All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Please join me every Friday for Book Beginnings! Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Instagram, Twitter, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"Hell is empty, Armand," said Stephen Horowitz.

-- from All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny. This is the 16th book in Louise Penny's "Three Pines" series of mysteries featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gemache. 

Unlike most of the earlier books that are set in the tiny Quebec village of Three Pines, this one takes place in Paris. Gemache and his wife are in Paris for the birth of their granddaughter and become the center of a complicated murder mystery (as frequently happens to traveling police detectives). 

The Three Pines series is a big favorite of mine. Are you a fan? There are currently 18 books in the series, so I am almost finished with it. Thankfully, Penny is not and comes out with a new book about every year. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS 

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MY FRIDAY 56

From All the Devils are Here:

She was about, she knew, to pass what pilots call the point of no return. One more keystroke and she’d be totally committed to this course of action. 

Books I read in July -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

July 2023

I finished 13 books in July, including three from my TBR 23 in '23 stack. There wasn’t a clunker in the bunch.

 
See any of your own favorites here? 

PICTURED

French Ways and Their Meaning by Edith Wharton, a collection of WWI-era essays aimed at teaching American soldiers about France. One of my TBR 23 in '23 books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham. This is an August buddy read, but I jumped the gun. As usual, I enjoyed the book much more than the movie, which I watched when it came out in 2006. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, which I loved. Yu won the 2020 National Book Award for this funny, insightful satire of Hollywood. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Passionate Man by Joanne Trollope. I love a good Aga Saga and Trollope always delivers. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Italian Fever by Valerie Martin is the story of a woman who goes to Italy when the novelist she works for dies there and she needs to wrap up his affairs. The details were more than a bit odd, but it kept me interested. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

The Sellout by Paul Beatty won the 2020 Booker Prize. It was a little scattered and magical for me, but I appreciate the talent it took to create it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

S. by John Updike is a 1988 novel inspired by the Rajneeshees here in Oregon. It sagged for me some in the middle, but had a couple of twists that perked up the ending. All in all, a highlight of the month. It will stick with me. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Foxed Quarterly Vol. 77, the Spring 2023 issue. I keep track of when I finish these so I know which ones I’ve read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, because I always seem to be about 20 years behind with popular sociology books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, a buddy read over on Instagram. So good! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George, another in her Inspector Lynley series I’m marching through. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Better Man by Louise Penny. I enjoyed this one as much as always and now only have three left! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson, which I read with my ears. What a fantastic book! This shaggy novel set in 1920s London was the perfect companion to Vile Bodies, almost an homage. Another favorite. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

What were your standout reads in July?

Books I read in June -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

June 2023

This might look like a pretty short stack of books for a whole month of reading. But wait! June was the month I went on a Baltic cruise with my mom and sis. After much handwringing, I ended up taking seven books with me on the trip, five of which I read in June (the other two in July, on the plane home). But those five books are not in this picture because I passed them on to my cruising companions.

Here’s a list of the 11 books I read in June, along with a few amazing marzipan bon bons I picked up in Kiel, Germany:

PICTURED

Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson, the second book in Volume Two of the Mapp & Lucia series. I love all these books, with their mix of village charm and catty snark. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Trouble for Lucia, also by E. F. Benson, the last book in the series. I definitely see myself reading all these again some day. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier, which I read with a lively group of women friends on Instagram. Who doesn’t love a sexy pirate? 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Horse by Geraldine Brooks. This was a birthday gift from a friend because I usually don't have brand new hardbacks. I am so glad she gave it to me because it is such an excellent book! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, which my mom, sister, and I all read and loved. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Definitely a highlight. I look forward to the rest of the books in the series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion. Good premise, but I found it oddly off kilter. 🌹🌹🌹

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman. Laugh out loud funny. My favorite of the trip. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Simple Country Murder by Blythe Baker, a surprisingly good WWII cozy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. I’m making definite progress with this favorite series. I read this one with my ears because they are such wonderful audiobooks. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes, a WWII spy novel published in 1942, which I also read as an audiobook. It has a doppelgänger theme similar to Daphne du Maurier’s 1957 novel, The Scapegoat, although the plots are completely different. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOTE

I got behind on posting monthly wrap up posts this year. I'm going back and filling in some missing posts. 

Books I read in May -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

May 2023

The merry month of May was a mixed-up reading month for me. I wanted to tackle a couple of classics that have been languishing on my TBR shelves. But I also went to visit my mom and we took a little road trip when I was there, so I had a chance to gulp down a few fluffier holiday reads.

Three of the book I read were from my TBR 23 in '23 list. Three were mysteries from series I’m trying to finish before a start a new series. Three were from my Classics Club list because my goal is to finish my 50 books by the end of the year. Do you have a Classics Club list? Check out the Classics Club website for details.

Do you spot any favorites on this list? 

PICTURED

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. I'm in a buddy read group on Instagram doing a Du Maurier Deep Dive and this was our pick for May. Short stories aren’t my thing, but these were gripping! 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud, winner of the 1959 National Book Award, a Classics Club pick. More short stories, but these were also very good. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Cordial Water by M. F. K. Fisher is another on my Classics Club list and a TBR 23 in ’23 book. Interesting, but not my favorite M. F. K. Fisher book. It was a study of historical healing remedies, not personal essays, and I found it pretty dry. 🌹🌹🌹

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. I read Home Cooking last month and this sequel was just as good. Both are definitely tops with me for food books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry was pure fun. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Quo Vadis by Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz, another from my Classics Club list. I've wanted to read this classic novel about the early Christian Church forever. Worth reading, but it had its repetitive and draggy spots. 🌹🌹🌹

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, an excellent short novel I avoided because some of his earlier books were so creepy. This one isn't creepy, just interesting. Another TBR 23 in ’23 read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to this one, also on my TBR 23 in ’23 list. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin. His John Rebus series is one I’m trying to finish. I left the book with my mom. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Mapp & Lucia by E. F. Benson was my highlight of the month. This is the fourth book in the series and the first book in Volume Two of the omnibus collection. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Glass Houses by Louise Penny. Her Three Pines series is another I’m concentrating on. Some reviews complain she overreached on this one, but I was 100% in for the ride. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George, the third series I’m trying to complete. This one stars Barbara Havers and Lynley isn’t in it at all, but I thought it was one of the best ones so far. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

What was your reading month like? What were your standout books? 

2022 Audiobook Challenge -- My Wrap-Up Post

 THE 2022 AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE

WRAP-UP POST

COMPLETED

I blew past my challenge goal of reading 50+ audiobooks this year! I've read 63 books with my ears in 2022 and will probably finish 65 before the the new year. See list below.

CHALLENGE

Caffeinated Reviewer and That’s What I’m Talking About host a popular audiobook challenge every year, although 2022 was only the second time I participated. I signed up at the Marathoner level to read 50 or more audiobooks in 2022. 

I love reading with my ears! I download audiobooks from the library to my phone using the Libby app and listen all the time. In good weather, I like to walk to work, which gives me a good hour of audiobook reading in a day. I also listed when I drive, cook, fold laundry, and do other chores. In 2021, I read 131 books and 70 of them were audiobooks. 

One thing I started doing in 2022 was to combine my love of audiobooks with my desire to clear book books off my TBR shelves. I went through my TBR list, found which ones were available as audiobooks from the library, and put them on my Libby wishlist. It may seem odd to listen to the audiobook when I have the physical book already, but I have soooooooooo many book books on my shelves that it would take me years to get to all of them. If I can free up shelf space (and brain space) by reading a book with my ears and getting rid of the paper book, I'm happy. 

MY 2022 AUDIOBOOKS

Here is the list of books I read as audiobooks in 2022, in the order I read them. Do you see any of your own favorites here?

