casvelyn's 2021 reading

Hello! I'm casvelyn, a genealogy librarian and local historian in Indiana. I live in a small house with too many books, but for the first time in my life, I actually have more shelf space than books to fill them! (Thank you IKEA!) When I'm not reading, I'm usually playing video games or attempting carpentry projects because "it looked easy when they did it on This Old House."

I'm notorious for not updating my thread throughout the entire year, but maybe this will be the year I actually stick with it. I'm looking forward to 2021: I'm getting a new niece or nephew in May and a new roof on my house in July or August. And of course, I'll be reading books!

CURRENTLY READING
And Justice There is None - Deborah Crombie
Ars Vitae by Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn
Greenwitch - Susan Cooper
Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions - Amy Stewart

The Dragon's Den by James Campbell

Fiction

1. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera (4.8)
2. The Box of Delights by John Masefield (4.4)
3. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (3.8)
4. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (4.6)

Mysteries

1. The Lake District Murder by John Bude (4.5)
2. Fallen into the Pit by Ellis Peters (4.5)
3. Asta's Book by Barbara Vine (5.0)
4. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart (4.7)
5. N or M? by Agatha Christie (3.7)
6. Castle Shade by Laurie R. King (4.0)
7. Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters (4.2)
8. The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett (3.5)
9. A Finer End by Deborah Crombie (4.0)
10. And Justice There is None by Deborah Crombie (3.5)

Non-Fiction

1. On Conan Doyle by Michael Dirda (4.7)
2. The Land, the People by Rachel Peden (4.6)
3. Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (4.8)
4. The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr (4.5)
5. You Are What You Love by James K. A. Smith (4.5)
6. The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude (3.6)
7. Breaking Bread with the Dead by Alan Jacobs (4.1)

Birthday postcard, Mary Lou Kuhn collection, Genealogy Division, Indiana State Library

Happy Birthday Book!

Books published in years that end in "1", 1801-2021

1. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera (pub. 2011) (4.8)
2. Fallen into the Pit by Ellis Peters (pub. 1951) (4.5)
3. N or M? by Agatha Christie (pub. 1941) (3.7)
4. Castle Shade by Laurie R. King (pub. 2021) (4.0)
5. Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters (pub. 1961) (4.2)
6. A Finer End by Deborah Crombie (pub. 2001) (4.0)

Contentment by Henriette Ronner-Knip

CATs

January

GenreCAT: Non-Fiction: On Conan Doyle by Michael Dirda (4.7)
MysteryKIT: Featuring water: The Lake District Murder by John Bude (4.5)

February

GenreCAT: Memoirs/Biography: The Land, the People by Rachel Peden (4.6)

March

GenreCAT: Action and adventure: Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart (4.7)

April

SFF-KIT: Series: The Box of Delights by John Masefield (4.4)

May

GenreCAT: Short stories/Essays
HistoryCAT: Dynasties, civilizations, and empires
MysteryKIT: Set in Europe
SFF-KIT: Time travel

June

GenreCAT: Historical fiction
HistoryCAT: Military/War/Revolution
MysteryKIT: Golden Age
SFF-KIT: It's about the journey

July

HistoryCAT: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

August

GenreCAT: Poetry/Drama/Graphic novels
HistoryCAT: Your own country
MysteryKIT: Cozy mysteries featuring animals
SFF-KIT: Female authors

September

GenreCAT: YA/Children's
HistoryCAT: Religion, philosophy, politics, and law
MysteryKIT: Mismatched detectives
SFF-KIT: Near future/Alternate reality

October

GenreCAT: Horror/Supernatural
HistoryCAT: TBD
MysteryKIT: Minorities/Diverse
SFF-KIT: Creature feature

November

GenreCAT: SFF
HistoryCAT: Events
MysteryKIT: Historical
SFF-KIT: Short stories

December

GenreCAT: Mystery
HistoryCAT: TBD
MysteryKIT: Detectives in ancient Greece and Rome
SFF-KIT: Gothic fantasy

1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
2. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
3.
4.
5. On Conan Doyle by Michael Dirda
6. Breaking Bread with the Dead by Alan Jacobs
7. Asta's Book by Barbara Vine
8. The Land, the People by Rachel Peden
9.
10.
11. N or M? by Agatha Christie
12. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
13. Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
14.
15.
16.
17. The Lake District Murder by John Bude
18.
19.
20.
21. Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters - 189 pages
22.
23. Castle Shade by Laurie R. King
24.
25. The Box of Delights by John Masefield

Book of Hours, 1498. Boston Public Library

Book of the Year project

I'm attempting to read a work of fiction published each year 1800-present. Here's the list thus far.

2011: The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

Books I Own
(and should probably read one of these days because I paid good money for them)


About 3/5 of my mystery collection, mostly organized

1. The Land, the People by Rachel Peden (4.6)
2. N or M? by Agatha Christie (3.7)
3. The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (4.8)
4. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (3.8)

The Golden Stairs by Edward Burne-Jones

Ongoing Series

1. The Box of Delights by John Masefield (4.4) - Kay Harker 2
2. N or M? by Agatha Christie (3.7) - Tommy and Tuppence 3
3. Castle Shade by Laurie R. King (4.0) - Mary Russell 17

One of the index cards.

Index Cards

I have over 1500 books on my TBR, and there's no good way to keep them all equally in the forefront of my mind (which would be why I made a TBR list in the first place...). So I selected 100 books at random and wrote them on index cards to be a sort of "selected readings" that I can choose from when I don't know what to read next and I don't want to look through thousands of books. We'll see if I actually read any of these (in 2021; I'll read them all eventually. Unless I don't. :) Here's the complete list.

