Julie Reads in 2024

Hi, and welcome to my 2024 Club Read thread!

I'm Julie. I live in the Greater Boston/Metro South area of Massachusetts. Along with reading, I also enjoy logic puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, crocheting, writing, hiking, and birding and bird photography.

The main fiction genres I read are murder mystery, fantasy (mostly urban/contemporary, but sometimes secondary world, as well), gothic, some specific types of horror and supernatural, and Weird Fiction. I also occasionally dip my toes into literary, contemporary, historical fiction, science fiction, and other genres.

I also read nonfiction, both narrative and non-narrative. I have a particular interest in writing craft books, which I collect.

I've also gotten into poetry. I post my favorites in the poetry threads. In April, for April Camp NaNoWriMo, I usually try my hand at writing a poem a day.

In 2023, I read a ton (150, to be specific) of short stories, and while I hope to read more long-form works in 2024, I definitely intend to continue reading short stories, as well. I'm also planning to start reading essay collections in the coming year.

I'm also doing a few of the read-alongs that have continued to spring up as a result of the huge success and popularity of the 2022 Dracula Daily. I'm signed up for an online read-along of the Jeeves and Wooster stories, as well as continuing with Letters from Watson as it moves on to the novels this year.

I don't have any other more specific plans for my 2024 reading, other than hopefully paring down the ever-expanding TBR at least a little, and reading more BoMBs. The unread books on my shelves are starting to look at me funny when I walk by! :) And, as ever, to have fun with my reading, and to expand my world.

Here's to a fulfilling and enjoyable year of reading in 2024!

Quarter One

January
1. The Body by the Sea by Jean-Luc Bannalec, translated by Sorcha McDonagh: 3.5 stars
2. Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James: 3 stars
3. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton: 4.5 stars

February
1.
2.
3.

March
1.
2.
3.

Quarter Two

April

May

June

Quarter Three

July

August

September

Quarter Four

October

November

December

Short Stories
1. Hard Mary by Sofia Samatar: 4 stars
2. Variations on a Theme from Turandot by Ada Hoffmann 4.5 stars
3. Through the Flash by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: 4.5 stars
4. Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim: 4 stars
5. Jeeves Takes Charge by P.G. Wodehouse: 3 stars
6. Extricating Young Gussie by P.G. Wodehouse: 3 stars
7. Leave it to Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse: 3.5 stars

Significant Articles, Essays, and Blog Posts
1. What is a person from Massachusetts called? by Steve Annear
2. La Vie en Rose by Roger Angell: 2 stars
3. The Sea of Information by Andrea Barrett: 4 stars
4. Storm Country by Paul Crenshaw: 4 stars
5. Joyas Valedoras by Brian Doyle: 4 stars
6. Asexuality: A Text Study by Jessie Atkin
7. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers: 4 stars
8. Why the Most Educated People in America Fall for Anti-Semitic Lies by Dara Horn: 5 stars
9. YA Isn’t Just for Young Adults by Jiordan Castle: 1.5 stars
10. The Puritanical Eye: Hyper-mediation, Sex on Film, and the Disavowal of Desire by Carlee Gomes: 5 stars
11. Movies, patriotism, and cultural amnesia: tracing pop culture’s relationship to 9/11 by Lindsay Ellis: 3.5 stars
12. Three Years Later, Covid-19 Is Still a Health Threat. Journalism Needs to Reflect That by Kendra Pierre-Louis
13. Why My Website is Closed on the Sabbath by David Zvi Kalman
14. The Empty Adderall Factory: A drugmaker’s feud with the DEA is exacerbating the ADHD meds crisis — at a rate of 600 million missing doses a year. by James D. Walsh
15. ‘The Antisemitism Is Absolutely Disproportionate’ by Melanie Mason
16. The Secret Lives of Shelby Hewitt by Patricia Wen
17. Cheap Prison Labor Is Keeping People Locked Up Longer, Suit Alleges by Josh Eidelson
18. ‘Is your fav author a zionist???’ A viral list reignites antisemitism fears in the literary world by Philissa Cramer
19. Finding a Way To Make the Jewish Prayer for Healing Work for Me by Jennie Spector
20. These Works of Hebrew Calligraphy Protect My Family by Vicky Sweiry Tsur
21. New England's Historic Rum Trade by Katherine Hysmith
22. The media exaggerates negative news. This distortion has consequences by Steven Pinker (from 2018)
23. James Webb telescope confirms there is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe by Ben Turner
24. Jewish and African-American folk music traditions to entwine at the Brooklyn Fiddle Summit by Julia Gergely
25. Non-gendered language for calling Jews to the Torah gets Conservative movement approval by Jackie Hajdenberg (from 2022)
26. An app that identifies trees and flowers is changing my life by Andrew Silow-Carrol
27. In the Dark: Looking back at The X-Files on its 20th anniversary by Brian Phillips
28. All you need to know about Norwegian rosemaling by Amanda Tomlin
29. You Can’t Sweets Your Way Into Diabetes by Alysse Dalessandro Santiago
30. Cheez-It’s Retro Diner in the Catskills Serves Cheesy Shakes, Burgers, and Biscuits by Marnie Shure

stats

Happy New Year, Julie, and welcome back to Club Read! I look forward to following along again this year. Btw, do you think it's ever going to snow here in NE?

