Grave Secrets

Grave Secrets 

by Kathy Reichs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read quite a few of the books in this series and this was a fairly early one (#5) that I just got to. It is set in Montreal and Guatemala. There was a lot of history about the "disappeared" in Guatemala which was interesting. There was also more scientific explanation in this book than I remember there being in later books. It was very well done and didn't interfere with the story though. I enjoyed seeing the beginnings of a relationship that is a big part of many of the later novels in this series. 

Reichs is Canadian and this book is partly set in Canada so I am counting it toward the Canadian Reading Challenge. It is also on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

Treasure Island

Treasure Island 

by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a page-turner of an adventure story. I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde back in 2014 and was impressed by what a great book it was. This story, which I think was written for a young audience, was much less interesting. Out hero, Jim, is a charming and mischievous lad who always tries to do the right thing. Given that he has fallen in with pirates this can be a challenge for him. I did find it weird to be reading a book where the dastardly villian has the name of a fast food restaurant. (I know, it's the other way round but it was still weird).

This title is from my Classics Club list and it counts toward the TBR pile challenge.

Challenge Check-in: Odds and Ends

 In hopes of completing my various reading challenges by the end of the year I posted check-ins this week on the various challenges and what I have left to read if I am going to complete them. This is my final check-in post.

Cruisin' Through the Cozies Challenge

I have one book left to read for this: a paranormal mystery. I am currently reading a book that fits this category so I should be all set with this. 

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

I was done with this months ago and foolishly decided to increase my goal from 5 to 10. I have 4 books left to read to meet the new goal. My current audio-book is an historical mystery so that will leave 3 more to read in the next 12 weeks. (Yes, there are only 12 weeks left in 2022!)

Turtle Recall

I have read 4 Terry Pratchett books so far this year: Eric, Jingo, Pyramids, and Soul Music (the only one I blogged about). That leaves one book left to complete this challenge and I picked up Interesting Times at the library this week so I am in good shape with this challenge.

TBR Pile Challenge

I have read 10 out of the required 12 books for this challenge. I'm not sure this one will get finished, but it is already MUCH closer than I have ever gotten to finishing this particular challenge so I am pleased. These are my remaining options for completing this:

• Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson 
• Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs 
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• Biography: Fiction, Fact, and Form by Ira Nadel (I started this, but it is slow going)

The Moonstone

The Moonstone 

by Wilkie Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

According to Wikipedia:

The book is regarded by some as the precursor of the modern mystery novel and the suspense novel. T. S. Eliot called it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe," and Dorothy L. Sayers praised it as "probably the very finest detective story ever written".

This was a wonderful mystery, full of twists and turns and many of the tropes that have become the hallmarks of detective fiction. It is written as a series of reports (collected so that later generations of the family involved will know the truth) by people involved in the incidents connected with the Moonstone. This was supposed to be my chapter-a-day book but I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next so I flew through it. This was my second Wilkie Collins novel.

This book is on my Classics Club list, it is on my TBR pile challenge list, and I am counting it as a "Classic Mystery" for the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Nicholas Nickleby

Nicholas Nickleby 

by Charles Dickens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is early novel in Dickens' career and you can see that in the structure of the plot (or rather the lack of structure). It is full of  colorful and entertaining characters and like the other Dickens novels I have read (this is my 5th one) it was a compelling tale that I wanted to keep reading to discover how Nicholas would get out of the various scrapes he got into. 

It is also full of observations about the world:

“Most men unconsciously judge the world from themselves, and it will be very generally found that those who sneer habitually at human nature, and affect to despise it, are among its worst and least pleasant samples.”

This book is on my Classics Club list, it is on my TBR pile challenge list, and I am counting it as my "Wild Card" title for the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary 

by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel is often cited as being one of the greatest novels of all time. It was an early example of realism (think James Joyce and Virginia Woolf). I don't see what makes it so amazing. Emma Bovary was not a like-able character, I didn't even find her to be sympathetic. She is a spoiled, self-centered, fool who makes a mess of the lives of those around her for no reason other than to satisfy her own whims. 

Perhaps at the time of publication (1856) it was so different from what had gone before that it dazzled. The writing was extremely skillful and the action moved quickly. I would go so far as to say this book is a page-turner which is impressive given how much of it is internal thoughts. The translator's introduction supports the notion of innovation as what makes this novel great.

"Yet Proust, in the course of his vehement response, in 1920, to a negative article about Flaubert, commented (admiringly) on what he called Flaubert's 'grammatical singularities,' which, he said, expressed 'a new vision'; our way of seeing external reality was radically changed by Flaubert's 'entirely new and personal use' of the past definite, the past indefinite, the present participle, certain pronouns, and certain prepositions. He went on to talk about other singularities: Flaubert's unprecedented manner of using indirect discourse, his uncoventional handling of the word 'and'--omitting it where one would expect it and inserting it where one would normally not look for it--his emphatically 'flat' use of verbs, and his deliberately heavy placement of adverbs. But it was Flaubert's innovative use of the imperfect tense that most impressed Proust: 'This [use of the] imperfect, so new in literature,' he said, 'completely changes the aspect of things and people.' (p. xix)

This book is on my Classics Club list (it was the selection for the most recent spin) and also counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (a classic in translation) and the TBR Pile Challenge. It is one of my 20 Books of Summer.

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 

by Benjamin Franklin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I expected this book to be boring, but it wasn't. Even though it was written more than 200 years ago it didn't seem old. Franklin is funny and self-depricating and his stories of his life, and what he learned as he went along were a delight. 

