April 2026 Monthly Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

April 2026 Monthly Wrap Up

April was a good reading month for me. I finished rereading the Narnia Chronicles for the first time since I was a kid and I knocked six books off my TBR 26 in '26 list. See any favorites?

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

The Other Family by Joanna Trollope. I always enjoy her books. This one is about a musician whose death forces his his partner and their children and his ex-wife and oldest son to interact. 

Showing the Flag by Jane Gardam*, short stories from the author of the Old Filth trilogy. I'm never as fond of short stories as I am of longer fiction (Somerset Maugham being the exception), but some of these were very good, particularly the title story. 

Homecomings by C.P. Snow.* I’m determined to finish his Strangers & Brothers series even though I find them pretty dry. This one at least had some personal story, and wasn't focused entirely on a work situation. 

Foxed Quarterly (Issue No. 51, Spring 2017). I’m working my way through some back issues. Because the quarterly is devoted to backlist and out of print books, the old issues are never out of date. 

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. This was interesting to read but is focused on foreign missions and I was looking for local guidance.

The Food of Love by Anthony Capella* is a cute, foodie romcom set in Italy, a modern retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac.

Death Takes a Bath by Sharon Lynn. This cozy mystery set in Bath, England is the first of a series. The heroine is a 19-year-old college student, so I'm not the target audience and am unlikely to continue with the books, but it was fun to read in preparation for a trip to Bath. 

Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore, a reread. More psychology than I remember. I had it confused with The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life, which I loved and now need to reread.

Steaming to Bamboola by Christopher Buckley*, his memoir about a year in the merchant marine. 

The Boss Dog by M.F.K. Fisher*, a fictionalized account of living in Aix with her two daughters. It was fun to read, but repetitive of her nonfiction about her life in France.

Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love by Anne Fadiman* was a letdown. Read my review here. 

Frozen Assets by P.G. Wodehouse. Hilarious, as always.

NOTES

* Denotes a TBR 26 in '26 book. 

What was your April favorite? 

The TBR 21 in '21 Challenge -- My Wrap Up Post

THE TBR 21 IN '21 CHALLENGE

COMPLETED

MY WRAP UP POST

2021 was the first year I hosted a TBR reading challenge I called the TBR 21 in '21 Challenge. The idea was to read 21 books off your TBR shelves in 2021. Not particularly creative maybe, but easy to remember! And the challenge will get just a tiny bit more difficult each year. 

If you want to join me in 2022 for the TBR 22 in '22 Challenge, please check out the main challenge page here and sign up! 

MY TBR 21 IN '21 BOOKS

I kept my books in this basket near my bed and read them in random order. One is missing because it was on my nightstand when I took the picture and I didn't realize it until I did my sign up post. Doh!

See any here that sound good?

• Not Now but Now by M.F.K. Fisher, the one missing from the picture. Fisher wrote about food and almost entirely nonfiction. This is her only novel. It was very odd and involved time travel. Reminiscent of Virginia Wolfe's Orlando. 

• Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir by Erica Jong. My mom gave me this when I turned 50 a while back. I loved it!

• Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome, the sequel to Three Men in a Boat, which I had already read but reread this year because it is so funny. The sequel was good but never as good as the original. 

• Old Filth by Jane Gardam. Gardam's Old Filth trilogy tells the story of the long, complicated marriage of Sir Edward Feathers and his wife Betty. The three were the highlight of this challenge. 

• The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam. In Old Filth, we get the story from Sir Edward's point of view. In this one, we get Betty's story and our perceptions change accordingly.

• Last Friends by Jane Gardam. In this last volume, we get the story of Terence Veneering, Sir Edward's professional and romantic rival. 

• The Florence King Reader by Florence King. King was a prolific writer, mostly of essays and articles, known for her writings about the American South and her acerbic wit. 

• The Library Book by Susan Orlean. A history of the Los Angeles library from an amazing storyteller. 

• Orchids & Salami by Eva Gabor. I got this 1954 memoir for its funny title and glamorous cover. It was the oddest book in the bunch, so obviously ghostwritten! Unless Eva Gabor wrote like a 1950s wise cracking sports columnist. 

• A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison, a collection of  food essays by one of my all-time favorite authors. 

• Love your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks. This was a timely read.

• Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion by Richard Usborne. I've been meaning to read this for years. It was a deep dive into the Wodehouse oeuvre. 

• Fork it Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater by Alan Richman, a former food critic for GQ magazine. This was one of my favorites in the bunch.

• What French Women Know: About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Ollivier. Her book Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl inspired me to start a "French Connections" list of books set in France or by French authors, but this one fell flat for me. 

• Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle. An excellent book that will make anyone put away their phone!

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau. This was on my Classics Club list. I tried to read it with my ears last year but could not engage with the audiobook. I got through the paper book, but can't say I'll be rushing out to read everything Thoreau ever wrote. Lots of words about the value of a good wool suit and descriptions of ponds. 

• Mysteries and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor, a collection of essays, lectures, and criticism by one of America's best authors. 

• Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. A memoir about soccer fandom is not exactly my cup of tea, but if anyone can make a description of 30 years of soccer games readable, it is Hornby. I'm a Hornby completist, in part because he taught me that word. 

• Wry Martinis by Christopher Buckley is a book of his collected essays. I found it a little uneven. I think it was cobbled together after the success of Thank you for Smoking.  

• An Alphabet for Gourmets by M. F. K. Fisher. Unlike her novel, this quirky book of food essays is Fisher at her idiosyncratic best.

• The Book that Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them, edited by Roxanne J. Coady and Joy Johannessen. I like books about books, so enjoyed this one, although some of the choices of contributors struck me as a bit random. 

