RidgewayGirl Reads Some Books in 2021 -- Last Thread of the Year!

Dit is een voortzetting van het onderwerp RidgewayGirl Reads Some Books in 2021 -- Third Quarter.

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RidgewayGirl Reads Some Books in 2021 -- Last Thread of the Year!

1RidgewayGirl
sep 29, 2021, 3:34 pm

Can you believe we're on the final stretch of 2021?

Recently, I read Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell's excellent novel, which reminded me of a time, twenty years ago, when I lived for six months in Warwick, England in a row house (called a cottage) on Bridgend, a small road that faced onto the back of the Warwick castle gardens. The house was built in the late sixteenth century, so we'd visit the Shakespeare Trust properties in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon and find out about it. I also took a series of falconry classes at Mary Arden's farm, where a very large owl named Jessica taught me how to handle her. So my theme this year is in honor of Jessica the owl.



It really was a ridiculously beautiful place to live.

2RidgewayGirl
sep 29, 2021, 3:34 pm

3RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 30, 2021, 10:39 am

Currently Reading



Recently Read



Books Acquired



Reading miscellany:

Owned Books Read: 49

Library Books Read: 57

Netgalley: 15

Borrowed: 2

Books Acquired:78

Rereads: 2

Abandoned with Prejudice: 1

4RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 16, 2021, 9:41 am

Category One.



The Global Owl: Books from around the world


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map


1. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, translated from the Spanish by Sarah Moses (Argentina)
2. Prayer for the Living by Ben Okri (Nigeria)
3. Come On Up by Jordi Nopca, translated from the Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem (Spain)
4. The Gate by François Bizot, translated from the French by Euan Cameron (France)
5. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones (Barbados)
6. Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique (Colombia)
7. Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom, translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers (Finland)
8. Snowflake by Louise Nealon (Ireland)
9. A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lanka)
10. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe)

6RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 16, 2021, 9:42 am

Category Three.



Expat Owls, Immigrant Owls and Owls in Translation

1. The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier, translated from the Spanish by Pablo Medina
2. Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita
3. Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
4. Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon Han
5. Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee
7. Her Here by Amanda Dennis
8. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder
9. The Apartment by Greg Baxter
10. Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah

8RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 12, 2021, 8:20 am

Category Five.



CATs and My Book Club

1. Figuring by Maria Popova (February HistoryCAT)
2. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (February RandomCAT)
3. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (April GenreCAT)
4. Ernesto: The Untold Story of Hemingway in Revolutionary Cuba by Andrew Feldman (April Book Club)
5. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (May GenreCAT)
6. Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye (June HistoryCAT and June RandomCAT)
7. Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (August Book Club)
8. Face It by Debbie Harry (September Book Club)
9. The Girl in White Gloves by Kerri Maher (October Book Club)
10. Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life by Caroline Moorehead (November Book Club)

9RidgewayGirl
sep 29, 2021, 3:40 pm

Category Six.



The Rooster: Books from the Tournament of Books (the tournament, the summer reading or the longlist)

1. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (2021 Competitor)
2. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (2021 Competitor)
3. Telephone by Percival Everett (2021 Competitor)
4. Red Pill by Hari Kunzru (2021 Competitor)
5. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2021 Competitor)
6. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2021 Competitor)
7. We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry (2021 Competitor)
8. Deacon King Kong by James McBride (2021 Competitor)
9. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021 Summer Camp)
10. Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen (2021 Summer Camp)

17RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 2, 2021, 11:31 am



(I've modified this quite a bit because I wanted to.)

1. A book published in 2011. -- Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom

2. An Afrofuturist book.

3. A book with a heart, diamond, spade or club on the cover. -- The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

4. A book with a gem, mineral or rock in the title. -- Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah

5. A book where the protagonist works at your current or dream job. -- The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

6. A book that won or was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. -- No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

7. A book with a family tree. -- The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

8. A book published in the 1990's. -- The Night Inspector by Frederick Busch

9. A book about forgetting. -- Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

10. A book you've seen on someone else's thread. -- Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

11. A crime novel in translation.

12. A genre mash-up. -- In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

13. A book set mostly or entirely outdoors. -- The River by Peter Heller

14. A book with something broken on the cover. -- Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

15. A book by a Muslim author.

16. A book about a fresh start. -- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

17. A book with magic realism. -- The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier

18. A book set in multiple countries. -- Memorial by Bryan Washington

19. A book set in a country you'd like to visit. -- The Gate by François Bizot (Cambodia)

20. A book starting with "Q," "X" or "Z."

21. A book about a social justice issue. -- How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

22. A book set in a restaurant.

23. A book with a black and white cover. -- Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon Han

24. A book by an indigenous author.

25. A book with the same title as a song.

26. A book about something you are passionate about. -- Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi

27. A book from a Black Lives Matter reading list.

28. A book your best friend would like. -- Nobody, Somebody, Anybody by Kelly McClorey

29. A book about art or an artist. -- Life Class by Pat Barker

30. A book over 600 pages. -- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

31. A book you meant to read last year. -- Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan

32. An ARC. -- Prayer for the Living by Ben Okri

33. A book by a Latinx author. -- Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

34. A book bought at an independent bookstore. -- Ernesto: The Untold Story of Hemingway in Revolutionary Cuba by Andrew Feldman

35. A book written in German.

18RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: sep 29, 2021, 3:55 pm

Can you believe this year is on its last legs? In any case, I'm reposting a couple of my favorite pictures from my previous threads.

Because it's too close to the truth:



And because owl legs are funny:



And for this last quarter, in honor of cooler weather, here's Ollie being cozy:



Now come on in! I have comfortable chairs and plenty of books if you forgot to bring your own.

19christina_reads
sep 29, 2021, 3:59 pm

Happy new thread! Nice to see those owls again!

20Jackie_K
sep 29, 2021, 4:24 pm

Happy new thread! And hello to all those most excellent owls!

21Helenliz
sep 29, 2021, 4:48 pm

Happy new thread! I can't help but feel the owl legs is a bit like seeing the legs of a Victorian lady - feels like we shouldn't be looking!

22NinieB
sep 29, 2021, 5:56 pm

Happy new thread! >21 Helenliz: Please, a Victorian lady's limbs!

23rabbitprincess
sep 29, 2021, 7:34 pm

>18 RidgewayGirl: Aww cozy kitty!

24dudes22
sep 29, 2021, 7:46 pm

Happy New Thread. Love looking at the owls. I think I want one.

25MissWatson
sep 30, 2021, 3:13 am

Happy new thread. Ollie is so gorgeous!

26DeltaQueen50
sep 30, 2021, 11:46 am

Happy new thread. Books, owls, and cats - this is a happy place!

27RidgewayGirl
sep 30, 2021, 11:50 am

Welcome, everyone! I will never be able to choose a theme as popular as owls again.

28RidgewayGirl
sep 30, 2021, 12:13 pm



Sometimes it's good to set aside the other books and just read something light with a happy ending, and Mhairi McFarlane is a great author for that. Her chick lit novels hit all the same notes as the rest of the genre, but she consistently writes solid stories, ones where she somehow never needs to have a character behaving oddly or stupidly to get the story where it needs to go. She also writes good secondary characters who have lives that consist of more than supporting the main character. That's not a given in this genre, where too often the best friends only exist to listen to the main character and support her.

Just Last Night doesn't really need a plot synopsis. You know the main character is a young woman and that her love life is not great and that things will happen and at the end of it, her life, and especially her love life, have drastically improved. This was a solidly satisfying entertainment, but so is every single other book by this author.

29thornton37814
sep 30, 2021, 6:52 pm

Happy new thread!

30RidgewayGirl
okt 1, 2021, 9:05 am

>29 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori!

31RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: okt 2, 2021, 6:50 pm



Three Women by Lisa Taddeo dives into the lives and relationships of three women. Taddeo interviewed the women over a decade and they allowed her close access to their lives. There's Maggie, who reported her high school teacher and saw her community turn on her. And Lina, who is having an intense affair with the man she dated in high school in an attempt to feel a sense of intimacy with someone. And there's Sloan, whose husband chooses men for them to sleep with and when people find out, she's the one who is blamed.

The depth with which Taddeo has explored these three lives is impressive, Women's desire is an uncomfortable topic and the author explores the way that how and what these women desire is formed by their upbringing and experiences. Reading this was an intense experience, that often felt startling intimate.

32VivienneR
okt 3, 2021, 3:30 pm

Happy new thread! I love looking through the lists again in your categories. Lots of BBs to be found.

And I adore the pictures - in truth, that's mostly what I'm here for. :)

33charl08
okt 4, 2021, 2:09 am

>31 RidgewayGirl: I've got this in the to be read pile. Think that it's going to be a bit of a mood read, needing some concentration.

With your love of short stories, I wondered if I had picked up the recommendation for Stories of your life and others from you. I'm not often blown away by short stories, but these ones were amazing. I just wish I'd noted who recommended the book!

34RidgewayGirl
okt 4, 2021, 12:18 pm

>32 VivienneR: I'm resigned to having the owl pictures being the primary draw here, Vivienne.

>33 charl08: No, it wasn't me, but I've heard a ton of great stuff about Ted Chiang.

35Nickelini
okt 4, 2021, 8:16 pm

>1 RidgewayGirl: I also took a series of falconry classes at Mary Arden's farm, where a very large owl named Jessica taught me how to handle her.

Aw, that's so nice. Any chance of living somewhere abroad again?

36RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: okt 5, 2021, 12:03 pm



The narrator of Intimacies by Katie Kitamura is a translator at the International Court in The Hague. She has one good friend and is beginning a relationship with a Dutch man that she is optimistic about, so she's hoping to be permanently hired when her contract ends. But translating is not without its hazards; the work can often be stressful, especially once she begins translating at the trial of a west African leader accused of human rights abuses.

Kitamura writes with both intimacy and a sense of remove, the reader is privy to the narrator's private thoughts and desires while her past and even her name remain hidden. Access is given, but only to a portion of the narrator's life, which heightens the sense of urgency and of time passing. There's no bird's eye view or insight given with the passing of time, just this one woman navigating her life as best she can.

37RidgewayGirl
okt 5, 2021, 12:02 pm

>35 Nickelini: My husband is getting itchy feet and I wouldn't mind getting to experience somewhere far away by living there a few years. Once the kids, who are currently in college, are on their feet and also depending on a few older members of our respective families, we'd like to go further afield and are thinking about Hungary, India and South Africa as possibilities.

