Book List: Books Read in 2017

 

Somehow, 2017 was the year in books that almost never was. Every year in January, I make a book list of the book I read the prior year. But I forgot to do that in January 2018. A look at my work calendar tells me I wasn't gearing up for a trial (which is my usual attention-sucker), but my law partner and I were up to our eyeballs in a couple of Boy Scout sex abuse cases in Idaho and Montana. I spent most of January 2018 in regional PNW airports waiting for cancelled flights to get to depositions and court hearings.

I only realized the 2017 list was missing when I went to post the 2020 list. Better late then never. We want to remember all the books of Auld Lang Sine!

BOOKS READ IN 2017

• The Panther by Nelson DeMille 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bech at Bay by John Updike 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great by Karen Karbo 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 (Women's Prize winner)

• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Amarcord: Marcella Remembers by Marcella Hazan 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Poetic Justice by Amanda Cross 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Jam Today Too: The Revolution Will Not Be Catered by Tod Davies 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Life and Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese by Kathe Lison 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Biographer's Moustache by Kingsley Amis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• No Way to Treat a First Lady by Christopher Buckley 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living by Meik Wiking 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö 🌹🌹🌹

• Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier by Peter Stark 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Fifth Business by Robertson Davies 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Manticore by Robertson Davies 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Original Sin by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Heartburn by Nora Ephron 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• World of Wonders by Robertson Davis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• When You Lunch With the Emperor by Ludwig Bemelmans 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Make Me by Lee Child 🌹🌹🌹

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Ultimate Prizes by Susan Howatch 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Spotted Dick S'il Vous Plait: An English Restaurant in France by Tom Higgins 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Little Nugget by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• But Enough About You by Christopher Buckley 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 (Booker Prize winner)

• Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Architecture Pack : A Unique, Three-Dimensional Tour of Architecture over the Centuries : What Architects Do, How They Do It by Ron Van Der Meer 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books by Michael Dirda 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slay Ride by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Road to Burgundy: The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and a New Life in France by Ray Walker 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Story of a New Name by Elana Ferrante 🌹🌹

• Black and Blue by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton Friedman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Handmaid's Tail by Margaret Atwood 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Wait for Me!: Memoirs by Deborah Mitford 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Death by Water by Kenzaburo Oe 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Nix by Nathan Hill 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town By Susan Herrmann Loomis 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Blue Angel by Francine Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹 (my Campus Novels list)

• Bandits by Elmore Leonard 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• About a Boy by Nick Hornby 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Any Human Heart by William Boyd 🌹🌹🌹

• Temperance Creek: A Memoir by Pamela Royes 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Blue Heaven by C. J. Box 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 (Edgar Award winner)

• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan 🌹🌹🌹1/2 (Booker Prize winner)

• Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste by Bianca Bosker 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Any Woman's Blues by Erica Jong 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Heirs by Susan Rieger 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Question of Max by Amanda Cross 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Rocks by Peter Nichols 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don't Have with People You Don't Like Doing Things You Don't Want to Do by Sarah Knight 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the Plaintiff's Revolution by David Ball 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Group by Mary McCarthy 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson 🌹🌹🌹🌹 (Pulitzer Prize winner)

• Psmith, Journalist by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Glorious Heresies by  Lisa McInerney 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2 (Women's Prize winner)

• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks 🌹🌹🌹 (BBC Big Read)

• I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays by Eleanor Lipman 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Ancient Minstrel by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Vipers' Tangle by Mauriac Francois 🌹🌹 (Nobel Laureates)

• The Journalist and the Murder by Janet Malcolm 🌹🌹🌹

• The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Certain Justice by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade by Patrick Dennis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

I have a loosy goosy and always changing rating system. I used to use stars, but since my four or five stars didn't mean what four or five stars might mean on amazon or goodreads, I switched to roses, keeping with my Rose City Reader theme. I rate a book based on how much I like it, if I would recommend it to others, and what type of reader I would recommend it to.  

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Books I love, recommend to most readers, or I think of as classics or must reads. 

