CBL joins the team for 2013, part 4

Welcome to part 4 of my 2013 category challenge!

I attempted to read at least 7 books in 13 categories for a total of 91 books for the 2013 challenge. My categories are inspired by the names of sports teams I've followed over the years - high school, college, and professional. All categories will include a mix of fiction and non-fiction.

I've met the minimum goal of 7 books in each category. I plan to continue with these categories until the end of the year and start my 2014 Category Challenge on January 1.

Pioneers – Books about U.S. history
Preachers – Books about religion
Volunteers – Books about amateurs
Trojans – Books about world history
Smokies – Books set in travel/tourist destinations
Ice Bears – Books set in winter or in northern states/countries
Colts – Children's or YA literature
Broncos – Books set in the Western hemisphere
Giants – Award winners or best sellers
Braves – Books about heroes
Reds – Books read & recommended by other LTers
Sparks – Books that spark my interest
Draft day – Books picked for me by others

1. Pioneers - Books about U.S. history

1. The Slaves' Gamble by Gene Allen Smith (3.5) - completed 2/21/13
2. Prince Among Slaves by Terry Alford (4.5) - completed 2/27/13
3. 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy (4.5) - completed 5/9/13
4. Duel with the Devil by Paul Collins (4) - completed 5/17/13
5. The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 by Rhys Isaac (4.5) - completed 5/30/13
6. Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (3.5) - completed 6/15/13
7. The Ninth Daughter by Barbara Hamilton (3) - completed 7/5/13
8. The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara Tuchman (3.5) - completed 8/18/13
9. In the Dark Streets Shineth: A 1941 Christmas Eve Story by David McCullough (4) - completed 12/19/13
10. A Secret Gift by Ted Gup (4.5) - completed 12/27/13

Possibilities:
Conjure Times: Black Magicians in America by James Haskins
A Prologue to Love by Taylor Caldwell
Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family by Linda H. Matthews
Objects of Our Affection by Lisa Tracy
In Search of Our Roots by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict by Donald R. Hickey
The Dutchman's Dilemma by Maan Meyers
Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria Thompson
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Salem Witch Judge by Eve LaPlante
The March by E. L. Doctorow
1812: War with America by Jon Latimer

2. Preachers - Books about religion

1. The Borgias: The Hidden History by G. J. Meyer (3.5)
2. Minaret by Leila Aboulela (4) - completed 1/26/13
3. The Queen's Agent by John Cooper (4) - completed 3/9/13
4. The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler (4) - completed 3/19/13
5. The Art of Hajj by Venetia Porter (3.5) - completed 3/22/13
6. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (4) - completed 4/9/13
7. Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan A. C. Brown (3) - completed 5/24/13
8. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope (4.5) - completed 6/23/13
9. In the Beginning by Virginia Hamilton (4) - completed 9/29/13
10. Junipero Serra: California's Founding Father by Steven W. Hackel (3.5) - completed 10/19/13
11. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (2.5) - completed 11/24/13

Possibilities:
Murder at Morija by Tim Couzens
King of the Cannibals by Jim Cromarty
Seductive Poison by Deborah Layton
Thunder in the Valley by Doug Knapp
The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza by Adina Hoffman, Peter Cole, S. Schechter
Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two by Piers Paul Read
The Quiet Rebels by Margaret Hope Bacon
Reverend Randollph and the Wages of Sin by Charles Merrill Smith
Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf
A Miracle for St. Cecilia's by Katherine Valentine
Introverts in the Church by Adam S. McHugh
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon
Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler

3. Volunteers - Books about amateurs

1. Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman (3.5) - completed 1/12/13
2. Strawberry Yellow by Naomi Hirahara (4) - completed 3/10/13
3. The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames (3) - completed 3/14/13
4. N or M? by Agatha Christie (5) - completed 3/24/13
5. The King's Jar by Susan C. Shea (4) - completed 4/20/13
6. Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer (3.5) - completed 5/28/13
7. State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy (4) - completed 5/13/13
8. Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing with Others by Stacy Horn (4) - completed 7/2/13
9. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (4) - completed 9/19/13
10. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley (3.5) - completed 10/4/13
11. Ten Lords a-Leaping by C. C. Benison (3.5) - completed 10/22/13
12. A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry (3) - completed 12/21/13
13. Murder on the Candlelight Tour by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter (3) - completed 12/24/13

Possibilities:
Miss Julia Paints the Town by Ann B. Ross
Farewell, Miss Zukas by Jo Dereske
Killing Cassidy by Jeanne Dams
Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman
A Royal Murder by Elliott Roosevelt
State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
I.O.U. by Nancy Pickard
The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Ames
Arkansas Traveler by Earlene Fowler

4. Trojans - Books about world history

1. Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith (3.5) - completed 1/24/13
2. The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat (4.5) - completed 2/2/13
3. Georges by Alexandre Dumas (3.5) - completed 2//16/13
4. A Dish Taken Cold by Anne Perry (3) - completed 2/17/13
5. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (5) - completed 4/13/13
6. Malinche's Conquest by Anna Lanyon (3.5) - completed 4/21/13
7. The House of Wisdom by Jim Al-Khalili (4) - completed 6/23/13
8. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (4) - completed 6/30/13
9. The Tenth Witness by Leonard Rosen (4.5) - completed 7/31/13
10. The Book of Secrets by M. G. Vassanji (4) - completed 9/4/13
11. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (4) - completed 9/12/13
12. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (2) - completed 9/13/13
13. Richard III: A Small Guide to the Great Debate by Annette Carson (3) - completed 9/16/13
14. The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters (4) - completed 9/23/13
15. Leaving China: An Artist Paints His World War II Childhood by James McMullan (4.5) - completed 11/3/13
16. Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther (4) - completed 11/30/13

Possibilities:
The Embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama
Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos
Bridge to the Sun by Gwen Terasaki
Georges by Alexandre Dumas
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
The Devil That Danced on the Water by Aminatta Forna
Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl by Kate McCafferty
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carre
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd

5. Smokies - Books set in travel/tourist destinations

1. Death in Cyprus by M. M. Kaye (3) - completed 1/19/13
2. Abeng by Michelle Cliff (set in Jamaica) (3) - completed 1/23/13
3. Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (set in the Shetland Islands) (4.5) - completed 4/28/13
4. A Walk in London by Salvatore Rubbino (4) - completed 5/4/13
5. The Colour by Rose Tremain (set in New Zealand) (3.5) - completed 5/11/13
6. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (set at a seaside hotel in England) (3.5) - completed 5/20/13
7. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (set in Paris) (3.5) - completed 5/24/13
8. The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina White (set mostly on a European train) (3.5) - completed 8/10/13
9. The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert (set in England's Lake District) (3.5) - completed 9/1/13
10. At the Villa Rose by A. E. W. Mason (set in Aix-les-Bains, France) (2) - completed 9/6/13
11. Death in the Vines by M. L. Longworth (set in Aix-en-Provence) (4) - completed 9/8/13
12. Tiepolo's Hound by Derek Walcott (poem describing, among other places, in St. Thomas, Paris, and Venice) (3.5) - completed 10/30/13
13. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (3.5) - completed 11/27/13
14. The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola (3.5) - completed 12/29/13

Possibilities:
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Mr. Potter by Jamaica Kincaid
Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall
Abeng by Michelle Cliff
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall
Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barberry
Murder at the Gardner by Jane Langton

6. Ice Bears - Books set in winter or in northern states/territories/countries

1. A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry (3.5) - completed 1/5/13
2. Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast by Bill Richardson (4) - completed 2/10/13
3. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (4) - completed 4/7/13
4. A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet (2) - completed 4/28/13
5. Death Without Company by Craig Johnson (4) - completed 6/7/13
6. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (4) - completed 7/26/13
7. 1222 by Anne Holt (3.5) - completed 8/5/13
8. The Hangman by Louise Penny (4) - completed 8/9/13
9. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (3.5) - completed 8/10/13
10. Unless by Carol Shields (4) - completed 8/11/13
11. How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny (5) - completed 9/7/13
12. The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck (3) - completed 10/8/13
13. A Christmas Hope by Anne Perry (3)
14. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (5)
15. A Killer's Christmas in Wales by Elizabeth J. Duncan (3.5 stars) - completed 12/21/13

Possibilities:
Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt
A Body Surrounded by Water by Eric Wright
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson
A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet

7. Colts - Children's or YA literature

1. Rosa by Nikki Giovanni (3.5) - completed 2/1/13
2. Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji (4) - completed 3/14/13
3. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (5) - completed 4/7/13
4. This Is London by M. Sasek (4) - completed 5/4/13
5. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (4) - completed 5/14/13
6. Little Women and Me by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (3.5) - completed 6/21/13
7. The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer (4) - completed 7/14/13
8. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (3.5) - completed 8/23/13
9. The Baker's Dozen: A Colonial American Tale by Heather Forest with illustrations by Susan Gaber (3.5) - completed 9/11/13
10. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (4) - completed 11/25/13
11. Un Lun Dun by China Mieville (3.5) - completed 12/7/13
12. The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood (5) - completed 12/7/13
13. The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder (3) - completed 12/15/13

Possibilities:
The Door of No Return by Sarah Mussi
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach
Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace
Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia by Susan Runholt
The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
The Littles' Surprise Party by John Peterson

8. Broncos - Books set in the Western hemisphere

(I might read an actual Western for this one, but I know I won't read 7 of them!)

