September Wrap Up -- My September Books

SEPTEMBER WRAP UP

I finally launched my own Zazzle store. Crazy, right? It’s not like my law practice gives me a lot of down time! But I need a creative outlet. I have a couple of product lines so far, but my favorite is a collection of gifts and stationery with images of old books from my own library. The mug in the picture above is an example. If you want to see more, find me on the Zazzle website at RoseCityEphemera. I’m excited about it!

When I wasn't playing with Zazzle, I managed to read ten books last month. They are listed below in the order I read them, not in the order they are stacked up in the picture.

MY SEPTEMBER BOOKS

The Choir by Joanna Trollope, cozy and wonderful. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose, which is not in the picture because I read the audiobook. This is an excellent book and a highlight of the month for me. Pluckrose is one of the three scholars, along with James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian, who submitted bogus "grievance studies" papers to peer reviewed journals and got many of them accepted and even published. It's worth looking up because the papers they got published are hilarious. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Uncommon Clay by Margaret Maron was a pretty decent mystery set in North Carolina. I read it with my ears so it isn't in the picture. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

An Alphabet for Gourmets by M. F. K. Fisher. This is a wonderful book of idiosyncratic food writing. It wandered off before I took the picture. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross, another highlight of the month. This one was lurking on my TBR shelf for a long time and I'm glad I finally read it. It is historical fiction at its best. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler. I'm an Anne Tyler completist, but I found this one disappointingly pointless. 🌹🌹🌹

Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor, occasional nonfiction. This was admittedly a little repetitive, but still excellent. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Changed Man by Francine Prose, slightly subversive, a little edgy, and I loved it. It's the second of her books I've read and she's becoming a favorite. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Split Images by Elmore Leonard, which was typical Leonard but still good. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

Slightly Foxed, Vol. 70, the recent summer edition, which I count so I can keep track of which ones I read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY FAVORITE COVER OF THE MONTH

Mailbox Monday: July Books

For the last Mailbox Monday in July, I have a last stack of red, white, and blue books, thanks to a trip to Booktique, one of my favorite Friends of the Library stores.

Fellowship of Fear by Aaron Elkins. This is the first in Elkin's series features forensic anthropologist-detective Gideon Oliver. He won the 1988 Edgar Award for Old Bones, the fourth book in the series.

The Men and the Girls by Joanna Trollope. This early Trollope novel is hard to find -- I'm glad I did!

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Ward won her second National Book Award for this one. I'm trying to read all the National winners and usually read them with my ears, but the waitlist for the audiobook from my library is really long, so now I have this as a backup.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson. I'll read anything Atkinson writes. But I am really looking forward to the new Jackson Brodie book coming out later this year.

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne. I've never read a book by Boyne, but this sounded reayy good, so I got it on a whim.

What looks good to you? What books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Teaser Tuesday: Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope

Ben was her youngest, her last. When the others went, she had felt a pang, but there had always been Ben, there had always been the untidy, demanding, gratifying, living proof that she was doing what she was meant to do, that she was doing something no one else could do.

-- Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope. I always enjoy Joanna Trollope's books and this long holiday weekend was the perfect time to read one.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: Montana Library Loot

What new books came into your house last week?

Thanks to a work trip to Missoula, Montana, I picked up a stack of new-to-me books from the Friends of the Library sale shelves at the downtown library. I always find great books there!

How it All Began by Penelope Lively

Next of Kin by Joanna Trollope

Smart Set Criticism by H. L. Menckens

Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull

The Vault by Ruth Rendell

The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell

A Wodehouse Bestiary by P. G. Wodehouse

The Florence King Reader by Florence King

Toast: The story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater

Exiles: A Memoir by Michael J. Arlen

Truth and Consequences by Alison Lurie

Epilogue: A Memoir by Anne Roiphe

The Great Mortdacai Moustache Mystery by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Teaser Tuesday: Brother and Sister

"What are you going to do now?"
"I'm going looking for your mother's birth certificate."

-- Brother and Sister by Joanna Trollope.

This is an excellent story about a grown up brother and sister, both adopted, who decide to try to find their birth mothers.  Trollope considers how the search affects everyone in their lives -- the two of them, their spouses, their children, their adopted parents, and their birth mothers.  It is really good.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Opening Sentence of the Day: Girl From the South

Gillon lay in bed with her eyes closed.

-- Girl From the South by Joanna Trollope.

I only reacently started reading Trollope's books and am hooked. This one is particularly interesting because it is split between London and Charleston, South Carolina.

My one, idiosyncratic, gripe is the main character's name -- Gillon.  She is named after a famous street in Charleston. My problem is that I am listening to the audiobook and my name is Gilion (with a hard G and rhymes with "million"). Her name sounds like a very common and, to my ear, unattractive mispronunciation of my own name, causing a tiny, involuntary wince every time I hear it.