1. On Conan Doyle by Michael Dirda (Card 2, Book 9)
2. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera (Card 3, Book 2)
3. Fallen into the Pit by Ellis Peters (Card 6, Book 4)
4. Asta's Book by Barbara Vine (Card 5, Book 1)
5. The Land, the People by Rachel Peden (Card 9, Book 5)
6. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart (Card 6, Book 1)
7. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (Card 8, Book 7)
8. The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett (Card 6, Book 8)
9. The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude (Card 1, Book 3)

This space reserved in case I forgot something...

Well, I don't think I forgot anything. I'm going to finish up the category images next week, as it's getting late here and my ability to use HTML is deteriorating rapidly.

Great to see you here. I love the idea of index cards!

Nice setup, casvelyn! I am finishing up a Century Challenge, 1920-2020. I look forward to seeing how you fill your centuries!

>11 casvelyn: Index cards! The image caught my eye. What a great idea.

1500 is a solid tbr pile! Good luck with the index card plan, and with your book of the year project.

You've got some inventive categories. I like the birthday one.

I'm working on a Book-A-Year project, too! I'm up to 1864 at this point. Also, I love the idea of putting your TBR on index cards - and your handwriting is lovely!

Welcome back! I love your setup. The index cards are a fantastic idea -- and I hope Girl Waits with Gun makes it to your reading rotation :)

And congrats on forthcoming niece/nephew!

I love the idea of the birthday book! Happy reading and congrats on the addition to your family!

Some great ideas! Happy 2021 reading

Good categories! Have fun with your reading next year.

>13 DeltaQueen50: Thank you! I had a bunch of index cards just sitting around, so it made sense to use them.

>14 NinieB: Thanks! I've been working on my book of the year challenge since 2012. Clearly I need to pause time so we quit adding more years to the list!

>15 pammab: Thanks!

>16 pamelad: Thank you! It just keeps growing!

>17 dudes22: Thank you! They're mostly the same every year, but when it works, it works.

>18 scaifea: Thank you! I'm not going in order, because I realized the early 1800s would be a bit of a slog. Right now there's still enough gaps I mostly just fill in as I read things, but eventually I'll be more intentional at filling the gaps.

>19 rabbitprincess: I suspect it will... I've read some of her non-fiction and liked it. Thank you!

>20 MissWatson: Thanks! Reading books that are having a big publication anniversary is another way of paring down the TBR into more manageable slices, while also seeing what people 50 or 80 or 100 years ago were reading.

>21 Tess_W: Thanks!

>22 hailelib: Thank you! I'm looking forward to it!

Wonderful theme. Your index cards are a great idea that I wish I could copy except I'd need a giant eraser.

Congratulations on the new niece or nephew, to say nothing of a new roof! Looks like it will be a good year.

I love the index card idea (probably because it reminds me of my Jar of Fate). Your 1500+ TBR makes me feel a bit better!

>24 VivienneR: My plan for the index cards is that once I've read half the books on a card, I can either keep the card or trash it and make a new 10-book card to replace it. So I'm not stuck with stuff that doesn't appeal as I read the books. I think 2021 will be good. It has to be better than 2020, right?

>25 Jackie_K: Thank you! I've kept a TBR since I was about 13, and I'm 34 now, so some of the books have been waiting a while. I do weed it on occasion; at it's worst it had over 2000 books.

I love index cards! I do a lot of my reading planning on them, but they usually end up on pages after I figure where they will fit in. I just invested in 4 index card boxes. I needed them for cards that I use for research planning for various repositories and for keeping track of progress on a project I'm supervising.

>27 thornton37814: Thanks Lori! I usually do project notes and such on the computer; I love how I can access my stuff anywhere with my cell phone. But I wanted something non-digital here just to keep the options more limited.

I do want to buy a small card catalog cabinet for my home library though. I think I'll keep office supplies in it instead of cards though.

Dropping a star and looking forward to following your reading. I live in Georgia now, but I am originally from Indiana. We moved to the Deep South for my husband's job eight years ago, but at heart I am still a Hoosier.

Welcome back, congratulations on the approaching arrival of the new addition to the family and Happy New Year! Wish you a year filled with wonderful books.

>29 Crazymamie: Greetings fellow Hoosier! I have cousins in Georgia, they like it there.

>30 lkernagh: Thank you!

1. On Conan Doyle, or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda (4.7)

An excellent little book on the wonders of Sherlock Holmes and his universe, part biography (of Conan Doyle), part memoir (of Dirda's adventures with Holmes), and part literary studies (of the entire Holmes canon as well as Conan Doyle's other works). Dirda clearly loves his subject, both the author and the literary works, and this deep and abiding love of all things Conan Doyle really shines throughout the entire book. Well worth reading for anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes, or anyone who has remained enamored of a specific author from childhood to old age.

I've finally gotten my home library mostly in order, well except for my desk, which is still backordered. (I'm currently using a 1970s-era drop leaf table I pilfered from my parents' basement.) I'll add more pictures if we get a sunny day one of these days, as the artificial lighting is terrible in here, but I've added part of my mystery section to >9 casvelyn: and here's non-fiction and the bookcase that is temporarily holding office supplies until I can get the aforementioned desk. Also included: miscellanea ranging from a jar of marbles to a busted lightbulb. It's like one of those "I Spy" books.

Ah, the satisfaction that comes from getting books organized! Looks great :)

Oooh, nice-looking shelves!

>34 rabbitprincess: >35 scaifea: Thanks! However, Aragorn would like a word...

>33 casvelyn: I'm amazed you have room for anything other than books.

>37 thornton37814: I haven’t gotten the last 50 books or so shelved yet, nor the CDs and DVDs. Plus I overbought bookcases on purpose, as “if you build it, they will come” is one of my core theories of librarianship.

And I’ve got a 15th Thingaversary later this year to plan for...

Looks very nice!