All in all, I was pleased with my picks. I read over 125 books in 2021, more than usual. So these 21 were only a small part of the total. The others I didn't pick ahead of time, just at whim. I like preselecting a manageable number of books that I know I want to read for one reason or another and making myself read them. Usually the only thing "making" me want to read them is curiosity or the time they have been sitting on my shelf. 

August Wrap Up -- My August Books

AUGUST WRAP UP

What was your reading like last month? The dog days found me reading more fiction and lighter nonfiction, just enjoying the summer vibe. How about you? 

Here are the ten books I read in August, in the order I read them, not the order they are lined up in the picture. I don't usually review the books I read, so don't analyze their literary merit. My rating reflects only my personal preference for the book.

MY AUGUST BOOKS

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo is a shaggy dog of a family saga and I loved it. I've been mixing up long and short books this year and appreciating both. This one has been on my TBR shelf forever and I am happy to finally get to it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby proves that he can make anything worth reading, even 250 pages about 1968-1992 soccer games. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Passenger to Frankfurt is one of Agatha Christie’s stand alone spy novels. It is unlike any of her other book I've read and I liked it a lot. I thought the story echoed some of the today's political strife. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Wry Martinis by Christopher Buckley is a collection of his earlier essays, pulled together after the success of Thank You For Smoking. A mixed bag, but enjoyable. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse is a solid historical fiction adventure story with a modern day braided narrative and a Holy Grail theme. It wasn't my favorite, but it was entertaining and I'm happy to clear it off my TBR shelf. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis. This biography of Virginie Gautreau, the woman in Sargent's famous portrait, was my favorite book last month. I read it for book club and then loaned it to another club member, which is why it isn't in the picture. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty isn't in the picture because I read it with my ears. I love all her books and read them all as audiobooks because I like the Australian accent. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman I read for my other book club and passed on to my sister. I liked it a lot. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year by Sue Townsend. I wanted to like this more than I did. Bits made me laugh, but I found it more depressing than funny. 🌹🌹🌹

The Darlings by Christina Alger is a Wall Street story inspired by Bernie Madoff. It’s stylish, intricate, and well done, although you have to skate over a few patches of thin credulity in the middle. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY FAVORITE COVER OF THE MONTH

Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley - BOOK REVIEW

 

Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley (2020, Simon & Schuster)

Christopher Buckley took a break from writing satire to write two historic comic novels, The Relic Master and The Judge Hunter. At the time, he said American politics had become “sufficiently self-satirizing” and did not need his help. The Trump Presidency tempted him back and his latest book, Make Russia Great Again, brings us back to Buckley's favorite formats, the faux White House memoir.

MRGA is the "memoir" of Herb Nutterman, former White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, now convicted felon serving his term in a federal penitentiary. He got the chief of staff job after working in Trump hotels for 27 years, most recently as the general manager of the Trump Bloody Run Golf Club in Little Hot Pepper, Virginia.

And with that set up, the story is off and running, as only a Christopher Buckley novel can do. There are plenty of funny names for people doing normal jobs in exaggeratedly funny ways: Senator Squigg Lee Biskitt of South Carolina, chief of communications Greta Fibberson, news pundit Chip Holleran, etc. The play on words continues throughout. The jokes hit today's hot buttons: Civil War statues, cable news talking heads, political nominations, Russian elections, and more.

It takes a while to get to the core of the plot, which is a Russian plan to blackmail Trump and alter the outcome of the U.S. 2020 election. As in any good farce, the plan is convoluted and the goal keeps changing, all to maximum comic effect. Nutterman running interference with a Russian oligarch and Vladimir Putin to fend off an election disaster is funny. The book is spot-on parody, slapstick, silly, and funny.

But what is really clever is the satire at the heart of the plot. Satire has to be audacious to work and the satire here really zings. It involves a Pentagon plan called Placid Reflux to use artificial intelligence to combat Russian interference with US elections. The plan goes too far and gets a member of the Communist party elected to lead Russia (thereby triggering the rest of the story).  

Those who dislike Trump will like MRGA more than Trump supporters, although I don't think there's enough red meat in it for those who really can't stand him. It is definitely funny and readers who enjoy Veep will most likely enjoy it, whatever their political leanings.

NOTES

Read an article with Christopher Buckley about Make Russia Great Again in The Atlantic. 

Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley on Book Beginnings

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

It's time for Book Beginnings on Fridays again and it finally feels like summer here in Portland! What is it like where you are?

Please share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading or featuring this week. Link to your post below, or just share the opening sentence(s) in a comment. If you post on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Christopher Buckley's new book, Make Russia Great Again, comes out next week. I got a sneak peek thanks to Simon & Schuster and it looks hilarious. It is Buckley at his best in this "whipsmart fake memoir by Herb Nutterman -- Donald Trump’s seventh chief of staff -- who has written the ultimate tell-all about Trump and Russia."

No matter which side of the aisle you sit, it looks like a funny book. It is over the top, taking jabs at everyone. Political satire is much more fun than the real thing.

“How could you work for a man like that?”
“What were you thinking?”
“What possessed you?”
All the time I get this, even in here, which frankly strikes me as a bit rich. Who knew inmates at federal correctional institutions had such keenly developed senses of moral superiority?

I offer a longer bit than the first sentence to give a sense of the tone. If you liked Thank You for Smoking or any of Buckley's other books, you will breeze right through this one, laughing right along.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

Oleg had named it Maria Ivanova, in honor of Mr. Putin's mother. Apparently, no fewer than fourteen oligarchs also named their megayachts after her.