Sally Lou's reading in 2021

My reading plans are pretty much the same as for this year (2020). However, I added categories for new books (which I read a lot of in 2020).

January -- Host for yearlong GeoKIT: North America

Titles read in January:
1. (1) Washington Black by Esi Edugyan -- BingoDOG and book club -- finished Jan. 9th -- 3 stars.
2. (2) Hush Now, Don't You Cry by Rhys Bowen -- MysteryKIT and BingoDOG -- finished Jan. 12th -- 4 stars
3. (short) Light for the World to See by Kwame Alexander -- BingoDOG --read Jan. 15th -- 4 stars
4. (3) 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time by the Editors of Time Magazine -- GenreCAT and BingoDOG -- finished reading Jan. 18th.
5. The Fox by D. H. Lawrence -- novella for short story seminar held at the Colonnades -- read Jan. 21st
6. (4) Let the People Pick the President: the Case for Abolishing the Electoral College by Jesse Wegman -- GenreCAT (Nonfiction) and BingoDOG (Impulse read) -- finished reading Jan. 27th -- 4 stars.
7. (5) Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris -- BingoDOG and New Dominion Book Group -- finished reading Jan. 29th -- 4.5 stars
8. (6) Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Jan. 31st -- 4 stars

Titles read in February:

1. (7) Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America -- by Mark A. Bradley -- HistoryCAT and BingoDOG -- finished reading Feb. 4th -- 4.5 Stars.
2. Some Say Tomato: Poems edited by Mariflo Stephens -- RandomCAT (fruits and vegetables) -- finished reading Feb. 8th -- 2 stars
3. (8) This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear --BingoDOG, GenreCat, GeoKIT -- finished reading Feb. 10th -- 3.5 stars
4. "The Case of Colonel Warburton's Madness by Lyndsay Faye in Sherlock Holmes in America read Feb. 11th for pleasure
5. (9) Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi -- Northside Library Book Club, BingoDOG -- finished reading Feb. 15th -- 3.5 stars
6. (10) Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era by Tamara Lucas Copeland -- sallylou61 -- BingoDOG, GenreCAT, HistoryCAT, GeoKIT -- finished Feb. 18th -- 5 stars
7. "A Country Doctor" by Franz Kafka, translated by Donna Freed -- Jim's short story class -- read Feb. 18th
8. "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka, translated by Donna Freed -- Jim's short story class -- read Feb. 18th/19th
9. (11) Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset --RandomCAT (fruit and vegetables), BingoDOG -- finished Feb. 23rd -- 4 stars
10. "In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Jim's short stories seminar -- read Feb. 25th
11. "The Hunter Gracchus" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Jim's short stories seminar -- read Feb. 25th
12. Esmont, Virginia by Friends of Esmont with Andi Cumbo-Floyd -- local (regional) reading of just published book -- read Feb. 28th --- 3 stars

Titles read in March:

1. "The Great Wall of China" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Jim's short stories seminar -- read Mar. 5th
2. (12) Face: One Square Foot of Skin by Justine Bateman -- LTER book and RandomCAT -- finished reading Mar. 8th -- 2 stars
3. (13) Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson --JMRL Same Page 2021, Northside Library Book Club read, Virginia Book Festival 2021, BingoDOG -- finished reading Mar. 14th -- 3 stars
4. (14) Delivering the Truth by Edith Maxwell -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Mar. 18th (early morning) -- 3.5 stars
5. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann; translated by Martin C. Doege -- Jim's short stories seminar -- finished reading Mar. 18th -- 3 stars
6. (15) The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier -- Friends Big Read -- finished Mar. 28th -- 4 stars

April --- Set up thread for May GenreCAT: short stories and essays

Titles read in April:

1. (16) World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- RandomCAT, AlphaKIT, BingoDOG -- finished reading April 24th -- 3.5 stars
2. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (selections) -- finished reading Apr. 27th
3. CliffsNotes on Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov by Gary Carey and James L. Roberts -- finished reading Apr. 27th.
4. "The Other" by John Updike -- for Jim's short stories class -- read Apr. 29th.
5. "Slippage" by John Updike -- for Jim's short stories class -- read Apr. 29th.
6. (17) Circe by Madeline Miller for Northside Library Group, RandomCAT, GenreCAT, and HistoryCAT (anc.) -- finished reading April 30th -- 4 stars

Titles attempted in April:
The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky, recommended as extra reading for an adult education class -- DNF

May --- Host for GenreCAT: short stories and essays

Titles read in May:
1. (18) Along a Storied Trail by Ann H. Gabhart -- early reviewer -- finished reading May 5th -- 4 stars
2. "The Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Robin Reed's OLLI class-- read May 5th.
3. "More Stately Mansions" by John Updike -- Jim's short story class -- read May 6th.
4. "Killing" by John Updike -- Jim's short story class -- read May 6th.
5. (19) An Elderly Lady is up to No Good -- Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy -- BingoDOG, GenreCAT (short stories), GeoKIT (Europe, Sweden) -- finished reading May 9th -- 4 stars
6. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage ; story with title on cover by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class -- read May 10th.
7. "The Beggar Maid" by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class --read May 11th
8. (20) Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver -- GenreCAT (essays) -- finished reading May 15th. -- 4.5 stars.
9. A Wilderness Station; story with title on cover by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class -- read May 17th.
10. "Friend of My Youth" by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class -- read May 18th.
11. "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class -- read May 19th.
12. (21) Afterlife by Julia Alvarez -- New Dominion book group -- finished reading May 20th -- 3 stars
13. (22) A Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer -- BingoDOG -- finished reading May 21st -- 4 stars
14. "Floating Bridge" by Alice Munro -- read May 23rd
15. (23) The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President -- and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch -- BingoDOG, RandomCAT (trains, hotels) -- finished May 27th -- 4 stars
16. "The White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read May 28th
17. (24) On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed -- finished May 31st -- 4.5 stars
18. "The Revolt of 'Mother'" by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read May 31st

June --- Set up thread for July HistoryCAT: Social history

Titles read in June:
1. (25) The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin -- BingoDOG -- finished reading June 5th -- 4 stars
2. (26) The Third Mrs. Galway by Deirdre Sinnott -- Early reviewers, BingoDog card 2, GenreCAT -- finished reading shortly after midnight June 11th -- 4 stars
3. (27) A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell -- Book club, HistoryCAT -- finished reading June 16th -- 3.5 stars
4. (28) Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders by William R. Drennan -- BingoDOG -- finished reading June 20th -- 2.5 stars
5. (29) Into the Abyss by Carol Shaben -- GeoKIT (Polar) and KITastrophe (transportation accidents) -- finished reading June 22nd -- 4 stars
6. "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read June 24th.
7. "A Respectable Woman" by Kate Chopin -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read June 24th.

July --- Host for HistoryCAT: Social history

Titles read in July:
1. (30) Called to Justice by Edith Maxwell -- RandomCAT, MysteryKIT, and HistoryCAT -- finished reading July 4th -- 4 stars
2. (31) The Awakening by Kate Chopin -- literature class at retirement community -- finished reading July 8th -- 3.5 stars
3. "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather -- literature class at retirement community -- read July 15th
4. "A Death in the Desert" by Willa Cather -- literature class at retirement community -- read July 16th
5. (32) Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner -- Northside Library book group -- finished reading July 18th -- 4.5 stars
6. (33) Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts -- HistoryCAT, BingoDOG (2nd card) -- finished reading July 20th -- 4.5 stars
7. (34) Charity's Burden by Edith Maxwell -- MysteryKIT and HistoryCAT -- finished reading July 26th -- 3.5 stars
8. "The Huntsman" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community -- read July 29th.
9. "Gusev" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community -- read July 29th

Titles read in August:

1. "The Death of a Government Clerk" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community --read Aug. 2nd.
2. "The Darling" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community --read Aug. 4th.
3. "Gooseberries" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community --read Aug. 5th.
4. "Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway -- literature class at retirement community -- read Aug. 12th
5. (35) Poems from the Women's Movement edited by Honor Moore --GenreCAT and BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading Aug. 13th -- 2.5 stars
6. (36) Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker by J. Brent Bill -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Aug. 21st -- 4 stars
7. (37) Nine Lives to Die, a Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown -- finished reading August 24th -- 3 stars
8. (38) The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights by Dorothy Wickenden -- HistoryCAT (history of own country, US) -- finished reading August 28th -- 4 stars
9. (39) The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright -- BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading August 30th -- 5 stars

DNF (Did not finish) --The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. This was this month's book club read. Unfortunately, I wasted a lot of time instead of reading late last month and this month because I felt that I should be reading this before other books. I ended up reading part of the beginning and more near the ending of the book. I did not like the way much of what I read jumped around in time; plus the dialect was difficult to get used to. I read approximately 60 pages of the book; one of our members only read 10.

Titles read in September:
1. (40) Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher -- RandomCAT and BingoDOG -- finished Sept. 9th -- 3 stars
2. (41) In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway -- Colonnades short fiction seminar -- finished Sept. 9th -- 3 stars. -- group folded Mon., Sept. 20th -- Jim, our leader died May 12th, some members dropped out, and the rest of us could not keep it afloat
3. (42) A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende -- Northside book club -- finished Sept. 13th -- 5 stars
4. (43) Lady in Red: An Intimate Portrait of Nancy Reagan by Sheila Tate -- pleasure -- finished Sept. 27th -- 4 stars
5. "Westtown's Integration: 'A Natural and Fruitful Enlargement of Our Lives'" by Margaret Morris Haviland -- Quaker History, Fall 2006, pp. 19-33 -- read September 28, 2021
6. (44) Thee, Hannah by Marguerite de Angeli -- HistoryCAT (religion), GenreCAT (children's lit), BingoDOG card 2 -- read Sept. 30th.

