ADVENT 2025: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS

 

ADVENT: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS

We are officially in Advent season! I love Christmas and everything about it. One of my favorite traditions is an advent calendar of sorts here on the blog, counting down the days to Christmas with vintage holiday cards. I know this advent countdown has nothing to do with books, but most booklovers I know are like me and also love ephemera, like vintage cards. This is the 17th year I've posted an advent calendar here on Rose City Reader!

To see more vintage cards, click on the "Advent" or "vintage postcard" tags at the bottom of these posts (or bottom of the page) to find hundreds of images from past years. You will find nativity scenes, Santas, wreaths, Christmas trees, elves, cats, birds, dogs, deer, ornaments, gifts, candles, bells, and lots more!

THIS YEAR'S THEME

Some years I have a theme, some years it's catch as catch can. Last year I went for a wreath theme. This year it's going to be a mishmash. My real life Christmas has no theme either. It's a crazy month as I try to wrap up a few law cases before the end of the year and there's just a lot going on. I usually have my tree up by now, but not this year. I hope to go buy one tomorrow and get it decorated. 

DECEMBER BLOGGING

I always plan to do holiday-themed blog posts every year, but never seem to get around to it. There's a lot going on in December! But I hope to get a few Christmas-temed posts up. I have a stack of Christmas and winter book on my nightstand that I hope to read this month. And I treated myself to a stack of the British Library's Christmas "Crime Classics" that I want to post about and start reading. 

It is also the time of year to plan next year's reading challenges. I am hosting the European Reading Challenge again in 2026 and a TBR 26 in '26 challenge. I will get those posts before the end of the year, I promise!

What are your blogging plans for December? Do they include planning or posting any 20265 reading challenges?

Please join me tomorrow when the Rose City Reader advent calendar continues!

The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment, which is what I'm doing this week. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Talk about mean! Odd Henderson was the meanest human creature in my experience.

-- from The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote.

The Thanksgiving Visitor is a short story by Truman Capote originally published in the November 1967 issue of McCall's magazine, and later published as a book by Random House in 1968. It's a childhood tale about a boy and a bully bothering him and was inspired by Capote's own childhood in Alabama. 

I thought this would be a good pick for Thanksgiving week. For those of you celebrating, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving and a relaxing holiday weekend! If you want to read The Thanksgiving Visitor, it is available online here. There is also a beautiful Modern Libray edition combining another, connected story called One Christmas.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Thanksgiving Visitor:

The noises of the house were lovely, too: pots and pans and Uncle B.'s unused and rusty voice as he stood in the hall in his creaking Sunday suit, greeting our guests as they arrived. A few came by horseback or mule drawn wagon, the majority in shined up farm trucks and rackety flivvers.

I pulled that from roughly 56% of the way through the book because the story is not 56 pages long. 

 

A Map of Her Own by Dede Montgomery -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

A Map of Her Own by Dede Montgomery

Dede Montgomery’s new book, A Map of Her Own, is historical fiction at its best. The novel offers a braided narrative, with one story set in 2024 and the other in 1912. Both take place in the Pacific Northwest and feature independent women finding their identity and purpose under challenging circumstances.

In the contemporary story, Celia is in Astoria, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia, looking for a new occupation when her job on a commercial crabbing boat ends abruptly. Celia enjoys the excitement, freedom, and natural beauty of working on a fishing boat, but not the low wages that require her to also work as a waitress to make ends meet. In the historical story, Emma works in for a paper mill in its paper bag factory in Camas, Washington, also on the Columbia River. Like Celia, Emma works in a male-dominated field that presents unique struggles to the few women working in it.

The two stories are connected by the Columbia River and the common experiences of both women. Montgomery skillfully weaves the two storylines together, offering insight into the working lives of her characters and women in general. The Pacific Northwest, with its beauty and difficulties, makes a memorable backdrop to the story.

If you like immersive novels with strong women characters and a strong sense of place, you will love A Map of Her Own. It is an excellent book club pick or holiday gift.

NOTES

Read teasers from A Map of Her Own here on this Book Beginnings post. I interviewed Dede when her Beyond the Ripples book came out. Read my interview here. You can also check out Dede's website for information anbout her and her writing. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

It's 2024 in Astoria, Oregon. Celia's return to another crabbing season is over before it begins when the boat captain suffers a heart attack, hastening her decision that this would have been her final season anyway. Now all she has to do is figure out what to do next. Simple. Right.