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Books I really enjoy and/or recommend to readers of that type of book. Lots of Mysteries or food memoirs, for example, might get four roses from me instead of five because I really like them, but would only recommend them to people who read mysteries or food books.

🌹🌹🌹 Books I'm lukewarm about, liked so-so, or maybe was glad I read but wouldn't recommend to other people. 

🌹🌹 Books I didn't like, but understand that other readers do like.

🌹 Books I really don't like and am surprised to find other readers who do. I don't have many one-rose books.

I use half roses for books that fall between categories.

In years past, I used a slightly different star system. Here is a link to it. 

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What are you reading this week? It's time to share the opening sentence (or so) here on Book Beginnings on Fridays. 

Share the link to your blog or social media post in the linky box below. If you post or share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag so we can find each other. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

My Book Beginning this week is from The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis's classic allegory about Heaven and Hell. It is a short book and I just started it today. I plan to read several C. S. Lewis books this year and The Great Divorce is the first of them. 

I seemed to be standing in a bus queue by the side of a long, mean street.

I'm already halfway through -- like I said, it's a short book -- and it is very good. It s as accessible as his Narnia books, but written for adults as a way to explain ideas of sin, grace, and judgment. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please link to your Bok Beginnings post and not your main blog page or social media profile page. 

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.

THE FRIDAY 56 

Another weekly teaser event is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice, where you can find details and add a link to your post. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book you are featuring. You can also find a teaser from 56% of the way through your ebook or audiobook.

MY FRIDAY 56

"I have seen that kind converted," said he, "when those ye would think less deeply damned have gone back. Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already."

That's from 56% of the way through the audiobook. The audiobook is particularly good because the reader does all the voices differently. 

2021 European Reading Challenge: WRAP UP POST PAGE

 

The 2021 European Reading Challenge

WRAP UP POST PAGE

January 1, 2021 to January 31, 2022

THIS IS THE PAGE FOR WRAP UP POSTS

TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO SIGN UP, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE, HERE,

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE

LINK YOUR POST

When you complete the 2021 European Reading Challenge at whatever level you signed up for, please do a wrap up post and enter a link to your post here. Please link to your wrap up post, NOT the main page of your blog or social media profile.

A wrap up post can be very simple. If you participate in the challenge on your blog and just update your original post without doing a separate wrap up post, that's OK. Just post a link to your updated post here. If you participate on social media, please do some kind of wrap up post listing the books you read and link it here.

OR LEAVE A COMMENT

If you want, you can also simply leave a comment below listing the books you read. Please include your name, the name of the books, the authors of the books, and the countries of the books.   

WANT THE PRIZE? WRAP IT UP!

Without some kind of wrap up post, I don't have any way to know if you finished the challenge. I like to know so I can visit everyone. But it is more important if you are competing for the Jet Setter Prize. If you want to compete for the prize, you have to leave a wrap up post or I will have no way to know if you visited more countries than the other people competing with you.

When I announce the prize winner, Honorable Mention will go to the participants who visited the most countries, with links to their wrap up posts. If you don't link a wrap up post, I won't be able to find you.

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.

NOTE ABOUT DATES

There is overlap in January 2021 between the last month of the 2020 European Reading Challenge and the first month of the 2021 challenge. If you participated both years, only count books read in January in one of the years, not both.

2021 European Reading Challenge: REVIEW PAGE

The 2021 European Reading Challenge

REVIEW PAGE

 January 1, 2021 to January 31, 2022

THIS IS THE PAGE TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS.

IF YOU HAVE FINISHED, WRAP UP POSTS GO ON THIS PAGE.

TO SIGN UP, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE, HERE,

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE.

LINK YOUR REVIEWS HERE

Please put your name and/or the name of your blog or social media handle, the name of the book you reviewed, and the country of the book or author. For example: Gilion at Rose City Reader, My Brilliant Friend, Italy.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Easy-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.

LINKS

When you review a book for the 2021 European Reading Challenge, please add it to this list using the Linky widget above. Please link to your review post, NOT the main page of your blog or social media account.