1. Danger Along the Ohio by Patricia Willis (4) - completed 1/5/13
2. Free Fire by C. J. Box (4) - completed 4/14/13
3. The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola (4) - completed 5/9/13
4. The Hotel Detective by Alan Russell (2.5) - completed 6/2/13
5. Sunk Without a Sound: The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde by Brad Dimock (4) - completed 6/5/13
6. Trail of Murder by Christine Andreae (4) - completed 7/7/13
7. Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (2.5) - completed 8/4/13
8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (3) - completed 11/3/13
9. Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (3) - completed 11/30/13

Danger Along the Ohio by Patricia Willis
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
Death Without Company by Craig Johnson
Great Plains by Ian Frazier
Work Song by Ivan Doig
Betty Zane by Zane Grey
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas
Follow the River by James Alexander Thom
The Seekers by John Jakes

9. Giants - Award winners or best sellers

1. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Orange Prize) (4) - finished 1/10/13
2. Born in Ice by Nora Roberts (RITA Award) (3.5) - finished 2/9/13
3. The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith - NYT bestseller (4) - finished 3/25/13
4. Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet (Agatha Award) (3.5) - finished 3/29/13
5. 2666 by Roberto Bolano (Morning Tournament of Books) (3) - finished 3/30/13
6. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Pulitzer finalist) (4.5) - finished 5/5/13
7. Songs of Jerusalem and Myself by Yehuda Amichai (National Jewish Book Award) (4) - finished 5/22/13
8. What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Costa Award) (3.5) - finished 6/14/13
9. Old Bones by Aaron Elkins (Edgar Award) (4) - finished 7/21/13
10. Bundu by Chris Barnard (Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist) (3.5) - finished 7/28/13
11. Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark (Bram Stoker award) (4) - finished 10/27/13
12. House of Stone by Anthony Shadid (National Book Award finalist, 2012) (3.5) - finished 12/9/13
13. Jack Maggs by Peter Carey (Miles Franklin Award, 1998) (4) - completed 12/14/13
14. Lamentations of the Father by Ian Frazier (Thurber Award for American Humor, 2009) (2) - completed 12/18/13

Possibilities:
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Wiiliam Kamkwamba
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet
The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton by Kathryn Hughes
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
Old Bones by Aaron Elkins
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid
The Likeness by Tana French
The Secret by Anna Enquist
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

10. Braves - Books about heroes

1. Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman (4.5) - finished 2/7/13
2. Harriet, the Moses of Her People by Sarah H. Bradford (3) - finished 2/12/13
3. King Peggy by Peggielene Bartels (4) - finished 2/13/13
4. Daughter of the Air: The Brief Soaring Life of Cornelia Fort by Rob Simbeck (4) - finished 4/13/13
5. Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear (4) - finished 6/16/13
6. The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson (3.5) - finished 6/22/13
7. A Case of Two Cities by Qiu Xiaolong (3.5) - finished 6/26/13
8. The Last Child by John Hart (4.5) - finished 7/7/13
9. Marie Curie and Her Daughters by Shelley Emling (3) - finished 11/12/13
10. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch- (3) - finished 12/22/13

Possibilities:
American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America by Edmund S. Morgan
Harriet Jacobs: A Life by Jean Fagan Yellin
Fer-de-lance by Rex Stout
A Case of Two Cities by Qiu Xiaolong
Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
The Ninth Daughter by Barbara Hamilton
The Far Side of the World by Patrick O'Brian
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

11. Reds - Books read & recommended by other LTers

1. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (4.5) - finished 1/3/13
2. Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire (4) - finished 2/24/13
3. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch (4) - finished 3/16/13
4. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (4) - finished 4/27/13
5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (3.5) - finished 5/16/13
6. Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart (4.5) - finished 7/13/13
7. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (4) - finished 10/6/13
8. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (4.5) - finished 10/6/13
9. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope (4.5) - finished 11/27/13

Possibilities:
The Liberators: America's Witnesses to the Holocaust by Michael Hirsh
The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
The Thousand Autumns of of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
The Lumby Lines by Gail Fraser
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Time and Again by Jack Finney

12. Sparks - Books that spark my interest

1. The Line by Olga Grushin (4)
2. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde (4)
3. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie (4) - finished 2/25/13
4. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (4) - finished 3/9/13
5. Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (4) - finished 3/15/13
6. Macbeth by William Shakespeare (5) - finished 4/30/13
7. The September Society by Charles Finch (4) - finished 5/19/13
8. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett (2.5) - finished 5/29/13
9. Young Men in Spats by P. G. Wodehouse (4) - finished 5/30/13
10. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (4) - finished 7/16/13
11. The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope (3.5) - finished 8/28/13
12. Blind Justice by Anne Perry (3) - finished 9/14/13
13. The Devil's Bones by Jefferson Bass (4) - finished 9/15/13
14. Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage edited by Donald T. Hawkins (4) - finished 12/31/13

13. Draft day - Books picked for me by others

January: The School at Thrush Green by Miss Read (picked by thornton37814) (3) - completed 1/29/13
February: The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath (picked by DeltaQueen50) (3.5) - completed 2/19/13
March: The Black Tower by Louis Bayard (picked by lkernagh) (4) - completed 3/23/13
April: The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett (picked by Dejah_Thoris) (3) - completed 4/21/13
May: Funeral Music by Morag Joss (picked by RidgewayGirl) (3.5) - completed 5/5/13
June: Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly (picked by lindapanzo) (3) - completed 6/9/13
July: Death at Buckingham Palace by C. C. Benison (picked by rabbitprincess) (4) - completed 7/20/13
August: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (picked by -Eva-) (3.5) - completed 8/31/13
September: Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (picked by Bjace) (3.5) - completed 9/22/13
October: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (picked by mamzel) (4.5) - completed 11/3/13
November: King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard (picked by sjmccreary) (4) - completed 11/30/13
December: Cornish Conundrum by Gene Stratton (picked by majkia) (2) - completed 12/31/13

Am I first? What a nice shiny new thread!

Yes, you're first!

Congratulations on completing your challenge - I think it's a good sign that you enjoyed your categories so much that you want to continue with them for the rest of the year.

Congrats on completing!

Thanks everyone!

'Grats on completing your challenge!

Well done!

Hooray, new thread! And hooray for completing your challenge! How is Mr Adrian doing?

More visitors to thank! RP, Adrian is doing well. Right now he's sitting on the back of the sofa looking out the window. It's starting to get dark so he'll have to find something else to do pretty soon. We had a trying day on Saturday, but yesterday was a good day. He seems to be on his best behavior today, too. Now I need to figure out how to use a laptop with a dog in my lap...

Migrating over to your new thread Carrie to join in with the congratulatory celebrations!

Than ks Lori!

Book 8 in my Reds category: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Recently retired judge Yun Ling Teoh returns to Malaysia's Cameron Highlands and the garden that helped her recover from her experience as a Japanese prisoner of war. In the early 1950s, Yun Ling went to Yugiri to ask its Japanese gardener to create a memorial garden for her sister who died during the war. Despite her anger toward the Japanese for the suffering she endured during the war, she stayed on as Aritomo's apprentice. Their mutual respect grew into something more, complicated by each one's deeply held secrets. Revisiting memories from that period of her life leads Yun Ling to recognize truths that had been hidden from her for decades.

Yun Ling (and readers) wrestle with uncomfortable attitudes and feelings. All of Yun Ling's relationships with family, friends, and lovers are complicated by ethnic differences, political allegiances, the atrocities of war, and shifts in power and control. While World War II is over, Malaya is in the midst of a guerrilla war between the government and the Communist party.

This isn't a book to rush through. It's a book to savor. Yun Ling has reached a contemplative period of her life. The remote mountain setting and the themes of gardening, art, tradition, and religion that run through the book made me want to linger in its pages. I think this book will stick with me for a long time because of its unique location, setting, and themes. Highly recommended.

4.5 stars

Well done on finishing your challenge!

26 I really must beg my mum to lend me her copy!

Thanks Alana! Claire, it's a lovely book. I haven't read anything else quite like it.

Congrats Carrie!! Not only a spanking new thread but a completed challenge! Three months ahead of schedule too! You're pretty awesome!
Any ideas for your 2014 challenge?

Thanks Lynda! I've decided on a Seven Dwarfs theme for 2014. I plan to read 14 books in 7 categories. I'll wait until January 1 to start filling it in and just keep using this year's categories for the rest of the year.

Congrats on finishing!! Glad to hear you're sticking around until next year's challenge starts.

Thanks Eva!

Book 12 in my Ice Bears category: The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck
AwardCAT - Nobel Prize (1962)
AlphaCAT - J
RandomCAT - dark imagery in title

I remember how I felt on 9/11 when the news kept getting worse as first one, then another, then another passenger plane crashed into buildings in New York and Washington, D.C. I also remember how I felt when I heard about Flight 93, whose courageous passengers changed the terrorists’ intended outcome of their flight and saved countless lives in the process. That news gave me hope that this nation would survive because it is filled with millions of brave and resilient people just like the passengers on Flight 93.