It's 1912 In Camas, Washington. Emma is proud of her job making paper bags at the Columbia River Paper Company, but resents her family's expectations for her to also take care of her younger siblings and help with the household chores after her shift is over.

Celia and Emma are both searching for their true selves in a world where women either give in to society's and family's expectations or have the courage to create their own destiny.

Persuasion by Jane Austen -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

Sorry I flaked out last week and forgot to post Book Beginnings. I was in trial in Los Angeles and didn't think about books or blogs or anything else until I got home. Then it was too late. I'm back in LA for another of these mini-trials today. But this time I remembered to scheule the post early. More exciting (for me at least) is that this is my last work trip to LA. I have one more of these trials after Thanksgiving, but it is by zoom. Thank heavens. Then I will be all finished with these Boy Scouts sex abuse claims. It has been a long haul. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened:

"ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL."

-- from Persuasion by Jane Austen. That's a long, long opening sentence! I like a shaggy opening sentence like that, but I understand why it isn't nearly as recognizable as the opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Peruasion is that last novel Jane Austen completed before she died. In celebration of the 250th anniversary of her birth this year, I've reread her six major novels. Emma is still my favorite, but I do like Persuasion very much. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Persuasion:

Captain Wentworth was on the watch for them, and a chaise and four in waiting, stationed for their convenience in the lowest part of the street; but his evident surprise and vexation at the substitution of one sister for the other, the change in his countenance, the astonishment, the expressions begun and suppressed, with which Charles was listened to, made but a mortifying reception of Anne; or must at least convince her that she was valued only as she could be useful to Louisa.

She endeavoured to be composed, and to be just.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

At twenty-­seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen's last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.

October 2025 Monthly Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

October 2025 Monthly Wrap Up

I read a lot in October because of a lull in my work schedule. Then November blew up and I forgot to post my monthly wrap up. Here's the list of the 19 books I read last month. 

The Luck of the Bodkins by P.G. Wodehouse. Madcap fun on an ocean liner.

Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblewaite by Anthony Trollope. This is the only book I managed to read for Victober 2025 and I admit I was disappointed. I loved the both the Barchester and Palliser series. This is the first stand alone Trollope book I've read. The story was soppy and a real downer. Unlike most of Trollope's female characters, the heroine was a nitwit. 

The Light of Day by Graham Swift starts as hardboiled detective fiction and ends as a melancholy love story. It kept me entertained throughout and thinking about it after. 

Autumn by Ali Smith annoyed me until I loved it. It took me a while to get into the writing style and the story. 

Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark, a brilliant, imaginative tale inspired by the Lord Lucan disappearance. I thought it was excellent. 

The Fisher King by Anthony Powell. I’m glad I read it, but probably one for Powell completists like me. It's another shipboard story, so I had a theme going with the Wodehouse book. 

Indian Summer by William Dean Howells. I reviewed this one in an earlier post, here. Howells was an American, so technically not a Victorian author, but he wrote in the late 1800s so this was Victober-adjecent. 

Slightly Foxed, No. 87, the autumn issue of my favorite literary journal from Foxed Quarterly. I love these essays about backlist books, even though they lead to an ever-longer wishlist and tottering TBR stacks. 

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Definitely my fave of the month. I got this book years ago, when it first came out, but never read it. I am so glad I did! I don't like scary books, but I enjoy a story like this that is brimming with eery atmosphere and suspense. 

From Harvest to Home: Seasonal Activities, Inspired Decor, and Cozy Recipes for Fall by Alicia Tenise Chew put me in an autumnal mood. After reading it, I was so inspired, I made a hydrangea wreath. 

The Anti-Minimalist House by Massimo Listri. I’m on a quest to read all my coffee table books and I liked the title of this one. It is different than most of my home decor books because the author/photographer is Italian and most of the houses featured were Italian or French. Interesting, but a different look than the English and American house books I am used to. Lots of dark colors, especially dark red, and what I think of as baroque furnishings. Not literally from the Baroque period, but heavy and ornate. 

NOT PICTURED

The Lonely Girl by Edna O-Brien. This is the second book in O'Brien's Country Girls Trilogy. I liked this one a lot because the two main characters are adults in this one, not children and teen agers like in the first one. 

