RidgewayGirl Reads All Over the Place - Part Three

A cloudy August day at the beach, where I've gone inside to get away from the sun for a bit is as good a place as any to set up a fresh thread. August is that odd month that starts in full summer and vacation and ends fully immersed in the new school year, with everyone hard at work and looking forward to cooler weather.

I'm planning a trip to the Decatur Book Festival at the very end of August/beginning of September, and then another trip to Charleston at the end of September, so there's lots to look forward to, not to mention all the new releases from authors like Megan Abbott, Sarah Perry, David Joy and Tana French.

Currently Reading



Recently Read



Recently Acquired



Books Acquired in 2018: 102

Books Off of My TBR: 41

Category One -- Ellensburg, Washington

I was born here, but was moved when I was four. I don't remember a single thing about it.



Debut Novels First books by new authors.

1. The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
2. I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
4. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
5. Tangerine by Christine Mangan
6. Brass by Xhenet Aliu
7. The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn
8. Elmet by Fiona Mozley
9. The Unforgotten by Laura Powell

Category Two -- Fort Collins, Colorado

Kindergarten was where I learned to read. Thank you Miss Kindicutt!



Free Reading

1. Educated by Tara Westover
2. The Outsider by Stephen King
3. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
4. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

Category Three --Ottawa, Ontario



Louise Bourgeois was an artist who received far too little acclaim while she was alive. One of her spider sculptures lives outside of the National Gallery of Canada.

Books by Women

1. The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald
2. Tampa: A Novel by Alissa Nutting
3. Multitudes by Lucy Caldwell
4. The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky
5. Florida by Lauren Groff
6. Kudos by Rachel Cusk
7. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
8. His Favorites by Kate Walbert
9. Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Category Four -- Edmonton, Alberta



Books Published in 2018

1. Sunburn by Laura Lippman
2. I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O'Farrell
3. The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman
4. In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
5. You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
6. How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister
7. Melmoth by Sarah Perry
8. In the Shadow of Statues by Mitch Landrieu

Category Five -- London, Ontario



This is the house I lived in when I was 13 to 16. There was a good snow last night and our old neighbors sent pictures of the old house with new snow.

Library Books

1. My (Not So) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
2. Keep Her Safe by Sophie Hannah
3. Heaven's Crooked Finger by Hank Early
4. Dating You / Hating You by Christina Lauren
5. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
6. Country Dark by Chris Offutt
7. Some Trick: Thirteen Stories by Helen DeWitt
8. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
9. Calypso by David Sedaris

Category Six -- Phoenix, Arizona



The summer I turned sixteen, we packed up and moved to Arizona. It was quite an adjustment.

Books I Brought Home

1. Promise by Minrose Gwin
2. The World's Largest Man by Harrison Scott Key
3. Let's No One Get Hurt by Jon Pineda
4. The Last Child by John Hart
5. The Hush by John Hart
6. Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
7. Varina by Charles Frazier
8. What Luck, This Life by Kathryn Schwille

Category Seven -- Paris, France



Expats, Immigrants and Works in Translation

1. Refuge by Dina Nayeri
2. Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
3. The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat
4. The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
5. Straying by Molly McCloskey
6. The Italian Party by Christina Lynch
7. The Aviator by Evgenii Vodolazkin, translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden
8. The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

Category Eight -- Bavaria, Germany



One of the places we lived in Bavaria was an old cottage originally built for the fish workers hired to work the ponds in the area. Later, the area became a protected wetland, but the two tiny cottages remained and we got to live there (it was damp all the time, but beautiful). We raised chickens with the neighbors so this is the category for all the various books listed on one of the Tournament of Books longlists. The Tournament of Books is commonly known as The Rooster.