>38 casvelyn: “if you build it, they will come” is one of my core theories of librarianship
Ha! Rings true in this house too, for what it's worth. I actually just did a purge because I'd started a horizontal pile on just about every shelf's vertical books -- but I didn't plan far enough ahead, because I don't know how to actually get rid of the books I removed when most places that usually take used books are still not having much foot traffic! So my shelves look like I want them to again, but now there's a bunch of books on the floor that need to find a new home...

But I love your shelves. They're beautiful. May they fill and treat you well.

>39 Tess_W: Thank you!

>40 pammab: I weeded my collection when I moved, but also failed to take into account all the temporarily closed used bookstores, so I ended up having to bring all the books I want to get rid of to my new place! They're still hanging out in the corner of my bedroom.

Same for me! I've sorted out a few piles of books (and three bags of clothing) since March and there's nowhere to take the stuff because the charity shops are closed. I don't want to throw it out because it's all still in very good condition, so it takes up too much space in the cubbyhole now.

I love the index cards, and also the new shelves - we got the same Ikea shelves! I think they are the best.
The Dirda book sounds very worthwhile!
And I laughed because of the Aragorn meme!

Having plenty of space for more books is an excellent idea! Book collections do just seem to grow all by themselves. :)

>42 MissBrangwen: Fortunately I donated the clothes before Covid hit. The charity shops here are taking donations again, but I don't know if the bookstores are. Some of the stuff I want to get rid of is a bit niche, and I think it would be more likely to find a new home if I take it to a dedicated bookstore. Plus they give me cash. :)

I made the Aragorn meme a few years ago when I spent a week in a monastery, organizing the sisters' library. Seven 12-hour days, and we finished about 2 hours before I left. It was an epic reorg, we literally took every book off the shelves and put them all back on again in a different order. We had books everywhere.

>43 DeltaQueen50: I agree! I swear mine multiplied during the four months I had them in storage between moving and getting the bookshelves.

2. The Lake District Murder by John Bude (4.5)

An interesting Golden Age police procedural. When a filling station attendant is found dead, Inspector William Meredith simply can't figure out why anyone would have wanted to kill him. But as he digs deeper into the world of petrol delivery (who knew it could be so sordid?!), he finds that not everything is as it seems.

I really enjoyed this mystery. It's logical and well-laid-out, as opposed to some where the detective seems to pull the solution out of his hat. This and several other books in the William Meredith series are part of the British Library Crime Classics series, so fortunately they're fairly easy to get from the library.

>45 casvelyn: Oh, I've got that one. Glad to see I have good things in store when I finally read it!

That one is on my TBR list. I think I discovered the public libraries both had e-copies of it so I won't need to purchase it, but I had a Kindle book with "lake" in it that I opted to read for this month's MysteryKIT (or CAT or whatever it is this year).

That one is on my wishlist, too! Glad to hear it's a good one.

>46 NinieB: Yes, it was quite good! I haven't read a truly bad British Library Crime Classics yet, but some of them have definitely been better than others.

>47 thornton37814: I used it for the MysteryCAT. Although there's not actually much mention of lakes in the book, just the title. Oh well.

>48 MissBrangwen: It's a bit time-table-ish, which isn't for everyone. But I very much enjoy mysteries where the detective has to make a time table to figure everything out. I think it's because I put everything in spreadsheets.

I've been working more on my genealogy research this past week. One of my dad's first cousins joined Ancestry, so I've been combing through his tree. He had more info on my "Mystery Man of Missouri" (shows up in 1875 as a full grown man, dies in 1884, leaves no trace of existence except a marriage license, the 1880 census, and 2 children). Sadly, my cousin seems to have conflated two people with the same name and similar birth info, so Mr. Missouri shall remain a mystery for the time being. I'm also working on hashing out two branches of my family, one maternal and one paternal, that have absolutely no connection on paper, but clearly have some sort of genetic connection based on my DNA matches. Because researching Germans in colonial North Carolina is so much fun guys! (sarcasm)

I'm going to work more on the genealogy tomorrow though; I'm getting off work at noon for some crawl space work on the house, but since we're completely working from home tomorrow (perks of having an office across the street from the state capitol building) and I will be on remote phone duty, I have to stay logged into the network. So I'll be searching all the newspaper databases and Family Search Affiliate microfilm for my ancestors and listening to them hammer and drill under my floorboards.

>49 casvelyn: The lake does figure in this one--at least somewhat. The murder itself is more of an English country house murder set on an island. The detective was fishing on the lake when summoned. There's been a little more about the lake since the opening scenes. I suspect there will be some more because there is a little unresolved plot to the fishing portion. I'm about halfway through it, I think.

>50 casvelyn: Enjoy working from home tomorrow. Your Missouri mystery man sounds a little like some of my cousins who don't like to leave records. Although I've done quite a bit of North Carolina colonial research, mine were all English instead of German. I did a little Moravian research on a collateral line because I'd found an interesting story and wanted to follow it. (The parents of a guy who married my 3g-grandfather's sister produced the interesting story. Still it told me a little of why my distant aunt's spouse came to be in Kentucky.)

>50 casvelyn: Oh, conflated ancestors, what a drag. Just wondering, does your library have to pay for the privilege of being a Family Search affiliate?

>51 thornton37814: I have some English North Carolina ancestors as well. Mine were Quakers from Guilford County. Although my direct ancestor in that branch got kicked out for marrying a Presbyterian, and then moved to Kentucky with his wife's family.

>52 NinieB: As far as I know, becoming a Family Search Affiliate is still free. We joined before I started working at my genealogy library, back when the Affiliate program still loaned actual microfilm. Now it's all digital. They've got information about joining on their page: https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/familysearch-affiliate-library-how-to/?cid=...

>53 casvelyn: My Quakers started in Perquimans before the Revolution, but they ended up in South Carolina after returning from Nova Scotia. My branch went to Georgia and then Alabama, but some went to Ohio and then Indiana (and some to Illinois after that even).