38RidgewayGirl
okt 8, 2021, 10:30 am



When Debbie is accepted into Trinity College, Dublin, she's thrilled and envisions a world of like-minded friends and a sense of belonging she never found in her small Irish village, where her mother is both mentally ill and known for sleeping with a number of the village's men. Her bedrock is her uncle, who lives in a trailer behind the house and who runs the dairy farm. But university isn't what she'd dreamt of. It's a lot harder than she thought and she's only managed to make one friend, a well-off girl named Xanthe who finds Debbie to be refreshingly "authentic."

Louise Nealon's debut novel Snowflake is, on the one hand, another coming-of-age novel by a young Irish woman and, on the other, a refreshing angle on that flooded genre. Debbie is a mess, but she's also got better reasons for it than general ennui and despite the huge problems in her family, she has more support than many of the wealthier versions of this character. It was interesting to see how a culchie, someone from rural Ireland, experiences Dublin and the people who live there, and how they, or at least Xanthe, experience rural Ireland. And the writing is far better than one usually finds in a debut novel. Even if you've tired of Sally Rooney, or if you love her and want something similar from a different angle, this book is worth reading.

39RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: okt 9, 2021, 1:24 pm



Said good-bye to our good dog, Ivy, today. She was the best dog, loved her pack and her house and treats. Liked walks, but preferred the walk home. She didn't love the cats, but coexisted without eating any of them and allowed them to nap with her in sunbeams. She always barked at the delivery guys, whether UPS, USPS, FedEx or amazon, but never at the neighbors or anyone she knew. She is already missed.

40NinieB
okt 9, 2021, 1:22 pm

>39 RidgewayGirl: Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss.

41RidgewayGirl
okt 9, 2021, 1:25 pm

>40 NinieB: Thanks, she was old, especially given that she was a large dog, but I wish she could have stayed a little longer.

42Jackie_K
okt 9, 2021, 2:10 pm

>39 RidgewayGirl: Oh how sad - RIP Ivy.

43dudes22
okt 9, 2021, 2:25 pm

Oh, Kay - I'm so sorry. Losing a pet no matter that they lived a good, long life is never easy. Makes my heart ache for you.

44RidgewayGirl
okt 9, 2021, 2:41 pm

>42 Jackie_K: & >43 dudes22: Thanks, Jackie and Betty. We'll have to learn to lock doors and close windows when we leave the house again.

45NinieB
okt 9, 2021, 3:21 pm

>43 dudes22: Exactly my thoughts.

46DeltaQueen50
okt 9, 2021, 3:33 pm

I am sorry to read of Ivy's passing. She was a familiar member of your home and thread. She will be missed but you can take comfort in knowing you gave her a wonderful home and life.

47thornton37814
okt 9, 2021, 6:18 pm

>39 RidgewayGirl: Sorry for your loss.

48rabbitprincess
okt 9, 2021, 8:08 pm

>39 RidgewayGirl: That is the face of a Very Good Dog. RIP Ivy :(

49MissWatson
okt 10, 2021, 4:42 am

>39 RidgewayGirl: I am so sorry to hear this. Losing a family member after so many years is hard.

50RidgewayGirl
okt 10, 2021, 8:23 pm

Thank you all. We are adjusting and the cats are doing their best to remind us that we still have a lot of pets.

51Nickelini
okt 10, 2021, 9:21 pm

>50 RidgewayGirl: That's cats for you! Sorry for your loss

52RidgewayGirl
okt 11, 2021, 5:49 pm

And now for two fantastic books and one terrible one.



North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is a Victorian novel without any attempts to pace the exciting bits. It just plows ahead with plot, no pauses at all to drink tea or write a letter. If you've watched the BBC mini-series (and if you're reading this novel now, it's because you spent a few hours watching Richard Armitage stare off into the middle distance in a brooding sort of way, let's not pretend otherwise) you'll be familiar with the events of the novel. What is surprising is how closely the television adaptation follows the novel. With the exception of Bessy, who is rather cloying in the novel but a caustic breath of fresh air in the mini-series, the characters are on the page as they appear on screen.

Despite the way Gaskell keeps things moving along rapidly, she doesn't fail to create a cast of memorable characters. In this novel, the parents are a lot. Mrs. Thornton reacts to the world around her with a prickly defensiveness which is understandable given that her husband lost their money in a foolish bet, then committed suicide, leaving her to eke out a living for her two small children. But understandable doesn't mean that she isn't a hard person to be around. And the Hales, Margaret's parents, are both weak and whiny. And yet their children love them deeply and also manage to have become the kind of people who animate their morals with action, so that Margaret befriends a working family and sets out to help them in the ways they both need and can accept and Mr. Thornton postures and yells a lot, then works to improve the conditions for his employees.

This novel was clearly intended to illuminate what conditions were for textile workers, but did so with a certain, not unexpected belief in the need for bosses to call the shots. But Gaskell is also pushing against the caste system with her constant theme that men who make their fortunes in factories are the equals of those who inherit theirs and that working men are as intelligent and ingenious as those who supervise them. There are a number of digs at the moral and intellectual abilities of the Irish, I guess proving that humans will always manage to scapegoat somebody.

This novel was a lot of fun and was often hard to set aside and I'm sure I'll revisit it soon.

53VivienneR
okt 11, 2021, 6:19 pm

So sorry to hear about the loss of Ivy. You gave her a lovely life.

54christina_reads
okt 12, 2021, 10:13 am

>52 RidgewayGirl: Love North and South! I can't remember whether I read the book or watched the adaptation first, but they're both great.

55Helenliz
okt 12, 2021, 10:19 am

Sorry to read about Ivy. Once a good dog, always a good dog.

>52 RidgewayGirl: I have that from the library. In my case it's Mamie's fault, but that's not to say I'm above looking out the BBC miniseries for a healthy dose of brooding stare.

56RidgewayGirl
okt 12, 2021, 11:30 am

Thanks, Joyce and Vivienne.

>54 christina_reads: It really is an extraordinarily well done adaptation. I'll have to rewatch it now that I've read the book.

>55 Helenliz: All dogs do their best. Helen, I'd be interested to find out what you make of it not having the mini-series actors in your head at all. And then what you think of the mini-series.

57RidgewayGirl
okt 13, 2021, 4:43 pm



After the war has ended, a man takes a long walk in Columbo, Sri Lanka, and later he takes a train to attend the funeral of his grandmother's caretaker. Along the way, he remembers other walks and other train journeys he took in India with the woman he fell in love with. Anuk Arudpragasam's novel, A Passage North, has a deceptively simple framework from which he explores the aftermath of Sri Lanka's long war on its citizens and the life of those who leave their home countries.

And while all that would be reason enough to make this novel a stand-out, the real reason to read A Passage North is for the writing, which is beautiful. Arudpragasam describes the places Krishan travels through and exists in so as to make the reader feel present in a specific place and time, to see things through the protagonist's eyes and to understand the people he interacts with. This is a remarkable novel and I'm glad that it has been put on the Booker shortlist.

58pamelad
okt 13, 2021, 5:00 pm

>57 RidgewayGirl: I've added this to the wish list because a trip to Sri Lanka in 2010 made clear the ongoing tension and violence between the Singhalese and the Tamils. I had not realised before then that Tamils had lived in Sri Lanka for over a thousand years.

59RidgewayGirl
okt 13, 2021, 5:02 pm

>58 pamelad: I was really pleased to read a book that illuminated a bit about that war. I look forward to finding out what you think of it, especially given how you've been there and the descriptions will remind you of what you've seen.

60RidgewayGirl
okt 13, 2021, 5:02 pm



Reading The Girl in White Gloves by Kerri Maher was like wading through tepid oatmeal. Nothing offensive happened, but nor can I say that I enjoyed the experience. A novel needs some grit to propel it forward. I will note that there is nothing in this novel that would prevent giving it to your grandmother, or to your pastor's grandmother, which is surprising given that Grace Kelly had some fun before she got married. You certainly wouldn't know it from this book, where she whines and complains and dresses nicely for 370 unrewarding pages. The writing is fine, but lazy, with the most expected turns of phrase used every time. This book is not only boring, but there are a ton of careless errors, casting doubt on every detail presented. I wish the author had taken some of the time she used to go on vacation in Monaco to learn how to use google. Ms. Maher, Long Island Iced Teas were invented in the 1970s, so it's unlikely that Hollywood starlets would have been drinking them in 1956, and canoes are propelled and steered by paddles, not oars. It's the small details like that that make the rest of the story less believable.

61dudes22
okt 13, 2021, 8:03 pm

>57 RidgewayGirl: - I'll take a BB for this.

62Helenliz
okt 14, 2021, 2:46 am

>60 RidgewayGirl: that's a nope then! Oh dear...

63charl08
okt 14, 2021, 3:05 am

I do love the description "tepid oatmeal". I have A Passage North in the library pile, must get to it sharpish. Thanks for the nudge.

64hailelib
okt 14, 2021, 10:52 pm

>60 RidgewayGirl:

At least the two previous ones were good.

65RidgewayGirl
okt 15, 2021, 9:27 am

>61 dudes22: Betty, I know so little about Sri Lanka, so I really enjoyed how the author described his setting.

>62 Helenliz: Helen, some of the women in my book club liked it, but they don't care if the writing is bad and they thought that failing to research the era was fine because the book is fiction. Of course, then they also discussed a highly unlikely scene where Grace Kelly gives thoughtful advice to a young Diana Spencer as though it were fact.

>63 charl08: Charlotte, at this point, I think it's the best book on the Booker shortlist (I have not read all the books).

>64 hailelib: The duds are far fewer than the ones that I love and I wouldn't have picked the dud up except for the book club. The next book is a biography of Martha Gellhorn and I'm looking forward to that one.

66Nickelini
okt 15, 2021, 1:54 pm

>65 RidgewayGirl: Of course, then they also discussed a highly unlikely scene where Grace Kelly gives thoughtful advice to a young Diana Spencer as though it were fact.

Ouch. I'd be considering quitting my book club if that happened too

67dudes22
okt 15, 2021, 2:05 pm

>65 RidgewayGirl: - >66 Nickelini: - Book clubs can be strange, can't they? There was some book we read where something similar happened. I sometimes wish we'd spend a little more time talking about the quality of the writing than the plot of the book.

68RidgewayGirl
okt 15, 2021, 3:48 pm

>66 Nickelini: There are a couple of more serious readers and a couple who like beach reads and this time the balance was decidedly towards the people who read for fun.

>67 dudes22: Betty, once I decided that book clubs were primarily a chance to chat and drink a glass of wine, in which a book is coincidentally discussed, I started enjoying the experience more.