>9 labfs39: Happy new year and welcome back to you, too!

As to the snow, I have to admit, as much as I've enjoyed the extension of hiking season, it's starting to freak me out how warm it's been. There were kids outside riding bikes in nothing but sweatshirts or windbreakers on christmas eve. I don't like snow, as a rule - it makes me nervous to drive in it, despite having lived and driven here since I got my license - but at this point, some real New England snow would actually make me feel better. And more rooted in time. The dramatic change in seasonal weather patterns these last few years has me feeling really unmoored.

>10 Julie_in_the_Library: I agree. I recently moved back to Maine, but the weather makes me double check with myself—did I really move? After such a rainy summer, a rainy winter is just too much. I could have stayed in Seattle for this!

Hi, Julie, happy new year. I feel the same discomfort regarding the lack of snow here. Long snowy winters were hard to bear but they were normal.

Happy New Year, Julie. (And I really hope Houston doesn’t snow, or freeze. All our pipes are exposed.)

Well, we've had some snow - specifically, the first Nor'Easter of the season. We've gotten away incredibly lightly here. The street outside is already down to pavement, and NOA is only predicting another possible 3" to 5" over the course of today. As unpleasant as I find snow, it does look (and feel) a lot more like January now.

Yesterday I started my first book of the new year: The Body by the Sea by Jean-Luc Bannalec, translated from the French by Sorcha McDonagh. I don't usually start a series out of order like this, but the book was a gift from my aunts for Chanukkah. I'm 86 pages in, and enjoying it so far. This seems to be a series where having read in order doesn't matter so much.

I've also read my first article of the year: a 2019 Boston Globe piece on the proper denonym for people who live in Massachusetts. I found it because I was looking for the answer to that question last night for non-reading-related reasons, and the article popped up in the search results. It's a quick, fun read for anyone with Globe access. (If you don't subscribe yourself, your library very well might).

>14 Julie_in_the_Library: It does feel a lot more like January, but we seem to be trying to make up for it in one storm. It's still coming down hard here, but it's a very light, dry snow, so easy to move.

We Mainers have a demonym for people from Massachusetts, but I'm afraid it's not a very nice one. :)

>15 labfs39: It's still coming down hard here, but it's a very light, dry snow, so easy to move.

It's still coming down here, too. I haven't been out yet, so I don't know if it's the light stuff or the heavy, wet stuff. NOA says mixed rain and snow today, so regardless, it'll be wet and heavy later. Try to stay warm and dry!

We Mainers have a demonym for people from Massachusetts, but I'm afraid it's not a very nice one. :)

It's not just Mainers - a lot of people call us Massholes, including Bay Staters ourselves! :) The article even mentions the term, and notes that "Sure, it was intended as an insult, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which added the word to its lexicon in 2015. But it’s become more of a badge of honor."

>16 Julie_in_the_Library: hi Julie, good to see you.

>17 dianeham: Good to see you, too!

The Body by the Sea by Jean-Luc Bannalec, translated from the French German by Sorcha McDonagh: 3.5 stars

A town on the sea, Concarneau’s nickname is Ville Bleue, or the Blue Town. With three harbors at its center, visitors can see enormous ships, sailors, fishermen, and the industry that goes alongside it. Because of its geographical location, Concarneau has shown it’s perfectly positioned to protect its inhabitants from enemy attacks.

For this reason and more, including his favorite restaurant, the Amiral, Commissaire Georges Dupin calls this town home. Most of his colleagues are on vacation for the Pentecost long weekend, but Dupin remains. His future in-laws are coming to visit.

But what happens when an enemy attacks from within? Dupin’s plans as host must change when the body of Doctor Chaboseau is discovered. Chaboseau fell to his death, pushed from his home above the Amiral. With only two new colleagues to help—no one else is answering their phone—Dupin is tasked with finding out what happened to the doctor. (Official publisher's summary)

My first book of the year was a police procedural gifted to me by my aunts this past Chanukkah.

I've never read anything in this series before, but that didn't cause the problems it would in other series. Though I imagine it would be enhanced by knowledge of the preceding novels in the series, this book stands on its own if you haven't read them.

This book is a bit of an enigma for me. I'm still not sure how much I liked it even now, typing up my review.

