RidgewayGirl Reads What She Wants in 2023 -- The Back Half

I'm looking back at my reading so far this year, which has fallen far from my goal this year of putting aside all constraints and just reading what I wanted. I realize that this is a weird goal in a group dedicated to carefully categorizing and planning our reading material, but I had gotten weary of all the books I was expected to read and how that meant I always had books that I was eager to read, but which had to wait, and somehow they are still all waiting. I know what happened. I can't resist a list or a challenge and so have somehow made my reading as restrictive and obligatory again. So I'm starting a new thread, making my two book clubs my only obligations, and seeing if that helps.

I know I'll be unable to not read from the awards shortlists, and that when the Tournament of Books releases their longlist, I will end up reading a bunch from that list, but for now, I'm trying to make room for more unstructured reading. Wish me luck!

Here are my two old men (14 and 15), Tarzan and Homer. Tarzan wants to open the screen porch door and Homer wants to help him. But cats don't understand the concept of doors, so they were unsuccessful until their mediocre servant did her job.







Yeah, so I don't have a theme.

Currently Reading



Recently Read



Recently Acquired



Reading Miscellany

Owned Books Read: 35

Library Books Read: 56

Audiobooks: 2

Netgalley: 20

Borrowed: 1

Books Acquired: 64

Rereads: 3

Abandoned with Prejudice: 0

Category One.



Global Reading


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

1. How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue (Cameroon)
2. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
3. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (Ireland)
4. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sri Lanka)
5. Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng (Botswana)
6. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li (China)
7. Silent Winds, Dry Seas by Vinod Busjeet (Mauritius)
8. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, translated from the Japanese by Megan Backus (Japan)
9. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (India)
10. State of Emergency by Jeremy Tiang (Singapore)

Category Two.



New To Me Authors

1. Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
2. 2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus
3. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
4. An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy
5. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
6. Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day
7. 48 States by Evette Davis
8. Lazy City by Rachel Connolly
9. Mudflowers by Aley Waterman
10. Penance by Eliza Clark
11. Keep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen

Category Three.



Murders and Other Bad Things: Crime Novels, Noir, Horror

1. Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
2. Find Him by Jake Hinkson
3. 48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister by Joyce Carol Oates
4. A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino, translated from the Japanese by Giles Murray
5. Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda
6. How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
7. The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon
8. Device Free Weekend by Sean Doolittle
9. Dark Ride by Lou Berney
10. A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers edited by Joyce Carol Oates
11. The Big Sleep by Raymond Carver

Category Four.



Representation Matters: Diverse Books

1. The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
2. Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
3. My Volcano by John Elizabeth Stintzi
4. Sinking Bell: Stories by Bojan Louis
5. Central Places by Delia Cai
6. The Laughter by Sonora Jha
7. Chlorine by Jade Song
8. Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
9. Company: Stories by Shannon Sanders
10. The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
11. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
12. Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Category Five.



Immigrants, Expats, Works in Translation

1. Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
2. 1,000 Coils of Fear by Olivia Wenzel, translated from the German by Priscilla Layne (Germany)
3. The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
4. Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Dodd
5. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies
6. Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
7. The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker
8. The City of the Living by Nicola Lagioia, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
9. Berlin by Bea Setton
10. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

Category Six.



Books Off of My Own Shelves

1. Cherry by Mary Karr
2. Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
3. Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI by Dana Kollmann
4. Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman
5. Winter by Ali Smith
6. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
7. Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
8. Spring by Ali Smith
9. I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai
10. Direct Sunlight: Stories by Christine Sneed
11. All That Remains by Sue Black
12. You Will Never Be Forgotten: Stories by Mary South

Category Seven.



Library Books

1. A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp
2. The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
3. The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie
4. Brother & Sister Enter the Forest by Richard Mirabella
5. Homestead by Melinda Moustakis
6. My Murder by Katie Williams
7. Prom Mom by Laura Lippman
8. The Devil's Bed by William Kent Krueger
9. Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson
10.The List by Yomi Adegoke
11. The Say So by Julia Franks
12. The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy

Category Eight.



Books Read on My IPad

1. Flight by Lynn Steger Strong
2. The No-Show by Beth O'Leary
3. Kurashi at Home by Marie Kondo
4. Black Dog White Cat: Stories by Kelly Link
5. My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin
6. Haven by Emma Donoghue
7. If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
8. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
9. You Were Never in Chicago by Neil Steinberg
10. Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane
11. Holly by Stephen King
12. The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen

Category Nine.



Longlisted, Shortlisted and Award Winners

1. Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize)
2. The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (National Book Award for Fiction, 2022)
3. An Island by Karen Jennings (longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize)
4. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Shortlisted, 2023 Tournament of Books)
5. Autumn by Ali Smith (shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize)
6. Circe by Madeline Miller (shortlisted for 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction)
7. The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley (Edgar Award for Best YA, 2022)
8. LaRose by Louise Erdrich (winner of the Nation Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, 2016)
9. This Other Eden by Paul Harding (shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize)
10. Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize)
11. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (winner of the 2023 Booker Prize)

Category Ten.



Brand New Books: Books Published in 2023

1. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
2. The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent
3. Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
4. The Midnight News by Jo Baker
5. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
6. Couplets by Maggie Millner
7. Mobility by Lydia Kiesling
8. The Guest by Emma Cline
9. Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery
10. Wellness by Nathan Hill
11. Hope by Andrew Ridker
12. Welcome Home, Stranger by Helen Christensen

Welcome to my new thread. Here I am, contemplating the chances of not getting sidetracked by lists and challenges.

Happy new thread!

>14 thornton37814: Thank you!

Happy new thread Kay! I have my eye on Good Night, Irene and I just finished Witness:Stories.

Happy new thread! Love the cats trying to open the door :D

>16 lsh63: Going over to your thread to wait for your review of Witness: Stories...

>17 rabbitprincess: They are so funny to watch, when they are not asleep. And being old men, they sleep a lot.

Happy new thread. I have a lot of sympathy for your problem of not being able to ignore a challenge or a list! Still, you do manage to read a great variety of books and pass along a lot of BBs. I also have my eye on Good Night, Irene but have no idea when I will get to it!

Happy New Thread! I'm rethinking how I'll tackle next year to avoid some of the lists that tempt me.

>19 DeltaQueen50: It's so hard to resist a shortlist. Or a longlist. Or any list. I really liked Good Night, Irene. Urrea did a ton of research because his mother served in the Red Cross during WWII and he was hunting down her history.

>20 dudes22: I think that those of us who have been in the Category Challenge for years have a harder time with this because we really like a tidy list and some neat categories. I'm hoping for at least a few months of relatively free reading before I slip into my old habits.

>13 RidgewayGirl: I like that picture. Good luck with avoiding the temptations of lists and challenges. I always fail, but I enjoy the failure.

Happy new thread.
I love the detail that people find & post that are tucked away in medieval manuscripts. Love the rabbit reading.

>21 RidgewayGirl: - I think your link is to another book, Kay.

Happy new thread! You've got some terrific pictures here. Excellent cats, obvs.

Happy New Thread! I hope you find the balance you are looking for. I think we all have this issue. I have done very few Cat challenges this year because books I've chosen haven't been ready at the time and then I move on. Yes, the shiny, new objects tempt me every month when I hear someone rave about a new book they've read. I am full up through September, but I hope to catch up with some in the last quarter of the year.
Good luck to you...I'll be taking some BBs I am sure.

>22 MissWatson: Oh, I will fail at this goal, with enthusiasm for whatever list grabs my attention.

>23 Helenliz: Thank you, there's a twitter account called something like "weird medieval guys" that posts these tiny funny creatures all the time.

>24 dudes22: Thanks, Betty. I've corrected it.

>25 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie, giving up on a theme made finding pictures much more fun.

>26 beebeereads: It's in finding the space and time to read all those BBs is the problem. There are more books than I can read and I find that to be a personal challenge, but need to start letting books flow past me, knowing that there are plenty here and plenty more coming.

I know this would be radical but sometimes I think if I got rid of my TBR I'd be more satisfied. The problem, well one of them, is that for Cats I argue with myself over something new or my TBR a lot. The problem with this method of improvement is that it would take less than 24 hours for me to begin buying more books a day than I can read in a month!

Happy new thread. Your boys are beautiful.

As long as you enjoy what you're reading, does it really matter whether your choices are structured or unstructured? You could say that being sidetracked by a prize or a challenge or a list is evidence of your lack of structure!

Happy reading, whatever you choose.

>28 clue: It's an idea, except almost every book I pull off the tbr I end up loving. I do love new books (just look at my reading) but those books that slip by are still ones I want to read. And I would have to fill my shelves as quickly as possible. My large tbr means I have a few choices no matter what kind of book I want to read next. What I really need to do is get rid of some of the books I've read lately.

>29 lowelibrary: Thank you, they are both old, but they are still doing their thing, which is, admittedly, mostly napping.

>30 pamelad: Thanks, Pam, I think that usually that's true for me, but over the past few months, in which I volunteered to lead some group book things, it was first fun and then a little restrictive. I am still going to read the books for my two book clubs, both local enough that I can walk to the meetings.

Happy new thread, and good luck with removing the structure from your reading! It can definitely be an uphill battle. :) Sometimes I just include an "anything goes" category, so I can read whatever I want but still feel good about it counting toward my challenge.

Happy new thread! I love the cat photos in your opening post.

Good luck with reading plans. No matter what you read, I know I'll be hit with multiple BBs!

Thought of you when I saw in my library catalogue that there is a new Lauren Groff book coming out soon: The Vaster Wilds.

>33 christina_reads: Most of my categories are so loose almost anything can fit. It's less the categories, than my inability to say no to a list.

>34 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne. Your thread is dangerous for me!

>35 rabbitprincess: I am eagerly awaiting it!

The cat pictures are fun: do they do this often?

Good luck with the unstructured reading. I do love a list myself. I walked past my local bookshop this week: they have a display about a new books prize. I am tempted...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/13/waterstones-debut-fiction-prize-20...

>37 charl08: Charlotte, they are funny old men and full of personality. That is a very enticing list.

No reading going on at the moment as VictoriaPL and her husband have driven all the way from SC to IL to see us. We've been busy and when there are pauses, we are talking. We did manage one bookstore today and yesterday, Victoria and I were at the Art Institute in Chicago and we both came home with books about the exhibit we'd seen.

In 1943, Irene leaves her fiancé and enlists with the Red Cross, where she trains as a "Donut Dolly," making coffee and donuts from a specially outfitted van in various locations in Europe. She is assigned to a van and meets her partners in the van named "Rapid City," starting out feeding the newly arrived servicemen at the English docks, but is moved to France just behind the D-Day invasion, where she and her partner Dot work in sometimes harrowing conditions and not without their share of danger.

Luis Alberto Urrea based Good Night, Irene on his mother's own experiences in WWII, this novel is both well-researched and a page turner. Irene and her cohorts have an old school Hollywood in their patter and while they may well be as tough as nails, the things these women experience leave lasting marks on their lives. The writing style sometimes feels like narrative non-fiction and sometimes feels cinematic. Irene is a wonderful character, and the author made a good decision when he made his mother a tertiary character rather than putting her in the spotlight. With a fictional heroine, he is free to create a colorful and memorable protagonist for this larger than life story that somehow is closely based on fact.

>39 RidgewayGirl: Added to my list!

>40 JayneCM: Oh, good. I read this one with VictoriaPL and we both really liked it, even though we usually don't like the same books.

>39 RidgewayGirl: Oh this sounds great. I really loved his book The House of Broken Angels. I'll look forward to reading this one. Thanks!

>42 beebeereads: I loved The House of Broken Angels. This is very different, but also very good. I do like how Urrea keeps doing new things with his writing.

>39 RidgewayGirl: - I already have 2 of his books on my BB list from you so I might as well add another. And then get around to reading them.

>44 dudes22: That is our eternal problem -- finding the time to read all the books!

You are such a fabulous hostess! I was back at work today but smiled often as I remembered our adventures. I have started unpacking and even managed a load of laundry. I'll try to add the new books tonight but it might be tomorrow. Margot (the cat) is very needy since we returned.

>46 VictoriaPL: Our cats send greetings to The Minnow Lady! I also got one quick load of laundry done before Max took over the laundry room as he prepares to leave tomorrow morning. My sunflowers still look fantastic!

After living in Bloomington for 17 months, I discovered (I finally asked) that the local bookstore does accept used books for credit. Today I virtuously took in six books and emerged with only one. Progress!

Laura Lippman is one of my go-to authors for a solid crime novel. They tend to be on the lighter side and are always set in or around Baltimore, and she manages to keep things fresh. Her latest, Prom Mom is maybe not as strong as her last few books, but still solid escapist reading for late nights or crowded beaches.

Amber Glass was a teenager when she became news fodder for having a baby during her prom. Now an adult, she returns to Baltimore, where she opens an art gallery. She runs into the one person who knows what she went through, her prom date, and they strike up a cautious friendship. Joe's having some issues; he loves his wife and the woman he'd been having an affair with is disinclined to let him go. And he has financial problems, exacerbated by the pandemic. If Amber's reasons for befriending Joe are murky, Joe's motivations may be even murkier.

I kept thinking I knew where this book was going and each time I was wrong. There aren't any truly likable characters and the plot is one that left me guessing to the end. Lippman is getting a little edgier as she goes, which is fun.