The Rooster

1. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
2. Smile by Roddy Doyle
3. The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch
4. White Tears by Hari Kunzru
5. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
6. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
7. Dear Cyborgs by Eugene Lim
8. Census by Jesse Ball
9. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

Category Nine -- Warwick, Warwickshire



CATs

1. Trell by Dick Lehr (January ColorCAT - Black)
2. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (March RandomCAT - Ripped from the Headlines)
3. Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall (June ColorCAT - Purple)
4. Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten (July MysteryCAT - Police Procedurals)
5. Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott (September MysteryCAT - Noir and Hardboiled)
6. In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (September MysteryCAT - Noir and Hardboiled)
7. The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster (Group Read - Jacobean Drama)
8. Defectors by Joseph Kanon (October MysteryCAT - Espionage)
9. Vox by Christina Dalcher (November ColorCAT - Red)

Category Ten -- Wantage, Oxfordshire



We lived for two years in a refurbished barn along an ancient footpath called the Ridgeway. It was a path that led people all across Britain.





Around the World

1. At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl edited by Inge Jens, translated from the German by J. Maxwell Brownjohn (Germany)
2. Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac, translated from the Spanish by Roy Kesey (Argentina)
3. The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis, translated from the French by Michael Lucey (France)
4. Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina (Russia)
5. Tomb Song by Julián Herbert, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico)
6. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright (Iraq)
7. The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha, translated from the Portuguese by Eric B. Becker (Brazil)
8. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tabley Takemori

Category Eleven -- Munich, Germany



Munich is a city where a quarter of its residents were born somewhere else. It's a large, vibrant and beautiful city, made more vibrant and beautiful by the many people who chose to make their lives here.

Diverse Voices

1. So Much Blue by Percival Everett
2. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
3. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
4. Watershed by Percival Everett
5. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
6. When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
7. Grace by Natashia Deón
8. White Houses by Amy Bloom
9. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

BingoDOG



2. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
4. At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl edited by Inge Jens
6. White Tears by Hari Kunzru
7. The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald
8. Sunburn by Laura Lippman
9. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor (acquired in 2011)
10. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
11. The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster
12. The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis
13. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
16. The World's Largest Man by Harrison Scott Key
17. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
18. Vox by Christina Dalcher
21. The Italian Party by Christina Lynch
22. So Much Blue by Percival Everett
24. In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
25. The Idiot by Elif Batuman

And there it is. A new thread open for business. Stop on by.

A new thread and here I am in time for a front row seat!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread! It's nice to see all your lovely pictures again!

I tried to post a picture behind spoiler tags because it was of a sweet little snake who poked his head up out of the grass to say hello and I know of at least one person here who isn't a fan of the legless guys, but it didn't work, so no cheerful pictures from me today.

Happy new thread! I cannot believe it is August already. We started our August with a tornado warning that lasted about half an hour. Fortunately, no tornado materialized.

Happy new thread! Thanks for not posting the photo of the creature mentioned in #19.

Happy new thread! There are some interesting looking titles in your recent acquisitions...

I was glad to see the review of Detective Inspector Huss near the end of your last thread. It's been on my wish list for awhile. I'm glad to see it should remain there.

Hi, rp, last spring there was a serious tornado warning that had us all in the closet and it ended up hitting less than a mile from my parents' house. Quite the experience.

Lori, he's cute, but since I like you stopping by, I restrained myself.

MissWatson, I think so, too. Kudos was a five star read for me and I've just started Melmoth and it's wonderful so far.

Happy new thread! I always enjoy the re-run of categories and how they were filled.

Interesting review of Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, (on your old thread). I've added it to my wishlist.

Happy new thread!

I'm back from vacation, from the sea islands of South Carolina's low country. The dog was overjoyed to see us, the kitten had enacted a reign of terror that left no corner of the house unmolested, the cats were torn between pats from us and the great outdoors, denied to them these two weeks, and there's some laundry to do.

But not only was it a great vacation, I returned home to find that instead of an ARC, the publisher sent me a finished hardcover of Give Me Your Hand, Megan Abbott's newest. I am so pleased.

>27 RidgewayGirl: I love those islands out there, Kay. I'm looking forward to arriving in Daytona Beach tomorrow. I won't leave too early in the morning because it's only about a 4 hour drive remaining (at most). When traveling with the cats, I try not to arrive before I can check in.

I'm not sure what to make of Elmet. It's an odd book, set in the rural English countryside, and told from the point of view of a boy growing up, who has an older sister and a father who is living off the grid. They've built a house in a quiet copse and are living close to nature, poaching a bit, trading for other things. Daniel's father is a large man who earned money for a time beating up men, some in illegal prize fights, others for wealthy men willing to pay. It's not long before their quiet life is threatened.

There's an overwhelming sense of peril shadowing this novel. Fiona Mozley does a brilliant job of both describing the natural world and of hinting at the danger to come. This isn't a book that obeys the usual patterns and if you need to have all your questions answered by the end of a novel, you may want to skip this one. But if you enjoy well-written novels that do things differently, you'll like Elmet.

My daughter just called. She found a kitten on the side of the I-85. She was on her way to an eye appointment and she's bringing it home in a box they gave her at the office. I've made a vet appointment, but I'm feeling a little oppressed. We have too many cats, who have finally all reached a level of détente and I'm not really willing to add one more. On the other hand, I'm also unwilling to dump any animal at a shelter, so here we are, with a vet appointment at 3:30.

>30 RidgewayGirl: Oh dear, here's hoping the kitten is healthy and that you are able to find it a nice permanent home!

>30 RidgewayGirl: A friend in West Virginia just took two home yesterday she found by the side of the road. She already had three.

>31 DeltaQueen50: The kitten is overnighting at the vet's. There's a head injury, but they want to wait for meds to bring the swelling down and she's had a night to rest before assessing the damage. Also, she's sweet. If she can be saved, we'll have another cat.

The injuries are consistent with having been thrown from a moving vehicle. I feel quite sweary about this.

>32 thornton37814: That's really the only thing to do, I think. Like Sunday dinner, there's always room for one more.

The kitten is back with us after overnighting at the vet's. It's still wait and see, but she's fighting and we can care for her here. She's eating and her mew is getting louder, so I'm cautiously hopeful. Here's the wee thing.

>34 RidgewayGirl: Aw, she's so precious!

>34 RidgewayGirl: sweetheart! Hope she recovers. I despair of people at times...

As you can see, the kitten is pulling through. Her head is still misshapen and her left eye is gross, but she's going to live. She's now eating well, staggering around and purring loudly. She's a love bug and we are all in love with her. Back to the vet tomorrow.

I've turned the bathtub into a kitten habitat. My husband has made her a tiny litter box and we've made a bed out of a cardboard box set on its side, some towels and a heating pad.

Poor little thing! It looks like you're going to do everything you can to make up for her rough beginning.

Poor little sweetie! Lucky too though, that your daughter found her. So glad there are so many good people around, outnumbering the bad ones.

There's not much plot to Kudos, the final novel in Rachel Cusk's trilogy that begins with Outline. A middle-aged woman author attends a few writers's conferences in Europe and has conversations with people. But the plot is beside the point, here the protagonist is almost absent, instead, she's a witness, someone who listens as others reveal themselves to her. And each person's monologue addresses in some way how children are affected by the relationship between parents. The format allows Cusk to come at this from different angles, from people discussing different things.

This isn't a novel that makes writing about it easy, even as it looks at writers and publishing. I found the entire trilogy to be brilliant and to be doing something different within the confines of what we call fiction. While each book can be read separate from the others, what Cusk is doing here is best experienced by reading the entire trilogy. And having read Kudos, I'm ready to turn around and begin the process from the first book, to see what more is there.

Kitten is back from her vet visit. He was amazed at how well she's doing. Something may be wrong with a back leg (but nothing is broken), but might just be bruising. And she'll lose one eye. She's on meds and love and we'll take her back on Friday. Vet only charged us $29.00 for an overnight and much care, so I'm grateful to them for supporting her fight. She's a sweet little thing, but her eye looks terrible (she has meds and drops for it).

I'm so glad to know she's doing well with your care.

There was cat drama at my sister's apartment this morning. A very young cat had 4 kittens 5 weeks ago under a bush just outside my sister's door. It's been very hot here so Carla, the upstairs neighbor, put some sheets over the bush and all of the 8 residents have taken turns putting out water and food. Carla has done a great job getting 3 of the 4 kittens adopted and she is going to take the mother cat for spaying. Today was the day the kittens were separated from mama. Carla put them in a box and took them to her apartment because she needs for the mama to dry up so that she can be taken care of. The kittens had been taken away more than an hour after I arrived but the little mama was crying and crying for her babies. All will be well but it is still heartbreaking.

>41 RidgewayGirl: - Poor, sweet kitten. It always astounds me that people can be so mean. I'm just glad she found such a supportive cat loving family!

I hope there is a special place in hell for people that would mistreat an animal in that way.

clue, that poor mama! But getting her fixed will improve her life so much.

Stacy and Judy, it even made my even-tempered vet upset. But Melmoth is doing so well, she's even started to play. My husband adores her.

After oil is discovered under the Osage reservation in Oklahoma, the Osage became wealthy leasing the drilling rights. But along with the wealth came people eager to exploit the Osage and government policies that prevented many Osage from controlling their own money. And then people began to be murdered. The local authorities were paid off. The Osage were living in fear. Into this came the newly expanded FBI, now under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover.

There's a lot going on in Killers of the Flower Moon and author David Grann writes the events like a thriller. There's no question as to why this has been such a popular book. Grann does a good job of untangling a complex set of issues as well as a complex criminal case. He also centers the story with the Osage people themselves, spending time showing who some of the affected Osage were as people, as well as drawing a shocking picture of how the American government and racism worked together to keep the Osage from controlling their own lives and allowing for them to be exploited. I would have liked more on that than on the adventures of the FBI agents who came in to save the day, but I suspect that many would have liked more adventure and less about the details of Osage life in the 1920s. Grann did a good job striking that balance, and in writing a fast-paced and exciting account about a facet of American history that few people today know about.

So great to hear about the kitten you rescued!

>41 RidgewayGirl: yup she's not going to be a great looker, is she? But sounds like she's wormed her way into your affections nicely. And has been given a name, that's when you know they're staying.

I'm so glad the kitten is recovering and welcomed into her new home. How anyone can be bad to an animal defies understanding.

>46 RidgewayGirl: I've read Martin Scorsese will direct the movie, David Grann will be involved in writing the script, and Leonardo DiCaprio will star. There was a short article in a local newspaper (I live on the Arkansas side of the Arkansas/Oklahoma border) saying they are scouting locations in western Oklahoma.

Lisa, Helen and Vivienne, thanks for the well-wishes. She's certainly established herself in our hearts. Her eye is gross, but as soon as that's healed, she'll just be an ordinary kitten causing trouble.

clue, that's interesting. I'm a little sad about DiCaprio starring, since one of the things the book did reasonably well was to center the Osage in their own story. A big name star means the movie will be about DiCaprio bringing the bad guys to justice instead. But I'm sure their movie will do better at the box office than my version would!

The Last Child by John Hart is a thriller. There's lots of danger and it all builds to a dramatic conclusion. The last child is Johnny Merriman, a twelve year old boy whose twin sister disappeared a year earlier and whose family disintegrated as a result, with his father leaving and his mother retreating into alcohol and pills. He's lost his house and he's an outcast at school, his only friend being a police officer's son whose mangled arm makes him a pariah both at school and at home, where his older brother has just received a football scholarship. He spends his time avoiding his mother's abusive boyfriend and hunting for his sister's kidnapper. His sister's disappearance has also weighed down the lead detective on the investigation, whose wife divorced him and a son he's in the process of losing as he ignores him in favor of chasing down one more tenuous lead or checking up on the girl's family. And then another girl disappears.