Titles read in October:

1. (45) Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout --BingoDOG card 2 -- finished October 9th -- 4.5 stars
2. (46) Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift -- Northside book club, HistoryCAT, and BingoDOG card 2 -- finished Oct. 19th -- 4 stars
3. (47) Judge Thee Not by Edith Maxwell -- RandomCAT (helpers), AlphaKIT (E) -- finished reading October 23rd -- 4.5 stars

Read part of Hamnet and part of The Barbizon but did not finish either -- spent lot of time monitoring the discussion of the CATs and KITs threads for 2022 -- plus was very tired this month (and slept too much)

November --- Set up thread for December RandomCAT

Titles read in November:
1. (48) The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich -- Northside book club, BingoDOG (card 2) -- finished reading Nov. 16th -- 3.5 stars
2. (49) Up in the Air by Betty Riegel — RandomCAT— finished reading Nov. 22nd — 4 stars
3. (50) Titanic, the Canadian Story Centennial Edition by Alan Hustak -- HistoryCAT -- finished reading Nov. 27th -- 4 stars
4. (51) Stories Untold: Oral Histories of Wives of Vietnam Servicemen -- (collected by) Charlotte McDaniel -- HistoryCAT for Nov. -- finished reading (last 20 p.) Dec. 1st -- 3 stars

December --- Host for December RandomCAT
Set up Jan 2022 thread for CATWoman

Titles read in December:
1. (52) God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen by Rhys Bowen -- GenreCAT (mysteries) and RandomCAT (Christmas, etc.) -- finished reading Dec. 11th -- 3.5 stars
2. (53) Simple River: New and Selected Poems by Sara Robinson -- finished reading Dec. 12th -- 4 stars
3. (54) I Take Thee, Serenity by Daisy Newman -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Dec. 17th -- 5 stars
4. (55) The Red Carnelian by Phyllis A. Whitney -- GenreCAT -- finished reading Dec. 23rd -- 3 stars
5. (56) Charlottesville then & now: a collection of photographs chronicling over a century of change in Charlottesville, Virginia by Steve Turnbull -- local author and topic -- finished reading Dec. 26th -- 4 stars
5. (57) Cokie: a Life Well Lived by Steve V. Roberts -- finished reading Dec. 30th -- 3.5 stars

BingoDOG card



Second BingoDOG card: https://www.librarything.com/topic/326216#7520724
I had not been planning to do a second BingoDOG (which I feel is one of the hardest ones over the years), but discovered that a number of my books would actually fit into a second DOG. However, this year I am not limiting my second one to only women authors; some of the titles which will fit are my men. Also, I will probably not fill this second card.

BingoDOG reading:
1. Nature or environment: World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- finished reading April 24th -- 3.5 stars. -- NON-FICT
2. Title describes you: Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker by J. Brent Bill -- finished reading Aug. 21st -- 4 stars -- NON-FICT
3. Contains a love story: Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset -- finished Feb. 23rd -- 4 stars. -- FIC
4. You heartily recommend: Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver -- finished reading May 14th -- 4.5 stars -- Essays
5. Impulse read: Let the People Pick the President: the Case for Abolishing the Electoral College by Jesse Wegman -- finished reading Jan. 27th -- 3.5 stars. -- NON-FICT
6. Suggested by another generation: I Take Thee, Serenity --mother -- finished December 17th -- 5 stars. -- FINISHED BINGODOG
7. Time word in title: This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear -- finished reading Feb. 10th -- 3.5 stars. -- NON-FICT (MEMOIR)
8. By or about a marginalized group: Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson -- finished reading March 14th -- 3 stars - FIC
9. 20 or fewer members: Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era (6 members) by Tamara Lucas Copeland -- finished Feb. 18th -- 5 stars. - NON-FICT (MEMOIR)
10. Classical element in title: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin -- finished June 5th -- 3rd Bingo (Right vertical) NON-FICT
11. Somewhere you'd like to visit: A Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer -- finished reading May 21st -- 4 stars -- FIC
12. Dark or light word in title: Light for the World to See by Kwame Alexander --read Jan. 15th -- 4 stars. -- POETRY
13. Read a CAT or KIT: Hush Now, Don't You Cry by Rhys Bowen -- MysteryKIT -- January -- water setting -- finished reading Jan. 12th -- 4 stars -- FIC (MYSTERY)
14. New-to-you author: Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris -- BingoDOG -- finished reading Jan. 29th -- 4.5 stars -- FIC
15. Arts and recreation: 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time by the editors of Time Magazine -- consider photography an art -- finished reading Jan. 18th -- 4 stars. -- NON-FICT
16. Senior Citizen Protagonist: An Elderly Lady is up to No Good (Maud is in her late 80s) -- Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy -- finished reading May 9th -- 4 stars. Short stories
17. Type of building in title: Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders by William R. Drennan -- finished reading June 20th -- 2.5 stars NONFICTION
18. Less than 200 pages: Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill -- finished Jan. 31st -- 4 stars -- PLAY
19. Two or more authors: The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President -- and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch -- finished May 27th -- 4 stars. -- NON-FICT
20. Character you would like to be friends with: Midwife Rose Carroll in Delivering the Truth by Edith Maxwell -- finished Mar. 18th -- 3.5 stars. FIC, MYSTERY
21. One word title: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi -- finished reading Feb. 15th -- 3.5 stars -- FIC
22. About history: Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley -- finished reading Feb. 4th -- 4.5 Stars -- NON-FICT
23. Made you laugh: Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher -- finished Sept. 9th -- 3 stars. --FICT
24. Set in or author from Southern Hemisphere: A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende -- finished Sept. 13th -- 5 stars -- Fict
25. About or contains magic: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (magic realism genre) -- finished reading Jan. 9th -- 3 stars. -- FIC -- changed to Circe by Madeline Miller, 4/30/21. FICT

CATs:

January GenreCAT (nonfiction): 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time by the editors of Time Magazine -- finished reading Jan. 18th -- 4 stars.
January GenreCAT (nonfiction): Let the People Pick the President: the Case for Abolishing the Electoral College by Jesse Wegman. -- finished reading Jan. 27th -- 4 stars

February HistoryCAT (modern history): Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley -- finished reading Feb. 4th -- 4.5 stars
February RandomCAT (fruits or vegetables in title): Some Say Tomato: Poems edited by Mariflo Stephens. -- finished reading Feb. 8th -- 2 stars
February GenreCAT (biography): This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear -- finished reading Feb. 10th -- 3.5 stars
February GenreCAT (biography) and HistoryCAT (modern history): Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era by Tamara Lucas Copeland
February RandomCAT (fruits and vegetables): Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset -- finished Feb. 23rd -- 3.5 stars

March RandomCAT (surprise): Face: One Square Foot of Skin by Justine Bateman -- finished reading Mar. 8th -- 2 stars

April RandomCAT (read a book in another category challenge member's library) -- World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- RandomCAT, AlphaKIT, BingoDOG -- finished reading April 24th -- 3.5 stars (dudes22)
April RandomCAT, GenreCAT, and HistoryCAT: Circe by Madeline Miller -- finished reading April 30th -- 4 stars

May GenreCAT (short stories): An Elderly Lady is up to No Good -- Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy -- finished reading May 9th -- 4 stars
May GenreCAT (essays): Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver -- GenreCAT (essays) -- finished reading May 15th.
May RandomCAT (monopoly: trains, hotels important): The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President -- and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch -- finished May 27th -- 4 stars

June GenreCAT (historical fiction): The Third Mrs. Galway by Deirdre Sinnott -- finished reading June 12th -- 4 stars
June HistoryCAT (war, revolutions, etc): A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell -- finished reading June 16th -- 3.5 stars

July RandomCAT (summer): Called to Justice by Edith Maxwell -- finished reading July 4th -- 4 stars
July HistoryCAT (social history): Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts -- historical fiction heavily based on facts -- finished reading July 20th.

August GenreCAT (poems, plays, graphic novels): Poems from the Women's Movement edited by Honor Moore -- finished reading Aug. 13th -- 3 stars
August HistoryCAT (own country): The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights by Dorothy Wickenden -- HistoryCAT (history of own country, US) -- finished reading August 28th -- 4 stars

September RandomCAT (award winner): Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher (Thurber Prize for American Humor)-- finished Sept. 9th -- 3 stars
September HistoryCAT (religious history): "Westtown's Integration: 'A Natural and Fruitful Enlargement of Our Lives'" by Margaret Morris Haviland -- Quaker History, Fall 2006, pp. 19-33 -- read September 28, 2021
September HistoryCAT (religious history), GenreCAT (children's lit): Thee, Hannah by Marguerite de Angeli -- read September 30th.