69dudes22
okt 15, 2021, 4:53 pm

>68 RidgewayGirl: - When we first started out book club here, we did wine and goodies. But when covid came and we did zoom (well I guess you could drink if you wanted to) and later met outside, it seemed to stop. And now we meet at the community center.

70RidgewayGirl
okt 15, 2021, 5:26 pm



He drove us back to Ma's, and on the highway ramps, we passed over the police department and over the serial killer in his cell too. The downtown fell away from the highway as we headed west, away from the breweries and the factories churning out chocolate, and cheese, and sad, sad lives. Peter kept his eyes on the road.

In July, 1991, Peg's sister disappears. It's not a great time to be a missing person in Milwaukee given that the media have descended on the city and the police department is busy with the Jeffrey Dahmer case. It doesn't help that the detective assigned to the case is not that interested. Almost thirty years later, Peg's mother wants to hire a psychic to find her daughter's body. Peg is hoping she can finally get someone to look at the man she knows is responsible.

The Comfort of Monsters by Willa C. Richards is structured like a run-of-the-mill thriller, but there's more going on than finding out what happened. Richards is looking at how women are allowed to move through the world and which people get attention when they disappear, a topic highly relevant in these days when a missing social influencer, blonde, young and pretty, takes all the attention to the point where even the family of Gabrielle Petito point out that there are missing women who never rate a single mention. In this case, the first missing people who are ignored are the young, non-white gay men preyed upon by Dahmer, where the only people who care are family and friends. And then Peg's sister, caught in the middle of having too messy a life to matter and a police officer who isn't doing his job. Milwaukee is vividly rendered here -- it's wonderful when novels are published that aren't set in New York, London or any of the usual places. If you enjoyed Liz Moore's Long, Bright River, you'll enjoy The Comfort of Monsters.

71Jackie_K
okt 16, 2021, 6:59 am

>68 RidgewayGirl: I'm beginning to realise just how lucky I got with my book group when I first moved to Scotland. People who enjoyed discussing the book whatever we thought of it (and whatever the others thought of it - nobody takes offence if someone doesn't like their favourite!), and cake. Initially we met in a bookshop cafe in central Glasgow, but once the two members who lived outwith Glasgow left the group, and the rest of us lived on the south side of the city, we decamped to a more local coffee shop. I'm still in touch with them even though I don't live in Glasgow any more, and always check what the book of the month is and join them (in spirit) if I fancy reading it. They have a facebook group so it's easy to stay in touch.

72DeltaQueen50
okt 16, 2021, 2:34 pm

73RidgewayGirl
okt 16, 2021, 2:39 pm

>71 Jackie_K: I was in a book club I really liked the second time I was living in Germany. It was just a group of moms who had kids at the same school and we came from a variety of countries and backgrounds and generally read older noteworthy books like Slaughterhouse Five and Flowers for Algernon.

>72 DeltaQueen50: Judy, I think you'd like it. If I remember correctly, you liked Long, Bright River.

74DeltaQueen50
okt 17, 2021, 1:57 pm

75RidgewayGirl
okt 18, 2021, 4:59 pm

I have jury duty this week. Today I finished the book I was reading, had a very nice lunch downtown with another juror and was excused by the defense after just one good look at me. I was not unhappy to have a free afternoon, but also I was a little offended at being dismissed. There's still the rest of the week, I guess.

76Helenliz
okt 19, 2021, 4:10 am

>75 RidgewayGirl: That's a mixed blessing! In the UK the jury is a random pick, the there is no selection by those involved in the case of the jury members.
I did it many years ago, got called to 3 cases in my first week, none in the second. I thought it fascinating.

77RidgewayGirl
okt 19, 2021, 6:25 pm

>76 Helenliz: The process, as much as I was present for, was really interesting. I was also intrigued that most people seemed content to simply sit quietly and hadn't brought reading material (cell phones had to be turned off and put away for much of the time).

78RidgewayGirl
okt 19, 2021, 6:25 pm



When Carmen Maria Machado was getting her MFA at Iowa City, she was also involved in an abusive relationship that she writes about in In the Dream House. The conceit is that every chapter -- ranging in length from a single paragraph to several pages -- is set in a specific genre or trope, so one chapter is "The Dream House as Unreliable Narrator" and another is "The Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure." It's an effective way of pulling together a narrative that isn't too difficult to read, given the subject matter. Machado has researched ideas and themes that appear in fairy tales and folk tales and pulled them in to illustrate the ways in which the abuse manifested and in her response. Machado is also looking at the history of domestic abuse among women and how that differs from and imitates the more familiar partner violence in heterosexual relationships.

This could be a heavy book and a sad one, but Machado is so brilliant and her mind is so active and eager to seek out connections and ideas that I had to consciously slow down my reading. And Machado's story doesn't remain one characterized by uncertainty and turmoil.

79RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: okt 20, 2021, 1:36 pm



After the events of The River, Jack takes a job as a fishing guide for the second half of the season at an expensive resort in the Rockies, the previous guide having abruptly quit. His first client is a famous singer who is a competent fisherwoman and this should be an easy job. But Jack, haunted by his past, is troubled by the inconsistencies and odd behavior he sees at the resort.

The Guide by Peter Heller reads like if Lee Child formed a writing collaboration with Norman Maclean. Jack is laconic and highly competent with a strong sense of duty and right and wrong. The novel is a fast-paced adventure novel in which a lot of time is spent fly-fishing and talking about nature. This has the potential to be a fun series of thrillers and I appreciate how good the writing is and how Jack is deeply affected by the events in his past.

80thornton37814
okt 20, 2021, 1:47 pm

>79 RidgewayGirl: I love your description . . . "reads like if Lee Child formed a writing collaboration with Norman Maclean . . ."

81RidgewayGirl
okt 21, 2021, 10:10 am

>80 thornton37814: I was pleased to think that up myself! But also true -- it has the pacing and plot of a Jack Reacher novel, with a protagonist who deeply loves and knows nature. This book made me miss the Rockies.

82thornton37814
Bewerkt: okt 21, 2021, 11:54 am

>81 RidgewayGirl: I did add it to my Knox County ebook and audiobook wish lists. (They have both.) If the writing is as good as you say, I'll probably opt for ebook. I'm actually thinking I might pick this one up for my brother for Christmas. He'll enjoy the fishing angle.

83dudes22
okt 21, 2021, 4:01 pm

>79 RidgewayGirl: - So is this a series? Sounds like something I'd like.

84RidgewayGirl
okt 21, 2021, 4:38 pm

>82 thornton37814: This or The River by the same author would make good gifts for relatives who like the outdoors, fishing and adventure. The River is about a canoe trip in northern Canada, that turns into a thriller with the guys rescuing a woman from a bad man as a forest fire rushes toward them.

>83 dudes22: I hope Heller turns these two books into a series, but so far it's just two books. The ending of The Guide certainly left a good opening to have Jack continue his adventures.

85DeltaQueen50
okt 22, 2021, 12:30 pm

>79 RidgewayGirl: I am looking forward to getting to this one!

86RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: okt 23, 2021, 4:48 pm



Back in the 1960s, when Zimbabwe was still called Rhodesia, a girl dreamed of a better life than ceaseless manual labor she sees her mother doing. She gets a few years in school, thanks to her uncle, a man with a degree who studied in the UK and who now supports an extended family. Her older brother is the one who gets to continue with school, until a tragedy gives her an opportunity she is determined to make work for her.

Nervous Conditions is the first book in a trilogy by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga and I'll certainly be continuing my journey with Tambu as she fights for the opportunities an education might bring her. This was a well-crafted book that did not feel like a debut. Dangarembga plays off of the difference between Tambu and her cousin, a girl her age who went with her family to England and grew up there, only to be brought back as a teenager and expected to fit back into a deeply patriarchal and hierarchical society, which she finds impossible to do. The novel gives a glimpse of what life was like then for an ordinary Rhodesian, the enormous gap between the Black population and the colonists, and the enormous resiliency and tenacity of one girl.

87dudes22
okt 23, 2021, 5:26 pm

>86 RidgewayGirl: - I took this as a BB from Jennifer last year and, from your review, it looks like I should put it into rotation for next year.

88RidgewayGirl
okt 23, 2021, 7:19 pm

>87 dudes22: Betty, it's really good. I'm eager to get to the next book, The Book of Not.

89RidgewayGirl
okt 24, 2021, 12:19 pm

My next two books coincidentally were written by men about a woman's life and those women were contemporaries, both Americans beginning their lives near the beginning of the twentieth century. But other than that, the novels are completely different. I loved both of them.



Mrs. Bridge is a modern classic and Evan S. Connell's debut novel, a sometimes sympathetic, sometimes uncharitable look at a woman's life. Mrs. Bridge of Kansas City is a woman who has lived within the confines of what is expected of her and she places those same restrictions and expectations on her family. Yet while she is the one who keeps the rules and knows what to do, this doesn't mean she doesn't also chafe sometimes or realize that there is something missing from her life, an entirely pleasant, financially comfortable existence that doesn't entirely cover for her lack of connection to her children or her husband's emotional and often physical absence.

Connell does not go lightly on Mrs. Bridge, spotlighting moments where her need to preserve appearances was silly or harmed her relationship with her children. But he's also often kind to her, revealing how little respect or support she receives from her husband. This book is also full of quietly powerful moments or humorous ones and Connell's descriptions of daily life allows plenty of room for the small disappointments and harms to be given their due. This quiet novel is a wonderful glimpse of a world that no longer exists, and of a woman who honestly did her best.

90RidgewayGirl
okt 27, 2021, 10:20 am



Laird Hunt's novel, Zorrie, is an account of the life of a woman most would overlook. Zorrie is born and raised on an Indiana farm until her parents die when she is young and she is sent to live with an aunt who provides her with a place to stay and plenty of work, but little in the way of nurturing. When her aunt dies, Zorrie is a teenager left homeless and penniless in the middle of the Great Depression. But while Zorrie may have had to prove her resilience time and time again, this isn't a tragic tale because Zorrie is no one's tragic heroine. She's a tough and yet loving woman who loves the Indiana soil and the people in her life.

I loved this quiet story about an ordinary and remarkable woman. Hunt writes about her with such love and understanding that she feels like a beloved older relative. Zorrie lived through a tumultuous time in history, working as a "radium girl" painting clock faces and dials with glowing paint, seeing her husband leave for the war and not return and to have a transformative experience of her own, late in life. I'm glad this book was shortlisted for the National Book Award and so brought to my notice. It's a worthwhile read.