This is a fast-paced thriller designed to entertain, and Hart does a good job keeping things moving. He also paints a vivid picture of a very specific part of North Carolina, both the landscape and history. This is also a book full of giant plot holes and convenient stereo-types, but not so much as to make the book hard to read. I was not enamored with a few aspects of the novel's treatment of women, who were either impediments and mockable, or delicate flowers incapable of strength or fortitude. But not a terrible book overall.

Finally checking in here and wanted to say I hope things workout with the kitty and she fits in with your other cats. So sad what people will do to animals.

I'm catching up on threads, and just read the story of your sweet kitten. It's so good to see her doing alright, and I'm so glad you found each other and she's getting the care and love she needs! I'm sitting beside a one-eyed cat now, and I swear, after it got taken out, she gained five years back onto her life. And, she's just as gorgeous as ever, so I'm sure your kitty will adjust just fine! I can't wait to hear more updates :)

Thanks, guys. The eye is really gross, but since she is still not fully recovered from her ordeal and only seven weeks old, surgery to remove it might be risky. She goes back to the vet on Friday.

re Killers of the Flower Moon I wondered how much was shaped by the archive that was left, as well as the sense of what might sell the book (the FBI agency creation stuff). I'm not a DiCaprio fan, so that's one movie version I can safely avoid!

So sad to read about the kitten being abandoned like that, but lovely to know she has a new home.

Helen lives quietly in Prague. She rents a room from an unpleasant old woman and earns her keep translating appliance owner's manuals and medical brochures into English. She dresses plainly and stays out of the way. But despite that, she's dragged into life when she shares a table in a crowded cafeteria with a Czech man who is researching the story of Melmoth, the mythical woman condemned to walk the world on bloody feet, witnessing the cruelty of man towards his fellow man.

What follows is both Helen's story, but also earlier stories, from a woman burned at the stake in sixteenth century England, to a boy living in the Czech countryside, the novel moves back and forth though time. Sarah Perry has done a beautiful job with the pacing and plotting, everything is revealed at the right time, and the novel comes together beautifully at the end. Melmoth reminded me of Geraldine Brooks's People of the Book. Sarah Perry is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. I'm eager to read whatever she writes next.

>57 RidgewayGirl: I just spotted that one in a forthcoming book list and added it to the ones the library needs to order that month. I'm glad to hear it sounds like as strong of a book as The Essex Serpent. I'm sure our readers will enjoy it.

Perfect for libraries, Lori, as some of the novel takes place in a library.

Kitten update:

Melmoth had to go in and have that eye removed. She was groggy when she got home, but today is cavorting around in the best kitten-style. She got off lightly, losing just her left eye and 2/3 of her right ear.

>60 RidgewayGirl: Meow to Melmoth. From Sherlock, Mr. B, and Barney

Awww, pats to your three big guys, Lori.

>60 RidgewayGirl: aww that's a happier looking ickle kitty cat.

>57 RidgewayGirl: tempted... The Essex Serpent was very good.

In Sigrid Nunez's novel, The Friend, an unnamed creative writing teacher mourns the loss of her dear friend, an author and professor. She takes in the author's Great Dane, Apollo, despite living in a small Manhattan apartment where dogs are not allowed. As she and the dog mourn the loss of the author, she shares memories of him, as well as her observations and shares quotes about dogs, teaching, writing and life in New York City.

Told in a series of brief paragraphs and vignettes, The Friend never really got underway for me. Its a slender novel, and the brief segments each seemed unconnected with the ones on either side. There's a section where the novel reflects on its own construction that was interesting, but ultimately not enough to redeem the rest of it.

>64 RidgewayGirl: That's kind of sad because it sounds like the potential was there.

Lori, I was excited to read it, and a lot of people loved it. It was an easy book to read, it just wasn't a substantial one.

