17 Days to Christmas!

 

ADVENT

17 Days to Christmas!

18 Days to Christmas!

 

ADVENT

18 Days to Christmas!

19 Days to Christmas!

 

ADVENT

19 Days to Christmas!

Christmas in London by Anita Hughes -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Christmas in London by Anita Hughes

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

Louisa nudged open the industrial-sized oven And thought nothing smelled as wonderful as cinnamon and nutmeg nine days before Christmas.

-- from Christmas in London by Anita Hughes.

I am trying to read only Christmas-themed books this month. I think about this every year, and this is the year I am finally going to try. I have a stack of Christmas books to read with my eyes. My difficulty is finding audio books. 

I ended up downloading several from the library and am going through them, hit or miss. I mostly found romance books and cozy mysteries. I have nothing against those genres, but they are not the first I pick when looking for something to read. I've sent a few back after the first few minutes of listening because the story was too sappy or the narrator's voice grated on my nerves. 

Christmas in London seems to have a bit more going for it. It's still a romcom, but there is a story to it, however implausible. Louisa is a baker in New York and gets the entirely implausible opportunity to go to London to fill in for America's most famous female chef on the most popular cooking program in London. So she gets a whirlwind, all-expense-paid trip to London, with a makeover and romance thrown in. 

For sure I need a double dose of the usual willing suspension of disbelief. But I'm thinking these books are the reading equivalent of eggnog -- a Christmas-only treat too sweet for the rest of the year,

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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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 is 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 Christmas in London:

Louisa pulled her eyes from a display of Christmas crackers and followed him to the middle of the store. The Christmas tree was five stories tall and seemed as wide as an ocean liner.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Set during London's most festive time of year and filled with delicious food Anita Hughes' Christmas in London is about love and friendship, and the season's most important lesson: learning how to ask for and give forgiveness.

20 Days to Christmas!

 

ADVENT

20 Days to Christmas!

Christmas Reading -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Christmas Reading

Every year, I aspire to read only Christmas-themed books in December. I love Christmas and want to immerse myself in holiday books, movies, food, drinks, parties, decorations – all of it. Then December rolls around and I always have other books I want to read before the end of the year, so I abandon the Christmas book plan.

Not this year! I finished all my TBR 24 in '24 books before November. I’m caught up on my IRL book club books. I don’t have any Instagram buddy reads until January. So this year I am all in on Christmas reading.

Here’s my stack of Christmas book possibilities. I hope to get to as many of these as I can, although I suspect I’ll have a few left over for next year.

🎄 There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes. I love vintage mysteries and a winter setting makes it all the better. 

🎄 Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou. I haven't read any of her books and I love the title of this one. It's a collection of essays and, maybe, poems. I haven't looked through it yet.

🎄 Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is in here, but so are the other Christmas stories he wrote to publish each December. I've read these all before, so this would be a reread for me, if I get to it. 

🎄 The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson. I love the British Library Crime Classics series and know they have several with a Christmas theme. Unfortunately, they are not easy to find in the US. I have a few, but this is the only Christmas one. 

🎄 Christmas by Elizabeth David. I read a book of David's food writing earlier this year. I like the idea of a collection of Christmas food essays. 

🎄 A Redbird Christmas by Fanny Flagg. I see this one around a lot and loved her Fried Green Tomatoes book, so am looking forward to this one. 

🎄 The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart. OK, so this is not exactly on point. It isn't a Christmas books. But I'm always looking for festive holiday cocktails and the book looked great in the stack. 

🎄 Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham. I'm reading this one now and it's a good story. It is about a young man living in London who goes to Paris over Christmas and meets a Russian prostitute married to a murderer. That's quite a yarn! It's more engaging than many a Maugham read.

🎄 A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories & Poems, edited by James Charlton and Barbara Gilson. This might be really sappy, but I'll give it a go. 

🎄 Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas by Anja Dunk. This Christmas cookbook looks gorgeous. I plan to read it cover to cover, like a book. 

🎄 The St. Nicholas Anthology, edited by Henry Steele Commager. This is another collection of Christmas bits and bobs. It might be really sappy because it was published in 1948.

🎄 The Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook by Regula Ysewijn and Julian Fellowes. O couldn't resist this one because it is full of Downton pictures and old-fashioned recipes. Another cookbook I will read straight through. 

