenzi: Scary. I’m sure I would hyperventilate if I was contacted by the county health department re contact tracing but would fully cooperate of course.

>295 brenzi: I was cheering on the Bills! Nice win last night. I really like Allen.

Happy Sunday, Bonnie. I did not like Jack as much as you did. It still does not deserve a poor rating but it was still quite a let down after the wonderful Lila.

>299 Whisper1: Hi Linda, what a beautiful image. I love it. We actually don't have any snow left and we're not expecting any until later in the week which is fine by me. Have a wonderful holiday.

>300 BLBera: it's a good one Beth. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

>301 karenmarie: Oh don't fret about that Karen. After all, he is wearing a dress and wig lol.

>302 msf59: yeah Mark Jack left a lot to be desired I will agree. But Robinson is just such a wonderful writer that I don't care what ends up on the paper lol.

You can't imagine the excitement around here about the Bills. I'll admit, I wasn't one of those who wandered out to the airport in the middle of the night to greet the returning players, but I was beginning to question whether I'd ever see the day. Thank god we finally got rid of Tom Brady from our division lol.

Tachyon Publications, an SFF house, posted this on Twitter. Says it all, no?

>304 richardderus: Wait a minute....you put a cat on my thread???

Silly Bonnie...it's a wombat. They have much sharper claws:

... and here's to a better 2021!

>Well thank goodness for that Richard.

>307 karenmarie: Thanks so much Karen. Happy holidays to you and your family.

>309 brenzi: - Bwahahahahahaha!

>310 katiekrug: my neighbor was late in putting up his Trump sign just a few weeks before the election. It pretty much stunned me because I had no idea. Then Biden was declared the winner on November 7 I think and he took the sign down. Then he must've been listening to the Trump hullabaloo about how he really won...in a landslide. So next thing I know the sign was back up. It's still up. Idiot.

#97. Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey, narrated by the author

Good grief what a story! Trethewey was the United States Poet Laureate, twice and this memoir is a stunning display of her poetic style as well as her dreadful early years. I listened to it all in one giant gulp on a cold snowy Sunday. I couldn't pull myself away.

Her very early years were happy. She adored her father, who was a writer and was proud of her mother for getting her degree and a good job. But her parents divorced and her mother remarried. Her stepfather abused them both, both physically and emotionally and after years of this it culminates in tragedy.

Spare, beautiful prose. Heartbreaking. Awful really. Thanks Mark.

4.5 stars

#98 The King of the Edge of the World by Arthur Phillips

Spy thriller? Historical fiction? Well, both actually. Set in 1601, Elizabeth I is on her deathbed and she has no heir. James VI of Scotland is the closest thing they have. But is he secretly a practicing Catholic? How to find out? A spy is needed to kerplunk himself down in James' court and find out the truth. Why not the only Muslim physician in England?

This was great fun and I was kept guessing actually even when the book ended. The author presents you with several different options, in the end, so....eeney, meeney, miney, mo. Thanks to Vivian for the recommendation.

4.5 stars

>313 brenzi: I can't wait to read The King at the Edge of the World. Vivian inspired me on that one as well.

>309 brenzi: ^^^what >310 katiekrug: said!

I have a neighbor like that as well, Bonnie. Idiot is right. I love your Trump sign.

Or in other words, Happy Christmas! And have a great New Year as well. Here’s hoping 2021 is an improvement on 2020.

Happy Holidays, Bonnie. Praying for a much better 2021. Ooh, how is Snow Hunters? I have seen no LT activity on that one, until now. I am loving The Cold Millions. You are more than welcome on Memorial Drive. Wow, this year is going out with a bang in the book department.

>309 brenzi: LOVE IT!!

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and a joyous 2021!

Bonnie--Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
May 2021 bring you less need for masks, loads of peace and joy, good health and, of course, books!

Happy Holidays Bonnie!

I hope you get some of those at least, Bonnie, as we all look forward to a better 2021.

Happy Holidays, Bonnie.

Good review of Jack. I'll be reading it - I loved Lila. As you say, I'm sure I'll love her writing even if this new one doesn't quite measure up storywise.

>314 lauralkeet: I think you're going to like it Laura.

>315 richardderus: and >316 BLBera: 😂😂😂

>317 SandDune: >318 msf59: >319 Carmenere: >320 Berly: >321 Copperskye: >322 quondame: >323 PaulCranswick: thank you all. I hope everyone had a quiet but good holiday.

>324 jnwelch: Thanks Joe. Jack is not an easy character to like I'm afraid.

#99. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans, narrated by Jane Copland

1928. Women now have the vote in the UK. So what should the women who worked for it do with their time and many talents and their ability to bend the will of others? That's the predicament facing Mattie and her good friend known as The Flea and their friends from the suffragette movement.

This was a delightful book and Mattie is a memorable character. Her attempt to organize a group of girls into a civic and nature loving cadre of amiable cohorts pretty much flops when Mattie uses incredibly poor judgment. In the end, it proves to be difficult to move beyond her initial success with suffrage.

4.2 stars

I also loved Old Baggage, Bonnie. Evans is becoming a favorite of mine.