October HistoryCAT (history of specific place): Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift -- finished Oct. 19th -- 4 stars
October RandomCAT (people who give, helpers) Judge Thee Not by Edith Maxwell --finished reading October 23rd -- 4.5 stars

November RandomCAT (what you wanted to be): Up in the Air by Betty Riegel — finished reading Nov. 22nd — 4 stars
November HistoryCAT (event): Titanic, the Canadian Story Centennial Edition by Alan Hustak -- finished reading Nov. 27th -- 4 stars
November HistoryCAT (event): Stories Untold: Oral Histories of Wives of Vietnam Servicemen -- (collected by) Charlotte McDaniel -- finished reading (last 20 p.) Dec. 1st. -- 3 stars

December RandomCAT (Christmas) and December GenreCAT (mysteries): God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading Dec. 11th -- 3.5 stars
December GenreCAT (mysteries): The Red Carnelian by Phyllis A. Whitney -- finished reading Dec. 23rd -- 3 stars

KITs

January MysteryKIT -- water setting: Hush Now, Don't You Cry by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading Jan. 12th -- 4 stars

February GeoKIT -- Europe (England): This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear -- finished reading Feb. 10th -- 3.5 stars
FebruaryGeoKIT -- North America (USA): Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era by Tamara Lucas Copeland

May GeoKIT -- Europe (Sweden): An Elderly Lady is up to No Good -- Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy -- finished reading May 9th -- 4 stars

GeoKIT in June (Polar) and KITastrophe (Apr-June in June, transportation): Into the Abyss by Carol Shaben -- finished reading June 22nd -- 4 stars

July MysteryKIT (woman acting in detective role): Called to Justice by Edith Maxwell -- finished reading July 4th -- 4 stars
July MysteryKIT (woman acting in detective role): Charity's Burden by Edith Maxwell -- finished reading July 26th -- 3.5 stars

August MysteryKIT (involving animals): Nine Lives to Die, a Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown -- finished reading August 24th -- 3 stars

GeoKIT in September (South America): A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (chiefly Chile)

AlphaKIT for October (E): Judge Thee Not by Edith Maxwell --finished reading October 23rd -- 4.5 stars

AlphaKIT for November (B): Up in the Air by Betty Riegel — finished reading Nov. 22nd — 4 stars

December AlphaKIT for December (G): God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen by Rhys Bowen -- finished reading Dec. 11th -- 3.5 stars

Assigned reading: book clubs, classes, etc. (excludes short readings):

1. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan -- New Dominion Book Club -- finished Jan. 9th
2. Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris -- New Dominion Book Club -- finished reading Jan. 29th -- 4.5 stars
3. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi -- Northside Book Club -- finished reading Feb. 15th -- 3.5 stars
4. Face: One Square Foot of Skin by Justine Bateman -- LT ER book -- finished reading Mar. 8th -- 2.5 stars
5. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson --JMRL Same Page 2021, Northside Library Book Club read -- finished reading Mar. 14th.
6. The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier -- Friends Big Read -- finished Mar. 28th -- 4 stars
7. Circe by Madeline Miller for Northside Library Group -- finished reading April 30th -- 4 stars
8. Along a Storied Trail by Ann H. Gabhart -- LT ER book-- finished reading May 5th -- 4 stars
9. Afterlife by Julia Alvarez -- New Dominion book group -- finished reading May 20th -- 3 stars
10. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell -- Northside Book club -- finished reading June 16th -- 3.5 stars
11. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner -- Northside Library book group -- finished reading July 18th -- 4.5 stars
12. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende -- Northside Library book group -- finished Sept. 13th -- 5 stars
13. Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift -- Northside Library book group -- finished Oct. 19th -- 4 stars
14. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich -- Northside Library book group -- finished reading Nov. 16th -- 3.5 stars

Reading for special occasions such as Black History Month (February), Women's History Month (March), etc.

Black History Month (February)
1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi -- finished reading Feb. 15th -- 3.5 stars
2. Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era by Tamara Lucas Copeland -- finished Feb. 18th -- 5 stars
3. Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset -- finished Feb. 23rd -- 4 stars

Juneteenth:
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed -- finished May 31st -- 4.5 stars

Books about Thomas Jefferson, Dolly Madison, and Abraham and/or Mary Lincoln. When we moved to Charlottesville over 30 years ago, Thomas Jefferson (or TJ as he was affectionately called then) appeared to be worshipped by the community. It seemed that before any major city decision could be reached, people considered what TJ might think. This has changed drastically over the last twenty years or so, especially since it has been established that Jefferson fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings -- which was strongly denied by certain "scholars" for quite some time. Now the community, the University of Virginia, and the historians connected with the local presidential homes -- Monticello (Jefferson), Highland (Monroe), and Montpelier (Madison) are reassessing the local leaders. I have a number of recent books about Jefferson and Dolly Madison which I have not yet read. I have always been interested in the Lincolns and have tbr books about them.

1. The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President -- and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch -- finished May 27th -- 4 stars.

Books of local/regional interest in states where my husband and I have lived the longest (Virginia), I grew up (Pennsylvania), and my husband grew up (West Virginia).

1. Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley -- finished reading Feb. 4th -- 4.5 Stars -- occurred when I was working at Penn State -- lot of interest there
2. Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era by Tamara Lucas Copeland -- finished Feb. 18th -- 5 stars
3. Esmont, Virginia by Friends of Esmont with Andi Cumbo-Floyd -- local (regional) reading of just published book -- read Feb. 28th --- 3 stars
4. Nine Lives to Die, a Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown -- finished reading August 24th -- 3 stars
5. Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift -- finished Oct. 19th -- 4 stars
6. Charlottesville then & now by Steve Turnbull -- local author and topic -- finished reading Dec. 26th -- 4 stars

Short works -- I hope that we continue to have our short story seminar at our retirement community.
1. Light for the World to See by Kwame Alexander -- unpaged -- read Jan. 15th
2. The Fox by D. H. Lawrence -- novella for short story seminar held at the Colonnades -- read Jan. 21st
3. Some Say Tomato: Poems edited by Mariflo Stephens -- RandomCAT (fruits and vegetables) -- finished reading Feb. 8th -- 2 stars
4. "The Case of Colonel Warburton's Madness" by Lyndsay Faye -- read Feb. 11th for pleasure
5. "A Country Doctor" by Franz Kafka, translated by Donna Freed -- Jim's short story class -- read Feb. 18th
6. "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka, translated by Donna Freed -- Jim's short story class -- read Feb. 18th/19th
7. "In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Jim's short stories seminar -- read Feb. 25th
8. "The Hunter Gracchus" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Jim's short stories seminar -- read Feb. 25th
9. Esmont, Virginia by Friends of Esmont with Andi Cumbo-Floyd -- local (regional) reading of just published book -- read Feb. 28th --- 3 stars
10. "The Great Wall of China" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Jim's short stories seminar -- read Mar. 5th
11. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann; translated by Martin C. Doege -- Jim's short stories seminar -- finished reading Mar. 18th -- 3 stars
12. "The Other" by John Updike -- for Jim's short stories class -- read Apr. 29th.
13. "Slippage" by John Updike -- for Jim's short stories class -- read Apr. 29th.
14. "The Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston -- Robin Reed's OLLI class-- read May 5th.
15. "More Stately Mansions" by John Updike -- Jim's short story class -- read May 6th.
16. "Killing" by John Updike -- Jim's short story class -- read May 6th.
17. "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" by Alice Munro -- Robin Reed's OLLI class -- read May 10th.
18. "The Beggar Maid" by Alice Munro -- Robin Reed's OLLI class --read May 11th
19. "A Wilderness Station" by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class -- read May 17th.
20. "Friend of My Youth" by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class -- read May 18th.
21. "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro -- Robin's OLLI class -- read May 19th.
22. "Floating Bridge" by Alice Munro -- read May 23rd
23. "The White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read May 28th
24. "The Revolt of 'Mother'" by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read May 31st
25. "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read June 24th.
26. "A Respectable Woman" by Kate Chopin -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read June 24th.
27. "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather -- Colonnades short fiction reading group -- read July 15th
28. "A Death in the Desert" by Willa Cather -- literature class at retirement community -- read July 16th
29. "The Huntsman" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community -- read July 29th.
30. "Gusev" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community -- read July 29th
31. "The Death of a Government Clerk" by Anton Chekhov -- literature class at retirement community --read Aug. 2nd.
32. "Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway -- literature class at retirement community -- read Aug. 12th
33. "Westtown's Integration: 'A Natural and Fruitful Enlargement of Our Lives'" by Margaret Morris Haviland -- Quaker History, Fall 2006, pp. 19-33 -- read September 28, 2021

Books acquired at/for the annual Virginia Festival of the Book (which became virtual in 2021) and tbr Secret Santa books and Thingaversary books.

1. Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset (Secret Santa book 2019) -- finished Feb. 23rd -- 3.5 stars
2. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson (Virginia Book Festival 2021) --- finished reading Feb. 28th.
3. World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- finished reading April 24th -- 3.5 stars (Virginia Book Festival 2021)
4. The Red Carnelian by Phyllis A. Whitney -- GenreCAT -- finished reading Dec. 23rd -- 3 stars (Secret Santa book 2020)

Collections (short stories, essays, poems, etc) and New books (to me) -- reading for pleasure without it necessarily being for any challenge, miscellaneous, etc.

Poem collections:
Some Say Tomato: Poems edited by Mariflo Stephens -- RandomCAT (fruits and vegetables) -- finished reading Feb. 8th -- 2 stars.
Poems from the Women's Movement edited by Honor Moore --GenreCAT and BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading Aug. 13th -- 3 stars

Essay collections:
World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- finished reading April 24th -- 3.5 stars
Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver -- GenreCAT (essays) -- finished reading May 15th.

Short story collections:
An Elderly Lady is up to No Good -- Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy -- BingoDOG, GenreCAT (short stories), GeoKIT (Europe, Sweden) -- finished reading May 9th -- 4 stars
In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway -- Colonnades short fiction seminar -- finished Sept. 9th -- 3 stars
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout --BingoDOG card 2 -- finished October 9th -- 4.5 stars (called a novel but more a collection of short stories -- all at least mention Olive Kitteridge, and many are primarily about her

>20 sallylou61: I seem to remember enjoying Catherine Allgor's A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation. I read it a while ago, but if I'm remembering right, it's a fairly positive portrayal without being hagiographic.

>25 christina_reads:. Thanks for the suggestion. I have had that book in my TBR collection for years (i.e. before I joined LT in 2007). I must have bought it in paperback, possibly at Montpelier, shortly after it came out in 2007. All three of the Presidential homes in the greater Charlottesville area (Monticello, Highland, and Montpelier which is in nearby Orange County) have recently been doing much more to interpret the lives of the slaves living owned by these presidents.

Looks like you are ready for 2021 and I am ready to follow along!

I like your easy, functional categories.

>27 DeltaQueen50:, >28 pamelad: Thanks

Looks like there is lots of variety in your plans. Happy reading!

Hope you have a great reading year! Have you picked out your online courses for 2021 yet?

Good luck with your 2021 reading. I'm sure I will be getting some BB's.

Happy reading in 2021!

