Summer Reading, and Replies to Readers

 On June 1st I picked up from Crandall Library the first book on my Twenty Books of Summer List, and as of late this afternoon, am over halfway through this fascinating novel by Mieko Kawakami. 

I don't know why I started with this news, because the issue most pressing on my brain is that Blogger is not letting me reply to comments. No biggie, but I've got to be able to reply! So, while I try to figure out the issue, I'll reply to each blogger who left comments at the end of this post. 

In fact, why don't I do this right now? Just to let you know, I have missed all of you so much.

Tracy, I have not read any of the books in The Alexandria Quartet by Durrell. I must check your blog posts about them to see what you thought. And jury duty, no less! I hope your summer will give you more time for reading, without interruption, except for your garden and summer fun, that is. 

Cath, I'm fascinated that you have read The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards. Did you enjoy Martin Edwards's The Lake District mysteries? I have simply marveled over the first three. I love the fact that one of the main "sleuths" is an historian and I really like his character, and love his detective counterpoint as well. A great match. Great stories! And an incomparable setting! Gosh--have got to look up your list of 20!

Diane, Yes, indeedy, I envision that more than one or two books will have to be substituted. Very tricky! Ragnar Jonasson's book was scheduled to be released in April, now pushed forward to June 28th. In any case, I've been following your reading and we seem to always be intrigued by many of the same authors and titles. I will look forward to your summer reading adventure. Too bad there's not a Joyce Maynard book on the roster this summer. She's on the cusp just like us!! (Celebrating mine tomorrow with a trip to the only bookstore within 60 miles of me--Barnes and Noble in Saratoga Springs.) 

Cleo, I've been meaning to read The God of Small Things for at least 3 years now--time to get on with it, and will be a great counterpoint to the others I'm reading. I must check out your list now. Have a great reading adventure this summer!

 

Twenty Books of Summer

 Once again I’m working toward trying to get back to blogging! I don’t have lots going on this summer, so I’m planning (and hoping) to write posts on a regular basis. Twice a week would be ideal, but I’ll set one entry a week as an absolute must-do goal.

Thanks so much to Katrina of Pining for the West for giving me a friendly nudge to participate in The Twenty Books of Summer. I’ve decided to go full throttle, from June 1^st to September 1^st. If I fall a bit behind, I’ll give myself until Labor Day, Monday, September 5, as an absolute deadline to finish the twenty. 

As I think I mentioned in my last post, these days I’ve been having fun reading recently published books, particularly those published this year. As a result, you’ll notice that many books on my list are not available yet, but will be in the weeks and months to come. I’ll be high-flying and crossing my fingers with the HOLDS list at the library and, yes, perhaps buying a few books. And what if some of the books that have received rave reviews turn out to be duds? I’ll announce that I’ve had to make a substitution, while also detailing why I retired a book I intended to read.

So, here goes: (All but two published in 2022.)

1.     All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami  (trans. fr. Japanese)  ck

2.     Outside by Ragnar Jonasson  (trans fr. Icelandic)  ck

3.     Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles (NF) ck

4.     The Tsarina’s Daughter by Ellen Alpsten  ck

5.     Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer  ck

6.     This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub  ck

7.     The Midcoast by Adam White  ck

8.     Flying Solo by Linda Holmes  Replaced by: The House across the Lake by Riley Sager  ck

9.     The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill  ck

10.  The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy  Replaced by The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley  ck

11.  Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark ck

12.  Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney  Replaced by Writers and Lovers by Lily King  ck

13.  The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel  Replaced by  A History of Present Illness by Anna DeForest

14.  I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart (2021) Replaced by Rumer Godden: A Storyteller's Life by Alice Chisholm  ck

15.  The Disinvited Guest by Carol Goodman  ck

16.  The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer  Replaced by:  Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes ck

17.  Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum   Replaced by: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton  ck

18.  After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris by Helen Rappaport (NF) Replaced by: The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming by David Wallace-Wells  ck

19.  The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards  (Lake District #4)  ck

20.   In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden  ck (Classics Club Spin)

2022 Roared into My World with Books

 Over the past 5 months, I haven't managed to squeeze blogging into my week. I have certainly been reading with gusto, though. 

