March 2024 -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

 

MONTHLY WRAP UP

March 2024

Thanks to an unexpected, unusual, but much appreciated lull in my workload, I read more books in March than I’ve ever read in one month as an adult. I now have a glimpse of what retirement might look like and am looking forward to it all the more!

See any here you’ve read and enjoyed, or want to?

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, the second book in the the Palliser Series, which I am reading this year as part of a group read on Instagram. 

Fay Weldon’s Love & Inheritance Trilogy: Habits of the House, Long Live the King, and The New Countess. The novels are set in London society at the turn of the 20th Century. They have strong Upstairs, Downstairs themes, which makes sense because Weldon wrote several episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs, including the first, prize-winning episode. She published these three books in 2012 and 2013, shortly after Downton Abbey captured the collective imagination, and there are many similarities! The trilogy was thoroughly entertaining, if light fare compared to Trollope.

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David, Britain's foremost food writer. This is a collection of food, restaurant, and travel essays, many from newspaper columns and magazine assignments.

My Kind of Place by Susan Orlean is a collection of travel-inspired essays. This is one of my #TBR24in24 books. It reminded me that Orlean used to live here in Portland where she wrote for our weekly alternative paper, Willamette Week. 

The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne. Before he reinvented himself as a novelist, Dunne was a television producer in Hollywood. This memoir, chock-o-block with personal snapshots of celebrity society in Hollywood in the 1950s and ‘60s, would be insufferable without Dunne's charm and frank admission of how badly he messed up his life later on.

The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas by Paul Theroux, about his 1978 train journey from Boston, through North and South America, to Patagonia, another TBR 24 in '24 read.

The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don’ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life by Charles Murray, a common sense guide to adulthood, which I wrote about here.

Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell, about starting a private zoo on Jersey, was the first first book by him I've read, but won’t be my last. Another TBR 23 in ’24 read. I'm going to pass this on to my daughter-in-law who is a vet at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. because I think she will find interesting the comparison between a private zoo in the 1960s and '70s and a public zoo now. 

I’ll Never be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier. This is du Maurier's second novel and I found it tough going. I'm in a Du Maurier Deep Dive reading group on Instagram and we are down to the last few books. This one is my least favorite DDM book so far. The main character is unattractively immature and I wanted nothing to do with him. If I weren't a du Maurier completist, I would not have finished it. 

The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle, a wine-themed cozy mystery set in Marseille. Loved it. 

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto was my book club pick for March. I am pleased to report that everyone in the group enjoyed it, which is unusual for book club! 

Songbook by Nick Hornby, the only author I like enough to read a 20+ year old book about pop music.

The Horse’s Mouth by Joyce Cary. I read this because it is on Anthony Burgess's list of Top 99 Novels in English, one of my favorite lists for reading inspiration. It might be a classic about the life of an artist, but there is a reason you don’t see it around much anymore. The protagonist, artist Gully Jimson, is highly unlikeable, which made the book a slog for me. Oddly, by one of those reading coincidences, in The Old Patagonian Express, Paul Theroux mentions in passing and without context that some wall art he sees from the train window would make Gully Jimson proud. I am happy to cross this one off my TBR 24 in ’24 list.

Slightly Foxed, Issue 81, Spring 2024. I like to include these in my lists of books read so I can keep track of which ones I've finished.  

His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle, which brings me to the end of the Sherlock Holmes series. Several years ago, I found a boxed set at an estate sale and jumped right on it, intending to read (and reread) them straight through. But my enthusiasm waned and it's taken me almost 14 years to get through all of them. 

NOT PICTURED (READ WITH MY EARS)

Foster by Claire Keegan, my other book club’s latest pick. This is an excellent novella about a young girl in Ireland sent to live with foster parents. We don't meet until April, but I am sure the book will be a popular one. 

A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin. I have been working my way steadily through his John Rebus books, making a concerted effort the past year and a half. This is book 23 of 24 (so far), so I am close to wrapping up the series. I love the books, but it's a long series! 

What were your March reading highlights?

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

2021 CHALLENGE: TBR 21 in '21 and Mt. TBR Challenges - My Sign Up Post

January means book challenge time! I love planning ahead (some) for books to read in the coming year, especially picking the books from my TBR shelves I want to get through.