On the one hand, the mystery plot was just okay. I wasn't really invested in it until nearly the end of the book, and even then, it was only mild curiosity. The characters were, likewise, just okay. Some of them had some distinctiveness, but none felt deep, rounded, or real. As to the translated prose - despite plenty of vivid description, I felt at one remove from the action happening in the story as I read. I didn’t like the way that the prose breaks what could (should) be multi-clause sentences into short sentences and sentence fragments instead. I was confused by the choice to use French spelling of certain words, like docteur, and to put certain entire words and phrases in French, despite this being a translation into English from, apparently, German. There were also not as many natural stopping points as I prefer in a book, and the narrative was broken into days rather than chapters. Judged as a detective novel, it's merely okay.

On the other hand, I did enjoy reading it. I especially enjoyed the vivid descriptive prose. Bannalec paints the setting - and its cuisine - beautifully. I put the book down after finishing with a new desire to visit Brittany and an intense craving for Breton seafood. So while it isn't a great mystery novel, it is a nice tour of Concarneau with a serviceable enough mystery plot to string it together. Viewed that way, it's a pretty good book.

I've decided to split the difference, and rate it 3.5 stars - more than average, less than good. As to whether I reccommend it, that depends on what you're looking for.

Look forward to following again in 2024!

>19 Julie_in_the_Library: I read the second in this series (Murder on Brittany shores) a few years ago and loved the setting - the Glennan Isles. But like you, I thought the mystery was very plodding, so I haven't read any more.

Happy New Year, Julie.

>19 Julie_in_the_Library: I think I may have read one of this series, but I have no memory of it, so...I guess I won't be reading more. I think I may have picked it up for the setting.

Happy New Year to you all, as well!

>21 markon: >22 BLBera: I don't plan on reading any more from the series, either. I agree with you both that the setting was the highlight of the book by far, and for me, that's just not enough to entice me. I am glad to have read this one, though, as Brittany had not been on my radar before. It sounds like a lovely place, especially for someone who likes birding, hiking, and eating, as I do.

I did a search for the nearest Breton restaurant after I finished reading, and google tells me I'd have to drive to Quebec. Since that's out, I'm considering looking for recipes. I haven't had the energy to do any real cooking for a while, but if things keep getting better, I might be able to manage it soon, and the food described in the book sounded amazing.

I've finished Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James. I just tried to shelve it, and the entire shelf (just the one shelf, not the whole bookcase) collapsed and spilled books all over my feet. Time for a new bookcase for the nonfiction. Review to come.

>24 Julie_in_the_Library: Sorry about your bookshelf! Or maybe it's a good thing you get to buy a new bookcase, since it will give you room to shelve new books?

>24 Julie_in_the_Library: one book too many? I’m sorry about your bookshelf.

The book that broke the bookshelves' back? I had ordered a nice new one for the den, but I received an email today that they can't fulfill my order. :-( I need to call and figure out what that is all about.

>24 Julie_in_the_Library: Ouch! I hope your feet are all right. Having a book fall on one’s foot can be extremely painful, I know.

>24 Julie_in_the_Library: I really liked it when I read it in 2011 (wait, when?!?!?). Review here: https://www.librarything.com/work/8698715/reviews/71114319 if you are interested.

Apparently the shelf was about to go anyway -- it is not a big book! :) Have fun getting a new bookcase though! And I hope your feet and the books are all alright!

>24 Julie_in_the_Library: Review to come
I thought you meant a review of the new book shelf.

Thank you all for your concern. The books are all fine, as are my feet. (or as fine as they were before, anyway. There's definitely some neuropothy, but that's completely unrelated...)

The bookcase is one of those Ikea ones with the moveable shelves. I've had for years and years, so I got plenty of use out of it. The shelf was already damaged on one side so that the pegs were barely holding it, and that was the side where I tried to slide in the P.D. Jame book. It is rather slim, but apparently that was enough. I don't know for sure, but I think the original damage happened when the movers brought it from my parents' house in 2020 when I first moved. They were pretty rough with everything; it wouldn't be the only piece they damaged.

>30 dianeham: I meant the book, but once I get a new bookcase, I could review that as well. Might make a nice change! :)

I don't have enough time before work to review the P.D. James now, but I hope to get to it either on my lunch break or after work. (I love working from home!)

In the meantime, I read a round from my between books - a great concept I got from rocketjk - and I'll be starting The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton today.

My between books:

Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
The Classic Tales: 4,000 Years of Jewish Lore by Ellen Frankel
Writing New England: An Anthology from the Puritans to the Present edited by Andrew Delbanco
The Best American Essays 2005 edited by Susan Orlean
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 edited by Carmen Maria Machado

I'm also reading The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-By-Day Guide to Ethical Living by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. I originally intended to read it as a between book like the others, but it turns out to be laid out in literal day-by-day bits, intended to be read a day at a time, so I'm doing it that way instead.