91dudes22
Bewerkt: okt 27, 2021, 2:12 pm

90 - Sounds good tome -BB. I too like those quite types of books.

ETA: Looks like I already took a BB on this from a friend in the Needlearts group.

92clue
okt 27, 2021, 4:03 pm

>90 RidgewayGirl: It went on my library wishlist.

93VivienneR
okt 29, 2021, 12:26 am

You've had some great reading since I was last here! Except for The Girl in the White Gloves, of course. Silly mistakes (if that's the right word) like that put me off books too.

I could never join a book club because I wouldn't be able to stick to their choices. Even if it was a book I had planned to read. I'd be chucked out in the first week.

94RidgewayGirl
okt 30, 2021, 4:32 pm

>91 dudes22: It's a good book, Betty.

>92 clue: That's where I got my copy.

>93 VivienneR: It's absolutely true that a book on a reading list is 80% less appealing than a book not on the list, but I've also gotten pushed into reading books that might not otherwise read or vaguely plan to, but never get around to. The current book club book is a biography of Martha Gellhorn and I would never have picked it up and I'm loving it.

95RidgewayGirl
okt 30, 2021, 6:45 pm



On an unnamed island things disappear. People wake up to find ribbons, or roses, or birds erased from their ability to hold them in their minds. Physical objects are quietly disposed of, new jobs are found and life continues. But not everyone forgets, so The Memory Police find those people and take them away, along with any forgotten objects that may remain.

Yoko Ogawa's novel is ominous and gorgeously written. As more and more object disappear, life becomes more difficult for the residents of the island and an unlikely trio of people find solace in supporting and protecting each other. This was an odd and wonderful book that I keep thinking about.

96dudes22
okt 31, 2021, 6:21 am

>95 RidgewayGirl: - We're reading one of her other books - The Housekeeper and the Professor for our Dec book club selection. I'm looking forward to it.

97Jackie_K
okt 31, 2021, 6:58 am

>95 RidgewayGirl: That description reminded me of a (much lighter, I suspect) book called Ella Minnow Pea, where the same thing happens to letters of the alphabet, rather than objects. I'll put The Memory Police on my library list.

98RidgewayGirl
okt 31, 2021, 2:36 pm

>96 dudes22: Betty, apparently the author has won every single literary prize Japan has to give and I've heard good things about The Housekeeper and the Professor.

>97 Jackie_K: I was reminded of Ella Minnow Pea during the first part of The Memory Police.

99hailelib
okt 31, 2021, 6:20 pm

Just dropping in to see what you have been reading.

100RidgewayGirl
nov 1, 2021, 11:10 am

>99 hailelib: More than usual, is the answer there.

So today starts the whole NaNoWrimo thing so I may not get around much.

Also today, took this guy in for his yearly and the vet found a mass in his abdomen. Ultrasound scheduled for next month and I'm worried for my sweet man.

101christina_reads
nov 1, 2021, 11:53 am

>100 RidgewayGirl: Ooh, good luck with NaNoWriMo! I've attempted it in the past but have never successfully done it. Also best wishes for your feline fellow!

102DeltaQueen50
Bewerkt: nov 1, 2021, 12:49 pm

Sending good wishes along to your beautiful cat! And good wishes for you and your writing as well.

103RidgewayGirl
nov 1, 2021, 1:37 pm

>101 christina_reads: & >102 DeltaQueen50: I tend to do well at the beginning and then just get busy and fail to catch up, but hope springs eternal.

And thanks for the well wishes for Tarzan. He's such a fit guy. I hope this is a solvable issue.

104RidgewayGirl
nov 1, 2021, 4:34 pm



The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You is a collection of short stories by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Ruffin's first novel was a satire but these stories fully inhabit the present, even when Ruffin pulls things into the near future. These are also stories set in and about New Orleans, but not the one the tourists or wealthy in-comers see, but a New Orleans of people just getting by, of hustlers and kids and working folk. Many of the stories are vignettes, short pieces of just a page or two but for all their brevity, they didn't feel like fragments.

Ruffin inhabits different characters with an easy grace that comes of keen observation, but he's at his best in writing from the point of view of children trying to get by in a world where they have very little control over what happens around them. A few of the stories reminded me of Jamel Brinkley's A Lucky Man and my favorite story is the one that closes out the book, about a woman trying to save her house while her neighborhood is gentrifying around her. Tip hotel housekeeping, guys!

105rabbitprincess
nov 1, 2021, 4:53 pm

>100 RidgewayGirl: Sending cuddles for Tarzan! He looks so content in that photo :) Perfect combination of books and cat.

106Jackie_K
nov 1, 2021, 5:37 pm

Best of luck with NaNo - I'm cheering on so many people this year, I think more people I know every year are trying it (I tried Camp NaNo a couple of years ago and failed miserably, even with my (I think) 6K goal, so I'm not going to do it myself).

And everything crossed for Tarzan, he looks lovely.

107dudes22
nov 1, 2021, 8:14 pm

I hope your kitty's problem isn't serious. Also good luck with your writing.

108thornton37814
nov 2, 2021, 8:17 am

Hopefully you'll achieve your goal with NaNoWriMo. I knew I could not commit to writing something daily, although I'd be more likely to write something genealogical. I suspect it might be more achievable for me during a winter month such as January or February.

109MissWatson
nov 2, 2021, 11:06 am

Good luck with NaNoWriMo, and best wishes for Tarzan!

110VictoriaPL
nov 2, 2021, 12:15 pm

>100 RidgewayGirl: oh, Tarzan looks so innocent! I've never seen him sleeping, he's always on patrol when I am there. Bless him.

I am looking forward to our write-ins. I found Modo, the plot bunny and he is ready to provide plenty of inspiration!

111RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 2, 2021, 12:32 pm

>105 rabbitprincess: Yeah, Tarzan seems unaware of his new invalid status but he did pick up that the rules don't apply to him anymore. I caught him sitting on the table and instead of leaping down, he just did personal hygiene instead.

>106 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie.

>107 dudes22: I hope it's something that the vet can fix and he goes on to live a long life.

>108 thornton37814: I'm hoping NaNo gets me into the habit of daily writing. It does get challenging around Thanksgiving!

>109 MissWatson: Thanks, Birgit. It's still early enough that I'm not behind yet.

>110 VictoriaPL: He spends most of his time sleeping. It takes effort to get one's full 20 hours in each day!

112RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 3, 2021, 3:30 pm



At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman begins when a young homeless woman finds a dying man in the bushes of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Before she realizes what's going on, she also sees the face of the man who stabbed him. But this novel is not primarily about that, but about the people who sleep in the park when the weather's good and in a shelter when it isn't. Maddy becomes homeless once she ages out of the foster care system and her friends, a small group that sticks together for safety and support, come from a variety of backgrounds. Seligman explores what led Maddy to prefer life on the streets and touches on the issues of her friends and in this she is both humane and clear-eyed. These characters are real people, often with serious problems and she also shows how help can be both well-meaning and badly aimed.

The situation created in the beginning of the novel is more of a distraction and I never bought into Maddy's motivations for some of her actions, but it also served to show the impact on a family when one of its members choses to leave and live without a fixed address. I appreciated this novel more than I enjoyed it, although it never felt preachy and the way it illuminated the daily fabric of living homeless was something not often found.

113RidgewayGirl
nov 7, 2021, 4:18 pm

114christina_reads
Bewerkt: nov 8, 2021, 12:19 pm

115DeltaQueen50
nov 8, 2021, 1:07 pm

>113 RidgewayGirl: Words to live by!

116mathgirl40
nov 8, 2021, 10:00 pm

I hope Tarzan's issue gets resolved speedily, and good luck with NaNoWriMo!

I'm taking a BB for Nervous Conditions. I see that it's on the 1001 list too, and I'm always looking for good candidates to fill that category in my challenge.

117charl08
nov 9, 2021, 2:44 am

>113 RidgewayGirl: Ha! Tempted to add this as a screensaver. Good advice.

118RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 9, 2021, 3:54 pm



Lucy Barton, the main character in My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible, is back in Oh William!, an account of her relationship with her ex-husband. But as in her other novels, this becomes a reason to look back over her own life and how it intersected with her ex-husband's, how she got along with his mother, and culminating with him asking her to accompany him on a trip to visit the area his mother grew up in, in conditions that weren't too different from Lucy's own.

Elizabeth Strout writes movingly and so clearly about people that even though her novels are not really plot-based, they are a delight to read. This one is no exception. Lucy grew up in an impoverished household and she often reflects how that has formed who she is, she also thinks about the teacher who helped her and how she has never really felt at home anywhere, or even entirely visible. And her own idea of how she appears to others is challenged by William's comments about her over the course of their post-marriage relationship. Strout writes about ordinary lives better than anyone else.

119hailelib
nov 9, 2021, 7:59 pm

Good wishes for Tarzan. I hope the problem turns out to be fixable.

120RidgewayGirl
nov 9, 2021, 9:10 pm

>114 christina_reads: & >115 DeltaQueen50: It made me laugh when I saw it.

>116 mathgirl40: Paulina, Nervous Conditions is really good! I just ordered the second book a few days ago. Tarzan has been acting like he remains unaware of the situation. He has noticed that I've been letting him sit in my lap even when it's inconvenient, however.

>117 charl08: It's good advice and I should consider following it.

>119 hailelib: Oh, I do, too. Hoping it's something surgery or medication can solve.

121charl08
nov 10, 2021, 2:29 am

>118 RidgewayGirl: Just added this to my library request list, thanks for the review.

I still have to read the third book in the "Nervous Conditions" trilogy, hopefully your reading will give me the reminder I need to pick it up.

122RidgewayGirl
nov 13, 2021, 12:10 pm

>121 charl08: Charlotte, I'm really enjoying how Strout has settled into Lucy Barton's life.

I've got the second book in the Nervous Conditions trilogy on its way from bookshop.org.

And for those of you who follow it, The Tournament of Books has released their long longlist for the tournament.

https://themorningnews.org/article/the-year-in-fiction-2021

123dudes22
nov 13, 2021, 12:41 pm

>122 RidgewayGirl: - I'm only an off-again/on-again follower of the TOB, but I checked out the list and see that I've actually read a couple already and there are a few more that I'm hoping to get to next year.

124DeltaQueen50
nov 13, 2021, 1:35 pm

>122 RidgewayGirl: I enjoy this list as I always find interesting books that I haven't heard of anywhere else.

125Jackie_K
nov 13, 2021, 1:38 pm

Hope NaNo is going well!