Every year I try to do two reading challenges specifically aimed at clearing off my TBR shelves. One is the Mt. TBR Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block, which aims to read a certain number of TBR books by the end of the year. No need to pick them now, just tally them up at the end of the year. 

The other is a personal challenge I started doing back in 2010 to pre-select a certain number of books each January to get through that year. The number of books corresponds to the year. From 2010 to 2019, I picked twice as many books as the year -- 20 in 2010, 22 in 2011, and so on. Starting in 2020, I went to a single ratio of books to year and picked 20 books for 2020. 

Which is how why I have the TBR 21 in '21 Challenge. Feel free to join me if you want to clear off 21 books from your TBR shelf in 2021!

THE TBR 21 IN '21 CHALLENGE

MY SIGN UP POST

MY TBR 21 IN '21 BOOKS

The books I picked for 2021 are mostly nonfiction because my nonfiction TBR shelves are out of control. I only have four novels and the rest are nonfiction.

I mixed them all up and put them in a basket and will read them in the random order they ended up in - not for any reason, just because. With one exception -- I have to read this book first because it's my book club book for January:

That one didn't make it to the basket because it is already on my bedside table. The rest are here:

Here is the list, in the order I plan to read them:

• Not Now but Now by M.F.K. Fisher. Fisher wrote about food and almost entirely nonfiction. This is her only novel. The Boss Dog is partly fiction, but mostly memoir. FINISHED

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

• Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome, the sequel to Three Men in a Boat, which I've already read. FINISHED

• Old Filth by Jane Gardam. The three books in this trilogy are the rest of my fiction picks. Gardam's Old Filth trilogy tells the story of the long, complicated marriage of Sir Edward Feathers and hit wife Betty. FINISHED

• The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam. FINISHED

• Last Friends by Jane Gardam. FINISHED

• 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. FINISHED

• The Library Book by Susan Orlean. FINISHED

• Orchids & Salami by Eva Gabor. I got this 1954 memoir for its funny title and glamorous cover: FINISHED

 

• A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison, a collection of Harrison's food essays. FINISHED

• Love your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks. FINISHED

• Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion by Richard Usborne. I've been meaning to read this for years. FINISHED

• Fork it Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater by Alan Richman, the food critic for GQ magazine. FINISHED

• 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. Do you have any recommendations to add to the list? FINISHED

• Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle. FINISHED

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau. This is on my Classics Club list. I tried to read it with my ears last year but could not engage with the audiobook. FINISHED

• Mysteries and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor, a collection of essays, lectures, and criticism. FINISHED

• Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. A memoir about soccer fandom is not my cup of tea, but I enjoyed the movie, so I'm sure I'll enjoy the book well enough. I'm a Hornby completist, in part because he gave me that word. FINISHED

• Wry Martinis by Christopher Buckley. FINISHED

• An Alphabet for Gourmets by M. F. K. Fisher. FINISHED

• 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. FINISHED 

THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE

I climbed "Mt. Ararat" in 2020, which was a goal of reading 48 books from my TBR shelves. I read 52 books that had been on by TBR shelves at the start of 2020. In 2021, I am going to go for the "Mt. Kilimanjaro" level, which is to read at least 60 books from my TBR shelves.

So in addition to the 21 books listed above, I will find another 39 or more already on my TBR shelves. I'm not going to pick those now, I'll pick them at whim. I'll list them below as I read them.

