Witchyrichy (aka Karen) Wings It in 2022 - Part 1

I am Karen Richardson, aka witchyrichy, and happy to start my 8th year in the 75ers group. I turn 60 this year and am taking a major leap into the unknown, retiring from my nonprofit executive director position in June. I love the work but it is all consuming and after more than ten years, I am ready for a break. I will continue to teach and develop online courses, both things I can do from my farm in central Virginia.

I live with my husband of almost 30 years, and the crew of pets that include Spot, the hound dog, Major, the beagle, and Circe, the cat. Last year, Bob bought an old house in our little town and set about rehabbing it. You can see the before and after pictures in the collage. The house has a bit of history: Dwight D. Eisenhower spent a weekend there during WW II recruiting African American soldiers. It is divided into two apartments and we love the big front porch.

Besides reading, I crochet. I did a crochet-along last year and created the afghan pictured above. I also dabble with paper making using a Silhouette cutter but never seem to take pictures of my creations! This year, I subscribed to a monthly card-making kit.

I also love anything and everything about the outdoors including gardening and birds.

I am truly winging it this year: both in my reading and my life. Glad to have you along for the ride!

Jan - March 22

January 2022

The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
The President's Shadow by Brad Meltzer
The Baker's Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan
In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Old Man's War by John Scalzi

February 2022

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
Pirate King by Laurie R. King (audio)

March 2022
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (audio)
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Republic of the Imagination by Azar Nafisi
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs

April - June 32

April 5

Purity by Jonathan Franzen
Book Row by Marvin Mondlin
Tony's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

May 11

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield (audio)
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Artificial Conditions by Martha Wells
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny
Murder in the Cookbook Nook by Ellery Adams (audio)
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani

June 16

Murder in the Storybook Cottage by Ellery Adams
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
The Narrowboat Summer by Anne Youngson
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
The Whispered Word by Ellery Adams (audio)
The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams (audio)
The Girls of Mischief Bay by Susan Mallery
Moonshine, Money and Misery by Jim Campbell
April Lady by Georgette Heyer
Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor
When You Get the Chance by Tom Ryan
Hell Hole by Chris Grabenstein (audio)
Death By Beach Read by Eva Gates (audio)
The Omega Factor by Steve Berry
Mind Scrambler by Chris Grabenstein (audio)
The March by E.L. Doctorow

July - September

October - December

Award Winner: The March by E.L. Doctorow (2005 National Book Award Winer)
Publication Year Ending in 2: Planned Riders of the Purple Sage, published in 1912
Modern Retelling
You'd Love to See This Movie: Moonglow
Features a Dog: Planned The Hound of the Baskervilles
Title Contains a Z: Zahrah the Windseeker
Publication Year You Joined LT: 2005: The Penderwicks
By a Favorite Author: The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny
A Long (for you) Book: Planned Annals of the Former World
A Gift: Planned A Year With the Birds
Title Contains a Month: April Lady
Weather Word in the Title: Cloud Cuckoo Land
Read a CAT
Travel or a Journey
About Sisters or Brothers
A Book Club Read: The Woman in the Window
Flowers on the Cover
In Translation
Non-Fiction: Caste
Character Shares a Name With a Friend
Set In a Capital City The Omega Factor (set in Ghent which is the capital of the East Flanders province of Belgium)
Children's or Young Adult Salt to the Sea
Set in Another Country: An Irish Country Doctor
LGBTQ+ Author: When You Get the Chance
Silver or Gold on the Cover

Favorites from 2021

The Essex Serpent

I have done some great reading this year, but The Essex Serpent is my favorite by far. Quirky characters living on the edge of the sea, their village overshadowed by a Loch Ness style serpent. Characters and their stories intertwined in serpent-like ways. There was just the right amount of magic and mystery. And, Perry captured Victorian sensibilities perfectly. She used letters effectively to give the reader the behind-the-scenes feelings of the characters. I was just captivated.

Miss Benson's Beetle

I picked up Miss Benson's Beetle and could not put down it down. Watching Miss Benson come into her true best life even as she fought it, was funny, heart breaking, and so true. All the characters carried baggage not of their own choices, much of it tied to the war. This was a gift from the same friend who gave me Where'd You Go, Bernadette so she knows what I like.

The Love Story of Missy Carmichael

Another recommendation from the friend above. It was another story of an older woman facing her fears and thriving despite all.

The Lincoln Highway

I cannot say enough about The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. The author wove stories of quirky but authentic characters together into a fascinating tapestry. Each character acts out of personal convictions; Towles almost convinces us of the righteousness of even the most skewed of these perspectives. The multi-voice approach worked well to further the sense of our lives as inexplicably intertwined with others, even heroes from the past.

Brothers Billy and Emmett make their own hero's journey, the centerpiece of the tale, blown off course from their plans to move to California by a friend with debts to settle and good intentions to make them all rich. The story breaks your heart even as you laugh out loud.

10 lb Penalty

I read lots of Dick Francis in 2021 and felt like I should have him on the list. I liked this story as it shows Francis at his best with the father and son relationship. The main character was smart and thoughtful, mature beyond his years.

What I Am Reading:

Still Reading: Lonesome Dove
April Lady by Georgette Heyer
The Omega Factor by Steve Berry

Listening: Death By Beach Read by Eva Gates

This group always helps me to read; welcome back to the group, Karen.

Lovely topper.

Welcome back, and happy new year!

>9 witchyrichy: >10 PaulCranswick: Thanks, you two! Hoping to find more time and space for LibraryThing this year!

Happy New Year, Karen. Great best reads list. I hope 2022 is a good year for you.

I plan to get to The Lincoln Highway this year -- glad that you enjoyed it so much! Happy reading!

Happy reading in 2022, Karen!

Hope your 2022 is filled with great books!

Happy New Year! Beautiful pictures up top.

Hi, Karen. Happy 2022!

>13 BLBera: >14 Berly: >15 FAMeulstee: >16 thornton37814: >17 AMQS: >18 ffortsa: Thanks for the greetings! Looking forward to reading with all of you this year!

I picked up The Fifth Assassin at Book No Further, a used book store in downtown Roanoke when I was there in December. After starting the book, I needed to read it predecessor, The Inner Circle, the first book to feature Beecher White, an archivist at the National Archives. Psychopaths, secret societies, family entanglements, and just enough history to keep it real. What's not to love? It was one of the last books I read in 2021 along with Meltzer's nonfiction book about the attempted assassination of Lincoln prior to his inauguration.

I was awake early this morning and finished The Fifth Assassin, the second volume. This one included Camp David as part of the plot. I drive through Thurmont, Maryland, the gateway to the Cacoctin Mountains, when I visit my family in Pennsylvania. There is no mention of Camp David on all the signs but I know it is there.

Meltzer has mastered the art of the historical thriller: the short choppy chapters, shifting time periods, and multiple points of view keep the stories moving along. The third volume--The President's Shadow--is waiting for me to dive in.

Hi Karen. Happy New Year to you!

Happy 2022, Karen! Lovely photo collage.

The Lincoln Highway was one of my 2021 favorites, too!

>21 EBT1002: >22 Copperskye: Happy new year to you, too! Looking forward to another great year of reading and sharing!

>1 witchyrichy: Excellent photo collage.

>8 witchyrichy: Essex serpent was an excellent read for me. I have the lincoln highway on my radar.

Have a great week ahead!

>24 figsfromthistle: Thanks! I have been trying to take and publish more pictures. I used Canva for the collage: a great online desktop publishing tool.

Best wishes to you, too! The weather is miserable here: we are just on the edge of the snow and will eventually get a little. For now, we're in the sleety zone. I am having a slow start to the working new year while the pets snore around me.

Hi Karen my dear, just dropped my star off dear friend.

>20 witchyrichy: Sounds like you've found a great series.

>25 witchyrichy: The sleety zone. Good description and I'm so sorry. I've never heard of Canvas for picture collages--I'll have to remember it. Thanks!

>26 johnsimpson: Glad to see you! Looking forward to all the good reading and sharing.

>27 Berly: It is fun! And since my other book is Caste, it is a bit of a relief as well. I have to do Wilkerson one chapter at a time.

The website is http://www.canva.com. I use it for almost all my digital publishing from collages to infographics to event logos. There is a free version but I pay a bit to get premium access.

I've been seeing the meme on other threads so thought I would give it a go:

Describe yourself: The Gifts of Imperfection
Describe how you feel: Real Change
Describe where you currently live: Buried in the Country
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Lincoln Highway
Your favorite form of transportation is: The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England
Your favorite food is: The Confectioner's Tale
Your favorite time of day is: Sunrise by the Seas
Your best friend is: True Compass
You and your friends are: Excellent Women
What’s the weather like: Second Wind
You fear: Mad Mouse
What is the best advice you have to give: Ready Player 2
Thought for the day: On To the Next Dream
What is life for you: The Bookwoman's Last Fling
How you would like to die: A Death Long Overdue
Your soul’s present condition: True Refuge
What was 2021 like for you? The Best We Could Do
What do you want from 2022? Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life and lots of it!

>29 witchyrichy: I like your what do you want from 2022 answer!

>30 thornton37814: Thanks! I never regret any time in my garden. This year, I am going to expand in to vegetables. Getting together with a friend tomorrow to talk seeds. The catalogs have been arriving every day.

Isabel Wilkerson's Caste was powerful and challenging. She weaves the history and present day stories of India, Nazi Germany and the United States. Our country is horrifyingly deficient both statistically and spiritually when it comes to both time periods. Germany addresses its Nazi past--a period of 12 years--in ways that promote remembrance and repentance. I know not all Germans buy into the collective shame and grief but large parts of our population seem to celebrate hundreds of years of enslaving and dehumanizing millions of people.

I pass the huge Confederate flag Wilkerson describes every time I venture up 95. Only recently did they rename the house where Stonewall Jackson died...it had always been the shrine. It sits in Caroline County, part of a hotbed of that mix of Tea Party/Confederates that has arisen in parts of Virginia. Hanover County, just south of Caroline, has an active KKK group that shows up now and then to protest at the courthouse. I pass through on my way to points north and its roadsides sprout with yellow bulletin boards espousing radical right wing values. They are particularly incensed with the renaming of schools that has been taking place in their county. Wilkerson hits it on the head as she describes the anger. One new bulletin board describes the effort to erase their heritage. One statement from late in the book sticks with me. Rommel was a great general. There are no statues to Rommel in Germany.

Virginia, of course, also has the claim to fame of closing its public schools for five years rather than be forced to integrate. I wrote about this history here.

I cannot recommend this book enough. The frame of caste instead of race gives a wider perspective because it helps shows the stratas of our society that go beyond black and white. Those are the extremes but where you fall on the continuum can make a huge difference.

Great comments on Caste, Karen. I will try to get to that one this year.