126RidgewayGirl
nov 13, 2021, 2:56 pm

>123 dudes22: Betty, I'll be sure to post the shortlist when it's announced. Maybe you'll be tempted to follow more closely.

>124 DeltaQueen50: Judy, I do, too. I like that it's a combination of well-known books listed for other prizes, less well-known books, books in translation and unknown books, often from smaller presses.

>125 Jackie_K: It's going, Jackie. I would not say it's going well. I am meeting my main goal which is simply to write everyday, but I'm 3,000 words behind where I should be and much of what I'm writing is very bad. On the other hand, I'm seeing a novel begin to take shape and that's fun.

127RidgewayGirl
nov 15, 2021, 4:45 pm



The Comeback by Ella Berman is a novel that uses a provocative premise to explore deeper issues in a surprisingly thoughtful way. When Grace is barely a teenager, she is chosen by a charismatic director as his muse. He moves her family from England to California, but also effectively removes Grace from their care, controlling and manipulating her along the way. After a series of events, she ends up hiding out in her parents' house, the house her money bought them, where they are unequipped to help her. When she hears that the director is getting a lifetime achievement award, she devises a plan to reveal to the world what he did.

But while Grace is unevenly plotting, she's also a young woman who is deeply damaged by what was done to her and she's also being ceaselessly pursued by paparazzi. But even as she's falling apart, she's learning about what she needs to do to heal. This is such a nuanced look at what fame can do to a young woman, and the problems posed by our new social media-focused society. Berman made the exploration of these issues a lot of fun even as she gave no easy answers.

128RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 16, 2021, 2:00 pm



Martha Gellhorn did not like that her accomplishments were overshadowed by having been Ernest Hemingway's third wife. She would most like to be known for her now-forgotten novels. What she deserves to be remembered for is her ground-breaking war reporting that paved the way for women to report from conflict zones.

Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life by Caroline Moorhead is a thorough look at Gellhorn's life, with care taken to center her life and activities within the history and politics of the time. And with Gellhorn being a regular visitor to the Roosevelt White House, breaking into journalism with reports on the living conditions of mill workers in North Carolina and Massachusetts during the Depression, being on the ground in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and reporting during the Second World War, including being among the first reporters on the beaches on D-Day, this makes for interesting reading. She traveled all over Europe during the last days of the war, including riding through Italy with the soldiers fighting and a post-liberation visit to the Dachau concentration camp. Later, she'd visit both Israel and try to get a pass to report on the Vietnam War.

This biography bogs down in the final third, when Gellhorn's life becomes less about her career and more about her disappointments with aging and relationships. She was not a good mother and when the book turned to detailing things like how many times she humiliated her son or the time her cats peed on the sofa, I found my love for this detailed book waning. I'd recommend it for the first two-thirds and suggest skipping the rest. She was an important historical figure, but certainly not an unproblematic one.

129pamelad
nov 16, 2021, 4:34 pm

>128 RidgewayGirl: The problem with many biographies is that they're as much about the author as the subject. The absolute worst are those where the authors don't like their subjects so they judge them harshly because they don't follow the same rules or have the same priorities.

I have enjoyed a lot of Martha Gellhorn's reporting.

130RidgewayGirl
nov 16, 2021, 5:44 pm

>129 pamelad: In this case, I think Moorehead was even-handed in her portrayal of Gellhorn, but she could have condensed the final third quite a bit. Her retirement was far less interesting by any metric than her career. Giving it equal space made no sense to me.

131RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 17, 2021, 3:10 pm



Frida is a single parent to a toddler. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. She and her husband had planned a future together, but halfway through her pregnancy, he found someone younger and less pregnant to love instead and now Frida is struggling. She's taken a lower paying job that lets her work from home on the days she has custody of Harriet, but Harriet has an ear ache that kept her up all night and Frida needs some papers from her office to complete an overdue task. So she makes the mistake of leaving her child to run a quick errand. An errand that took a little longer than planned and when she gets home, it's to find the police there and child services taking her daughter away. Soon after, Frida is sentenced to a year in a reeducation program for bad mothers.

So begins The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan. Frida is incarcerated with a diverse group of mothers whose transgressions swing between actual abuse to the allegations of an ex-husband. Each woman must been seen to learn her lesson and become a good mother, with the help of AI robots designed to look like appropriately-aged children. As the women work through the lessons of parenting -- an approach that says that every moment a mother must be vigilant and attentive. This is a version of the world just slightly different from our own and the differences seem all too plausible.

Frida isn't an entirely likable character and her mistake toes the line against what is acceptable, but she's also very human and a good conduit for showing this repressive world and what it might entail. Chan is a talented writer and the novel is well-plotted. I don't generally like dystopian fiction, but this book kept me turning the pages, invested in Frida's life.

132VivienneR
nov 17, 2021, 4:56 pm

Wishing you good luck for NaNoWriMo. And wishing good health for Tarzan. I'm glad he is enjoying the extra attention.

133Nickelini
nov 17, 2021, 10:58 pm

>131 RidgewayGirl: . . . Well that sounds interesting! I used to think about writing a novel about motherhood and how it's not the rosy wonderful fulfilling thing many rhapsodise about. Now that my daughters are in their 20s, I don't think about it as much but I certainly can still relate.

but halfway through her pregnancy, he found someone younger and less pregnant to love instead

That line brought a big grin from me!

134RidgewayGirl
nov 18, 2021, 1:43 pm

>132 VivienneR: Thank you. Outside of throwing up a bit, naturally on the carpet, Tarzan seems fine. And I'm still writing, a bit behind and all of it dreadful, but I'm still in it.

>133 Nickelini: Joyce, thanks. I was upset on the protagonist's behalf.

135RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 18, 2021, 2:52 pm



An American has recently moved to a city in Central Europe. It's a cold day sometime before Christmas and he meets up with a woman he's recently met to look for an apartment to rent. As they travel around the city, meeting up with her friends, looking at this place he's decided to call home and looking for the apartment, the man thinks back over his life, especially his time in Iraq. There are also memories that lead to digressions about music and art. Not much happens, and while it's not an ordinary day, it's not a remarkable one.

And yet, I was entirely pulled into this exercise in minimalism. The Apartment is written in a way that places the reader entirely within the setting of the novel, feeling the cold from the snow seep through your shoes, smelling the sausages for sale at the Christmas market, seeing the daylight fade in the afternoon. Greg Baxter knows how to evoke a setting. He also knows how to build a character, letting the details arise organically as the novel progresses. This short novel is a masterclass in character-development and in creating a setting, even if neither the protagonist nor the city are ever named.

136RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 18, 2021, 4:45 pm

https://twitter.com/ArkHorton/status/1461131684469002244?s=20

Me, listening to murder podcast: What idiot gets into a stranger’s van willingly?

Also me: *steps in

137VivienneR
nov 19, 2021, 4:26 pm

>136 RidgewayGirl: Very enticing!

138RidgewayGirl
nov 19, 2021, 5:11 pm

>137 VivienneR: VictoriaPL and I had a whole discussion in which we realized that we'd end up chained in some weird dude's basement together.

139Nickelini
nov 19, 2021, 11:25 pm

>138 RidgewayGirl:
I just saw your comment and I have no idea about the context, but it made me laugh!

140RidgewayGirl
nov 20, 2021, 11:50 am

>139 Nickelini: Joyce, it's in reference to >136 RidgewayGirl:. If the picture isn't showing up for you, it shows the interior of the back of a white van set up as an inviting bookstore.

141charl08
nov 21, 2021, 5:09 am

Just read yet another crime novel where the female detective goes into a dangerous situation without telling anyone where she is. Gah. At least going into the beautiful white van full of books makes sense to me.

142RidgewayGirl
nov 22, 2021, 10:12 am



Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah is the story of boy growing up and coming to terms with his family's story. It's also the story of his parents and how an act of love destroyed their marriage. It's about a young man, taken away from all he knows to study in a foreign country, living with relatives who expect constant gratitude, then building his own life. It's about a fraught relationship between a father and a son and how Salim comes to understand his father.

Gurnah is a talented writer who builds a vivid picture of Zanzibar in the 1970s and of what life was like for an African in London. His writing is both clear and understated. There's a feeling of telling a tale and of grounding the story firmly in the world as it is. I'm very interested in reading more by this author.

143Jackie_K
nov 22, 2021, 12:37 pm

>142 RidgewayGirl: Gurnah won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature - a case of an author who was below everyone's radar until they won the big one.

144hailelib
nov 22, 2021, 12:45 pm

>142 RidgewayGirl:

Sounds like a book I might look for next year.

145RidgewayGirl
nov 22, 2021, 2:56 pm

>143 Jackie_K: This is why I read it, Jackie. Gravel Heart is the only one of his books in my public library's system. I got it quickly when I requested it, but there were more than a dozen holds on it by the time I finished it. I'm hoping they'll be motivated to buy a few more.

>144 hailelib: I think this is the only book I've ever read set in Zanzibar that was by and about an author from Zanzibar.

146RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 22, 2021, 9:16 pm



Sam is a middle-aged, comfortably-off woman living in a suburb of Syracuse, New York. She has a job, but the hours and pay mean it's almost volunteer work, giving tours of the house of a local suffragette. Her daughter is in the middle of college applications and extracurricular involvement in an entrepreneurial student group and her husband loves her but doesn't really pay attention to her when she's talking. Then she tours an open house for a run down arts and crafts home in a blighted neighborhood and falls in love. As she puts down earnest money, she realizes that she's leaving her husband for a house.

As someone who has, upon occasion, browsed Zillow for run-down Victorian houses and craftsman bungalows, I was all in with the opening chapter. And I've loved a previous book of Dana Spiotta's, the wonderful Innocents and Others. Spiotta writes complex, problematic women so well. But as Wayward went on, I liked it less. Partly, it's the setting - the US in the aftermath of Trump's election, and partly it's how Sam isn't ever portrayed as complex so much as she is just annoying and self-involved. This isn't a bad book, so much as it is ham-fisted. Maybe I need more time before I'm ready for a novel about the Trump years and maybe this just isn't Spiotta's best.

147RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: nov 24, 2021, 5:45 pm



Some people in Hell are nice. They just happened to have done a very reprehensible thing at one point. I killed my husband once, for instance. But I felt bad enough about it to also kill myself.

Alissa Nutting's Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls is a collection of both weird and weirdly heartfelt short stories. A woman arrives in Hell and ends up in a relationship with the devil. A grandmother sends her granddaughter into the heating vent to confront the ghost of her dead mother. A woman who works piloting cargo ships from planet to planet buys her cryogenically frozen mother when the prison she was held in closes. A mortician smokes the hair of the deceased to gain insight into their lives.