Some Lie and Some Die by Ruth Rendell, book 8 in her Inspector Wexford series. I love this series and plan to continue to plow through it. 

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore was my book club’s pick for October. Not my favorite, but I don’t like stories about teenagers. And I thought the ending was absurd. 

The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell, the second book in her Hilary Tamar series. I read the first book this summer and was excited to find audiobooks of the other three books. Lawyers who drink wine, travel around Europe, and solve mysteries -- and the books are very funny. I love this series and wish there were more than four of them.

The Sirens Sang of Murder, also by Sarah Caudwell, the third book in the series.

A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker. His Bruno series is getting on my nerves. This is the 17th book and I am happy there is only one more to go (at least until he writes a new one). I loved this series at first, really loved it. Bruno is a viallage policeman in France who loves to cook. Wonderful! But Walker adds interesting and charming characters in every book then can't let any of them go. Trying to work two dozen or so recurring characters into every story limits the available plots. The books are getting repetitive but this one put me over the edge -- Walker forgot to include a murder mystery! The bodies in the grave in the woods were from WWII and there was no perpetrator to aprehend. 

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz, book three in his Susan Ryeland series featuring a book editor turned amateur sleuth. Unlike the Bruno series, this one is still fresh and lively. I love it.

Falstaff by Robert Nye -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Falstaff by Robert Nye

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I was begotten on the giant of Cerne Abbas.

-- from Falstaff by Robert Nye. Interesting first line. The story he goes on to tell is quite funny.

Robert Nye's 1975 novel, Falstaff, is the ficitonal memoir of Shakespeare's beloved comic character. It's rollicking, bawdy historical fiction at its best. The book has been on my TBR shelf for a long time, ever since I read about it in Anthony Burgess's book, 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939, a Personal Choice. I've loved many books that I read because they are on Burgess's list and, only a few chapters into this one, I can tell it will be another favorite. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Falstaff:

Being made page in a great household was supposed to prepare you for entry to court circles later on. I dare say the preparation lay in listening to the conversation of 1's betters, and in learning what to lick and where to crawl.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The most beloved comic figure in English literature decides that history hasn’t done him justice—it’s time for him to tell the whole unbuttoned story, his way. Irascible and still lecherous at eighty-one, Falstaff spins out these outrageously bawdy memoirs as an antidote to legend, and in the process manages to recreate his own. This splendidly written novel is a feast, opening wide the look and feel of another age and bringing Shakespeare’s Falstaff to life in a totally new way. Like Jack Falstaff himself, it’s sprawling, vivid, oversized—big as life. We return in an instant to an England that was ribald, violent, superstitious, coursing with high spirits and a fresh sense of national purpose. We see what history and the Bard of Avon overlooked or avoided: what really happened that celebrated night at the windmill when Falstaff and Justice Shallow heard the chimes at midnight; who really killed Hotspur; how many men fell at the Battle of Agincourt; what actually transpired at the coronation of Henry V ("Harry the Prig"); and just what it was that made the wives of Windsor so very merry.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It was November. Although it was not yet late, the sky was dark when I turned into Laundress Passage.

-- from The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Are you reading anything special for Halloween week? I do NOT like scary, so no horror, ghosts, vampires, or gruesome crimes for me. That limits my choices!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield seems like a good pick. It’s been sitting on my TBR shelf for years, long after it ceased to be super popular. I’m about a quarter of the way into it and it’s perfect for me. It has just the level of eerie atmosphere, suspense, and melodrama that I enjoy. There may be ghosts, but not so far! 

Have you read this one?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Thirteenth Tale:

In the shop my father was sitting at the desk with his head in his hands. He heard me come down the stairs and looked up, white-faced.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author's tale of gothic strangeness—featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Luck of the Bodkins by P. G. Wodehouse -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

The Luck of the Bodkins by P. G. Wodehouse

The Luck of the Bodkins is typical P. G. Wodehouse, which makes it typically delightful. I have a Penguin edition, the kind with my favorite Ionicus covers, but I read this one with my ears. I prefer Wodehouse as audiobooks because the humor works better for me when I hear it than when I see it.