>48 RidgewayGirl: that's impressive!

>50 Helenliz: And I have a stack to take to the library in the town just north of me. My library is being renovated, and while it's still open, I can't imagine that they want books dumped on them until the new bookshop space is open. And a few ARCs are ready to be taken to the Little Free Libraries that litter my neighborhood - there are three in easy walking distance. I'm trying to keep only books I truly loved and can see rereading. It is a process.

When he looked at other couples, he did not know how they tolerated each other. They had just grown accustomed, he guessed. They had cooked each other. Each was the frog and each was the heated water. Still, he envied them a tiny bit. Their love in pots.

I Am Homeless if This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore follows two timelines. The first is letters from a woman living in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War who runs a boarding house. She misses her sister and is courted by one of her lodgers. The other concerns Finn, who goes to New York to sit with his brother who is in hospice care. Finn was in a long relationship with a manic pixie dream girl-type, although she seemed far more manic than dream girl. He's still not over her although she is involved with another man. When a mutual acquaintance calls and tells him he needs to return immediately, he leaves his dying brother and drives back to Chicago only to find the worst has happened.

This is an odd little book. Moore is known for her short stories and the epistolary sections feel like a full story in their own right. In the Finn sections, which form the majority of the book, Moore lets the constraints of reality go and tells a story that is fantastical and absurd, veering off into odd tangents. There's no doubt that Moore is an extraordinarily gifted writer, and if you're a fan of writers like Jesse Ball or J. Robert Lennon, you will probably like this novel.

Before I review this next book, one that I really struggled with, but didn't give up on because I'd requested it from the Early Reviewers program, a brief digression. As I read, I thought a lot about what makes a book bad and about how this novel illustrated many of the things said in the various creative writing books I've read, or even the stuff learned in high school. But what I've really been wrestling with is how to review a self-published book in general and this book in particular.

The opinions on how self-published books should be reviewed and rated fall on a spectrum with "you must always give a self-published book 5 stars and a laudatory review, otherwise you are harming someone's livelihood" on one end and "once a book is out for sale in the marketplace, it should be judged as one would any other book" on the other. I lean toward the "judge it as any other book" but with a bit of nuance. I am happy to be brutally honest with most books, but I am gentler with debut novels and less well-known authors in practice. So what to do when a book is truly bad, but self-published? I'd prefer not to review and I honestly would have put this one aside a few pages in, but here we are.

What is your opinion? Do you read self-published books? I'll admit that I stay as far away from them as I can, for this very reason. There are inequities and large systemic problems with traditional publishing, but they do provide an author with the tools necessary to make their book the best it could be, from agents and editors urging rewrites and changes, down to the copy editors and proofreaders making things readable. I do love small presses, that give the support without many of the barriers to entry, but getting published is hard and I understand wanting to opt out of that obstacle course. The last self-published book I read was over five years ago and, like this book, I was fooled into thinking it had been traditionally published with a professionally designed cover and professionally written copy.

As I wondered how to thread this needle, I looked back at the blurb that caused me to choose this book in the first place and read, Perfect for readers who loved Station Eleven, California, and Gold Fame Citrus... and found my answer. I'm reviewing this book like I would those three. If the author wants to be judged against the very best of modern lit, I can do that.

Review to come later today, but I'd love to hear what the rest of you think about your experiences with self-published books and how you approach reviewing them. Please be opinionated.

I won a book back in 2012 that I don't think I realized was self-published when I asked for it. If I remember right, I didn't check the publisher until I was not that happy with the book. I'm guessing there are 2 reasons that people self-publish: 1 - They can't get a publishing house to take them on or 2 - they're trying to save money and do it themselves. (I could be wrong about that). In either case, if they have enough confidence to go ahead, then they should be ready to accept any opinion they get. When I did my review, I tried to point out some of the flaws without being mean or brutal. (It might have been a debut novel) I was also fairly new to LT so maybe that influenced me too. (I've never even tried another book by that author)

On the other hand, there's a series I read that I'm pretty sure is self-published that I love and is very well written.

I wonder if the blurb was only supposed to indicate the genre the author is writing and not as a comparison to those books. (And don't you know I got a BB just looking at those :)) In the end, I feel that you should (I would) review as you would any other book, treating a debut novel as you would any other - pointing out things that are less than successful.

>53 RidgewayGirl: This is an interesting question! I don't tend to pay a lot of attention to whether a book is self-published or not; sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes I honestly have no idea till I've dug a little deeper -- which usually doesn't happen till after I've read the book!

I generally judge all novels by the same standards (are the characters believable, is the plot interesting, etc.), but I try to go easier on self-published books in terms of editing and proofreading. I may say something like, "There were some continuity errors that would have been caught by a more thorough editing process." But I still feel it's important to point out such errors, because for some readers they can be dealbreakers.

I have read some self-published books but I don't go looking for them as I find that they usually are lacking in something. That said, I do believe there are some popular series today that started out as self-published books, so I guess if they self publish and garner a fair amount of praise, a publishing company will snap them up.

I don't feel that I am qualified to really judge books by their writing. My reviews are meant to describe how the book affected me. In this manner, I review self published books the same as any other book.

>54 dudes22: I'm not going to take out my flame thrower, but I will talk about what did and didn't work. How did you discover the self-published series you like? I'm interested in learning how people choose a self-published book to read and why they chose it instead of a traditionally published book. I know that some genres are more friendly to self-publishers than others -- romance and fantasy spring to mind as genres where people like certain scenarios (friends to lovers, or lots of dragons, for example) and are willing to put up with clunky writing and continuity issues in order to read the specific thing they like.

>55 christina_reads: I understand being willing to go easier on typos and editing issues but as a former proofreader, those kind of errors pull me out of a story like nothing else. In the case of the book in question, they say they hired an editor and that editor at least proofread the manuscript for typos and grammatical errors. If they did more than that, it doesn't show.

>56 DeltaQueen50: I'm relieved to see so many people saying they review a self-published book like any other they read.

>53 RidgewayGirl: I read self-published books. I read the used ones that intrigue me by the book blurb but only purchase NEW self-published books if I have met the author and can get the book signed. One of my favorite authors Kenny Sills is self-published because he can not break through. I always judge the book like any other book, regardless of the method of publication.

>58 lowelibrary: I love that you've found a favorite author who self-publishes. And meeting an author is always fun. I know that there are many very good writers who choose to self-publish, including ones who have previously published traditionally.

>57 RidgewayGirl: - Actually - I took a BB from tymfos back in 2013. She wasn't completely convinced but something about the description appealed to me, and I decided to give it a chance. I didn't realize it was self-published until I had read the first book. So, sort-of a mistake. I like your idea of keeping track of the publishers and may adopt that next year.

>53 RidgewayGirl: A major caveat: I have just self-published my first book. So assume Himalayan levels of bias in what follows :)

The reason I chose self-publishing (after a LOT of research going back a good 5 years or more) is two-fold. On the positive side, self-publishing offers the chance for much more control for the author over what is produced, the timing of when it goes to market, levels of royalties, fewer middle-men, and ultimately the opportunity to learn about all aspects of publishing. On the less positive side, traditional publishing is slooooow to move, there are all sorts of invisible barriers to entry, and frankly if you're not top of the publisher's priority list then it is difficult to sustain any kind of writing career without a lot of side hustles, and you'll end up having to do as much marketing of your book as self-published authors, with a much smaller share of any subsequent profit. Specifically regarding my book (which is not genre fiction, so possibly more of a risk self-publishing), I think the subject matter (nature writing/memoir during the 2020 lockdown) means that if I'd wanted to go down the traditional publishing route, I would have missed the boat - the time taken to get an agent to be interested, work with them on the manuscript, then the time taken for them to get a publishing house interested, all with no guarantees whatsoever, would mean that by the time anyone might be interested the market will have moved on and nobody will be interested in publishing it. Self-publishing means that I can take my chances now, and not wait for someone else to decide it's good enough or that it fits the nebulous, frivolous "market". If it's not good enough, I carry the responsibility. I'm not saying that I wouldn't look to traditionally publish other writing in the future, if I could, and if my writing was deemed 'good enough'. Just that I am realistic about what the industry is like.

I think it's very easy to 'diss' self-published work (not saying that's what you're doing, BTW Kay!) - but self-published doesn't necessarily mean "tsunami of crap in SHOUTY CAPS" like it often did in the early days. A lot of self-published authors of course aren't interested in producing works of literary magnificence, and that's fine, but there are also a lot (including me) who are keen to improve our writing, hone our craft, and produce something we're really proud of. That includes investing in professional editing and proofreading, as well as the actual writing. Of course I've seen poorly edited/proofed self-published books, but to be honest I'm more annoyed when I see poorly edited/proofed traditionally-published books - if the publishing house can afford expensive offices in central London (or wherever), they should be able to afford to get their books properly proofread.

The lines between traditionally- and self-published work is also a lot blurrier than it was: quite a lot of traditionally published authors are also self-published. For example, I know an author whose series is published by Simon & Schuster in the UK, but he was unable to get a US publisher so he self-publishes those exact same books in the US. Of course they have been professionally edited by the editors at S&S, but he has self-published other books where he's invested in the editing and has worked to make all his books, however they are published, the best they can possibly be.

All this to say: as a self-published author I would hope that my book stands up alongside traditionally published books in my genre, and I would expect to be reviewed with the same rigour rather than treated with kid gloves. I often find bad reviews helpful in deciding if I will buy a book or not - sometimes I read them and think "that sounds like the kind of thing I don't like too", other times I think "that reviewer is a jerk", other times somewhere between the two. As long as the review is constructive, I think it's all helpful.

Just my 2p. Thank you for reading my essay :D

>61 Jackie_K: Thanks for the "insider" perspective! :) And I agree that negative reviews can be very helpful -- the reviewer might not like the book because of X, but I might be looking for a book with X.

>61 Jackie_K: Thanks for that useful information. In theory, I'm in favor of self-publishing, just like I liked those mimeographed zines that showed up in the eighties and were full of self-expression. I'm irked that my experience with these books has been solidly negative -- after all, there is some very well-written fan fiction out there and my daughter is a fan of Wordpress. I do think that as AI programs are released as tools for writers, the quality of self-published work will plummet. Given that one of the main reasons to do so is financial, and part of that requires a regular output of new material, there will be pressure on self-published authors to use AI to improve their output speed.

I'm excited about your book! Will it be available over here?

>63 RidgewayGirl: AI is a huge talking point in self-publishing circles, some of it very anti-AI, some of it more pro-AI, with quite a lot of nuanced takes in between. Amazon, and I suspect the other online stores, are already being inundated with AI-produced books of very poor quality, and they are on the back foot a bit in terms of removing them - as fast as something is taken down, something else is uploaded. Interestingly, a lot of authors who have their books in Kindle Unlimited are thinking about moving out of amazon exclusivity because this is starting to negatively affect the monthly payments genuine authors get. I think we've still got a way to go before we can say for sure how AI is disrupting the market, but I know that a lot of authors are planning on doubling down on being human in response. I certainly hope so.

And thanks for asking about my book! It is indeed available in the US. The paperback is currently only on amazon, I'm waiting for the cog wheels to lurch round enough that it will also be listed in places like bookshop.org and requestable from indie bookshops, but I don't think that's quite happened yet (I am very impatient and checking most days!). But it's available as an ebook from lots of online stores. I'll put a link on my thread, so that I don't spam yours :)

>53 RidgewayGirl: Thank you for bringing up this topic. It's a fascinating discussion. First, I am neither a writer nor a librarian. I am a simple lifelong reader. For years I didn't really follow the publisher. I occasionally noticed and was familiar with all the big ones, followed some of the mergers, etc. But in terms of choosing my next read, that has never played a role. I did start tracking publishers in my personal stats this year so from now on I'll be able to see whether I trend to one or another.
To my knowledge I haven't read many self-published books. I did read a novel about ten years ago that was written by my DIL's mother. I liked it and found the characters have stuck with me. She was pleased that I bought the book. I also heard recently that an author I've read (of course I can't remember now) started out self publishing and eventually was picked up by a major firm. That said, I don't think the publisher has been a major influence on me. Perhaps now that I am tracking I'll realize that it is!

>61 Jackie_K: Thank you so much for sharing your insider story. Your comments have added so much to this discussiond. I will check out your thread for the information. Congratulatons on publishing!

I'm curious whether others track publishers or choose their reading based on the publisher. Following this thread ;-)

>64 Jackie_K: The cover is really lovely and I look forward to seeing it for sale at bookshop.org.

>65 beebeereads: I follow publishing news, a holdover from my years as a bookstore employee and more closely with the prevalence of the "Big Five." I've enjoyed finding small presses, some local, some publishing authors I really enjoy. It can take a little digging to find out if an imprint is a small press, an individual author self-publishing, or part of one of the conglomerates. Keeping track of publishers is showing me which imprints and small presses publish the things I like to read and I like lists, so why not?

>66 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for the inspiration to keep on tracking.

>53 RidgewayGirl: Thank you for bringing up a fascinating topic! This has come up for me too. My cousins in Northern Ireland recommended a series to me so strongly that I bought a kindle version of the first in the series. I haven't seen my cousins for many years so I have no idea what they like to read, or even if they read at all. I dread reading it. I'll be truthful in my review here at LT (if I ever read the book) but what am I to tell my two lovely cousins?

For the record, I've nothing against self-published books. I bought a mystery series just because the author was from Saskatchewan and I thoroughly enjoyed every one of them.

Choosing a book is so personal, it will not be a good pick for everybody. For me, it's on par with my sock-buying: to my DIL's horror, I buy cheap thin socks because they're what I like. :-)

>61 Jackie_K: Congratulations! It's wonderful to read your personal story! I wish you great success in the UK as well as North America.

ETA Oops! Just noticed that I must have edited out the bit about the series being self-published.

>67 beebeereads: You may find that you like the output of a specific imprint or small publisher and then you can request their catalog and fill your house with more books.

>68 VivienneR: Reading is the most personal thing and because it takes time to engage with a book, reading one you don't want to is quite an imposition.

I know several people who have self published. One of the reasons I think their books differ is because some have prepared to write by taking classes, attending author presentations, have read specific books they think may help them etc. One person I know was a journalist for over twenty years before she attepted to self publish. Then there are others, one in particular, who just suddenly decided to write a novel and sat down and knocked one out in a few weeks. So it's not surprising the output between them was very different. And then there's my pet peeve, anyone can write a good children's book because you just use smaller words, right?

>70 clue: I hope the book my cousins recommended (#68) was written by an author such as those you describe in the opening section of your post. It's a romance, not a genre I read, so I have no high hopes. I share your pet peeve, and anyone can write a romance, just include some "nudge nudge" as Monty Python called it.

>70 clue: I agree with your children's book pet peeve - although what bothers me most is that for all the brilliant children's authors out there trying to make a living, the publishers are falling over themselves to offer the contracts, huge advances, and buying the bookshop space to celebrities who can barely string a sentence together.

River is an oil worker in Energy Territory No. 1, which used to be known as North Dakota. She's a veteran, a widow and the mother of a toddler, working in a violent and harsh environment to save up money, when she meets an injured man late at night. She takes him to her apartment, patches him up and intends to send him on his way. But in their few hours together, they are enraptured by each other and so she rescues him again a few hours after he leaves. It turns out that while he is a scientist looking into environmental issues in the territory, he is also the son of the President, a woman who was Secretary of State and who took office after everyone above her was assassinated. She now governs in a state of emergency, Congress has been dissolved and she is making the decisions. But the man who owns the corporation that got the contract to be the sole owner of the two energy territories is on a mission to take charge of all of it and his first target is the President.

48 States by Evette Davis is a novel with a promising premise, but which quickly becomes bogged down with things that don't seem fully thought out. Despite governing during a national emergency, the POTUS spends her days secretly visiting a refugee camp to help a single family, secretly watching a focus group discussion and looking up quotes by Abraham Lincoln to use in an important speech. This is a version of the world where there are no sources of energy except oil and where a mass shooting at a mall become a catalyst to move the populations of two states into refugee camps in the name of energy independence. No one judges a thriller on how well the details hang together, it's all about pacing and suspense. And by that metric, this novel does fine, although a number of pages are spent on the two protagonists examining their feelings for each other and tense moments are often undercut by segues into how each person feels.

48 States was marketed as being ideal for fans of literary novels like Station Eleven, California and Gold Fame Citrus, and had it been blurbed more honestly, I would not have picked it up as I'm not a reader of YA thrillers. This novel would have been well-served with a few more rewrites and the input of a good editor.

>52 RidgewayGirl: I almost wish I had read your review before I picked this one up, as I think I would have realised it probably was not for me. I loved the letters, but could have done without the whole other plotline. I was so keen to read this, so I was disappointed.

I don't read much that is self published (I think as much about a lack of knowledge about what's out there, apart from anything else). I have enjoyed the discussion here.

Re >66 RidgewayGirl: I also enjoy finding out what the small presses are doing. It's a new field to me - I got into smaller publishers quite a bit during lockdown, partly because of the translated fiction bookgroup I joined (which only picks books from small presses, or at least did at the start), and then it snowballed.

I think the subscription approach is a nice one, giving the publisher some security to take risks. Peirene sends me three books a year, and Unbound (which I very occasionally support). I would subscribe to more if I could!

I went down a rabbit hole looking at websites for some of the presses I follow, but I liked this summary: https://themonthlybooking.wordpress.com/2020/11/09/ten-best-independent-publishe...
They ('monthly booking') mention a combined subscription: https://www.republicofconsciousness.com/
I am tempted.

>74 charl08: Like you, I was too impatient to get to I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home to bother with reviews.

And discovering small presses is so fun. There's a lovely one in Spartanburg, South Carolina called Hub City Press that publishes a lot of Southern Lit and I inevitably find interesting books when I go through their catalog. And Bellevue Literary Press published interesting books from other countries, often in translation. Tin House is another one I like that publishes the kind of literary fiction I like. And discovering others is fun and it feels good funneling my book money into small presses. As for subscriptions, I remain constantly tempted by the one from Archipelago Books.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray is the story of a family who falls apart in the aftermath of Ireland's 2008 economic crisis. The Barnes's are among the wealthiest families in a small town in the middle of Ireland, owning and running a car dealership there. When the crash comes, it seems for awhile like they can sail through, and then it seems like they might sail through with a little belt-tightening. And then it seems the sailing days are over.

Murry begins this story with Cass, who plans to attend university in Dublin and live with her best friend. When the financial pressures become evident, so does the disparity in the relationship with her best friend. Cut adrift, Cass has trouble concentrating on her exams, and as her normal teenage woes veer into more serious terrain, it's clear her parents aren't paying attention. Then there's PJ, a sweet child, who may spend his time playing truly frightening video games, but that hasn't affected his sensitive heart, which notices his parents's troubles and does his part to not bother them, no matter what. He's found an on-line friend who is supportive which his parents definitely don't notice.

Murray's skill as a writer is in full display as, having killed all sympathy for these negligent parents, he proceeds to tell their stories and to force the reader to care about them. Murray writes each character so well, each has a voice of their own and the mother's section was just fantastic -- written in a stream-of-consciousness that reflects who she is. The book opens with long sections for each of the four family members, then moving between them more rapidly as the novel builds to its conclusion. We've all read books that end pages, or even chapters, later than they should have. This is the first time I've encountered a book that deliberately ended too early. I'm not sure what to think of that.

Your review successfully makes this book sound much more tempting than it has done so far. I've not got very far with previous attempts to read his books so had decided to wait until the Booker committee made a decision.

>75 RidgewayGirl: Archipelago's website is also full of tempting offers for me. I'm adding The Last Days of Terranova to the wishlist. I liked his Books Burn Badly. I would like to browse and pickup so many others, but Eline Vere: a novel of the Hague sounds intriguing, as does Whale and Plants Don't Drink Coffee.

>77 charl08: Archipelago's books are also such lovely objects, from their shape to the quality of the paper. I picked up one as an ebook deal and it was excellent, but I missed the tactile pleasure of holding an Archipelago book.

I'm thinking my way through another reader issue, this time about how we review books and how we think about the novels we read. I was in a Goodreads discussion (I know! This is my own fault!) about a book that had interesting things to say and I thought was really nuanced and thought-provoking (Mobility by Lydia Kiesling). And the discussion boiled down to "I didn't like the main character, therefore the book was bad." There were some additional complaints, but they all boiled down to the main character didn't behave like they wanted her to and her experiences were not things they wanted to read about. One guy went so far as to explain that books that touch on the things women experience in the world are boring for him to read about and therefore this book should not have been written. Today, I saw a review for a book I'm interested in where the reader disliked it and felt it an unsuitable Booker prize contender because ...this is due to the fact that the book centers around issues of parenting - both the joys and drudgery of such; what happens to one's psyche when one is abandoned by one's mother; and the travails of post-partum psychosis - and these are not subjects I find intrinsically interesting or can really relate to, being childless and male.

So I have a few things I'm thinking about. I do realize this place is unique in having readers who think about what they are reading and also I have no problem with someone saying something like I really loved this book as part of their review. I do wonder if social media, places like Facebook, that have us reacting to people's posts with a quick emoji, have an influence in getting us to think that a book is "good" or "bad" and making that the sum total of one's thoughts about a book. And why is it that so many judge a book by how much they relate to and want to be friends with the main character?

All of this comes from reading reviews outside of this forum or even this website and maybe if I spent more time on goodreads, I'd have a better understanding of why people approach novels looking for characters who look and act like them and that stick to topics the reader personally likes. Mainly, I'd love to hear what you think. Is this a new thing?

>78 RidgewayGirl: Interesting thoughts. I think that people have always read stuff about people like them (or people they aspire to be), and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But dismissing entire books because there's a character you don't relate to - I'm not sure I see the point of that! I mean, for one thing, nobody's got a gun to their head forcing them to read it, and also, how hard is it to write a 'shit sandwich' review (thing you liked, thing you hated, finish with thing that you liked)? "This book had realistic dialogue, but I hated the main character, but this thing was funny" kind of thing. You can get the 'I hated this character' out of your system without dismissing the entire book as worthless.

Personally, I really really dislike an unreliable narrator, so choose not to read those books where I know that an unreliable narrator is a big feature of the book. It's not actually difficult. I'll leave the reviewing to people who enjoy those sorts of stories, they don't need me throwing my toys out the pram in the reviews.

I think you're probably onto something with your thoughts about social media. I wonder if it's also that social media tends to silo people off into their own echo chambers, so they're (we're, I'm not immune) so used to consuming material which agrees with and reinforces their own world view and experience, that books that don't obviously fit that pattern can be more easily dismissed.

>79 Jackie_K: I think you're on to something with your final paragraph. Which leads to asking whether it is possible for someone with this mindset -- that someone who doesn't share my priorities and values is a bad character -- to even read decent historical fiction, since people living before us held different beliefs. It would be bizarre for a character in a book set even just a hundred years ago to share our preoccupations.

And there are genres where liking the main character is important. It would be hard to write a successful romance novel if one of the two leads were unlikeable and it's certainly a valid criticism in that genre to say that the hero was unpleasant.

And I love an unreliable narrator, Jackie!

>80 RidgewayGirl: Yes, I know I'm in the minority with the unreliable narrator thing! (but then, I'm in the minority in struggling with most fiction!) I think I just always want to believe the best of people I encounter for the first time, and hate feeling let down when I realise they're not all they seem, and that goes for fictional characters too! (in films as well as books)

> 78 >79 Jackie_K: I'm interested to know what you think about book reviews that were rated low because of the audio narration. It just seems so unfair to the writer for those reviews to be included with the ratings of books that were read. Although I know that most of us are "reviewing" on a yes it was a good experience, or no it wasn't a good experience basis.

>81 Jackie_K: That's how I approach books, with this open heart, ready to buy whatever they are selling. And even when I hate a book, there are ways to discuss it, even with people who loved it, that make clear that I saw faults, without implying that anyone who saw it otherwise is stupid. And a good discussion often has me seeing things in a book I hadn't while reading.

>82 clue: Yeah, I run into that now and again and it baffles me. People do want to know if a narration is well done or not, but that seems separate in some way from the book itself maybe?

>83 RidgewayGirl: Well yes, absolutely. I may not understand why you hated a book I loved (or vice versa), but that's no reason to assert my superiority or imply you're stupid!

I'm finding the discussion about self-published books really interesting! I've not read many self-published books myself, as I tend to choose books based on awards lists or recommendations from trusted sources, and these don't include many self-published books. I have been put in uncomfortable situations a few times by friends who have asked me to review their self-published books, and I invariably make the review more positive than I'd write otherwise. (I figure it's OK to stretch the truth a bit in order to preserve a friendship.)

>1 RidgewayGirl: I laughed when I saw your comment, "I know I'll be unable to not read from the awards shortlists." That describes me exactly. I would love to do more unstructured reading and to finally get to books languishing on my shelves, but I just can't resist those awards lists.

>84 Jackie_K: It's like some people have lost the ability to craft an argument and lack the imagination to see why a book might hit a different person differently. Of course, I'm married to a guy who likes nothing better than a long fantasy or science fiction series, books I would only read if I were trapped in a snowed-in cabin and I'd already read all the issues of Guns & Gardens and the take-out menus taped to the fridge, so I have personal experience in this area.

>85 mathgirl40: Gosh, it's like we're all on LT the minute it's back up. And I'm glad someone else is in the same boat with regards to the awards lists. It's an illness.

I'm a little late to the discussion of self published books, but it's been really interesting.
Against all reason, my husband enjoys reading trashy romances, so reads a lot of self published books in the genre. I've read a few left hand pages (the page I can see in bed) and haven't been all that impressed. Certainly not enough to read them myself.
I don't consciously seek out or avoid self published books, but as I tend to access books from the bookshop or library in a physical form, I probably don't come across them all that often. I'm a bit of a grammar nerd too, so errors are likely to annoy me, but they crop up all over - with increasing frequency imo.

>78 RidgewayGirl: Another interesting question! I'll admit, I prefer books where I like (or relate to, or at least can understand) the protagonist. I want to root for main characters and be invested in their journeys. If they're completely unlikable and unpleasant, why would I want to spend a whole book with them?

But I realize that's my preference, not an objective standard by which to rate the quality of a book. I often say things like, "I hated the main character and therefore didn't enjoy the book." But I wouldn't say, "I hated the main character and therefore this is a bad book." Same with the parenting example you mentioned -- I wouldn't personally find that topic intrinsically interesting either, but that doesn't make it a bad novel. It just means it's not the right book for me, but it may be great for someone else!

As a side note, Kay, I feel like our reading taste rarely overlaps, but I always enjoy reading your reviews! They definitely give me a sense of whether I would enjoy the book or not, given my own literary likes and dislikes, which in my opinion is the whole point of a review.

>89 christina_reads: Absolutely agree with your final paragraph! I always love reading your reviews, Kay.

>88 Helenliz: Helen, I love that for your husband. Years ago, I listened to a BBC radio program where a host and three authors read and discussed each others books. A chick-lit author, Marian Keyes, was paired with two middle-aged men who had both written important non-fiction books. The two men went on at length about how much they'd loved her book and how they had never read anything like it, although one did say he was too embarrassed to read it on public transportation.

>89 christina_reads: Christina, there are definitely subject matters I'm not interested in and it's pretty easy to steer clear of them, although if a book of that kind does start winning awards and getting talked about by readers here I follow, I might end up reading and enjoying it. Thanks for reading my reviews! I read yours because while I don't read much romance, I do occasionally want to read one, and I have a selection on my iPad, pulled from your reviews, to choose from.

>90 Jackie_K: I'm very much enjoying the flattery! Your reviews are so much more thoughtful than my own and while I rarely read non-fiction, I like your reviews, too.

Stop recording, he said, at first, like it was a joke because everything was a joke. Then, more insistently: stop recording. He asked for that, a great tiredness obviously sweeping over him. I could hear it in his voice: tired of playing himself, moments of paralyzing doubt about the point of any of it. Too many substances. But there was never any response from the man holding the tape recorder, and the red recording light stayed on.

After a falling out with her best friend, Mae leaves high school and takes a job as a typist for Andy Warhol. She is eventually given the job of transcribing a series of tapes, recordings made of conversations among the denizens of Warhol's studio. Mae is always in the background, watching the glamorous people hang out, and she forms a friendship with the other woman also working to transcribe the tapes, a young runaway who is cagey about her past.

Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery is a coming of age story about a young woman who becomes a peripheral figure in Andy Warhol's milieu. She's also an observer, overlooked by everyone, occasionally going home with men who see her as enough part of that seemingly glamorous world. She's both eager to be part of it all, but too clear-eyed to delude herself or to fall prey to the more risky excesses, but she is, by the end, another teenage runaway in a city that is not known for kindness.

Spring, Ali Smith's third installment in her seasons quartet, begins with Richard, an aging director who is deeply unhappy with the direction of the project he was working on. He ends up standing on a platform at a train station in the north of Scotland. Meanwhile, Brit is working as a guard at a detention center for refugees. There is a story floating around about a girl who can move around without being stopped and when Brit sees her, she feels compelled to join the girl, Florence, on a train journey to a small station in the north of Scotland.

Spring makes the same references to the arts as the previous two novels, moving between the main story and one about Katherine Mansfield and Rainer Maria Rilke in a hotel in the Swiss Alps, as well as the photographer Tacita Dean who, like Pauline Boty from Autumn, was new to me. Smith is a talented author, writing at the peak of her abilities and yet this book feels like the weakest in the quartet so far. It is just a little too blunt in its execution to match the subtler approach of the first two books. Her anger is apparent and utterly justifiable; the way asylum seekers and refugees are treated by the wealthiest and allegedly Christian nations is abominable. A less heavy-handed approach might have been more effective. No one enjoys a sermon, even when one agrees with every word.

...they were sharing a room, she said. I think that's the reason it took so long. Trying to explain it to herself more than me. I said I thought she was probably right. That's what she needed me to say so I said it. Sometimes when your friend is being stupid you just have to go along with it.

Erin's found a sort-of job working as an au pair that gives her a place to live when she returns to Belfast, but she's just spinning her wheels, on hold. She left London and university when her roommate and best friend died suddenly. She knew she couldn't stay, but her hometown is not the refuge she'd hoped it might be. Her relationship with her mother is as fractured as ever and the way her friends spend much of their time just hanging out in bars isn't doing her any good, especially when her closest friend is a bartender. She falls back into an old relationship out of habit and into a new one with an American academic who is clearly in Belfast to get away from something.

Lazy City by Rachel Connolly is a perceptive novel about avoiding grief and how sometimes what looks like stasis is moving forward. Erin has a sharp voice and while she may be avoiding her own problems, she can see her own hometown with an understanding of its history and an affectionate clarity about its faults. Here, the boys who never left, the strivers and those who don't know where they are going are observed but not judged. Connolly writes well, although this novel does feel like a debut, with descriptions often going into unnecessary detail. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her next novel.

>39 RidgewayGirl: We ordered that one, and it caught my eye when it arrived and I re-read the description. I'm glad you liked it. I hope to get to it before too long.

>53 RidgewayGirl: I try not to make the mistake of requesting those self-published ones in ER unless it's an author I know. Most are just dreadful. In fact, I've requested very few since ER changed. I really wish more known publishers were offering titles here. I do know a few authors who were handled at one time by mainstream publishers have gone out on their own. If I enjoyed their work, I'll continue to read them as long as I enjoy them. If lack of editing becomes an issue, I'll quit reading them. A few pay of the self-published ones do pay an editor. I just wish we had an easy way of identifying those!

>95 thornton37814: I really think you'll love Good Night, Irene, Lori. The author based the novel on the research he did into his mother's experiences in the war.

Yes, I will be far more careful in the books I request from anywhere. I like debut novels a lot and so need to remember to look at who the publisher is and not just request based on the description.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto is a novella and a short story. The novella, Kitchen, follows a young woman, Mikage, whose grandmother and last living relative has died. She knows she needs to move to a smaller and less expensive apartment, but grief makes it hard to get anything done. Enter Yuichi, a young man who was friends with her grandmother, who invites her to come live with his mother and him as they have plenty of space. What Mikage is especially drawn to is their well-appointed kitchen, and for awhile they form a new family.

In retrospect I realize that fate was a ladder on which, at the time, I could not afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one scene would have meant never making it to the top, although it would have been by far the easier choice. What motivated me was probably that little light still left in my half-dead heart, glittering in the darkness. Yet without it, perhaps, I might have slept better.

The short story, Moonlight Shadow, concerns another young woman. After her lover's death, Satsuki is lost in grief, until an encounter with a stranger encourages her to believe that she will enjoy life again.

Both stories concern characters dealing with grief and sudden death, but are both hopeful and even whimsical in tone. This book manages to be charming without being saccharine. Yoshimoto's characters are well-drawn and the stories have an impact despite their brevity.

The following book was read for a book club I'm in. We alternate between Golden Age mystery novels and modern novels in the mystery genre. This month's book is a political thriller, which is very much not a genre I read and this novel solidified that decision. This is not a review by an someone who understands the genre at all.



In The Devil's Bed by William Kent Krueger, a Secret Service agent is assigned to protect the FLOTUS while she's in Minnesota visiting her father in the hospital and staying on the family estate. He figures out that not only is there someone who wants to kill her, but her father is also in danger. Then there are a bunch of machinations involving a government agency and the POTUS has to choose between his father, a powerful senator, and doing the right thing, and also a bunch of people get killed.

The main bad guy had a horrific childhood and got tortured a lot working for some special forces kind of thing, so he's messed up. But the secret service agent also had a bad childhood, and is very moral, so there's a lesson there, probably.

This is a well-written novel and there are a lot of twists and turns to the plot, with lots of narrow escapes and descriptions of what specific kind of knife or tractor or gun was used. I can see why this genre is popular, it's just not my thing.

>98 RidgewayGirl: Thank you for this entertaining review. I'm with you. There's more than enough politics in the press, so I certainly don't want to read about it in fiction.

>99 pamelad: The funny thing is that the politics in this book is far less terrifying than what we have today.

A shooting accident leaves two families shattered. On one side of the reservation border, the Ravich family has lost their son. On the other side, the Irons family, a large, chaotic group, is left dealing with guilt, on the parents's part and confusion from the children. An atonement is found in sharing their youngest son, LaRose with the Raviches.

Louise Erdrich's novel is the story of two families interlaced despite themselves, but also the history of the previous LaRoses and their place within the Irons family, and of the many members of the small Ojibwe community in North Dakota, from the priest, a veteran who has found a place there, to the hospital janitor, to the lively residents of the senior home. Erdrich weaves a rich story that manages to be both full of heart and unflinching about the hardships faced by her characters.

Company: Stories by Shannon Sanders is a collection of interconnected short stories set in and around Washington DC and centering on the members of a large, extended family. As with any large family, some are doing well and some are struggling and who that is may change over time. There are family stories, family expectations and the roles assigned in childhood that may chafe in adulthood. There are family stories where the reality is somewhat different and what is expected changes depending on the generation.

They would only be in the house on Ashburn Street for six or nine months, a year at the absolute most, and so although Merritt knew she should make a point of meeting the neighbors, she put it off for two weeks after the move-in. She had begun to specialize in putting things off; these days she was leaden as an anchor, and Ashburn Street was the ocean floor.

These stories stand on their own and the connections between the characters in each story reveal themselves as the book unspools. A character in one story is in the background of another, an event in one story is a familiar tale that bears just a glancing resemblance to the facts in another. There are two stories that recount the same event from different vantage points that was particularly effective. Throughout these stories, Sanders writes about people just trying to get through the challenges of their lives. It's a solid collection and I'm already looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is a sizable book, and by the time I finished it, I was reading more slowly, reluctant to say good-bye to this remarkable novel. I would have happily read a few hundred more pages about Om and Ishvar, Dina, and Maneck.

Set in India during the National Emergency of 1975, which imposed regulations and tight enforcement in ways that hit the poorest citizens the hardest, the story follows four people from three different economic and social classes as they come together in the apartment of Dina, a widow who takes in a university student as a lodger and hires two tailors to sew for her as a way of keeping her independence despite pressure from both her brother and her landlord to vacate her home. They are all very different people and the strictures of caste keep them wary of each other, but proximity, need and good natures prevail to make a community out of this odd group of people.

There's something to be said for a novel that takes its time and builds each relationship slowly. Mistry allows for both the callous brutality of the regime's actions as well as the intense poverty of so many of the characters to be laid bare, but also left room for small acts of grace and hope. This is an immersive read that left me feeling bereft at the end. An utterly remarkable story that I am sorry to have finished.

Some mornings, she woke and felt that she might be on the cusp of something great. Other mornings, she was simply hungover and in a stranger's bed.

Kate Atkinson has written a collection of short stories called Normal Rules Don't Apply and it is a delightful romp with a decidedly fairy tale feel. A few stories feature fairy tales explicitly but most use elements sparingly; an occasional talking animal or fortune teller used in unexpected ways. While each story stands on its own, the characters often appear in other stories, or see their earlier narratives turned upside down in another. Atkinson is a talented writer who knows how to spin an intricate plot and to create complex characters. Here, the format of the short story frees her to unleash her imagination in wild and wonderful ways. This collection will please anyone who loves Kelly Link's short stories.

>104 RidgewayGirl: Atkinson is one of those authors that I can't resist. I just put a hold on this at the library, where it is still at the "on order" stage. I'm looking forward to it.

Almost two years ago, I moved to the middle of Illinois, making Chicago my nearest big city (unless you want to count Indianapolis and, friends, I do not). I've managed three trips there, of various lengths, and I've enjoyed it immensely, from the way different neighborhoods feel, to the easy public transportation to the way there's this giant city populated by midwesterners. So I grabbed this memoir and story of one man's life in Chicago, You Were Never in Chicago by Neil Steinberg, a longtime reporter and columnist with the Chicago Sun Times, as a way of learning more about this city.

This book does a good job of covering a vast swath of topics, from Chicago's founding, to how the political machine works, to ordinary stories of how people ended up here. Steinberg has spent his professional life covering human interest stories for his column and breaking news as a reporter. He's witnessed the way the city has changed over the years, with small manufacturers closing down to the slow contraction of the news industry.

Whether this book appeals to you depends on how much you prefer storytelling and learning about one guy's experience to a more methodical approach. I enjoyed his stories, although the strongest part of the book were the opening chapters explaining Chicago's history. Steinberg is adept at explaining why Chicago boomed how and when it did. He also had some insights into current issues, despite this book having been first published a decade ago.

>104 RidgewayGirl: Taking a BB for this one.

>107 lowelibrary: It's such a fun collection of short stories, April.

"Think of those horror films where a group of kids goes on a retreat for a weekend in a house at the edge of the forest, and at a certain point, at night, while they're all sleeping, monsters arrive?" said the other writer. "Except that in this case the monsters arrive not from the outside but from within, they come from the obscure depths of those kids."

The City of the Living is work of non-fiction by Italian author Nicola Lagioia, who is known for his crime novels, using the brutal 2016 murder of a young man named Luca Varani by two other young men to explore Roman society more broadly, but also diving deeply into the lives of all three men and their families, as well as his own experiences as he investigates this crime that fascinated all of Italy.

Lagioia is doing something more substantial here than just writing true crime, although that is the easiest description of what this is. It is similar to Emmanuel Carrère's The Adversary, although Lagioia makes this not about his interactions with the two murderers but about their motivations, or more exactly, their attempts to explain their motivations even to themselves. As an American reader, it was startling to see how easily members of the press got access to confidential information like police interviews. While a lot of space is given to the timeline of the crime, the description of the actual murder isn't graphic.