>54 thornton37814: Wow! I was raised as a Quaker in central Ohio. My ancestors supposedly were from the Mayflower, our family historian is making the connection (s) before we send in our application to the Mayflower society. (James Chilton)

>54 thornton37814: Wow, they moved a lot! Nova Scotia? Were they Loyalists or did they just like Canada? I'm not surprised some of them ended up in Ohio and Indiana, those states were kind of a hotbed of Quakerism for a while. We've got a semi-regular patron who had Quaker ancestors in Perquimans, so I've done a bit of research on the area.

>55 Tess_W: How cool! Mayflower research is so much fun. The families are fairly well-documented, so I hope the connections line up easily!

>56 casvelyn: They were Pacifists as Quakers. They did go to a Loyalist Settlement there. One brother died in Charleston, and the other two settled in upstate SC after the war.

>57 thornton37814: That makes sense, of course as Quakers they wouldn't want to be involved in war.

>45 casvelyn: Added that one to the wishlist!

>50 casvelyn: Your Mystery Man of Missouri sounds like my Mystery Man of Pennsylvania. He shows up on the tax roll as an adult with no one else of that surname in his locality. I don't know if he struck out on his own from somewhere else, or maybe his father died and he lived in a household with a stepfather or other guardian with a different surname.

I had Quakers in Guilford County, NC in the 18th century. Our ancestors probably knew each other!

>59 cbl_tn: My personal theory is that my Mystery Man was on the run from the law and moved to Missouri under an assumed name. I have absolutely no evidence for this, but then again, I have no evidence of anything with him.

Yes, they probably did "rub elbows" as one of my regular genealogy patrons says! My Guilford County Quakers were the Brittains, Hunts, and Robinsons. I don't have a lot of info on them, but in 1790 my Robinson ancestor was kicked out for "marrying outside the faith." Which ultimately brought him to Kentucky and his children to Indiana, and here I am today!

>60 casvelyn: My Guilford Quakers were the Beesons. My most recent Beeson ancestor was disowned for marrying outside the faith as well.

My husband has Brittain ancestry in Shelby County, Kentucky :)

Any relatives from Union County (Washington Township), Ohio. Towns such as Byhalia (Quaker church there), Mt. Victory, West Mansfield?

>61 cbl_tn: I don't think I have any Beesons, but I'll have to go look. As many people as got disowned from the Quakers back in the day, it's a wonder they had anyone left!

>62 NinieB: My Brittains were in Mercer County, so not too far. My closest Brittain ancestor is a woman, and she moved to Indiana with her family in the early 1800s. I think I still have some distant cousins in Mercer though, on other lines.

>63 Tess_W: I don't have any that I know of, although others might. I don't have a large number of Ohio connections though; my family came to Indiana between 1802 and 1811 and never left. Well, except for my paternal grandmother's family, who were all from Missouri.

>64 casvelyn: Yes! I'll also share that Hinshaw is great but not infallible. For years I had a brick wall with an Indiana ancestor who seemed like he belonged to a Quaker family but Hinshaw had no record of him. When Ancestry made digital copies of the original records available, I found out why. Hinshaw had missed indexing Isaac! Sons Isaac, Jesse, and Noah on the original became Jesse and Noah in Hinshaw. In fairness, the handwriting does make Isaac and Jesse look a lot alike, but there are clearly three names there, not two. I always use this as my example of why you should look at the original records and not rely on indexes and abstracts.

>65 cbl_tn: Yeah, I've seen some similar things in Hinshaw. I always tell people to go to the original records whenever possible. My examples are from census records where I've found Mark Dunn, Sally Sipple, and Irene Sipple indexed as Mario Eunn, Saley Sifel, and Juan Sifel. For the latter two, bad handwriting played a part, but for Mark there's really no reason why the indexer would have messed that up.

The John Bude book sounds good.

>67 hailelib: Oh it was! Of course there's something like 30 books in the series, so I'm going to be reading Bude for a good long while.

3. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenolla (4.8)

An utterly charming and delightful novel. It reminds me of The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Pilgrim's Inn.

Prudencia Prim takes a job organizing a private library in the small town of San Ireneo. (I was going to say the town is not what it seems, which is completely true, but also makes this sound like a thriller.) As she gets to know the residents of the town, she finds an entirely different way of life than she is used to. Also, lots of tea parties. So many tea parties.

>69 casvelyn: You got me with that one! The public library has a couple of copies in the OverDrive collection and I added it to my wishlist.

>69 casvelyn: >70 cbl_tn: Apparently one of the copies in the state's shared Overdrive collection was purchased by my hometown's library. It has "advantage" marked next to it in their catalog.

I miss tea parties!

>70 cbl_tn: It's such a good book!

>71 thornton37814: Oooh, how does the shared Overdrive collection work? We don't have that in Indiana, but lots of patrons wish we did.

>72 rabbitprincess: So do I!

>73 casvelyn: The state has a shared OverDrive collection called Tennessee Reads that serves the regional library system. The large metropolitan areas (Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga) aren't part of the regional library system so they do their own thing. Some funding for the regional libraries comes from the state and some from federal funding. Individual libraries can buy and add books to Tennessee Reads and their patrons can jump to the head of the waiting list for books they "own". The regional libraries use a shared catalog so all of the patron numbers/records are stored in the system. When I log into Tennessee Reads, I select my local library, enter my card number, and it knows who I am.

I still pay for a Knox County library card and use their OverDrive, too. Sometimes the waiting list is shorter there.

>74 cbl_tn: I'm not exactly sure when our library began indicating in their catalog the ones they purchased. I do know, however, that the library catalog is a little behind on uploading e-books because you'll often find more recent ones in the Overdrive system that are not in the library's catalog. My guess is they do a monthly update, and I've just found a few that have been added since the last update. Like Carrie, I purchase a Knox County card. They own some things the state doesn't (and vice versa). Sometimes they often a different format. I also get access to some of their paid databases I would not be able to access otherwise. It works pretty well.