The story takes place on an ocean liner sailing from England to New York. There's a usual Wodehouse crowd of characters, led by Monty Bodkin, a rich young man pretending to have a job in order to win the hand of Gertrude Butterwick, star field hockey player travelling to a tournament in America. Other travelers include Gertrude's stodgy cousin Ambrose Tennyson who gave up his steady job in the British Navy to become a Hollywood screenwriter, and Ambrose's younger brother Reggie Tennyson who wants to work in Hollywood but his family is forcing him to take an office job in Canada. Lottie Blossom, a film ingénue who carries a pet baby alligator in a basket for publicity, and movie mogul Ivor Llewellyn provide the Hollywood connection. The well-intentioned ship's steward Albert Peasemarch is along to stir the pot.

It is a plot similar to most Wodehouse novels. There are farcical misunderstandings, room switches, a musical revue, and the need to steal back a precious item (in this case, a toy Micky Mouse). Romantic parters fall out, reunite, fall out again. Ambrose's job offer to become a film writer comes down to a monstrous misunderstanding. Someone is determined to smuggle a string of pearls through customs, but her accomplice is convinced Monty is a detective on their trail. Everything is topsy turvy, chaos reigns, and all comes good in the end.

It’s impossible to describe the humor of P. G. Woodhouse. People either love it, like me, or it leaves them cold, like my husband. Lots of laughs come from using ordinary words in unexpected situations, so just repeating the words to someone doesn’t make them laugh unless they can understand the entire context. Mostly the word play is just silly but jumps out at you when you don't expect it. For example, after several instances of the pet alligator nipping people, Ambrose (or Reggie, I don't remember) asks Lottie Blossom if her alligator is safe. She answers, "Why, is someone trying to hurt him?" I barked with laughter, but that kind of thing is not for everyone. 

Sometimes, of course, the lines are just funny, like the opening sentence:

Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.

I think my husband is just wrong.

Are you a Wodehouse fan? What’s your favorite?

If We Still Lived Where I was Born by Maria Giura -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

If We Still Lived Where I was Born by Maria Giura

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

we'd be in the apartment above the pastry shoppe
where downstairs my father made cannoli and eclairs and rum baba

and my mother made trays of butter cookies and rang up customers
and balanced the books.

-- from the first, title poem in If We Still Lived Where I was Born by Maria Giura.

Maria Giura's new book of poetry, If We Still Lived Where I was Born, launches on November 4. Maria was kind enough to send me a review copy and I am greatly enjoying these engaging poems. 

I first "met" Maria in 2019 when she published Celibate, a memoir about falling in love with a Catholic priest. Read my review of Celibate here and my 2019 interview with Maria here. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from "In Praise of Silence" in If We Still Lived Where I was Born:

It used to terrify me
especially on three-day weekends.
Afraid God would speak,
that I would hear,
I'd drown Him out with plans, activity,
motion.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In Maria Giura's If We Still Lived Where I was Born, the narrator unlocks the meaning she's made of her childhood and heritage, spirituality and lost loves and draws the reader in to retrieve their own. The collection begins in the apartment above her parents' Brooklyn pastry shoppe where she imagines them still fighting, still making us, still together, then shifts to adulthood where she learns to stay still long enough to listen for the story, and then returns to childhood where her mother and aunts teach their kids to spread out their blankets and live. Moving between New York and Italy, between family and "stranger," these poems show longing and vulnerability, but also the thrill of being young and part of something larger than oneself, of making peace, and pursuing the path you were meant to. They brim with the people and places that have taught her the most and ring with pathos and celebration, from her immigrant father waiting for her on the corner . . . bread in his hand to the sister who pulled the music out of her, helped her make her own song. Beginning with a journey to a literal birth place and extending outward to many figurative places of self-discovery, this collection explores what lasts when all else passes away.

Spin No. 42 -- CLASSICS CLUB

 

CLASSICS CLUB SPIN

Spin Number 42

UPDATE: Spin Pick = No. 17!

I'm working on my second Classics Club list, with 28 of my 50 picks still to read by the end of 2028. Although I love the Classics Club, I usually miss the CC Spins they host every so often! I'm glad I caught this one in time to participate because it always inpires me to work on my CC list.

The Classics Club is an online "Community of Classics Lovers" started in 2012 to “unite those of us who like to blog about classic literature, as well as to inspire people to make the classics an integral part of life.” To join, you create your own list of 50 "classics" (loosely defined) and read them in five years. Details are on the Classics Club website.

UPDATE: No. 17 was the spin pick, which means I'll be reading The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. Great! Chekhov plays have been on my TBR shelves forever. I needed a push to finally read them. 