With The President's Shadow, Brad Meltzer ends the Beecher White series. It uses the same prose style as he did for his earlier books in the trilogy--The Inner Circle and The Fifth Assassin. It is an historical thriller that plays on both real and imagined history, especially related to Presidential assassins and the various conspiracies that have grown up around them. I saw it as fluff, especially since my other book was Caste.

But, the more I think about it, the more I find to think about, actually. Does that make sense? The thriller style pulled me along but as we headed into what was essentially the epilogue for each character, important themes played out including those related to the rise of the KKK in the South via the Knights of the Golden Circle. A major theme of the book involves government drug experiments on military personnel, certainly not a conspiracy theory at all. Perhaps what happened to some was inflated, but the foundation was facual.

If you're a Dan Brown or Steve Berry fan, this would be a good follow up. Meltzer's plots can get a little too twisty sometimes and, even though I think this is the end of the series, there was a major plot piece that was never really resolved.

I have been meaning to read Caste since it came out. I have it on my kindle and your comments nudge me to get to it this year.

Hi Karen and Happy New Year!

I love your opening montage.

Your best-of list from last year is super appealing. I hope to get to some of them this year.

I really enjoyed Caste when I read it last year, even though it flopped with my book club. People said they were ready for something lighter.

I may have to try the Brian Meltzer series, too. Great reviews! Your reading year is off to a wonderful start!

>36 streamsong: Thanks for stopping by! Glad I can contribute a few suggestions.

Caste was a tough read in many ways as Wilkerson didn't pull her punches on what these systems were like. She also put the hypocrisy of the United States right out, exploring that weird paradox of us being the moral force of the world even as we were openly denying the rights of people in our own country.

I picked up Moonglow last night and am well into another fabulous read! But there is a bit of work to do first on this Monday morning.

>32 witchyrichy: This one is on my WL. Excellent review.

Have a great weekend!

>38 figsfromthistle: It is a great book: hard to say you will "enjoy" it as it is a tough read. But well worth it.

Same to you...I'm starting with my booster shot today and hoping the side effects are just bad enough to relegate me to bed with a pot of tea and a book!

Moonglow by Michael Chabon, the story of his grandfather's life, sucked my in, spun me around and spit me out wondering why I taken so long to read this book. Chabon's main character---always referred to as "my grandfather"--was a larger than life figure who spends his last week in a hospice bed telling Chabon stories. It is often described as a memoir but Chabon makes it clear he took whatever fictional liberties he wanted as the novel unfolds. I experienced exactly what Chabon described in an interview with the Calgary Herald:

“It seemed to be that it was very appealing and it would enable me to create a sense of pleasurable doubt in the reader’s mind,” he says. ” I love that feeling, when you’re reading a work of fiction and you just find yourself wondering how much of this is true. On some level you know that this is a work of fiction and likely it’s all, or primarily, invented. There’s almost a childlike desire to have it all be true. That combination of wanting to believe and knowing that you are being deceived, with your own consent of course, is something I find very pleasurable and something I thought I could get to in a direct and efficient way by having this narrative pose as a non-fictional narrative.”

True or not, I was reminded how much I love Chabon's writing: it flows along invitingly. The characters are complex, living through the horrors of World War II and its aftermath. Chabon's grandfather is a rocket builder with a love/hate relationship to Werner von Braun. His creations are both technically impressive but whimsically as he works to build a moon habitat where he and his troubled wife can escape the world that has challenged their lives.

Wow, some great reading here! You got me with Caste.

Hi Karen my dear, hope that you and Bob are having a nice start to the weekend, sending love and hugs from both of us dear friend.

The Baker's Secret is in a coastal French village on the eve D-Day. The main character is the local baker who survives because the Nazi commander loves her baguettes. She has figured out how to get 14 loves out of the 12 for which he provides rations, her first secret. From there, she takes on additional secrets despite the danger to her own life.

Emma, the baker, adopts her role somewhat reluctantly but applies a creative and stealthy approach to getting what she and her fellow villagers need. She does this despite her own despair over ever being rescued from the tyranny of the Nazis. The violence is casual and cruel, simply part of how the occupiers terrorize the local population.

The prose was matter of fact, somewhat like Emma herself. We saw how a village connects through several characters known only by their nicknames. The narrative overlaps as we see events from different points of view.

I picked this up at a bookshop without any recommendation and am glad I took the time to read it.

>42 AMQS: >43 johnsimpson: Thanks for stopping by. We had a lovely three-day weekend and an easy week of work ahead with the promise of snow for the end of the week. All we have had is cold icy rain...I am ready for a proper snow and then spring.

>44 witchyrichy: The Baker’s Secret is now firmly on my TBR list. Thanks for the lovely review!

Karen O

>44 witchyrichy: I've wondered how that one was. Glad to see you enjoyed it.

>46 klobrien2: >47 thornton37814: I went from that to In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson. Resistance Women would be a good companion read to The Baker's Secret as well.

>44 witchyrichy: No euphemism with the baguettes?

I must say that I would forgive many things for the best French bread. Not many make the stuff better.

>49 PaulCranswick: No euphemism. And since it is mentioned in every review, it isn't a spoiler. She uses straw in small ground quantities to extend the flour.

>50 witchyrichy: I'm no baker, Karen, but I would have thought that that must affect the taste?

>51 PaulCranswick: Evidently not enough for the German's tastes? The book describes her process and how she figured it out. As I said in the review, her cleverness borne of fear and survival was one of the best parts of the book. At one point, I actually laughed out loud at how she fooled the Nazis even though the whole scenario could have led to her execution.

>52 witchyrichy: I suppose they are used to some of their brot which tastes like sawdust anyhow! I could never really take to pumpernickel and the like.

I loved Moonglow! It was one of my favorites the year I read it. Maybe I should reread it.

The Baker's Secret sounds good as well.

>54 BLBera: I am running out of Michael Chabon books! He gets me every time. It would be an interesting side track to >48 witchyrichy: In the Garden of the Beasts and Resistance Women.

Hi Karen! I can’t believe I haven’t posted here yet… An embarrassingly belated Happy New Year and happy first thread of 2022.

>1 witchyrichy: I love the collage. Excellent choices.

>8 witchyrichy: Excellent choices – I’ve read two of them and have The Lincoln Highway here at the house just waiting for the right time.

>32 witchyrichy: Also on my shelves, a gift from another Karen – my friend in Montana.

>56 karenmarie: I am happy to see you whenever you get here! It takes a lot of energy to focus on healing and getting healthy. Keep up the great work and looking forward to good reading together. I have you to thank for Dick Francis among other things.

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Karen.

>58 PaulCranswick: Thank, Paul! We finally got a little snow. I am tucked into my library with books, crochet and the Lego bookshop kit. It is, indeed, a lovely weekend.

In the Garden of Beasts is the nonfiction partner to Jennifer Chiaverini's Resistance Women, which I read last year. Both books describe the early 30s, crucial years in the rise of Hitler during which coordinated allied effort might have been able to stop what eventually happened. While Chiaverini goes on to follow the story of Mildred Fish Harnack as she resists the Nazis, Larson focuses on 1933-1937, the years that Ambassador William Dodd, served as Roosevelt's ambassador to Germany. Dodd was a fussy professor with Southern roots and Midwest frugality, who never fit in to the ranks of the ambassadors, most wealthy scions of Eastern families who spent their own money lavishly. In the end, Dodd was at odds with both the Nazis and his own state department.

Dodd's family accompanied him to Berlin and we see glimpses of his wife and son. It is his daughter Martha who really steals the story. She was happy to head to Berlin to escape an unhappy, ill-advised marriage. There, she found the Nazis charming and quickly connected with Gestapo head Rudolph Deals as well as other Nazis. And, just to keep it interesting, she became deeply infatuated with a Soviet representative who was probably part of the what passed for the KGB at the time. Larson's portrait of Martha was less flattering than Chiaverini's, the latter describing her relationship to Harnack in closer detail.

I saw Larson's writing approach described as narrative nonfiction and that certainly fits this book. He has found the balance between providing historical detail within the context of the stories of those living through that history. As someone familiar with the story, I did find his use of foreshadowing a little aggressive, particularly when what was coming was sometimes personally catastrophic for at least one person. Ultimately, it was a fascinating reminder that Hitler didn't just appear out of nowhere and take over Germany.

>60 witchyrichy: In the Garden of Beasts has been known to me for years but I’ve yet to read it (though I have read other books by the author and have enjoyed them). I think I have to get moving on this one!

Karen O

>61 klobrien2: I loved The Devil in the White City. This book has the same flow. I would suggest moving it closer to the top of the list. I tend to read "clumps" of books so this fit with a few others I have read about World War II and Nazi Germany, in particular. I am going to start Lilac Girls today.

A bit of gratitude on this Monday for my husband who got the gas log online in the library. And, he signed us up for 5G from TMobile last week so we were able to bid goodbye to Verizon DSL, which had gotten up to nearly $100 a month for sometimes ridiculously bad access. Plus they "bundled" in a phone line some years ago that we never used but was part of that charge. (I liken it to rent control in Los Angeles: the service never changed but went up in price every year just because it could.)

It was the happiest phone call I ever made to cancel it although I tried hard to be nice to the person on the other end of the line.

And...that means my Roku now works in the library, which is warm thanks to the aforementioned working gas log. I may be able to eliminate my wifi device as well. I have been testing the 5G wifi with various meetings and been pleased with the result. Looking forward to yoga on the big screen later today.

I discovered The Great Canadian Baking Show on YouTube. The first two seasons are co-hosted by Daniel Levy, one of my favorites from Schitt's Creek. Also used my newfound bandwidth to binge watch the third season of Making It, hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, and featuring makers doing various challenges.

Finally, my husband worked with a local plumber to get an on-demand water heater online. It takes a long time to get hot water through the ancient pipes to my bathroom but once it gets there, it never runs out. In the old days, I had about 8 minutes of hot water. Now...an endless supply. It is glorious.

Don't misunderstand: I *love* my old house in the country but I am happy to welcome 21st century amenities. I think we are planning to stay beyond our 10 year plan that expired 2 years ago.

Here's a picture from spring time:


Life, as they say, is good.

Yay, and hooray for awesome husbands! Your home is beautiful.

>64 AMQS: Thanks! It is the definition of old, rambling farmhouse with quirky challenges. My husband found it and knew I would love the porches and library. He gets to collect tractors. It works.

>32 witchyrichy: I loved Caste even though it was densely packed. Definitely one not to miss.

>40 witchyrichy: And you already read Moonglow! I skipped your comments because I will be reading that one in February. Chime in when I set up the group read thread.

>63 witchyrichy: Hurray for technology that works and endless hot water!! And a beautiful house. Life IS good. : )

After reading five good books in a row to start the year, I stalled out: started Book Row about the booksellers clustered south of Manhattan's 14th street, along 4th Avenue. It's chatty and gossipy, like you're sitting with an author over a cup of coffee reliving the old days. But it is not riveting. The stories are fun and fascinating glimpses into the heyday of book collecting. It would be a good companion to the Cliff Janeway mysteries I read last year. In fact, you can almost hear Janeway's voice in some of the anecdotes.