Another focus is the city of Rome, a city that Lagioia portrays as a decaying and corrupt corpse, yet when he and his wife make the decision to leave, they recognize quickly that they made a mistake and for all its faults, they don't want to live anywhere else.

This is a fascinating look at something we are used to over here (true crime narratives) from a different angle, as well as being a glimpse into what life is like in Rome. I will note that this book is often described as fiction, or in one case as "true crime fiction," but whether that is due to the author's reputation as a novelist or the publisher being well known for literary fiction, this book is non-fiction.

Great review. I'm both intrigued and a bit put off by the thought of reading about this kind of (?) inexplicable crime. Your comments about the mislabelling of this true crime read reminded me of the intro to the republished edition of Ingrid Nunez's first book, essentially three first-person essays about a father, a mother and a boyfriend (A Feather on the Breath of God).

Nunez has described A Feather on the Breath of God as autofiction, a term that, she told me, she understands less with reference to such contemporaries as Rachel Cusk and Ben Lerner than to forebears such as Rilke and Proust: “It’s always in the first person and the ‘I’ is the author … It’s recognizably Sigrid and her background, who’s always transparently engaged in writing this book you’re reading, in which ‘I’ am the consciousness and everything I observe is mine.” Nunez attributes many of the rejections of the early Chang/Christa submission to genre confusion provoked by this voice: “People said, What is this? Is it fiction, or a memoir? It can’t be both! It really seemed to throw people.”

This was also published in the Paris Review
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/08/25/a-swift-arrows-flight/

For true crime maybe describing it as a novel enabled the publisher to avoid the risk of legal action from those depicted? Just a thought.

>110 charl08: It's straightforward true crime. I'm not sure what the publisher or marketing is doing here. He does add a few factual comments about his own life, but it's not autofiction, a genre that is characterized by being so fuzzily defined that no one can clearly articulate what it is or isn't. I've run into the terms "true crime novel" and "true crime fiction" and, boy, does it drive me up a wall. And a friend noticed recently that someone describes their job as "true crime reporter" which I think shows how this current obsession our society has on all things "true crime" is changing word definitions. It drives me mad, Charlotte. A thing is a thing. We don't need to dress it up. Emmanuel Carrère published The Adversary in 2001, and none of this nonsense is applied to that work of non-fiction.

Paul Harding's Booker Prize-nominated novel, This Other Eden, tells the story of the residents of a small island who have lived for generations, keeping to themselves, until it was decided on the mainland that something had to be done. The islanders are a diverse group, which further awakens the concerns of the mainlanders. Set in 1917, when eugenics was the new, exciting science that would result in a healthier population, when people deemed to be substandard were quietly sent to live in asylums where the could be prevented from procreating, the denizens of Apple Island subsist on foraging and taking in laundry or small jobs on the mainland. They live in poverty, but what that means for each household is different. Various municipal groups visit and decisions are made, utterly without any input from the islanders themselves, who view the visitors as an intrusion to be borne.

The story eventually focuses on one teenage boy with a skill for drawing. When the plans are being discussed to clear the island, the teacher manages to find a place for Ethan Honey on the mainland, where he can prepare to enter art school. His experiences away from home include meeting an Irish housemaid.

The characters in this book are certainly colorful and Harding juxtaposes the good and bad parts of this community. His narrative covers a relatively short span of time and is told in a straightforward style, and the writing is lovely. I liked this quiet novel, but it's inclusion on the Booker shortlist puzzles me.

>112 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, I’ve had This Other Eden out from the library at least twice and couldn’t get very far with it.

>113 lsh63: Yeah, this is a book that I never was really immersed in.

>112 RidgewayGirl: I like the sound of this - I'm all over 'quiet' books! - but I know what I'm like with fiction. Maybe I'll just stick it on a list and try it from the library some time.

>115 Jackie_K: I like quiet books, too. I think you might like this one, Jackie. It deals with a bit of American history that isn't well-known and the writing really leans into the natural world.

I go back inside. I need to locate someone, immediately, who is suited to handle this situation. Because I am definitely not someone suited to handle this situation. I have no special skills or talents, and nobody, ever, has put me in charge of anything.

Hardy "Hardly" Reed is a pretty happy guy. He's still paying off the few semesters of college he managed, but he's living comfortably in his landlord's garage and spends his free time, when he's not out earning minimum wage working at a failing amusement park, getting stoned with his two best friends. Then, one day when he's getting a postponement on a traffic ticket, he sees two little kids sitting alone and, approaching them, he sees signs that they are being abused. Hardly has no idea what he should do, he just knows that something has to be done.

Lou Berney writes excellent noir-style crime novels and his protagonists are what one would expect; world-weary private eyes or hit men with a conscience. Hardly is barely an adult and has never been someone anyone has ever depended on. And he has no idea of what to do. But Hardly knows he may be the only person interested in helping the two children and so he starts to figure out what he can do, and along the way he finds some help from a former private detective turned realtor, a goth girl working at the dmv, and a loud and awkward teenage co-worker.

With Dark Ride, Berney has written the kind of thriller that usually features someone like Jack Reacher as the main character, someone enormously competent and able to knock heads and use a weapon. Hardly's last claim to bravery was years earlier, when he saw his older foster brother being beat up and so went over and joined him in getting beat up. Hardly what anyone would call help. Now, up against a dangerous and violent criminal with employees who are willing to kill, Hardly may be facing daunting odds, but the thing is, for the first time in his life, he is thinking things through, making plans and doing his best. That doesn't mean that he will succeed.

>117 RidgewayGirl: I noticed Lou Berney had a new book out the other day and it has already landed on my wish list.

>117 RidgewayGirl: - I see I already have one of Berney's books on my list that was a BB from you and here's another one. I think I need to get around to him.

>118 DeltaQueen50: I look forward to finding out what you think of it!

>119 dudes22: Betty, you are in for a treat. Berney's great.

I hope to get to it soon. Lou was on CBS Saturday Morning a couple of weeks ago. They feature a book often and Jeff Glor always knows the book when he does an interview. Even though Lou has rubbed shoulders now with some of the best and most famous in the movie business he still has his feet solidly on Oklahoma City ground. I love that and maybe we can get him back to our library as we did before November Road came out. The interview:

https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/8yCGvOW_KJuTGVJ3YHTRV_LsepIB8pxq/

>121 clue: Thank you for the link. That was a solid interview. Imagine being Lou Berney and being insecure about your writing. That does give insight into Hardly. And while the city Dark Ride is set in isn't specified, I think it's Oklahoma City.

Baxter is a complex man. He's a Black man living in Canada in 1929, he's also a gay man living when homosexuality was illegal. He's a man with a dream of becoming a dentist, and his job as The Sleeping Car Porter for the railroad provides him a way to save up for dentistry school. It's a hard job, though, from dealing with the routine racism without losing himself or the tips he receives in lieu of a paycheck, to the long hours required of him. Sleeping car porters are available to travelers for the entire journey, which means long, sleepless nights. The novel concerns itself primarily with one trip from Montreal to Vancouver, a trip made more difficult because Baxter didn't sleep well the night before he started his multiple-day shift.

Suzette Mayr won Canada's prestigious Giller Prize for this book and it is well-deserved. This novel is well-researched and beautifully written. Mayr's portrayal of Baxter's increasing sleep deprivation is especially well done, and she here has created a character who feels entirely like a real person. The other people traveling on that train, from the other porters to the wide variety of passengers are likewise fully realized, even as Baxter, from whose point-of-view we witness this trip, thinks of them more as stereotypes. Who would have thought that the story of a man whose great aspiration is dentistry school and whose main goal is to keep his head down as he does his job in the hopes of not amassing an demerits or in giving anyone a reason not to tip him would be such a wonderful character to spend time with?

Everything green is something that's survived.

Back in 1995, Bodie was a student at an expensive boarding school in New Hampshire, when one of her classmates is murdered. A man was quickly convicted of the crime. Now, decades later, Bodie is back teaching a short class on podcasting and one of her students decides to look into this "historic" crime. What follows is Bodie remembering and reexamining her past, especially her music teacher. The man convicted of the crime may not be the murderer and in digging into the past quickly stirs up a lot of people and creates a lot of mess.

The waitress saw what I was reading. She said, "You'd think if she was all that troubled, she'd have told the producer."

Rebecca Makkai's new novel, I Have Some Questions For You, compares how we looked at sexual harassment a few decades ago with how we now see those same actions. It also looks at how we view allegations has a lot to do with what we think about the person being accused. Makkai is good at diving into fraught issues and leading the reader into uncomfortable spaces. This is a messy book, with a protagonist whose motives and actions are often less than ideal, but Makkai knows how to tell a story and I enjoyed every page of this slightly bloated novel.

Wellness by Nathan Hill tells the story of a relationship, from its heady beginnings between two very young people who felt out of place and lonely until they found each other, and afterwards were able to enter into the world of art students and college students who were part of a slowly gentrifying Wicker Park in Chicago. They were entirely wrapped up in each other, but in the present day, after marriage and a child and having put a sizable down payment on a condo in a renovated factory in a prestigious neighborhood, things begin to fall apart. Elizabeth, the scientist, points out that they are just at a natural low point in their relationship and she's happy to put space between them, insisting that the new place have separate master bedrooms. Jack, an artist and adjunct professor, is much less sanguine about the distancing. As they veer apart and then come together to try to refresh their marriage, it's not clear if they can stay together or if their relationship was ever on solid ground.

There's very little that author Nathan Hill isn't interested in and this novel digresses all over the place. Luckily, when he wanders off into, say, the history of artists depicting the American prairies or even how the Facebook algorithms work (something I have negative interest in) it is all worth reading and well-incorporated into the novel. Yes, this novel is longer than it *needs* to be, but cutting everything unnecessary out would make for a far less rich and entertaining book. He occasionally sends up people and situations in ridiculous ways, but always pulls the story back into its grounded center. And by taking the time to fully draw both Jack and Elizabeth's childhoods, as well as how their relationship and daily lives function, Hill makes this portrait of a marriage feel very real.

Hi Kay, just checking in to see what you've been up to reading wise. Going in reverse, I've been curious about Wellness, maybe I'll wait until the list goes down a bit.

I loved I Have Some Questions For You. And way back at >117 RidgewayGirl:, I just got this Dark Ride from the library yesterday, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

>126 lsh63: It's like we're reading twins, Lisa.

Just got a book sent to me by a good friend.



She introduced me to these rooms when we were at the Art Institute this summer.

Look, friends, I baked a cake! It's my daughter's birthday so there will be a big family dinner tonight.

>129 RidgewayGirl: Looks delicious, and I love the decoration!

Very pretty and looks yummy!

Thank you! The decorations were my attempt to not cover myself in frosting, which is what happens every time I try to fill the icing bag and my record with making nice looking shapes with the fancy tips is uneven, at best.

Looks good Kay! But you can’t tease us with pictures of your baking without telling us what kind of cake. I’m living vicariously hahaha.

>133 lsh63: Carrot cake, which was the consensus at the family meal where we discussed this, along with the request for it to have plenty of cream cheese frosting, which it does. My daughter's favorite dessert is cherry pie, but she is content to wait a month and have it on Thanksgiving.

>129 RidgewayGirl: Beautiful cake! Very professional looking. The decoration is perfect for a carrot cake. Cherry pie is my favourite too.

ETA Now I want carrot cake.

>129 RidgewayGirl: - Looks very yummy. I'm a big fan of carrot cake - best way to get vegetables, I think.

>129 RidgewayGirl: It's beautiful! Now I want a pretty carrot cake AND a cherry pie!

>135 VivienneR: Cherry pie is the best pie flavor. Luckily, my daughter's boyfriend's favorite pie is pecan, which is also my father's, so I may be able to only bake two pies for Thanksgiving.

>136 dudes22: It's almost a health food, really.

>127 RidgewayGirl: I like baking and making a cake that looks pretty is a lot of fun, but a giant cake is a lot to have in the house. Fortunately, everyone ate a lot of cake last night and my daughter took the remainder home with her. I am looking forward to the holiday season, which is my chance to do a lot of baking.

In Between Us, a group of friends gets together for a weekend in a country home. A decade ago, they all worked together at a bookstore and they have remained close friends, although the cracks are beginning to show. Some of them have high-powered and high-paying jobs, others are just making ends meet. Roisin and Joe, who have been together since those bookstore days, are at the end of their relationship. As Roisin makes decisions about where to go from there, she's drawn in several directions, from returning to help out her problematic mother back at the family pub, as well as seeing an old friend in a new light, although maybe Joe will figure out what to say to fix their relationship.

Mhairi McFarlane writes fun Chick Lit novels, except in hers the secondary characters have their own full lives and don't just exist to showcase the main character. This is normally one of the best things about her novels, but here there were so many secondary characters, with so much going on in their lives, that the book felt simultaneously over-packed and thin. It was still fun, and all the individual elements were very interesting, but the whole did not add up to the sum of its parts here.

I hear you about cake in the house, I made an applesauce/spice cake Sunday and finally put it in the freezer, because I kept justifying eating a piece every day. My granddaughter's birthday falls around Thanksgiving so there were a couple of years when there was birthday cake and pie happening at the same time. Not good lol.