The Moon Is Down fulfilled a similar purpose in Nazi occupied Europe. Steinbeck apparently captured the spirit of the resistance, and copies of this book were surreptitiously translated, printed, and circulated in many of the occupied nations. I didn’t find the characters and story particularly appealing, but then Steinbeck wasn’t thinking about readers like me when he wrote this book. (Even so, I did like it much better than The Grapes of Wrath!) It’s worth reading more for its historical context and its influence during the war than for its literary qualities. Readers with an interest in World War II in Europe should add this to their reading lists.

3 stars

Congratulations on finishing your challenge. I enjoyed your review of Garden of the Evening Mists and I think you've captured well what I myself loved about the book. I'd have to list this book among my top 5 reads of the previous year.

Thanks Paulina! I think it will be one of my top reads for this year.

Adrian is trying my patience today. This morning I could tell he needed to go out, but instead of letting me take him out, he ran away from me. By the time I found him he had done his business on my bathroom floor. Fortunately it's linoleum and he didn't do anything on the bathmat or the carpet in other rooms. This is the second time he's done that since he's been here. I have a feeling he's been trained to do that. I hope I can retrain him without too much frustration for either of us.

I have to Atlanta for a meeting later this afternoon. Adrian is going to stay with a friend who adopted a dog the same day I did. Adrian has seen her and her dog several times since then so I hope he won't feel like I've abandoned him. Fingers crossed that he behaves for her family! We're planning to trade dog-sitting whenever either of us travels so I really hope he doesn't wear out his welcome on his first visit.

Hi Carrie, and congratulations on reaching your target goal for this challenge. I am planning on reading Garden of the Evening Mists for the Commonwealth Challenge and hope to get to it before year-end.

Fingers crossed that Adrian behaved like a gentleman while he was visiting.

Judy, my friend sent me a picture of Adrian making himself comfortable on the back of her love seat. He may like it so well at her house that he won't want to come home with me when I get back into town!

Carrie is having separation anxiety (like any new parent). Every other sentence she utters is: "I miss my dog."

Congrats on completing the challenge, Carrie! Happy that you're going to stick around these here parts until next year. :)

Thanks Laura!

I arrived home early this afternoon and picked up my dog shortly afterward. He was glad to see me and I think he's happy to be home, although he enjoyed staying with my friend. When I had him get in his crate so I could go to church this evening, he was reluctant to get in it but he didn't whine or bark like he usually does. Dare I hope that this is progress?

Sounds like progress to me!

Definitely sounds like progess, Carrie. It's amazing how quickly he's settled and recognizes home.

Is he perhaps like my little monsters - brats at home and angels away... :)

Adrian is still a changed dog. I haven't heard a single peep out of him at night since I've been home. I've also caught him sitting in his crate a couple of times when he didn't have to. I think it's beginning to feel like home.

Excellent! The crate is supposed to be the safe place, so that's a very good sign.

I've been reading but I haven't been finishing anything. I had started a biography/history and a long poem and neither one turned out to be quick going. I hope to finish a couple of books this weekend so I'll have some reviews to post.

I haven't been listening to audio books nearly as much. For some reason the dog is cutting into more of my audiobook time than my print/e-book reading time. I'd really like to finish Frankenstein before the end of the month. We'll see. I do a lot of my audiobook listening in the car. I ordered a harness and booster seat for the dog and I may get out more once I have that. Right now if I take the dog with my anywhere in the car he has to stay in a crate on the floor. I think both of us will enjoy being in the car more when he can look out the window at his surroundings.

Book 10 in my Preachers category: Junipero Serra: California's Founding Father by Steven W. Hackel
AlphaCAT J

Since I'm not from California and I'm not Catholic, I first heard of Junípero Serra when I visited the mission he founded in San Diego. I've been curious about him ever since, so I jumped at the chance to read this biography. Father Serra was already well into middle age by the time he arrived in what is now California and began the work for which he is remembered. The first half of the book covers unfamiliar ground for those who are familiar with Serra only as the founder of California's missions: his early life in Majorca and his years of mission work in New Spain (now Mexico) in the Sierra Gorda and Baja California.

The tour guide and the tourist brochures at the mission in San Diego highlighted only Serra's achievements and positive character traits. Hackel's biography presents a more complicated picture of Serra's work and character. He was a devout, disciplined Catholic who heard a divine call and never lost sight of his goal. However, he seemed to be a difficult person for others to get along with since he appeared to want to control others as tightly as he controlled himself. He was in a decades-long struggle with secular government and military officials for control of the missions and their converts among indigenous people groups. Neither side seems very heroic. Both the Franciscans and the secular officials were motivated by their religious beliefs, but these beliefs compelled them to exert control over every aspect of the lives of their Native American converts, forcing them to adopt an agricultural lifestyle within the mission settlements.

The primary market for this book is probably Californians who want to learn more about their state's history. However, it will also appeal to readers with an interest in Majorca's history, Mexico's history, Catholic history, the history of missions, and missionary biography. Recommended.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley. Illustrations and index not seen.

3.5 stars

Next up in nonfiction: Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark

Oh, very curious to see what you think of the Mary Shelley book. I just see Spark as a fiction writer but her writing style may make for a lively non-fiction read!

Lori, she wrote this early on in her career, before she became such a successful novelist. She revised it about 30 years later. I'm reading the revised version.

I'm putting Junipero Serra on the Maybe-list. The missions are hard to avoid in CA and his name is seen all over the place - I live 3 blocks away from a Junipero Avenue, in fact. :)

It's a good choice if you're interested in learning more about Father Serra, but it probably won't be a quick read. I didn't realize just how well known he is in California. Roads and everything!

Book 11 in my Volunteers category: Ten Lords a-Leaping by C.C. Benison

In order to raise money for much-needed church repairs, Vicar Tom Christmas and others from his parish participate in a skydiving fund raiser at Eggescombe Park. After the locals complete their jump, the Leaping Lords put on one of their skydiving shows. The show has more drama than usual when one of the Lords' parachutes fails to open after a mid-air scuffle with a fellow Lord. While all ends well for the Lord, Tom has badly sprained an ankle in a rough landing, spoiling his travel plans. Since Tom can't drive, he and his 10-year-old daughter Miranda stay on as guests at Eggescombe Hall. Tom soon learns that it isn't all Happy Families at the Hall when the Dowager Countess and one of the guests fill him in on the family tensions among the siblings, half-siblings, and cousins gathered at the hall for the occasion. After an unsettling night, Tom seeks spiritual solitude in the Labyrinth, but instead he finds the body of one of the Lords.

The third installment of this series takes the vicar out of the midst of the usual suspects in the village. In some ways that's a good thing since the cast of villagers is rather large and was hard to keep track of in the first couple of books. However, while there are fewer residents and guests to track at Eggescombe Hall, the complexity of their interrelationships presents a different difficulty for the reader. Jane Bee, the amateur sleuth from the author's earlier series, made a brief appearance in the first book in this series, and her fans will be pleased that her character has a major role in this book.

In many ways this is the best book yet in the series. However, I was very uncomfortable with the vicar's behavior in this installment, and it somewhat marred my enjoyment of the book. In evangelical circles, a minister who did what the vicar did in this book would most likely lose his job, probably through resignation. While Tom isn't proud of his moral lapse, it doesn't trouble him as much as I think it should.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

3.5 stars

Yay, Jane Bee! Also good to know about the ease or lack thereof of keeping track of people in this book. That was one of my problems with the first book; that and the vicar seemed to have too much backstory for one character. I found Eleven Pipers Piping at the library and am hoping the backstory stuff will have settled down a bit.

I had the same problem with the first book - way too many characters and too much back story. There wasn't as much of either in book two. This book is connected to some of the events in book one, but you could skip over book two without missing any vital information if you wanted to.

There is a family tree in the front of the book that will be more useful to print readers. I wasn't able to flip back and forth to it easily, and the print was really tiny on my small e-reader screen.

I took Adrian for a walk right after I got home from work this afternoon and noticed a problem that needs medical attention. The problem is that I'm supposed to be in an all-day meeting in Knoxville tomorrow and I can't take him to see the vet until Monday. I had already made arrangements with a friend to pick him up tomorrow morning and keep him at her house for the day. I called to give her a heads-up about Adrian's condition and found out that the vet is going to be at her house tomorrow afternoon. I won't be there, but my dog will. She's going to see what she can find out from the vet to pass along to me so that I'll know signs that would indicate he needs emergency attention.

Oh no.... here is hoping Adrian's condition doesn't require emergency attention and that it can be easily treated.

Keeping my fingers Xed for Adrian!!

I just got home after picking Adrian up from my friend's house and he seems fine. We've got a vet appointment on Monday and maybe I'll find out what's going on and what I need to do to help him get better. I may need to change his diet, his feeding schedule, or both.

Aw, poor little guy. :(

Adrian doesn't seem to be suffering or in pain, but I can tell things aren't normal with him. (Blood is usually a good sign.) Part of this is for my benefit, too. I'm having to take him out in the middle of the night most nights. He really, really needs to go, and he settles right back into his crate when we come back in. On the other hand, I can't always get right back to sleep. He's such a sweet little guy and this isn't his fault so I try not to let myself get too worked up over it.

Sounds odd, yes. Hmm. Oh, I would be at the vet's as soon as I could just to make sure. Still keeping my fingers Xed - typing's a bit hard...

Book 11 in my Giants category: Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark wrote her biography of Mary Shelley before she published her first novel. Decades later she substantially revised the biography. Although she doesn't explicitly state this, I'm sure her experience as a novelist informed the revision, particularly the critical section of the book. I like reading novelists on other novelists because they have a different insight into the creative process than biographers who write only non-fiction.