Happy Reading! I'd never heard of Virginia Festival of the Book. Interesting. A shame everything has to go virtual...

>30 LittleTaiko:, >31 rabbitprincess: >32 Tess_W:, >33 MissWatson:, and >34 majkia: Thanks for stopping by. Sorry to be so late in responding.

>31 rabbitprincess: My adult education courses (except our retirement community short stories seminar) are through OLLI (Osher LifeLong Learning Institute). The OLLI program is nationwide in the United States with approximately 120 programs, aimed at retired people, and are at least loosely connected with a university. Our particular program usually has 3 to 6 sessions per class. Next semester we are going to be online again. I expect the course listing will come out sometime next month; registration will start in late January with the courses beginning in February.

>34 majkia: The Virginia Festival of the Book began approximately 25 years ago, and is held in the Charlottesville area. Normally it runs five days in March -- Wednesday through Sunday. However, it was cancelled a week before being held this year because of the pandemic. Normally, it attracts authors from throughout the country. Most of the programs are free; the exceptions are a "leaders'" breakfast, a literary luncheon, and a mystery authors' brunch; anyone can pay and attend these events as long as there is still room. Since we did not have the festival this year, the program is offering virtual weekly Shelf Life events featuring various authors. We have just learned that the 2021 event will be all virtual and will last 2 weeks in March. If you are interested in these events, the URL is https://vabook.org/
Although the events are free, the organization requests a voluntary donation to help support the program. I normally donate once or twice a year.

Have a fun time with your challenges.

Have a good reading year!

Hope 2021 is filled with good reads.

Wishing you happy reading in 2021!

Earlier this month I read Washington Black by Esi Edugyan for a book club (and the contains magic square for BingoDOG). This book could be considered to be of the magical realism genre. It features a young black boy, George Washington Black, who is disfigured when his face is severely burned. He is the servant of his master's brother, who takes him away from the plantation after Wash (as the boy is called) is present at a man's suicide. Wash ends up traveling to several places including England and Morocco, which seems very unlikely considering his condition. Also, all of this is supposed to occur in approximately 4 years which would put Wash from 11 to around 15 years of age; much too young to make the story like.

3 stars

I have also read Hush Now, Don't You Cry, a Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen for this month's MysteryKIT and the Read a CAT or KIT BingoDOG square. It is set in Newport, Rhode Island, at a mansion backing onto the Atlantic Ocean, and water plays a big part in the story. I enjoyed this turn of the 20th century mystery which includes some Gothic elements such as ghosts and a mansion with a tower, and has a surprising ending. More than one murder is investigated.

4 stars

That sounds like a great read! I haven't heard of this series before.

>42 MissBrangwen:. I just learned about this series a couple of years ago when I read a book in it while on a Christmas cruise. So far, I've only read three books in it -- 2 with Christmas themes and this one. I often do not read mystery series in sequence. In Hush Now, Don't You Cry, Molly has just gotten married to a police detective and the couple are on their honeymoon to Newport; her name is now Molly Murphy Sullivan but the series continues to be called Molly Murphy mysteries.

>41 sallylou61: I love Rhys Bowen's historical fiction, but have not read any of her mysteries. I've go so many series going now, but I will put this on my distant wish list!

>44 Tess_W: Looking at Rhys Bowen's webpage, it appears that she if a very prolific author publishing several books each year. I am only familiar with the Molly Murphy series.

For the light or dark word in title square of BingoDOG, I've read Light for the World to See by Kwame Alexander. This brief book contains three parts: "American Bullet Points" with thoughts inspired by the killing of George Floyd by the Milwaukee police in 2020; "Take a Knee" with thoughts inspired by Colin Kaepernick's kneeling during the playing of the national anthem prior to NFL football games (2016); and "The Undefeated" with thoughts inspired by the birth of the author's daughter and the election of Barack Obama (2008). The whole book is printed in and with backgrounds of black, grey, yellow, and white. I assume that the text is approximately 1000 words since the subtitle of the book on the cover is "A Thousand Words on Race and Hope" (which is not printed on the title page or anywhere else).

4 stars

>43 sallylou61: Thanks for the info! I‘m noting it down on my wishlist! I‘m always in for more Christmas reads :-)

>46 sallylou61: Another BB for me!

>47 MissBrangwen: Glad you are finding books of interest. The Christmas books which I read by Rhys Bowen are Away in a Manger and The Ghost of Christmas Past.

For the GenreCAT (nonfiction) and BingoDOG I've read and examined the photographs in 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time by the editors of Time Magazine. This could be broadly considered a history of photography although it is not arranged chronologically; important photographs from around 1826 through the current day are shown with an explanation of why each is significant. The book is divided into three parts -- Icons, Evidence, and Innovation -- with brief introductions to each part in addition to an introductory essay, Defining Influence, and an Afterword. Some of the photographs are important for beginning a new type of photography; the science behind their invention is described. Many are widely known photographs for being widely circulated such as the Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange, the Black Power Solute during the 1968 Olympics, the Kent State shooting, and people running after a napalm bombing including a young girl whose clothes had been burned off.

4 stars

For the GenreCAT (nonfiction) and BingoDOG (Impulse read square) I've read Let the People Pick the President: the Case for Abolishing the Electoral College by Jesse Wegman. I had not planned to read a political book so soon after the election, but the topic really interests me. (I did wait until after the inauguration to read it.). This book gives a clear history of the electoral college, and shows that it has never worked well; there have been more than 700 attempts to reform or abolish the electoral college! (p. 20). Five of our presidents have had fewer votes nationwide than their main opponent, and 15 out of 45 have had less than 50% of the popular vote (pp. 229 and 228). Mr. Wegman shows how close the government has come to abolishing the electoral college without its occurring including the effort by Senator Birch Bayh in the late 1960s through 1970s. Mr. Wegman explores and answers the myths surrounding both the electoral college and the popular voting, the latter of which is widespread in state government and local voting, and suggests a way of obtaining one person one vote without needing a Constitutional amendment.

4 stars

>50 sallylou61:, as a historian and constitutionalist, I think abolishing the EC is not a good idea. My main sticking point is: the US president will then be chosen by citizens of the 6-10 largest cities in America, and most everybody else's vote won't count. As far as State and local voting, true they don't have an EC, but they have districts re-drawn every 10 years, or again, all reps would come from the 2-3 largest cities in the State. I just haven't seen anybody address this issue. Did this author?

>50 sallylou61:,>51 Tess_W: As an interested observer from outside the US, I'd like to know what the justification is for allocating every electoral college vote to the winning candidate, winner takes all, even when the victory is narrow? Why aren't EC votes allocated proportionally, as in Maine and Nebraska?

>52 pamelad: It's up to each state to draw their own election laws, as long as it doesn't conflict with the Constitution.

>51 Tess_W: Mr. Wegman did discuss the commonly held idea that if the Electoral College were abolished, the largest cities would elect the president as one of the electoral college myths. He did not say much about state elections; however, although he did not discuss it, in some states the districts are gerrymandered to such an extent that the districts favor the party in power. The district for our state delegate is very long and thin and in size is larger than the state of New Jersey; it was gerrymandered to make it rural and conservative to negate the Charlottesville voters.

>52 pamelad: The Electoral College gives relatively thinly populated states an disproportional amount of votes when compared to states with large populations since the number of electors for a state is a combination of the number of Representatives and Senators. Each state has two Senators regardless of size of population; several states have only one Representative, but still two Senators. If the Electoral College was abolished, the value of a person's vote would be the same as that of other people regardless of where they lived.

>54 sallylou61: Hard to believe that is a myth. I was taught that (and provided "documentation" at The Ohio State University, the largest university in the US and very very liberal. The top 10 cities in the U.S. contain 62.7 percent of the population, (as of the 2020 census) and their interests and political views are vastly different than those in the rural midwest, for the most part. I would buy his book and read it, but I would probably be irate that I had wasted my money. However, I do agree with the gerrymandering; I think it is done in every state. I wish the districts would remain permanent. I'm going to give my supervising prof the name of this book and author and see what he says! Very interesting.

>54 sallylou61: Thanks for that explanation. It seems like double dipping because the composition of the senate already caters for the perceived problem of small rural states having no influence.

For my bookclub meeting this Saturday I've read Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris, which I'm temporarily at least using for the new-to-you author in BingoDOG. This ought to result in a very lively bookclub discussion. Ms. McMorris wrote the book after seeing a picture of four children sitting on some steps during the great depression with a for sale sign near them. (The picture appeared in many newspapers during the depression.) This book features two children being sold against their mother's pleas that they were not for sale. The story includes dishonest journalism and the breaking of laws in an attempt to reunite the children with their mother. There are ethical questions involved in addition to the breaking of societal norms.

4.5 stars

I've read Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill to see if I want to take an adult education course studying it. I will be taking the course, which will study the history the place of the play in theatre history. The action of this four-act play occurs all in the same play and features a dysfunctional family; the father and two sons are alcoholics and the mother is a morphine addict. A maid also is actively portrayed, and many other characters are mentioned but do not appear.

4 stars

For the HistoryCAT (modern history) and BingoDOG (about history square), I read Blood Runs Coal: The Yablowski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley. This excellent book tells the history of the UMWA, especially under the autocratic control of Tony Boyle and the fight for the control of the union by its members led by Jock Yablonski, which resulted in the murder of Yablonski, his wife, and his 25-year-old daughter in the early morning of New Year's Eve in 1969. The 7 earlier murder attempts are described in addition to the murders and the successful trials and sentencing of all the people involved in the murders, including Tony Boyle himself who had ordered them. Boyle was more interested in living on a grand style and uniting with the mine owners than in the hazardous working conditions in the mines leading to the disabling and deaths of many miners -- either through black lung disease or mine accidents. Moreover, under Boyle's leadership the method of getting rid of people who criticized him was through murder. Mr. Bradley also gives some later history of the union and tells what has happened to the principals on both sides during the last fifty years.