I started one of the Patrick Taylor Irish Country Doctor books but decided I would read them in order. The first one is just home from the library. I also started Lilac Girls one evening and then lost track of it.

So, last night, curled up in bed, I picked up Old Man's War. I haven't read science fiction on any regular basis since high school. But, I loved Scalzi's Redshirts. I'm about half way through after reading until I fell asleep and waking up at 5 AM. The only reason I am not done is because I absolutely had to update my org's budget. But it is updated and I have one more meeting today. Then, I shall settle in again. What a great book! John Perry is an endearing character. I have the rest of the series upstairs.

Does this happen to others, browsing until you find the "right" book? It doesn't mean I won't read those other books, just not right now.

Happy Friday! We may get a couple inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. I hope so...I like one nice snowy day each season. We are fortunate to have a professional meteorologist that lives near us: https://www.facebook.com/WxRisk. I use his newsletter as an event planner but I also turn to him for an accurate snow forecast.

January is a slow time of year for me and the to do list could be pushed off a bit. I took the afternoon off and worked through bag 2 of my bookshop project. Major supervised.





Happy Weekend!

>68 witchyrichy: Love that Birch Books! Is that made out of Legos?! Good job Major.

>69 Berly: Yes! It is part of their Creator collection: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/bookshop-10270. I treated myself early in the fall when I had some gift card money and heard they were going to be scarce due to..wait for it...supply chain issues. I have a long way to go as there is a second floor and another building. It is very relaxing and I am using the app to follow along with the building process. It is very cool with 3D view of the pieces and various steps. Not my childhood Legos.

We got about as much snow as last weekend but no without the rain or warm sun. I opened the door long enough to usher the dogs out into their spacious backyard and throw some sunflower seeds for the birds. I need boots and at least one more cup of coffee before I venture out any further fill up the feeders themselves. It is cold and windy: I can see snow blowing from here. We slept on the futon by the wood stove and the pets I woke up early. We moved to the library, fired up the gas log and have been tucked in ever since. I finished Old Man's War and am hoping the sequel is upstairs by the bed. Enthusiastic review to follow.

Another random book selection that turned into a page turning reading experience. As I mentioned earlier, I have not read much science fiction since high school and college. Not sure why: nothing seemed to appeal to me, I guess. I can't remember who recommended John Scalzi's series. I bought several of them from Better World Books and they have been piled upstairs, a sign that they might get read sooner rather than later.

Sooner it is: Old Man's War sucked me in and kept me entertained in ways that got past the science fiction parts, the parts, as main characters John Perry might say, I don't have enough math to understand. Perry, the old man, had decided, along with many of his generation, to join a defense force to protect space colonies. In exchange for ten years, he gets a new life, new scientifically enhanced body and a 75% chance of dying long before he gets through ten years. An adventure story with all the right balance of elements including a band of heroes, impossible escapes, and a surprising number of deaths, just a promised in the orientation session.

I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series: John Perry was an intriguing character and his ode to long marriage was wonderful. When someone asks him what he misses about being married, he comments that he misses his wife, but also the sense of comfort that comes with being married:

The sense you're where you're supposed to be, with someone you're supposed to be with...My marriage had its ups and downs like anyone's, but when it came down to it, I knew it was solid. I miss that sort of security, and that sort of connection with someone. Part of what makes us human is what we mean to other people, and what people mean to us. I miss meaning something to someone, having that part of being human.

Aah...the rest of the book was not so mushy. Lots of battles with aliens that include descriptions of unpleasant ways of dying, to say the least. Still, I am looking forward to the next volume!

Happy Monday, LT!

This morning started at the DMV. I had an appointment and was done in about 5 minutes since I had filled out the form online. Pretty impressive for a government agency with a miserable reputation. (The photo on my license was at least 20 years old...they were so overworked they let me renew on line four times before finally requiring my presence.)

My only mistake was not bringing two bits of mail with my address on them so I couldn't upgrade to the REAL id today. And I'm wondering about the bits of mail since we have a post office box. I didn't think to ask her if I can use labels from UPS boxes. We have *plenty* of those available.

Picked up An Irish Country Doctor from the library last week and am half way through. What a lovely story: old-fashioned in many ways but with a wry sense of humor and a love of the Irish village folk in all their quirkiness. Just made of fresh cup of coffee to start the afternoon and have time for a few more chapters.

I enjoyed the slow start to the new year. February gets a bit busier with two online conferences and one face to face workshop at the end of the month. But, for now, the gas log is warming the library and I am wandering through Ballybucklebo with Drs. O'Reilly and Laverty.

I've had my eye on An Irish Country Doctor after seeing it a few places. Sounds like I will like it from your description.

Happy Monday!
>63 witchyrichy: I didn't realize that there was a Canadian baking show! I have to check it out.

>74 AMQS: Review coming next.

>75 figsfromthistle: Thanks! It was a good day as Mondays go actually.

An Irish Country Doctor was just a plain, old-fashioned good read. Quirky characters in a classic Irish village. Drama, comedy, with a main story supplemented by the back stories of the characters. I loved it and am ready to settle into the next book in the series. I am almost tempted to use the word "wholesome" and there are recipes at the end!

I laughed out loud at a scene on the train. Dr. Barry Laverty is joined by two young ladies. I guess they didn't have quiet trains in those days but this could have been written today:

Barry tried to ignore them...Their chatter intruded. It was impossible to think about anything when one insisted on declaring her thoughts as if their import was so great that the whole bloddy world should be let in on her secrets." (p. 94)

This is the kind of the novel I would like to write if I ever wrote one.

>77 witchyrichy: I read that one when it came out. I liked it, but not enough to keep reading it after hearing comments from others on later installments.

>78 thornton37814: I have requested the next one from the library and have one of the later ones (the one that deals with Dr. O'Reilly's young days) on the shelf. I could see that it might be tough to keep it interesting but I'm hopeful for at least one or two more good reads. I haven't stumbled over any reviews myself. I picked up the one I own at a used bookstore as it was a series I had heard about over the years.

>79 witchyrichy: It was people who were reading the series in our library. We had one lady who initially loved it because it was set in Ireland, but I'm not really sure why she lost interest in the series. She just quit reading it. I heard a couple others say they just couldn't get into them any more. There must be some sort of change between the first and others, but no one was articulate enough to tell me why except the professor of Irish lit who didn't even like the first one.

>55 witchyrichy: I still haven't read Telegraph Avenue or some of his early stuff, so I have some Chabon ahead of me.

>63 witchyrichy: Sounds like heaven. Your house looks lovely.

>80 thornton37814: So, I had a professor of Irish lit, myself, and I could see where he would hate the series, too. That's funny...I hadn't thought about him for decades. We read great Irish literature, and we had to write 250 words about what we read each week: you could do less wrods, but NO MORE. In those days, 250 words was a typically-margined, double-spaced typewritten page. That's it. One page to synthesize what you thought about the weekly readings. Here's the main lesson I learned: ditch the prepositions. He was on my thesis committee and complained about the expanding length of the papers. Thanks to him I kept it as concise as possible. Hey...thanks for that memory!

>81 BLBera: Telegraph Avenue may be my favorite. There is this amazing interlude that is reminiscent of James Joyce.

>82 witchyrichy: He gets almost all his books from Kenny's which was one of the choices for this year's SantaThing. I took a writing course from the editor of National Genealogical Society Quarterly (although he's since retired from that position). We all started with 500 word pieces and had to edit them. Then he edited them further. I had the fewest edits in the class--somewhere around 10 words. He cut about 225 words from one person's.

>77 witchyrichy: It is a lovely series, Karen. I need to get back to them at some stage.

I am interested that you took Irish literature. The big daddy of Irish fiction Ulysses turned a hundred years old yesterday (2-2-22). Made me smile with the advice on succinctness - had Joyce had the same tutor we may have been deprived of his two major extraordinary novels. He didn't waste a word when a paragraph cold be wasted. He didn't waste a page when a chapter could be splurged. One day compressed into 800 short pages!

>84 thornton37814: Wow! I got pretty good at the 250 words: the key was to have a focused point to make that could be easily supported with a couple succinct examples. And good for your for having the least! I have also added Kenny's to my bookstore tourism wish list.

>85 PaulCranswick: I received my Master's in English and Rhetoric at West Chester University, a small college in eastern Pennsylvania. I came in with a long list of credits from a stint at UCLA so was able to select some fun lit courses rather than having to run the full catalog of survey courses.

I was teaching English at the time, and West Chester had a rhetoric major, a discipline I had gotten interested in at UCLA where my professor Richard A. Lanham was leading the effort to reestablish rhetoric as a program of study. His book The Electronic Word was published in 1995 but he imagines the future of text as it mixes with media. I highly recommend it!

I saw a brief bit about the birthday of Ulysses. The British Library has a great exhibit/article about the novel and obscenity: https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/ulysses-and-obscenity

We are fortunate that Joyce was given free reign. Ironically, the article at the British Library names Ezra Pound as the first censor. He was trying to get it past the "real" censors.

I made it through Ulysses in college but would like to return to it, maybe read it on Bloom day, even! My thought when I saw the headline was how our ideas about pornography have changed pretty drastically since those days.

>87 witchyrichy: I will certainly read the book again fairly soon (when I can summon up the courage) and will let you know ahead of time to see if it prompt a joint read!

Have a great weekend.

Ezra Pound was a talented poet but a pretty reprehensible human being.

>88 PaulCranswick: Pound gets at the heart of the question of creativity and morality. He did support writers but politics and economics were horrific. And I can't help but think what a hero he would be of social media these days.

I am participating in a conference today, attending and helping out with hosting duties as well. It's virtual so I can't really read but I can crochet and have the Olympics muted in the background.

>89 witchyrichy: He was on the wrong side of the political debate back then, Karen, but I don't think that in a modern context, he would have necessarily had the same views. He was certainly a communicator for good or ill.

We have been absorbed in the Olympics. Ice skating is one of the few sports I follow and it is great to see all the stars together in once place after watching all the national championships!

The coverage is amazing: almost 24/7 between the live and recorded coverage. My husband is up late and then I hop on early in the morning. I knew I wouldn't be able to stay awake long enough to see Nathan Chen so am watching the men's short program right now.

Not much reading but lots of crocheting and Valentine's Day card making!

The Virginia Children's Engineering Convention is so much fun: the focus is on hands-on, minds-on learning. I've made pop up books and reconstructed electronic toys at the face to face event. This year, they met virtually and I have been attending evening sessions all week. I presented on dollar store STEM, a session that uses easily accessible items to create circuits. A basic introduction to electricity that can be used for inventions. There's a fun book by Michael Carroll with fun ideas for creating. I made two inventions based on his suggestions for the workshop:

The first one is a milk minder: the red button at the top indicates we need milk, and the green button indicates that Karen will buy it.



The second one is a reading light and then Major the Beagle models it, although it looks more like a he has a good idea!