I also have several Christmas books lined up on my library app to read with my ears because I read a lot of audiobooks, especially while I putter around decorating the house and tree, baking treats, and wrapping presents. The audiobooks I picked are not by authors I’ve read before and they are almost all cozy mysteries or romcoms. I have nothing against either genre, but they aren’t my usual picks. 

We’ll see how this part goes. I've tried a couple that were too sticky sweet for me and I returned them after a few minutes of listening. I listened to a cozy mystery with a rare book dealer as the amateur sleuth and it had some plot holes big enough for Santa's sleigh.

Do you have any suggestions for Christmas reads not in my stack already? I'm planning ahead for next year already. 

21 Days to Christmas!

 

ADVENT

21 Days to Christmas!

22 Days to Christmas!

 

ADVENT

22 Days to Christmas!

23 Days to Christmas!

 

ADVENT

23 Days to Christmas!

Advent -- A Countdown to Christmas Tradition! 24 Days to Christmas

ADVENT: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS

Since I started this blog back in 2008, I've counted down the days to Christmas with vintage holiday cards. It's now a tradition I look forward to and I hope you all enjoy it. I know this advent countdown has nothing to do with books, but most booklovers I know are like me and also love ephemera, like vintage cards. This is the 16th year I've posted an advent calendar here on Rose City Reader!

To see more vintage cards, click on the "Advent" or "vintage postcard" tags at the bottom of these posts (or bottom of the page) to find hundreds of images from past years. You will find Santas, Christmas trees, nativity scenes, elves, cats, birds, dogs, deer, ornaments, gifts, candles, bells, and lots more!

THIS YEAR'S THEME

Some years I have a theme, some years it's catch as catch can. This year I'm going for a wreath theme. I've never done wreaths before and I'm really into wreaths at my house right now.

Next task will be to tackle my real Christmas cards. Do you send them? I enjoy seeing all the new-fashioned cards with pictures, so I can see my friends and family. But I always end up sending a traditional boxed card, usually with a snapshot or sticker picture of me and my husband.

DECEMBER BLOGGING

I always plan to do holiday-themed blog posts every year, but never seem to get around to it. There's a lot going on in December! But I hope to do a little something more thematic this yea. I read Nigel Slater's The Christmas Chronicles in November to get me in the mood. Expect a review this month. 

Also, I have a stack of Christmas-themed books on my nightstand and Christmas audiobooks downloaded from the library. Every year I say I am going to read only seasonal books in December, but every year I get distracted by other books. This is my year! I have everything from holiday cookbooks to winter mysteries. I'm excited!

It is also the time of year to plan next year's reading challenges. I am hosting the European Reading Challenge again in 2025 and a TBR 25 in '25 challenge. I will get those posts before the end of the year, I promise!

What are your blogging plans for December? Do they include planning or posting any 2025 reading challenges?

Please join me tomorrow when the Rose City Reader advent calendar continues!

The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan

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

"Maple Sugar Inn, how may I help you?"

-- from The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan.

I've never read any books by Sarah Morgan, but I saw this one at a library friends store the other day and it looks perfect for this holiday weekend. I'm ready to curl up with a cozy read! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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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 is 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 Book Club Hotel:

She almost wished she hadn't had twins. If there had been a gap between her children at least then she could have let go of them one at a time and gradually eased herself into a child-free life, instead of losing both at the same time.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

With its historic charm and picture-perfect library, the Maple Sugar Inn is considered the ultimate vacation destination. But widowed far too young, and exhausted from juggling the hotel with being a dedicated single mom, Hattie Coleman dreams only of making it through each day.

When Erica, Claudia and Anna—lifelong friends who seem to have it all—check in for a girlfriends’ book club holiday, it changes everything. Their close friendship and shared love of books have carried them through life's ups and downs. But Hattie can see they're also packing some major emotional baggage, and nothing prepares her for how deeply her own story is about to become entwined in theirs.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wishing you a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope you have time to enjoy some good books this holiday weekend. 