4.5 stars

>59 sallylou61: On my WL it goes. I followed the Jablonski murders as well at the missing Jimmy Hoffa. Not sure why, curious, I guess!

>60 Tess_W:. Did you live in Ohio at the time of the murders? I was working at Penn State then, early in my library career, and remember reading and talking about the murders. Many years ago I read a book about them, but do not remember its title. Blood Runs Coal was published last year. If I remember correctly earlier book was strictly about the murders and not so much about the UMWA. This also tells about the Yablonski family members.

>61 sallylou61:, Yes, I've lived in Ohio for the last 60 years, so infamous murders in neighboring States always catch my eye. I was in college at The Ohio State University when the Jablonski murders took place. I read a book that was published 4-5 years after the murders called Act of Vengeance by Armbruster. If that is the book, it did not contain much information about the union except for the relationship between Boyle and Jablonski.

For the RandomCAT (fruits and veggies) I reread Some Say Tomato: Poems, edited by Mariflo Stephens, the leader of a book club I sometimes attend. This is a collection of approximately 50 poems by poets of all ages in which the word "tomato" appears in the poem and/or its title. I was even less favorably impressed with this collection reading it this time than when I did several years. Many of the poems seemed forced; "tomato" is not central to many of the poems. I don't even know why someone would want to make a collection of poems containing this particular word. A few of the poets are well-known such as Rita Dove, former poet laureate of the United States, and the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda.

2 stars (down from 3)

For the GenreCAT (biography), GeoKIT (Europe, England) and BingoDOG (time) I read This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear, the author of the Maisie Dobbs series of mysteries. I have really enjoyed the Maisie Dobbs books which I've read, and was a bit disappointed with this memoir. The first part of the book seemed to be much more about her parents than about Jacqueline herself. The chapters in most of the rest of the memoir focused on particular topics such as Jacqueline's going to school, her interest in getting a horse, stories about her large extended family, Jacqueline's working to help support the family, etc. I felt the chapter about her neighbors was rather "catty" which was not to my taste. The title of the book, "This time next year we'll be laughing" was one of her father's favorite sayings; she felt close to her father and had problems with her mother. However, most of the book was enjoyable, and the book both started off and ended with her parents' deaths which was effective.

3.5 stars

>64 sallylou61: The Maisie Dobbs series is not my favorite. I liked the first one. I was less thrilled with a few, but after taking a break and picking back up, I liked the series a little better. I take long breaks between reads in it. I noticed she had a memoir coming out, but I didn't add it to my TBR list because I'm not a huge fan. I think I'm glad I avoided the book bullet and will continue to do so.

For BingoDOG (20 members or less -- 6 for this book), HistoryCAT (modern), GenreCAT (biography) and GeoKIT (USA) I read Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond Who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era by Tamara Lucas Copeland. This is an excellent memoir of 8 upper middle class black girls/women who grew up in Richmond, VA, the former capital of the Confederate States of America. It tells their stories in three sections: their school years when they were very close (1956-1968); their college and years establishing their careers and families when they had other close friends (1969-1994), and the years they got back together and renewed their friendships and closeness (1994-2018, the year the book was published). These girls grew up in very supportive, 2-parent families who valued education and tried to protect their daughters from the racial situation. The eight women were not as protective of their children, feeling they had been too protected growing up. They became "eight successful African American women. Seventy-five percent have a graduate degree ... Most of us ended up in a helping profession. ... We have a higher rate of divorce than the national average (62% vs. 50%). ... All except one of us still live within about 100 miles of Richmond, our home" (p. 219 for all quotes). Interwoven within the whole story is what was happening racially in the United States at the time described and their feeling or their parents feeling about the events.

5 stars

I read Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset which was written during the Harlem Renaissance. Although Angela Murray, a very light-skinned black woman who tries to pass for white, is featured in this novel, several other people trying to pass for white are also included. The story, which mainly takes place in Philadelphia and New York City, shows the trials of families with members of various shades of color and how the actions of individual family members can impact their friends, families, and fellow workers. The prejudices and injustices against blacks are vividly portrayed.

I read the novel for the story. The printing of this particular edition, which is in the Oshun Publishing African-American Studies Series, is terrible. Numerous times commas instead of periods are used; some compound words, including people's names, are spelled as two words; often when quotation marks are used for conversation, there are spaces between the quotation marks and text; and occasionally only a few words of the text are on a line with the continuation of it on the next line.

3.5 stars for story; 1 star for printing

Yesterday I read a brief book Esmont, Virginia: A Community Carved from the Earth and Sustained by Story by the Friends of Esmont. This is about a small community approximately 20 miles from Charlottesville. This book might be of real interest to the residents of that community or someone who know many of the local people. The book gives the history of the community from the time of the Monacans (around 5000 B.C.) through the present day. The main part of the story is from the eighteenth century through the present day. Many plantations are described giving their locations, owners, etc. Various churches, business, and schools are discussed with mention of where they were located; there are pictures of some but not all. It would be valuable to be really familiar with the streets to get a better idea about locations. Numerous people and families are mentioned. The text is broken with boxes with grey backgrounds containing descriptions of some local residents.

For approximately 70 years from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, the town was an industrial town centered around the soapstone quarrying and slate mining. At that time, there were even local railroads to export the products. Some trains were passenger trains. However, the trains stopped running in mid-century.

3 stars

I received Face: One Square Foot of Skin by Justine Bateman as a LT ER book. According to the publisher's ad, this "book was based on “older face” experiences of the author" and dozens of people she interviewed. I assumed that the stories would primarily be about the elderly -- people who actually had older faces, and was deeply disappointed to discover that there were more stories about women in their 30s or younger (12) than in their 60s or over (5). In my opinion, the story about the first grade teacher teaching her students about what a face could do was entirely inappropriate. The stories featured people with money who could afford to pamper their faces and have various operations to make them appear younger. Some of the women felt pressured by society or their professions to look young. Several stories showed how men valued women on pretty faces; one story dealt with a man's asking his wife to tell the wife of a new employee to get a face lift so not to appear ugly at company functions. Fortunately, by the end of the book, more of the stories were about women's valuing their aging faces.

2 stars

>69 sallylou61: That sounds disappointing indeed!

>70 MissBrangwen: It was a disappointing read. I'm not sure how often I will volunteer in the LT ER program. More and more of the selections are e-books, and I like to read hard copy print books; moreover, recently most of the review books I've read I've not rated very highly.

It's been a while since I wrote annotations for my reading. Life has been a bit busier than usual since I'm taking three OLLI adult education classes via zoom, and still am attending my online poetry seminar and in person short story seminar -- plus attending the virtual Virginia Festival of the Book which is two weeks this year instead of the usual 5 days when it is in person.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson. I enjoyed the book festival program featuring Ms. Woodson more than reading her book featuring a young teenage couple from different social classes who have a baby girl. It follows the lives of the various family members, with emphasis on the mother (Iris), but is not in chronological sequence. Somehow, I missed some key points in reading it. This is the second year Jacqueline Woodson was supposed to be featured at the festival, which was cancelled at the last minute last year because of the pandemic. Our local public library has featured one of her books for our local community read both years. I really enjoyed last year's book Brown Girl Dreaming, a memoir written in poetry.

3 stars for Red at the Bone

Delivering the Truth by Edith Maxwell. This is the first book in the Quaker Midwife Mystery series, which features midwife Rose Carroll. I tend to not read series in order; I started out with no. 3, but plan to read the rest in order. Delivering the Truth includes two fires and two murders. Rose thinks that the wrong man has been put in jail for the first murder and tries to solve the mystery of the main fire and both murders. (She caught the man setting the second fire.) In the process of solving the mysteries, she gets into great danger, but is rescued by the actions of another woman.

I enjoy Quaker mysteries, and am glad to have found a new series.

3.5 stars

Wow! You one busy woman!

Each year the past three years, our Friends Meeting Library Committee has sponsored a meeting-wide Big Read to coincide with the U.S. National Library Week. This year we read The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier and had a lively discussion about it. The book is about a young Quaker woman, Honor Bright, who leaves her home in England to travel to Ohio with her sister who is going there to be married to a man they knew from their Meeting community in England. Honor herself has recently been jilted by her fiance. The women endure the long boat journey to America during which Honor is constantly sick. Unfortunately, the sister dies in America as they are on their way to Ohio. When Honor gets to Ohio, she discovers that she was not expected; the letter announcing her coming with her sister had not arrived. The book is about Honor's adjusting to life in rural Ohio in an environment in which the Quakers are very unwelcoming, and expect her to marry soon or go home to England. Honor gets married into a family in which her mother-in-law in particular is very unfriendly to her. Honor, a quiet person, learns about many new things including slave catchers and the underground railroad. Fortunately, she finds support from two non-Quaker women, one of whom is a long escaped slave, and becomes involved in the underground railroad.

Honor was an excellent sewer, and much of the book featured quilt-making including the differences between English and American quilts. Some of the men in our group felt there was entirely too much discussion about quilts although the women found it very important to the story.

We learn a lot about Honor's struggles and feelings through reading her letters to her parents and best friend back in England.

4 stars

I have had trouble the past several weeks with reading. There are two books which I really should have read for an adult education class I'm taking: The Brothers Karamazov and The House of the Dead, both by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Unfortunately, at my age, I do not like to read really long books of which The Brothers K is. When I signed up for the class, the description sounded as if we would be reading sections of some great works. For the first time ever, I'm planning to read the CliffsNotes for a book, in this case, The Brothers K. We had our first of six classes today, and the instructor spent most of the time lecturing. If this continues in future classes, I should not have a problem. I'm looking forward to the reading for next month: some short stories by Kafka (which I've already read) for 1 session and some short stories by Alice Munro for the last two sessions.

After last year, I feel more like reading what I really want instead of the assignments for book clubs or the one class which I'm taking which requires reading. This month in addition to my book club, this Sunday our Friends Meeting is discussing its own Big Read, The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (which I read last month).