• Katherine by Anya Seton (TBR shelf) 

• The Bostonians by Henry James (TBR shelf) 

• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym (TBR shelf) 

• Murder at the Mill by M. B. Shaw 

• Dangling Man by Saul Bellow (TBR shelf)

• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 

• The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty 

• A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris 

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney 

• The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park (Book Club) 

• The Falls by Ian Rankin (TBR shelf) 

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Book Club) 

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (TBR shelf, reread) 

• The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz 

• Little Big Man by Larry McMurtry (TBR shelf) 

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (TBR shelf)

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl 

• Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty 

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz 

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (National Book Award)

• Trio by William Boyd

• As Husbands Go by Susan Isaac 

• Lucky by Marissa Stapley (Book Club) 

• The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James (TBR shelf)

• Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (TBR shelf) 

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci (Book Club) 

• Only in Naples by Katherine Wilson 

• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz 

• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (TBR shelf)

• Holy Orders by Benjamin Black 

• Blue Moon by Lee Child (TBR shelf)

• The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

• Broken Harbor by Tana French (TBR shelf)

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth (TBR shelf)

• Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

• Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard (TBR shelf)

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Book Club) 

• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

• Woke Racism: How a New Religion has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter

• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (TBR shelf) 

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Book Club)

• Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty 

• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (TBR shelf)

• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

• The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro (TBR shelf)

• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Victober)

• The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor (TBR shelf)

• The Underdog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (TBR shelf)

• The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City by David Lebovitz (TBR shelf)

• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron

• Literary Life: A Second Memoir by Larry McMurtry (TBR shelf)

• What to Read and Why by Francine Prose

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater (TBR shelf)

• Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston (TBR shelf)

• Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick (TBR shelf)

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith (TBR shelf)

• One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell (TBR shelf)

• The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories by P. D. James (TBR shelf)

• The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier (buddy read)

July Wrap Up -- My July Books

 

MONTHLY WRAP UP

Do your reading habits change in the summer? I’m drawn to lighter and shorter books in the summer, although a few darker mysteries and more serious novels sneak in. 

Here are the 11 books I read in July, in the order I read them, not the order they are stacked up in this picture. Please keep in mind that my ratings reflect my own reaction to a book, not its artistic merit.

MY JULY BOOKS

A Little Book of Japanese Contentments: Ikigai, Forest Bathing, Wabi-sabi, and More by Erin Niimi Longhurst, illustrated by Ryo Takemasa, a lovely introduction to a Japanese culture and traditions of living well. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny, not pictured because I read it with my ears. This, the 9th book in her Chief Inspector Adam Gamache series, was excellent and makes me want to continue through the rest of the 17. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King. What’s the line? Writing about music is like dancing about architecture? I’m not sure writing about architecture is any more engaging. I had a hard time getting through this one, although my husband loved it. 🌹🌹🌹

Jolie Blon’s Bounce by James Lee Burke. I’ve read most of his Dave Robicheaux series but missed a few here and there. It was fun to visit the series again. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker is the first of the series, set in a French village. I loved it! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater by Alan Richman is a collection of his restaurant reviews and food writing from when he was the food critic for GQ magazine. What a delight! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar has been on my TBR shelf for too long. It was excellent. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

What French Women Know: About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Ollivier. I loved her later book, Entre Nous, but this one didn’t come together for me. Entre Nous inspired me to make my French Connections list of books about or set in France. 🌹🌹🌹

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon was his debut novel. I’m not one for coming of age novels, so this wasn’t my cup of tea. 🌹🌹🌹

Foxed Quarterly, the Spring 2021 issue. Here so I can keep track of which ones I read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Shape of the Journey is a collection of over 120 of Jim Harrison’s poems. Harrison once quipped that to draw attention to poetry "you would have to immolate a volunteer poet in an 751 BMW." I keep a book of poetry on my bedside table and try to read one each morning. I started this one late last year and just finished it this month. I love Harrison's prose writing and appreciate him even more now that I read his poetry. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY FAVORITE COVER OF THE MONTH

Book List: Books Read in 2020

I keep track of the books I read on LibraryThing. Every January, I post a list of the books I read the prior year. It's usually a few over 100. There have been a couple of years when I didn't get to 100, when work was crazy. There haven't been many years when I got over 110. 