>74 cbl_tn: >75 thornton37814: That sounds like a lovely program! Ebooks are so much more in demand these days, and they're so expensive for libraries compared to print editions.

You can purchase an "out of service area" card here in Indiana that's good at all public libraries, but it doesn't cover ebooks or other digital materials. There are a couple ebook consortia among the public libraries, but they aren't big networks as far as I know. My home public library is the biggest system in the state, and my job also allows me to access the small library union catalog, so I can get almost anything without too much trouble. And the statewide library courier service means that ILLs arrive really fast!

>76 casvelyn: That statewide courier service is something I missed when I moved to Tennessee. We still do things USPS--and we all know how awful that was from about Thanksgiving to mid-January.

>77 thornton37814: That sounds terrible! Despite libraries' odd hours and opening-closing-reopening-reclosing on short notice due to Covid, our courier has kept things moving quite well.

>78 casvelyn: We do have an opt-in statewide courier service through the Tenn-Share consortium. We tried it for a year, but our ILL volume is too low to make it cost-effective at even the least frequent delivery option (2x per week).

>79 cbl_tn: I don't think I even knew we had that. We have a pretty high volume of ILL so I wonder why we aren't doing it. Perhaps even at our rate, we don't have enough to make it cost effective.

4. Fallen into the Pit by Ellis Peters (4.5)

A nice postwar English village mystery/police procedural. When a German who settled in England after WWII is murdered in a small coal town, most people aren't terrible sorry to hear the news, given that the war only just ended. But Inspector Felse has to investigate, and of course there's a long list of people who wanted to see the victim dead. It doesn't help any that Felse's son discovered the body and develops an attachment to assisting with the case.

5. Asta's Book by Barbara Vine (5.0)

This awesome mystery has a little bit of everything! It's got a 100-year-old murder case. It's got genealogy. It's got family drama. It's got multiple points of view reaching over the entire 20th century. It reminded me a lot of a Kate Morton novel, especially The Clockmaker's Daughter. I had no idea how it was going to end; the plot changed directions several times, but always in plausible ways. I stayed up waaaaaay too late finishing this one on a work night. :)

>81 casvelyn: >82 casvelyn: You got me with both of those! I will make a mental note to save Asta's Book for a weekend or holiday. :-)

>83 cbl_tn: Asta's Book was really, really good. I may read it again sooner as opposed to later.

>81 casvelyn: A non-Cadfael by Peters? That one sounds good!

>82 casvelyn: You got me on the "It's got genealogy" part. I've read some of Barbara Vine's work, but it's been long enough that if I've read it, I don't remember it.

ETA: Well, according to my catalog, I have that except it's called Anna's Book and is by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine. It's one that has been in my TBR pile for awhile. I think I know where it is. I may have to drag it out.

>85 thornton37814: Peters wrote the entire Felse series in the 1950s-1970s, before she published Cadfael. I still need to start Cadfael one of these days. I own most of them, so it's not like it's hard.

Yeah, they called it Anna's Book in the US for whatever reason. I assume they renamed her in the text as well. I've never understood why they retitle books when they publish them in America. Sure, Asta isn't an English name, but the main character is Danish and quite proud of it.

I was also quite impressed that she used genealogy research techniques *correctly*. I hate it when novels feature genealogy, but you know what they're doing would never work in real life. Although, minor nitpick, they sure do find what they need awfully quick for being in the pre-internet days. Power of a good librarian, I suppose.

>86 casvelyn: In this case I can see why the name was changed for the US market. Asta is the name of Nick and Nora Charles's dog in The Thin Man movies and TV series. I haven't read the book so I don't know if he's in the book, too, or if he was added for viewer appeal. Whenever I hear the name "Asta," I immediately think "dog," so I'd be expecting Asta's Book to be about a dog. Asta's perspective on Nick and Nora's exploits might be a fun book to read!

>86 casvelyn: Lately many of the ones featuring genealogists don't really know what they are doing. There are a few exceptions. I would expect Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell to get it right. I don't know why -- but I do.

>87 cbl_tn: Never watched those so I know nothing of the dog Asta.

>88 thornton37814: I knew of Asta long before I watched any of the movies thanks to crossword puzzles. Asta seems to be a common 4 letter word in puzzles.

>87 cbl_tn: That makes sense, thanks! I had forgotten about Asta the dog. And I even do crosswords! I've never seen The Thin Man movies/show, and I've read only the first book (ages ago) so it wasn't in the front of my mind.

>88 thornton37814: That's unfortunate. The basics of genealogy research aren't that hard to get right. Especially not now with the magic of the internet, both for doing genealogy and for learning how to do genealogy.

Catching up on your thread!

>76 casvelyn: In upstate New York an individual public library is a member of a regional library system. The regional system buys shared digital resources that are available to all the member libraries in that system. The member libraries also buy ebooks. Both the print and digital collections are shared in the sense that it's a single catalog including the digital, and the print resources can be borrowed across the system, just like requesting from another branch in a metropolitan system, for example. Many of the rural libraries are very small, with maybe one librarian, who may or may not have an MLIS. The regional system means better access across the system.

>81 casvelyn: >82 casvelyn: Both good books! The Felse books are similar to the Cadfael books in that both series have the same romantic or sentimental touch. Although it's not what I like best in Peters' books, she does it well. (I, of course, like a plot that I can't figure out until the detective tells me at the end.) (What does the #4 mean? was one supposed to be #5?)

>91 NinieB: Interesting... I love hearing about how other systems do things.

Oops, >82 casvelyn: should have been #5. That's what I get for copy-pasting stuff.