>92 witchyrichy: Major the Beagle looks one of the crossest models I have seen in a while!

>92 witchyrichy: >93 PaulCranswick: I've seen a meme where the pet is saying, "Oh no, here she comes with that camera again!" I should put that in a bubble above his head. It took three tries until he accepted his fate.

I was prepared to not like The Woman in the Window. I don't do a lot of thrillers and have managed to avoid all the girls in trains and windows and so forth. But I was pretty quickly hooked and surprised by the prose, the characters and the story in general. Finn created a complex main character, a smart, funny woman suffering from serious mental health issues stemming from guilt and trauma. The first person narrative was a good choice as we were immediately connected with Anna Fox. It was a thriller: short, choppy chapters with plenty of foreshadowing that, in a way, distracted the reader from the truth. And as with many of these kinds of narrative: truth and reality were an important part of the story. I am very interested in discussing this next week with the book group.

I'm starting to wonder if there is a whole new world of psychological thrillers to explore. Please feel free to share your favorites.

>95 witchyrichy: It hasn't been my genre for a while either but Hani speaks highly of Ruth Ware.

>95 witchyrichy: Glad you enjoyed that one! Ruth ware has quite a few that are excellent as does Lisa Jewell.

>92 witchyrichy: Awesome!

Happy weekend, Karen.

>96 PaulCranswick: >97 figsfromthistle: I will explore Ruth Ware when time permits although there are admittedly lots of books calling to me right now. Thanks for the recommendations.

>98 AMQS: I thought you would enjoy these especially! Hope you it's been a good weekend for you!

>99 witchyrichy: I cannot recommend them, Karen, as I haven't read them but Hani is a decent judge of most things other than her choice of husband!

>100 PaulCranswick: She did okay, I think, as did I. See the lovely quote above from John Scalzi about the pleasures of a long marriage. We'll be celebrating 30 years in July.

In the space of three days, I have read two books that are probably on the opposite end of the spectrum for fiction. The psychological thriller was well-represented by The Woman in the Window. Meanwhile, pastoral fiction lives in Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Doctor series. An Irish Country Village is the second in the series.

This book picks up immediately after the first one, a true sequel, as we wake up with the characters after the party that ended the first book. The plot follows the formula of the first one: medical intrigue that could make or break young Dr. Laverty. the local villain attempts another take over, budding romances get complicated, and Mrs. Kinkaid provides a few recipes at the end.

I can understand, perhaps, why some people wouldn't like the books, especially if they prefer stories that lean more towards the other side of the spectrum, the thriller with the twist or big surprise. There is a twist in this book but it is of a quiet variety and not unexpected as it is nice to be able to anticipate a happy ending sometimes.

Taylor writes out of love and compassion for both the Irish people and Ireland. This is prose that is meant to be savored with its sensory descriptions of the country and the city. Taylor sprinkles the text with bits of literature, poetry, songs and Ulster idioms that bring the conversation alive. The books aren't trying to be anything more than they are: wonderful, nostalgic stories of a time long past.

I was able to spend a few hours amongst the denizens of Buckleballybo and it made me happy.

I'm not much of a thriller reader, Karen, so I have not input for you.

My favorite Chabon is Moonglow although I have also enjoyed his essays.

>103 BLBera: I haven't read the essays...I will seek them out!

An Irish Country Christmas was lovely. Again, the book picks up where the last one left out. This one, the third in the series, gives us a better view of Dr. Fingal O'Reilly. The chapters move back and forth between his point of view and that of his young assistant, Dr. Barry Laverty. Both are pursuing romance even as they work to keep a new doctor to the area from digging into their clientele. Christmas brings the joy of the season with all the nostalgia. Taylor admits that his portrayal of a peaceable town where Catholic and Protestant are not just tolerant but maybe even loving is not true to the times. But, he has written about the Troubles in other books and wanted to just depict an Ireland of the mind and the memory.

I am ready for a break from the series but don't think I'll abandon it. I'll wait for a time when I need to sink into the wonderful, quirky world of Ballybucklebo.

I chose The Penderwicks from a list of books published in 2005 to fill in a block on the bingo card. But I think I forgot that as I read as Jeanne Birdsall's nostalgic childhood novel The Penderwicks. The first book in the series introduces us to the Penderwick family: father and four sisters who have lost their wife and mother. They decide to spend their summer break at a cottage in the Berkshire Mountains after their usual Cape Cod cottage was sold. And there the tale unfolds: the mysterious boy, the evil step-father, the enticing, off-limits garden, and lots of adventures among the children and their dog named Hound.

The Wikipedia article is interesting as it details the various children's books that inspired Birdsall to write the series. The sisters are meant to be similar to those in Little Women although younger.

I may not read the rest of them but I am not sorry I read this one.

I was browsing Libby and couldn't resist a book about gardening. The Last Garden in England was lovely: historical fiction set over three time periods: the early 1900s, the end of World War II, and the present day.

The story centers around the garden rooms at Highbury House in Warwickshire. Emma Lovett has been hired to restore the neglected garden. She wishes to be as historically accurate as possible but finds it challenging as original drawings are not readily available. Uncovering the past is an essential theme of the book and Emma is slowly able to connect to the Venetia Smith, the original designed. Smith is based on Gertrude Jekyll. Through Smith, we see the struggles of being a woman practicing what was largely considered men's work. In between Smith and Lovett is "land girl" Beth Pedley, one of many young woman who went to the country to help farmers be able to feed the country. She is an artist and her drawings become another piece of Lovett's puzzle.

While the garden is the central figure of the story, the human stories are what makes this book work so well. The characters are well created and the plot line includes several surprises. I stayed up all night to finish it!

I picked up The Splendid and the Vile recently so always feel a little guilty as all the older books look on jealously. But, I enjoyed In the Garden of Beasts and this was another focused look at WW II that used people and their stories to get at the bigger themes of the war and its times. In this case, Erik Larson chose the first year of the war when Britain experienced horrific bombing as the Germans attempted to beat them into submission or at least retreat so the latter could turn their attention to Russia. Prime Minister Winston Churchill with all his genius and eccentricities was the main character and his family--wife Clementine, daughter Mary and daughter-in-law Pamela--shared some of the spotlight as well.

Larson was inspired to write the story after experiencing 9/11 in New York. As I write this, bombs are falling on Ukraine in the greatest conflict in Europe since WW II and I feel like the world has gone backwards in many ways.

As I mentioned in the earlier review, Larson has mastered the art of historical story telling. This book, in particular, plays with the text: longer chapters divided by short bursts of primary source material. Keeps it lively and offers some comic relief from the nightly bombardments and widespread death and misery.

It took me a long time to finish listening to Pirate King by Laurie S. King. Winter has been dreary and cold with little travel and short dog walks, the two times when I get a lot of listening done. A road trip last week got me to the end. But, ultimately, I wasn't that engaged. It took a very long time to get to the heart of the mystery, almost the end.

The story revolved around a film crew making a movie about the making of a movie about the Pirates of Penzance. More confusing than it needed to be for the story and just not that engaging for me. The locations of Lisbon and Morocco were interesting but I wasn't as interested in the silent film industry, the focus of this particular mystery.

It may be time to give the series a rest.

I have a road trip coming up next week and will find something in my Audible library. I do like listening to mysteries as I think they keep my attention better.

>107 witchyrichy: Glad you enjoyed that one. I read it last year and it was the best historical fiction read of the year for me.

I was finally able to get to Pennsylvania to visit one of my oldest, dearest friends and my parents. It was a long time to be away from home but with gas prices being what they are, I figured I better see them both since they are only an hour apart.

My friend took my English teaching job in 1992 when I came to Virginia. She is a founding member of the OEBs, which stands for Old English Witches, or something like that. The name came from a conversation between two young teachers that my friend overheard in the cafeteria. One commented that the other one, who taught English, must have a tough life having to work with the battle axes in the English department. The other, a young man, commented that he was able to handle those "old English --redacted--". They, being the OEBs that they are, adopted the name and have kept it ever since. They are all long retired but the OEBs still meet once a month and come together for the summer, end-of-school picnic. They are truly old school and I love them. I am an honorary member as I was only with them for a few years and am at least 14 years younger than most of them. My original mentor is among them. Lifelong friends. I attended her book group and we had fun talking about cozy mystery series after we discussed The Thursday Murder Club, their read for the month. I liked it and will get a review up soon.

Then I headed west from Coatesville to Cornwall where I had a wonderful three days with my 87-year-old parents. (My mother is 86 until August, she would like you to know.) They are in generally good health and I am so fortunate to have them both. Part of the reason I am retiring from my public job is so that I can spend more time in Pennsylvania with them. We are all bird enthusiasts and were able to see at least part of the huge flock of snow geese that spend a few weeks at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management each spring as they head north. There were other birds as well including tundra swans, hooded mergansers and ring-necked ducks. I played with my iPhone and monocular but was too far away to get decent pictures. Saturday, we were in the path of Winter Storm Quinlan and got about 5 inches of snow. It was beautiful to watch, and we enjoyed being snowed in. But, by Sunday evening, we were able to get out to Friendly's for dinner.

My parents have a townhouse at Cornwall Manor Retirement Community, which occupies the site and some of the buildings of the former Cornwall Iron Furnace, a state historic site. The Buckingham Mansion, once the ironmaster's home, dominates the landscape and has a few residential apartments as well as public spaces. This time, on a walk, I discovered a small building I hadn't explored before. It is a meditation building. My parents' townhouse backs up to a rail trail, which is a great resource as well.

Enjoy the pictures. The link will open a flickr album.



Came home yesterday and had trouble settling in today even though I have an event next Wednesday that has a mildly pressing to do list. I can procrastinate until tomorrow.

I listened to most of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman on my way to Pennsylvania then finished the last few chapters on my Kindle so I could participate in my friend's book group. We all enjoyed it and spent some time talking about cozy mysteries in general and sharing our favorites.

The protagonists of this new series are all residents of the senior community who meet each Thursday to solve cold cases provided by a former police officer who is part of the group. When a real murder occurs, the group sees their chance to solve the mystery, helping the local constabulary as they follow the twists and turns.

The characters were complex and thoughtful, each member of the team contributing a particular strength. The plot wove several stories together without making the connections obvious so the ending was a surprise. I bought the second book as we were discussing the first one.

My RLBG read Yellow Wife and discussed it today at our meeting. We live in a small town about an hour southeast of Richmond, Virginia, the setting for most of the story. The main character, Phoebe, is a light skinned daughter of the plantation master. She grows up sheltered because of her mother's relationship with the master. His sister also dotes on her, teaching her to read, write, and, most importantly, play the piano. The latter talent may be the one that saves her as her hopes for emancipation fade with the death of her master.

Thrown into the notorious Devil's Half Acre prison where recalcitrant slaves are tortured and broken. Phoebe is chosen by the jail owner whose cruelty is both physical and psychological. The story is one of survival and courage in an impossible situation. And we follow Phoebe's children, a son fathered by another slave and several daughters fathered by the jailer, pursue very different lives based on the color of their skin.