>32 Julie_in_the_Library: Hi Julie. I'm new to Club Read. Both of your books (PD James and Bannalec) are on my list, so I was interested to see your reviews. The person who recommended Bannalec to me also said that the descriptive elements outweighed the plot! I lived in New England for a few years: I do not miss Connecticut winters. Good luck with bookcase shopping, and happy new year!

>33 rv1988: Welcome to club read! Are you doing a thread of your own? I've lived in Massachusetts my whole life (save for when I was away at college in New York and 6 months in Tel Aviv), and I'm not in love with our winters, either. Happy new year to you, too!

Hello Julie. I rarely participate in your thread, but got interested in the discussion around Jean-Luc Bannalec and wanted to add my two-cents.
Obviously this is a pseudo for a German writer who writes about French Brittany. I always notice when his books are on the shelves in a bookshop, as part of my father’s family lives in a small small village on the outskirt of Bannalec, which is a small village at the West of Brittany.
I was surprised that Jean-Luc Bannalec series were translated into English, as I always considered his books (that I have not read) as nice summer read for holiday-makers who want a beach book with a sense of place and not necessarily a well-crafted (let alone original) plot. Maybe the translation is primarily designed for Anglophone holiday-makers in Brittany (who are numerous, so could be a good market sector!).

>35 raton-liseur: I didn't know it was a pseudonym, actually! But then, I didn't know that Bannalec was a place in Brittany, either, which might have made it obvious. (Though not neccessarily. Plenty of people share surnames with places, and families move country without changing surnames all the time.)

I doubt the primary Anglophone audience is specifically people travelling in Brittany - there wouldn't be enough to justify the financial outlay for the translation, let alone selling/shipping to the US. People love to "travel" through books.

A lot more is being translated now than has been, historically, and there's a huge market in English for light detective and mystery fiction with very vivid setting and/or charming characters. How much those readers care about the plot tends to vary widely enough that I'm not surprised these books have an audience, although the plot wasn't enough for me to pick up another one.

>36 Julie_in_the_Library: Well Jean-Luc is not very German either. I thought you knew because you had written French German as the original language in your >19 Julie_in_the_Library: post.
Obviously, I have misjudged the audience for this book. And this is what made your review so interesting for me.

I've just read the French wikipedia page for him, and it seems he has quite a success in Germany. The books have been turned into a TV series, and there are literary tours to Brittany to follow the commissaire Dupin's investigations!

>37 raton-liseur: I knew the author lived in Germany and wrote in German, and that the name is French. But for all I knew, the author had been born in France and moved to Germany at some point. Or his parents or grandparents had, and he's named after someone in the family.

Obviously, I have misjudged the audience for this book. And this is what made your review so interesting for me. I find it interesting when that happens, too.

I've just read the French wikipedia page for him, and it seems he has quite a success in Germany. The books have been turned into a TV series, and there are literary tours to Brittany to follow the commissaire Dupin's investigations! I bet it's a very pretty show! (In terms of scenery, I mean.) I imagine it has a lot in common with Midsumer Murders in that way. I wonder if it's available here with subtitles?

Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James: 3 stars

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I was drawn to it by the topic, which is a particular favorite of mine. I love books that discuss genres and genre history, and detective novels are one of my favorite genres. I've never read any P.D. James novels, but I knew that she was a big name in the detective fiction world, so I had very high expectations going in. Unfortunately, the book didn't quite meet them.

For one thing, the first few chapters largely covered ground I already knew. For another, the book is very dated. While I can't help but think it probably already came across that way when it was first published in 2009, in the world as it is now, a lot of James' basic assumptions about morality, the police, and people's attitudes toward crime, among other topics, feel gratingly out of touch.

This book is very much colored by P.D. James's cultural millieu and worldview. I value and enjoy reading works by people from cultures disparate from mine, but in this case, the values dissonance between us was occasionally irritating. Examples include James' matter of fact division of detective fiction readers (and the countries in which they live) into either Catholic or Protestant, and her erroneous belief "Judeo-Christian values," which do not, of course, actually exist.

There are also some fairly glaring ommisions - the offshoot of detective stories that comprise the cozy genre; the diversifying of authors and the use of the detective story to confront historical and ongoing injustice (which I believe had already begun by 2009, but it has been over a decade).

On the other hand, there were things I liked a lot. The little cartoons at the start of each chapter are very charming, and I enjoyed them. I also enjoyed the bits where James discussed her own writing process, and shared anecdotes from her long career.