I appreciated Spark's comment in the introduction that she “ha{s} always disliked the sort of biography which states 'X lay on the bed and watched the candle flickering on the roof beams,' when there is no evidence that X did so.” I also dislike that sort of biography, and when I read them I always end up questioning the facts as well as the added color. Spark comes across as a careful and conscientious biographer who does not speculate farther than is warranted by the historical evidence and, where her interpretation differs from Shelley's other biographers, acknowledges these differences of opinion.

I read this biography as a companion to Shelley's Frankenstein on audio and I'm glad I decided to do that. I knew the barest details about how Shelley had come to write Frankenstein, but not enough of the details of Shelley's life to affect my interpretation of the novel. Shelley's husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, died young, and all but one of the couple's children died in infancy or early childhood. I didn't realize that Mary Shelley only knew her famous mother, Mary Woollstonecraft, through her writings and the stories she heard from others since Mary Woollstonecraft died very soon after her daughter's birth. Mary Shelley lost other family members and friends to illness or accident while she was still in her twenties, and the accumulation of loss affected her writing.

Shelley's life is covered in the first third of the book, while the last third contains a critical reflection on her work. Readers whose primary interest is in one or the other could read just the section corresponding to their interest. However, it's worthwhile to read the work as a whole since there are some critical comments in the biographical section and the critical section refers to some of the biographical details of Shelley's life.

4 stars

Next up in non-fiction: Marie Curie and Her Daughters by Shelley Emling

Great review! It sounds like a most interesting biography.

Thanks RP!

Sounds like Spark did a great job with the Shelley biography. Great review!

Thanks Lori! It was a quick read for non-fiction. The writing flowed and I didn't have to go back and re-read sentences very often.

The visit at the vet's went well and I think we're on the right track for addressing Adrian's digestive problems. He got an antibiotic shot after a minor procedure and he's on a bland diet for a couple of days.

Book 12 in my Smokies category: Tiepolo's Hound by Derek Walcott
AlphaCAT W
AwardsCAT - 1992 Nobel Prize winner

Poet and painter Derek Walcott uses one form of artistic expression to contemplate the other in a book-length poem. Walcott compares and contrasts himself as an artist with 19th-century impressionist Camille Pissaro, who, like Walcott, was born in the West Indies. Themes that run through the poem include nature, time, inspiration, Old vs. New world, and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Reading poetry is harder work than reading prose, and I found that reading aloud to my dog helped maintain my concentration and enhanced my appreciation of the work.

3.5 stars

October recap:

Pioneers – Books about U.S. history – 8/7

Preachers – Books about religion - 10/7
Junípero Serra: California's Founding Father by Steven W. Hackel (3.5)

Volunteers – Books about amateurs - 11/7
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley (3.5)
Ten Lords a-Leaping by C. C. Benison (3.5)

Trojans– Books about world history - 14/7

Smokies – Books set in travel/tourist destinations - 12/7
Tiepolo's Hound by Derek Walcott (3.5)

Ice Bears – Books set in winter or in northern states/countries - 12/7
The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck (3)

Colts – Children's or YA literature - 9/7

Broncos – Westerns or books set in the Western hemisphere - 7/7

Giants – Award winners or best sellers – 11/7
Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark (4)

Braves – Books about heroes - 8/7

Reds – Books read & recommended by other Lters – 8/7
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (audiobook) (4)
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (4.5)

Sparks – Books that spark my interest - 13/7

Draft day – Books picked for me by others- 9/7
I didn't quite manage to finish my book for this category before the end of the month. :-(

Best of the month: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Worst of the month: I had a few so-so reads, but nothing bad enough to stand out from the rest.

My first book for November is actually my October Draft Day book that I couldn't quite finish by the end of October: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak picked by mamzel.

If Death was anywhere during World War II, it was certainly active in Nazi Germany. What story would Death tell of life in Germany under the Nazis? Possibly this one – the story of a young girl driven by loss and grief to become a book thief. The protagonists in the book aren't Jews or Nazis. They're poor Germans whose strongest loyalties lie, not with government or party, but with family, friends, and neighbors. Their sense of decency and dignity drive some to quiet resistance to the Nazi regime. It's not a comfortable book to read, but it's an unforgettable one. Characters like Liesel Meminger, Rudy Steiner, the Hubermanns, Ilsa Hermann, and Max Vandenburg will haunt readers' memories just as they haunt Death's.

4.5 stars

Book 8 in my Broncos category: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (because the action moves through most of Western Europe!)

In some ways Mary Shelley was ahead of her time with Frankenstein. If she had written it about 150 years later, I can imagine it featuring a robot or human cloning. However, in other ways Shelley was a product of her time. The narrative is dialogue-heavy and the horror loses its intensity in its wordiness. It's hard not to think of the many Hollywood adaptations while reading the book (or in this case, listening to it). The narrator's voice for Victor Frankenstein sounded a lot like Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein - just one instance of Hollywood's influence on the interpretation of the novel.

3 stars

Next up in audio: Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

Book 15 in my Trojans category: Leaving China: An Artist Paints His World War II Childhood by James McMullan
RandomCAT - (James)

Through a combination of watercolor images and short biographical sketches, illustrator James McMullan remembers his early childhood in China and his global wanderings with his mother during World War II. James's paternal grandparents went to China in the late 19th century as missionaries with China Inland Mission. James's father became a successful businessman, importing Western goods to sell in China and exporting Chinese goods to the West. James was born in 1934, just three years before the Japanese invasion of China and the second Sino-Japanese war.

James remembers the beauty of his early environment – the landscape, architecture, interior design, and artwork, but his early memories of events seem to be more painful than happy. James was a sensitive child, more interested in art than athletics, and he sensed that his personality and temperament were a disappointment to his parents. His childhood loneliness is reflected in the illustrations. Influences that led to his career as an artist are seen in his early interest in the Chinese artwork in his home, watching his Canadian aunt's artist neighbor at his work, winning school friends through is cartoon drawings, and the encouragement of a boxing instructor to pursue his interest.

This book should find a place in many libraries. It will appeal to readers with an interest in memoirs of artists, World War II memoirs, children's experiences of war, pre-revolutionary China, and perhaps even missionary history and biography.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley,

4.5 stars

Carrie, so glad you loved it! Have you seen the trailer for the movie coming out? find link here. Coming out this weekend!

Mamzel, thanks for picking it for me! I'm not sure when it would have worked its way to the top of my TBR pile otherwise. I probably won't see the movie until it comes out on DVD. I hardly ever go to the movies any more.

Book 13 in my Ice Bears category: A Christmas Hope by Anne Perry

Claudine Burroughs finds the fulfillment that she doesn't find her marriage through volunteering at Hester Monk's clinic for London's prostitutes. Although she doesn't love her husband and has nothing in common with him, Claudine fulfills her social obligations by accompanying her husband to dinners, parties, and special events, including a society Christmas party. The festivities end abruptly when a young woman of dubious moral character is assaulted and possibly fatally injured. Claudine is among the first of the guests to rush to the scene. A Welsh poet with a reputation for heavy drinking and womanizing is accused of the assault, but Claudine isn't sure that he's as guilty as he appears to be. Perhaps the three young men from good families who witnessed the assault are not as innocent as they claim to be. Claudine enlists the help of Squeaky Robinson, the clinic's bookkeeper, in ferreting out the truth.

Claudine is not as sympathetic as some of Perry's other characters. Her motives for volunteering at Hester's clinic don't seem to be entirely altruistic. She seems to regret choosing a comfortable life with a man she doesn't love over a less stable but more fulfilling existence. Her husband's only fault seems to be that he is unkind to her and cares more about appearances than true virtue. However, Claudine seems to be equally unkind to him, so it feels a lot like the “pot calling the kettle black”.

Claudine isn't looking for clues, but she is looking for someone among the witnesses who will tell the truth. Along the way she has an opportunity to counsel some young adults about the consequences of the choices that are available to them, using her own life as an illustration. She also reflects on the true meaning of Christmas. It shouldn't be a time to ignore the ugly things in life. It should be a time for generosity of spirit and a hope for change.

Reading Anne Perry's Christmas novellas has become a holiday tradition for me. They are a good reminder that, beneath the glitter of the holiday decorations and festivities, there are hurting people, and one of the best gifts we can give at Christmas time is something that will alleviate even just a little of others' suffering.

This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

3 stars

Book 9 in my Braves category: Marie Curie and Her Daughters by Shelley Emling

Shelley Emling begins her biography of Marie Curie and her daughters where others might end it - with the awarding of Marie Curie’s second Nobel Prize. When readers meet Marie, she is a widow and single mother raising two young daughters. Emling immediately launches readers into the scandal surrounding Marie’s affair with her married colleague, Paul Langevin. The “private life” of Curie and her daughters consists mainly of Curie’s affair with Langevin, the family’s domestic arrangements, the girls’ education, the letters exchanged between mother and daughters, and occasional interactions with Marie’s siblings. Emling makes much of Marie’s friendship with American journalist Missy Meloney, but Meloney is scarcely mentioned outside of the chapters about Marie’s fund-raising trips to the United States.

Emling seems to have relied heavily on interviews with Marie Curie’s granddaughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot, and access to the family’s papers. While some of the details may not have been published before, they won’t necessarily generate a lot of excitement for most readers. Life was all about science for Marie and for her oldest daughter, Irène, and there didn’t seem to be much of anything else to their lives. I was most interested in the effects of the publicity surrounding Marie Curie’s affair, the effect of World War I on Marie’s research and the role she and Irène had during the war, the family’s travel to the United States, Irène’s own Nobel Prize (shared with her husband), Irène and her husband’s discoveries that in part led to the discovery of nuclear fission, and the impact of World War II. I was less interested in the details from their correspondence and detailed itineraries of their travels that amounted to little more than dates and names of officials and organizations they visited.

Since this book skips most of Marie Curie’s early life and the years of work for which she was awarded the Nobel Prizes, this wouldn’t be the best place to start reading about her. The book is best suited for readers who are already somewhat familiar with her work and her legacy.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.

3 stars

Hi Carrie, I'm late coming to your last thread but congrats on finishing your challenge ! Nice review of Mary Shelley it's going on the BB.

>80 electrice: Thanks! I hope you enjoy the Mary Shelley bio. She was surrounded by some fascinating people.

Book 11 in my Preachers category: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
AwardCAT - Hugo Award (2008)
AlphaCAT "Y"

After two weeks of working my way through this book, I can sum up my reaction in one word: disappointed. When I looked beneath the alternate history, the unfamiliar Yiddish dialect, the hard boiled attitude, and the chess theme that permeates this book, I found a typically negative stereotype of people of faith who lean toward the conservative end of the spectrum (in this case, Jews who look forward to the coming of the Messiah and Christians who look forward to Jesus' second advent). It all clicked at about the three quarter point and I could see exactly where events were headed. I expected more, especially since I really liked the other two books I've read by this author. It hasn't discouraged me from reading more of Chabon's books, but it has lowered my expectations from him.

2.5 stars

Darn on the Chabon book. I am starting to get a little concerned that I have already read the only book that he has written that would attract me as a reader, Gentlemen of the Road. I am determined to give Kavalier and Clay one more chance but not sure I am up for Yiddish Policemen's Union, even though others have enjoyed it. Did you get the impression that Chabon likes to pepper his stories with 'big words' and terms that the average lay reader gets muddled with? That was my only grip with Gentlemen of the Road.

Here is hoping your next book is a better read!

Did you get the impression that Chabon likes to pepper his stories with 'big words' and terms that the average lay reader gets muddled with? That was my only grip with Gentlemen of the Road.

I noticed that in Gentlemen of the Road, but in that case I think listening to the audio version helped. The narrator's expression and tone helped to convey the meaning of some of the unfamiliar words. In this book it wasn't so much big words as it was Yiddish words. We don't have a lot of those words in our vocabulary here in the South!

Book 10 in my Colts category: The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
AwardCAT - National Book Award (young people's literature), 2005
RandomCAT - The youngest sister is named Elizabeth (but nicknamed "Batty")

This story about a family of four girls, their widowed father, and their summer vacation at a country estate seems timeless. The dialogue and many of the activities seem modern. For example, two of the girls play soccer, which is much more popular now than it was during my childhood. One of the sister, an aspiring author, types her finished novel on her father's computer. At the same time, modern technology is rarely mentioned in the book. The children spend most of their time outdoors. The oldest girl mails letters to her best friend back home. No mention of emails, texting, or Facebook. The family relies on a paper map rather than a GPS device to find their rental, adding some unexpected excitement to the journey. Technology changes so quickly that references to specific technologies can make a book seem dated within a short period of time, so the absence of references to contemporary technology might extend the book's popularity.

This is a perfect book for escaping from a cold and dreary autumn day. It reminded me of the seemingly endless summers of my childhood. Warmly recommended for both children and adults.

4 stars

The weather forecasters were predicting up to 2 inches of snow for my area. I don't think we're going to get that in my neighborhood. We have a light dusting on some parts of the ground but not on the road. I don't think the temperature has dropped below freezing.

At least it's not raining steadily like it did yesterday. I had a battle of wills with Adrian every time he needed to go out. He would have preferred to stay inside. The little raincoat I bought for him a couple of weeks ago helped, and once he realized he would stay drier by wearing it, he stayed still while I put it on him.

The last time we had snow here was 20 years ago and it was gone by noon. We will have to do with rain on Thanksgiving to set a mood.

It's cool your little guy willingly wears the raincoat. The only time I ever dressed a dog was when my brother and I tortured our poor mutt and put one of my mom's dresses on him. Neither the dog nor my mom appreciated it.

Besides the raincoat, Adrian also has a fleece-lined coat and a sweater. He doesn't mind wearing the coat or the sweater. He seems to get cold easily. Since he has a lingering cough from the bronchitis he had when I got him and he had a short haircut to get rid of the matted fur when he arrived at the shelter, I feel better about taking him outside in cold weather when he has an extra layer on him. Now that I know he'll wear sweaters, I might be inclined to buy more for him. He'll be the best-dressed dog on my street!

AWWWWW doggie raincoat!!!! That sounds adorable.

I'd love to get a picture of Adrian wearing his raincoat, but he doesn't like it well enough to pose for me. It will have to wait until a second person is available to be the photographer.

I made a point to watch the Macy's parade this morning. I have friends who have a granddaughter appearing with one of the high school bands. They were just on and I spotted her right at the end since her grandma had described what she would be wearing and carrying.

How cool!!

Book 9 in my Reds category: Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
RandomCAT - Several characters share the first name of one of the Mayflower Pilgrims (John Grey, John Vavasor, George Vavasor)

It seems that everyone but Alice Vavasor can forgive Alice for waffling over her engagements. (Except for her cousin George, but by the end of the book readers won't care what George thinks about anything!) But can the reader forgive her? Or is it Lady Glencora we're supposed to forgive? Or perhaps even Mrs. Greenow? All three women face similar circumstances. Each must decide which of two men to accept. Will they follow their hearts or their heads? Will they accept or reject advice? Will any choice lead to happiness, or is it just a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils?

I couldn't help comparing Alice to both Anne Elliot in Jane Austen's Persuasion and Lily Dale in Trollope's The Small House at Allington. Both Anne and Alice are motherless with fathers who have largely abdicated their parental responsibilities. Anne follows the guidance of a family friend in deciding whether to accept or reject a suitor, while Alice refuses to be guided by any but her own inclinations. Neither course of action works out well for these women. Alice is better suited for Lily Dale's life than is Lily Dale. She has money of her own and would not be a burden to other family members if she chose not to marry.

Aunt Greenow, recently widowed by a much older wealthy husband, provides comic relief. While she is the master of every situation and everyone does her bidding, she manages to make people think it's their idea to do what she wants them to do. The suspense for the reader is not in what might happen, but in how it will unfold.

Lady Glencora is my favorite of the three women. She may not know much about politics, but she understands people and she isn't easily fooled. My affinity for Lady Glencora is probably proof that I wouldn't have been cut out to be a society wife in Victorian England either.

I read this years ago but remembered very little of it. I was probably too young to appreciate it the first time around. Now I'm eagerly looking forward to discovering the pleasures ahead in the remaining books in the Palliser series.

4.5 stars

Book 13 in my Smokies category: A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
AlphaCAT - K

If you're thinking of going to Antigua on vacation, you probably shouldn't read this before you go. You might end up canceling your reservations. This isn't a sentimental reminiscence about the author's native country. It's full of anger at tourists, at the former colonial government, and at corruption in the post-colonial government. I don't know what Kincaid intended to accomplish with this extended essay, but it seems like she means to discourage North American and European tourists from visiting, and she would rather have Antigua left to the Antiguans. Since Antigua's economy is based largely on tourism, I'm not sure how discouraging visitors will improve things. There are enough interesting facts interspersed with the rants to make me feel like I gained something from reading it.

3.5 stars

Book 16 in my Trojans category: Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther

Mrs. Miniver is a compilation of short stories that originally appeared in a London newspaper in the late 1930s. The book doesn't have a plot, yet there are some story arcs that can be traced through the collection, particularly the build-up to World War II. The stories depict middle class life between the wars and give readers an idea of what was at stake in World War II. Struther's style is an appealing blend of pragmatism and imagination (or perhaps curiosity). I can see why this book was so popular in its day and why it still attracts readers decades later. Here's a small taste from the story “Gas Masks”:

...if the worst came to the worst, these children would at least know that we were fighting against an idea, and not against a nation. Whereas the last generation had been told to run and play in the garden, had been shut out from the grown-ups' worried conclaves: and then quite suddenly had all been plunged into an orgy of licensed lunacy, of boycotting Grimm and Struwwelpeter, of looking askance at their cousins' old Fräulein, and of feeling towards Dachshund puppies the uneasy tenderness of a devout churchwoman dandling her daughter's love-child. But this time those lunacies—or rather, the outlook which bred them—must not be allowed to come into being. To guard against that was the most important of all the forms of war work which she and other women would have to do: there are no tangible gas masks to defend us in wartime against its slow, yellow, drifting corruption of the mind.

4 stars

Book 11 in my Draft Day category: King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard (picked by sjmccreary)
AlphaCAT - K

A man looking for his missing brother recruits elephant hunter Allan Quatermain to lead a search that will take them through an uninhabitable desert. The brother was headed for a region said to be the location of the biblical King Solomon's mines. The odds are that the search party will not survive their mission, but the possibility of riches is enough to tip the scales in favor of the quest. Quatermain, the brother of the missing man, a retired naval officer, and two African guides set out on what soon becomes a page-turning adventure across the desert, over the mountains, and into an unknown kingdom.

