August Book Report

Hampton, NH, August 2024

I finished 9 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“In her new, albeit fragile, mood, this letter does not unduly distress her. One lesson she has learned is that any opinion expressed by a person who does not understand how to use an apostrophe may be disregarded with impunity.”
― Jean Hanff Korelitz, The White Rose

I made absolutely no progress this month toward any of my various goals and challenges. There are currently 134 books on my owned-but-not-read shelf.

 Here are the books I finished in August 2024: 

1. Murder in Williamstown by Kerry Greenwood (4-stars)
2. The White Rose by Jean Hanff Korelitz  (4-stars)
3. Fatal Family Ties by S. C. Perkins (3-stars)
4. Scents and Sensibility by Spencer Quinn (3-stars)
5. Dolled Up for Murder by Jane K. Cleland (4-stars)
6. Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews (3-stars)
7. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (audiobook, 3-stars)
8. The Historian's Toolbox by Robert C. Williams (3-stars)
9. Murder with Puffins by Donna Andrews (3-stars)

20 Books of Summer - Final Report

I finished reading my #20BooksOfSummer24 (hosted by Cathy at 746 Books) My final list bears very little resemblance to the list  I started with. 

Here is the final list:

1. All it Takes is a Goal by Jon Acuff  [June]
2. Rosemary Remembered by S.W. Albert  [July]
3. Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews [August]
4. 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg [June]
5. Tide and Punishment by Bree Baker [July]
6. Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan [July]
7. The Jasmine Moon Murder by Laura Childs [June]
8. The Life List by Kate Christie [July]
9. The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark [July]
10. Dolled Up for Murder by Jane Cleland [August]
11. James by Percival Everett [July]
12. Murder in Williamstown by Kerry Greenwood [August]
13. The White Rose by Jean Hanff Korelitz [August]
14. You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz [June]
15. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon [July]
16. Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride [August]
17. Pastrami on Rye by Ted Merwin [June]
18. Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami [July]
19. Blood at the Root by Peter Robinson [July]
20. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin [July]

July Book Report

A favorite reading spot
July 2024

I finished 10 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading: 

“The act of mothering is not limited to the bearing of children.”
― Ariel Lawhon, The Frozen River

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 1 was from my owned-but-not-read shelf  (with 135 still remaining because I added one)  
• 2 counted toward the 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (or they will once I write them up)
• 1 was from my Classics Club List 
• All 10 count towards #20booksofsummer24!

 Here are the books I finished in July 2024: 

1. The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark (audiobook, 3-stars)
2. Blood at the Root by Peter Robinson (4-stars)
3. Rosemary Remembered by Susan Wittig Albert (4-stars)
4. Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami (4-stars)
5. The Life List by Kate Christie (audiobook, 4-stars)
6. Tide and Punishment by Bree Baker (4-stars)
7. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (3-stars)
8. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (5-stars)
9. Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan (4-stars)
10. James by Percival Everett (4-stars)

The first of July marked the end of another Canadian Reading Challenge that I did not complete. I decided to take a break from that challenge, at least for a while. I plan to continue to keep an eye out for interesting-looking books by Canadians, but fitting 13 of them into my reading year has been a problem for me in recent years. 

We

We 

by Yevgeny Zamyatin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't like this book particularly, but I was impressed by it and I see how it might have influenced both Orwell and Atwood who have essays about it included in the edition I read. This latest translation was done by Bela Shayevich.

"In a glass-enclosed city of perfectly straight lines, ruled over by an all-powerful “Benefactor,” the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState are regulated by spies and secret police; wear identical clothing; and are distinguished only by a number assigned to them at birth. That is, until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. He can feel things. He can fall in love. And, in doing so, he begins to dangerously veer from the norms of his society, becoming embroiled in a plot to destroy OneState and liberate the city." --GoodReads

 I'm not sure exactly what I didn't like about it, I think it was the disjointedness of the plot and that only the main character had any depth. 

The story is structured as a diary, with log entries intended to be read by the beings on another planet to whom it will be delivered by the amazing machine D-503 is building for the OneState. This structure was very effective for the story as it showed clearly the unravelling and regrouping of our narrator as different things happened. 

"A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.” 

This is definitely a novel worth reading and is on my Classics Club list.

June Book Report

Manchester, NH June 2024

I finished 5 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“There could be no picture making,” the film director Orson Welles flatly declared, “without pastrami.”
― Ted Merwin, Pastrami on Rye

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 0 were from my owned-but-not-read shelf  (with 135 remaining) 
• 1 was from my #NonFicNov TBR 
• All 5 count towards #20booksofsummer24!