For BingoDOG (nature) and RandomCAT I've read World of wonders : in praise of fireflies, whale sharks, and other astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. This book is in the library of and recently read by dudes22. The author was among those featured in the virtual Virginia Festival of the Book this past March, and sounded very interesting. Ms. Nezhukumatathil, whose parents are from India and the Philippines, but who grew up in the United States has lived in and visited many places. In this book of essays, she describes many features of nature in various places and also talks about her life and the influence of nature on it. I enjoyed the writing; however, I wish that more of the natural wonders (creatures and plants, etc.) were pictured. Many, but not all of them were; the illustrations made it easier to view and appreciate them.

3.5 stars

Last month for all 3 CATs and my book club I read Circe by Madeline Miller. I didn't really enjoy this book until I was approximately a quarter of the way through (which covered Circe's relationship to her father, etc.). Then I got involved in reading about how Circe dealt with other women and with Odysseus and his two sons, and the book became much more interesting. Also, I got more familiar with the various characters including the many gods, goddesses, and kings and other humans. Fortunately, there was a list of characters at the end of the book with brief identifications; I referred to that list frequently as I read the book. Circe was able to perform a lot of magic so that I used it for the contains magic BingoDOG square replacing a book that do not have so much magic.

4 stars

For the LT ER program I read Along a Storied Trail by Ann H. Gabhart.
Tansy Calhoun, the central character of Along a Storied Trail, is a packhorse librarian who lends books to people in rural Eastern Kentucky during the Depression. The area that Tansy services lacks roads that cars can travel. Although Tracy is the main character of the novel, there are numerous supporting characters; the novel has several threads. There is a love triangle, and several couples trying to decide whether to marry. This love story is both about love between characters and of love of the land. It is a story of community, of people, no matter how poor, helping each other. Several governmental work programs are mentioned; the packhorse library project is a WPA project; Caleb Barton had just returned home from a CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) project farther South; and Damien Fielding was an "outsider", a writer from New York City researching stories for a book in the American Guide Series.

The book contains a fair amount of religion.

4 stars

For the GenreCAt (short stories), GeoKIT (Europe) and BingoDOG (senior citizen protagonist), I've read An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten, translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy. This is a fun read about an 88 year-old Swedish woman who manages to get rid of people who are inconveniencing her by killing them. She manages to do this to three people without being investigated. The fourth person, a male antique dealer, is found dead in her apartment, and she is investigated.
The male investigators decide that such an elderly woman could not have committed the murder, and let her go. The two female investigators believe that she is the chief suspect but the men will not listen to them.

4 stars

>80 sallylou61: I've been going back and forth on whether to get An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good and you have managed to sway me into getting myself a copy of this one.

>81 DeltaQueen50: I enjoyed reading it. I had never read anything by Helene Tursten. This is a short book and quick read.

>80 sallylou61: I've put this on hold on Overdrive. A good BingoDog option.

Just dropping in to mention that I had good luck asking for a recommendation for a particular bingo square (I wanted a book with "fire" in the title). I asked on my talk thread but also on the Book Recommendations Requests group:

https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23175/Book-Recommendations-Requests

Good luck filling those stubborn squares!

I think of Mary Oliver as a poet. I enjoyed reading her essays in Upstream: Selected Essays which I read for GenreCAT (essays or short stories) and BingoDOG (highly recommend). Most of the essays were about nature and how Ms. Oliver experienced it. The first sections of the book particularly were very calming. Ms. Oliver also wrote about other authors including Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and, to a small extent, William Wordsworth. I particularly liked her last essays which included aging and Provincetown where she lived for many years.

4.5 stars

>85 sallylou61: I haven't read any of her essays but Mary Oliver is a very good poet. I'm glad you enjoyed the book.

>86 spiralsheep: I decided to use Upstream for my heartily recommend square in BingoDOG, which I read before A Nantucket Wedding. Thus, I actually did not have a Bingo until my 18th (instead of 17th) square. Now that my adult education class is over, I have more time for reading what I want, and am coming along on my BingoDOG card.

I read Afterlife by Julia Alvarez for a book club. It's the story of the sisterhood of four Latino sisters who immigrated to the United States many years ago. It's also the story of two young immigrants from Mexico - Mario and Estela, who the recently widowed Antonia helps. Estela is pregnant by a man who is not Mario who initially does not know about her condition. The story has several threads, immigration including undocumented immigrants, what is the obligation to aid others, and mental illness. I was disappointed at the ending when the young Mexicans went back to Mexico This is a relatively short novel in which the threads are not pulled together. Overall, I found it a disappointing read as did many of the others in our book group.

3 stars

A Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer, which I read for BingoDOG (place you would like to visit square) was a beach read type of book -- something I needed after reading for my recently completed adult education class and for my latest book club meeting. It is about the upcoming marriage of a middle aged couple, and their attempts to bring their families together. The couple themselves were nice enough, but I certainly did not like some of their children, children's spouses, and to a lesser extent grandchildren. Much of the action takes place in the beachside cottage of the groom, and both the wealthy side and the more financially struggling side of life is displayed.

4 stars

For RandomCAT (Monopoly) and BingoDog (2 or more authors), I read The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President -- and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. This plot was to kill Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore, Maryland, as he traveled on his way to his inauguration. Trains and hotels are important in this story. Lincoln was traveling from his home in Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., by train, taking a long, circuitous route through upstate New York to be able to see people along the way. (He was relatively unknown when elected.) In the North he was greet by enthusiastic crowds, even in the small towns. However, he also had to go through Maryland, a state with strong Southern sympathies, to get to Washington. Along the way, Lincoln stayed at hotels overnight, and in the cities had to transfer from one train line to another which used different stations. A group in Baltimore followed Lincoln's route very carefully with the plan to kill him as he changed trains in that city. A railroad owner expected Southerners to destroy his railroad lines before reaching Washington, and hired a detective to investigate. The detective was Allan Pinkerton, who brought a number of his detectives, especially as they investigated plots to kill Lincoln. The detectives and the plotters used hotels as their headquarters.

I enjoyed this book, which also gave some background on Lincoln's life prior to his nomination of the Republican ticket for president, the nomination, and what happened to the various characters after Lincoln arrived successfully in Washington. Mr. Meltzer and Mr. Mensch wrote the story in numerous very short chapters and kept switching from the detectives to the plotters to Lincoln. With the coming of the Civil War, the plotters were never charged or tried for their plot.

4 stars

>87 sallylou61: I'm glad you found a book for the "heartily recommend" square.

It's good to be able to choose one's own reading but sometimes it's good to be led in new directions too. So many books and so little time!

I recently read On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed prior to hearing her speak about the book. This is an excellent book which gives a history of eastern Texas with special emphasis on Black history as experienced by Ms. Gordon-Reed's family over the generations in addition to telling the significance of celebrating Juneteenth. These personal stories were very interesting. Ms. Gordon-Reed also pointed out that Texas is a very large state geographically, and living in the eastern or western parts of it are very different. The cowboys that are often associated with Texas are in western Texas. Ms. Gordon-Reed wrote about different categories of people who have lived in Texas including Native Americans.

Although this is a book of essays, it contains so much rich history that an index would have been useful.

4.5 stars

For the contain a classical element in the title square of BingoDOG, I read The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, the first nonfiction work I have read by him. This book is as relevant today as when Mr. Baldwin wrote it nearly 60 years ago in the early 1960s. It deals with the attitude toward and treatment of the blacks by the whites; it shows that white supremacy has been alive for a long time. The book contains two letters; one short one to Mr. Baldwin's nephew on the hundredth anniversary of emancipation and a much longer "letter from a region in my mind" (p. {10}). The first letter made me think of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates although Baldwin's letter is much shorter and not as specific. The second letter discusses religion and especially the doctrine of the Nation of Islam which featured the black power movement. Mr. Baldwin explained why he did not agree with that philosophy.

In a discussion of solving the Negro problem, Mr. Baldwin mentioned "Bobby Kennedy's assurance that a Negro can become President in forty years" (p. 94). This prediction, made in the early 1960s, was within 6 or 7 years of being right!

4 stars

BingoDOG 2 -- plan to aim for at least 80% (i.e 20 books) by female authors

I had not been planning to do a second BingoDOG (which I feel is one of the hardest ones over the years), but discovered that a number of my books would actually fit into a second DOG. However, this year I am not limiting my second one to only women authors; some of the titles which will fit are my men.

Reading for BingoDOG 2. -- -- plan to aim for at least 80% (i.e 20 books) by female authors -- will not necessarily finish

BingoDOG 2 titles read:
1. One word title: Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
2. Marginalized group: The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Chippewa Indians) -- finished reading Nov. 16th -- 3.5 stars
4. Character you would like to be friends with: Midwife Rose Carroll in Called to Justice by Edith Maxwell -- finished reading July 4th -- 4 stars
5. Arts and recreation: Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts -- creativity of Frank Baum -- making 1939 movie of Wizard of Oz -- finished reading July 20th -- 4.5 stars
6. Title describes you: Thee, Hannah by Marguerite de Angeli -- read Sept. 30th
7. Heartily recommend: The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright -- finished reading August 30th -- 5 stars
8. Nature or environment: Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift -- finished Oct. 19th -- 4 stars
9. Classical element in title: Up in the Air -- Betty Riegel -- finished Nov. 22nd -- 4 stars
10. Two or more authors: Poems from the Women's Movement edited by Honor Moore --GenreCAT and BingoDOG card 2 -- finished reading Aug. 13th -- 2.5 stars --anthology of poems by 58 female poets
11. Impulse read: God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen -- Rhys Bowen -- finished Dec. 11th -- 3.5 stars
12. Contains a love story: Cokie: a Life Well Lived by Steve V. Roberts -- finished Dec.30th -- 3.5 stars
13. Read a CAT: Face: One Square Foot of Skin by Justine Bateman (a female) -- RandomCAT for March (surprise -- surprised with winning this book and with its content) --2 stars
17. New to you author: Deirdre Sinnott, author of The Third Mrs. Galway
19. About history: A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
20. 20 or fewer members (3 members) Some Say Tomato: Poems, edited by Mariflo Stephens.
21. Less than 200 pages: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed (148 p.)
22. Sr. Citizen protagonist: Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout -- finished October 9th -- 4.5 stars
24. Time in title: In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
25. About or contains magic: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (a female)(magic realism genre)