The author spares no details and some of the descriptions of violence are brutal. Ultimately, it was an important story to understand the complexities of the black experience both before, during and after the Civil War.

Of all the recent James Patterson collaborations, his novel with Dolly Parton, Run, Rose, Run is my favorite. We get a glimpse of the glitter and grit of Nashville along with some great songs on a new album. A young up and comer with a secret past stumbles into stardom with the help of a cynical but lovable country legend. It had all the elements of a thriller--short chapters, really bad guys, hairbreadth escapes--and I ended up reading it the day it showed up on my Kindle! Just a fun read.

Hi Karen - I loved The Penderwicks as well. I read all five books, but the first one was the best. Great riff on Little Women.

I agree Pirate King was not a good entry in the series. I think maybe King should end this one.

Yellow Wife sounds good. I'll add it to my list.

>113 witchyrichy: THE 1619 PROJECT delivers a deep non-fiction approach to Yellow Wife.

>115 BLBera: Thanks for stopping by. I haven't been managing much LT time but visiting other threads in on my list after tomorrow's event!

>116 m.belljackson: I read some of the 1619 project when it was first published in the Times. The full book is on my shelf for some time when I can really settle in and read. It was highly recommended by one of my RLBG members whose opinion I very much respect.

I passed a milestone in my journey to retirement at the end of June. My nonprofit hosted its leadership event face to face for the first time since 2019. Normally held in the fall, it focuses on school division technology directors and is a partnership with our state department of education. They do the content; we do everything else from the schedule to name badges to catering. It works well as we are able to charge and having VDOE on board makes it appealing. This year, we did it as a hybrid approach with the face to face held in Martinsville, Virginia, located almost smack dab in the middle of the bottom of the state, just a few miles from the North Carolina border. It is an area in rehabilitation after NAFTA killed off its furniture and clothing industry. Bassett Furniture still maintains a small operation there but most of the work and jobs went to China. Local journalist Beth Macy chronicled the rise and fall of the area in her book Factory Man, the story of John Bassett's fight to save his family's business.

I hadn't been out that way for almost four years, and there are signs of things getting better: breweries and restaurants along with all the major retailers have moved in. And, both Martinsville and Danville, the town just next door, have a burgeoning historical downtown with good parking and fun shops. I spent a bit of time and money at The Dog-Eared Page in Danville. It was small but had a good selection of new and used books.

Our event was held on Wednesday and was, from all the feedback I've heard, successful. I was able to bring in some long time team members for support and it was like getting the band back together after COVID forced us to be virtual. We had a lovely dinner the night before and then several of us stayed over, mostly due to rain, but also for a last chance to connect in this way. Nothing like a drink and a meal with team members after a long but successful event!

For the next three months, I will focus on pulling together various threads before turning over the organization to a yet-to-be determined person. The board has finally gotten into motion, and we have split my position into three jobs: director, assistant director and digital media assistant. I think it will attract more candidates who have interest in different types of service. As with most assistant jobs, the assistant director will do most of the day to day financial, clerical and communications work with the director being more of a spokesperson/figurehead.

The Vanishing Half is this month's RLBG read and a fascinating, unintentional follow up to last month's The Yellow Wife. I dove right in and didn't stop: it was a compelling story of light-skinned twins who live in a purposefully light-skinned black town in Louisiana and the choices they each make both together and individually. The first--to escape from the confines of Mallard, the town created by their ancestor-- they complete together, but they each choose different boundaries to cross as they grow into adulthood in the 1950s and 1960s.

The narrative moves from 1968 - 1988 as we follow the journeys of Desiree and Stella and then that of their daughters. Brit Bennett creates rich characters who are alive and aware during a specific time period, something she evokes authentically through what would be natural reactions to historical events including the Watts riots, the death of Martin Luther King, Jr, and the AIDS crisis.

I am looking forward to discussing this with my book group in April!

I read Reading Lolita in Tehran before LibraryThing existed, which explains why it isn't in my library. I'll add it as I have just finished the sequel: The Republic of the Imagination: America in Three Books. I remember liking the first one, if you can like a story of increasing repression in a totalitarian regime. The sequel includes a few flashbacks to Azar Nafisi's time in Iran during the Revolution but mostly takes place as she settles in the United States, specifically in Washington, DC, a place that becomes her home with its history and politics and bookstores like Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose. It is books and the sharing of books with friends that form the foundation of this memoir, just as with her first.

She choose Huckleberry Finn, Babbitt and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter although the chapters about the last one are title Carson after the author Carson McCullers and speak more widely to Southern fiction. Nafisi has mastered the ability to weave literary criticism into her personal narrative and we learn about her friends and her life away from Iran. And, she has sparked a desire to explore these classic novels for the first time or again...I read a lot of them in college and graduate school but that was multiple decades ago at this point.

One things fascinated me about Nafisi: why she stayed in Iran for 18 years after the revolution. She was punished for not wearing the veil by being expelled from the university, then after resuming some teaching, she was not allowed to resign. Yet, she met with young women to read banned books every Thursday morning for several years and perhaps that small bit of protest was why she stayed. We have had calls for book burnings in several places in Virginia and not, as you might think, out in the hinterlands. These are communities along the Eastern corridor between Richmond and DC that have a mix of urban, suburban and rural spots. Perhaps the best protest might be public readings of the books on the list: they are many of the old ones but also new ones that celebrate diversity.

The gang of senior citizens from Cooper's Chase retirement community, along with their Polish henchman, local police constables and a few other friends, are back, rested after their adventures in The Thursday Murder Club. Life will never be the same for them and things heat up quickly when an old friend of Elizabeth's arrives on the scene. We, along with the others, learn more about Elizabeth's past as we watch the former intelligence officer spar with a younger version of herself.

The Man Who Died Twice has a bittersweet edge for a typical cozy mystery. It also comes with Osman's wickedly crafted prose where a simple sentence can reveal more that any character intended. He continues the practice of weaving narrative with Joyce's diary entries and her observations can be funny and devastating at the same time. Joyce begins to come into her own in this sequel.

I have listened to both books and the narrator, Leslie Manville, is wonderful, her inflections underscoring Osman's prose perfectly. The next book comes out in September and I'm trying to decide if I want to listen or read.

Hi Karen!

Skippety-skip skip, and here I am again.

>57 witchyrichy: I’m coming along with my new lifestyle changes – treadmill 3 times a week, low-sodium diet, and etc. Yay for Dick Francis. It was a good three-year run, wasn’t it? And I have some books written by Felix and Dick and then standalones by Felix that I’d like to get around to this year or next.

>60 witchyrichy: It’s on my shelves, just waiting for the right time. WWII is one of my least favorite period to read about for some reason – perhaps because my father slogged all over the Eastern European Theater and ended up with PTSD and shrapnel in his right leg for the rest of his life as a result.

>62 witchyrichy: I’ve read 3 by Larson, and my favorite is Isaac’s Storm. Except that The Devil in the White City is my favorite… wait, Dead Wake is my favorite. I’ve got Thunderstruck on my shelves and just moved it into the Sunroom.

>63 witchyrichy: Nice to get improved services. Your house is beautiful.

>92 witchyrichy: That is a very cool invention. And, sweet pic of Major.

>95 witchyrichy: On to the wish list it goes! I love thrillers and mysteries. I get impatient when a character does something seriously stupid like hear a noise and go upstairs to investigate alone, but as a rule they are my go-to genres. If you don’t mind the macabre and/or occasionally violent, I recommend the Frieda Klein series by husband/wife team Nicci French and the Agent Pendergast series by Preston & Child.

>96 PaulCranswick: I just read The Woman in Cabin 10 and, while good, had the heroine doing some pretty stupid things.

>120 witchyrichy: Yay for the event, and yay on your coming retirement.

>122 witchyrichy: I loved both books and have pre-ordered the third one. I’ll get the hardcover, since that’s the way I consume most books. *smile*

>123 karenmarie: Thanks for stopping by. Reading your post was so fun because I reviewed the thread! I am sure you are on a double-digit thread at this point. Visiting thread is on the Sunday evening to do list.

I am looking forward to days of retirement when I don't feel obligated to do anything else. Just a few months to go.

You mentioned three Larson books I haven't read so on the list they go along with the thrillers.

As for hard covers...I have quite a few on my shelves. I have been a bit obsessed with book buying lately.

I am binge watching Ken Burns' Country Music series in preparation for a road trip to Nashville. I'm going to a conference next week and decided to drive. Flying from where I live to Nashville is a challenge and would take a whole day. Driving takes two and I plan to stop in Abingdon, Virginia, hoping to hear some good music at the Crooked Road Music Trail center right up the road from the Hampton Inn. At the least, I'll do a little local shopping and have some barbecue.

I spent the end of March organizing my office/studio space. I crochet and do paper crafting. Both hobbies generate lots of supplies. And those supplies had really gotten a bit chaotic. I invested in pocket hangers for the paper and organized the various bits of yarn into tubs and their own hanging organizers. It was actually fun as I realized all the supplies I had to create including a bunch of kits: learn to knit, an arigumi crochet racoon, paint by numbers even!

This weekend, I dove into a sewing kit. I haven't really sewed seriously for decades but I loved these bag kits from Renaissance Ribbons. The teapot ribbon was perfect for a friend of mine with an April birthday. I thought I might have to make two: a prototype and then the gift, but the first turned out well. The kit came with videos that showed each step of the process. I am pleased with the first one and sending it along with Jacqueline Winspear's memoir This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing.

The Tubman Command has been in the reading basket for awhile. It seemed to fit with my recent reads. Historical fiction focused on a lesser known event in Tubman's life: the Combahee River raid in 1963 in which 750 slaves were rescued from rice plantations in South Carolina. The historical details are exact, according to author Elizabeth Cobbs but she provides a vividly imaginative portrait of a woman who is an icon. She tackles the controversy around Margaret, a young black woman Harriet moved to Auburn, New York, thought by some to be Harriet's daughter rather than the niece she was portrayed as at the time.

The book wove these two threads--history and personality--into an exciting story the included forbidden romance and heartbreaking grief. Harriet Tubman became, for the first time for me at least, a real person who loved, lost and fought fiercely for her family and friends. I enjoyed the book and the way the author portrayed various military leaders and their reaction to black soldiers and scouts. These people had been spying all their lives in order to navigate the horrific waters in which they found themselves. Smart Union leaders took advantage of that. But, Harriet still had to work as a baker to survive and was never really compensated for her work. The Wikipedia article is worth a read as the novel opened up a whole new view of this woman who is often covered in a paragraph or two during Black History Month.