>90 casvelyn: One of them made a discovery in the 1890 census. I checked to see what fragments were available for that state of the veterans' schedules. (Of course, it supposedly was in the population schedules in the book.) No way did she make the discovery in what remained!

>93 thornton37814: And that would have been so easy to fact check too! Unless the book was written pre-internet, but even then, just call a genealogy library.

>93 thornton37814: >94 casvelyn: I read that one too! I had a NetGalley ARC. It was the first in a new cozy mystery series featuring a professional genealogist. The 1890 census discovery made everything fall into place to identify the murderer. Needless to say, it's a one and done series for me!

>94 casvelyn: >95 cbl_tn: She did consult with a "professional genealogist" (although not one I knew) before releasing the second one. There was a minor error or two in it, but not quite as blatant.

>96 thornton37814: Well that's good, I suppose.

>97 casvelyn: You still aren't missing much if you don't read the series. It's not that good, and most of the plots are a bit far-fetched.

>98 thornton37814: I need another series like I need a hole in my head anyway LOL! So no BBs here!

Welp, all my books came in from the library at the same time, including a 600-page history of women in Europe in the early modern era. I didn't know it was that long when I put a hold on it!

I'm like a duck on a lake. All quiet in my thread, but reading furiously beneath the surface.

>100 casvelyn: Been there, done that with the unexpectedly 600-page book from the library! Good luck!

>101 rabbitprincess: Thanks!

I'm finally old enough for a Covid vaccine in Indiana! Never in my life has youth been such a liability LOL. I get my first shot next Thursday; I have to drive all the way across town, since there was nothing available near my house until May. It's okay though, I'm going to try a Pakistani restaurant that's supposed to be really good while I'm up there.

>103 casvelyn: Congrats! That is such good news.

>104 MissWatson: Thank you! I'm so excited!

I hope your vaccination appointment is as uneventful as mine was! Just a little arm soreness for about a day and a half.

>106 cbl_tn: That’s good to hear! I’m not too worried about it, since I don’t usually feel sick after vaccines. I am going to try to schedule my second dose for a Friday though, just in case.

>103 casvelyn: Good luck with the shot and enjoy the restaurant!

>108 rabbitprincess: Thanks! I'm currently debating whether I want to try the curried goat or stick to the more familiar chicken.

>103 casvelyn: I hope the Pakistani restaurant is good. I'd definitely go for a curry of some sort. I'm not sure I'd go for goat unless I could get a sample first.

6. The Land, the People by Rachel Peden (4.6)

Rachel Peden is one of my favorite local authors. She was a farmer's wife who also wrote a column for the Indianapolis Star about rural life. Her column ran from 1946 to 1975 and was so popular that at its peak she was writing 3-4 columns a week. She also wrote three full-length books. Peden came from a family that loved writing and nature; her sisters included newspaper editor and philanthropist Nina Mason Pulliam and children's author Miriam Mason.

In The Land, the People, Peden writes about her family and her ancestors (including Quakers, because this is Indiana, where we all descend from Quakers...) and their lives farming in Indiana in the 19th and 20th centuries. She doesn't shy away from the parts of rural life that are less than idyllic, but she still shows the connections that farmers have to the land and to their community and she laments the loss of community that came with the mechanization of farm labor in the 20th century.

7. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart (4.7)

Oh my word, I loved this book! It reminds me of a Mary Roberts Rinehart novel crossed with I Capture the Castle, with the added bonus that it's based on a true story. (I totally fell down an Ancestry.com rabbit hole after I read the afterword; it's a "based on a true story" novel that actually follows real life quite well.)

The book begins with the Kopp sisters, Constance, Norma, and Fleurette, being hit by a car while driving their buggy. When the man who hit them refuses to pay for the damages, Constance decides to do whatever it takes to make him pay. Of course he's not a very nice man and all sorts of trouble ensues.

>112 casvelyn: thornton37814 and I got to "meet" the author in a Zoom book club in December. We had read book #5, The Kopp Sisters on the March. Now I need to go back to the beginning of the series.

It was a great book club meeting! The author talked about the research that went into the book.

8. The Box of Delights by John Masefield (4.4)

This was a fun children's fantasy set in early 20th century England. Kay Harker is coming home for Christmas holidays from boarding school and meets a strange man who needs his help to stop an evil magician who wants to get ahold of a magical box that allows you to become very small and move very fast, the elixir of life, and a time machine.

Well, I did get my first Covid shot last week. I did not get the goat curry at the Pakistani restaurant. Mostly because it was curried goat with beets, and while I like beets, I wasn't sure about the combination of goat, beets, and curry. So I got the chicken instead and a garlic naan that was over 12 inches across.

I had nothing but a mildly sore arm from the vaccine; it was less painful than the flu shot though. I get my next dose at the end of the month, so we'll see how that goes.

>115 casvelyn: I just had a sore arm after the first shot as well. I get the second one on Monday morning. I've heard that you're more likely to have a reaction after the second shot, although reactions are more common for women in their 30s and 40s.

>113 cbl_tn: Oh that sounds amazing! I’ve added the rest of the series to my TBR and I’m looking forward to them.

>116 cbl_tn: I’m in my mid-30s, so I figure I’ll have some sort of side effects. I’m not too worried about it though; I figure it’s better than Covid.

>115 casvelyn: That garlic naan sounds AMAZING. Excellent choice.

>111 casvelyn: That one sounds interesting.

>112 casvelyn: As Carrie Beth mentioned in >113 cbl_tn:, we got to meet the author via Zoom when we read #5 for a book club. I also snagged an ARC of book 6 and an invite to the debut for that one so I got to visit with her a second time. I need to go back to the beginning of the series also. Hoping to do that before too long.

>118 rabbitprincess: It was! I'm think I'm going to go back after my second shot and just get a giant stack of naan!

>119 thornton37814: Rachel Peden's family's migration patterns and life experiences farming in Indiana mirror my own family almost perfectly, so I love her work for that as well.

Oooh, how exciting! I'm going to read book two soon, I just need to finish some other books I have from the library before they're due.

9. N or M? by Agatha Christie (3.7)

I'm still reading my way through all of Agatha Christie in publication order, and I'm up to 1941! This was a reread and is more of a spy novel than a mystery. It's a fun book though, and something nice to read while we're getting SNOW in late APRIL!

>121 casvelyn: "I'm up to 1941!"

I'm both cheering you on and laughing at being up to 1941! I'm currently up to 1658 so you're ahead of me. :D

>122 spiralsheep: LOL! Thanks!

So today is my 15th Thingaversary! And seeing as I'll be 35 later this year, I've literally been on LT my entire adult life. I didn't buy any books this year, as I've recently put $10k into crawlspace repairs and I'm having a new roof done later this summer. Maybe I'll just buy 33 books next year. I actually have shelf space for them!

And since we're talking anniversaries and my age, I found out they now have an American Girl doll set in 1986/1987, so I guess I'm a historic figure now? Or just old?

>124 casvelyn: Congratulations on your Thingaversary, doll!

Happy Thingaversary! And 35 is young in my book. :-)

>124 casvelyn: Yikes on the American girl doll. How dare they!

>124 casvelyn: Happy Thingaversary! I think investing in the infrastructure designed to house and support your library is a very good Thingaversary purchase ;)

I am of the same vintage you are and am not sure how I feel about being considered "historical"! Thanks, American Girl! But I don't really remember the 80s much. It's remembering the 90s that makes me feel old, and realizing that the 60s stopped being "30 years ago" 30 years ago, haha.

>125 spiralsheep: Thanks!!

>126 cbl_tn: Thank you! I agree! :)

>127 RidgewayGirl: I know! I said 1986 is not historical, but then a coworker pointed out Chernobyl and Challenger were both that year, so who knows?

>128 rabbitprincess: Thanks! Yeah, when we get two inches of rain and somehow that translates to seven inches of rain in my crawl space, that's kind of a problem.

My earliest memories are from late 1989, but there's no real coherence to them. And what do you mean the 1960s aren't 30 years ago?!?! The 1990s are still just 10 years ago, right??? :)

>129 casvelyn: That's what I thought about the 90s too!

Happy Thingaversary! You're making me feel old as I remember Challenger and Chernobyl.

>130 rabbitprincess: Must be the Covid time warp.

>131 thornton37814: Oh sorry! 1986 wasn't really *that* long ago.

Which reminds me, Lori, I had my birth certificate out the other day and I realized it does not include my mother's maiden name! What sort of useless record is that???

Happy Thingaversary, and good luck with the building projects!

>133 MissWatson: Thanks!

>132 casvelyn: That's sad. Maybe you should request an amended one. ;-)

>135 thornton37814: I actually have two copies already, and they're both "flawed" which makes me wonder if they even have my mom's info on file. Probably in the paper records somewhere, but I'm not sure I want to deal with that. I know where the old clerk's records are kept in my county but no one I've talked to admits to knowing about the old health department records.

Also, I'm still dubious about mid-1980s records being considered "old records." Even if there is an American Girl doll...

I had my parents get out their birth certificates, because I was curious. They were born in the early 1950s, three years apart. My mom was born in the same county as me, and her birth certificate has her mother's married name. My dad was born in a different county and his states his mother's maiden name. So maybe it's a county thing?

So I'm kind of bummed. I've been plugging away at a boatload of lengthy or involved non-fiction for the past month or whatever, so I've been reading a bunch but it doesn't look like I'm reading because I'm not finishing anything. Anyway, over the holiday weekend I ended up DNF-ing a bunch of the books because they're just not interesting. So except for being able to move the books off the TBR, that's a lot of reading hours down the drain. :(

Oh well, I got a bunch of new fiction from the library, including the next Miss Kopp and Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James books, so those will be fun (and fast). And I've started Cold Comfort Farm which is... interesting.

>137 casvelyn: Sad to hear you hit a patch of unrewarding reading, but it does happen to all regular readers. I'm glad you had the sense to ditch the unsatisfying books and move on.

Also, I now have an image of you tugging a boat full of your TBR books, which makes a change from most people's shelves and tottering piles of TBRs. :-)

I adore Cold Comfort Farm (well, except for that one bit near the beginning which ugh! Unfortunately Gibbons' other books are less like CCF and more like the bit I disliked...).

Good luck with your new reads!

>137 casvelyn: Don't you hate that effect of DNF?

Persevere with Cold Comfort Farm--it takes a while to really get going!

>137 casvelyn:, >138 spiralsheep:, >139 NinieB: Another fan here. I really hope you like Cold Comfort Farm.

>137 casvelyn: Sorry about the DNFs. The Kopp sisters and Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James both sound like good antidotes!

>138 spiralsheep: Thanks! I'm LOL-ing at the boat imagery; I did that by accident. I'm just a little tugboat with a very large ship of books!

>139 NinieB: Yes, six whole books I didn't finish. Although the TBR is getting shorter, which is the general idea I suppose.

>140 pamelad: Thanks! So far so good, just odd.

>141 cbl_tn: I think so! I read something like eight Kincaid/James novels in a row last year when the library was closed because they were readily available as ebooks. I slowed down only because I don't want to run through them that quickly.

>Everyone generally: Don't worry, I'll stick with Cold Comfort Farm :) I'm not entirely sure where the plot is going, or if this is one of those novels where the plot doesn't actually go anywhere, but I'm loving the writing.

>142 casvelyn: Cold Comfort Farm parodies authors like Mary Webb (Precious Bane) and Sheila Kaye-Smith (Joanna Godden). Not too long ago I read Webb's Gone to Earth, which I really enjoyed on its own merits but also a little bit because Gibbons did such a devastating job of sending up the style.