>140 lsh63: Yes, exactly. When the kids were both living at home, any baked goods would be gone in a few days, sometimes in a few hours. The trick is to have targets for the baked goods mapped out ahead of time.

>142 dudes22: - So true! I'm always looking for a good foster home for part of whatever I bake.

After university, Sophie moves to Toronto from the town of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, ready to start her adult life, move on from her mother's death, to dive into the life of the artist and to become part of the community. She feels uncertain and out of place, but she has her childhood best friend with her, a guy who is unceasingly supportive. She ends up with a job at a bar, where she meets and quickly falls for Maggie. But inevitable complications arise between Sophie and her two lovers, and Sophie is uncertain of her feelings about the things she can't control.

Mudflowers by Aley Waterman is a novel about a self-absorbed young woman figuring out what she feels about the people in her life. Coming from a complicated upbringing -- within a few pages she veers from describing how her mother would pour shots for her and her best friend when they were twelve, to reflecting on what a great mother she had -- Sophie constantly assesses her feelings, rewriting her narrative to reflect how she feels about a given person as circumstances change. Waterman almost makes this work and her writing is lovely. Her depictions of both Corner Brook and St. Johns, Newfoundland were vivid and memorable. This novel will certainly appeal to those who enjoy watching a character have big feelings and then think about those feelings.

I've now read all but one of the Booker shortlist, but am having trouble finding a copy of Prophet Song. I put a purchase request in at my library and today received an email telling me they were ordering it, with a US release date of December 12, and they would hold it for me as soon as it arrived. This new library system I'm in is very small, but more responsive than any other I've had a card with.

I read two spooky books to end the month and it strikes me that November is a better month, atmosphere-wise, for spooky books. October is all about the wonder of the leaves changing color. November is when the branches are bare and creepy.



Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein is shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize. It's also a novel full of a weird something-isn't-right foreboding from the very first sentence: It was the year the sow eradicated her piglets. What follows is told from one woman's point of view, a woman who comes to this northern land to be a housekeeper for her brother. She doesn't speak the language or understand the culture of this isolated village, she's worked hard to live a life of service, to be humble and unassuming, yet every effort she makes to fit into village life seems to cause the locals to be more wary of her. As the novel progresses, certain comments she makes, corrections or late additions to the record, suggest that she may not be the innocent she represents herself as, that her story of her own past might not be as simple as presented.

Nothing had happened, I told myself, no catastrophe, no untimely encounter. I was fine, I thought, pressing my face into the pillow, I was whole. All might still be well. Perhaps all manner of things might after all be well.

This is a subtle book and one that requires a slower reading. It's beautiful on a sentence level, with long, complex sentences in places that ask to be read carefully. The sense of menace is enhanced by the writing, the purposefully ambiguity as to the setting, and the way the sentences twist back upon themselves.

This is the second anthology I've read that was edited by Joyce Carol Oates, and let me just say that she knows how to pick a good story. Or maybe, when JCO calls and asks an author to write a short story for a collection she's putting together, the author brings their A game instead of hammering out something the night before it's due. The second scenario is the more likely one, don't you agree?

A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers collects works from a wide variety of women writers, from Margaret Atwood (a truly imaginative story called Metempsychosis, or The Journey of the Soul about a snail whose soul is transmogrified into the body of a young woman), to Tananarive Due (Dancing, in which a woman can no longer control her feet), to Elizabeth Hand (with a riff on the story of Bluebeard's wife called The Seventh Bride, or Female Curiosity). The quality of the stories is high, and the variety is impressive. I've discovered a few new authors to look for and I got to enjoy new work by favorites.

>146 RidgewayGirl: Taking note of this one. At the same time, I think I am in the mood for something by JCO and will have to look and see what I have.

>145 RidgewayGirl: & >146 RidgewayGirl: Nice finish for October! I enjoyed A Darker Shade of Noir too. Isn't it a fabulous cover?

>144 RidgewayGirl: I find this small town library has much better service that any other library I've used. They always buy any books I recommend - although I usually find what I want in the collection or at the on-order stage. And I love being greeted by name even by new staff.

>144 RidgewayGirl: I love going to the desk with my books and hearing, "Oh, I don't need your card." We've had self checkout for a couple of years and I've yet to see anyone use it.

>147 DeltaQueen50: Judy, she has such a distinctive style. I can start a story and tell right away that it's JCO.

>148 VivienneR: Yes, there is so much to be said for a well-run, small library system. Although back in Greenville, a large system, I walked into my branch after living in Munich for three years to have the librarian tell me that she hadn't seen me in a while.

I've read another collection edited by JCO, also from Akashic, which was just as good -- a collection of crime stories called Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers.

>149 clue: Unless they are busy, I prefer to hand my books over to a librarian to check them out. I wonder if that's an age thing?

>149 clue: - >150 RidgewayGirl: - Our library system had us using the self-checkout during Covid and I think I just got used to it. Plus it never seems like the same person is on the desk.

I was ruining my life a little every day, and although I see now that these things were redeemable, I've always found starting on a clean page more inviting than amending an imperfect first attempt.

Daphne arrives in Berlin with no real goal outside of learning a little German. She's sure in a new place she'll make friends and create a life for herself that she really likes, where she is a better version of herself. But of course things proceed differently. For one thing, she's lonely in this new place where she doesn't know anyone and has no prospects for friendship outside of her German class or dating apps. For another, she has very little to occupy her time. She runs a lot, focuses to a frightening degree on her food issues and finds herself menaced, both by a stalker and by someone who throws a rock through her apartment window. She wasn't coping well before things became dangerous and she doesn't do well under duress.

Bea Setton's novel is set in one of my favorite places and begins like that kind of novel I enjoy in which a woman makes mistakes and either learns and grows or really embraces her tendency toward disaster. But Setton's doing something else here, giving a portrait of a young woman who is seriously unwell and far from anyone in a position to help her. People do try, but in the way of acquaintances, eager to not be too pulled into her life. As the novel progresses, small contradictions creep in, then more obvious ones; Daphne is not just presenting her side of the story, she's also lying in her internal monologue and there's are jarring discrepancies not only between how she sees herself and how others do, but between how she sees herself from one moment to another. I admire how well Setton managed to make this all work, even as it made me more and more uncomfortable being in the mind of a mentally ill woman who was not receiving the help she needed.

>152 RidgewayGirl: That sounds a bit grimmer than I'm up for RN, but great review. I'm feeling anxious for the character even without having read the book!

I did think of you when reading another Berlin-set novel, Liminal, wondered if you'd come across it.

>153 charl08: The novel did make me anxious, especially since the narrator was playing off her clearly disordered thinking as fine. I hadn't heard of Liminal until this moment and I've put it on my wishlist. I'm a sucker for books set in Berlin and fortunately this city has not become the setting for terrible books in the way Paris has. Matter of time, I suppose.

State of Emergency, Jeremy Tiang's sweeping novel about a family during the tumultuous period from the end of WWII through the end of colonialism and the founding of Malaysia and Singapore and the political ramifications that continued for decades. The novel begins simply, with a boy on his way home from school seeing a girl at a protest and talking to her. They begin a relationship that will eventually lead to marriage and two children, but his life as an English-speaking schoolboy on his way to a job in the civil service is a long way from hers as a Chinese-speaking communist who is detained for her views and never entirely safe in this new country. As she disappears and her children grow up without her, her absence affects them into adulthood, when her son decides to find out what happened.

I know very little about the history of that part of Asia and Tiang's novel does a fantastic job of informing the Western reader about the events and factors that formed Singapore and Malaysia, from the British treatment of suspected insurgents during the Malayan Emergency, to the methods used to repress dissent, especially from communist groups. And while the history was fascinating, Tiang also weaves a very human story about family and the connections between people. An impressive debut novel and I hope to see more by Tiang.

I was looking at reviews for a book over on Goodreads and found this hilarious admission from what must be the least successful bookstore owner in Britain: ... I have a bookshop, I'm used to my customers not liking my recommendations and me not liking what they read...

Eliza Clark's novel Penance is written in the form of a true crime book, and so effectively does she inhabit this space that I read the first few pages and couldn't figure out why I had picked up true crime by a disgraced journalist unwittingly. Even after reassuring myself, I would find myself googling names, trying to find out what wikipedia had to say about the murder. It's an unsettling format and all the more because Clark does such a convincing job of it.

The story follows that of five girls; the dead girl, the three teenage girls who murdered her, and another girl who knew the girls involved. It is structured as a non-fiction account of a famous crime, with the addition that the author of this work of non-fiction is a disgraced journalist who is accused of having stolen personal writing belonging to some of the girls and used that to write novelistic chapters. The murder is brutal and that the killers were three teen-age girls meant that there would be media interest, although the early interest in this case was spearheaded by a few particularly lurid true crime podcasts.

Clark is covering a lot of ground with this novel, ranging from an examination of the appeal of true crime podcasts and media, the dark underbelly of which is the canonization of mass murderers as well as a sense that the public deserves entry into the lives of those involved in a crime; the fine line between non-fiction and fiction and how to maintain the divide (there is no situation in which I am willing to accept the term "true crime novel"); and, at the heart of all of this, a sensitive story about growing up in a dead-end seaside town on the east coast of England, and all the complexities involved in being a teenager.

Clark took on an ambitious project with this novel and that she pulled it off so convincingly is impressive.

>156 RidgewayGirl: I think many librarians would have a deja vu at this comment...

>158 MissWatson: I wonder. I was once quite snobbish about books and which were worthy of my attention, until I got involved with a literacy non-profit and saw how those books I tended to sneer at were the ones that turned kids into readers. If you're involved in pushing books, you have to meet readers where they are and learn to listen to what they want to read, because the surest way to make someone a reader is to give them books they like reading, rather than put them off because you've made reading into a chore. While there are plenty of books I will never read myself, I am happy they exist and have given books I think are terrible to people as gifts if I know they will love them.

On the other hand, I was in a book group with a retired librarian who loved to sneer at romance novels, so you're probably right that not all librarians are fully committed to celebrating literature in all its permutations.

The List, Yomi Adegoke's highly anticipated novel about sexual harassment and cancel culture, is set in London, where Ola and Michael are the social media "It Couple" of Black Britain, set to be married in just a month's time. She is a journalist working for a feminist website, Michael is just starting a job at another website, boosted by his popular podcast, when an anonymous list of unsafe men, accused of everything from sexual harassment to rape, is released on-line and both of them are shocked to see Michael's name on this list. Ola, asked to write about the list, delays as she struggles with whether she believes the anonymous accusation, while Michael is hurt by her doubts, even as he suspects he knows who added his name to this list. As the wedding grows ever closer, it seems too late to call it off, but both are unsure of how to handle the situation they find themselves in.

The premise of this novel is a timely one, and that the protagonists are Black and British gives a different angle to the issue. A novel is a good way to wrestle with the various complex issues touched on in this book, like how we assess accusations differently when we know the person accused, how people on social media often behave differently than they do (or at least we hope they do) in real life, how the ability to remain anonymous both protects the vulnerable but leaves room for misuse and false accusations, or how women and men are affected differently by being accused or of knowing a person accused of sexual harassment. There's potential here.

It is, however, an unfulfilled potential, because of the writing, how the characters are written, and because of how the question of Michael's culpability resolves itself. This is a novel where jaws drop, chills run up spines and people feel like collapsing to the floor with shock, and who do actually collapse with shock. This is not a book interested in subtlety; the two protagonists have outsized reactions to every event they experience, while the supporting characters remain steadfastly true to the broad stereotypes to which they've been assigned. Each setback they face causes both of them to react in the same way; by taking to their beds and refusing to take action or talk to the person they most need to talk to, which in this case is each other. The climactic moment of this novel is one that would have been avoided if a single character had a teaspoon of common sense and the conclusion of the novel is one that made me sorry to have spent the time reading it. There were some moments of insight, but they were too few to make this novel worthwhile.

>159 RidgewayGirl: Yes, if it gets people to read it's worth spending money on. But I think on the other side of the loan desk there's a bit of despair about having to offer so many books that just seem to rip off whatever the latest best-selling theme is. Acres of vampires, wizards and whatnots. Let's hope that sometimes they have readers who actually enjoy exploring the other section.

>161 MissWatson: Librarians like escapist literature as much as the next person. They aren't all reading Homer and Tolstoy, but like cozy mysteries or thrillers or any of the other genre stuff that is different from the sparkly vampires or bodice rippers only in subject matter. We all like genre literature, we just vary on which flavor is our favorite. I just finished a hard-boiled pulp novel by Raymond Chandler which is just as escapist and frivolous as Where the Crawdads Sing or a YA fantasy or a whimsical mystery set in a teashop. Even when we also are challenging ourselves with our reading and working to read about experiences far outside our own, we also like a little fluff in with the heavy duty stuff. Which leaves all of us with no room to sneer at the kid who reads manga. I don't doubt librarians do sneer at what people check out, I just think they haven't given much thought to their own reading habits as they do so.

>161 MissWatson:, 162 This is an interesting topic from a lot of angles. Right this minute I can think of 4 (out of about 10) working at our library who are readers and one of them doesn't read fiction. I have noticed lately a new young person on the desk that seems to know current fiction in all its genres so maybe she can be added to the list. It's very depressing to me but that's how it's been a long time. All of our department heads are required to have an MLS but that doesn't mean they read.