Possible titles:
3. Dark or light word in title: A Walk for Sunshine
14. Southern Hemisphere: Women Surviving apartheid's prisons
15. Made you laugh
16. Suggested by another generation
18. Set someplace you would like to visit.
23. Type of building: The Barbizon by Paulina Bren (hotel) or House of Earth (Guthrie)

I read The Third Mrs. Galway by Deirdre Sinnot as a LT ER book and for the GenreCAT (historical fiction) and BingoDOG card 2.
The Third Mrs. Galway is a fictional account of slavery unrest in upstate New York in the 1830s. It includes runaway slaves, free blacks, slave catchers, the conflict between abolitionists who wanted to free slaves and send them back to Africa and those who wanted to let freed blacks continue to live in the United States, those helping slaves escape, love stories, etc. Helen Galway, the Mrs. Galway in the book's title, is a young newly married woman from a sheltered background who has not been familiar with the runaway slave situation, and does not know her injured husband's view about it. She is reluctant to become involved. The book also contains family secrets. We do not learn why Helen is considered to be the third Mrs. Galway until near the end of the book.

4 stars

I read A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell for my book club and the HistoryCAT. This is a story of a very strong-willed woman became a spy and planned much of the French resistance effort while working for the British. She did such a good job that during the war, she had to do a lot of moving around, on her artificial leg, to avoid being captured by the Nazis; she was one of their chief targets. Throughout her career, she had trouble being appointed to challenging jobs because of being a woman, and a handicapped one at that. However, the men who worked under her as a whole really appreciated her, and found her treatment by higher ups who had not experienced being in the war, very unjust.

3.5 stars

For the type of building in title square of BingoDOG, I read Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders by William R. Drennan. Last year I really enjoyed reading Loving Frank, a fictional account of the love affair of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney, which of course covered the burning down of Taliesen and the murders of Ms. Cheney and six others. The nonfiction book, Death in a Prairie House, was a much inferior read in my opinion. The first half of the book was mainly about Frank's ancestors and his childhood. There is not nearly as much about Frank and Mamah's relationship.
I do not care for Mr. Drennan's style of writing. For one thing, he kept changing the names he called the various characters -- sometime using their first names and sometimes their surnames even in the same paragraph which could get confusing. Also, he tended to talk in absolutes about his opinions, some of which I disagreed with such as putting the seven murders at Taliesen as more important in culture history than those of Jeffrey Dahmer in popular history (p.6). Also, he talked stated that Wright's work after the murders was less important than that before. I am not an expert in architecture, but I discovered that Mark Hertzberg, an expert on Wright, panned this book as being very inaccurate.

2.5 stars

>98 sallylou61: - I've always been fascinated by Frank Lloyd Wright and read Loving Frank a few years ago so I was interested when I saw you had read this over in the Bingo thread. But now - not so much. Think I'll pass. Thanks for taking one for the team.

>99 dudes22:. Although I did not like the style of writing, I was not aware of its inaccuracies until I had nearly finished the book, when I looked up the author on the web and found the review in addition to the author's obituary. I would have thought that the book would at least be accurate since I bought it at the museum shop of one of Wright's houses open to the public. In his review which was recently updated after having it checked by other experts, Mr. Hertzberg said that he regretted that it was still being sold in many Wright museum shops.

For the GeoKIT (Polar region) and KITastrophe (Apr-June, transportation), I read Into the Abyss by Carol Shaben. It is about a commuter plane wreck in northern Alberta, Canada, on October 19, 1984. A small commuter plane carrying nine passengers and one pilot, traveling in very bad weather, crashed into a wooded hill. The weather was so bad the flight should not have been made, but the administrators of a small airplane company with a bad record for accidents insisted that their pilots fly in horrible conditions or lose their jobs. Of the ten aboard, six were killed and four survived. The survivors included the young pilot, a middle-aged Alberta politician, a young policeman, and a young criminal on his way to be booked accompanied to by the policeman. The six killed included another politician and an indigenous woman who had recently given birth to her fourteenth child (who was still in the hospital). The story is about how the four men survived for many hours, the inquiry following the accident in which they testified, and their lives following the accident. It shows how rough life can be in the rural north. The author is the daughter of the politician who survived.

4 stars

For MysteryKIT and RandomCAT I just read Called to Justice by Edith Maxwell in which Quaker midwife, Rose Carroll, helps solve a murder mystery in which the police have jailed an innocent black man. This mystery novel, occurring in the late 19th century in a small mill-town in Massachusetts, also involves a rape, thefts, and extreme danger to Rose herself and several people she is with including a baby.
In the summers particularly when I attend a Quaker conference, I enjoy reading Quaker mysteries written by Quakers.

4 stars

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
This is a rereading of a novel I read for a book club last year, which I read for another book club this month. It is a novel about two couples and their friendship over a 40-year time span. However, most of the story is centered on their first year together when the men were junior faculty at the University of Wisconsin, with a fair amount about their last meeting approximately 40 years later with a description of their trip to Italy during the middle of this time span as a remembered interlude. There is a lot of switching between the different time periods in their lives. Both couples face major challenges in their lives; the ways the couples adapt is interesting. One of the women tries to control the lives of her family members and friends. I enjoyed this novel much more on the second reading since I could better see how it fit together.

- 4.5 stars

For the HistoryCAT (social history) and BingoDOG second card (arts & recreation) I've read Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts. This novel is a fictional account both of the lives of Frank and Maud Gage Baum and of the filming of the Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. When the Baums were married Frank was an actor in his own traveling company. However, the company failed and the Baums lived in poverty on the prairie in the Northwest and later in Chicago. Frank, an optimist, had several wonderful ideas and would put money into achieving them only to have them fail. However, he was a wonderful storyteller, and eventually became an author writing The Wizard of Oz and many books after that. The story of the Baums ends with his writing The Wizard of Oz. However, that novel was made into a movie, and Maud Baum, nearly twenty years after her husband's death, was involved in attempting to ensure the movie was true to the book and at the same time being a support to Judy Garland. This book describes both the difficult 19th century life on the prairie and the treatment of movie stars at work in the 1930s. Although it is fictional, it is heavily based on facts.

4.5 stars

>104 sallylou61: I've had this on my TBR for a while - sounds interesting.

>105 JayneCM:. I certainly enjoyed the book. Hope you do also.

I read Charity's Burden by Edith Maxwell in July but did not get around to commenting on it. That month I read two books in the Quaker Midwife Mystery series, which I think was a mistake. Charity was a young mother who had had 6 children by the time she was in her early 30s; she supposedly died of an abortion, which midwife Rose Carroll thought probably was murder. Rose becomes involved in finding out who provided the "abortion." In doing so, she experiences danger in someone's trying to murder her under very similar methods to an earlier novel. A difference in this novel is that Rose has the respect of the police detective who welcomes her help instead of being an adversary.

The novel provides a good description of a Quaker marriage when Rose's niece gets married.

3.5 stars

For GenreCAT (poetry, etc.) and BingoDOG card 2 (two or more authors) I read Poems from the Women's Movement edited by Honor Moore. This is a collection of approximately 100 poems written by 58 poets between 1966 and 1982, and supposed to be revolutionary. Perhaps I've read too much poetry by women written before and especially after that to feel this is the case. Personally, I feel that too many "minor" poets are included. Also, the brief biographical information about the poets, including their publications, is presented at the end of the book. I would much preferred to have it with the poets' poems as occurs in many poetry anthologies.

2.5 stars

Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker:

4 stars

For MysteryKIT I read Nine Lives to Die, a Mrs. Murphy Mystery, by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. I did not enjoy this book as much as many of the other books in the series; there was too much socializing with groups of up to six people for my taste. Three murders were solved; two recent murders and one from many years back after a skeleton was found. Once again I enjoyed reading a mystery with a local setting; most of the action takes place less than 15 miles from my home.

3 stars

This month for HistoryCAT (history of one's own country), I read The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights by Dorothy Wickenden. The women were Martha Coffin Wright (Lucretia Mott's much younger sister), Frances A. Seward (the wife of William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State who was badly injured in his home the night Lincoln was shot), and Harriet Tubman. Much but certainly not all of the setting was Auburn, NY, which is near Seneca Falls where the first Women's Rights meeting was held. Most of the book covers 1850-1865. Although the women were friends, the lives were described in separate chapters, which made the story rather choppy. Also, particularly during the Civil War, Ms. Wickenden discussed some of the battles, etc., which of course featured men.

Many years ago I read Ms. Wickenden's Nothing Daunted about two society young women who went west; in comparison to it, I was a bit disappointed in this book.

4 stars

The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright is an excellent novel which the Library of America has just recently published for the first time. It is about Fred Daniels, a black man who is arrested by three white policemen for killing a white couple -- a crime of which he is innocent. The first section is very violent with the police's beating and abusing Mr. Daniels, whom they call boy, until he finally signs a confession, not realizing what he is doing. In the second section, Mr. Daniels manages to escape from the police and goes down a manhole. He lives underground, and the story tells about how he survives by stealing things, etc. Neither he nor the reader can tell how much time is passing. In the last section, he goes back up to the regular world. I was a little disappointed with the end of the story, but feel it was very well written. The reader can feel what Mr. Daniels is going through. Unfortunately, this kind of treatment of blacks by police is still prevalent today.

5 stars

For the Made you laugh BingoDOG square and this month's RandomCAT challenge I've read Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher which is a Thurber Prize for American Humor winner. This epistolary novel follows the life of Jason Fitger for a year through humorous letters of reference he writes for students, former students, and sometimes colleagues. Many of the letters tell more about Fitger himself than the person for whom he is writing. He writes numerous letters for some of the same students. Some of the letters he writes are addressed to former wives (he has two) and a former lady friend. Fitger himself is on the English faculty at a nondescript university in the Midwest; his department is poorly funded and working conditions are poor, and he is past his peak both as a teacher and a writer.

3 stars

Late last month/early this month I read In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway for the short fiction reading group at our retirement community. Unfortunately, our leader died several months ago and some of us unsuccessfully tried to keep the group going. We folded before we finished discussing this book. The book contains 16 short stories with vignettes called "chapters" between each one. Many of the vignettes were about bull fighting. I enjoy Hemingway's stories much more than his novels. In In Our Time, I found the stories about Nick Adams the most interesting; Nick is based on Hemingway himself. Many of the Nick stories in this collection at least talk about women even if they don't feature them. However, the last two stories, "Big Two-Hearted River" parts I and II feature Nick by himself -- the first camping and the second fishing. The material in this collection featured topics which were closed to Hemingway's experience, bull fighting, fishing, and drinking.

3.5 stars

My September book club selection was A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, the well known Chilean/American author. Much of this novel takes place in Spain but particularly in Chile during the civil wars/political unrest in those countries in the late 1930s/early 1940s although the last part of the book brings the stories of the main characters up to 1994. The themes of the book include displacement/immigration, surviving political unrest, and love in various forms and relationships. Where and what is home are important. The two main characters are Victor and Roser who are forced to marry to come on the SS Winnipeg to escape Spain and come to Chile; Roser is the pregnant widow of Victor's brother. However, there are many other characters and several story lines in the plot.

Isabel Allende wrote about a subject she was familiar with since she is a relative (god-daughter) of Former President Salvador Allende (who was her father's cousin). President Allende is mentioned in A Long Petal of the Sea in the turmoil in Chile. Isabel Allende has lived in various countries, sometimes because of political turmoil.

This is the first novel by Allende which I have read and I really enjoyed it.

5 stars

I just read Lady in Red: An Intimate Portrait of Nancy Reagan by Sheila Tate, who recently became my neighbor at the retirement community where I'm living. Mrs. Tate was First Lady Nancy Reagan's press secretary from 1981-1985, and a friend of hers since then. She decided to write this book of remembrances after Mrs. Reagan's death to be part of the historical record. This book is both the story of Nancy Reagan, especially during her husband's presidency, and also a memoir of Mrs. Tate's experiences. One learns much about Mrs. Tate herself. Moreover, the book contains short remembrances of Nancy Reagan by many other people, particularly those who worked in the Reagan administration. Instead of being chronological, the book is arranged by topic in short chapters. The story continues through the deaths of both President and Mrs. Reagan. The book is very complimentary of the former first lady by a woman who considers her a friend.

4 stars

For the senior citizen protagonist on my second BingoDOG card I've read Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout. Although it is called a novel, this is actually a collection of stories, all of which include Olive Kitteridge as a character even if she is only mentioned. However, she is a central character in most of them. Although Ms. Strout is only 65 years old (according to the web), she writes beautifully about aging, capturing recognizable characteristics of it. Olive is primarily in her 80s in this book although the stories cover a number of years.

4.5 stars

Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift was the book we read for our October book club discussion. This was an interesting read; it is about the disappearing Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay and the people who live on it. They recognize that the island is disappearing but think it is caused by erosion instead of global warming. Many of the men who live there are watermen who depend upon crabbing for a living. I found the most interesting parts of the story to be about the history and culture of the island rather than how crabbing is performed.

The author, Earl Swift, is a journalist who went and lived with the people on the island. He was very respectful of their way of life and gained their confidence to write a true account.

4 stars

For RandomCAT (and pleasure) I read Judge Thee Not by Edith Maxwell, a Quaker Midwife Mystery. In addition to being the main midwife in Amesbury, MA, in the late 1880s, Rose Carroll is involved in helping a chief police detective in solving murders. In this novel she is aided by a very intelligent blind woman who has excellent hearing skills and works as an interpreter. Among the topics described in this book are prejudices against the blind and against lesbians. The murdered woman is wealthy and a philanthropist but poor at interpersonal relations, and disliked by many in the community. The mystery is more complex than many in the series.

4.5 stars

Our November book club read was The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. The Night Watchman in the novel, which is based on the author's grandfather, is a Chippewa council member who is involved in trying to keep the federal government from breaking a Native American treaty and removing these Native Americans from a reservation where they have lived for several generations. The novel clearly describes the prejudice shown against the Native Americans, especially any women who go off the reservation into the city. Unfortunately, there are numerous characters in the novel, and several of us in the book club had difficulty keeping the characters straight.

3.5 stars

I read Up in the Air by Betty Riegel for the November RandomCAT since after taking my first airplane ride in the 1950s I briefly wanted to be an airplane stewardess when I grew up. In this memoir, Ms. Riegel describes being a stewardess on Pam Am during its glory days in the 1960s. She was so excited about becoming a stewardess for Pan Am that she left England for the United States. She describes her training and and her life as a stewardess including on the plane experiences, sharing dwellings with other stewardesses, and layovers (and staying in 5 star hotels). I go a bit tired of hearing about her dating life, but that was an experience many stewardesses had. Betty was the last one in her small group to get married. Her career as an unmarried stewardess lasted most of the 1960s; by that time stewardesses could be married and she continued with her career for a while but does not write about that part.

4 stars

For this month's HistoryCAT (about an event), I read Titanic, the Canadian Story Centennial Edition by Alan Hustak, one of the few complete electronic books I've read. As one can guess from the title, this account is centered on the Canadians or passengers going to Canada. It begins with background information to wealthy Canadians who sailed on the Titanic. The book covers all aspects of the Canadian experience including what cabins some of the passengers were in, their experiences on board and of being rescued or not, the coverage of the sinking by Canadian newspapers, and brief biographies of the survivors including their lives after the Titanic and when they died. Appendices give lists of the Canadian passengers according to their class on board; those who did not survive are in bold print. The wealthy Canadians often included whole families traveling together; some of the lower class people were immigrating to Canada. Many of these passengers were young being the adult children of the wealthy or immigrants coming to join relatives already in Canada.

4 stars

This evening I finished the last 20 pages of Stories Untold: Oral Histories of Wives of Vietnam Servicemen -- by Charlotte McDaniel. I had heard Charlotte McDaniel talk about her experiences writing this book several weeks ago at our local library and bought the book. Her talk was much more interesting than the book turned out to be; in her presentation Charlotte was very enthusiastic about her topic and told wonderful stories. The book basically tells the women's stories in their own words, and contains a lot of repetition, even within the same story. The stories are arranged by topic such as: deployment, adapting to the absence, managing with kids, etc. Charlotte McDaniel interviewed 34 women around 50 years after the war ended. In the book she uses fake first names (and no surnames for the women's privacy).

3 stars

I've read God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen by Rhys Bowen for both the GenreCAT and RandomCAT this month. Although this is the most current of the Royal Spyness Mysteries, I read it because I wanted to read a Christmas mystery. I found the first half of this book very slow going, but really enjoyed the second half when more was happening. The title is a play on words from the hymn, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; however, the title reflects the story since the several royal gentlemen are murdered by the same person. There are a number of suspects, but I did not expect the culprit until near the end of the story. I prefer Ms. Bowen's Molly Murphy mysteries featuring an immigrant to New York City over these Royal Spyness mysteries which feature Lady Georgiana Rannoch who is connected to the British royalty although the British history is interesting.

3.5 stars

I just finishing reading Simple River: New and Selected Poems by my friend Sara M. Robinson. I purchased it last Thursday evening from her following a group reading of poetry from her earlier book Needville. I found Simple River to be a much calmer book that Needville, which is about coal mining. Many of the poems in Simple River are about water, especially a river, and those which are not are generally about nature. The poems sound as if the poet is speaking directly to the reader; many of them are in first person.

4 stars

I read one of my favorite books, I Take Thee, Serenity by Daisy Newman to complete my BingoDOG card. It was recommended to me by my mother many years ago. Although I had already read it several times, I discovered details which I had not noticed before.

I've just finished reading The Red Carnelian by Phyllis A. Whitney for GenreCAT and ROOTs. Although I read several books by Whitney as a teenager and have read at least one other of her adult novels, this particular mystery had too much terror for my tastes. This book featured 2 murders in a department store, several people using assumed names, and a lot of people not telling the truth during the investigation of the murders.

3 stars

For a joint Christmas gift for both of us my husband gave us Charlottesville Then & Now edited by Steve Trumbull. This is a collection of photographs of Charlottesville taken in the early to mid 20th century with a photograph of the same place taken around 2015 or later. With them was text pointing out the differences. Unfortunately, this interesting book was published in 2017, and there are numerous differences since then with the removal of 4 discriminatory statues, a hotel on a prominent corner, and the ongoing renovation of the central university library (with one of its exterior walls down). This shows how quickly a landscape can change although there was an ongoing controversy re the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in city parks for over 5 years.

4 stars

A few days ago I finished reading Cokie: a Life Well Lived by her husband, Steven V. Roberts. Mr. Roberts and Cokie were obviously very much in love, and this book is very laudatory. Instead of being a straight biography, this book covers Cokie's life as a wife, mother, early years in journalism, later years in journalism, as a friend, storyteller (writer of books), and believer (in a mixed Catholic/Jewish marriage. I felt that the least interesting chapter was as a friend; that chapter features numerous colleagues, friends, women she helped in some way, etc. singing her praises. It was hard to see how Cokie could have gotten any work (journalism, being a mother) done if she was doing all the things she was said to be doing. Also, the book contained many quotations identifying who was being quoted but with no footnotes saying when, etc.

3.5 stars