>143 NinieB: Interesting. That makes way more sense, that it's a parody. I've never heard of Mary Webb, but I've got some Sheila Kaye-Smith on my TBR. I may have to read some of her work next!

I'm so far behind on reviews, y'all! I'm just going to throw up some quick and dirty posts over the next few days to get caught up.

10. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristen Kobes Du Mez (4.8)

11. The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became the Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr (4.5)

Du Mez and Barr are both historians, and both write such compelling narratives that tie elements of religious history of the past to things that are going on today. Du Mez examines the historical connections between Evangelicalism and Conservatism, while Barr looks at the treatment of women throughout Western Christianity, from the beginnings of the church to the rise of complementarianism in the late 20th century.

12. Castle Shade by Laurie R. King (4.0)

Russell and Holmes go to Romania to investigate rumors of vampires. I vastly prefer the earlier Mary Russell books, but I keep reading the series anyway.

13. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (3.8)

I did finish it!

I'm still not entirely sure what the point was, except to be a satire of popular authors of the time, but this was quite well-written. That family was *crazy* though... although I guess everyone got what they wanted in the end.

14. Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters (4.2)

The second book in the Inspector Felse series, this is a good vintage mystery. When a wealthy and arrogant beer manufacturer is found dead, several people are immediate suspects, including his estranged son. But of course this being one of those small English villages where someone is always getting murdered, the truth is more complicated than that.

15. The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett (3.5)

This could have been a really good multiple-time-period bookish mystery, a la Kate Morton. Except there was a ridiculous amount of sex.

It's a shame really, the mystery part of the plot was actually pretty good.

16. You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K. A. Smith (4.5)

A really excellent practical theology on how everything we love shapes us spiritually, and if we aren't careful we may suddenly find that we have been shaped in directions we never intended to go.

17. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (4.6)

An excellent, excellent, excellent little book! A bit hard to describe though. It's almost more of an extended meditation on the nature of loneliness and belonging than a novel. The main character has such a beautiful sense of wonder.

If you've read any Jorge Luis Borges, you'll probably like this. Or if you want to try Clarke but find the 700+ pages of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell daunting. (But you should DEFINITELY read Strange and Norrell too!)

>148 casvelyn: "Something nasty in the woodshed" is such useful shorthand. I am addicted to historical romances, many of them featuring wounded heroes with deep, dark secrets, so "something in the woodshed" pops into my head often.

>150 casvelyn: I would have probably rated it lower for that flaw!

>151 casvelyn: Smith is a good author.

>153 pamelad: It really is a great turn of phrase! I wonder what it was she saw? My first thought was someone doing something they shouldn't have, with someone they shouldn't be doing it with. But considering how melodramatic she is, it could have been a particularly large spider.

>154 thornton37814: I use a weighted rating system to come up with my ratings (looking at elements such as plot, characterization, writing, how much I just plain enjoyed the book, and "inappropriate" content separately), and so the really good main plot boosted the rating by about the same amount as the extraneous content lowered it.

I really enjoy Smith's work. I read Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? in college; it's good too. I plan on reading some of his more academic work eventually.

Ooh, you sent me scurrying to learn more about both You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit and Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?. Having spent some time reading blog reviews of the second, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what its arguments are, and like maybe it wouldn't be entirely worthwhile for me to invest in reading the whole book -- but it is fascinating to see the clear application of postmodern reasoning to Christianity. You Are What You Love seems like a book I should read, though, and I'll make a note for it. I certainly am very primed to learn and appreciate it. Thanks for calling this author to my attention!

18. A Finer End by Deborah Crombie (4.0)

19. And Justice There is None by Deborah Crombie (3.5)

I'm really enjoying the Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James series. I love how she weaves the past and the present together. I especially enjoyed A Finer End since it goes all the way back to medieval times. And there's a bit of genealogy! This seems to be the year for mysteries with genealogy in them.

It's also interesting reading mysteries set in recent enough times that modern forensics are a thing, but no one's really using DNA yet.

19. The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude (3.6)

I really like the British Library Crime Classics series. I've found so many vintage mysteries I would never have heard of otherwise.

This one is a bit unrealistic--the local vicar loves mystery novels and is thus able to solve the crime when the police are stumped--but it's a nice little mystery about the murder of a local magistrate, where there are too few suspects and none of the clues make sense.

20. Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs (4.1)

I'm not sure this book will actually give you a more tranquil mind. (Or maybe I just read too many murder mysteries to find tranquility in the pages.) But it's a lovely book about the meaning we get from reading books that were published long before our current time period.

>157 casvelyn: Oh, I love that series! Isn't it funny, though, that A Finer End is the book I've liked least in the series. I read it before I started posting reviews on LT so I don't remember exactly what I didn't like about it.

Water Like a Stone is one of my favorites. You've got a few more to go before you get to that one.

>156 pammab: Oh, you're welcome! I hope you enjoy it!

>160 cbl_tn: It's a delightful series. I love the characters. I actually just got Now May You Weep from the library today, and Water Like a Stone is only two books after that. So watch this space!

Just catching up on your thread :)

>157 casvelyn: Crombie is one of my favorite authors. I wish she'd come out with a new one, but it's been so long I fear she stopped writing.

>162 VictoriaPL: Welcome! :)

>163 thornton37814: I think she must know you're talking about her, since this wasn't on Amazon a few days ago: https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Innocents-Duncan-Kincaid-Novels-ebook/dp/B09FLPZ6...

>164 casvelyn: EXCELLENT! It's about time! Adding it to the TBR list already!

>165 thornton37814: Glad to be of service! I had just checked the Fantastic Fiction entry for Crombie over the weekend, and the book wasn't listed then, but is now. I'm going to put it on my TBR so I can link it up to the series here on LT.

>166 casvelyn: I'm pretty sure I checked last week too.