Thankfulness -- BOOK NOTES

 

BOOK NOTES

A Thankfulness Stack

It’s Thanksgiving week, so I’ve put together a thankfulness stack to remind me to focus on my blessings, be content, give thanks, and show gratitude. I love Thanksgiving and the entire Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It's is a time of reflection for me, and filled with nostalgia. Thanksgiving is also the gateway to Christmas, which I really love. 

🦃 The Blessing by Nancy Mitford

🦃 A Little Book of Japanese Contentments by Erin Niimi Longhurst

🦃 Thank You for Smoking* by Christopher Buckley

🦃 Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country by William F. Buckley

I haven't read The Blessing yet. I picked this one for the title. I love Nancy Mitford, though, so I look forward to this one, which is described as her most autobiographical novel.

A Little Book of Japanese Contentments is one I really enjoyed. The author looks to Japanese traditions like "forest bathing" and wabi-sabi to gently advise on how to be more grounded and live in the present. The modernist, Japanese-style illustrations make the book beautiful and a good gift idea.

Thank You for Smoking may seem like dark satire for a post about thankfulness, but it’s actually right on point. My husband, also a lawyer, spent a big chunk of his career litigating cases for Philip Morris. Around our house, there’s more truth to that title than we care to acknowledge. 

The William Buckley book, Gratitude, is still on my TBR shelf but one I'd very much like to read. I think I might read it over Thanksgiving weekend. 

For my fellow Thanksgiving celebrants, what are your plans? My husband and I are on our own this year and plan to have a very laidback holiday. We certainly are not cooking a turkey dinner for the two of us! We are going to get lobsters from the tank at the Chinese grocery store. And I will be avoiding Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all the rest of it, like I do every year. 

Also, as is the tradition around our house, I'll go to the tree lot and get our Christmas tree on Saturday or Sunday. I no longer make my husband crawl around in the Oregon mud to cut our own tree, but I still insist on a fresh tree. 

Death and Croissants by Ian Moore -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Death and Croissants by Ian Moore

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

Is there anything in this world quite as joyless a muesli?

-- from Death and Croissants by Ian Moore. Good question! I'd answer no. For reasons lost in time, the word muesli makes my sister and I laugh every time we hear it. So this opening sentence grabbed me immediately.

Death and Croissants is the first book in a series of cozy and funny mysteries set in the Loire Valley of France. The protagonist is an Englishman running a B&B outside a French village who gets caught up in a potential murder investigation. His sidekick is a beautiful woman with an overdeveloped sense of adventure. Just what Richard needs to take his mind off his failing marriage and absent wife. 

I turned to this one because I am so enjoying Martin Walker's Bruno, Chief of Police series, also set in a remote French village. While I wait for my library hold to come in on the next Bruno book, I turned to Ian Moore. I just finished the audiobook -- read by the author -- and loved it. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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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 is 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 Death and Croissants:

Her reply came dismissively in English, like a haughty Parisian waiter, bringing both annoyance and relief in equal measure. But with it came a friendly shrug, too, and all in an accent that in just one sentence veered from parody to femme fatale and back again.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION 

Meet Richard Ainsworth: an almost divorced part time B&B owner, part time film historian, full time self-deprecator. Hoping to continue running his B&B in the quiet Val de Follet, he has no idea of its hidden intrigue, from the mafia to swingers, to the peddling of (il)legal grape seeds. His quiet has flown the coop on a fateful afternoon with a bloody handprint, a missing guest, and one dead Ava Gardner (beloved hen).

Death and Croissants is an unputdownable, hilarious mystery perfect for fans of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club.

Unconditional Surrender by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Unconditional Surrender by Evelyn Waugh

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

When Guy Crouchback returned to his regiment in the autumn of 1941 his position was in many ways anomalous. 

-- from Unconditional Surrender by Evelyn Waugh.

Unconditional Surrender is the third novel in Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, an fictional examination of WWII inspired by Waugh's own wartime experiences. Guy Crouchback is the often-humorous protagonist. I'm reading the trilogy with a group on Instagram, as we work our way through all of Waugh's books. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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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 is 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 Unconditional Surrender:

Jumbo Trotter would have devised a dozen perfectly regular means of absenting himself. He would, if all else failed, have posted himself to a senior officers' "refresher" course.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

By 1941, after serving in North Africa and Crete, Guy Crouchback has lost his Halberdier idealism. A desk job in London gives him the chance of reconciliation with his former wife. Then, in Yugoslavia, as a liaison officer with the partisans, Crouch becomes finally and fully aware of the futility of a war he once saw in terms of honor.