The book became much more interesting once I got past the initial chapters on the genre's history into the chapters on setting, character, etc. There was a lot that I found entertaining, interesting, and worthwhile in those chapters. One such tidbit is the observation - perhaps obvious in hindsight, but which I had never realized before - that the Detective Sergeant in DS/DI pairings serves narratively as the Watson to the Detective Inspector's Holmes.

And P.D. James's prescient statement that "...if it is true, as the evidence suggests, that the detective story flourishes best in the most difficult of times, we may be at the beginning of a new golden age" (174) rings especially true in light of, among other things, the return of Poirot specifically and detective stories like Knives Out more generally to the silver screen in recent years.

In my case, the plusses and minuses, as it were, average out to three stars. But, as with many books, your mileage with this may vary.

>39 Julie_in_the_Library: i was looking forward to this review. Very interesting to see your take and think about the ways 2009 was different than today. Terrific thoughtful review.

>39 Julie_in_the_Library:

James was a Tory-voting reactionary which is very apparent especially early in her writing (e.g. Cover her face is loud with misogyny and classism; later on this is somewhat subdued). Just to say that's indeed what you can expect. I know she's highly regarded for her craft; that's not something I can judge. (Personally, I can't stand her inspector Dalgliesh so that was my major obstacle to enjoying her mysteries.)

>41 LolaWalser: James was a Tory-voting reactionary well that explains a lot. The only thing I knew about her is that she wrote mysteries, and was very famous for it. I wasn't really planning on reading any more from her anyway, but it's good to have confirmation that I shouldn't waste my time.

>42 Julie_in_the_Library:

Feel like I should add a caveat, that since you are interested in writing as a craft, you might still keep in mind the praise she gets... if, I don't know, you were interested in writing mysteries yourself some day or something and wanted, say, to study the technical aspects of whathaveyou. But in that case you'd want the input of a fan to steer you to the best example.

>43 LolaWalser: I am interested in writing craft, but not to the degree that I feel the need to read every well regarded author in the genre. There was definitely a time when I wanted to be An Author, but nowadays it's a hobby. I don't feel any need to read things I don't think I'll enjoy. I appreciate the caveat, though!

>44 Julie_in_the_Library:

Oh, cool! I tend to be blunt and have newly started to worry that that might seem to imply things I absolutely don't mean.

And why shouldn't you be an author by and by? :) Time will tell.

>45 LolaWalser: You don't worry about being too blunt for me. I'm Autistic; I tend not to read into things in quite the way allistic people do, and regardless, I'm hardly going to throw stones from my glass house. :)

As to why shouldn't I be an author - I still do dream about being published. That I would welcome. But I no longer want writing to be my sole career, because I don't want the stress associated with earning a living to turn the hobby I enjoy into a job that I hate.

Also, I know enough about the world of publishing to know that writing - especially writing fiction - is not a stable, reliable way to earn a living anymore. I hope that it will be again in the future, but we're not there right now. Most full-time authors have some other source of income (spouse, inherited wealth, etc).

Authors are now also responsible for much more of their own marketing than they ever used to be, and also have to travel, set their own schedules, and much more besides that I know myself well enough to know I'm not cut out for.

And I'm much too chronically ill to have anything but a stable, reliable, no-stress-outside-of-work-hours 9 to 5 anyway.

But yes, having a book or short story collection published someday does remain a very fond dream, and something I don't neccessarily rule out as impossible, either.

Right, aiming for a career in writing is a tough proposition, always was... but I was mostly thinking about just writing. Do it whenever you can. My mum is seventy-seven and about to publish her first book (poetry, tiny run). In a way it was sixty years in the making, but she was unusually unfortunate in having to let it go for so long. Until recently she never had "a room of her own".

>47 LolaWalser: Mazel Tov on your mom's book. That's amazing. And I'm glad that she was able to get back to it, after leaving it for so long. Hopefully, there's still more writing to come for and from her.

You're right about the importance of not giving it up. I do still write. I do NaNoWriMo in November, and I write poetry in April, and I try to write in between as well. I just don't make myself read anything I don't want to in the name of improving, as I might if I were trying to write for a living.

(Also, I don't think the rules against self-promotion preclude you from sharing a poem or two from your mom's upcoming work in the poetry thread. I certainly wouldn't flag it. I'd love to see an example of her work, if you're comfortable sharing, and I doubt that I'm the only one.)

>47 LolaWalser: how fantastic for your mom!

>49 dchaikin:

Truly! I'm so happy for her I get superstitious...

>48 Julie_in_the_Library:

Aw, thank you dear, I'm touched. I'd love to show her off! Buuut she writes these complicated classic rhyming sonnets in Croatian and Italian--I could translate them literally I suppose, but that would kill the whole... poetry, I guess. I'll see what she says about maybe translating them herself, her English is no worse than mine. Also, it's unabashed love poetry. I read it sort of through my fingers... :p

I just don't make myself read anything I don't want to in the name of improving, as I might if I were trying to write for a living.