For those of you who are interested in the Tournament of Books, or just like to look at a list of new books, the longlist for the ToB is now out.

https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/the-year-in-fiction-2023

>163 clue: Agreed. I do find it strange that the librarians at my library cannot recommend books as, like you say, I think maybe 2 of the 7 actually read, in any genre.

On a related topic, when I was a secondary school teacher a lot of English teachers didn't read for enjoyment. The biggest fiction readers (and I was one of them) were science teachers. Does it have something to do with reading for work, I wonder?

>166 pamelad: Maybe. But I know some of my son's high school English teachers (have known them since they were kids) and they were never readers. In fact, they often tend to recommend which movie/series version is the best of the books being studied as they know the kids will not read them. Very sad.

>164 RidgewayGirl: - I've heard of some of them although I haven't read any. (And I didn't take the time to read descriptions yet) I really need to get to the point where I'm reading current books instead of trying to catch up on books I never got to.

There are some very interesting books lined up for the Tournament of Books. Thanks for the link. My wishlist has definitely gotten longer!

>168 dudes22: Betty, I have the opposite problem -- I'm always reading the newest, shiniest book when I'd really like to read from those stacks of older books. There are just so many books!

>169 DeltaQueen50: I've noted several myself, despite this list being significantly shorter than in years past.

>170 RidgewayGirl: I'm with >169 DeltaQueen50:, I'm desperately trying to read what I have and avoid all those new shiny books. I figure I'll get around to the shiny books some other time. Still, I checked all the books in your link, just to be sure. Thanks for that post.

Rachel's in her final year at university in Cork, Ireland when she takes a part-time job at a bookstore. It's 2009, and her parents are not weathering the economic crash well, which shakes her out of her comfortable middle-class existence. She and James get along beautifully, quickly developing the inside jokes and secret language of longtime friends. It's 2009, and James is reluctant to be openly gay, although he is in a relationship with an older, married man, a man he met through Rachel, who is taking a seminar with the professor. As they both enjoy life and struggle to figure out what they do next, what kinds of relationships they will have, what kind of career they can put together, the one constant is their friendship.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue is a straightforward coming-of-age story. While this novel is set in a very specific time and place, this story of a young woman trying to figure out how to be, trying on different identities while always seeing herself as larger and more inept than other see her, is a universal one. O'Donoghue has taken the ordinary and made it into something that shines. This is a very well-written and well-structured novel that allows Rachel to make some mistakes and bad decisions while never making her a mess. She's figuring out what adulthood entails, just like everyone has to. It's also refreshing to read a novel like this that isn't set at some elite university located in London or New York. Cork in 2009 is vividly described, that feeling of being in a place that holds your entire world while also being aware that it isn't a particularly large or important location. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

Dames! Gangsters! Banter! Crime! We all know what to expect from a hard-boiled detective novel and The Big Sleep is one of the novels that set the rules for the genre. Author Raymond Chandler began his career writing short stories for pulp magazines and then moved on to writing books, all about his private eye, Phillip Marlowe. Marlowe is a loner with a love of banter, a misogynist with white knight syndrome, a guy who doesn't carry a gun but knows how to throw a punch (and take one). The story is a little muddy, with lots of different criminal groups with complicated relationships, but the point of this book isn't the plot, but how fun it is to watch Marlowe do his thing. There are a few striking pictures of life in Los Angeles during the Depression, with some people living in luxury, others scrambling to find a few bucks and others living in back staircases or alleyways.

It's fun to think of a book written as a pulp novel, not intended to be more than a fun, escapist read, has endured and become a classic. Of course, it's still a fun read.

>173 RidgewayGirl: reading classics, I see. I just packed up my copy of The Big Sleep a few weeks ago. Dropping by to see what you've been reading.

>174 VictoriaPL: So good to see you here, Victoria! It was my mystery book club book, so when we were all making suggestions for next year, I suggested Queenpin.

Happy Thanksgiving Kay!

I've really enjoyed Stephen King's detective novels, even though he sometimes veers back into horror. He's set up a solid series with Holly Gibney, a socially awkward middle-aged woman, running the Finders Keepers agency, working with Pete, a retired cop, and with part-time assistance from Jerome and Barbara Robinson, teenage prodigies. This installment centers firmly on Holly, with Pete out of action with covid and the Robinson siblings helping out, but preoccupied with their own lives.

King lets readers know from the beginning who the bad guys are, yet keeps the suspense level high as Holly slowly pieces together the clues, missing a few, finding some red herrings along the way. This novel isn't horror, although there is plenty of horrible events along the path to solving this one. I enjoyed this novel and love King's foray into a genre I love and how he has set things up for this to be a solid series. At this point, King is guaranteed a bestseller slot for every book he writes and it's to his credit that he is continuing to write with such energy and imagination.

>177 RidgewayGirl: I was looking at this in Mr Kay's on Black Friday. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

>173 RidgewayGirl: I recently read The Big Sleep for the first time and was pleasantly surprised by how funny it is! I definitely want to read more by Chandler.

>178 VictoriaPL: I like it best when he sticks to the detective novel and skips the supernatural stuff and here he does that. I like the character a lot.

>179 christina_reads: Yes, I was surprised, too. Chandler's not as good as Dorothy B. Hughes, but I'll happily read another by him.

The house felt alive around him, its walls and stairways exhaling their stealthy breaths. Why had he and Kathryn felt they needed this particular assemblage of plaster and wood and glass? It seemed a foolhardy move, hubristic and reckless, to buy such a large old house and believe they could bring it to heel.

Direct Sunlight, Christine Sneed's newest collection of short stories is wonderful. Each story takes a moment out of someone's life and give a glimpse into their wider life and concerns. Each story is different from the others and each ends at the right moment. Even the funniest story in this collection, The Monkey's Uncle Lewis, has a moment where a character's bizarre behavior is illuminated so perfectly.

There's no science fiction or flashy experiments, just well-told and beautifully written short stories. I wish there was a bigger market for this overlooked form, because the writers who excel at this should be encouraged to write more of it.

But enter professional publishing, and suddenly writing is a matter of professional jealousies, obscure marketing budgets, and advances that don't measure up to those of your peers. Editors go in and mess around with your words, your vision. Marketing and publicity make you distill hundreds of pages of careful, nuanced reflection into cute, tweet-sized talking points. Readers inflict their own expectations, not just on the story, but on your politics, your philosophy, your stance on all things ethical. You, not your writing, become the product--your looks, your wit, your quippy clapbacks and factional alignments with online beefs that no one in the real world gives a shit about.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang begins with two young authors. Athena is successful and has just finished her first draft of a new novel, this one centered on the Chinese workers who helped the allies in France in the First World War; June is struggling to find a foothold after her first novel didn't sell well. When Athena suddenly dies, June takes the manuscript and so begins her journey as an author with a book publishers want to print and that readers are willing to buy. But along the way, her journey as a white woman who has written a book about the Chinese experience is marketed and positioned in ways that aren't entirely honest and June is always worried that her theft will be revealed.

And once you're writing for the market, it doesn't matter what stories are burning inside you. It matters what audiences want to see, and no one cares about the inner musings of a plain, straight white girl from Philly. They want the new and exotic, the diverse, and if I want to stay afloat, that's what I have to give them.

This is a novel about cultural appropriation, and also about social media and a scathing look at how the publishing industry operates. Kuang is doing a bunch of stuff all at once, all with the breezy, easy style that conceals how much Kuang is taking on with this novel. It felt sometimes like a parody, except every over the top event in this book is similar to real events. Kuang is simply putting them all in the same book. June's own very unexamined racism felt jarring -- Kuang here creates a sympathetic character who does bad things -- yet not a single thought of hers or reaction wasn't one I hadn't heard another person saying. Lots to think about with this one, and despite all the issues the author took on, this was a lot of fun to read.

>182 RidgewayGirl: Glad you liked it so much. I'm gradually working my way up the library hold list.

>183 pamelad: In my library system at least, it's faster to get my hands on a physical book than on an ebook when there are holds. I put Yellowface on hold in both formats, and the book made it on to the library hold shelf while the ebook still had dozens of people ahead of me.

>184 RidgewayGirl: - I have a friend who requests a book in large print if it's available because she thinks it comes faster.

>185 dudes22: I've definitely requested large print books on occasion for that reason!

In the saddest of news, my good pal, the International Pillow King, pictured on my first post of this thread, has died. He loved parties, toddlers and dogs, but especially pillows. He lived a long life, living in two states, two countries and on two continents.

So sorry for your loss. :(

>187 RidgewayGirl: Oh no! I'm so sorry :(

>187 RidgewayGirl:, Oh, I'm so sorry! What a perfect picture to remember him with. I'll be thinking of you.

>187 RidgewayGirl: I'm sorry to hear it too, but it seems it was a life well lived. I 'don't think I've ever known a cat that liked toddlers!

>187 RidgewayGirl: So sorry for the loss of your kitty.

Sorry to hear of his passing. I can't have pets where I live so I rely on fellow LTers letting me share their pets with their photos and stories. He was so very beautiful and I know you will miss him.

Sorry to hear this, Kay, I'm sure you miss him very much. What an amazing life to remember.

I'm so sorry, Kay. Our pets make our lives richer in so many ways.

Thank you all. He did have a good life, on his terms, because he gave us no choice. And with four other cats living in this house, there is plenty of fur therapy available.

I'm so sorry for your loss. He looks like a fine old boy.

>197 Jackie_K: Jackie, he was the most charismatic, friendly guy you would ever meet. But as a reminder that life goes on, here is my Freya, high on the nip.

Sorry to read of the passing of your treasured pet.
I sometimes wish there was something available that seemed as good as catnip is to cats!

>199 Helenliz: No kidding. They do love it so.

I'm so sorry about Tarzan. I'm glad that you have Freya, Homer and the others for furry comfort.

>201 NinieB: Yes, it isn't like there aren't still plenty of cats around! I am grateful for them now, as they do their best to provide fur therapy.

>198 RidgewayGirl: What a brilliant picture! I can't work out where she's put her back legs!

>203 Jackie_K: Her back feet are white and you can see them up at waist level. She is very limber. That picture is pure joy, isn't it?

>198 RidgewayGirl: I can practically hear Freya saying "WHEEEEEEEEE" when I look at this picture :D

>205 rabbitprincess: I sprinkled the bowl with nip, thinking the cats would take turns and she stayed in the bowl all day, with the other cats just lined up, hoping she'd be done soon.

Mary is a dutiful and loving wife until her husband's need to control every aspect of their life drives her away. But she's still very much tied to him, through their child and because he holds all the money, and his wealthy and powerful family make sure she's still doing what they want. Her sister-in-law left her husband's brother earlier and she sided with her husband's family in that mess, too timid to help her SIL retrieve her own possessions and believing the stories the family now tells about her. So now she's living in places owned by her husband, trying to resuscitate the career he insisted she leave when they married and dealing with the drudgery of the full-time care of a toddler for the first time. Then, at the playground, Mary meets another young mother and for the first time in a long time feels like she has a friend.

Keep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen is the story of two ex-wives, one willing to fight for what is hers and for her freedom and one who keeps hoping that her husband will change, or that her in-laws will love her again, and of one woman's best friend, who is willing to do what it takes to support her friend. Told in alternating viewpoints of the meek wife and the good friend, this thriller involves murder and deception, but is told primarily from the point-of-view of the least interesting character. It's such an interesting choice by Konen to lead with this narrative, and give hints of the real story in the portions narrated from Willa's point of view.

As with most thrillers, this one doesn't entirely make sense, but it's well written and fast paced and fun. Mary may want to just go along with what she's being told, but the author is looking out for her and there is plenty of vengeance against abusive husbands, which given how horrific all the men in this book prove to be, is very satisfying indeed.

I'm sorry to read about the loss of your fur baby. A local friend lost hers this weekend too.

>208 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori. It is hard to lose a family member, but the other cats are trying to fill the void. Fortunately, our oldest guy, Homer, just had his annual vet visit and the vet said he was unusually healthy for his age, so I'm hoping to not have to lose another for some time.

Hi Kay, just checking in, I’m sorry about your cat and I would like some of what Freya is having to get me through work tomorrow 😜.

>210 lsh63: I don't know how productive you'd be, Lisa!

I'm so sorry for the loss of your beautiful cat. It's such a heartbreaking event.

>212 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne.

When I first started to look for a copy of this book, the only thing I knew about it was that it was the one book on the Booker shortlist I hadn't read. By the time I finished reading it, it had won the award and become the subject of some controversy -- although that seems to boil down to sour grapes. I will say that it's a little disheartening that in 2023 the Booker shortlist is still dominated by white writers and male writers, with the favorites all being three white dudes named Paul. Despite that, the shortlist was a good one, in my opinion, and I especially liked the inclusion of two very subtle, quiet books. The one that won, however, yelled loudly.



Prophet Song is set in a sort of present day Dublin, Ireland, except that an authoritarian party has taken charge of the government. Eilish lives a comfortable middle class life with her husband, who works for the Teachers Union, and their three children; a seventeen year old boy, a girl just beginning her teenage years and an infant. Things quickly become more difficult for Eilish's family when her husband is arrested in the wake of a teachers's strike. Then her own job becomes less secure, graffiti and petty vandalism appear on their house and car and her son is expected to sign up for military service. As the danger rises, Eilish is stuck between trying to just get through each day, caring for her family alone, caring for her aging father and deciding whether to try to leave.