Unconditional Surrender is the third novel in Waugh's brilliant Sword of Honor trilogy recording the tumultuous wartime adventures of Guy Crouchback ("the finest work of fiction in English to emerge from World War II"-Atlantic Monthly), which also comprises Men at Arms and Officers and Gentlemen.

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope

Yikes! I forgot to post yesterday because I was in Philadelphia for work all week and got home very late last night. Sorry for the delay and 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

No one, probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died.

-- from The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope.

The Duke's Children is the sixth and final novel in Trollope's Palliser series, also known as the Parliamentary Novels. I've been reading the series all year with a readalong group on Instagram. I love them, although maybe not quite so much as I enjoyed the Barchester Chronicles. 

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.  

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 #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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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 is 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 Duke's Children:

But all this was now at an end. He told himself that he did not care how the elections might go;—that he did not care much how anything might go.

That seems like an appropriate teaser for this election week.  

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

After the sudden death of his wife, two years after he has left office as Prime Minister, the Duke of Omnium must become deeply involved with his children for the first time. They vex him enormously: with school expulsions, vast gambling debts, and what he considers to be calamitous romantic attachments. He tries to compel them to do what he wants, but they are not so easy to manage.

Even when his eldest child and heir, Lord Silverbridge, makes him proud by embarking upon a political career, the Duke grapples with heartache. For Silverbridge becomes a Conservative rather than a Liberal, flouting the family tradition. The relationship between father and son is drawn with remarkable subtlety, and the book as a whole becomes a piercing, yet often humorous, exploration of change: how both the young and the old resist, tolerate, or embrace it.

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

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

As requested, they had all assembled in the Library before dinner.

-- from Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson.

I love this opening sentence because it echoes so many Golden Age mysteries. Kate Atkinson is one of my favorite authors and her Jackson Brodie mystery series is a huge favorite of mine. I wait impatiently for a new one to come out, even while enjoying the literary novels she puts out between mysteries. 

See the Publisher's Description below for more details. If you like smart, clever mysteries, this one is for you! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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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 is 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 Sign of the Rook:

He had seen a lot of dead people and he wouldn't call them peaceful. He would call them dead.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.

In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom and malaise. His only case is the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

As paying guests, impecunious aristocrats and old friends collide, we are treated to Atkinson’s most charming and fiendishly clever mystery yet, one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to the modern era of Knives Out and Only Murders in the Building.

The Resistance Man by Martin Walker -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Resistance Man by Martin Walker

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

It was shortly after dawn on a day in late spring that carried all the promise of summer to come.

-- from The Resistance Man by Martin Walker.

Martin Walker's "Bruno, Chief of Police" series is my current favorite mystery series. Bruno is the Chief of Police in the French village of St. Denis. He loves to cook, juggles a couple of women who are both reluctant to commit, enjoys his rural lifestyle, and solves crimes. The books are cozy, but not super cozy. I love them and am working my way steadily through the whole series. This one is book 6 of 18. 

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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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 is 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 Resistance Man:

“So that’s the second mystery, apart from the murder,” Bruno said over the smoked salmon. “What happened to the furniture?”

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

It's summer in St. Denis for chief of police Bruno Courrèges, and that means a new season of cases. This time there are three weighing on his mind. First, there’s the evidence that a veteran of the French Resistance is connected to a notorious train robbery; then, the burglary of a former British spymaster's estate; and, finally, the murder of an antiques dealer whose lover is conveniently on the lam.

As Bruno investigates, it becomes clear that they are connected--however, figuring out how will take every skill he possesses. Add in juggling the complex affections of two powerful women, maneuvering village politics, and managing his irrepressible puppy, Balzac, and Bruno has his hands full once again.

Possible Reading Challenge -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Possible Reading Challenge

How do you pick the books you are going to read?

I am not a “mood” reader. I don’t pick my next read on whim. If I did, I’d read mostly mysteries, with a few ex-pat memoirs and novels "by women, for women" thrown in. Classics, heavy fiction, history, chunky biographies, and short stories don't jump out at me. I love reading long books, serious books, genres outside my comfort zone, and even short stories when I read them. But I'm not typically in the mood to read them. I need some kind of structure to my reading plan to tackle those books. My two IRL book clubs, Instagram buddy reads, and blog challenges give me that kind of structure.