Here's the list of the 109 books I read in 2020, in the order I read them. 2020 was such an insane year, it could have gone either way, reading-wise. I know some people read twice as many books as usual, some people read hardly any. I read the same.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

BOOKS READ IN 2020

• Circe by Madeline Miller 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged by Roger Scruton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Women's Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Egyptologists by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Live by Night by Denis Lehane (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics By Kevin D. Williamson 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Party Going by Henry Green 🌹🌹🌹

• My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Costa Book of the Year) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Cheri by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• The Last of Cheri by Colette 🌹🌹🌹 

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Gigi by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• Warlight by Michaele Ondaatje 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Vagabond by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• Calypso by Davis Sedaris 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Shackle by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child by Alex Prud'homme 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Outlyer and Ghazals by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Overstory by Richard Powers (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹

• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Women's Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Radical Kindness: The Life-Changing Power of Giving and Receiving by Angela Santomero 🌹🌹🌹

• Patrimony by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World by Lisa Birnbach 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Charlotte Moss Entertains by Charlotte Moss 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Hidden Falls by Kevin Meyers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (National Book Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn (Wodehouse Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Never Mind: Book One of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bad News: Book Two of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Classics Club) 🌹🌹

• Some Hope: Book Three of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Billy (the Kid) by Peter Meech 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mother's Milk: Book Four of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• At Last: The Final Patrick Melrose Novel by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹

• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (National Book Award) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Book of V by Anna Solomon 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train by Ina Caro 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Unmaking of a Mayor by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley 🌹🌹🌹

• The Likeness by Tana French 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Britain by the Book: A Curious Tour of Our Literary Landscape by Oliver Tearle 🌹🌹🌹

• The Guest List by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹

• Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Letters to Yesenin by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹

• Country Girl by Edna O'Brien 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand 🌹🌹🌹

• House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild (Wodehouse Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Style Evolution: How to Create Ageless Personal Style in Your 40s and Beyond by Kendall Farr 🌹🌹🌹

• The Invitation by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹

• The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman (Erica Jong List) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Classics Club) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Underground Railroad by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Nickel Boys by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Airborne: A Sentimental Journey by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Quartet in Autumn by Barba Pym 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The White Album by Joan Didion 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Prospero's Cell: A Guide To The Landscape And Manners of The Island Of Corfu by Lawrence Durrell 🌹🌹🌹

• The Stranger by Albert Camus (Classics Club) 🌹🌹1/2

• The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (Classics Club) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Murder Room by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov 🌹🌹🌹

• English House Style from the Archives of Country Life by John Goodall 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Writers & Lovers by Lily King 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby (Booker Prize) 🌹🌹🌹

• For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Room at the Top by John Braine (Burgess List) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Just Like You by Nick Hornby 🌹🌹🌹

• They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker 🌹🌹1/2

• The Hanging in the Hotel by Simon Brett 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment) by Donna Leon 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Jump the Gun by Zoe Burke🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days by James and Kay Salter 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

My rating system is my own and evolving. Whatever five stars might mean on amazon, goodreads, or Netflix, a five-star rating probably doesn't mean that here. In fact, I'm going to change this year and use roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My system is a mix of how a book appeals to me and how I would recommend it to other people. 

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Five roses for books I loved, or would recommend to anyone, or I think are worthy of classic "must read" status." Examples would be Lucky Jim (personal favorite), A Gentleman in Moscow (universal recommendation), and Great Expectations (must read). 

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Four roses for books I really enjoyed and/or would recommend to people who enjoy that type of book. Examples would be The Jewel in the Crown and In the Woods. Most mysteries get four roses from me because I like them a lot but would only recommend them to people who like mysteries. (A few really great mysteries get five roses from me.) Similarly, some of my favorite authors get four roses from me because I wouldn't recommend them to a general audience, like funny books by P.G. Wodehouse or food memoirs by M.F.K. Fisher. 

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe liked personally but wouldn't think of recommending. Examples would be Sexing the Cherry (lukewarm) and The Year of the French (liked personally but wouldn't inflict recommend).

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. The Neapolitan Quartet is an example, which proves how subjective my system is because lots of people loved those books. 

🌹 One rose if I really didn't like it. I don't know if I've ever rated a book this low. The Magus might be my only example and I read it before I started keeping my lists. 

I use half roses if a book falls between categories. I can't explain what that half rose might mean, it's just a feeling.