I've really been enjoying this winter--it's been wonderful for hiking with snowshoes and also on snowmobile trails. I loved how cold it has been--a real winter. I hate to see it rush by.

My reading path for 2021 was to indulge in recently published books. I have been continuing to do the same this year for the most part. One difference this year, and a big change for me, is that I am borrowing almost all books from the library. 

My favorite book this year was Nancy Thayer's An Act of Love, a republished book of hers from 1998. It was a superb novel about a step-family of four--two adults, two teen-aged children--the adults living with  their child from a previous marriage. I believe that this novel is now my favorite of Thayer's. It was flawlessly executed--pitch-perfect. I am so in awe of her grasp of her material. I listened to it in audio, and the production was so well done.  I believe I've mentioned before that I much prefer Thayer's novels from the 1990s when compared with her more recent novels--the earlier books have so much more depth, deeper characterizations as well. I feel her more recent books just skim the surface of family relationships and emotional issues.

Captivating reads from books published this year include Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis (set in the Frick Collection in NYC), Silverview by John Le Carre. Another notable is Last September by Nina de Gramont (set in Massachusetts, in Amherst and Cape Cod). De Gramont has a new book out, The Christie Affair, which I've decided to skip. I really liked The Mysterious Mrs. Christie, which came out early last year, but one fictionalized version of Agatha Christie's 11-day disappearance is more than enough for me.

Just Kept Turning the Pages on Labor Day Weekend

 Thunder and lightning and heavy rain pounding on the roof as I begin this post. An atmosphere for murder! 

I was laid low by a germ (not Covid) over the long weekend, and all I could do was read for three days, and all I wanted was crime and murder tales, which I indulged in completely. There's nothing like a good murder mystery to make a person forget their discomfort.

I know that many of you must have read at least some of the Lake District Mysteries by Martin Edwards. I read the first in the series, The Coffin Trail, and liked it very much. Really liked the primary police detective Hannah Scarlett and the newbie to the Lake District, historian Daniel Kind. Loved it. Just what I needed. I will eventually read on in this series. 

I also loved the debut cozy mystery, The Unkindness of Ravens, by M.E. Hilliard (2021). Almost all of the action is set in a three-story nineteenth-century manse, which is the town library. Set in a community near Albany, New York, though frankly, the elaborate library setting is paramount here, rather than the upstate New York setting. Greer Hogan is a former cosmetics executive who saw the light after the murder of her husband and got her degree in library science. This novel was very entertaining, and frankly, though I find cozies boring at times, this one kept me going. I must admit I'm looking forward to the second in the series, due to appear in April 2022. Read this in less than a day. 

And I had plenty of time to finish up a chunkster I started earlier in the week--the new novel by Joyce Maynard, Count the Ways. (Rated 4.35 on Goodreads.) It was very, very good, though sad in many ways and redeeming in others. It's about a family, and a husband and wife, and everything that happens to them on their farm in New Hampshire. I love Joyce Maynard's novels. 

Ann Cleeves's second novel in her new Matthew Venn series was published yesterday, The Heron's Cry. I loved the first offering and am looking forward to getting my copy in the mail soon. 

How Are You Coping These Days?

 Just thought I'd ask the question, because at mid-summer, we're reeling from the reality of the Delta variant. Indoor dining is out for us now. And crowded outdoor dining is out, too. Masks on at all times out there. So overwhelmingly disappointing.

I hope you have good reading to keep you company. I've been so quiet lately because of an intensive online writing course I've taken this summer. I've had zero time to read many books. But I've so enjoyed the class! And I loved the feeling of digging my teeth into something BIG, with other writers for company. Such a solace!

New books: Do you recall that I said I was going to concentrate on new (2021) books this summer? I've been doing that. I will tell you that The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman was very disappointing and barely reached high enough to be deemed MEDIOCRE. Her first two books were much better than this one.

A much better report about The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. I'm two-thirds of the way through and as a thriller, it has held my interest. 

Next up: Lionel Shriver's Should We Stay or Should We Go? about a British couple, a GP and a former nurse, who decide that as they are 50-60 years old, they will kill themselves when they turn 80 years old, to avoid dementia and decrepitude. Ah! But how the years change them! I've started this one, and it's a very intriguing premise, that's for sure. 

I also have The Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi in the house. I read her first novel Homecoming and loved it. This one sounds very different, but equally interesting. 

I have loads more new books on hold, but our library has had a problem. They have reported that Baker & Taylor, who supplies most libraries with new books, has been up to two months late delivering books. The librarians are told, "It's because of Covid." Have you seen delays on your new books library holds??

 

 

 

 

My Summer Reading: New 2021 Books

 I am sorry that I have not managed visiting all of my favorite blogs recently. I hope to rectify this ASAP! And I mean it! 

It seems that my reading summer will be composed of very recently published books. That's how things are shaping up right now and how my interest is leading me. 2021 books rock!

Today I finished Stacey Abrams's suspense thriller While Justice Sleeps. I really enjoyed it, though I must confess that political thriller is not a genre I ever read. I was eager to read it because I think so highly of Stacey Abrams and her work for voting rights, and I followed her unfortunately failed bid to become governor of Georgia, and her unflagging work in the Democratic Party. So how intriguing, and how interesting is it that she had a suspense thriller on the burner--a labor of love for over 12 years, mind you--that was just published in early June?  I don't think my brain was totally prepared for all the twists and turns in this incredible novel, but I rode along with it all the same. It's on the bestseller list. And I will say that I read it because I admire Stacey Abrams so much, I was dying to see what her thriller was like. Recommended! 

 

Right now I'm in the midst of an acclaimed new Gothic thriller, Madam by Phoebe Wynne. I'm only 40 pages in, but I've been called, and Wynne is ingenious at unsettling the reader right from the first. The setting is northeast of Edinburgh, at an exclusive boarding school for girls, where nothing is right or as it should be. The young, naive protagonist is top of her game as a teacher of the Classics, but good teaching is not what is required of an instructor here. The setting of the school--it's set on a peninsula that juts out into the sea. Very Gothic. FUN. 

Some Recent Faves from This Year's Reading List

 Back again--I'm really not sure what has made me such a sluggish blogger this year. I have been taking writing classes online, so that might be part of it. I'm happy to be able to go to the library again on a weekly basis, and so glad not to have to worry as much. 

I enjoyed a two-day trip to the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts in early May. On the way there, I had a wonderful first-time visit at The Clark Institute, a renowned art museum in Williamstown, the town that forms the rather mountainous northwest corner of Massachusetts. From there to Historic Deerfield, where I stayed. The weather was not good, so I followed my back-up plan to visit Webs, the yarn superstore in Northampton. My evening meals were lavish and filling, but it was sad to see that so many, many restaurants have closed their doors since Covid. It was extremely difficult to find places to eat breakfast and lunch, and most of the time I didn't. I was traveling solo and I'm accustomed to meeting people, but with Covid restrictions still in place, it was impossible. I think traveling solo will improve perhaps by summer, and hopefully by next fall. 

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher: I started listening to this on audio, but quickly switched to hardcover. Definitely one of the two best books read this year, (Belonging by Nancy Thayer being the other best read), but oh, I don't know when I've cried so while reading. So many wonderful characters.

Warning! Spoiler Alert! Next paragraph for past readers of The Shell Seekers:

I simply must say that I found the death of Richard so painfully hard to take. I just couldn't accept it. It seemed so unfair, when Penelope and Richard had finally found some happiness and then... All of the deaths in this book were hard, I thought. I guess I was so swept up in the world Pilcher created--that it became almost like real life. 

Another great read was The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which some of you may have read when it was making news after its publication in 2003 or so. I've always meant to read it and finally did. This one is a family saga, though principally about the son of Bengali immigrants to America. 