Quite right, and it's great you have that structure with Nanowrimo and the poetry month.

I've finished The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I'll be posting a longer review, but for now I'll just say that I really, really liked it.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton: 4.5 stars

Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense. (Publisher's summary)

I absolutely loved this book, from the map of the estate and image of the party invitation at the beginning to the very last page. It's both a love letter to the Golden Age of detective fiction, full of little nods to the stories of Sayers and Christie, as well as an interesting, well written, and entertaining mystery novel in its own right.

The speculative elements on which the plot runs - the time travel, the body switching, and the secrets behind both - really worked for me. I loved all of the different levels of the story. I also really enjoyed Turton's prose. I found his writing innovative, imaginative, and fun to read. Plotwise, there are mysteries within mysteries in this book, all intriguing and all with satisfying conclusions. The structure works perfectly, and the tension is handled deftly. The characters are all well-drawn fleshed out.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was a pleasure to read, and I highly recommend it.

>47 LolaWalser: how wonderful and congratulations to your mum. How rich it must be, a book about love that was sixty years in the making! I regret that I can read neither Croatian not Italian.

>52 Julie_in_the_Library: Oh, what a great review. It grabbed me straight away. My local library has a copy of it. I've added it to my book list.

>54 Ameise1: I hope you enjoy it! I look forward to finding out how you like it.

>52 Julie_in_the_Library: I'm glad you enjoyed The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle! I just bought his other book (The Devil and the Dark Water) and am looking forward to that. Turton also has a new one coming out later this year ('The Last Murder at the End of the World'); the Guardian called it a 'high concept murder mystery' which really sounds great.

I've read from each of my between books (see >32 Julie_in_the_Library: for a list).

For my review of "Through the Flash" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, see the Club Read short stories thread. I'll be posting my reviews of all of the short stories in the 2019 The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy when I've finished them all, along with my review of the collection as a whole.

Since we don't have a thread for essays the way we do for short stories, I've just been holding my reviews fo the essays in the 2005 The Best American Essays anthology for when I've finished.

I'm not doing reviews for each entry or section of the others, though I am taking notes, and will of course be doing reviews of the books as a whole.

I've started The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell as my next long read.

>47 LolaWalser: How cool for your mum! You know I love a (late) bloomer.

>52 Julie_in_the_Library: A lot of people I know really enjoyed The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle... I was thinking it wasn't for me, but now I'm reconsidering that, because it sounds like fun.

>58 lisapeet: It was a lot of fun! But it definitely isn't for everyone. I think it's one of those books where it either works for you or it doesn't - not much in between. If you do decide to try it, I'd love to know what you think.

>53 rv1988:, >58 lisapeet:

Thanks! I'll tell her people across the world are awaiting news of her slightly-delayed debut. :) (She published various sort of writing in journals and magazines throughout her gymnasium/university days, but not a book.)

>52 Julie_in_the_Library:

I really like the sound of this. The atmosphere of the Golden Age mysteries is to me frequently more attractive than their specific plots.

I did not pay much attention to Club Read in the beginning of the year due to the lack of lustre of my reading, and all threads grew so much in the meantime I have a hard time to catch up! I've caught up with your thread and will be happy to follow from now on.

>61 chlorine: It can be chaotic at the beginning of the year. Everyone posts way more in January than any other month.

Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim at Clarke's World Magazine: 4 stars

I happened to see a post linking to this story on social media, so I clicked and gave it a read. I'm glad that I did.

This story is, as the title signals, a response - or perhaps more accurately a continuation of, or a riff on - Ursula K. Le Guin's 1973 original, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Without having read the original, this story would be not just meaningless, but incomprehensible. This is not a weakness of Kim's story; it is just an inescapable fact. This story is, inherently, intertextual.

I like that sort of thing, so that wasn't a problem for me. But if that's offputting for you, you're going to have trouble with this one.

The story kept my attention from start to finish. The length was just right, not too long or too short. Kim nails the cadence and narrative voice of the original, while also situating the world of Omelas in the world we live in today. Like Le Guin, she poses lots of questions and provides no easy answers. This is a story designed to make you think, and it does that job well.

There are, as in the original, no individual characters with names and backstories. The plot is loose and open ended. This is very much philosophical fiction, and as such, it's much more concerned with the questions it's raising than the specifics of the narrative it uses to frame them.

Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but it does what it sets out to do very well, indeed. I enjoyed reading it, and I'm still thinking about it days later. 4 stars.

>63 Julie_in_the_Library: You make me interested in both the original and the response.

>64 labfs39: I'm interested to see what you think of both!