VictoriaPL and I drove to a nearby city to see Karin Slaughter last night. It was an event at the library in which it was advertised that the first hundred people would get her new book, Pieces of Her, for free. We arrived two hours early, hoping we'd be among the lucky one hundred and we were fourth and fifth in line. We did have fun talking to the people waiting with us and then we were given cat ear headbands with the tag "Slaughter Squad" on them.



Karin Slaughter was warm, funny and, boy, can she tell a story. It was a lot of fun.

I love author visits! I see smiles all around so it looks like a good time, of course when a free book is involved it can't be anything else. Glad you had fun.

That is excellent Kay! I am next for Pieces of Her at the library, and I was going to ask Victoria if she wanted to read it with me, and you have a copy also, which means you can join us! I love Karin Slaughter, I think after I read one of her books (not sure if it was her very first or not), I proceeded to track down every one and couldn't stop. She's also done a good job of crossing over characters from one series to another, which doesn't always work.

The other day I noticed that last year with all my moving madness I missed reading one of her books, which is not like me at all The Good Daughter, which I will start soon.

Ok, I'll stop author gushing now lol.

clue, it always surprises me when authors are great public speakers, but I guess a born storyteller is a born storyteller, regardless of medium.

Lisa, wonderful! Let Victoria and I know when you library hold comes in and we'll all start reading.

>66 RidgewayGirl: How fun! Wish I could have gone with you guys.

Lori, that would have been fun!

Glad you had a good time, that sounds like fun!

The Hush is a sequel of sorts to John Hart's debut novel, The Last Child. Set in North Carolina, among swamps and rugged hills, The Hush picks up a decade after the events of the previous novel. Johnny inherited 6,000 acres of land when he turned seventeen, and he's been living there ever since, in a shack he built himself. He's become a recluse in his wilderness, sleeping in trees and shooting at hunters who trespass on his land. He's spent time in prison, for shooting up the hunting camp of a powerful billionaire. Meanwhile, his best friend, Jack, has graduated from law school and has just started work in the most prestigious law firm in town.

But all is not well for Johnny. A law suit he can't afford to fight is threatening his home. And Jack sees Johnny changing in ways that make him unhappy. And when a dead body is discovered on Johnny's land, things become worse.

This is a horror novel of sorts, or at least it seems to be edging toward that genre. There's a supernatural force controlling the property, one which allows some to live, but kills others in horrific ways. Writing horror successfully is a difficult balancing act. Too little and the reader isn't scared, too much and it can suddenly veer from frightening to just silly. Hart does not manage to stick the landing. But whether or not the evil force is compelling or not is less important than Hart's handling of both women and African American history.

The women in this novel come in two varieties. Mothers are helpless, often addicted, and cannot parent their children. And the other woman of note is a lawyer, beautiful, manipulative and bad. We know this woman is bad because she is described as being a user and a taker soon after she makes an appearance. There's also a part of the plot involving an evil African princess and her African powers that made me deeply uncomfortable. It felt like an element out of a pulp novel from a different age and not in a good way. I'm not sure how this element could have worked in even the hands of a sensitive author. Hart was not at all sensitive. There is a ton of stuff going on, with plot lines and themes followed for a few pages or chapters and then discarded.

On the other hand, Hart has a talent for writing stories that compel the reader to keep turning pages. In the end, this was not enough to redeem this novel for me.

>60 RidgewayGirl: So glad to see the update on Melmoth and know she is cavorting! She's adorable. When my turn to read Perry's book finally comes about, I will think of your little Melmoth.

Vivienne, now that she's fully recovered (except for stitches) she's roaring about like a perfectly normal kitten. She looks like a very small and very fierce pirate.