You do not need a blog to participate. If you review books on Instagram, Facebook, goodreads, or some other platform that generates a URL, you can add link to the review in the Mr. Linky below the same as a link to a blog post. Please link to the review, not your profile page. If you have questions about how to find the URL for a social media review post, leave a comment to ask me or email me at gilion at dumasandvaughn dot com. 

REVIEWS

You do not have to review books to complete the European Reading Challenge. You can complete the challenge simply by reading one to five books (or more), each set in a different European country or written by an author from a different European country. But if you do review books, please link your reviews here so other people can find them.

Also, if you want to win the Jet Setter Prize, you have to review the books. Only books reviewed count for the prize. If you are competing for the prize, definitely link your reviews here. You can link all your reviews, but only one book per country counts towards the prize.

WRAP UP

If you complete the challenge, please link some kind of wrap up post on the wrap up page. That way, I know who finished the challenge. If you do not do a wrap up post separate from your sign up post -- you just update your original post -- that's fine! But please, please, please link to the updated post after you finish the challenge. It is too hard for me to count all your reviews to figure out if you finished the challenge or not. 

NOTE ABOUT DATES

There is overlap in January 2021 between the last month of the 2020 European Reading Challenge challenge and the first month of the 2021 challenge. If you participated both years, only count books read in January in one of the years, not both.

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.

2020 CHALLENGE - Audiobook Challenge, Wrap-Up Post

 2020 AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE

hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Reviewer

COMPLETED

I signed up for the 2020 Audiobook Challenge hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Reviewer. It was my first year for the challenge because I love audiobooks and read a lot of books with my ears. Then 2020 happened and I forgot I had even signed up. I didn't keep track as I went along. Thanks to LibraryThing, I can go back and piece together my list.

My plan was to find as many audiobooks from my library that are on all the book lists I'm working on, with the goal of getting through at least 30 audiobooks in 2020. I ended up reading 61 audiobooks, so far surpassed my goal of 30!

BOOKS READ FOR THIS CHALLENGE

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Women's Prize)

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

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Costa Book of the Year)
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Warlight by Michaele Ondaatje

Calypso by Davis Sedaris

The Overstory by Richard Powers (Pulitzer Prize)

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

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

Patrimony by Philip Roth

Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry 

Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (National Book Award)

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

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (National Book Award)
Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile
The Likeness by Tana French
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Pulitzer Prize)

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

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

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild (Wodehouse Award)
The Invitation by Lucy Foley

The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman (Erica Jong List)

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Classics Club)

The Underground Railroad by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize)

The Nickel Boys by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize)

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Edgar Award)

The White Album by Joan Didion

The Stranger by Albert Camus (Classics Club)
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (Classics Club)
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Murder Room by P. D. James

The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan

Writers & Lovers by Lily King
For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Just Like You by Nick Hornby
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
The Hanging in the Hotel by Simon Brett
A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment) by Donna Leon

Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding
The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

Jump the Gun by Zoe Burke

Almost all of the audiobooks I read I got from my library, using the Libby app, and listened to the on my phone. I have a bare-bones Audible account and got a few books using it. I find that most of the books on Audible are available through the library, although you have to waitlist many of them. 

2021 CHALLENGE - Back to the Classics

 

BACK TO THE CLASSICS

The Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate is one of my favorites. I didn't get my act together in 2020 to sign up in time, so only participated in my mind. 2020 was that kind of year. But I am a little more on my game so far in 2021, so here is my sign up post. We will see how I do reading the books!

The idea for the Back to the Classics challenge is to read "classic" books meaning those published more than 50 years ago that are considered classics. There is no hard and fast definition and you pick your own books. Participants read up to 12 books in 12 separate categories. Readers who read 6 books get one entry for a prize at the end; two entries for nine books; and three entries for 12. Read all the details and rules on the main challenge page. You have to sign up by the end of March.

THE CATEGORIES 

• 19th Century Classic
• 20th Century Classic
• Classic by a Woman
• Classic in Translation
• Classic by a BIPOC Author
• Classic by a New-to-You Author
• Classic by a Favorite Author
• Classic About an Animal
• Children's Classic
• Classic Humor or Satire
• Travel or Adventure Classic
• Classic Play

MY BOOKS

I hope to read at least six books for the Back to the Classics challenge. My plan is to read books off my Classics Club list so I can make progress on finishing that list by my deadline goal of December 2023.