>63 Julie_in_the_Library:, >64 labfs39: The original story is part of The winds twelve quarters, and probably several anthologies, and there are links to four other responses here. (The fifth link is broken.) I haven't read all of them yet, but I like N.K. Jemisin's.

Julie, I think some numbers got transposed in your post - the story was most likely published in in 1973, not 1793.

>66 markon: I think some numbers got transposed in your post - the story was most likely published in in 1973, not 1793 You're right about that! Going back and fixing.

>52 Julie_in_the_Library: You scored a hit on me with this one. I've put a hold on it. I also noticed that Turton has a new one out, The Last Murder at the End of the World, which looks interestingly strange.

I have been working my way through The House on Vesper Sands for some time now. I am enjoying it, but it is slow going, and I keep having to put it down because it pings my sympathetic embarrasment issue. I'm definitely going to continue with it, but I think I'm also going to take a turn through my between books and start something else, as well, and keep Vesper Sands as a side project.

>69 Julie_in_the_Library: I had to stop reading Because We Are Bad because it made me feel very stressed, and reading about her nightly routine turned out to be the last straw, so I am sympathetic to your sympathetic embarassment.

>70 rhian_of_oz: Good to know I'm not alone!

The Letters Regarding Jeeves book club has started with "Jeeves Takes Charge," from 1916. I thought that it was fine, but not actually funny. 3 stars. Hopefully, they get better. Though given the reactions of others doing the group read, this may be a problem of audience, rather than text, so to speak.

I wanted to share an article I read last week - Asexuality: A Text Study by Jessie Atkin. Atkin's experience doesn't match mine one for one, but there were points of commonality, and it was nice to see a discussion of asexuality in a Jewish context.

Yesterday, I read an essay by Dorothy L. Sayers on the writing of Gaudy Night, which was very interesting. I love both Lord Peter Wimsey and reading what authors have to say about the writing process, so I enjoyed it a lot.

I also read Dara Horn's piece on campus antisemitism from The Atlantic. It's very well written, and important, especially, I think, for gentiles. However, tread carefully, especially if you're Jewish. It's very upsetting.

I got a really bad cold midway through last week that, due to complications from my chronic illnessess, involves fluid in my lungs and other misery, so I haven't been doing anything but sitting on my sofa watching TV for four or five days, other than a trip to urgent care.

I'm feeling a lot better now, though not totally out of the woods, and I definitely plan to continue posting and be back in everyone's threads soon.

I'm glad you're feeling at least a little better, Julie. Take care of yourself.

Sometimes it's good to have a rest, even if it is enforced. Glad you're feeling better. Keep on healing!

Hope you feel better. Read books that make you feel good.

Julie - hope you are feeling well.

>73 Julie_in_the_Library: Gaudy Night is a book I loved very much, and I had not read this essay before. Thanks for sharing it. I particularly liked how she articulated this: "By choosing a plot that should exhibit intellectual integrity as the one great permanent value in an emotionally unstable world I should be saying the thing that, in a confused way, I had been wanting to say all my life," because I do feel from reading Sayers' work, and her treatment of Harriet, that there was a deep integrity and rigor that she held on to, through the narration.

Hope you're feeling better!

I'm feeling a lot better. I'm hoping to be completely well again (barring regular chronic illness stuff) soon. Thank you for all of your well wishes.

I haven't done a lot of reading while I've been sick, but I have done some.

The Puritanical Eye: Hyper-mediation, Sex on Film, and the Disavowal of Desire by Carlee Gomes is very interesting, even if you're not into film studies. She has a lot to say about shifts in American culture generally that I found fascinating, and definitely reflect what I've been seeing in fandom circles online.

I've also read two more Jeeves stories: "Extricating Young Gussie" from 1915, and "Leave it to Jeeves" from 1916.

"Extricating Young Gussie" by P.G. Wodehouse: 3 stars. fun enough, though not actually funny.

"Leave it to Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse: 3.5 stars. fun, entertaining, and enjoyable, though not laugh out loud funny

Glad you’re feeling better.

Glad you’re feeling better. The Puritanical Eye sounds fascinating

>81 dianeham: >82 dchaikin: Thanks!

>82 dchaikin: It is. And it's an article/essay, not a book. The link takes you to the piece itself. It's a bit long, but definitely doable in a single sitting.

>80 Julie_in_the_Library: P.G. Wodehouse's books are perfect for recuperation. May that continue uneventfully.

>84 RidgewayGirl: Thanks. And yes, so far the Wodehouse has been exactly what I need: light and entertaining and easy. Today I'm starting "The Aunt and the Sluggard."

I start a new medication for the lupus today. The hope is that it'll stop or at least reduce things like the exhaustion, brain fog, and three week cold from hell reactions to getting sick. But it's an immunosuppressant, and I'll be immunocompromised going forward, so I'm both hopeful and terrified.