“But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, their hand is mended by the endevour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible”

My Dad recommended this book to me when I was in High School making it my oldest TBR title. I am counting it toward the Back to the Classics challenge in that category. This book is also on my TBR Pile Challenge list. It is also one of my 20 Books of Summer.

The Last Battle

The Last Battle 

by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the final book in the Narnia series, which I wrote a shelf-control post about,  and I enjoyed it. I thought it wrapped up the whole arc of the Narnia tale very well. The religous symbolism in this story was more overt than in some of the other tales (which didn't bother me). Characters from the earlier tales reappear and there are also some new faces. Overall I really liked the Chronicles of Narnia, but I'm not sure I would have enjoyed them as much when I was a child. There is a lot of depth here that I would not have understood.

This book is one of my alternates for the 2022 TBR Pile Challenge.

The Decameron

The Decameron 

by Giovanni Boccaccio
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has been on my TBR for a very long time and I am glad that I finally read it. Like most collections of stories some were better than others. Boccaccio anticipated this criticism. In his epilogue he says: "And the fact remains that anyone perusing these tales is free to ignore the ones that give offence, and read only those that are pleasing." This is excellent advice which people inclined to challenge libraries regarding the books on their shelves would do well to follow. Boccaccio continues: "For in order that none of you may be mislead, each of the stories bears on its brow the gist of that which it hides in its bosom." In other words, every story begins with a spoiler. I stopped reading these (they were set off in italics in my edition so I could easily skip them) about half-way through day 3. I have the G. H. McWilliam translation and it was very readable and entertaining. These hundred tales include tricks and favors, love and deceit, and a lot of sex. 

This book is on my Classics Club list as well as my TBR Pile Challenge list. With an original publication date in the mid-fourteenth century, it also counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge as a "pre-1800 classic." 

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Where Angels Fear to Tread 

by E.M. Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.”

I enjoyed this short novel. It is definitely a story where "fools rush in," but it is also a meditation on why people make the choices they do and how the relationships within a family dictate some of those choices. The story is about a young widow, but the focus is on four people who are compelled to rush in and "fix" the mistakes they think she has made. The consequences are tragic. 

This was Forster's first novel and there are definitely themes and ideas here that are expanded on in A Room with a View (published 3 years later). 

“You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish—not sit intending on a chair.”

“The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to say "yesterday I was happy, today I am not.”

This book is on my Classics Club list; it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a 20th century classic); and it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

Dove in the Window

Dove in the Window 

by Earlene Fowler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the 5th book in the Benni Harper series (and the 5th one I have read) and it was a good one. Her cousin, who we met very briefly in an earlier book, plays a sizable part in this book and was a very fun character. There is also a nice story-line about Grandma Dove. 

I am counting this toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies Challenge as my "craft-related" cozy. Photography, painting, and quilts (the title is the name of a traditional quilt block) all play a role in the story. This book was also on my list for the TBR Pile Challenge.

The Grand Sophy

The Grand Sophy 

by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel was silly and predictable. It was also thoroughly delightful. Sophy is a fabulous character who causes trouble everywhere she goes but truly has the best of intentions. Her relatives are fun and interesting characters and the whole complicated mess of their lives is taken in hand by "the Grand Sophy" and sorted out to a happy conclusion. The process of getting there may terrify them more than a little; but it is great fun for the reader.

I had not read any of Heyer's romances before (some credit her with basically creating the Regency Romance genre). I did read (and enjoyed) Why Shoot a Butler? which is one of her mystery novels. Heyer's work in both genres will definitely be on my reading list in the future. 

This book is from my Classics Club list; it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a classic by a woman author); and it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

New Grub Street

New Grub Street 

by George Gissing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel was written in 1890 and is set in the world in which Gissing was living and working. It considers numerous moral and philosophical questions about art, marriage, and money. It is such a well-told tale, however, that the higher considerations add to the enjoyment of the story rather than feeling added-on. It is not an entirely happy story, but the characters are complex and well drawn and I was pulled into their lives and their concerns. I was reading this as my chapter-a-day book and finished early because I wanted to find out how things turned out. (This seems to be becoming a pattern with me!)

In the "Introduction" to the Oxford World Classic's edition (which should under no circumstances be read before the novel as it is full of spoilers) the strengths of the book are well described:

"New Grub Street's account of the writing life draws upon irs author's own experiences, but Gissing offers no straightforward portrait of the artist. Instead, he offers a fragmented and multiple meditation, diffusing elements of his own autobiography through different characters. ... The distribution of personal experience accords with a wider scattering of narrative sympathy, helping to create the novel's striking moral ambivalence." (p. xiii)

This book is from my Classics Club list; it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a 19th century classic); and it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

TBR Pile Challenge

Roof Beam Reader is once again hosting the TBR Pile Challenge and even though I have failed at this challenge in the past I am going to give it another try. My list is all books that have been on my TBR for a long time and that I am planning to read this year for various challenges. I'm hoping that having these books count toward two challenges will motivate me to get them read.

Here is my list (the ones with links are finished):

From the Cruising Through the Cozies Challenge: 

1. Dove in the Window by Earlene Fowler
   
   From my Classics Club list:
   
   
2. New Grub Street by George Gissing 
   
3. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
   
4. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
5. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio 
6. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
7. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
8. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 
9. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson 
   
   From the Back to the Classics Challenge:
   
   
10. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 
    
    From the Canadian Reading Challenge:
    
    
11. Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs 
12. Biography: Fiction, Fact, and Form by Ira Nadel
    
    Alternates (from my #unreadshelf):
    
    
13. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
14. The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis