Book List: Books Read in 2023

BOOKS READ IN 2023

Every year, usually in January, I post a list of the books I read the prior year. My master list of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Here's the list of the 139 books I read in 2023, in the order I read them. Usually, I read 100 - 110 books in a year. I don't know how I finished 30+ more in 2023.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

1. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
2. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (abridged*) 
3. Mystical Paths by Susan Howatch 🌹🌹🌹🌹
4. Know Your Style: Mix It, Match It, Love It by Alyson Walsh 🌹🌹🌹
5. The Big Four by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹
6. The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹
7. Slightly Foxed: String is My Foible, Vol. 76 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
8. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
9. Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
10. A German Requiem by Philip Kerr 🌹🌹🌹🌹
11. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy 🌹🌹🌹🌹
12. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
13. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott 🌹🌹🌹
14. The King's General by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
15. Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
16. The Waste Land & Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
17. The Maid by Nita Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹
18. The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
19. Hill House Living: The Art of Creating a Joyful Life by Paula Sutton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
20. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark 🌹🌹🌹1/2
21. The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Grof 🌹🌹🌹🌹
22. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
23. Oregon Confetti by Lee Oser 🌹🌹🌹
24. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister 🌹🌹🌹1/2
25. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
26. Mrs. Ted Bliss by Stanley Elkin 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
27. Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
28. The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
29. Even the Dead by Benjamin Black 🌹🌹🌹🌹
30. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
31. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo 🌹🌹
32. Winston Churchill: Painting on the French Riviera by Paul Rafferty 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
33. A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
34. Slightly Foxed, A Date With Iris, Vol. 25 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
35. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne 🌹🌹🌹1/2
36. Trailing: A Memoir by Kristin Louise Duncombe 🌹🌹🌹🌹
37. April in Spain by John Banville 🌹🌹🌹1/2
38. Five Flights Up: Sex, Love, and Family, from Paris to Lyon by Kristin Louise Duncombe 🌹🌹🌹🌹
39. The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade 🌹🌹🌹1/2
40. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
41. Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher 🌹🌹🌹1/2
42. The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
43. The Holy Bible, King James Version 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 (duh)
44. On Cussing: Bad Words and Creative Cursing by Katherine Dunn 🌹🌹🌹
45. In the Presence of the Enemy by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
46. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
47. Dragons & Pagodas: A Celebration of Chinoiserie by Aldous Bertram 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
48. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
49. So Big by Edna Ferber 🌹🌹🌹🌹
50. The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud 🌹🌹🌹🌹
51. A Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd and Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man and Beast by M.F.K. Fisher 🌹🌹🌹1/2
52. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz 🌹🌹🌹
53. Glass Houses by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
54. Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
55. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry 🌹🌹🌹🌹
56. Mapp & Lucia by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
57. The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
58. Black Dogs by Ian McEwan 🌹🌹🌹1/2
59. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane 🌹🌹🌹🌹
60. Slightly Foxed: Beside the Seaside, Vol. 75 by Gail Perkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
61. More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
62. Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
63. Horse by Geraldine Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
64. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
65. Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹
66. Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
67. Trouble for Lucia by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
68. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
69. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
70. Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
71. The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion 🌹🌹
72. Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes 🌹🌹🌹🌹
73. A Simple Country Murder by Blythe Baker 🌹🌹🌹🌹
74. In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
75. Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹
76. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh  🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
77. The Sellout by Paul Beatty 🌹🌹🌹
78. A Better Man by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
79. French Ways and Their Meaning by Edith Wharton 🌹🌹🌹
80. Slightly Foxed: Laughter in the Library, Vol. 77 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
81. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu 🌹🌹🌹🌹
82. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
83. S. by John Updike 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
84. Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
85. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 🌹🌹🌹
86. Three Fires by Denise Mina 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
87. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 
88. Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter 🌹🌹
89. The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
90. Prisoner of Brenda: Curses, Nurses, and a Ticket to Bedlam by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹 
91. Snow by John Banville 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
92. Blood From a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam S. McHugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹
93. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders 🌹🌹🌹🌹
94. After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley 🌹🌹🌹🌹
95. All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
96. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
97. The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron 🌹🌹🌹🌹
98. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
99. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹
100. He Said He Would Be Late by Justine Sullivan 🌹🌹🌹1/2
101. A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
102. Tom Lake by Ann Patchet 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
103. Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery by Wendy Lesser 🌹🌹🌹
104. Venice Observed by Mary McCarthy 🌹🌹🌹1/2
105. Exit Music by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
106. Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Mugham 🌹🌹🌹
107. One More Seat at the Rounds Table by Susan Dormady Eisenberg 🌹🌹🌹1/2
108. Mating by Norman Rush 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
109. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
110. The Chosen by Chaim Potok 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
111. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
112. The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
113. Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
114. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens 🌹🌹🌹🌹
115. The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean 🌹🌹🌹🌹
116. The Collected Poems by W. B. Yeats 🌹🌹🌹🌹
117. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
118. The Long Good-Bye by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
119. The Man with Two Left Feet by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹
120. Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹
121. Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
122. In Search of a Character: Two African Journals by Graham Greene 🌹🌹🌹
123. A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
124. A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
125. The Prince and Betty by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2
126. Innocent Blood by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹
127. Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
128. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 🌹🌹🌹🌹
129. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹
130. The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor 🌹🌹🌹
131. Straight Man by Richard Russo 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
132. Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2
133. The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹🌹🌹
134. Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
135. The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
136. Aqua Alta by Donna Leon 🌹🌹🌹🌹
137. The Spring by Megan Weiler 🌹🌹🌹1/2
138. The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer 🌹🌹🌹🌹
139. War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

* I didn't realize that my very old (like 1890) edition of Our Mutual Friend was abridged until I got to the end of it. I loved the story, but thought it was herky jerky and that I had missed big parts. It was herky jerky and I did miss big -- and little -- parts. So I can't rate it now. I plan to read the complete version again and know I will love it.  

MY RATING SYSTEM

I switched to using roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My rating system is my own and evolving. Whatever five stars might mean on amazon, goodreads, or Netflix, a five-rose rating probably doesn't mean that here. My system is a mix of how a book subjectively appeals to me, its technical merits, and whether 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. So I give a lot of four roses because I might really like a book, but it didn't knock my socks off. And while I'd recommend it to someone who likes that genre -- mystery, historical fiction, food writing, whatever -- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who asked me for a "good book."

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe was glad I read but wouldn't recommend.

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. Lessons in Chemistry is an example, which proves how subjective my system is because lots of people loved that book. I found it cartoonish and intolerant.

🌹 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.

Book Beginnings on Fridays on Rose City Reader

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thanks for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the first sentences (or so) of the books they are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your eye, even if you are not reading it this week.

The day got away from me, so I have just enough time to put up this week's post. I will have to come back tomorrow to add my own book beginning. In the meantime, please share yours in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbegninnings. 

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 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

Quentins by Maeve Binchy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me on Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. Feel free to share from a book that captured your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

When Ella Brady was six she went to Quentins.

-- from Quentins by Maeve Binchy. 

Years back, I went on a Maeve Binchy tear and read a lot of her books, including several involving many of the same characters in Quentins, including Tara Road and The Scarlet Feather. 

Quentins focuses on the fictional Dublin restaurant of that name, tying together the characters with the history of the restaurant. I love being back in Binchy World. All her novels involve many characters facing ordinary problems that all get resolved in a tidy way. They are the emotional equivalent of cleaning out a messy closet and leave me with the same sense of satisfaction.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other.

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 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Quentins:

In their first year at the university, Ella and Deirdre had made a new friend, Nuala, who was from the country and had her own flat. Right in the center of the city.

TBR 24 in '24 and Mt. TBR Challenges -- My Sign Up Post

 

THE TBR 24 IN '24 CHALLENGE

My Sign Up Post

This is my sign up post for the TBR 24 in '24 Challenge. The simple idea is to read 24 books off your TBR shelves between January 1 and December 31, 2024. If you want to join me (and I hope you do), go to the main challenge page here to sign up. You can participate through your blog, social media, or just in the comments on the challenge pages.

You do not have to pick all your TBR 24 in '24 books ahead of time. I like to, so I do. You can pick them now. Or you can pick some now and some as you go. You can pick them all at whim. Or you can pick now and then change your mind. The only real rule is that you read books that you already owned before January 1, 2024. Find all the rules on the challenge page.

MY TBR 24 IN '24 BOOKS

I like to pick my books ahead of time and keep them stacked by my bedside to motivate me through the year. This year, I picked 12 fiction and 12 nonfiction. I plan to alternate fiction/nonfiction as I read through the stack in alphabetical order by author name. In years past, I read my challenge picks as my mood struck. But I always ended up in December with the least appealing books and that was no fun. 