I've also started watching some classes on CreativeBug, which I have access to through my public library. For anyone interested in art or crafts, you should check if your library has it. It's really cool.

>85 Julie_in_the_Library: Good luck with your new treatment therapy, Julie. I hope the drs can get you sorted soon.

>85 Julie_in_the_Library: Fingers crossed 🤞🏻

>86 labfs39: >87 dianeham: Thanks!

I haven't been doing much reading lately other than an entry a day from The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, and, of course, studying the daily daf.

I have done some, though.

I've read some interesting articles and blog posts, including David Zvi Kalman's musings on Shabbat and the internet and an article diving into the ADHD medication shortage that has been plaguing those of us with ADHD for over a year now.

I've also read another essay from the 2005 edition of The Best American Essays, Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog by Kitty Burns Florey, which I really enjoyed.

I've also been doing a lot of painting and drawing. CreativeBug continues to be an amazing resource, and I highly reccommend it to anyone looking to get into a new craft or art medium. I get access through my public library's online resources. Some libraries subscribe instead to a different service, Craftsy, which appears from a brief perusal of their website to be much the same thing. Anyone who is a resident of MA can get access to Creative Bug with a BPL ecard if their own library does not provide CreativeBug.

I haven't seen much change yet with the methotrexate, but it's early days yet - especially since I went without for a week recently due to a pharmacy screwup.

I got to see the eclipse, and it was absolutely breathtaking.

>89 Julie_in_the_Library: Thank you for sharing that article about the shortage of ADHD meds. It is a huge issue for some members of my family too.

I haven't finished any books or short stories lately, but I have been reading articles and online essays. For a full list, see >7 Julie_in_the_Library: Significant Articles, Essays, and Blog Posts.

Among the articles I've been reading are this interview from Politico about campus antisemtism and this piece from Boston Globe Magazine about a woman who created fictional identites in order to attend high school as a student.

I've also been reading some shorter pieces, incuding two from HeyAlma about dealing with chronic illness and a type of Jewish calligraphy art called Shiviti.

I have, on my phone, so many open tabs that Firefox gave up counting and just gives me an infinity symbol. I've been making an effort to go through those tabs and close some. That means I've been reading some pretty old stuff along with some more recent. It's not all news, so plenty is still well worth reading despite the passage of time since it was first written.

I'll be adding the full list to >7 Julie_in_the_Library:: Significant Articles, Essays, and Blog Posts. There's one essay that stands out from yesterday's reading that I thought I'd highlight here:

It's a June 2022 essay from the JTA's Ideas section about the experience of learning to identify local plantlife. The author, Andrew Silow-Carroll, uses that experience to discuss "the whole notion of naming things, and how this basic human impulse changes our relationship with the natural world."

In other news, this weekend is my library's annual FoL sale, and I'll be heading there later this morning. I'm excited to see what I find this year. It's a lot like a treasure hunt.

I was just using the Merlin app to try and identify a bird when I read your post. I've always carried ID guides with me when I hiked, I'm trying to get used to digital versions now.

Good luck at your book sale! I missed mine this morning due to my cold. No sense spreading this awfulness.

>94 Julie_in_the_Library: I had great luck! I got a book on perspective drawing, which is an issue that has been plaguing me for months now, as well as two big anthologies: Science Fiction Stories and Contexts by Heather Masri and The New Diaspora: The Changing Landscape of American Jewish Fiction by Victoria Aarons, Avinoam J. Patt, and Mark Schechner.

I have some paper guides, but for hiking, I always use merlin or another digital one - less to carry, and faster to use. But then, I didn't get into this stuff until after the digital guides were all already out there. I never had to make the switch.

That's too bad about your book sale. Hopefully you can make some of the other ones in your area. If not, there's always next year.

>94 Julie_in_the_Library: I love stumbling across gems at a library sale. I didn't feel too bad about missing the sale yesterday (although I like supporting that library), because a couple of weekends ago I went to three sales in one day and came away with 50 books. :-)

>95 labfs39: Oh, wow! That's quite a number. I don't have the space for that many new books!

>96 Julie_in_the_Library: Fortunately I haven't run out of space yet. Nature abhors a wall without a bookcase.

>94 Julie_in_the_Library: What was the perspective drawing book? I still have never quite dug into the science of that, and I could use a better grounding in it.

>98 lisapeet: It's Perspective Made Easy by Ernest R. Norling. I'm only partway through, but based on what I've read so far, it should definitely work for your purpse. Norling goes into the hows and whys of linear perspective as well as the how-tos.

This book is strictly about drawing and linear perspective. It does not go into atmospheric perspective (the use of paler, bluer color to indicate distance). The science on that is covered in most painting books.

>99 Julie_in_the_Library: Cool, thanks.