I was pleasantly surprised by the humor in the book. The story is laced with laugh-out-loud passages like this one:

As those who read this history will probably long ago have gathered, I am, to be honest, a bit of a coward, and certainly in no way given to fighting, though somehow it has often been my lot to get into unpleasant positions, and to be obliged to shed man's blood. But I have always hated it, and kept my own blood as undiminished in quantity as possible, sometimes by a judicious use of my heels.

Haggard's style reminds me of Mark Twain, and the plot bears some similarities to parts of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Haggard's book came first, and it would seem that it had some influence on Twain.

This is a book I've wanted to read ever since reading Elizabeth Peters' The Last Camel Died at Noon a couple of years ago. Now I know why Peters was a fan. The book will also appeal to readers who love adventure movies like the Indiana Jones series and the National Treasure films.

4 stars

Book 9 in my Broncos category: Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

Although I'm not a fan of Westerns, Riders of the Purple Sage is a classic in the genre and I've wanted to read it for some time. A Zane Grey group read gave me the motivation I needed. I listened to the audio version read by Mark Bramhall and I'm almost certain that I enjoyed listening to Bramhall's narration more than I would have enjoyed reading the book. His voice for each character was just right, even for the women. A lot of the dialogue was dated, but somehow Bramhall managed to keep it from sounding corny.

I wasn't as bothered as some were with the negative portrayal of Mormons. The book is set in Utah Territory in 1871, at a time when there was a great deal of mistrust between the Mormons and the non-Mormons who lived there. Brigham Young was still living and the church had not yet rejected polygamy.

The thing that eventually got to me was Jane Withersteen's gun phobia. It seemed to be more than pacifism. She had a horror for guns, and she did everything she could to get the gunman Lassiter to give up his guns. Jane Withersteen was the owner of a large ranch with lots of livestock. Guns would be necessary for protecting the livestock from predators or for quickly putting fatally injured animals out of their misery. Jane needed to know how to use guns, and her employees needed access to guns. Her attitude toward guns made no sense for her position or life in that place and time.

Westerns will never be a favorite genre for me. However, at some point I would like to try Grey's Frontier trilogy, starting with Betty Zane, since it's based on Grey's family history.

3 stars

Next up in audio: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood

November recap:

Pioneers – Books about U.S. history – 8/7

Preachers – Books about religion - 11/7
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (2.5)

Volunteers – Books about amateurs - 11/7

Trojans – Books about world history – 16/7
Leaving China: An Artist Paints His World War II Childhood by James McMullan (4.5)
Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther (4)

Smokies – Books set in travel/tourist destinations - 13/7
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (3.5)

Ice Bears – Books set in winter or in northern states/countries - 13/7
A Christmas Hope by Anne Perry (3)

Colts – Children's or YA literature – 10/7
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (4)

Broncos – Westerns or books set in the Western hemisphere – 9/7
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (3)
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (3)

Giants – Award winners or best sellers – 11/7

Braves – Books about heroes – 9/7
Marie Curie and Her Daughters by Shelley Emling (3)

Reds – Books read & recommended by other LTers – 9/7
Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope (4.5)

Sparks – Books that spark my interest - 13/7

Draft day – Books picked for me by others - 11/7
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (4.5)
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard (4)

Best of the month: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Worst of the month: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

You did really well this month. I have The Yiddish Policemen's Union on Mt. TBR, so hope I like it better than you. I'm in a horrific reading-slump right now, even though I'm working on two books I really enjoy, I just seem unable to sit down with them - real life is ruining my reading-schedule! :)

>99 -Eva-: It was that last-minute push during the Thanksgiving holiday that did it! One of the things that slowed me down with The Yiddish Policemen's Union is my unfamiliarity with Yiddish. If you are more familiar with it than I am you should have an easier go of it. You do need to make sure you have plenty of time to read it, so it sounds like now wouldn't be a good time for you to pick it up. I hope you get more room in your schedule for the reading you want to do!

Thanks, that's very good to know - I am somewhat familiar with Yiddish, so that at least will be fairly easy.

I spent most of the day (when I wasn't at the dentist's) dealing with a foul odor in a public area at work. Last night we had determined that the odor was coming from behind a bookcase. I started unloading it first thing this morning so that the guys from maintenance could move the unit. This involved taking up all of the carpet squares in front of it. The smell was coming from inside the wall, so there's probably a dead mouse in there. We had the option of either doing nothing and waiting a week or so for the smell to dissipate or drilling holes in the wall and piping in a really strong deodorant, leaving us with a strong orange smell in the area for about 2 weeks. We opted for the orange smell. By the time we got the bookshelf back in place and all of the books loaded on it, the decaying animal smell was gone, but we couldn't really smell the citrus either. We definitely made the right choice. The workers who have to spend a lot of time in that area certainly think so! The only downside is that they had to replace a couple of carpet tiles with a different pattern in a slightly darker color. It's in the corner so it probably won't be noticeable to anyone except staff, but it annoys the perfectionist in me.

Book 11 in my Colts category: Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

Two preteen girls from a London housing estate mysteriously find themselves in a place that definitely isn't London, yet is strangely reminiscent of London. The meet some unusual characters and gradually learn from them about the evil menace that lurks over the city. At least one of the girls is expected as the prophesied hero who will defeat the evil forces that threaten this world. However, things don't work out as expected...

The plot is reminiscent of other fantasy stories like C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, where children from this world find a hidden gateway to another world and engage in a quest to save the alternate world from a terrible fate. The fun in this one is its description of the alternate London and its inhabitants. It's a world that will amuse and delight any reader, although readers familiar with London may have a greater appreciation for it. Some of the symbolism may be too subtle for children, yet too obvious for adult readers. I enjoyed reading it once, but I don't think Un Lun Dun is a place I'll be drawn back to like I am to Lewis's Narnia.

3.5 stars

Book 12 in my Colts category: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood

After completing her education at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, 15-year-old Penelope Lumley accepts a post as governess at Ashton Place. The intrepid governess is not daunted upon learning that her three charges have just been captured in the woods where they have been living in the wild. Miss Lumley simply adds instruction in personal grooming, wearing clothing, and speaking to her curriculum of mathematics, geography, language, and literature (with occasional distractions from squirrels). Miss Lumley's skills will soon be put to the test when the lady of the house decides to host a Christmas party with the children in attendance.

Katherine Kellgren's narration further enhances an already delightful fairytale-like story. All of her characterizations are outstanding, but I particularly enjoyed hearing the children's voices as they struggled with human speech. Readers should be forewarned that the story ends with a cliff-hanger. I'm eager to get my hands on the next book in the series, and it will have to be the audio version now I that I know how good it is in that format.

5 stars

Next up in audio: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Back to your Trollope reading, I've been thinking of starting the Palliser series, but I loved the Barsetshire series so much that I'm nervous it won't measure up. Good to see your 4.5 star rating!

>105 japaul22: Barchester Towers is still my favorite of all the Trollopes I've read, but Can You Forgive Her? comes close. I'm looking forward to continuing with the Palliser series, but I still have The Last Chronicle of Barset to get through first.

I adore the Palliser series. i find it far more interesting than the Barsetshire Chronicles if only because you have a wider range of character types for Trollope to make fun of.

Good to know about the Palliser books. I'll have to start them sooner rather than later!

Book 12 in my Giants category: House of Stone by Anthony Shadid

American journalist Anthony Shadid covered the war in Lebanon in 2006. At the end of the conflict, Shadid visited his ancestral home in Marjayoun, a town in southern Lebanon. There he found his great-grandfather's house, empty, with a partially exploded Israeli rocket in the top floor. Some combination of nostalgia for his family's past and a desire to anchor himself to the present motivated Shadid to take on the task of rebuilding his ancestral home. He took a leave of absence from his newspaper and spent a year in Lebanon overseeing the project. His memoir describes the home's reconstruction, as well as the people he encountered in the process. Stories of Shadid's great-grandfather, who built the house, and his grandmother, who was sent to America at age 12, are interspersed throughout the book.

Shadid goes into great detail about the men hired to work on the home and the materials used in the construction project. This is the weakest part of the book, mainly because there are no accompanying illustrations - no before and after photos, no close-ups of the architectural features Shadid describes, no photos of the garden and the variety of trees and plants he placed there.

The best parts of the book describe the residents of Marjayoun, the emigrants who left there, the history of Lebanon from the closing years of the Ottoman Empire, Lebanon's religious and political climate, and Shadid's family history. I also felt the lack of illustrations in the sections about Shadid's ancestors. He described photographs he had seen of his ancestors. I would have loved to have seen at least one or two of those photographs so that I would have had faces to put with the individuals brought back from the past in this book.

When I Googled for pictures of the house, I discovered that Shadid died unexpectedly shortly after completing the book. Knowing that he had so little time to establish a home in the restored house added a sense of poignancy to my reading. Shadid left two children behind. This book won't make up for growing up without their father, but it will at least help them to know him and something of their heritage.

3.5 stars

Currently reading: Jack Maggs by Peter Carey and The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola

I haven't posted any pictures of Adrian for a while. Here he is in his favorite spot. He loves to look out the window and sits there so long that sometimes he'll fall asleep.