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor is not a crime novel. Yes, a girl disappears in the opening pages and a massive search of the countryside around a Yorkshire village is conducted, but that's simply the entry point to the life of this village as it slowly returns to a kind of normal, as the years pass. Each passing year is contained in a chapter, each month in a paragraph. The various people living in and around the village live their lives; babies are born, businesses go bankrupt, the sheep are sheared, the fox kits grow up and leave their dens.

The entire novel rests on the quality of McGregor's writing and on his ability to describe complex situations in a minimum of words and of writing vivid, breathing characters in just a few sentences here and there. It took me a few chapters to fall into the rhythm of the novel, but once I did, I enjoyed every minute spent with it. Reservoir 13 really is an extraordinary book.

>76 RidgewayGirl: I might enjoy that one! I went to add it to the wish list and found it there already!

I think you would enjoy it, Lori. It's so beautifully written and has such a strong sense of place.

>76 RidgewayGirl: I am akso going to add Reservoir 13 to my wishlist. I love books with a strong sense of place.

>76 RidgewayGirl: that sounds most interesting.

>76 RidgewayGirl: It's been added to my wishlist too! It sounds great!

Judy, Helen and Vivienne, good, I think you will all enjoy it very much. It's so beautifully written.

I just got back from the Decatur Book Festival, which was wonderful. There were so many interesting topics being discussed, and so many authors I wanted to hear, that I ended up attending as many as I could have and they were all interesting. I even got to chat briefly with one of my all time favorite authors, Thomas Mullen, who wasn't a featured author, but who interviewed Charles Frazier, and who I ran into outside of one of the many book stalls. He was very kind and tolerant.

>76 RidgewayGirl: - I'm going to take a BB on this also. Sounds like something I would like.

How great that your got to meet a favorite author! You had a big day.

Jennifer, I had a wonderful weekend. I talked to several more authors, and while I only bought eight books, I easily added twice that many to my wishlist. Lucy Tan was especially fun - she was waiting in the same line for a signing and I recognized her from earlier and went over to say hi. She was funny and also agreed with my working theory that the kind of person happy to do their work alone in a room is not usually also the kind of person who enjoys sitting in front of people who are waiting to be entertained, and it's weird that we require this of authors.

The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao is a delightful novel by Brazilian author Martha Batalha that tells the story of Euridice, a fiercely intelligent and motivated girl growing up in the middle of the last century in Rio. She's an obedient girl and once she has been convinced that her only goal is to be a good housewife and mother, she falls into line, marrying well, having children, supervising her housekeeper. But there's something inside of Euridice that can't remain entirely passive.

Euridice is such a wonderful character and Batalha's writing (and Eric B. Becker's translation) made the reading of this novel so much fun. I'm looking forward to more from this talented new author.

BB for me! That sounds really good.

Jennifer, Euridice Gusmao is amazing! The book was part of my SantaThing haul last December and perfectly demonstrates why I always participate in SantaThing, despite having a tbr that is, ahem, ample. I had never even heard of the book.

I'm in the process of dusting and reorganizing my bookshelves. I've pulled out a bunch to donate, although the thrill of that was tempered by discovering that a few had never even been entered into LT in the first place. The fun of it is in finding the books I'd forgotten (most shelves are doubled) and in the way that now the books that were hidden are now visible. The trick will be in not buying anymore books so as to not disturb this new order.

Last night, I dragged my husband to a book signing because beer was involved. David Joy, who wrote The Weight of This World and the brand new The Line that Held Us is a guy who likes hunting and drinking and growing ample facial hair, so my husband enjoyed himself. I enjoyed chatting with David Joy while he signed my books. We are in agreement about the awesomeness of Donald Ray Pollock and that a book that announces its intentions from the first page is a wonderful thing.

>90 RidgewayGirl: Sounds like a good event. I keep half-heartedly trying to find new bookshelves to resolve my piles of books, but apart from those fashionable things that look like ladders (which I like, but suspect of being little help as how many books can they really take?) the choices seem very limited.

>87 RidgewayGirl: Added to the wishlist, sounds great.