I'm not sure which books I'll pick, but possibilities include:

• 19th Century Classic: Walden by Henry David Thoreau (College Board)
• 20th Century Classic: Not Now, but Now by M.F.K. Fisher FINISHED
• Classic by a Woman: Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter (Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women) FINISHED
• Classic in Translation: The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö FINISHED
• Classic by a BIPOC Author: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
• Classic by a New-to-You Author: The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald FINISHED
• Classic by a Favorite Author: Mysteries and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor
• Classic About an Animal: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham FINISHED
• Children's Classic:
• Classic Humor or Satire: Jeeves in the Offing by P.G. Wodehouse FINISHED
• Travel or Adventure Classic: Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome FINISHED
• Classic Play:

Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter - BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Another week is here for us to share the first sentences (or so) of the books we are reading. Book Beginnings on Fridays has been going for several years now. We've gathered a lot of opening sentences! 

For those of you who have participated for a long time -- THANK YOU! For those of you who are more new, welcome! I appreciate everyone who participates. I don't always get around to visit everyone every week. But I enjoy all your blogs and love the variety of readers who take part in this event and the different sorts of books we all read.

Please link your post below. You don't have to have a blog to play along. You can post on facebook, Instagram, or other social media and link your related post in the Linky box below. As always, if you post, or share your blog post, on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag so we can find each other. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

August, 1931 -- The port town of Veracruz is a little purgatory between land and sea for the traveler, but the people who live there are very fond of themselves and the town they have helped to make. 

-- Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter. Published in 1962, Ship of Fools is a shaggy story of many characters on a ship from Mexico to Germany in the stormy times prior to WWII. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please link to your Book Beginning blog post or social media post, not the home page of your blog or your social media profile page. 

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

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

David, hearing the thin edge in her voice, said no more, but reflected that no matter how he tried to explain his point of view to Jenny, about anything at all, he seemed always to go off at a tangent, or in a circle, or to get bogged down in a spot he had never meant to be in, as if Jenny's mind refracted his thought instead of absorbing his meaning, or even his feelings about certain things -- Indians, for example. He would give up from now on talking to Jenny about Indians, or about her painting, either; she was sentimental about the one, and obstinate about the other; let it go.

Ship of Fools is a long book -- my edition is just under 500 pages -- but I like it. It's wordy, idea-based, repetitive, and detail-driven, the way many mid-Century (meaning mid-20th Century) novels seemed to be. It is one of the 50 books I put on my Classics Club list because it is on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women. 

 

Little Free Library New Year Books - MAILBOX MONDAY

 

A couple of new year's intentions (I wouldn't go as far as resolutions) have me tidying my bookshelves and out for neighborhood walks. Both these find me hitting the nearby Little Free Libraries on a regular basis these days. I have a nice one-mile loop through my neighborhood that takes me past FIVE Little Free Libraries! I can get some exercise and drop off books along my way. 

Of course, I often end up finding books that catch my eye in the LFLs. Isn't that always the way? I am just trying to keep the outflow of books from my house greater than the inflow from the Little Free Libraries. 

Here are my recent Little Free Library finds. What new books have come into your house lately?

Buckingham Palace: The Interiors by Ashley Hicks (Rizzoli). This was my favorite find. I love fancy coffee table books, and this stunner from Rizzoli is brand new. Now that I finished the last season of The Crown, I'm happy to have another way to visit Buckingham Palace. 

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro. Mostly Shakespeare biography, part history, this book focusses on Shakespeare's life in 1599, the year he wrote four of his most famous plays -- Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet.

In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture by Alister McGrath. This is another literary history book I found with the Shakespeare book, most likely dropped off by the same neighbor reader. It also looks great.

740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building by Michael Gross. Framed as the history of a fancy building in New York City, built by Jackie Kennedy's grandfather, this is a social history of New York. 