I have been hesitating to write this review of Purity. I picked it up almost without thinking but wanted to read Crossroads, the new one I bought on a recent book spree. I haven't read Franzen for awhile but remember liking both Freedom and The Corrections and sorta liking his essays, if my LT review is to be believed. And, I haven't been reading literary fiction, bulky kinds of books that get beyond plot and characters to fundamental ideas about the world and our place in it. So, I'm a little rusty with long paragraphs forming long chapters without lots of breaks. Franzen's prose doesn't encourage skimming really or why read it in the first place? He is a masterful writer, his stories are entanglements, his characters complex. And there were parts of Purity I really liked. But...the thread of sexual violence, there is really no other way to describe it, starts early and continues as a theme throughout the book. I know the point of literature is to grapple with such things but the depictions were brutally detailed and deviant.

Despite that, I was taken in and after an early thought of not finishing it, continued to the end. I can't say I really liked the book: most of the characters, with the exception of Purity herself and her eventual boyfriend, were not nice people. From her mother to the secluded Internet hacker community to her journalism friends, Purity is surrounded by people who are anything but pure. They harbor secrets, some horrible, some personal, and she seems despite her nontraditional upbringing to be the normal one. She is called Pip and you have to think of Dickens. The kid with the secret benefactor and secret love, two themes in the book.

I am going to give Franzen a rest before tackling the new one, Crossroads.

Hi Karen: I love your sewing project. It did turn out very well.

The Nafisi is on my shelves; maybe that will be my next NF.

The Osman series looks entertaining. I need to check out the first one.

I enjoyed your review of The Tubman Command. In 2020 (how can it be that long ago??) I read She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar. That was the first I had heard of Tubman's leadership of the raid.

Congrats on your upcoming retirement!

Are you gardening this year?

>128 BLBera: I did skip the third Nafisi that I saw at Parnassus books. I wasn't particularly interested in the authors she was exploring. I can't recommend Osman enough!

>129 streamsong: I might pursue the Dunbar biography. I think we owe it to these historical figures to get beyond the myths we learn in school. I am gardening. My husband is the seedling expert and the south porch of the house is filled with tomatoes, peppers, beets, and then flowers like borage, zinnias and some everlastings. Just waiting for the night time temperatures to warm up to 50 degrees or above consistently. We can still get frosts in April. I am really looking forward to spending mornings in the garden and afternoons floating on the pool and reading. That's the short term retirement plan.

I took a road trip to Nashville, TN, to attend a conference. Just wasn't in the mood to fly so took two days to make my way with a stopover in Abingdon, Virginia. I love this old historic town with its old hotel and theater. The weather was miserable so I didn't get many pictures but here's a small collage.

A few of the fountain that was designed by Charles Vess, a local artist who has worked with Neil Gaiman and others. Abingdon is also a stop on The Crooked Road Music Trail, Virginia's salute to country music. I realized as I checked out all my pictures that Maybelle Carter was on this sign. And then I took a picture of her with her Gibson guitar at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum in Nashville.

The Virginia Creeper Trail is a rail trail that starts (or ends) in Abingdon. My husband and I road it many years ago and would like to come back. The ancient white oak sits at the beginning of the trail. I was not dressed for the very cold rainy weather so didn't walk very far.



1. Maybelle Carter, 2. Ancient Oak Sign, Abingdon, 3. Ancient Oak, Abingdon, 4. Titania, 5. Puck, 6. Midsummer Play Sign, 7. Crooked Road, 8. banjomansign, 9. Banjo Man

One of the first things I want to do when I retire from public life is follow The Crooked Road Music Trail. I've been to a few of the stops but if you do it right, you can hear live music all along the route. Here's a better version of the sign:

It took me awhile to get through Book Row, Marvin Mondlin's fond history of Manhattan's 4th Avenue bookstore community. It was a celebration of the past when books were revered and collected by people like Pierpont Morgan and Henry Huntington. The booksellers catered to a wide range of clientele from the lowly paperback browser to the millionaire collector. The book tells their stories, moving from bookseller to bookseller and store to store, ending with the Strand, one of the few stores that still survives of the 48 bookstores that once covered six blocks.

I enjoyed the stories of the quirky bookstore owners and their customers. I was also fascinated by the descriptions of the complex, lengthy catalogues they created to advertise their offerings. I still get a few book catalogues actually but they are not the kind of detailed collector's manual that the old ones were.

After the intensity of Purity, I wanted something a little lighter to read during my conference trip. Tony's Wife was the perfect read: not too challenging but more than a usual romance. There are the usual Adriana Trigiani elements: a close knit Italian family making their way in the US in the year before, during and after World War II. Chi Chi Donatelli is a singer and songwriter who longs to make it big. She gets at least some of her dream but suffers tragedies as well. Along the way, we watch her learn to be strong as she maneuvers through a man-centered world. The title is a bit misleading, I think, as Tony is a main character, and Chi Chi is his wife, but this was definitely her story rather than his. It may have been chosen to underscore the challenges faced by women, especially financially. Chi Chi knows she needs to be independent but has to use men to open accounts and purchase real estate.

The plot was a bit predictable when it comes to aging Hollywood stars. While we watch Chi Chi get stronger, we watch the Tony of the title change as well in his quest for fame and fortune, but not in good ways. But it was also an endearing tale of life in Sea Isle City, which is near where we used to vacation when I was a kid, so there was some nostalgia.

Thanks for sharing the photos, Karen.

Book Row does sound interesting. Trigiani has been hit-or-miss for me, so I'm not sure about this one.

>136 BLBera: I don't use numbers but this would be a 3ish on a scale of 5: not sorry I read it but not a wildly enthusiastic recommendation.

I dabbled in science fiction as a young reader with Dune being a favorite. But I haven't kept up with the genre. Octavia Butler kept creeping up on various lists, however, and I was determined to read her work. Parable of the Sower was one of my Parnassus book store buys and I read it immediately. I don't read a lot of dystopian fiction. And, I knew going in this would be a hard book to read. I was a little shocked to discover Butler's future story began in the present day. While the United States is further along in its physical self-destruction than we are currently, Butler was right on in her description of the trend toward divisiveness, potential for tyranny, and casual, cruel violence against those perceived as enemies.

Parable of the Sower tells the story of the creation of Acorn, the community founded by Lauren Olamina and others. Fifteen-year-old Olamina is growing up in dysfunctional post-apocalyptic United States. Her relatively safe life is destroyed when her gated community is breached by drug addicts and scavengers. As she struggles to survive, she also begins writing and talking about a utopian theory called Earthseed, an idea she says came through her, not from her. The new theology describes God as change, shaping us even as we shape God. As she struggles to safe herself and soon her small band of followers, we learn more about her theories and her approach to leadership.



I moved immediately to the seqel: Parable of the Talents. We learn the fate of Acorn and its inhabitants as well as the larger story of the spread of Earthseed. This book is even more brutal in its telling than the last with slavery, torture and rape as a regular part of life for poor and marginalized. The lives of many people, especially in California, is to quote Hobbes, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." But, like the first novel, I was drawn in by the story, told this time in multiple voices including Olamina's husband, daughter and brother.

I am watching University of Richmond's graduation from home. I like going in person but it meant leaving home in makeup and regalia by 7 AM for a 40 minute ceremony. Just didn't have it in me after traveling last weekend. Praise the lord for live streaming.

I took another road trip to Southwest Virginia and headed to Bristol, the town that straddles the VA/TN line, to visit the Birthplace of Country Music. The museum is associated with Smithsonian and tells the story of the Bristol Sessions, ten days in 1927 that are credited with starting country music. They broadcast from the museum via a free app called Radio Bristol.

As a technologist, I was fascinated by the role technology played, a theme at this museum and the Country Music Hall of Fame museum. Ralph Peer, the mastermind behind the Bristol Sessions was able to do what he did because he had portable equipment. He could go to musicians who would not be able to get to New York or Chicago. In fact, it took the Carter family a whole day to go the 25 miles from their home in Hyltons to Bristol.

Enjoy the photo album:

My two road trips gave me enough time to listen to Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. Storytelling forms the center of this story, and we begin and end at the Swan, a pub along the Thames southwest of Oxford. There is a magical quality to the tale from the start as we listen to the storytellers during the winter solstice. They are interrupted by a man carrying an apparently dead child and the tale unfolds from there. There is a blurring of the lines between fantasy and fiction and threads twine and untwine until the end. The narrator was terrific and the miles and hours rolled by quickly as I was drawn in.

The man in the doorway is a photographer and he is based on an Henry Taunt, a photographer who specialized in the Thames and often traveled by a houseboat. The locations are real, and his photographs along with his map were featured in a Getty Museum exhibit.

Excellent listen and I'm sure it would be a good read as well.

I waited a long time to get The Personal Librarian from the library and it was worth it. I found the story of JP Morgan's librarian fascinating, and it dovetailed a bit with two of RLBG reads, The Vanishing Half and The Yellow Wife as Belle da Costa Greene was able to achieve her success by passing as white. And what a success she was as she built the books and manuscripts that form the Morgan library.

I was able to visit the Morgan Library in 2018 when I was in New York for some work-related travel. The original house is much the same with the three floors of books housed in what could really be called a cathedral. My pictures do not do it justice. I had lunch in the cafe that is part of the contemporary section and stayed for an afternoon concert. It was a lovely day in New York.

Benedict and co-author Victoria Christopher portray Greene as a complex woman living an amazing life in a time when she should have been a poor, second-class, almost-citizen. instead, she didn't just rub shoulders with the elite like Morgan and his cronies, she competed with them for masterpieces, convinced she was the best person to ensure they would be open to the public. She had a well-known romantic relationship with a famous art expert and rumors suggested an affair with JP Morgan himself.

She lived in a flamboyant style all her own, almost guaranteed to draw attention to everything except that she wasn't a white woman. Her father was a well-known activist but somehow when her parents separated, she, her mother and her siblings were able to sever the tie.

An enjoyable read that spans the early part of the 21st century. And I can recommend a visit to the Morgan Library in New York where Greene would be happy to know the collections continue to be open to the public.

I rounded out a solid reading run with Great Circle by Maggie Shipman. It had showed up on almost everyone's timeline as a wonderful book, and I was not disappointed. But, I was also glad I waited until I had the time to devote to Shipman's story. The story connects two women--a gifted pilot who challenged conventions in her field and her personal life and the actress chosen to play her who also found herself fighting against expectations. They both had unusual family backgrounds that allowed them certain freedoms but made them subject to public comment and scrutiny.

It was everything I want from a good book: solid storytelling with the just-right mix of intriguing characters who can be frustrating and inspiring all at the same time, historical events seen from a human perspective and richly drawn landscapes that play a role in the stories.

I found you again. Wow! Great books you have been reading. I am a fan of the books by Octavia Butler, as well Setterfield and now you have me hooked with The Personal Librarian -- I just finished a class discussing The Vanishing Half and The Girl with the Louding Voice, both of which I loved! Happy continued reading. : )

>141 witchyrichy: I must add this book to my WANT! List™. Morgan supported the extraordinary work of Edward Curtis in photographing and documenting more than 80 Native American tribes. Belle Greene was the person Curtis had to deal with as he pursued his obsession. Ought to visit the Morgan Library too.