MY MT. TBR BOOKS

Books Read So Far

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Red and the Black by Stendhal 
Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow
Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis
Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall
Reflex by Dick Francis
Whip Hand by Dick Francis
The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount
The Midnight Line by Lee Child
Charlotte Moss: A Visual Life: Scrapbooks, Collages, and Inspirations by Charlotte Moss
Missing Joseph by Elizabeth George
On The Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed the World by P. J. O'Rourke
Dead Cert by Dick Francis
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
The Wisdom of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
How They Decorated: Inspiration from Great Women of the Twentieth Century by Gaye P. Tapp
A Faithful Place by Tana French
Consequences by Penelope Lively
The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe
Jeeves in the Offing by P. G. Wodehouse
The Private Patient by P. D. James
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Skios by Michael Frayn
The Purpose-driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by Maarten J. Troost
A Place in the World by Amy Maroney
Twice Shy by Dick Francis
A Little Book of Japanese Contentments: Ikigai, Forest Bathing, Wabi-sabi, and More by Erin Niimi Longhurst
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke
Bruno: Chief of Police by Martin Walker
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Mysteries of Pittsburg by Michael Chabon
The Shape of the Journey: New & Collected Poems by Jim Harrison
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend
The Darlings by Christina Alger
The Choir by Joanna Trollope
Pope Joan by Donna Cross Woolfolk
Noah's Compass by Anne Taylor
A Changed Man by Francine Prose
Split Images by Elmore Leonard
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Holmes
The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross
Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
BUtterfield 8 by John O'Hara
Building Beauty: The Alchemy of Design by Michael S. Smith
The Incredulity of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
Funerals are Fatal by Agatha Christie
French Lessons by Ellen Sussman
Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie 
House Made of Dawn by Scott N. Momaday
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Past Tense by Lee Child
The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act by Alex Prud'homme
March Violets by Philip Kerr
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
LaBrava by Elmore Leonard
Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh
The Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
The Scandal of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

NOTES

As of December 26, I've finished my TBR 21 in '21 list. See my wrap up post here. I am all set to start my TBR 22 in '22 list! See my sign up post here. If you want to join me for the TBR 22 in '22 Challenge, and I hope you do, sign up on the main challenge page here. 

In addition to the 22 books I read for the TBR 21 in '21 Challenge, I read 70 other books off my TBR shelves for the Mt. TBR Challenge, for a total of 91 books. SO I met my goal of climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro. I will do a wrap up post for that challenge soon.

2020 CHALLENGE: My Wrap-Up Post for the 2020 European Reading Challenge

 

WRAP-UP: COMPLETED

This is my wrap-up post for the 2020 European Reading Challenge. To link your wrap-up post, please go to THIS PAGE and add your link. 

To sign up for the 2021 European Reading Challenge, and I hope you do, please go to the main challenge page HERE. 

Unlike most reading challenges, the European Reading Challenge ends on January 31 of the following year. I just think there's so much going on at the end of the year with holidays and many people busy with work that it's nice to have the extra time to finish. You do not have to take the extra time. Personally, I finish reading all the books I'm going to read for the challenge by December and usually give myself January to do my wrap-up post and any reviews I still have to write (if I write them).

But I have the luxury of a few days off this year for the first time in forever so I'm doing my wrap-up post now. 

BOOKS I READ/COUNTRIES VISITED

I visited 10 countries for the 2020 European Reading challenge, which is pretty good, since I signed up for the 5-Star, Deluxe Entourage level to read five books. I don't get to compete for the Jet Setter prize because it's my challenge, but even if I did I wouldn't qualify because I didn't review any of the books! I read a lot in 2020, but I couldn't concentrate enough to review anything. 

I'm listing the countries in the order I visited them. Only one book from each country counts for the challenge, but I'm listing all the books from each country just because. It makes it easier to track from year to year, especially to see if I'm making progress on reading more books in translation.

Of course, most of the books are still from the UK. That always happens. 

GREECE: Circe by Madeline Miller. Ok, it was ancient Greece, but it counts. 

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

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

Home Fires by Kamila Shamsie

The Egyptologists by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest

Party Going by Henry Green

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers

Warlight by Michaele Ondaatje

Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn

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

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

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

Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch

House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Murder Room by P. D. James

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

Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby

For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George

Room at the Top by John Braine

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

The Hanging in the Hotel by Simon Brett

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

NORWAY: The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

IRELAND: Days Without End by Barry Sebastian

The Likeness by Tana French

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Country Girl: A Memoir by Edna O'Brien

FRANCE: Cheri by Colette

The Last of Cheri by Colette

Gigi by Colette

The Vagabond by Colette

The Shackle by Colette

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

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

The Stranger by Albert Camus 

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

GERMANY: Less by Andrew Sean Greer

PORTUGAL: Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

SWEDEN: Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

RUSSIA: Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley, a very 2020 choice

Letters to Yesenin by Jim Harrison

Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov 

ITALY: The Invitation by Lucy Foley

A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment) by Donna Leon

All in all, I read 62 books in European countries or by European authors. I made some progress in venturing outside the UK, but still spent most of that time in France, Italy, and Ireland. 10 of the books were translated to English and the Nabokov book almost counts since Russian was his first language and Bend Sinister was only his second book written in English. 