Here is a link to the star rating system I used for years. I include it because the stars I used in years past meant something different than these roses, so if you look at my lists from past years, the ratings won't mean quite the same thing.

Mailbox Monday: Books with Friendly Connections

I'm often inspired to buy a book or borrow it from the library because I see it on social media. But I realize that my real life friends also add to my sagging TBR shelves. Do your friends influence what book you buy and read?

I cleaned up my office this weekend (a seismic event for me) and realized I've gathered a random assortment of books in the last couple of weeks, all here in my life because of some connection with a friend. In some cases, the connection was direct, in some it was attenuated, but all of these books were here because of a friend.

Going clockwise:

Sunnylands: America’s Midcentury Masterpiece by Janice Lyle. I’ve had my eye on this gorgeous coffee table book ever since my friend showed it to me at her house a few months ago. It will always remind me of her.

The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower’s Guide to Pumpkins, Squashes, and Gourds by Amy Goldman. My book publicist friend Mary Bisbee-Beek give me a review copy of Goldman’s luscious new book, The Melon, and I love it so much I had to go looking for all of Goldman’s earlier books.

A Better Man and Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. The only friend connection here is that my neighbor (and friend) recently brought me a couple of books while he was out filling Little Free Libraries, which reminded me to take a bunch of my books to our closest neighborhood LFL, where I found these two perfect copies of Chief Inspector Gamache mysteries that I have not read yet.

Choosing Diversity by Lance Izumi. A friend of mine introduced me to Lance because of my volunteer work for the Children's Scholarship Fund of Oregon, which provides scholarships for low-income families, elementary through high school, and is run out of the Cascade Policy Institute where I sit on on the board. Lance gave me a copy of his book when we met for lunch last week.

Culture Counts: Faith & Feeling in a World Besieged by Roger Scruton. A while back, my friend Steve Hayward posted a picture on Facebook of himself with Sir Roger Scruton. So when I saw this cover, I was curious to read the book. What a mug!

And as I was drafting this post, I got another friendly book surprise through the mail slot on my office door:

The Preserve by Steve Anderson. Set in 1948 in the US Territory of Hawaii, a WWII vet seeks to cure his combat fatigue at a mysterious facility called the Preserve, but gets pulled in on a deadly plot that runs all the way to General MacArthur.

Steve writes WWII thrillers that are are exciting, a little quirky, and based on true events. I'd read them even if Steve and I weren't friends because the stories are so good! I was just lucky to get my friends' copy early.

The Preserve launches this week and is available for pre-order. For Portlanders, the launch event for The Preserve is Thursday at Powell's Books on Hawthorne at 7:30.

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.

Book Beginning & Friday 56: A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Oh, no, no, no, thought Clara Morrow as she walked towards the closed doors.

-- A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny. This is the seventh book in Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series, set in Quebec and centered around the charming but deadly village of Three Pines. I love the series and have some catching up to do, since the 14th book just came out, Kingdom of the Blind.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING




TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

Peter lay in bed, clutching the edge of their double mattress. The bed was too small for them really, but a double had been all they could afford when they were first married, and Peter and Clara had grown used to having each other close.

I'm guestimating that this is about 56% of the way through the audiobook. I've read the first seven books of the series with my ears because Ralph Cosham has read all the audiobooks so far and does a great job.

Favorite Author: Louise Penny

Louise Penny writes a mystery series set in the Provence of Quebec, featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. I only started reading the series in 2014, when I was planning a vacation to Quebec. Oregon author Judy Nedry turned me on to Penny when Judy named her as a favorite.

I love the books because the mysteries are intricate and the characters are complicated. What sets the series apart is that some of the characters are allowed to be very witty and Penny uses humor with a deft hand. The books aren't comic, like Elmore Leonard's or Carl Hiaasen's, but they have very funny bits in them. Very funny.

Those I have read are in red.

1. Still Life
2. A Fatal Grace
3. The Cruelest Month
4. A Rule Against Murder
5. Brutal Telling
6. Bury Your Dead
7. A Trick of the Light
8. The Beautiful Mystery
9. How the Light Gets In
10. The Long Way Home