ADVENT
13 Days to Christmas!
Friday, December 12, 2025
Thursday, December 11, 2025
The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay -- BOOK BEGINNINGS
BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay
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 have known the Melbury family since the time when Jennifer, the youngest daughter, and I climbed trees and built wigwams together in the Flaxmere garden.-- from The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay. I like that beginning. You can tell from the get go this is a country house mystery because "Flaxmere" just sounds like the name of a Stately Home of England. I adore country house mysteries, especially one set at Christmas.
The Santa Klause Murder is a Golden Age crime novel first published in 1936. The British Library reprinted it in 2013 as part of its Classic Crime series. The BLCC series features many Christmas-themed mysteries and I'd like to read them all. My book club picked this one for our December meeting.
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 The Santa Klause Mystery:
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.
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
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 The Santa Klause Mystery:
Ladey Evershot, who has no little ones of her own, is never behindhand in giving her opinion about other people's, and she seemed to have some idea that Santa Klaus was old-fashioned and the children would see through him. Well, I must say I like a bit of old-fashioned fun at this festive season myself.
FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION
Aunt Mildred declared that no good could come of the Melbury family Christmas gatherings at their country residence Flaxmere. So when Sir Osmond Melbury, the family patriarch, is discovered―by a guest dressed as Santa Klaus―with a bullet in his head on Christmas Day, the festivities are plunged into chaos. Nearly every member of the party stands to reap some sort of benefit from Sir Osmond's death, but Santa Klaus, the one person who seems to have every opportunity to fire the shot, has no apparent motive. Various members of the family have their private suspicions about the identity of the murderer, and the Chief Constable of Haulmshire, who begins his investigations by saying that he knows the family too well and that is his difficulty, wishes before long that he understood them better. In the midst of mistrust, suspicion and hatred, it emerges that there was not one Santa Klaus, but two.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Red & Green Books to Put You in the Holiday Spirit -- BOOK THOUGHTS
BOOK THOUGHTS
Red & Green Books to Put You in the Holiday Spirit
I'm in a festive mood because I finished my last trial yesterday. The last one! I've practiced law for over 33 years, the last 18 spent working with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. My work was rewarding and I love the clients I've helped over the years. But I now have one foot and the toes of the other over the line to retirement. There’s still a fair bit of administrative wind up for my last cases, but (knock wood) I won’t have to go to court again. I loved my lawyer career, but I’m ready to spend time with my retired lawyer husband.
Now I plan to spend more time playing with my books, like this, and reading them. See any books here you’d read or have? I started A Christmas Treasury and am enjoying it tremendously. Just what I needed tto transition from work-mode to holiday-mode.
Blood Upon the Snow (1944) by Hilda Lawrence
The Case of the Abominable Snowman (1941) by Nicholas Blake
A Holiday for Murder (1938) by Agatha Christie
The Gilded Man (1942) by Carter Dickson
Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976) by Maya Angelou
Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens
Elizabeth David’s Christmas (2003 compilation) by Elizabeth David
The Drunken Botanist (2013) by Amy Stewart
Evergreen (2023) by Lydia Millen
A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories & Poems (1994), edited by James Charlton and Barbara Gilson
Snow White and Other Grimms' Fairy Tales (2022 MinaLima Edition) by The Brothers Grimm
The St. Nicholas Anthology (1952) edited by Henry Steele Commager
The German Christmas Cookbook (2023) by Jürgen Krauss
Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook (2020) by Regula Ysewijn
Alpine Style: Bringing Mountain Magic Home (2024) by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Monday, December 8, 2025
If We Still Lived Where I was Born by Maria Giura -- BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If We Still Lived Where I was Born by Maria Giura
I try to read poetry every morning, but I am no student of the genre. I don’t know what makes a poem a “good” poem or what I should look for in poetry to judge its merit. I feel a little intimidated by poetry. This all makes it difficult for me to review books of poems and I usually avoid doing so. But I thought Maria Giura’s memoir, Celibate, was fascinating and well-written, so I was willing to read and review her new poetry collection, If We till Lived Where I was Born.