Here's a list of what is in the picture. Do any look good to you?

FICTION

Quentins by Maeve Binchy. I went on a Binchy jag years ago and read most of her books, including several that involve the fictional Dublin restaurant Quentins. But this one slipped past me. FINISHED 

Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury. I loved Eating People is Wrong and The History Man so look forward to reading more of Bradbury's books. FINISHED 

The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. This one is on Anthony Burgess's list of his 99 favorite novels, one of my favorite lists. FINISHED 

The King of the Rainy Country by Nicolas Freeling, an Edgar Award winner. FINISHED 

 

A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable, looks like fun! FINISHED 

J by Howard Jacobson. I like his books but this one is speculative, dystopian fiction, not my favorite genre. We'll see how it goes. FINISHED 

Out of the Shelter by David Lodge. He is one of my favorite authors. FINISHED 

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch. So is she! FINISHED 

The New Men by C. P. Snow. I've been plodding my way through his Strangers and Brothers series and am determine to get through the whole thing. FINISHED 

A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler. As with Binchy, I went on an Anne Tyler tear several years ago. Then I just stopped. I want to get back and read the ones I missed. FINISHED 

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware, This is probably the most random novel I have on my TBR shelf so I decided to dust it off. FINISHED 

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, which will also count as my Austria book for the 2024 European Reading Challenge. FINISHED 

NONFICTION

My Almost Cashmere Life by Margy Adams. I already ripped through this memoir. FINISHED 

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review by William F. Buckley, Jr. This is one of my favorite titles ever. I grew up reading his Notes & Asides column and look forward to revisiting the columns in this collection. FINISHED 

Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick by Peter Collier. My husband gave this to me several years ago and it's time I read it. FINISHED 

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David. I love food writing but have never read this classic. FINISHED 

Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell. I've read Lawrence Durrell books but never Gerald's. I love the TV show, The Durrells of Corfu, so want to try his books. FINISHED 

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz. I bought this on a whim when it came out and don't want it to languish on my shelves. FINISHED 

Songbook by Nick Hornby. Another favorite author, but I missed this one. FINISHED 

The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis. I'm chipping away at reading all his books. FINISHED 

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo. I found this at a library book sale and it looks terrific! FINISHED 

The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas by Paul Theroux. This classic book of travel writing has waited too long for me to read it. FINISHED 

Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull. I missed this when it came out and love ex-pat memoirs. FINISHED 

I'll Take the Back Road by Marguerite Hurrey Wolf, a 1975 memoir about living on a farm in Vermont. FINISHED 

THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE

This TBR 24 in '24 Challenge dovetails nicely with the Mt TBR Challenge that Bev at My Reader's Block hosts every year. Like I've done for the past couple of years, I am signing up for the "Mt. Kilimanjaro" Level in 2024 to read a total of 60 books off my TBR shelves. That means 37 books in addition to those listed above.

MY MT. TBR BOOKS

I will try to remember to list my Mt. TBR books here as I read them, although I completely forgot this last year.

Here's the list. Consider them all marked FINISHED:

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Myers 

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier

The Year I Stopped to Notice by Miranda Keeling

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere by Susan Orlean

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope

The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle

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

The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne

Habits of the House by Fay Weldon

Long Live the King by Fay Weldon

The New Countess by Fay Weldon

His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle

Silverview by John le Carre

The Reivers by William Faulkner

Dead Lions by Mick Herron

Pocket Full of Poseys by Thomas Reed

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer

After All These Years by Susan Isaacs

Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh

The Light of Day by Eric Ambler

With No One as Witness by Elizabeth George

Loser Takes All by Graham Greene

The Third Man by Graham Greene

The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene

The Messenger by Megan Davis

The Stranger House by Reginald Hill

Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah

The Vacationers by Emma Stroud

Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny

Castle Dor by Daphne du Maurier

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis

Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh

Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope

The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thakeray

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh

The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope

Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived by Anton Scalia

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier

Living Color A Designer Works Magic with Traditional Interiors by Gary McBournie

The Girl on the Boat by P G. Wodehouse

The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong

A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong

Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison

The Turret Room by Charlotte Armstrong

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope

Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

Leaves of Grass, Vol. 1, and Democratic Vistas by Walt Whitman

Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler

Joe Country by Mick Herron

Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham

NOTE: Updated September 21, 2024. 