>143 Berly: I am afraid I come and go these days myself as travel resumes and my work life continues for a few more months. But I have been reading! Just added The Girl With the Louding Voice to my TBR list!

>144 weird_O: Glad it made the list. And have started down the Internet rabbit hole related to Edward Curtis and JP Morgan. I loved my day at the Morgan Library.

>144 weird_O: >146 witchyrichy:

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan

>147 weird_O: I read that and liked it but forgot about the connection to Morgan, I guess.

I am now two books into the The Murderbot Diaries series and trying to figure out how to get my RLBG to read them instead of whatever is planned. What fun! I am slowly getting back into science fiction with John Scalzi as a favorite. But Martha Wells is now at the top. Murderbot is as complicated as his human companions and Wells crafts a action thriller with subtle, sarcastic prose. I wonder if she wrote the Wikipedia introduction as it captures the tone and the general plot perfectly:

The Murderbot Diaries is a science fiction series by American author Martha Wells published by Tor.com. The series is about an artificial construct designed as a Security Unit, which manages to override its governor module, thus enabling it to develop independence, which it primarily uses to watch soap operas. As it spends more time with a series of caring people (both humans and fellow artificial intelligences), it starts developing friendships and emotional connections, which it finds inconvenient.

I am not sure how Susan Cain's book Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole about longing and sadness as an essential part of life ended up on my Kindle. Perhaps it is the transition I am making from work life to (mostly) retired life? I am walking away from a position I love but I think that is a good time to make a graceful exit. Part of the passion of the position is that it becomes all-consuming. And, frankly, I have other things I want to do.

I enjoyed Cain's exploration of the state of longing that she finds in Sufi spirituality and the work of Leonard Cohen. She begins with a bittersweet scale that helps you discover your own sense of sadness and longing. I'll be honest: I didn't take it as I find these kinds of self-reporting surveys to be somewhat predictive. Cain presents bittersweet as a good state of mind so we want to manifest that in our answers. I have moments when I cry at commercials and have a similar visceral response to Cohen's Hallelujah as others do, but I don't think I am any sadder or happier than others.

Ultimately, her message is simple: the sweet parts of life are sweeter because of the bitter parts of life. We all end up experiencing both but it is our response that determines how we thrive or not through the challenges. She includes meditation, especially loving kindness, as one remedy for combining the extremes and she sounds like many of the meditation teachers I have heard. We embrace the wideness of the world without trying to push any of it away.

I enjoyed the book--I haven't read Quiet about introverts but may give it a go. But, first, I want to spend some quality time with Cain's notes that are full of not just references but links and resources and readings that all look interesting.

Cain has also spurred a bit of a reading list of books on my shelves as well: she writes about Leonard Cohen and I bought a biography of sorts at Parnassus Bookstore in Nashville: Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius. I also have Cohen's Book of Longing and then noticed Sue Monk Kidd's recent Book of Longings. A subtle theme in my recent book buying, perhaps?

You have done lots of great reading recently. I loved the Butler books; I taught Parable of the Sower in a Dystopian Lit class, and it was a favorite.

Once Upon a River sounds like a good one.

I'm not much of a science fiction reader, but Martha Wells had won me over with the Murderbot. I listened to all of them, and they are great audiobooks.

I liked Quiet, so I may look for Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole.

>151 BLBera: I would love to talk about Butler's work with other people. It got a little too close for comfort in terms of the contemporary world. I may try out the Murderbot audio on a couple of upcoming roadtrips. Glad to know you liked Quiet.

I have been enjoying my reading lately and looking forward to lots more as summer comes.

>141 witchyrichy: I requested this from the library as well and I think I am 38th in line. Glad that it is worth the wait!

I celebrated my 60th turn around the sun yesterday. I actually started celebrating with my husband and a good friend the night before so was a little worse for wear in the morning but nothing I couldn't survive. We hit up the local restaurant for lunch and then I spent the day reading The Madness of Crowds from beginning to end. It has been a very long time since I have done that: perfect way to spend what turned out to be a rainy day.

We have gotten to know the restaurant owners and Bob has been supplying them with strawberries from the farm. He commissioned them to make me a strawberry pie for my birthday. It was delicious!

Heading outside to garden for a bit then planning on a cup of coffee and a slice of pie for a late lunch. We went back to the restaurant for breakfast this morning so I could share a pint of the strawberry jam I made this week. Did I mention they make good lattes? After more than a decade living here, it is nice to be able to get an espresso close by. We are trying to go at least once a week to help them and there have always been other people there so hoping they can hang on.

>154 witchyrichy:, Hi Karen my dear, a belated happy 60th birthday my dear, it sounds like you had a good time at the restaurant and then a lovely reading day. Karen will be 61 on Wednesday.

Happy belated birthday, Karen!

Your local restaurant sounds wonderful!

>155 johnsimpson: Thanks! I need to get around to threads myself to wish everyone well! Give Karen a hearty happy birthday wish for me. I do see you on Twitter and got involved in reading about the county cricket controversy.

>156 Copperskye: Thanks! The restaurant is called Memaw's and run by a couple that opened a candle shop next door last year. They make their own candles and also do pouring parties. It is so cool to walk in the door and have them ask if I want my usual, a really good dirty chai latte. We have heard tell a brewery may take over several of the unoccupied store fronts along main street. We had hoped for a grocery store but I can live with a brewery, too, if I must ;-) At least we are seeing real improvement in the town, mostly due to a terrific mayor and the head of the Chamber of Commerce.

Happy belated birthday, Karen.

>159 BLBera: Thanks! I am counting down the weeks to retirement and deep into gardening season. But hoping to get around to threads so appreciate those who keep it warm!

Salt to the Sea is this month's RLBG book and we discuss it tomorrow. It is the historical fiction account of Operation Hannibal, Germany's evacuation effort at the end of the war in the face of the advancing Russian army. The story is told through four people: three refugees who make the treacherous trek to the Baltic Sea where they hoped to get passage on a ship and the sailor who helps them get on board. Each character had a secret to keep as they worked together with a few others including an old man and a young boy to get to safety.

Sadly, the Russians had already made it to the sea, and the book details the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff , a German ship once used for recreation for the German people. The ship was carrying 10,000 German soldiers and citizens as well as refugees from the Baltic countries fleeing ahead the horror of the Russians.

It is listed as a young reader's book from Penguin with a 6th grade reading level. I suppose middle schoolers that young would be okay with it but the violence and anarchy of the end of WWII that led to massive rapes and executions was not glossed over. I would want them to be reading it with an engaged adult, I think.

The story moved quickly with short chapters labeled with each character's name. We see each event from a different perspective, getting to the heart of each character's motivation and their secret. I am looking forward to talking with the group tomorrow. I know at least one person liked it and I enjoyed it as well.

I had been saving The Madness of Crowds for a day when I could just sink into Three Pines with the Gamache family and their friends and colleagues. My birthday was the perfect day. I started in bed with coffee then headed to the chaise in my studio and read. Fortunately, I was not disappointed either. If anyone can describe both the fear of the pandemic and then the joy of getting out of lockdown, it is Louise Penny. She hadn't thought she would include COVID but realized she had to as not only did it tie into her story, it was part of our lives and had to be dealt with.

A real book is at the heart of Penny's mystery: Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds. Her plot hinges on a statistician tasked with analyzing pandemic health data and making recommendations about how to better meet the needs of the populace in future such events. Her ideas are supported by the numbers but morally abhorrent and the report is squelched. The professor goes ahead and publishes anyway, becoming a celebrity who sparks a movement that threatens the most vulnerable in society. Armand Gamache and his team are tasked with protecting the professor during a talk she is giving at a nearby university. An attempted murder and then a murder lead to a complex tapestry of connections across the years that bring us back to the question of who is deserving of life.

As with every trip to Three Pines, we get a deeper understanding of the village and its larger cast of characters. From Ruth, the vulgar, ancient, often drunken, duck-carrying poet to Billy, the local handyman with the challenging dialect and a crush on the bookstore owner, they make their contributions to both the setting and the story. The book takes place between Christmas and New Year's so the full Gamache family is present. In addition, Myrna, the afore-mentioned bookstore owner, is hosting a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, a young woman who survived torture and rape in Sudan and became a world leader in human rights and women empowerment. Hint: her horrible experiences have not made her a nice person and Three Pines is doing their best to welcome her. She adds fascinating twist to the story.

I just looked and there is an 18th book coming in November. As yet to be titled. Already planning another day of reading.

An installment of Ellery Adams' Storyton Hall cozy mystery series, Murder in the Cookbook Nook brings famous chefs to the Virginia mountain retreat to compete in a cooking contest. The contest is organized by a wealthy young influencer and is supported by a multinational corporation engaging in unethical practices. The competition suffers from accidents that may not be accidental and then one of the chefs is killed. Jane, her friends and colleagues and the local constabulary investigate.

Jane's sons are growing up and playing a more active role in the stories. They are fun-loving boys who bring an added spark to the stories. The series has evolved beyond the original stories that focused on the secret library housed in Storyton Hall. The core group of women each bring individual talents and the secret service that protects the library continue to be involved.

I have listened to most of these and appreciate the narrator's style.

All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani tells the story of Loretta (nee Gretchen) Young, an early Hollywood star who worked with some of the greats included Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant. Trigiani sticks pretty close to the existing script although more recently the story has taken a darker turn. I will give the same warning I saw on a review site. Don't google this until you've read the book: just dive into the story and have fun getting to know Myrna Loy and David Niven and the rest of the Young family.

I enjoyed this one: we follow the group to Mount Baker for the filming of The Call of the Wild. There is a secondary love story between Loretta's secretary, a former nun, and a set designer and painter. They are, of course, Italian; it wouldn't be Trigiani without at least a little bit of Italy and all things Italian.

I lost myself in old Hollywood and found her portrayal of Loretta Young and the others to be authentic.

I just finished The Paper Palace and am still thinking about it. Elle, a middle aged seemingly happily mother of three, narrates both the present and the past pieces of this complicated novel. It opens in the present moment and plunges us immediately into the story. Author Miranda Cowley Heller brings us into the setting, The Back Woods where the family's decaying summer home dubbed The Paper Palace sits next to a pond and surrounding neighbors. It is a place where the family comes together with annual rituals and is the hub for the rest of the story.

We learn about Elle's life as well as that of her mother and other family members. There is sexual violence and a stunning surprise that leads Elle to confront all that has gone before and what she wants for the future. I think the ending is ambiguous and would love to find out what others think she decides to do.

Ten working days to go before I am no longer in charge of the non-profit I have run for the past 12 years. Bittersweet: I loved the work but was ready to go as, despite being billed as part-time, it had become all consuming. We were fortunate to get a former Board member to move into the Executive Director position. We also added support positions so he doesn't have to be the director, secretary and webmaster.