Paul Lynch's novel takes a situation faced by so many people in so many different countries, and puts it squarely in an affluent Western location. It's definitely a book with a message, but the rising tension and the way Lynch manages to put the reader squarely in Eilish's head means that it doesn't feel ham-fisted. The reader lives with a woman doing the best she can in an untenable situation, feeling her determination to hope for her husband's return, her worry for her oldest son, her daughter's anxiety, her father's ability to cope on his own, her infant son's well-being.

This isn't the most beautifully written novel on the shortlist, although it is well-written, it certainly choses force over subtlety, but there's a lot here to admire.

>214 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, my hold on Prophet Song came in this morning and it’s next in the rotation. I’ll have to refresh my memory about how many books on the shortlist I read. Just for fun, what would you say is the best that you read?

Adding: I haven’t read Study for Obedience and tried a couple of times with This Other Eden.

>215 lsh63: My favorite was Western Lane, a small, subtle book that said a lot about grief in the spaces between the words. I had to read that one twice. My other favorite was Study for Obedience, which was weird and atmospheric and also subtle. I didn't like This Other Eden, but I know many people did.

Here's a book published by one of my favorite small presses, Hub City Press, based in Spartanburg, SC, which focuses on work by Southern authors. They put out great stuff and I was happy to see this novel made it all the way to the Midwest. It was financed in part by a fund created by Charles Frazier, another Southern author.



The Say So by Julia Franks begins in 1959, when a girl from Atlanta moves to Charlotte, North Carolina and makes friends with Luce, who had been part of a clique until her parents's scandalous divorce (all divorces at that time were scandals) got her kicked out of it. Edie is tall and pretty and could find a place in one of the popular groups (although not the married couples group -- marriage laws being different in North Carolina) but she prefers to spend her time with Luce and they quickly become very close, despite their differences. Luce has dreams of college and a career while Edie loves fashion magazines and feels comfortable in a world that expects her to make a good marriage. Their bond continues even when Edie becomes pregnant and is sent to a special home, but the strains begin to show and their friendship is lost. Twenty-five years later, Luce's daughter is facing the same situation as Edie.

The Say So looks at who gets to make decisions about pregnant women's lives and how those options change over time. This is a well-researched novel, and one that looks carefully at how unmarried women and girls who became pregnant were treated by the law, by society and by the very groups that formed to help them. While the earlier timeline was the more compelling story, the one set in 1984 was a reminder that even then those who became pregnant were still not given full agency over their own bodies and decisions, often for well-meaning but misguided reasons. I did wonder how a further timeline would look, being written about Luce's granddaughter today might look.

Franks has written another novel, Over the Plain Houses, also concerned with how women's lives looked in the past, and I'm interested to see what project she undertakes next.

All That Remains: A Life in Death is a memoir by British forensic pathologist Sue Black. It's a mix of one woman's memories of growing up in Scotland and of how she decided first on studying anatomy and then becoming a pathologist, and of some of the cases she worked on, both solved and unsolved. The heart of the memoir centers on her time working in Kosovo to help bring the perpetrators of massacres to justice and help find the identities of the dead for surviving family members. It's grim and exacting work done under very difficult conditions and it's clear that Black thrived in that environment, able to use her extensive knowledge to its fullest. When it comes to describing the cases she's worked on, this book is fascinating.

Black is not a writer and her stated purpose for writing this book is to leave her grandchildren with a record of her memories, which accounts for the odd mix of family stories, childhood memories and descriptions of how she was able to discover causes of death and/or give identity to badly damaged corpses. While I was far more interested in her professional life, her memories of childhood were were charming in a low key way and it's impossible not to admire a grandmother who intersperses her more ordinary memories with a description of how her beloved uncle died face first in the Sunday soup.

>218 RidgewayGirl: I've already got this one on the pile for a challenge next year, I'm looking forward to it. The forensics lab she set up at the University of Dundee is world-leading.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has a fantastic portrait of Sue Black painted by Ken Currie: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/233512

>219 Jackie_K: Jackie, the end of the book talks about raising money for that facility. It's not so easy to get people excited about donating to build a morgue.

>220 rabbitprincess: What a great portrait.

You Will Never be Forgotten is a collection of short stories by Mary South. South is great with the initial hook, creating opening paragraphs that astonish and delight. Here's the opening for Keith Prime, the first story in the book:

The Keiths are Keiths because they are not particularly handsome, not particularly intelligent, not particularly kind. A Keith would never train to compete in professional sports or practice an instrument until he became a maestro. Neither would a Keith jump in front of a loaded gun, but he would help you gather the contents of your grocery bag if you spilled it on the sidewalk.

You want to read a little more, don't you? Or how about this one?

If you're reading this page, chances are you've recently heard that you need to have a craniotomy. Try not to worry. Although, yes, this is brain surgery, you're more likely to die from the underlying condition itself, such as a malignant tumor or subdural hematoma.

That's from Frequently Asked Questions About Your Craniotomy; South is also great at coming up with intriguing titles. The ideas that South tackles in her stories remind me of early George Sanders, with one story centering on a summer camp for teenage cyberbullies, another about a grieving mother forcing her new daughter to live her dead daughter's life, one is told from the point of view of the fandom for a science fiction tv show. Where these stories sometimes fall short is in finding the heart of the story behind the clever ideas, and not every story gels on the page to become something greater than an idea stretched into the shape of a short story. But the ones that do, really shine.

Hope by Andrew Ridker begins in the summer of 2013, in the pleasant, upscale community of Brookline, Massachusetts, where Scott and Deborah Greenspan are throwing a dinner party, a dinner party that is abruptly ended when Scott receives a phone call that signals the downfall of the Greenspan family. Taking place over the following year, Ridker follows each member of the Greenspan family, from Scott, watching his career and his marriage collapse when he is caught cheating on signing up his patients for a medical study; to Deborah, who runs to her lover, a woman who runs a chain of charter schools and who may be less compatible with Deborah than she had initially thought; to their two adult children, Gideon, whose hero-worship of his father is taking a serious beating, and Maya, whose past has just grabbed her and forced her to reassess what happened to her in high school.

This is a traditionally structured novel, well-told and well-written, which means that it was a very enjoyable book to read. I like experimentation and authors trying new things, but there is little more satisfying than a well-executed traditional novel. As in his previous novel, The Altruists, the characters are all a little silly, their conflicts a little exaggerated, but here it holds together better, as Ridker finds his feet as a novelist. There's a lot of heart here, and even thought it takes place a scant decade ago, it feels almost like a historical novel, the Obama years feel so far away now.

It's 1943, and in Boston, Anne is working hard writing her column debunking the rumors floating around. She'd like to tackle weightier matter, but it's a battle to keep her column focused on the serious rumors instead of the sillier ones her editor would like to see featured. At least she's not stuck covering fashion or the society pages. Devon is an agent with the FBI, a job he fought hard to get and still deals with a lot of bias, given his Irish Catholic roots. In The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen, both characters are involved in looking into increasingly complex crimes. Of course, eventually their paths, and the crimes they are following, merge.

The US has entered the war and feelings are running high, both the patriotic fervor that has everyone looking around to see who isn't doing their part, and the anti-war sentiment, as those attracted to fascism find it hard to let go. Not to mention the money to be made if obeying the law isn't a priority, with munition factories, an active harbor and people gearing up to live in a wartime economy after the austerity of the Depression.

I am so tired of novels set during WWII, and yet enjoyed this one despite myself. Mullen writes well and has a talent for creating complex and nuanced characters, even in the tertiary roles. And here Boston is a lively and distinctive place. Altogether, a very enjoyable read.

The Rumor Game is definitely going on my wish list.

>225 DeltaQueen50: I've enjoyed every book of Mullen's that I've read.

>226 RidgewayGirl: I am the same! I consider Thomas Mullen, Wiley Cash, and Lou Berney (along with many more) to be like buried treasure - and I wouldn't have found them except for LibraryThing!

>227 DeltaQueen50: LT has certainly made my reading a lot better. I like Cash and Berney a lot, too.

After loving Louise Kennedy's fine novel, Trespasses, I was eager to read her short story collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac. Kennedy's short stories have a melancholic feel to them and concern themselves with relationships, between spouses, between relatives, between lovers, or the aftermath of those relationships. These are not people who are thriving, but who are frustrated, or sad or simply trying to get through each day. They are beautifully told and there are few writers who can bring to life fully realized settings and situations in just a few sentences.

To all who celebrate, Merry Christmas! An odd one this year, as with my daughter and her partner working today, we had a big dinner and opened stockings yesterday, with another dinner and presents happening on Thursday. So today was a quiet day in which I did do some reading and not much else.

I'll get my 2024 thread set up soonish.

It sounds like a very relaxing holiday. I hope you enjoyed it and will have a lovely post-Christmas dinner on Thursday.

>231 sturlington: I did enjoy the quiet day, but it's weird to have stacks of presents still wrapped and under the tree on Christmas evening.

>230 RidgewayGirl: Merry Christmas to you and your family - whenever you celebrate! As usual it was a quiet holiday for us but our email and phone was kept busy.

Your little cat is adorable. Isn't it amazing how cats know how to look good?

>233 VivienneR: Our sweet one-eyed Melmoth was striking a pose here, wasn't she?

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward is the story of Annis, her childhood enslaved on a North Carolina plantation working as a housemaid in her father's house, close to her mother, who protects and nurtures her as best she can, teaching her about her grandmother, who was brought over from Africa. Then first her mother is sold, then Annis is sold and marched to New Orleans to be sold, entering into worse circumstances with every mile deeper into the South.

Ward is a brilliant writer, her words sing from the page and her use of magic realism folds naturally into this very harsh story. I avoided this novel because although I loved Sing, Unburied, Sing, it was clear from the description that this novel would be hard to read. But eventually I did pick it up and it is a testament to how well Ward writes that a novel as unrelentingly bleak as this one would flow so beautifully. It's both horrifying and gorgeous. I will likely never want to read this book again, but so much of it is sitting with me, inhabiting my imagination now.

Rachel last saw her hometown, Portland, Maine, a decade ago, but now that her mother has died, she's back. Now fifty, she hopes menopause means that the hormones that helped her make some regrettable choices are no longer in play, giving her (she hopes) a new, hard-fought-for clarity.
She plans to do what needs to be done and then return to Washington DC and her journalism career with her sanity and dignity intact. Of course that doesn't happen.

Welcome Home, Stranger by Helen Christensen is about the pleasures and impossibility of going home in middle age, especially when your adult life has been defined in being as far from that place as possible. Rachel and her sister had a difficult childhood, their widowed mother hard at work staying young and wild, money always being short. And her relationship with her sister fractured for reasons Rachel doesn't know. Returning is hard, and when it turns out that she may be staying awhile, her ability to justify her own decisions and actions become less tenable by the day.

Christensen writes well and it's unusual to find menopause handled as more than a complaint or a punchline. Rachel may be fifty, but she's a Pulitzer-winning journalist and her high school boyfriend keeps turning up like a recurring heat rash. She's an aging woman who is still an active participant in her own life. She manages to hide her own responsibility behind the language of therapy and her judgements of others change depending on her last encounter with them. She's far too complex to be an entirely sympathetic character, but the way she keeps trying to figure things out is always interesting.

We celebrated a little late this year, to fit everyone's schedules. It's harder now that one child is out in the working world, but even a little late, the time was fun and included this fine stack of books to add to my shelves and tbr.

That's a lovely stack of books!

>238 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy. I think it is very fine.

I don't think I'll finish another book before the new year, especially given that I keep starting new ones. Here's my assessment of this year's reading: pretty good, I say. I had hoped to be less drawn into lists and awards and to be able to just read randomly, but given that I don't think I'm going to suddenly become someone uninterested in what's new, I did ok, and I enjoyed what I read.

Random Percentages

Of my reading in 2023:

11% were by men

52% were by Americans or authors living in the US

11% were by British authors or authors living in the UK

9% were works in translation

57% were by authors from North America

One book was by an author from South America

5% were by authors from Africa

9% were by authors from Asia

21% were by authors from Europe

One book was by an author from Oceania

These were my five star reads:

Hi Kay, you've done some great reading this year. I have a hold on The Rachel Incident at the library, and I think The Midnight News was a five star read for me also. Now that I think about it, the BB probably came from you.

>241 lsh63: It was a great reading year, but with so many people reading and talking about books here, how could it have been otherwise? I'm looking forward to finding out what you think of The Rachel Incident.

>237 RidgewayGirl: I haven't read anything by Tan Twan Eng but I've recently bought two by him. The reviews of The House of Doors I've read have been very good, I hope you like it.

I have a three-book volume by Naguib Mahfouz and was planning to read one of them for one of the Bingo squares this year but didn't get to it. I'm really hoping to read one in 2024. (Although none of the 3 is the one you read.) I like a lot of the stats you keep and would like to do better myself. Maybe 2024.

>243 clue: Same. I was given a copy of The Garden of Evening Mists a few years ago, but even though it was in the stack of books I want to read soon, I never managed to read it. I'm deciding which book to tackle first.

>244 dudes22: I really enjoy keeping track of things like author nationality and publication date. I do love a list. I'm eager to read more by Naguib Mahfouz and have a copy of the sequel to the book I read this year.