Every now and again, the Classics Club organizes a CC Spin. The idea is to pick books from your CC list, on a certain date the organizers pick a random number (October 19 for this one), and you read that books by a specific date (in this case, December 21).

You can find more details here, but these are the basics:

• Pick twenty books from your Classics Club list that you still want to read.
• Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday, 20th October.
• Classics Club will randomly pick a number and announce it on their website on October 20.
• Read that book by the 18th of December and share your review (if you write one) on the Classics Club website. 

My CC Spin #42 list:

1. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, Booker Prize
   
2. The Secret City by Hugh Walpole, James Tait Black
   
3. Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien, James Tait Black
4. England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell, James Tait Black
5. Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley, James Tait Black
6. The Devil's Advocate by Morris West, James Tait Black
7. Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins, James Tait Black
8. Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble, James Tait Black
9. Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen, James Tait Black
10. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, James Tait Black
11. The Field of Vision by Wright Morris, National Book Award
    
12. Them by Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award
13. Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge, Pulitzer Prize
    
14. The Store by T. S. Stribling, Pulitzer Prize
15. The Aerodrome by Rex Warner, Burgess Top 99
16. The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes, Burgess Top 99
17. The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The College Board
    
18. The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, Easton Press Greatest
    
19. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Easton Press Greatest
20. The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Easton Press Greatest 

You can tell from this list -- and my Classic Club II list in general -- that I picked my CC books because they are on the prize winners and must read lists I'm working on. The Classics Club helps me buckle down on the lists I'd like to finish.

A Map of Her Own by Dede Montgomery -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

A Map of Her Own by Dede Montgomery

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

 When she looked out to sea, Celia felt the past and future collide in a shock that excited and frightened her.

-- from A Map of Her Own by Dede Montgomery.

Mongomery's new novel is a braided story of two women in the Pacific Northwest. Celia's story takes place inAstoria, Oregon in 2024; Emma's in Camas, Washington in 1912. Both are stories of women finding their own identities despite despite others' expectations. 

See the Publisher's Description below for more details. If you like historical fiction about strong women, this one is for you! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from A Map of Her Own:

The rescue diver was in the wheelhouse. it felt like hours, although perhaps only minutes, when the rescue basket with Ed, wrapped in his blanket, floated its way to the copter.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

It's 2024 in Astoria, Oregon. Celia's return to another crabbing season is over before it begins when the boat captain suffers a heart attack, hastening her decision that this would have been her final season anyway. Now all she has to do is figure out what to do next. Simple. Right.

It's 1912 In Camas, Washington. Emma is proud of her job making paper bags at the Columbia River Paper Company, but resents her family's expectations for her to also take care of her younger siblings and help with the household chores after her shift is over.

Celia and Emma are both searching for their true selves in a world where women either give in to society's and family's expectations or have the courage to create their own destiny. 

A Map of Her Own navigates the lives of two women separated by generations and brought together by their strong connection to the Columbia River.

Indian Summer by William Dean Howells -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Indian Summer by William Dean Howells

In Indian Summer, American author William Dean Howells explores lost love, middle age, friendship, and ex-patriot life in late 19th Century Italy.

Published in 1886, the novel follows 41-year-old Theodore Colville from Des Vaches, Indiana to Florence, Italy. It was in Florence 17 years earlier that Colville fell in love with a young woman who jilted him, leaving him to nurse a broken heart ever since. By a coincidence best glossed over, back in Florence, he meets up with Lina Bowen, the mutual friend of Colville and his former lover. Bowen, widowed and with a young daughter, is living in Florence and watching out for Imogene Graham, a 20-year-old American beauty.

What follows is part an Austen-like comedy of manners, part a Henry James parlor drama. Howells is often compared (rather unfavorably) with his American contemporary. Like James, Howells can talk around a subject without getting to the heart of it. But while James goes on endlessly, with little relief, Howells breaks up the navel gazing with more action and a lot of humor. It took me a while to adapt to the slow rhythm of his writing, but once I did, the book flowed right along. Colville is a quick wit, both clown and charmer, sometimes to his own detriment as he looks for the clever thing to say instead of what should be said.

As can be imagined, the triangle of Colville, Bowen, and Graham is at the center of the story as we watch the unsurprising fallout of Coville’s desire to have his cake and eat it too. The leitmotif running through the story is age and aging. Howells subtly compares the youth and inexperience of Graham with the maturity of Bowen, both played off Colville’s mid-life crises antics. An elderly, retired minister, Mr. Waters, often drifts in to offer a more dispassionate view that comes with the wisdom of age.