But when I'm around children it seems like I will someday be able to accept my own death. I observe their natural purity, the joy they derive from grass, trees, and human company, and I realize that these things would never make me joyful....I also like the park because kids are easy to watch: they're fast and loud and they never stop moving. Watching kids play is like staring at an aquarium set to "boil."

The longer stories in this collection, where Nutting took the time to allow her characters to fully inhabit their odd circumstances, were the strongest in this book. The shorter ones felt undeveloped.

148lsh63
Bewerkt: nov 24, 2021, 5:56 pm

Hi Kay, we’re both reading Five Tuesdays in Winter and I put myself on the list at the library for The Accomplice.

149RidgewayGirl
nov 24, 2021, 7:41 pm

>148 lsh63: I'm loving Five Tuesdays in Winter. I liked the first story so much, I remain disappointed this wasn't the first chapter of a novel. And The Accomplice is certainly gripping.

150RidgewayGirl
nov 27, 2021, 1:02 pm



Set outside of Manchester, Keeper, the debut thriller by Jessica Moor is a dark and atmospheric tale with an ending twist that surprised me. The book goes back and forth between when a young woman meets and begins a relationship with a seemingly nice young man and after her body has been pulled from the river as an apparent suicide, where there are just enough questions to warrant an investigation.

The story is cleverly constructed and while the signs add up in the story of Katie's relationship, it's because the reader is also following two detectives as they attempt to find out about her past. She was working in a shelter for battered women when she went missing, so finding out about her involves getting to know the group of women who are taking refuge there, from a teenage girl beaten to the point of needing to be hospitalized by her younger brother, to a seventy year old woman who took 49 years to leave her abusive husband. The two detectives, especially the older one, is dismissive and skeptical of the women's fears and both dislike the abrasive woman who runs the house.

A lot of this novel is disturbing to read, focusing as it does on a variety of ways women are abused by those they are closest to. It might have easily been ham-handed or preachy, but is saved by the way the two male detectives are drawn and in that startling but logical twist at the end. I'm eager to read Moor's next novel.

151charl08
nov 28, 2021, 9:42 am

>150 RidgewayGirl: I found this one a memorable one. I also thought that the author's personal experience with shelters came through: there very clearly wasn't "one" story of fleeing domestic violence.

152VivienneR
nov 28, 2021, 2:45 pm

>150 RidgewayGirl: I've taken a BB on this one!

153RidgewayGirl
nov 28, 2021, 3:13 pm

>151 charl08: It was certainly realistic, with no "perfect victims." I'm looking forward to more from Jessica Moor.

>152 VivienneR: It's very good, Vivienne.

154RidgewayGirl
nov 29, 2021, 3:44 pm



The Trees by Percival Everett begins with an apparent double murder in Money, Mississippi. Then one of the bodies disappears from the morgue. When another man is found murdered, and the missing corpse is with the body, things get weird. And then two special detectives for the MBI (Mississippi Bureau of Investigation) show up to solve the crime and find the (again) missing corpse.

The Trees is a novel that defies easy description. It's a novel about lynching that is also really funny? A humorous novel about racism? Whatever it is, it's best book I've read this year.

155pamelad
nov 29, 2021, 4:10 pm

>154 RidgewayGirl: Percival Everett sounds well worth a try. Thinking of starting with an earlier book, Erasure.

156RidgewayGirl
nov 29, 2021, 4:17 pm

>155 pamelad: I haven't read that one, but I've loved every single one of his that I've read. He should be far more well-known than he is.

157dudes22
nov 29, 2021, 4:30 pm

>154 RidgewayGirl: - I took a BB from you for another of his books a few years ago. How can I ever get to all the BBs?

158RidgewayGirl
nov 29, 2021, 5:45 pm

>157 dudes22: I, too, would like to know how to read them as fast as I'm adding them to the wishlist.

159RidgewayGirl
dec 1, 2021, 5:57 pm



Tarzan had his ultrasound today and a tentative diagnosis of lymphoma. A visit and biopsy with the cat oncologist is next. Boo.

160NinieB
dec 1, 2021, 6:30 pm

>159 RidgewayGirl: The good news is that lymphoma is very treatable in cats. I've had two cats with this diagnosis. One survived for 7 years and the other for 2 years (with other health issues finally ending her life). Fingers crossed for Tarzan!

161RidgewayGirl
dec 1, 2021, 8:53 pm

>160 NinieB: Oh, that's very reassuring! Thank you! He's only 11 and deserves many more years of naps and pats.

162DeltaQueen50
dec 1, 2021, 9:27 pm

Extra pats for Tarzan from me. He is such a beauty (he probably knows this - right?)

163RidgewayGirl
dec 2, 2021, 10:05 am

>162 DeltaQueen50: He does! He enjoys his annual vet visit, in which a variety of people admire him. He seemed fine with the various procedures so far and sat smugly on my vet's lap when she first broke the news. He is also utterly unselfconscious about the large bare patch on his stomach.

164Helenliz
dec 2, 2021, 10:12 am

>159 RidgewayGirl: what a handsome cat! Tickles under the chin from me - as if needs any more attention.

165hailelib
dec 2, 2021, 2:39 pm

Good wishes for Tarzan.

166VivienneR
dec 2, 2021, 3:02 pm

>159 RidgewayGirl: My best wishes for Tarzan, he is such an amazing and beautiful cat. Let's hope for a result like >160 NinieB: experienced. My cat was deeply offended by the vet's attention.

167RidgewayGirl
dec 2, 2021, 7:10 pm

Thank you all. Tarzan has an appointment on the 13th with the cat oncologist.

168thornton37814
dec 3, 2021, 11:39 am

Best wishes to Tarzan from me and my three fur boys.

169RidgewayGirl
dec 4, 2021, 11:52 am



The problem with Lily King's short story collection, Five Tuesdays in Winter, is that the first story was so perfect that I was over-invested by the end of it and never recovered from this not being a novel about a fourteen year old girl working as a summer nanny for a wealthy family. So when I picked up the book to read the next story, I spent it regretting that it wasn't the second chapter in the book I badly want to read, but another very fine story, this time about a quiet bookstore owner who is raising his daughter alone and the bookstore employee who comes over to help his daughter with her French. The stories here are fantastic. King writes with empathy and skill and her writing here reminds me of both Elizabeth Strout and Elizabeth McCracken. Each one is just lovely and I wish there had been twice as many stories in this collection.

170RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 4, 2021, 11:56 am



Melmoth has rearranged the furniture to make her Saturday morning bird-watching more comfortable. I don't have the heart to put the chair back as she seems so happy.

171dudes22
dec 4, 2021, 11:59 am

>169 RidgewayGirl: - Already on my BB list for this year. Glad for another endorsement.

172lsh63
dec 4, 2021, 12:14 pm

>169 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, I enjoyed this collection as well. It’s funny that you mentioned McCracken, I’m enjoying The Souvenir Museum right now, which I’m positive I learned about from you after I read Thunderstruck.

173DeltaQueen50
dec 4, 2021, 12:25 pm

>170 RidgewayGirl: That's why I admire cats - they seem to always know how to make themselves comfortable. Congrats to Melmoth for engineering this set-up.

174RidgewayGirl
dec 4, 2021, 1:36 pm

>171 dudes22: Betty, prepare to enjoy it. It's just so good.

>172 lsh63: And I bought a copy of Thunderstruck right after reading your review. I was at the big local booksale and I found a hardcover of it in great condition. Got it home and saw that it was a signed copy.

>173 DeltaQueen50: Judy, it had to be a serendipitous accident as she is a special one. We do love her.

175thornton37814
dec 4, 2021, 2:12 pm

>170 RidgewayGirl: Awww! It's nap-time around here apparently. All three are in different rooms taking them, which is a bit unusual.

176RidgewayGirl
dec 4, 2021, 2:59 pm

>175 thornton37814: Ours like to all sleep on our bed all day, making it impossible to make. And they have to make sure that they aren't touching each other. There's a lot of careful arranging of legs.

177thornton37814
dec 4, 2021, 6:34 pm

>176 RidgewayGirl: I often find a couple of them curled together. They really do get along well.

178rabbitprincess
dec 5, 2021, 11:19 am

>170 RidgewayGirl: Smart Melmoth! Looks like a great setup :)

179RidgewayGirl
dec 5, 2021, 2:11 pm

>177 thornton37814: Whereas mine coexist on a mutual non-aggression pact that means not making eye contact with each other.

>178 rabbitprincess: She stayed on that chair for a few hours, entirely happy. I'm thinking of putting up some sort of comfortable bird-watching station by that window now.

180RidgewayGirl
dec 6, 2021, 4:23 pm



The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz is nuts. Owen meets Luna at college and they become friends. Their friendship continues over the years until, one day, Luna finds the body of Owen's wife while she's out for a jog. And while the police are untangling that murder, Lutz takes the reader back to Owen and Luna's college days, which involve another suspiciously dead body, but of course that's just coincidence. As is secret from Luna's past, one so large that she changed her name.

So there's a ton going on, with frequent shifts between the timelines and Lutz makes it all work somehow, spinning the various plates of plot while building a story about a friendship that isn't always healthy or even good for the two people involved, but which does turn out to be the most important relationship of their lives. This thriller is fast-paced and so well-written and constructed so if you like your escapist reading to have a bit of substance and bite, you'll love this one.

181RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 7, 2021, 5:51 pm



Books about writing fall into two camps. There are the instructional ones, with writing prompts and exercises, and there are the inspirational ones, that instead of telling you how to write, make the reader want to jump up and grab a pen. Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi is neither of these things, but rather a look at how writing a book is like making a map. The comparison sometimes gets lost in Turchi's giant enthusiasm for maps and the history of mapmaking and I have to admit that I was with him all the way. If you like maps a lot and write a bit, then this book is for you, and by that I mean that this book was for me. It also helps that the physical book is such a pleasing object, with heavy, creamy paper and plentiful maps of many kinds.

Given that our capacity for abstraction is great, greater than we may realize, it isn't necessary for a map user to know the first thing about projection formulas. A map maker, however, is obliged to understand exactly what he is doing.

This isn't an instruction book, but it does present a different angle with which to look at a writing project. Whether it will prove useful is unknown, but the maps were lovely, as was the author's discussions around them.

182RidgewayGirl
dec 8, 2021, 1:19 pm



At Night All Blood is Black, the International Booker Prize-winning book by David Diop and translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis, is no heart-warming tale suitable for holiday reading. It's a hard, harsh read. The writing is lovely, the way the novel is structured is beautifully done and the story itself is grim.