Today I had a crazy idea of organizing my reading based on the names of each month. (I didn’t say I need formality to find structure!) I occasionally see Instagram posts of stacks of books that spell the name of the month with the first letters of each title. Clever. Now I’m obsessed with the idea of reading a spelling stack of books each month for a year. 

There are a total of 74 letters in the names of the twelve months. May is the shortest, with three letters.  September and December are the longest, with nine letters each. A total of 74 books in a year is doable. I usually read close to twice that many, so I would have plenty of flexibility to work in other books.

I could come up with a whole new challenge based on this wild hare. It would need a clever name and I'm not good at that. I'd probably end up calling it the Spell the Month Challenge. Not very catchy. On the other hand, instead of a new challenge, I could use the idea as a theme for my TBR 25 in '25 Challenge and the Mt. TBR Challenge hosted each year by Bev at My Reader's Block. I signed up with Bev this year to read a total of 60 books off my TBR shelves. I could probably stretch it to 74. 

Or the whole idea could fade away. But for now, here’s a stack of books spelling October. I picked mysteries because I’m already looking to game my own system and bring in the mystery books.

Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh

Come Away Death by Gladys Mitchell

Telling of Murder by Douglas Rutherford

On the Danger Line by Simenon

Bullets for the Bridegroom by David Dodge

Excellent Intentions by Richard Hull

Red Threads by Rex Stout

Happy reading, however you pick your next book!

Spin Number 39 -- CLASSICS CLUB

CLASSICS CLUB SPIN

Spin Number 39

UPDATE: THE SPIN NUMBER IS 3, A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong

I started my first Classics Club list in January 2019, finished it by the end of 2023, and started my second Classics Club list in January this year. But in the six years I've been part of the Classics Club, I have missed every single CC Spin! Finally, I caught this one in time to participate.

The Classics Club is an online "Community of Classics Lovers" started in 2012 to “unite those of us who like to blog about classic literature, as well as to inspire people to make the classics an integral part of life.” To join, you create your own list of 50 "classics" (loosely defined) and read them in five years. Details are on the Classics Club website. 

Every now and again, the Classics Club organizes a CC Spin. The idea is to pick books from your CC list and on a certain date, the organizers pick a random number and you read that books by a specific date. 

You can find more details here, but these are the basics:

• Pick twenty books from your Classics Club list that you still want to read.
• Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday, 20th October.
• Classics Club will randomly pick a number and announce it on their website on October 20.
• Read that book by the 18th of December and share your review (if you write one) on the Classics Club website. 

My CC Spin #39 list:

1. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, Booker Prize
2. Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay, Edgar Award 
3. A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong, Edgar Award
4. The Secret City by Hugh Walpole, James Tait Black
5. Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien, James Tait Black
6. England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell, James Tait Black
7. Unconditional Surrender by Evelyn Waugh
8. The Devil's Advocate by Morris West, James Tait Black
9. The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy, James Tait Black
10. Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins, James Tait Black
11. Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen, James Tait Black
12. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, James Tait Black
13. Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge, Pulitzer Prize
14. The Aerodrome by Rex Warner, Burgess Top 99
15. Indian Summer by William Dean Howells, Burgess Top 99
16. The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes, Burgess Top 99
17. The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The College Board
18. The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, Easton Press Greatest
19. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Easton Press Greatest
20. The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Easton Press Greatest

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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

It lay down in a hollow, rich with fine old timber and luxuriant pastures; and you came upon it through an avenue of limes, bordered on either side by meadows, over the high hedges of which the cattle looked inquisitively at you as you passed, wondering, perhaps, what you wanted; for there was no thorough-fare, and unless you were going to the Court you had no business there at all.

-- from Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I

I like that opening sentence because you know there is going to be some kind of English country house involved in the story. Just my cup of tea!

Lady Audley's Secret was published in 1862 and became a Victorian best seller. It is a scandal-filled thriller with plenty of action, featuring a scheming heroine, a murder mystery, and plenty of twists. I understand why it was so popular!