I’m glad I did. Giura’s poems are accessible, evocative, and interesting. They read like little stories, mostly about her life with her extended Italian-American family. They are thoughtful in tone but never maudlin. The way they focus on everyday matters stirs up similar memories that make them easy to relate to. One called “December 8” I particularly liked and, since today is December 8, it is the perfect one to share:
Our mother always waited untilIf We Still Lived Where I was Born is a collection of poems that can be appreciated and enjoyed by poetry connoisseurs and readers like me who shy away from poetry. I highly recommend Giura’s new book.
the Immaculate Conception,
before she decorated.
She pulled out
garland and lights
and the gold, antique fruit,
danced the Christmas tree
into its red-bowl stand.
She sprayed the windows
with snow
and belted
Christmas Card to You
with my sisters and me.
She tied the mistletoe
and spread the tablecloths,
hand made ornaments she hung with satin string.
Outside she wrapped lights
around both sides of our house,
fixed colored bulbs into the Holy Family
except for Jesus dim in His hay.
She baked and shopped, wrapped and cooked,
poured herself out.
In other homes, Christmas started
the day after Thanksgiving,
but we waited.
How could the Savior of the world be born
without his mother,
how could I have learned
to cherish my faith
without mine?
NOTE
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.
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Saturday, December 6, 2025
November 2025 Monthly Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS
BOOK THOUGHTS
November 2025 Monthly Wrap Up
My Life as a Man (1974) by Philip Roth. This was a mobius strip of a book. It starts with two short stories featuring a Nate Zuckerman prototype. The second part is a novel about Peter Tarnopol, the author of the two stories, which turn out to be based on his (also fictional) life. Both the Tarnopol and Zuckerman are alter egos of Roth, so it really spirals around itself. Only Roth could pull of a stunt like this.
Highland Fling (1931) by Nancy Mitford, her first novel. Although not as polished as her later novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, this was a fun country house romp reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh or Anthony Powell.
The Devil’s Advocate (1959) by Morris West was an undercover gem. I loved it! It is the story of a terminally ill priest assigned to investigate the possible sainthood (ie: play the Devil's advocate) of a man who died in the war in an Italian village. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1959.
Persuasion (1817) by Jane Austen, my final reread in celebration of her semiquincentennial.
Brazil (1994) by John Updike. This was an odd one about star crossed lovers in Brazil. There's a cross country adventure, gold mining, cannibals, and a fantastical twist that turns the story on its head. Add a lot, lot, lot of graphic sex to confirm that this one was not for me even though Updike is one of my favorite authors. Apparently, when you are as successful as him, you get to experiment.
Shake Hands Forever and A Sleeping Life, both in The Third Wexford Omnibus by Ruth Rendell. These are books nine and ten in her Inspector Wexford series, which I like more and more as I work my way through it.
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. This short book was the last in a boxed set of Thoreau’s major works. I finally finished the others, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden, and The Maine Woods, so, being a completist, I reread this one.
L’Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home by David Lebovitz. I always enjoy a good expat memoir and this one adds cooking (with recipes) and a disastrous home remodel, so it was extra fun.
Girls in Their Wedded Bliss (1964) with Epilogue (1986) by Edna O’Brien. This is the sad, final book in her Country Girls Trilogy.
Falstaff (1976) by Robert Nye. This 1975 book of historical fiction has been on my TBR shelf for years. It is the fictional autobiography of Shakespeare’s beloved comedic character. His picaresque adventures were highly entertaining. Not only did he participate in the historical highlights of the 1400s, he met other Shakespeare characters along the way. But the sex talk was over the top. It went from bawdy to downright raunchy to sometimes pornographic. A little went a long way and a lot went too far. I’m glad I read it but it’s not for the faint of heart. The book is on Anthony Burgess's list of 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939, a Personal Choice.
The Complete Stories (1999) by Evelyn Waugh. I was in a readalong group on Instagram that read all Waugh's fiction over the last two or so years, one every other month. We finished with the short stories. I loved the entire experience.