My SantaThing books came in today's mail! I'll be away from home & flying over Christmas so I had already planned to open the package as soon as it arrives. My Santa did a fine job picking books for me. I got:

The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson - Now I can correct the things I'm doing wrong with Adrian, and I might learn that I accidentally did a few things right with him!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - Am I the last person who hasn't read this book?

At Home by Bill Bryson - After reading the introduction, I can't wait to dig into the rest of the book. I may have to revise some my reading plans to work this one in fairly soon.

Oh... oh.... oh, I loved The Thirteenth Tale! ;-)

I haven't read it either, Carrie, but it's on my TBR list. I've heard wonderful things about it.

->110 cbl_tn:
That's adorable!!

>112 lkernagh: Good to know!

>113 thornton37814: I'm glad I'm not the only one who hasn't read it!

>114 -Eva-: Thanks Eva! He's sitting above me on the sofa right now. I don't hear any snoring so he's probably awake!

Book 13 in my Giants category: Jack Maggs by Peter Carey
AwardsCAT (Miles Franklin Award, 1998)

Increasingly desperate characters are thrown together by chance in late Georgian/early Victorian London. Their desires and fates soon become so intertwined that it becomes impossible for any of them to extricate themselves from their present situation. Their power struggle results in events spiraling out of control toward an unavoidable crash. The only question seems to be how badly things will end.

Peter Carey imagines a back story for characters from Great Expectations. While alert readers will spot the connections, this isn't a retelling of Dickens' novel. I would suggest that the strongest similarity is in the characterization. Like Dickens, Carey paints memorable characters, all flawed to some degree, yet all human enough to arouse the reader's sympathy. I raced through the last third of the book, anxious to see how it would end. Recommended for most readers of historical fiction.

4 stars

Book 13 in my Colts category: The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

While shopping for an Advent calendar in a Norwegian town, a young boy and his father discover a one-of-a-kind calendar in a bookshop. Joachim looks forward to opening each day's door to learn more about a little girl, Elisabet, and her companions who are on a journey across Europe and backwards through time to be present at Christ's birth in Bethlehem.

I easily read this book in a single day, but I think it would be more pleasurable to read a chapter a day throughout December leading up to Christmas. Some of the chapters become repetitive, a useful feature if you're reading the book over a 3 ½ week period but a flaw if you're reading it in a short period of time. Besides its obvious use for religious instruction during Advent, this book could also be used to introduce children to some of the events and key figures in European history.

3 stars

Book 14 for my Ice Bears category: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
RandomCAT

I've seen multiple television and film adaptations of A Christmas Carol, but I don't think I had read the original story/novella before now. While this was my first experience with the book, it won't be my last. Dickens' tale is full of nuances that are missing from the adaptations I've seen. The humorous parts were funnier and the melancholy parts were more heart-wrenching than the movies. I wish I could have experienced the book just once without images from the films crowding my mind. I'd like to form my own image of Dickens' descriptions of Scrooge, his office, his home, Marley's ghost, and the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.

5 stars

Next up in audio: A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry

Ooooh..... Jack Maggs looks like my kind of story! Book bullet happily taken. ;-)

>119 lkernagh: I think you'll like it! Have you read any of Carey's other novels? Parrot and Olivier in America has been on my wishlist forever.

No, Carey is going to be a 'new to me' author, although Oscar and Lucinda seems like a familiar title.... I must have read a review here on LT for it.

I came close to choosing Oscar and Lucinda since it would fit this month's AlphaCAT, but I had other L books and I really wanted to read Jack Maggs.

slowly catching up on people's threads - looks like you've had some good reading lately. I seem to remember I enjoyed the yiddish policeman more than gentlemen of the road and I couldn't get far with Kavalier and Clay at all, Chabon has mostly been "disappointing" from my experience.

am avoiding reading too many reviews of Un Lun Dun as that's nexct up for me

I liked King solomon's mines also

Book 14 in my Giants category: Lamentations of the Father by Ian Frazier

A couple of pieces in this collection had me laughing out loud. One was the title essay bemoaning typical child behavior (table manners, etc.) in biblical style. The other was a reflection on the problem of recall in middle age, when it's no longer easy to mentally delineate between, for example, H. G. Wells, George Orwell, Orson Welles, and Orson Bean. (And was it ever easy to keep Robert Conrad and William Conrad straight?)

Unfortunately the other 34 pieces didn't so much as tickle my funny bone. Perhaps Frazier and I have so little in common that we don't even share a sense of humor, and others who share Frazier's outlook on life would see the humor that I missed. After all, this collection did win the Thurber Award for American Humor. The judges must have found more to laugh at than I did.

2 stars

H Pete! Sorry I overlooked your post this morning! I wanted to get the review posted for the book I finished last night so I could return it to the library this evening, but I wasn't quite awake. :) I hope you enjoy Un Lun Dun. I'm glad I read it, and I may try Mieville again sometime.

I had some excitement this evening. Adrian & I went to town for some errands. I got a call on the way home that I couldn't answer because my phone was out of reach. (I don't like to use the phone while driving anyway.) It was my friend who adopted a cairn terrier the same day I adopted Adrian. She had gone out for the day and her dog was home with her daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law let her out in the (fenced) yard, but then couldn't find her when she was ready to go in. The dog is black and it was dark. My friend called to see if I would take Adrian over there and see if his presence would attract her from wherever she was. Shortly after Adrian and I joined the search, my friend's son spotted a pair of eyes under the air conditioning unit. She had somehow wedged herself underneath. It took him several minutes to work her out from under there. She was cold but otherwise seems OK. Meanwhile, Adrian thought it was an adventure. I hope Stella didn't give him any ideas since he'll be staying there next week when I go to my brother's for Christmas.

Book 9 in my Pioneers category: In the Dark Streets Shineth: A 1941 Christmas Eve Story by David McCullough
RandomCAT

In midst of the holiday rush, it's refreshing to set aside a few minutes for quiet reflection about the season. This brief story of Christmas at the White House in 1941 will inspire readers of any age with the spirit of Christmas. Author David McCullough helps younger generations of readers find new meaning in the familiar songs “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “I'll Be Home for Christmas”. The accompanying DVD is a live recording of the author's recitation of the story to the musical accompaniment of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Historical images from World War II in both the book and the DVD will help readers visualize the setting. The book includes the 1941 Christmas speeches of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The half hour it takes to read the book and watch the DVD would be time well spent.

4 stars

Oh, poor little Stella, but hopefully Adrian and Stella will be so busy playing together that they won't go off exploring on their own.

Judy, I'm so glad we found Stella when we did. I'm sure she was wondering if someone was going to come and help her out of her jam. Adrian gave me a scare this evening. He got excited about something he saw outdoors, starting jumping around without watching where his feet were, and fell down between the sofa and the wall. He was more surprised than hurt and he seems to be fine now.

Book 15 in my Ice Bears category: A Killer's Christmas in Wales by Elizabeth J. Duncan
AlphaCAT L (set in a village called Llanelen)

Things are busy for manicurist Penny Brannigan in the weeks before Christmas. Penny and her business partner, Victoria, plan to open their new spa in time for Christmas. They've also agreed to judge the Christmas window display competition among the Welsh village's merchants. They still don't know the identity of the decades-old remains found in the spa during the building's renovation. Penny gets even busier when a newcomer to the village is murdered at Conwy Castle. The prime suspect is one of Penny's customers, and she asks Penny to look into the murder to make sure that the police don't overlook any other suspects. Since Penny and her art group were touring the castle when the murder occurred, it's possible that she noticed some unusual detail that would point to the murderer's identity. On top of everything else, a petty thief is on the prowl in the village and Penny is dismayed when she finds that she's become one of the thief's victims.

The mysteries in this series aren't terribly complicated or cleverly plotted. The Welsh village setting and the pleasant characters are what continue to attract me. I've been to Conwy Castle so it was fun for me to “return” there with Penny and other characters in the book. This series is a lot like another cozy village series I enjoy – the Dorothy Martin series by Jeanne Dams. I think Dorothy Martin's fans would also enjoy this series and its surprising connection to this book.

3.5 stars

Did Dorothy make a cameo appearance in the Penny Brannigan book? I know Penny often makes cameos in the Dorothy Martin series.

Yes, Dorothy popped in for a couple of pages!

Book 12 in my Volunteers category: A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry
RandomCAT

Since Charlotte Pitt is sick, her sister, Emily Radley, responds to their aunt's summons to Charlotte to come to her in Ireland. Their Aunt Susannah is dying and may not last until Christmas. When Emily arrives, she finds that the small Irish village is also dying under the weight of an unsolved murder. Then another stranger arrives and stirs up memories of the murdered man. Will history repeat itself? Or will Emily be able to uncover the truth, and in so doing restore life to the village?

I've always liked Emily, who has sometimes assisted Thomas Pitt in delicate murder investigations among the upper class. This was one of the more enjoyable Christmas novellas for me since it features Emily. However, the plot relies on an improbable coincidence and illogical assumptions that I found difficult to accept. Recommended with reservations to fans of Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series.