This was the second book I read for Victober, a celebration of Victorian literature that takes place every October on Instagram. 

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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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 is 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 Lady Audley's Secret:

Seated in the embrasure of this window, my lady was separated from Robert Audley by the whole length of the room, and the young man could only catch an occasional glimpse of her fair face, surrounded by its bright aureole of hazy, golden hair. 

Robert Audley had been a week at the Court, but as yet neither he nor my lady had mentioned the name of George Talboys.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lady Audley's Secret was one of the first and most successful sensation novels of the late 19th century. A young gentleman of leisure, Robert Audley, is spurred into action when his friend George Talboys goes missing from Audley Court. As an amateur detective, Robert travels the length and breadth of the country, only to discover that the answer to the mystery lies in the true identity of his uncle's wife, Lady Audley. True to its genre, the novel brings danger home to the private sphere of the country house and questions the unassailable boundaries of class..

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier

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

The Fentons were taking their usual Sunday walk along the Embankment.

-- from "The Alibi," the first story in The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier.

I'm in a Du Maurier Deep Dive group on Instagram. We are working our way through all of Daphne du Maurier's books. We started with the novels, with a brief diversion to read The Birds, probably her best-known collection of short stories. Now we are reading the other short story collections. The Breaking Point is our current read. 

In general, I prefer novels to short stories. But I am also a completist when it comes to favorite authors like du Maurier. So I often find myself in the position of having finished the novels and have only short stories left to reach my goal. I've enjoyed the two collections of du Maurier stories we've read so far, but they are a little uneven. That's the thing about short stories, isn't it?

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 #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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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 is 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 Blue Lenses" in The Breaking Point:

It must have been during the fifth week that Marta West had tentatively suggested, first to Nurse Ansel and then to her husband, that perhaps when she returned home the night nurse might go with them for the first week. It would chime with Nurse Ansel's own holiday.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In this collection of suspenseful tales in which fantasies, murderous dreams and half-forgotten worlds are exposed, Daphne du Maurier explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Her characters are caught at those moments when the delicate link between reason and emotion has been stretched to the breaking point. Often chilling, sometimes poignant, these stories display the full range of Daphne du Maurier's considerable talent.

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

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

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

-- from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. That is the kind of long, shaggy opening sentence I love and anticipate from Charles Dickens. 

It's October, which means it is time to read Victorian literature in celebration of Victober! Victober is the best thing I ever picked up from Instagram. Do you participate?

This year, The Pickwick Papers is my Victober choice. I'm a big fan of Dickens and, while there are a few of his books I've read multiple times, there are still a few I've never read. The Pickwick Papers is one of them. I don't know much about it, other than that it is one of his funnier books. I am only a few chapters in and I agree. So far, I love it. 

The Pickwick Papers is a long book! You can see in the above picture that my edition fills three volumes. I decided to read it with my ears and the audiobook is 31 hours long!

Have you read it? 

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 #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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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 is 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 Pickwick Papers:

Fastened up behind the barouche was a hamper of spacious dimensions--one of those hampers which always awakens in a contemplative mind associations connected with cold fowls, tongues, and bottles of wine--and on the box sat a fat and red-faced boy, in a state of somnolency, whom no speculative observer could have regarded for an instant without setting down as the official dispenser of the contents of the before-mentioned hamper, when the proper time for their consumption should arrive.

Mr. Pickwick had bestowed a hasty glance on these interesting objects, when he was again greeted by his faithful disciple.

Here, members of the Pickwick Club are embarking on a journey. I love the description of their picnic basket. It reminds me of scenes in The Wind in the Willows.  

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Journey through the English countryside with the inimitable Mr. Samuel Pickwick in Charles Dickens' first novel, a delightful tapestry of episodic misadventures, colorful characters, and sparkling wit. As founder of the Pickwick Club, Mr. Pickwick, accompanied by his loyal friends, embarks on a series of whimsical excursions. From the bustling streets of London to quiet country inns, their travels are punctuated by chance encounters, misunderstandings, and comic predicaments, all narrated with Dickens' signature blend of satire, humor, and keen observation of human nature.

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Sorry I forgot to post last evening, or even this morning. The week got away from me! 

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

Helen Cartwright was old with her life broken in ways she could not have foreseen.