 Here are the books I finished in June 2024: 

1. Jasmine Moon Murder by Laura Childs (3-stars)
2. Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli by Ted Merwin (3-stars)
3. All it Takes is a Goal by Jon Acuff (5-stars)
4. You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz (4-stars)
5. 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg (3-stars)

I didn't get much finished this month, but I do have 7 books currently in progress so next month should have a higher finish number. I will be seeing Korelitz speak in October at the NH Book Festival so I have begun a deep dive into her backlist. 

May Book Report

May 2024, Manchester, NH

I finished 6 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“Below me and above me and in the woods stretching thick and endless, their leaves made sugar out of nothing but light.”
― Rebecca Makkai, I Have Some Questions For You

I made almost no progress this month on any goals or challenges. I did read 1 book from my owned-but-not-read shelf  which is at 135 titles. 

 Here are the books I finished in May 2024: 

1. A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders (4-stars)
2. Murder Past Due by Miranda James (3-stars)
3. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (4-stars)
4. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James (4-stars)
5. Comeback by Dick Francis (4-stars)
6. Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (3-stars)

I didn't realize during the month how little I was reading! I made a list of #20booksofSummer2024, including a few I finished since I made the list. As we come into summer hopefully I will find more time for reading my books!

20 Books of Summer 2024

For the 10th year Cathy at 746 Books is hosting #20BooksOfSummer24 I love this challenge because the rules are so forgiving! Make a list of 20 books, read them between 6/1 and 9/1. Change them if you want to as you go along; read fewer than 20 if you need to; have fun. 

Here is my list, beginning with books already in progress:

Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James [finished in May, not counting]
Comeback by Dick Francis [finished in May, not counting]

1. Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
   
   On my library book shelf but not yet started:
   
   
2. 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet by Pamela Paul [DNF]
   You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz [DONE - June]
   
   
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
   1000 Words by Jami Attenberg [DONE - June]
   
   Scheduled to come up in my library hold queue this summer:
   
   
4. Misunderstood Vegetables by Becky Selengut [DNF]
   The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon [Done - July]
5. Indiana by George Sand
   Tide and Punishment by Bree Baker [Done-July]
6. Dolled Up for Murder by Jane Cleland
   James by Percival Everett [Done-July]
7. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
   We by Yevgeny Zamyatin [Done-July]
8. The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
   Rosemary Remembered by S.W. Albert  [Done - July]
9. We by E. I. Zamiatin [Done - July]
10. All it Takes is a Goal by Jon Acuff  [Done - June]
11. Pastrami on Rye by Ted Merwin [Done - June]
12. The Jasmine Moon Murder by Laura Childs [Done- June]
13. Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan [Done-July]
    
    Books I own but haven't yet read:
    
    
14. Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami [Done-July]
15. The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
16. Biography: A Very Short Introduction by Hermione Lee
17. Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen
18. The End of Summer by Rosamund Pilcher
    The Life List by Kate Christie [Done-July]
    
    Swap-ins for the May finishes:
19. The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark [Done-July]
20. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 
    Blood at the Root by Peter Robinson [Done-July]
    
    

April Book Report

Manchester, NH; April 3, 2024

I finished 7 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“We’re so old now,” I said, “that we can actually see the patterns. It’s a little terrifying.” 
― Michelle Huneven, Search

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 1 was from my owned-but-not-read shelf  (with 136 remaining;
• none counted toward the 17th Canadian Reading Challenge 
• none counted toward the 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• none counted toward the 2024 What's in a Name Challenge
• none were from my Readers' Advisory Reading List 
• 1 was from my #NonFicNov TBR (oddly, it was a novel)
• 1 was from my Classics Club List 

 Here are the books I finished in April 2024: 

1. Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years by Blanche Weisen Cook (5-stars)
2. The Little Book of Dog Care by Ace Tilton Ratcliff  (4-stars)
3. The Divorce Colony by April White (4-stars)
4. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (5-stars)
5. The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd (3-stars)
6. Search by Michelle Huneven (5-stars)
7. Seven Sisters by Earlene Fowler (4-stars)

Three 5-star books in one month! 

The Postman Always Rings Twice

The Postman Always Rings Twice 

by James M. Cain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! 

I read this 1934 noir classic in a single sitting. It was un-put-down-able and it was also incredibly well written. Cain structured the story very cleverly and each of the main characters was clearly drawn and we came to understand their motivations. I gasped aloud several times at the twists in the plot. I also enjoyed the very dry tone of the writing.

"Stealing a man’s wife, that’s nothing, but stealing his car, that’s larceny.”
― James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice

This novel was the inspiration for Camus' The Stranger--which I own and now plan to re-read. 

This title is on my Classics Club list.