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to the first Book Beginnings of the new year! Please share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, or just a book that caught your fancy.

Hopefully my late post this week does not set the course for the rest of the year! My New Year's resolution is to get Book Beginnings up and running by Thursday at 5:00 pm Pacific Time. Let's see if I can keep it.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

All day the heat had been barely supportable but at evening a breeze arose in the west, blowing from the heart of the setting sun and from the ocean, which lay unseen, unheard behind the scrubby foothills. 

-- from The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh.

Evelyn Waugh went to Hollywood in the 1940s to consult with movie studios about a movie version of his famous novel, Brideshead Revisited. The movie deal fell through, but the trip inspired his novel, The Loved One (1948), a satire about Hollywood and the funeral business in America. 

The Loved One is very funny, in a dark and often harsh way. Waugh is one of my favorite authors because he is so snarky and irreverent. I just finished this book and thought it was hilarious, but it is not for the faint of heart. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had not recently read After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939) by Aldous Huxley, which also pillories the funeral industry and is even more outrageous.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other.

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 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Loved One:

A young lady rose from a group of her fellows to welcome him, one of that new race of exquisite, amiable, efficient young ladies whom he had met everywhere in the United States. She wore a white smock and over her sharply supported left breast was embroidered the words, Mortuary Hostess.

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to the last Book Beginnings of the year! Please share the first sentence (or so) of the book  you are reading, or just a book that caught your fancy. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Whether or no, she, whom you are to forgive, if you can, did or did not belong to the Upper Ten Thousand of this our English world, I am not prepared to say with any strength of affirmation. By blood she was connected with big people,—distantly connected with some very big people indeed, people who belonged to the Upper Ten Hundred if there be any such division; but of these very big relations she had known and seen little, and they had cared as little for her.

-- from Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope. 

Can You Forgive Her? is the first book in Anthony Trollope's Palliser Series of six novels, also known as the Parliamentary Novels. It was first published in serial form in 1864 - 1865. The book follows three women through courtship and marriage: Alice Vavasor, her cousin Glencora Palliser, and her aunt Arabella Greenow. Early on, Alice asks, "What should a woman do with her life?" This theme repeats itself in the dilemmas faced by the other women in the novel.

This series has some character crossover with Trollope's Barchester Chronicles series, which I read a few years back. This series has been on my mind since I found a boxed set of paperbacks at a library friends store last spring. There is a year-long group read on Instagram that is just the inspiration I needed to dive in. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other. 

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 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Can You Forgive Her?:

They were sitting at Basle one evening in the balcony of the big hotel which overlooks the Rhine. The balcony runs the length of the house, and is open to all the company; but it is spacious, and little parties can be formed there with perfect privacy.

 

Christmas!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

1 Day to Christmas!

 

2 Days to Christmas!

 

3 Days to Christmas!

 

The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, Stories & 100 Essential Recipes for Winter by Nigel Slater -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Wow! I had Christmas brain last week and totally forgot to post Book Beginnings on Fridays until Saturday morning! What a crazy lady. Sorry about that!

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings, where participants share the first sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. Please share yours! You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it at the moment.

It's the week before Christmas, and while I am not reading Christmassy books in general, I did want to dip into Nigel Slater's Christmas book to get me in the mood. I also want to remind myself to remember to read this book next year!

What books are you hoping to get from Santa?

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The icy prickle across your face as you walk out into the freezing air.

-- from the Introduction to The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, Stories & 100 Essential Recipes for Winter
by Nigel Slater. Normally I do not like sentence fragments as the opening to a book. But with Nigel Slater, I don't care.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Christmas Chronicles:

We have been lighting fires around this time for centuries. Since ancient times Celtic people have gathered around bonfires on October 31 and November 1 to celebrate Samhain, the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.

In America, we generally don't start celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving at the end of November. Slater is in England and starts his book about Christmas and winter on November 1. This is the thing I want to remember next year so I start the book in November and read through the days. 

4 Days to Christmas!

 

5 Days to Christmas!

 

6 Days to Christmas!

 

Christmas Books

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

One Christmas tradition I have — and I don’t think I’m alone in this — is to plan at least 100 Christmassy things I want to do in December and then abandon at least 80 of them when reality sets in. Prewrap the gifts with gorgeous ribbons and coordinating gift tags becomes shove everything into gift bags and write the name on the bottom with a sharpie. Bake all my own cookies and pies becomes buying shortbread and an almond ring from my favorite bakery and begging Hubby to make a gingerbread cake.