Like an Indian summer, Howell’s novel is a warm spot in what can be the grey and chilly literary season of late 19th Century novels. Nothing too grim. Minimum melodrama. And no tragic ending. All in all, a pleasant holiday in Florence.

      

NOTES

I read this because I am trying to read more of my pretty NYRB editions and the title fit the season. Also, while I can't count it as a book for Victober because Howells is an American author, not technically a Victorian, I think of it as Victober-adjacent. 

London Holiday by Richard Peck -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

London Holiday by Richard Peck

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Mrs. Smith-Porter stood at the front window of her best bedroom fingering a strand of artificial pearls.

-- from London Holiday by Richard Peck.

London Holiday was published in 1998 and tells the story of three women, friends since childhood, who travel to London to rekindle their friendship and reimagine their lives. Sounds like just my cup of tea! I love a good coming-of-certain-age novel. 

I found a used copy when I stopped by one of my favorite friends of the library shops this week. I admit I waivered on buying it because Peck is a male author. Hen lit is usually written by women. Sexist of me, but there you have it. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from London Holiday:

Horrified, Julia saw there was a tent with folding chairs for family. Her heel dug spongy earth.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lesley Hockaday is a St. Louis society woman, Margo Mayhew a Chicago schoolteacher and the mother of a teenage daughter, and Julia Steadman a single, successful Manhattan interior designer. Best friends during their Missouri childhood, the passage of time, the thousands of miles between them, and the demands of family and careers have taken a toll on their friendship. When a shocking act of violence reminds them how precious life really is, the three friends decide it’s time for a reunion and embark on a long-awaited trip to London.

From the cozy confines of Mrs. Smith-Porter’s bed-and-breakfast, Lesley, Margo, and Julia enter a gracious world of high tea in the garden, antique markets, picture-perfect countryside, and unexpected romance. The London holiday presents them with more than a few surprises, becomes a journey of self-discovery and a chance to renew the bonds of friendship, and holds the promise of three new lives awaiting them.

September 2025 Reading Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

September 2025 Monthly Wrap Up 

I read a lot in September because I was stressed out about work. When I get really busy with work, I don't read much. But when I have time to finish all my work but am stressed out about it, I read a lot to take my mind off my jitters. Do you know what I mean?

Here is the list of the 21 books I read in September, in the order they appear in the stack in the picture. Have you read any of these?

PICTURED  

French Country Cooking by Elizabeth David. David is like an English Julia Child and this book is probably her most famous. It's a classic, but took me forever to read because it is so dense. 500 pages with only a handful of pen and ink illustrations, mostly for chapter headings, and the ingredients incorporated into the text instead of listed at the beginning. I'm glad I read it but don't think I'll cook much from it. This was the last book in my TBR 25 in '25 stack. Woo hoo!

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. I remember the movie playing on tv when I was a kid so I've had it in my head to read for decades and the book has been on my shelf for years. It was an exuberant, bittersweet story and I'm glad I read it, but it isn't a favorite. It counts as my Greece book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. 

Miss Mole by E.H. Young. I read this one for Spinster September and loved it. The title character has a subversive sense of humor and it was a lot more fun than I anticipated. I'd like to find and read more "Furrowed Middlebrow" books from Dean Street Press. 

No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym, another spinster book. Her books have such a Jane Austen vibe. I love them.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. This one is really popular and the author won the Nobel Prize for literature, but it was not for me. I didn't like the idea of a crime spree with no consequences. I read it the week after Charlie Kirk was killed so a story about killing people you don’t agree with didn’t feel good. Even if you throw in the John Wick-like motive. Still, it counts as a Poland book for the ERC. 

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. I had to read something by the ur-spinster for Spinster September! Alos, I'm rereading her six main novels to celebrate the semiquincentennial of her birth. Only one left!

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. I loved this book when I read it in 1992, right after I finished law school. The story of two couples who become best friends shortly after grad school hit me hard as I was starting down that same path. I reread it last month, this time as an audiobook. This time around, the story hit me from the other side, now that I am about the same age as the two couples at the end of their time as friends. It's such a wonderful novel.