MAILBOX MONDAY 

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. 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 hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

12 Books to Read in 2021 -- A Year's Worth of Interesting Indies!

 

12 BOOKS TO READ IN 2021

A Year's Worth of Interesting Indies

Whether you are still in a reading slump from last year or just looking to liven up your 2021 reading list, here are 12 books to read in 2021 guaranteed to mix things up a bit. These indie authors and publishers have turned out top-rate memoirs, novels, short stories, biography, and travel books, so there is something here for every taste, or to fill in a a whole calendar of exceptional reads.

River Queens: Saucy Boat, Stout Mates, Spotted Dog, America by Alexander Watson (2018, Orange Frazer Press)

It took me a while to get to River Queens and I am so glad I finally did. What a delight! It's the memoir of Watson's adventure restoring an old wooden Chris-Craft boat he and his partner bought in Oklahoma and sailed back to Cincinnati, Ohio. It's a charmingly quixotic story of adventure, mishap, and the romance of river life. The real heart of the book lies in how Alexander and Dale, two urban, gay, landlubbers-turned-river-captains, are adopted by the community of small town and rural "river people" they meet along their inland journey. In these divisive times when it sometimes seems like no one gets along, it is nice to read a book and realize that people are really nicer than we remember. 

The Canyon Cuts Both Ways: Hidden Stories by Dan T. Cox (2020, Ingram)

Reading Dan T. Cox's new collection of short stories is like living in Oregon's North Santiam Canyon for a while. The stories overlap just enough you feel like you know the community, with its small towns, mills, forested hills, bad weather, and difficult lives of the people who live in this beautiful but struggling pocket of Oregon. Cox is an excellent writer in that you don't notice his writing -- the stories come straight at you. If you are a fan of Raymond Carver, you'll love The Canyon Cuts Both Ways. 

 

Never Leaving Laramie: Travels in a Restless World by John W. Haines (2020, OSU Press). 

John Haines was an adventure seeker from a young age. He biked through Tibet, kayaked the Niger River, and rode the Trans-Siberian Express from Beijing to East Berlin. A fall from a train in the Czech Republic in 1999 left him partially paralyzed and radically changed his life. His new memoir, Never Leaving Laramie, weaves the stories of his travels with his philosophy of travel as Haines writes about how growing up in Laramie, Wyoming gave him perspective and taught him lessons he carried with him around the globe. He ends with a chapter on his life since his accident and the different ways people can travel through the world. 

Hunting Four Horsemen by Jim Geraghty (2020, Discus Books)

If you are in the mood for an up-to-the-minute thriller, Hunting Four Horsemen is the book for you. Set in 2021 when vaccines have corralled COVID19, but nothing is quite back to normal yet. Now the CIA's "Dangerous Clique" team of special operatives, lead by Katrina Leonidivna, must track down a new threat -- an anonymous arms dealer trying to sell a new bioweapon to terrorist organizations. This deadly virus would make corona look tame and plunge the world into chaos. It's non-stop action as the Clique races around the globe tracking bad guys, saving humanity, and trying to avoid some pretty nasty monkeys.  

Rough House by Tina Ontiveros (2020, OSU Press) 

Tina Ontiveros's memoir is a tough read but it lays bare what it was like to grow up in the logging camps of the Pacific Northwest. Raised by a charming but abusive father and a mother worn down by small-town poverty, Ontiveros writes with heartbreaking honesty about family dysfunction and intergenerational trauma. Rough House makes an excellent companion read with Dan Cox's short story collection, The Canyon Cuts Both Ways, because it is the nonfiction version of the same world, as seen by the women and children who live in it. 

Dudes Rush In by Lynn Downey (2020, Pronghorn Press)

This debut novel takes us back to 1952 Arizona, the heyday of Dude Ranches, when war widow Phoebe McFarland leaves her settled life in San Francisco to spend six months on her in-laws' ranch. Her discovery of a diary from WWI years sets her on the path of a mystery and her own rebirth. The story is packed with engaging characters, plot twists, and memorable settings, and Phoebe is a smart and likeable heroine. Downey was the archivist for Levi Strauss, Co. and her skills as a researcher show in this page-turner of a historical novel.