-- from Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy. 

Have you encountered this book yet? If not, you will. It has all the makings of a of a super popular hit book -- an an introverted, unhappy main character, living alone, who learns to embrace life once more. In this case, the protagonist is an 83-year-old lady just waiting to die, who finds redemption through her unlikely friendship with a little mouse. 

It's got all the warm and fuzzies of books like A Man Called Ove and Elinore Oliphant is Completely Fine. If you liked those -- and I loved them -- you will love Sipsworth. I certainly did! I read it in two days. I plan to give it to my 85-year-old mother for Christmas. 

Sipsworth is my book club's pick for next month. I know it will be popular. 

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 #bookbeginnings hashtag.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
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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 is 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 Sipsworth:

This isn't a loud noise, but a persistent one.

Something is happening downstairs in her house on Westminster Crescent that hasn't happened before.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit: “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue.”

Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey. Over the course of two weeks in a small English town, this reclusive widow discovers an unexpected reason to live.

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware

Do you ever read some random book and end up mesmerized by it? I found a vintage hardback hiding on my shelf and decided to give it a read. It was excellent! Come Fill the Cup is a 1952 novel by journalist-turned-fiction-writer Harlan Ware about journalism and alcoholism, with a little romance and gangsters thrown in.

The story follows Lew Marsh, a hard-bitten newspaperman and recovering alcoholic, on a side assignment from his publisher to dry out the drunken son of the publisher’s best friend. Boyd Copeland is a charming playboy with mommy issues that drive him to drink. Two women complicate the matter. One is Boyd’s wife Paula, who was a cub reporter working for Lew before she married Boyd. Lew is in love with Paula and wants her to divorce Boyd and marry him. The other is Maria de Diego, a lounge singer Boyd ran around with when he was on a bender. Maria is the girlfriend of gangland boss Lenni Garr. When Garr and his thugs go after Boyd, Lew has more trouble on his hands than trying to keep Boyd sober.

It’s a rollicking, hard-boiled tale, well told. A crowd of big characters jostle each other for attention. Chicago, with its energy, wind, tall buildings, sweltering summer, and snow-covered winter is a character in itself. For all its richness, the story simmers along slowly before coming to a rolling boil with an exciting ending.

Two things fascinated me about the book. The first was how Ware made the newsroom come alive. I worked for a newspaper for a year before law school, back when “copy aids” like me were employed to move paper copies of draft stories from reporters to editors to photographers to lay-out people. My first husband was a reporter, then editor at the same paper. I’ve never worked anywhere with such a bustling environment and tight-knit group of colleagues. Those newspaper folks spent all day together, then hung out in the evenings, ate at each other’s houses, partied, and even vacationed together – talking about news, politics, and current events all the while. Ware captured that energy and feeling of intense interaction.

The second thing was how Ware wrote about alcoholism. Boyd is an affable, but fundamentally destructive alcoholic, heading to divorce and an early death. Lew has been off the bottle for seven years and helped many of his fellow recovered drinkers by hiring them at the newspaper. But Lew is never free from the desire to drink. Every day, he fights the battle with the bottle. He’s antsy and has a very short fuse. Having worked with a dry drunk for many years, I thought it was a spot-on portrait of an ex-drinker. My former law partner, the recovering alcoholic, always told me, “You can take the alcohol out of the fruitcake, but you still have a fruitcake.” Reading this book helped me understand my law partner better than I ever did, even after working with him for seven years.

I know I bought this one for its campy, vintage cover. What a delight that it ended up being a terrific yarn.

NOTES  

Come Fill the Cup was the basis for a movie starring James Cagney as Lew and Gig Young as Boyd. Young was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Confusingly, the movie came out in 1951, and the book the following year. I can’t find an explanation for the timing.

I was also charmed by the memories this book brought back. There is a price sticker on the back of my copy reminding me that I bought it off the $1 shelves at Powell’s City of Books here in Portland. Prior to the most recent glamorizing remodel, Powell’s had a run of shelves under the windows in the main fiction room stuffed with a haphazard collection of books for $1 each. I used to walk over there on my lunch hour to hunt for treasures. 

This was one of the books I picked for the TBR 24 in '24 challenge, which I personally use to help me clear book off my shelf that have lingered the longest.