You get the idea!

One of my dream plans every year is to spend December in a cleaned and decorated house, in front of a fully decorated tree, a fire going in the fireplace, a warm adult beverage to hand, reading nothing but Christmas books. And then November fades away and I still have a dozen or so books I planned to read this year demanding attention. My list of Christmas books get set aside to “next year” like always.

I’m sticking with this tradition for Christmas 2024! 

This month, I seem to be reading a lot of mysteries. I am also finishing my last three book for the TBR 23 in '23 Challenge. By happenstance, the one I am reading now, Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, has two stories in it set at Christmas. So I managed to get in at least a little holiday-themed reading. 

Also, this year I gathered the Christmas books I could find around the house into a stack for inspiration. I’m going to keep this stack on my bedroom table where I keep books I plan to read, like my TBR 24 in '24 books. That will remind me to get the others finished by the end of November so I can indulge my fantasy of reading these in December. I am particularly looking forward to that Nigel Slater Christmas book. I really love food books with a Christmas theme. 

See any here you’ve read or want to? Do you have any favorite Christmassy books? I'd like to get more books or at least make a list of possibilities here on the blog.

7 Days to Christmas!

 

8 Days to Christmas!

 

9 Days to Christmas!

 

10 Days to Christmas!

 

11 Days to Christmas!

 

12 Days to Christmas!

 

13 Days to Christmas!

 

14 Days to Christmas!

 

15 Days to Christmas!

 

The 2024 European Reading Challenge -- WRAP UP PAGE

 

THE 2024 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

WRAP UP PAGE

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 2024 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. You can do a separate post on your blog or social media platform. Or, 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 too. 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 names 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. This is also why you need to identify the country of your book. I don't want to guess and I don't want to research.

When I announce the prize winner, Honorable Mention will go to the participants who visited the most countries (but not as many as the winner), 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

You have until December 31, 2024, to finish reading the books. You have until January 31, 2025, to finish your reviews and your wrap up post. I will announce the winner as soon as possible after January 31, 2025.

The 2024 European Reading Challenge -- REVIEW PAGE

 

THE 2024 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

REVIEW PAGE

THIS IS THE PAGE TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS

IF YO 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 add links to your review posts in the Linky box below. 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, War and Peace, Russia.

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 2024 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 Linky box above 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, email me at gilion at dumasandvaughn dot com, or DM me on Instagram @gilioncdumas.

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

You have to finish reading all books by December 31, 2024. You have until January 31, 2025 to finish your reviews and your wrap up post. I will announce the winner(s) as soon as possible after January 31, 2025.

16 Days to Christmas!

 

17 Days to Christmas!

 

Pocketful of Poseys by Thomas Reed -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Grace Tingley always struggled letting herself into her mother's cottage, especially when her arms were full. 

-- from Pocketful of Poseys by Thomas Reed (new from Beaufort Books). 

It's hard to know where this story will go, based on this first sentence. But it makes me interested to know more. Grace and her mom must get along, because Grace is going to her mom's house and has a key. But why does her mom not let her in? Is her mom there? And what does she have in her arms? Groceries? Is she her mother's caretaker? Or is something completely different going on?

I like a book beginning that gets me asking all kinds of questions. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add a link to your Book Beginnings post in the linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Pocketful of Poseys:

Their appointment with Bradford Tuttle, the stereotypically oleaginous funeral director, had struck Grace and Brian as easily lasting longer than the average college final exam — lengthened even more by the fact that almost every utterance the man voiced involved increasingly wearing references to your dear departed loved one. Grace didn't feel the least bit guilty about forgetting a detail or two.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Grace Tingley and Brian Posey are forty-something twins whose lives have gone in very different directions. . . . 

When their widowed mother Cinny, a charter member of Woodstock Nation, is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, Grace and Brian are there for her last days in hospice care. This is where Cinny reveals her staggering plan for the siblings: They're to sprinkle her ashes, mixed with their father's, at a series of exotic locations around the globe--some remote, some challengingly public, all known and loved by the Poseys.

Joined by their own immediate families, Grace and Brian set off on a funereal odyssey that uncovers more about their parents' relationship, and themselves, than the twins find it easy to admit.