The Green Knight (1993) by Iris Murdoch, a typically delightful shaggy tale by one of my favorite authors.
The British Baking Book: The History of British Baking, Savory and Sweet (2020, US Ed.) by Regula Ysewijn. This was interesting and there are several recipes I'd like to try, but is Britain really so obsessed with dried fruit and candied peel?
Ivanov (1887) and The Seagull (1896) by Anton Chekhov are not in the picture above because I forgot. I’m trying to read more classic drama and I'm glad I read these, but I can't say they are favorites.
Friday, December 5, 2025
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Afterward by Bristol Vaudrin -- BOOK BEGINNINGS
Afterward by Bristol Vaudrin
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
Afterward, I broke open. I cried.
-- from Afterward by Bristol Vaudrin.
Afterward is a new novel that explores the aftermath of tragedy. The exact tragedy is not revealed until the end, so we watch the protagonist deal with what happened and her boyfriend's subsequent hospitalization without really knowing just what happened.
I admit, the cover gives offputting Charlie Kirk vibes. But Afterward gets nothing but 5-star reviews on amazon and is generating a lot of buzz. I was happy to accept a review copy and look forward to reading it.
Read more about Afterward in the publisher's description, below, and on Bristol Vaudrin's website.
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.
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.
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 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 Afterward:
She was shocked at my news about Kyle."Oh, honey, that's just awful! When did it happen?
FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION
Torn from her normal routines-coffee, sex, barhopping, and disc golf--she finds herself in an unfamiliar world of hospital visits and doctor's appointments, all while navigating an unexpected move to a new apartment and enduring the disapproval of her boyfriend's mother, as well as the gossip of her friends and coworkers. (Plus the suspicious looks of strangers, and the unbearable strain on her credit card...and did we mention the gossip of her friends and coworkers?) Along the way, she meets every obstacle with...well, not grace, exactly. In fact, pretty much the opposite of grace. Maybe more like bitchiness, truth be told. And all the while, the aftereffects of the tragedy cast a pall over everything she does--and threaten to destroy everything she has.
Bristol Vaudrin's fascinating debut novel is an engrossing and darkly comedic read with an unforgettable narrator/protagonist. Watching her struggles--real, imagined, and in-between--we too must choose between kindness and judgment, between condescension towards someone who simply doesn't have a clue, and empathy with a person struggling to deal with something we all must face: the desire to hold on to the things we enjoy when the world around us changes in ways we didn't expect.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Monday, December 1, 2025
ADVENT 2025: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS
.jpg)
ADVENT: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS
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!
Thursday, November 27, 2025
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.
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.
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 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.
Monday, November 24, 2025
A Map of Her Own by Dede Montgomery -- BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A Map of Her Own by Dede Montgomery
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.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Persuasion by Jane Austen -- BOOK BEGINNINGS
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.
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.
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 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.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
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 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 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.
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.
Thursday, November 6, 2025
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.
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:
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.
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
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.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
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.
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.
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 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.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
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?
Thursday, October 23, 2025
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-- from the first, title poem in If We Still Lived Where I was Born by Maria Giura.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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
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.
Saturday, October 18, 2025
Spin No. 42 -- CLASSICS CLUB
CLASSICS CLUB SPIN
Spin Number 42
UPDATE: Spin Pick = No. 17!
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:
- The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, Booker Prize
- The Secret City by Hugh Walpole, James Tait Black
- Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien, James Tait Black
- England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell, James Tait Black
- Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley, James Tait Black
- The Devil's Advocate by Morris West, James Tait Black
- Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins, James Tait Black
- Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble, James Tait Black
- Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen, James Tait Black
- The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, James Tait Black
- The Field of Vision by Wright Morris, National Book Award
- Them by Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award
- Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge, Pulitzer Prize
- The Store by T. S. Stribling, Pulitzer Prize
- The Aerodrome by Rex Warner, Burgess Top 99
- The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes, Burgess Top 99
- The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The College Board
- The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, Easton Press Greatest
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Easton Press Greatest
- The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Easton Press Greatest