I read two novels entitled Dark Horses. This came about because I was searching for the 2021 Dark Horses by Susan Mihalic in the New York Public Library e-book catalog. At that time, the NYPL didn't have this new title, but I became curious about another book, a YA novel named Dark Horses. Both books have the setting and situations of young adult women and girls in the competitive world of equestrian show jumping, a sport I enjoy following, but each has different situations and themes. I recommend them both, but particularly Mihalic's, which I was able to get eventually from our local library. I wasn't sure about it when I discovered what it was about, an intense, abusive relationship between father (coach) and daughter, but I think the author did a great job. Follow the links for more info about these two books. 

I must confess I've read what has seemed like an awful load of mediocre books this year. For my birthday, I received the novel The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (2004), set in British Columbia, about the artist Emily Carr.

 

Still Reading Like Mad--Best Audio Listens So Far

 Several of my most engrossing reads of the year have been on audio. The penulitmate was probably Belonging by Nancy Thayer, which was a re-issue of one of her early novels published in the 1990s, set on Nantucket Island and in New York City. This novel was so good, so dynamic, so charged with meaning and psychological depth that I found it hard to believe that Nancy Thayer was the author. Let me explain: Her more recent novels are fun reads, but are nowhere near as accomplished as the emotional depth and sheer panache of Belonging.  

The two novels of Elin Hilderbrand's that I've listened to this year have both captivated me, though I will say that Silver Girl, which I finished on Saturday, is still resonating and has left me disturbed and perplexed. All the loose ends were not tidily wrapped up. Not at all, not for a single one of the characters. I'm not at all angry about this, but I'm coming to see it as a way for the characters to live on in my imagination, forcing me to conjure all sorts of future scenarios for each person. How skillfully rendered this ending was, in that respect!

Just yesterday late afternoon I started listening to The Shell Seekers by the late Rosamunde Pilcher and this will be a very long audio project because it's at least 500 pages, if not more. So far I'm trying to warm up to Penelope's daughters--love these flawed, uncertain, searching characters! I've been waiting to read this one for so many years, it seems. I've read Winter Solstice twice, and I'll read it many more times, but that's it.

Yes, all of these novels are meanly characterized as "women's fiction," a label that even in publishing, despite the fact that they rake in as much money as those on the "male" bestseller list, is definitely intended to demean the genre. But frankly, and I think I can declare this as a reader of so-called "classic literature," that the writing is no less skilled than that of any other genre, I am totally assured of that.  If one knows anything at all about literature, it's clear that each of these novels is the product of a skilled artisan, that is for sure.

Opening Up

 Yesterday the day was so deeply dark, and so rainy, that we decided to escape to a restaurant an hour away for a late lunch. I made sure I tired Sandy out beforehand, walking her up and down and all over so that she would bear being crated for about three and a half hours. Yes, Sandy is one of those dogs who is extremely anxious if she is not crated. She's as calm as can be in her crate when we're gone. We return home to a sleepy dog. And so food and loads of exercise for her, and off and away Ken and I went!

It was a late lunch, when few people in the very large restaurant were present. Our dining experience was stellar. The food was excellent--we each had a glass of wine and talked books a lot, our plans for the coming months, and politics a little. Just enjoying each other's company. What bliss, really.

I am becoming such a fan of Ann Cleeves. Years and years ago I read Raven Black, her first crime/mystery novel, and although I liked it, it was very, very dark, and when several other readers I know told me the next volume was even more grim, I moved on and did not continue with that series. Then, just last fall, I read her latest in another series of her books, the Vera Stanhope series, and was entranced. I love the way Ann Cleeves sets up scenes--so sharply, so clearly, and so distinctly that they become unforgettable so that they endure as I read on. This aspect reminds me of the scenes in the early novels of Elizabeth George (Lord Lynley novels).   Now I am reading a brand new series that Anne Cleeves has recently published in 2020. The first novel is The Long Call and it features Matthew Venn, a detective working in North Devon in England. Dear Reader, I started it at 6:30 am this morning and have read nearly 100 pages. SO GOOD. At least it hits all of my criteria for what a great crime novel should be, to my taste, that is.