My goal for 2021 will be to spend more time in Scandinavia and venture further into Eastern Europe. I hope to visit some countries I haven't been to before on the European Reading Challenge and read more books in translation. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Several books, all with great covers, came into my house last week:

The first three are the Charlie Mortdecai novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli, a 1970s trilogy recently reprinted. I couldn't resist the description, "Like the result of an unholy collaboration between P. G. Wodehouse and Ian Fleming."



Don't Point That Thing At Me, After You with the Pistol, and Something Nasty in the Woodshed



More Baths Less Talking: Notes from the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle with Football, Family, and Time Itself by Nick Hornby. This one is also part of a series -- his latest collection of "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns from The Believer.  (Read my review of one of the earlier collections, The Polysyllabic Spree, here.)

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

The Friends of the Multnomah County Library had their Spring Sale this weekend, so I got a short stack of books:



Slam by Nick Hornby



Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, 2009 winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award



The Columnist by Jeffrey Frank. A satire of Washington, D.C.



The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri. A mystery set in Sicily.



The Killing Ground by Mary Lee Settle. She won the National Book Award for Blood Tie and she started the PEN/Faulkner Award.



A Misalliance by Anita Brookner

Mailbox Monday

I was out of town for a while and happy to come home to find several books had arrived in my absence. I also picked up a short stack on my travels.

Thanks go to Avis of She Reads and Reads for hosting Mailbox Monday in October.

Here's the list:

Two Gold Coins and a Prayer: The Epic Journey of a World War II Bomber Pilot and POW by James H. Keeffe III.  My husband is particularly excited about this one because he loves personal accounts of WWII.  He will probably read it before I get to it, although it does look interesting.



Green Oranges on Lion Mountain by Emily Joy.  This is a British doctor's memoir about working for two years in Sierra Leone. It looks very good and I can think of a couple of people who would like to get a copy of this one for Christmas.



Fish with What You Find by Jim Gilsdorf. This is a collection of articles about fly fishing and fly tying. I do neither, but it still appeals to me, maybe because of the adorable illustrations.



Trespass by Rose Tremain. This is a LibraryThing Early Reviewer book.  Apparently I have caught up enough on my list to get more books.



The New Woman by Jon Hassler.  This is my first (and maybe only) book I received as part of a book chain letter I sent out about two months ago.



Morte D'Urban by J. F. Powers.  This won the National Book Award. 



Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. This won the Pulitzer Prize.



The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey. I like the whole idea of these Soho Crimes international mysteries. This one is set in England.



Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby.  Because I am on a Hornby kick these days.



61 Hours by Lee Child.  Because I am on a Jack Reacher kick these days.

Teaser Tuesday: Housekeeping vs. the Dirt

After explaining that, while in Portland, he bought a book called A Complicated Kindness on the recommendation of several Powell’s Books employees:

Did you know that you have the best bookshops in the world? . . . . Over here in England, the home of literature ha-ha, we have only chain bookstores, staffed by people who for the most part come across as though they’d rather be selling anything else anywhere else; meanwhile you have access to booksellers who would regard their failure to sell you novels about Mennonites as a cause of deep personal shame.

--  Housekeeping vs. the Dirt by Nick Hornby.

A Portland shout out from Nick Hornby! Well, maybe by "you" he meant all of America and not just the book-loving Rose City, but it was Powell's that inspired the anecdote, so I choose to interpret this as a compliment to my fair city.

This is the second compilation of Nick Hornby's columns for the Believer magazine, following The Polysyllabic Spree (reviewed here).

This is one of my choices for the Bibliophilic Books Challenge.


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

Opening Sentence of the Day: Housekeeping vs. The Dirt

"The story so far: I have been writing a column for this magazine for the last fifteen months."

--  Housekeeping vs. the Dirt: Fourteen Months of Massively Witty Adventures in Reading Chronicled by the National Book Critics Circle Finalist for Criticism by Nick Hornby.

This is the second compilation of Nick Hornby's columns for the Believer magazine.  I got a big kick out of the first volume, The Polysyllabic Spree (reviewed here) and am enjoying this one just as much.