3 stars

Next up in audio: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Book 10 in my Braves category: The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch
RandomCAT
AlphaCAT (main character is Charles Lenox)

When two newspaper men are murdered within minutes of each other, Charles Lenox is consulted by Inspector Jenkins of Scotland Yard without his superior's knowledge. Before Lenox gets very far in his investigation, he is called away to the north of England. The Member of Parliament for Stirrington has just died, and there will be an election to replace him in two weeks. Lenox will be the Liberal Party candidate for the seat, and he must dedicate himself to the campaign in the short time before the election. When his assistant/trainee, John Dallington, learns that an old acquaintance has been arrested for the murders, he begs Lenox to come back to London to find the truth. Lenox is torn between his calling as a private investigator and his desire to serve his country in Parliament.

The book focuses as much on the election campaign as on the murder mystery. I had recently read Trollope's Can You Forgive Her?, in which a special parliamentary election also played a role, and I think Finch must have done the same thing in his research for this book. The campaign is conducted much like those in Trollope's works.

The focus on the election shortchanges the development of the mystery plot. Lenox regrets being away from London and fears that the wrong person will be convicted for the murders since he isn't able to investigate. After these thoughts are repeated several times, it begins to come across as arrogance.

The likeable characters are the book's best feature, and they're why I'll continue reading this series. I enjoy spending time with Lenox, his neighbor and fiance Jane, his butler/valet Graham, Lenox and Jane's friends, the McConnells, and Inspector Jenkins.

3 stars

I'm headed to my brother's for Christmas this afternoon, but before I go I have to make a quick trip to the vet with Adrian. Over the weekend he started periodically shaking his head often enough that I started to wonder if he could be getting an ear infection. Normally I would wait and see if he developed any other symptoms, but since I'm leaving and he's staying with a friend I thought I'd better have him checked out before I go.

I've packed several books for the trip, plus I have a couple lined up on my iPad and my ereader. I probably won't get them all read, but the thought of being stuck without anything to read is so horrifying that I like to be well prepared!

It's a good thing I took Adrian to see the vet this morning. He doesn't have an infection, but he does have one ear that is irritated enough to bother him. The vet sent him home with eardrops, and my friend who's keeping him this week will give them to him. If he's not better by the end of the week, she can pick up some stronger medicine from the vet and I can pay the vet's bill when I get back. It helps that we have the same vet!

Have a good trip! Hope Adrian's ear feels better soon. And I know what you mean about packing lots of reading material -- it's nice to feel like one has plenty of options ;)

Good idea to make that trip to vet. I am sure Adrian appreciates the attention. Have a safe trip and a wonderful time at your brother's, Carrie! My family has never really understood my need for lots of reading material so I now pack only two hardcovers and a stack of e-books.... what they don't know doesn't hurt them and makes my trips more enjoyable and less stressful, for me anyways. ;-)

My SIL made an appointment for us to get manicures and pedicures this evening. I'm old enough that my feet usually swell when I fly, so the pedicure was a nice ending to a long day!

I miss Adrian, but I know he's having a great time at my friend's with his buddy Stella.

Enjoy your holidays with your family, Carrie!

Thanks Judy!

Merry Christmas to all my LT friends. I'm staying with my brother in Texas for a few days. We'll have our dinner tonight, the traditional time for Christmas dinner in Mexico, and open stockings and presents tomorrow morning like my brother and I did when we were growing up. Multicultural Christmases are so much fun! Tomorrow Adrian will get the Christmas stocking I left for him. I'll miss being with him, but I'm pretty sure he won't know the difference.

Enjoy and merry Christmas!

Enjoy your holiday!

>143 rabbitprincess:, 144 Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you, too!

My time in Texas has flown by. I head home this evening, and I'm hoping that Adrian (and his sitter) will meet me at the airport. I miss the little fellow!

Book 13 in my Volunteers category: Murder on the Candlelight Tour by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter

Ashley Wilkes is excited that her home has been selected for Wilmington's annual Candlelight Tour of its historic homes, even though she hasn't completed its renovation. The home's previous owner never allowed it to be open for the tour. Ashley isn't so excited when a friend is murdered during the tour. What secrets does her house harbor?

The mystery showed promise until the last few chapters, where it took a strange turn with the addition of a Wiccan, tarot card readings, etc. I wasn't expecting that. Even though I had guessed which of the suspects was the murderer, the resolution of the murder depended on knowledge that wasn't shared with readers until the final summation. I didn't care for the romance between Ashley and the homicide detective, and I think I'd quickly tire of their relationship if I read more books in the series. The strong Christmas theme made this an enjoyable holiday read, but I don't have much interest in reading other books in this series.

3 stars

Book 10 in my Pioneers category: A Secret Gift by Ted Gup

After his grandmother's death, journalist Ted Gup became the custodian of a suitcase filled with family papers. He was at first puzzled by a bundle of letters to a “B. Virdot” among the suitcase's contents. A little research revealed that his grandfather, the owner of a business in Canton, Ohio, had taken out a newspaper advertizement in the week before the Christmas of 1933 in the name of B. Virdot. He offered monetary gifts to families hit hard by the Depression. Gup tracked down descendants of the recipients of his grandfather's anonymous gifts of cash. He also discovered new information about his grandfather's family and their origins.

Reading this book during the Christmas season provided a reminder of the generosity of spirit that is too easy to lose in all of the “busy-ness” and commercialization of the season. It also provided insight into the effects of the Depression in the Midwest, where family on both sides of my family tree weathered the Hard Times. The author's grandfather had hidden some parts of his history and fabricated others. Although family history isn't the primary focus of the book, information about the author's research into his grandfather's past might suggest new avenues of research for other family historians with similarly difficult ancestors in their trees. Highly recommended for readers with an interest in Canton, Ohio, and its history; in the Depression era, in family history, or in philanthropy.

4.5 stars

Book 14 in my Smokies category: The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola
AlphaCAT L & Z

Depending on how you look at it, The Ladies' Paradise is either a story of a romance across lines of class and wealth, or it's a story of sexual harassment. The Ladies' Paradise is a rapidly expanding department store in 19th century Paris. Its growth is driving the neighborhood's small retailers out of business. The owner, Octave Mouret, is a young widower who has affairs with society women and shop girls. Denise Baudu, a recent arrival from a provincial town, is the young niece of one of the struggling retailers and a surrogate mother to her two younger brothers. Denise does not have affairs with either wealthy men or fellow salesmen. There is a battle of wills between small retailers and big business, social welfare and capitalism, and, on a personal level, Mouret and Denise. I was fascinated by the account of the rapid growth of the department store and the change it produced in consumer attitudes and behavior. I wasn't so fascinated by the romance (if you could call it that).

3.5 stars

Book 14 in my Sparks category: Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage by Donald T. Hawkins

This collection of essays examines the emerging field of personal digital archiving and is built on the first three conferences dedicated to this subject. The content is geared toward readers with a professional interest in the topic. However, a few of the essays will be of interest to family historians, estate executors, or others with a more personal interest in the subject. As a whole, the collection leans a bit more toward theory than practice, with an emphasis on a definition of the scope of the field, the philosophy that should guide practice, and identification of challenges that must be addressed. A couple of the articles describe current software applications and practices; these chapters are more likely than the others to become dated fairly quickly. This book should be in the professional reading collection of all librarians, archivists, and other information professionals. Family historians and other individuals without a professional interest in the subject will probably want to borrow this one from a library.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

4 stars

End of the year meme, using titles of books I read in 2013:

Describe yourself: Daughter of the Air

Describe how you feel: Old Bones

Describe where you currently live: Framley Parsonage

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Garden of Evening Mists

Your favorite form of transportation: A Walk in London

Your best friend is: The Unexpected Miss Bennet

You and your friends are: People of the Book

What’s the weather like: Half of a Yellow Sun

You fear: The Book Thief

What is the best advice you have to give: Duel with the Devil

Thought for the day: Why Shoot a Butler?

How I would like to die: Lost in a Good Book

My soul’s present condition: Imperfect Harmony

I agree with your favourite form of transportation (and it would also fit my "if you could go anywhere" section!).

Yes, that favorite form of transportation was a no-brainer for me! I used to be able to do that regularly!

Great year-end meme responses, Carrie! A walk in London would be divine and you have me pondering why any one would want to shoot the butler.... what did he do?! ;-)

Happy New Year, Carrie!

Well, Lori, let's just say he didn't confine his activities to butling!

Happy New Year!

Book 12 in my Draft Day category: Cornish Conundrum by Gene Stratton
RandomCAT

American Priscilla Booth has inherited a house in Cornwall from her cousin Sylvia, who died from an accidental fall. The terms of Sylvia's will require Priscilla to spend 30 nights in the house in order to secure her inheritance. Priscilla asks her lover, Mort Sinclair, to join her. Soon after their arrival, they learn that the police are investigating Sylvia's death as a possible murder. Although Priscilla is a police officer, she has no jurisdiction outside the U.S. and she is frustrated by her exclusion from the investigation. Mort establishes a tenuous relationship with the inspector in charge of the case that allows the couple to be involved in the investigation in a very limited way. The suspects include both locals and members of a film crew using a nearby estate as a filming location.

Although this self-published mystery has a number of flaws, it's as good as some professionally edited and published mysteries I've read. A professional editor possibly could have turned this into at least a 3-star book. I think the main problem is with the potential audience. It fits many of the characteristics of the cozy genre, but the level of sexual promiscuity in the book exceeds what many cozy readers would be comfortable reading. The genealogy angle isn't integral to the plot, and I suspect an editor would probably recommend cutting that part of the book. Most readers who select this book based on an interest in genealogy will be disappointed with the lack of meaningful genealogical content.

2 stars

That completes my 2013 reading!