Braided in Fire: Black GIS and Tuscan Villagers on the Gothic Line by Solace Wales (2020, Knox Press)

Solace Wales tells the story of the Tuscan village of Sommocolonia and the Black 366th Infantry Regiment that defended the village in WWII during the Battle of Garfagnana. At the center of her story are Lieutenant John Fox, who posthumously won the Medal of Honor for his heroism, and the brave Biondi family. Wales explores how the bonds between some of the Black GIs and Italian villagers, forged during the battle, remained strong for lifetimes. As the Black Lives Matter movement continues, Braided in Fire is a timely record of the Black lives given during WWII to save Europe from fascism.    

Always an Immigrant: A Cultural Memoir by Mohammad Yadegari with Pricilla Yadegari (2020, White River Press). 

Mohammad Yadegari was born in Iraq in an Iranian family. At 18, he moved to Iran to finish high school in Tehran. Later, he immigrated to the United States for college and graduate school where he met and married his wife Pricilla. He wrote his memoir in the form of personal stories and anecdotes about growing up in the Middle East in the the 1940 to early 1960s and then moving to America. He's a good storyteller and the book is full of humor and real life wisdom. Immigrant stories are a part of American life and it is fascinating to get the perspective of someone who immigrated from the Middle East in the mid-1960s. 

Mordecai's Ashes by Arlana Crane (2020, Big Tree Press)

With Mordecai's Ashes, Arlana Crane launches her new Larsson Investigations series, set on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Karl Larsson has lost his job in the Alberta oil fields and his wife, but he just inherited a detective agency in Victoria, BC. With nothing to lose and a lot to learn, he sets out to solve a mystery or two, his 19 year old cousin Kelsey as his sidekick. There are plenty of twists and turns, lots of PNW atmosphere, and a terrific story to keep the pages turning. All in all, Mordecai's Ashes is a fine kick off for what looks like a very entertaining series. It's always fun to start at the beginning. 

Beloved Prophet 2020: The Abridged Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell, and Her Private Journals, edited and arranged by Virginia Hilu and Dalton Hilu Einhorn (2020)

Kahlil Gibran wrote The Prophet, which since published in 1923 has never been out of print, has been translated into over 100 languages, and is one of the best-selling books of all time. Gibran never married but had a long-time intimate relationship with Mary Haskell, to whom he was once engaged. This is a new edition of Beloved Prophet, the correspondence between Gibran and Haskell, which was first published in 1972. This edition has been pared down about 40% to make it more accessible to a general audience, editing out the parts of interest only to academics. Beloved Prophet is a must read for die hard Gibran fans. 

She Said God Blessed Us: A Life Marked by Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Church by Gail Hovey (2020, Exposit Books) 

Hovey's memoir discusses the often overlooked issue of sexual abuse of girls by women. But don't be put off by the subject matter. It is really the story of how easily young people can be enthralled and exploited by someone older who seems  charismatic simply by showing the young person a little special attention. That manipulation leads to feelings of guilt and shame that take a long time to recognize and and even longer to understand, well into adulthood. When Hovey was a teenager, she was emotionally and physically seduced by Georgia, the education director at her church. It took her decades, including a move to South Africa, to break free of Georgia's influence. Hovey tells her story well, with compassion and insight. She Said God Blessed Us is a memoir worth reading for anyone whose family has been touched by abuse or who wants to understand dynamics and effects of abuse. 

The Town Crazy by Suzzy Roche (2020, Gibson House Press)

The Town Crazy is set in Hanzloo, Pennsylvania, a suburban Catholic community in Pennsylvania in 1961, when a single father moves to town with his son Felix. The dads are suspicious, most of the moms are smitten, and Lil O'Brien, one of the town moms, seems to be losing her mind. Felix befriends his classmate, Lil's daughter Alice, but when the town busybody jumps to a conclusion of misbehavior, tragedy follows. Meanwhile, Lil's bottled-up secret is leading to greater emotional collapse. This character-driven, captivating story will keep you engaged from cover to cover. 

GO AHEAD -- FILL YOUR CALENDAR WITH THESE 12 INDIE BOOKS!