This is one of my choices for the Bibliophilic Books Challenge.

Review of the Day: Juliet, Naked

What happens when an idol turns out to be a normal, middle-aged person with plenty of ordinary problems of his own? Nick Hornby answers this question with charm and wit in Juliet, Naked, a novel about three people whose lives are turned inside out by one man’s mania for a reclusive rock star.

Duncan and Annie have been together for 15 years, putting on a brave front as a small-time academic and rinky-dink museum curator in the cultural backwater of seaside Gooleness. The dominating feature of their tepid relationship has always been Duncan’s fixation with Tucker Crowe, a late-‘70s, early-‘80s American rock star whose album Juliet is considered – at least by the 15 or so remaining, frenetic fans – to be the be all and end all of break-up albums.

When Crowe’s record company releases a CD of the demo tracks for Juliet, the “Croweologists” go wild over the first new material from their hero in the twenty-plus years since he cancelled a tour and abruptly retired. Annie revolts, setting into motion a series of romantic, almost plausible events that finally knock her and Duncan out of their rut.

As always, Hornby’s take on obsessive fans is spot on. Using Annie as the lead character brings freshness to these themes and makes this a particularly appealing Hornby choice for his female readers.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link to your review post and I will add it.)

Mailbox Monday

It was a busy book week for me. A couple even came in my mailbox, in time for Mailbox Monday.

Even more exciting for my book-consuming ways, after the World's Oldest iPod finally conked out, I got a new iPod in the mail. I have a hard time conceptualizing how this small device can actually be "bigger" than my laptop, but I was thrilled that (thanks to storing my iTunes library on an external hard drive) I was able to load 3,728 songs, 4557 photos, and all 73 of my stored-up audiobooks onto this tiny little thing.  It still has as more empty space on it than my original iPod had space.

So no more having to pick which precious few audiobooks got loaded onto the iPod. What book security! To have 73 books there at my fingertips wherever I go.

As for book-books, here's the list:

Food Lover's Guide to Portland by Liz Crain (I have been waiting for this ever since I interviewed Liz, here)



Peaceful Places Los Angeles: 110 Tranquil Sites in the City of Angels and Neighboring Communities by Laura Randall (from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program)



Enduring Love by Ian McEwan



How to be Good by Nick Hornby



Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (this has guilty pleasure written all over it)

Review of the Day: The Polysyllabic Spree

The Polysyllabic Spree is a collection of 14 essays that Nick Hornby wrote for the Believer magazine. Described on the cover as, “A hilarious and true account of one man’s struggle with the monthly tide is the books he’s bought and the books he’s been meaning to read,” it is the famous person’s version of a book blog.

Hornby is a funny guy, so he brings some levity to a topic that can bring out the pomposity in the best of us. He admits that his lofty intentions often outpace his attention span and his whims divert him from his goals. He admits he forgets most of what he reads. He lauds literature over all other forms of entertainment in one essay, only to recant in the next because he watched a terrific football match. He makes literary criticism jolly.

His consumption includes fiction, biography, science books, and poetry. He incorporates several reviews of the books he read into his essays and writes at length about some of his favorite authors. He salts this hotchpot with commentary about the reader’s life, such as this treat: “I’m not entirely sure why I chose those two in particular, beyond the usual attempts at reinvention that periodically seize one in a bookstore.”

There are two more volumes in this series. With luck, they will be as inspiring and entertaining as this one.

OTHER REVIEWS

Vapour Trails

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it)

Author of the Day: Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is a favorite author of mine because I enjoyed High Fidelity so much.


I did not realize he had so many non-fiction books in addition to his novels. Fever Pitch is a memoir about being an avid football fan. Songbook is a collection of essays inspired by certain pop songs. The last three on the list intrigue me the most because they are collections of Hornby's book reviews from The Believer magazine.

Those I have read are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Novels
(1995) High Fidelity (reviewed here)
(1998) About a Boy
(2001) How to Be Good
(2005) A Long Way Down
(2007) Slam
(2009) Juliet, Naked (reviewed here)

Non-Fiction
(1992) Fever Pitch
(2003) Songbook (called 31 Songs in England)
(2004) The Polysyllabic Spree (reviewed here)
(2006) Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
(2008) Shakespeare Wrote for Money

NOTE
Last updated on March 19, 2012.