Alfa is a soldier in the trenches fighting for France in the First World War. He and his best friend came from Senegal to fight with les Chocolats, African soldiers from Frances colonies. And when the worst happens, Alfa is compelled to seek revenge on the other side. His fellow soldiers at first applaud his exploits, but are soon terrified of him.

The story moves back and forth between Alfa's childhood and young adulthood, and his experiences in France, and the reader gets an ever more vivid look at what trench warfare did to the hearts and minds of the men who fought. This novel is brilliant, superbly written and absolutely devastating to read.

183Jackie_K
dec 8, 2021, 1:38 pm

>181 RidgewayGirl: Ooh that one's straight onto the wishlist! It sounds fabulous!

184RidgewayGirl
dec 8, 2021, 3:52 pm

>183 Jackie_K: It's the incredibly niche book that appeals to a surprising number of LibraryThingers. We are a type.

185hailelib
dec 8, 2021, 5:56 pm

>181 RidgewayGirl:

Anything to do with maps is appealing. I may look for that.

The cat conversation was great too.

186RidgewayGirl
dec 12, 2021, 12:53 pm

>185 hailelib: There is definitely something about a map.

187RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 13, 2021, 4:56 pm



He stares now at the three words he has written. They are ridiculous. Writing is ridiculous. A sentence, any sentence, is absurd. Just the idea of it: jam one word up against another, shoulder-to-shoulder, jaw-to-jaw; hem them in with punctuation so they can't move an inch. And then hand that over to someone else to peer at, and expect something to communicated, something understood. It's not just pointless. It is ethically suspect.

Samuel Beckett lived in France through the Second World War and A Country Road, A Tree is Jo Baker's novel about that time, as Beckett struggles with his writing, finds a way to contribute to the Resistance and manages to survive the war. He starts out as an eager acolyte to James Joyce, but his wartime experiences pare him down and change him and his writing.

This isn't a war-as-adventure-story, but one filled with the real deprivation, fear and insecurity that he and the people of Paris faced. Baker is one of my favorite authors; every single book she writes is entirely different from the next, but each is superbly written and worthwhile.

188RidgewayGirl
dec 16, 2021, 10:42 am

It's been an eventful week. Tarzan, our entitled cat, has been diagnosed with a mast cell tumor in his abdomen and we'll see if he tolerates the chemo. At best that buys him a few months, so if he shows any discomfort, we won't make him continue. This is a hard one, he's only eleven.



Yesterday, in the course of boring under our driveway without telling us, AT&T hit the gas line, so I got to have a conversation with a trio of firemen, followed by a day of men in high-visibility vests standing on my front lawn and a large trench dug in my driveway, as well as two other large holes in the lawn. Allegedly, all will be repaired to our liking and the driveway entirely replaced, but so far, today is just a repeat of yesterday, with more trucks and important digging.

And my husband is starting a new job in late January -- in Illinois. So we're selling our house and moving post haste, as well as enjoying our last holiday season in this house. Both kids are in college, so they are not that bothered. It's a new adventure, and a lot to do in a short period of time. The realtor is coming on Monday, so I'm busy moving stuff off of surfaces and going through closets. I've ordered boxes to pack my books in, as bitter experience has taught me not to leave that to the movers, who are adept a packaging delicate stemware and china, but terrible at packing books. Wish me luck and if any of you are in or around Bloomington, let me know. I'm excited to finally visit the art institute and the independent bookstores of Chicago.

189christina_reads
dec 16, 2021, 11:00 am

>188 RidgewayGirl: So sorry to hear about Tarzan!

The move sounds stressful but exciting...I wish you the best on your Illinois adventure.

190RidgewayGirl
dec 16, 2021, 11:16 am

>189 christina_reads: Thanks, it is exciting.

191DeltaQueen50
dec 16, 2021, 12:33 pm

I am very sorry to hear Tarzan's diagnose. But your other news is exciting - not an ideal time of the year for a move - hope winter behaves itself.

192Nickelini
dec 16, 2021, 1:08 pm

Well you have some challenges ahead! Hope each step goes well. Good luck with your Illinois adventure

193NinieB
dec 16, 2021, 1:10 pm

Ohhh, I'm sorry that the news isn't better for Tarzan. But wow, moving to Illinois by the end of January--I wish you the best as well.

194RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 16, 2021, 1:16 pm

>191 DeltaQueen50: Tarzan's diagnosis is about ten years too early. Still, how many cats can say they've lived in two countries? I'd prefer him get to peacefully enjoy these next months and I'll do what I can to make the move easy on him.

>192 Nickelini: I've moved a fair bit in my life and it's not like the movers won't be doing the hard work. Off to touch up paint and sort through closets.

>193 NinieB: While the news on Tarzan wasn't what we hoped, I do want to thank you for your reassuring words earlier. I would have spent a lot of time worrying needlessly had you not been so thoughtful. Thank you.

195dudes22
dec 16, 2021, 1:15 pm

So sorry to hear your kitty is so sick. Are you planning to buy right away or rent and look around when you get to Ill? Finding new bookstores can be exciting. (I'd also be looking for fabric stores but that's another conversation)

196RidgewayGirl
dec 16, 2021, 1:17 pm

>194 RidgewayGirl: Betty, I have been very committed to the Zillow website. My husband and I are eying a specific house and hoping that no one else notices it before we can take a look and make an offer.

197dudes22
dec 16, 2021, 1:18 pm

It's nice when you can find something you like right away.

198RidgewayGirl
dec 16, 2021, 1:24 pm

>197 dudes22: I'd tell you about it now, but I'm not going to jinx it. It involves a gorgeous house not selling and the real estate market really being as hot here as they say it is so this house sells quickly.

199thornton37814
dec 16, 2021, 2:28 pm

>188 RidgewayGirl: I hate you are moving from South Carolina before we got to do one last bookstore meetup! You'll have to scope out the bookstores around Bloomington for us. I'm sure I need to go research my Taylor and Lantz families who lived in McLean County. I've been once and got a lot of records then, but I suspect I could probably stand to make another trip because I'm certain I only hit the tip of the iceberg the first time. Hope the kitty is helped. It's so difficult when are fur babies are sick.

200lsh63
Bewerkt: dec 16, 2021, 2:34 pm

Kay,
I’m so sorry about Tarzan and you do have a lot going on! I wish you well with the relocation and everything else. I’m also hoping that the winter weather is kind to you.

201RidgewayGirl
dec 16, 2021, 2:44 pm

>199 thornton37814: I know, Lori! I made Victoria tell me all about your dinner together. My Dad isn't going to come join us until the summer, so I'll be back plenty of times. If I drive instead of fly, I'll swing by and see you on my way. And, of course, you can stay with me if you're in that neck of the woods.

>200 lsh63: Thanks, Lisa. Tarzan is going about his daily life comfortably so far and I hope that last awhile. I'm going to have to get used to driving on snow again!

202thornton37814
dec 16, 2021, 3:08 pm

>201 RidgewayGirl: Good to know! I just wish Victoria and David had a little more time. I was so stressed by the time I'd sat like a sardine in the faculty section of graduation. There was plenty of room to spread the chairs out more, but we were practically sitting atop one another--not one bit of social distancing. I'm glad I wore my mask.

203Jackie_K
dec 16, 2021, 3:30 pm

Oh, what a stressful few days! I'm so sorry about Tarzan, and about your drive (seriously? What were they even doing without telling you? Gah). Also hope the househunting/selling/moving isn't too stressful.

204RidgewayGirl
dec 16, 2021, 3:59 pm

>203 Jackie_K: These past few days have reminded me of how life is an adventure.

205pamelad
dec 16, 2021, 4:01 pm

>188 RidgewayGirl: Best of luck with the move and the potential house purchase. Hoping that Tarzan responds well to the Chemo.

206rabbitprincess
dec 16, 2021, 8:26 pm

Oof, I'm so sorry for Tarzan's diagnosis. Sending him comfortable vibes.

Hope the move goes well and that the book you most want to read when you arrive is at the top of the first box you open :)

207charl08
dec 17, 2021, 1:03 am

Sounds like you've had all the news to deal with! I hope the vet's treatment can be comfortable for Tarzan.
I've never worked out book packing to my satisfaction. Partly because I get distracted and just want to read them, not helpful. Hope the move goes well! Do you think you might head back to Europe at some point?

208MissWatson
dec 17, 2021, 4:36 am

So sorry to hear about Tarzan! And then there's all that other excitement. I hope everything goes well and you can unpack your books soon in a lovely new house.

209Helenliz
dec 17, 2021, 5:14 am

That need three kinds of Oh! which text can't really convey.
Tarzan. Oh! >:*(
Gas main Oh! >:-O
Moving Oh! >:-)

Hope that the middle one is solved asap, that the right house in the right place comes at the right time for the right price and that the books all move safely. Hoping Tarzan responds well to treatment.

210RidgewayGirl
dec 17, 2021, 3:35 pm

Thanks for your kind wishes for Tarzan, everyone. After thinking about it and watching Tarzan flinch and avoid us now that we're giving him medications twice a day and generally behave differently, we've decided to just let him live his life without interference. We'll look into pain meds if that becomes necessary, but even at the most optimistic, chemo and surgery would bring him only a few months and I'm frankly not sure that the toll on him makes it worthwhile. Talked it over with my favorite vet tech, who agreed and pointed out that Tarzan is currently doing well. I'll be heartbroken to lose him, but I want him to enjoy his time with us, however long that is.

Pam, I would very much like to find out where I'm going to be living next, specifically!

rp, in the last move, I was saving the boxes of books as a reward for unpacking everything else, and then unpacked most of them on the second day. This will probably happen again this time.

Charlotte, I got good a properly packing books when I was volunteering with a literacy non-profit. There's a trick to it. And the company is considering opening a plant in the Netherlands, so who can say where we'll be down the road.

Helen, they came and dug more holes yesterday and then filled them in again that night. No sign of them today, hoping that's not a sign of how quickly they'll repair the damage.

211clue
dec 17, 2021, 11:02 pm

Well, you've got grit, that's for sure. Any one of these unfortuate episodes could lay a person low. When you get settled and begin museum visiting, be sure you have the Field Museum of Natural History on the list. I used to work in Chicago a lot but haven't been in almost ten years so I don't have the knowledge of bookstores I used to. I do remember 57th Street Books though and always enjoyed dropping in there. You're going to have a lot of fun getting to know Chicago if you haven't had the chance before.