The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff. I read this because of the title and am glad I did. It was a wonderful, bittersweet family story about so much more than their annual vacation at the beach.

A Guilty Thing Surprised, Murder Being Once Done, and No More Dying Then by Ruth Rendell are books 5, 6, and 7 in her Inspector Wexford series. I am really enjoying my tear through this series. Wexford is such an interesting character!

Something Old, Something New: Classic Recipes Revisited by Tamar Adler. Adler wrote The Everlasting Meal, one of my favorite food books. This cookbook interprets older recipes for contemporary home cooks. It is excellent and the perfect antidote to Elizabeth David. Unlike the David book, I will cook with this one.

The Elements by John Boyne is labeled a novel but is really an omnibus edition of four previously published novellas (with far superior covers), Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. All are quick reads and they kept me entertained, but such unlikeable characters! I had the same problem with the one other Boyne book I read, A Ladder to the Sky. It's the same problem I had with Drive Your Plow. I like the bad guys to get their just desserts.

English Country House Style: Traditions, Secrets, and Unwritten Rules by Milo and Katy Campbell. I am trying to get back to reading my coffee table books and have a whole collection of books about English country houses and decorating. This one was fabulous.

NOT PICTURED

The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien is a gem, even if I forgot to put it in the picture. The Country Girls is the first novel in the trilogy of the same name. I look forward to reading the other two.

Art, Love, and Other Miracles by Kiki Astor was a fun romance book set in Mexico City. I added it to the kindle app on my phone, which I rarely use, but like to have in case of emergency. I was traveling a lot in September, so had many opportunities to read a few pages here and there while waiting around.

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman won the International Booker Prize in 2017. I read this one with my ears. An Israeli friend recommended it and it is very good.

A Chateau Under Siege by Martin Walker is book 16 in his Bruno, Chief of Police series. I love the series but the stories are starting to blur in my mind. Martin has created a huge cast of supporting characters and getting them all crammed into every story means the stories are going to be similar. It's not like Bruno goes off by himself and solves a mystery in Thailand or something. He's there in his French village, with his two ex-lovers, assorted friends, the same co-workers, and a gaggle of neighbors. Only two more books to go, at least before he writes another one.

What were your September favorites?

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Is there really such a thing as a happy ending?

-- from Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

Marble Hall Murders is the third book in the Susan Ryeland series, preceeded by Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. I love this series because Ryeland is a woman of a certain age who works in publishing. My idea of a perfect amatuer slueth! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Marble Hall Murders:

He usually wore a jacket and tie, but for all I knew he could have been naked below the waist when we spoke online. I didn't even know if he had legs. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel and her Greek boyfriend, Andreas, in search of a new life back in England.

Freelancing for a London publisher, she's given the last job she wants: working on an Atticus Pünd continuation novel called Pünd’s Last Case. Worse still, she knows the new writer. Eliot Crace is the troubled grandson of legendary children’s author Miriam Crace who died twenty years ago. Eliot is convinced she was murdered—by poison.

To her surprise, Susan enjoys reading the manuscript which is set in the South of France and revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, days before she was about to change her will. But when it is revealed that Lady Margaret was also poisoned, alarm bells begin to ring.

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I first met him in Piraeus. I wanted to take the boat for Crete and had gone down to the port.

-- from Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis.

Zorba is an earthy and boisterous Greek man from Crete with a huge appetite for life. Sometimes, his energy is so fierce he can only express himself through spontaneous dancing and music making. He befriends the unnamed narrator, a bookworm who prefers studying Buddhism over engaging in the rough and tumble of life. The two, for reasons too vague for me to catch, travel together to Crete to open a lignite mine. 

The movie version with Anthony Quinn came out in 1964 and was often played on tv when I was a kid in the 1970s. So the notion of Zorba the Greek has been in the back of my mind for as long as I can remember. The book has been sitting on my TBR shelf for about as long. I was in Crete this summer and it reminded me to finally read this modern classic.   

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Zorba the Greek:

"Would you believe it, boss! That day was the first time I knew what a woman was."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

First published in 1946, Zorba the Greek, is, on one hand, the story of a Greek working man named Zorba, a passionate lover of life, the unnamed narrator who he accompanies to Crete to work in a lignite mine, and the men and women of the town where they settle. On the other hand it is the story of God and man, The Devil and the Saints; the struggle of men to find their souls and purpose in life and it is about love, courage and faith.