The last board meeting was last weekend out in the far southwest of Virginia, true Appalachia. I was pleased with how many members made the trek (six hours for many of them) and then stayed overnight so they could hear local music at Country Cabin, one of the venues on the Crooked Road Music Trail. It is a favorite part of the state for me and I am looking forward to one more trip in July.

I have been reading and listening to books all along the journey. I'm behind on reviews and want to continue doing one for every book. July is almost upon us and for the first time in many years (decades, really), I won't have to go to work on Monday.

Congratulations on your upcoming retirement, Karen. Do you have plans?

Great comments on The Paper Palace; I will get to it eventually. There is quite a long reserve list at my library.

Hi Karen!

Yay for your retirement on June 30.

>140 witchyrichy: I was going to add this to my wish list, but already put it in there in October 2021, a BB from brenzi. I loved The Thirteenth Tale.

>154 witchyrichy: A very belated Happy Birthday. Yum to strawberry pie.

>158 witchyrichy: A lot of people here in central NC call their grandmothers Memaw, of course, but I’d never ever heard of it before moving here in 1991.

>164 witchyrichy: And onto the wish list it goes! I’m four degrees from Loretta Young – amazingly, a friend of my husband’s mother dated her.

>166 witchyrichy: You’re doing this right, of course.

Hi Karen my dear, Congratulations on your retirement, after a few months you will wonder how you had time to work, lol. Sending love and hugs to you and Bob from both of us dear friend.

>162 witchyrichy: I really like that series. I have the new one on hold at the library and am only 6th in line. The title is : A world of curiosities

Have a great weekend!

>170 figsfromthistle: I saw the new one announced but didn't realize it was out already. I better get in line!

>169 johnsimpson: Thanks, John. For everyone who says, you work so hard, aren't you going to be bored? I answer, I am going to work equally hard at being retired! Thanks for the greetings from across the pond. Bob and I are looking forward to spending time together.

>167 BLBera: For now, my plans involve prioritizing pleasure and diving into all the things I did *after* work was done in the past. Gardening, reading, hanging out with Bob and the pets, cooking, playing music, floating on the pool, just enjoying this lovely little spot we call home. I have a visit to an old dear friend lined up for the end of July and a visit to my parents for Mom's 87th birthday at the end of August. Other than that...letting things just flow for a bit. Eventually, we want to get back to traveling.

>168 karenmarie: Thanks for visiting my thread! Glad you found a few good books there. I love that you are related to Loretta Young! You will enjoy the book even more.

Murder in the Storybook Cottage by Ellery Adams is part of her series set at the fictional Storyton Hall in the mountains of southwest Virginia. In this installment, the team has created a storybook village to go along with hosting a children's book festival. A woman is found dead in the village, dressed as Red Riding Hood and clutching a book. Jane, her staff and her friends work to solve the mystery while making the festival fun and engaging for the families. I love this mystery series along with Adams' Books By The Bay and there is a lovely crossover that made me smile as the other series has come to an end.

The 8th book, Murder on the Poet's Walk, comes out in September. I can recommend the audio books although I read this one as I borrowed it from the library.

Cloud Cuckoo Land was one of those books that just pulled me in and didn't let go. The interwoven stories move from past to present to future and show the resilience of the human spirit. Anthony Doerr tackles the challenges of finding humanity in all the generations, using an ancient text to tie together the experiences of the characters. I loved this book, maybe my favorite for the year.

The Narrowboat Summer and Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

Anne Youngson capture the experiences of mature women in both these carefully crafted books. In The Narrowboat Summer, two stranger come together to help a third stranger. Along the way, they become friends and join a larger circle of characters who are part of the canal community.

A lovely story of family and friends who become family.

Youngson shows off her story telling skills in the epistolary novel Meet Me at the Museum. Again, the characters are strangers who share a sadness in the way their lives have played out. Tina Hapgood, an older woman revisiting a cherished memory as she mourns the loss of her friend, and Anders Larsen, the curator who tends to the Tollund Man, an historical mummy found near Silkeborg in Denmark, connect over their fascination with the life of the ancient man.

Both books are wonderfully nostalgic and bittersweet, celebrating the triumph of the human spirit.

The Whispered Word by Ellery Adams (audio)
The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams (audio)

Several road trips gave me a chance to catch up on this cozy mystery series set in Miracle Springs, North Carolina. Nora Pennington, the local bookstore owner, and her friends in the Secret, Book and Scone society have connected around their shared secrets, healing their past shame by doing good for those in their community, a town known for the power of its healing springs. Each member of the society has a special talent that allows them to connect to others and help them heal.

Ellery Adams is a favorite of mine. This series can be a little darker than her others but the circle of women shows the strength that can come from sharing your sorrow and shame.

The Girls of Mischief Bay by Susan Mallery was a pleasant surprise. I don't generally read "chick lit" but I think this counts. Three women in various stages of their lives come together to share joys and sorrows. I identified most with the oldest character, Pam, who has been married 30 years and finding life a little routine. The other two are younger and focused on career and family. All the characters came with some complexity and the plot had a few surprises as well.

The book is the first in a series and while I enjoyed the book, I'm not sure I am compelled to read the rest of them. Definitely counts as a beach read.

I bought Moonshine, Money, and Misery by Jim Campbell at the Big Walker Mountain store. The store is also home to the lookout tower and is at the heart of the Crooked Road Music Trail in Wytheville, Virginia. It is the setting for this book. The author grew up in the mountains of Virginia and the story is a love letter to Appalachia. It is a love I share.

The book tells the story of Ida Mae, recently turned 18 and trying to figure out how to navigate the world. Her mistakes lead to the comedy in the book as she tries to fix them along with help from her family and friends. Mostly, they are trying to outsmart the moonshiners.

During the recent trip, I trekked to Big Stone Gap, Adriana Trigiani's home town and toured the Miners Coal Museum. Freddie and Ron are the guides and I enjoyed learning from them. The museum is mostly about coal and coal mining but it is also where the locals donate their stuff. They had a full dentist's office, old medical equipment and a kitchen along with sewing machines, restaurant tables, pocket knives, and office equipment. Tables and desks were covered with printed memorabilia, including the newspapers related to the Kennedy assassination. A fascinating place in a fascinating part of the world.

Zahrah the Windseeker was a selection made to fill a bingo card square: a book with a Z. Written for an older elementary audience, the books tells the story of Zahrah, who lives with her family in the Ooni Kingdom on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Zahrah is just discovering her secret powers that are tied to her unusual hair. She and her best friend decide to explore the forest and quickly encounter almost deadly danger. In order to save her friend, Zahrah must return to the forest. I loved the book: the forest is filled with fantastical creatures that set the imagination alive. But, the characters are very real human beings living in this world and we get to know them and love them even as Zahrah learns to love herself.

This is a good example of how the challenge like the Bingo card lead to new reading. I needed a book with a month in the title and wasn't excited about my original choice. I browsed Libby and found April Lady by Georgette Heyer. I have been meaning to read Heyer but somehow never got around to her. She did not disappoint as she crafted her tale of the Cardross's: Gile with the fortune who married for love despite his family's disapproval and Helen, who also married for love, but seems to be more interested in the money as she amasses a pile of bills. In a way, she reminded me a bit of Ida Mae from Moonshine, Money and Misery with her schemes to keep the extent of her debt from her husband.

It was fun and frivolous and a window into the Regency world. I will be reading more!

When You Get the Chance by Tom Ryan was another bingo card read: a book by an LGBTQ+ author. It was fun: cousins who haven't seen each other for a long time due to a rift between their sibling parents reunite at the family cabin for the summer. They are mostly there to clean it out to sell it. The two older cousins--Mark and Talia--are both in same-sex relationships with Talia's partner identifying as non-binary, using "they" as a pronoun. Both of them want to get to Toronto for the Pride festival even as they try to figure out the mystery of why their parents don't get along. The book was written with an eye to educating the reader but the story was fun and upbeat as well. I particularly liked the depictions of older gay couples who tell their stories and also offer support for the next generation.

Road trips, dog walks and gardening have given me time for several audio books including the two next books in Chris Grabenstein's John Ceepak mystery series. I enjoy the series, narrated by Ceepak's partner, Danny Boyle. Boyle has worked his way up from summer police support to a full-fledged member of the force. He has a fondness for his straight-laced partner and in Hell Hole and Mind Scrambler, we learn more about Ceepak's past, meeting his miserable, alcoholic father who exists just to make Ceepak's life miserable. I'm sure we haven't heard the last from either.

Both books were good although the latter, Mind Scrambler, was darker than the others in the content, perhaps because it was set in Atlantic City, rather than the sleepy hamlet of Sea Haven where Boyle and Ceepak normally do their work.

Just be aware that, while these books have elements of a cozy mystery, they are much more hard-boiled.

When we vacationed at the Outer Banks every summer, I made the pilgrimage to Island Books in Corolla to pick up the latest Eva Gates. With aging parents making the trek difficult and hurricanes regularly chasing us away, we have given up the trip. But, I keep up with Gates. Death by Beach Read was the most recent installment and we find librarian Lucy and her fiance Connor, the mayor of Nags Head, moved into their old beach house and preparing for their wedding. Is the house haunted? Is there a treasure to be found? Those are the questions that come up when they find a former occupant of the house dead in their kitchen.

I love this series and keeping up with the various characters including Louise Jane, who has taken over Lucy's apartment in the Bodie Island Lighthouse where the library is located and Theodore, the rare book dealer who aspires to greater things with his British accent and tweed suits. A true cozy mystery where the murders happen off stage.

The Omega Factor is a stand alone novel by Steve Berry but it has a similar theme to his Cotton Mather books: historical conspiracy theories related to great art and locations. In this case, he focuses on the Ghent altarpiece by Jan van Eyck and its long history. I was fascinated by that along with the history of the Catholic Church's attempts to put down heretics. Joan of Arc plays a role here along with the Cathars, a Catholic sect massacred in the early 13th century. I had heard of this group but didn't know much about them. As always, Berry whet my appetite to learn more and spend time exploring the Ghent Altarpiece via the Closer to Van Eyck website with an interactive view of the famous work, before, during and after restoration.

Phew...my goal was to review every book I read this year. And, I did it so far and right before starting a new thread on July 1. I have been having a great time reading this year and plan lots more as I head into retirement and the distractions get fewer and fewer. My summer schedule should be pretty straightforward: gardening in the cooler morning, pool in the hot afternoons, front porch in the evenings. Aah...

Amazing how much reading you can get done when you are avoiding the news and social media!

Finished up a bingo line with The March, E.L. Doctorow's fictional account of Sherman's March. Doctorow weaves together the stories of a variety of regular people impacted by this monumental event. We also get a glimpse into Sherman's mind as he deals with the last uprisings of the southern army led by Johnston. The prose can be a bit dense as Doctorow uses vernacular, imitating accents and sometimes convoluted speech. But it heightens the authenticity and I was pulled into the lives of these people caught up in history.

>187 witchyrichy: Your summer scedule sounds perfect to me, Karen.