212RidgewayGirl
dec 20, 2021, 5:35 pm

>211 clue: Luanne, I have very little grit. I'll definitely keep the Field Museum in mind for a weekend in Chicago with my husband. I'm looking forward to being able to explore the city.

213RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 21, 2021, 2:48 pm

The house will be on the market the first week of January. I'm packing up half the books so the living room looks more "books as accent feature" than "how many books will fit in the living room." Melmoth is doing a good job testing the boxes and supervising my work.



214RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 22, 2021, 3:48 pm



In this horror-tinged thriller, Laura Lippman tells the story of an author who is stuck in a hospital bed in his exclusive Baltimore apartment, being cared for by a night nurse and his assistant, who begins receiving calls from a woman who claims to be the main character in his best known book. As she insists that he owes her, he wonders which of the many women in his life might have wanted to do him harm, but he's always been such a nice guy, in his own estimation.

Dream Girl takes the thriller into a darker place. Gerry is both attempting an honest evaluation of his own life and an unreliable narrator of his own experiences. As he thinks back over his life, there's more than a little self-justification and complaints about the over-sensitivity of women. But someone is out to get Gerry and figuring out who that is might be his only chance to save his own life.

This book is a bit of a departure for Lippman, who has been moving towards more depth in her popular crime novels. I appreciate that she's always improving her craft, but while I enjoyed this one, it's not my favorite.

215hailelib
Bewerkt: dec 23, 2021, 5:47 pm

So sorry to hear about Tarzan. I hope he has quite a few days and weeks of still being himself.

One move we had I couldn't finish the books before the packers came and the only damaged ones were the ones they packed. Decided against letting that happen again.

Enjoy your new place once you are settled. Moves are stressful but also an adventure.

216rabbitprincess
dec 23, 2021, 9:41 pm

>213 RidgewayGirl: Melmoth is an excellent supervisor! I especially like her diligence in inspecting flat boxes as well as the ones that can be sat in.

217mathgirl40
dec 23, 2021, 11:42 pm

Good luck with the relocation, and it sounds like you're doing the right things for Tarzan's comfort.

>154 RidgewayGirl: So glad to see your positive comments about The Trees. I so loved Telephone when I'd read it last year for the ToB that and I picked up a copy of Everett's new book just a few days ago.

218RidgewayGirl
dec 24, 2021, 11:33 am

>215 hailelib: Movers rarely know how to pack books correctly. They always manage to get the delicate glassware and china packed so that it all arrives unharmed, but books stymie them. There's a note in our contract that says that any boxes we pack ourselves will have to be inspected by the movers, so maybe they'll take note?

>216 rabbitprincess: Yesterday, I was going through the cabinet in the bathroom and Freya came and insisted in sitting in each drawer. It's touching how seriously they take the need to test for structural integrity. She was able to attest that every drawer was more than up for the task of supporting a six pound cat.

>217 mathgirl40: Tarzan is entirely himself, although he does not enjoy the steroids he is given every morning to keep him well. I gave both Telephone and The Trees five stars this year, but The Trees is just extraordinary.

219dudes22
dec 24, 2021, 1:16 pm

I was wondering why I didn't take BBs for those 2 books then realized that I took a BB a couple of years ago for another of his books. Must get one of them red next year.

220VivienneR
dec 24, 2021, 9:38 pm

I'm sending best wishes to Tarzan and hoping he remains comfortable. And what a clever cat Melmoth is for being able to rearrange the furniture to her liking.

Best of luck on your move. I love moving.

And, have a very merry Christmas and all the best for the new year in a new home.

221RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 25, 2021, 11:35 am

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. Hope your day is filled with peace and as much family as you'd like to have around.



Children are surprisingly hard to wrap.

222VivienneR
dec 26, 2021, 7:13 pm

My next door neighbour got her two wrapped grandchildren as birthday gifts. What surprised me was that those energetic kids managed to stay still and quiet until they were unwrapped. When we play hide and seek they can't resist giving away the hiding place - "I'm under the chair" getting louder with each repeat.

Happy New Year in your new abode!

223RidgewayGirl
dec 27, 2021, 5:25 pm

>222 VivienneR: I'd bet that the children loved the idea so much.

224RidgewayGirl
dec 30, 2021, 10:58 am

Boosted and having passed rapid tests, I'm on my way with my family to see the in-laws in NJ. So having spent the last ten days in a frenzy of planning and organizing, painting and cleaning, and Christmas in there somewhere, there is finally time to sit down and finish up this thread and maybe even set up next year's. Moving is a great time to find out that the house I'd thought was very nice is really a filthy, run-down hovel.

225RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 30, 2021, 11:17 am



Given the title, this novel has a lot to live up to. Luckily, Jason Mott mostly delivers a Hell of a Book, even if the premise grows thin by the end of this clever satire in which an author on his triumphant book tour, the kind of book tour available only to Franzens and fantasy, hallucinates the presence of a young Black boy. The story alternates between the author's life and the life of this boy, drawing parallels and moving the two lives closer and closer.

To be readable, or at least readable by white Americans, a novel looking at the stark, unforgiving effects of racism needs a large helping of satire or gallows humor. And in recent years, there have several satires on the issue, from The Sellout and We Cast a Shadow to The Trees. The satirical elements temper the righteous anger and allow the reader to receive a pointed message without feeling defensive. And the message in Hell of a Book is exceedingly sharp, as it needs to be.

226dudes22
dec 30, 2021, 11:32 am

>224 RidgewayGirl: - ha, ha, ha. I've been looking around and worrying about the people who will need to clean this out once I'm gone. (But, hopefully, not too soon) I think I'll be doing some extensive cleaning out after the new year.

227RidgewayGirl
dec 30, 2021, 12:03 pm



The premise of The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister is intriguing: when the two groups that set out to rescue the possible survivors of Franklin's Arctic expedition come back having failed, Lady Franklin puts together a new team, this time made up entirely of women. She promises riches and fame to the participants of a successful venture, but that she will disavow all knowledge of one that fails. For Virginia Reeve, chosen to lead this venture, that chance is enough. And while some of the women chosen to be in this group give her pause, she's willing to take the opportunity. The reader knows immediately that things went tragically wrong and the book alternates between the story of the venture and the subsequent trial, where Virginia is charged with murder.

There's no question that, despite the fact that it takes a very long time before the expedition even sets out, Mcallister writes with such forward momentum that it was hard to set this book down. There's not a lot of subtlety here and the shocking revelations were not at all surprising, nor was the ending, but somehow those flaws never stopped me from beginning the next chapter. I'm not the ideal audience for mainstream historical fiction, but despite the implausibility, I enjoyed this one.

228RidgewayGirl
dec 30, 2021, 12:10 pm

>226 dudes22: Betty, my husband and I kept asking each other why we hadn't done these cosmetic things years ago and the answer is that they are quite time consuming and we were busy just living our lives. I cleaned out a closet yesterday, removing on large bag to donate and another to throw away and, honestly, while it looks very organized now, it doesn't look any emptier.

229RidgewayGirl
dec 30, 2021, 12:20 pm



If I had known that The Group by Mary McCarthy was so brilliant, funny and insightful, I would have read it years ago. This is an absolute banger of a book and the glimpse it provides of live in the 1930s is just wonderful. A perfect book.

230Jackie_K
dec 30, 2021, 3:35 pm

>228 RidgewayGirl: I'm currently trying to clear out (or at least tame) our spare room as we need better home office space. I've done several hours, and other than a bit of (frankly gross) carpet, it doesn't look any different. No wonder I've put it off so long.

231rabbitprincess
dec 30, 2021, 6:12 pm

The hopeful part of me thinks that with my week off next week I should try to tidy up some of the clutter in our office / spare room... the more honest part of me suspects it won't be done. But if I were to clean up the office, that would give me room to store clutter from other rooms.

232RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 31, 2021, 1:30 pm



In All's Well by Mona Awad, Miranda is a stage actor who, due to an injury that has left her with ever increasing chronic pain, now works as a professor at a small private university, teaching and directing the annual play, this year it's All's Well That Ends Well. With her pain spiraling out of control, she struggles to perform the bare minimum required of her, while her colleagues and the medical profession lose patience with her. Then something weird happens and Miranda's life changes is inexplicable ways.

I went into this book without knowing the slightest thing about it. I enjoyed how it began as a book about a somewhat unpleasant and desperate woman dealing with chronic pain, trying to negotiate her way through the health system, maintain hope and keep her job and how the book changed into something else entirely. Yes, the hint is in the title, but don't think you know where this is going because of that.

233RidgewayGirl
dec 31, 2021, 2:37 pm



When a grandson asks what he did during the war, Meissner gives a brief and irritated answer, but after his death, a letter is found addressed to his grandson. We Germans is that letter. Focusing on a specific event during the final days of the war, Meissner writes about his eight years lost to service in the German Army, from the first heady days to his years in a Soviet work camp. But mostly he describes when he and a small group head out to find food while on retreat in Poland, acting on a rumor that a village has a hidden cache.

Alexander Starritt has written a deceptively straight-forward narrative with a depth that reveals itself slowly. Honest and unsparing, Meissner is uninterested in defending himself. There's a lot going on in this brief novel, and the focus on the ordinary German soldier was different enough to make this one noteworthy.

234RidgewayGirl
Bewerkt: dec 31, 2021, 3:39 pm



Lucy has stretched the writing of her dissertation out for years, working in the university library and trying to get her boyfriend to commit to more. When a spat ends with them breaking up, Lucy falls apart. Her sister invites her to dog sit for her in Venice Beach, and Lucy grabs the opportunity, reluctantly joining a therapy group for love addicts and walking on the beach at night. Every decision Lucy makes is a poor one, often dramatically so, and while she would be exhausting to know in real life, she's fascinating to read about. One evening, she meets a cute swimmer and while there are some surprising things about him, maybe he's her chance for love, especially when the first guy turned out to be a creep and the second won't return her calls.

I don't know why, but I do enjoy novels in which women are the agents of their own misfortune. And The Pisces by Melissa Broder has the interesting twist of the logistical difficulties of getting together with a merman, who may or may not exist.

235RidgewayGirl
jan 1, 2022, 12:44 am

Jackie, there is no reason to do this unless you have a pressing reason.

RP, that was half the clutter in our study — stuff we didn’t need to have nearby, but didn’t want to just throw away. Of course, now we’re throwing things away with reckless abandon!

236RidgewayGirl
jan 1, 2022, 12:45 am

Happy New Year, everyone! See you over in the new challenge.