#100. Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon

Yoon is a new author to me and if this book is a good example of his work, he writes in spare, poetic prose that almost seems like he is whispering, somehow.

Yohan, a North Korean man, has spent a considerable amount of time in a prisoner of war camp during the Korean War. At the end of the war he refuses to return to the North and instead opts to go to Brazil as an apprentice to a tailor, a Japanese WWII survivor, rather than return to his home. He doesn't speak the language or know anyone so the adjustment is difficult but not impossible.

This is a very short book and, for me, ended rather abruptly. Yoon skillfully managed the time frame, which moves back and forth, and filled the narrative with beautiful writing and with empathy for the his suffering subjects. Really quite beautiful.

4.1 stars

>192 brenzi: I think reading the Kent Haruf trilogy right through sounds wonderful.
And enjoy Ordinary Grace. I read it this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. WKK is another author to read straight through, I think. (I didn't do that but it would make some sense.)

Wishing you a Happy New Year, Bonnie!

Hi Bonnie!

>330 brenzi: I read Ordinary Grace last year for book club and loved it.

>326 brenzi:
Book Bullet! I had to add it to my TBR list.

>329 brenzi:
I have had this book Snow Hunters on my shelves since 2014 and haven't gotten to it yet. Sounds like I should move it up. I also have another book by Paul Yoon on my TBR list. Run Me to Earth so clearly I need to read faster so I can get to both books.

>331and >332 karenmarie: Hi Ellen and Karen, Over the summer, I read Krueger's This Tender Land and really liked it. I've had Ordinary Grace languishing on my Kindle for some time. I won't finish it before the calendar turns so it will be my first book of the new year. Happy New Year to you both.

>333 benitastrnad: I think you'd enjoy Old Baggage Benita. The audio was excellent. I'm planning to read Run Me to Earth also.

Fun end of the year meme:

Describe yourself: Old Baggage

Describe how you feel: Convenience Store Woman

Describe where you currently live: This Tender Land

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Longbourne

Your favorite form of transportation is: Another Man's Moccasins

Your favorite food is: American Dirt

Your favorite time of day is: Eventide

Your best friend is: The Man Who Saw Everything

You and your friends are: Hiding in Plain Sight

What’s the weather like: The Gift of Rain

You fear: Death Without Company

What is the best advice you have to give: Kindness Goes Unpunished

Thought for the day: All the Devils are Here

What is life for you: Surviving Autocracy

How you would like to die: Lady in the Lake

Your soul’s present condition: All Things Consoled

What was 2020 like for you? American War

What do you want from 2021? Family and Friends

Great meme responses!

>335 brenzi: Nice! I particularly like "Your soul’s present condition: All Things Consoled"

>335 brenzi: Good answers.

Happy Wednesday, Bonnie. I just started Transcendent Kingdom. It will be my first book of 2021. I like your Meme answers. I have never done one of these. Maybe, I will this time.

Good review of Snow Hunters. I will have to try this one.

>339 msf59: And I just finished it. It was one of my best reads of the year!

>336 katiekrug: I thought Old Baggage was really apropos Katie lol.

>337 Berly: Well let's hope so anyway, Kim.

>338 thornton37814: Thanks Lori.

>339 msf59: Never done one??? What? Haha Mark.

>340 drneutron: it's a good one Jim.

We're finally at the end of a year that none of us is likely to forget. I'm hoping for much a better year in 2021 as I'm sure you all are. That said it's actually been a good reading year for me. I will finish the Obama memoir tomorrow but I can tell you A Promised Land is as good as they say. So that makes 101 books read this year. (Thanks Mark for this 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)



Fiction:

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Non-fiction:

All Things Consoled by Elizabeth Hay
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Second Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

Audio of the Year:

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

I should also include Anita Brookner in this list because I am thoroughly enjoying reading her books in order of publication. Reading at the rate of one book a month I'm about half way through her published works. Several were standouts.

Nice list, Bonnie. We share some of the same favorites, Hamnet and Girl, Woman, Other. Sabrina & Corina was on my list last year.

Love the Best of the Year list, Bonnie. I am happy to see Sabrina and Corina & Second Hand Time make the cut. I am a big fan of both, along with Valentine, one of my biggest surprises of the year.

Bonnie, over on my thread you commented on Hamnet and Tin Man as two of my notable reads this year. It will not surprise you that I rated Girl, Woman, Other 4.5 stars, I just read it last year so it didn't get mentioned on this year's list. And I'll be reading Shuggie Bain soon!

>343 BLBera: Well all I can say Beth is that you have excellent taste in literature lol.

>344 msf59: Valentine was a surprise for me too Mark. A great surprise. I can't wait to see what she does next.

>345 lauralkeet: You know how when you've read a book that sticks with you and you can remember things that were happening in your life when you read it, Laura. That's how Girl, Woman, Other is for me. I can remember tiny details around the reading of that book. Maybe that only happens to me lol.

That happens to me, too, Bonnie!
Also songs that were popular when I was younger ...

Bonnie

As the year turns, friendship continues