Hi, Charlotte. Those fashionable ladder-shelves are pretty, but probably not intended to hold as many books as can be piled on to them.

Ok, I dusted, purged and reorganized the hardcovers yesterday. Now for the more daunting task of doing the paperbacks...

>90 RidgewayGirl: Ooh, there's nothing like a good bookshelf reorganising! I think I'm long overdue one of those myself. I'm curious as to what's in the second row of the doubled-up shelves. Hope you find some treasures!

>90 RidgewayGirl: - I recently decided to go through some of the boxes of books that hadn't been unpacked since we had moved and make some serious decisions on whether or not I might really read them.

Jackie, I gave up halfway through the paperback reorganization. But the hardcovers do look so nice.

Betty, that's so hard to do, but necessary. I found several books I liked well enough when I read them to want to hang on to them, but don't want to keep them for a reread now, and several tbr books that just don't interest me as much as the other books. It felt good to put together a box to donate.

A storm is heading in this direction, although we're so far inland that no one is worried. Costco has huge amounts of water stockpiled, and while most carts had a case or two, the store wasn't crowded. Now, if snow had been forecast, people would have cleared the shelves. Max is hoping for a few days of no school and my daughter's college cancelled classes Thursday and Friday. She has opted to stay with her friends instead of coming home, but the campus buildings are all substantial brick edifices, so she should be fine. In preparation, a new collar and tag has been purchased for the cat who loses his on a weekly basis and ample cat food and litter have been brought in. If you're in Virginia or the Carolinas, stay safe and evacuate if they tell you to!

Oh, hunker down! I'm glad you were able to get your supplies. I hope the storm passes quickly.

it's not expected to reach here before Sunday. It's weird just waiting for something like this to happen, but the more time people have to prepare, the better.

>87 RidgewayGirl: I'm taking a BB for The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao. I'm realizing that I've read very few books from South America and it's past time to remedy that.

I hope the storm doesn't end up affecting you too much. Stay safe!

Paulina, I'm hoping the hurricane does a lot less damage than predicted.

In Karin Slaughter's new thriller, Pieces of Her, a single, pivotal event has Andy calling into question everything she knew about her own mother. Caught in a mall restaurant when a man appears and begins shooting, her mother's behavior is extraordinary. As the inevitable video hits the news and the FBI begins its investigation, Andy is forced to go on the run.

Pieces of Her is a frantically-paced race through increasingly implausible situations. Momentum and plot twists combine to create a reading experience in which the reader is never given the time to sit back and think about what is happening and it's pointless to speculate on what will happen given that the plot resembles a double-tracked roller coaster more than it does the more traditional rising action-falling action-denouement kind of pattern.

And somehow this all adds up to a lot of fun. It helps that Slaughter knows how to write and that she's clearly not phoning it in. Moving back and forth in time, between Georgia, Norway and San Francisco, and between the story of a confused woman trying to figure out things on the fly and a woman who became deeply involved with something she couldn't control, this all adds up to a fun few days of escapist reading.

-- That line in the song, Old times there are not forgotten. I could argue that maybe they're not worth remembering.

-- I've never forgotten that girl, and I wouldn't want to. Remembering doesn't change anything--it will always have happened. But forgetting won't erase it either.

Varina was the second wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. She was raised in Mississippi according to her status, owned slaves and served as the first lady in Richmond. But she was also a woman who walked out of her husband's inaugural address halfway through, who, in the middle of the Civil War, took in a black child and raised him with her own children, who finished the work of her husband's memoirs after his death and then moved directly to New York City.

Charles Frazier tells the story of Varina's life as a series of reminiscences recounted by Varina to a young man who believes he might be Jimmy Limber, the boy Varina took in during the war. He is searching for his past and they meet each Sunday and she remembers her life before, during and after the war, the memories moving back and forth through time, as her train of thought brings other events to mind.

Many years later, now that choices matter less, V has finally learned that sitting calm within herself and waiting is often the best choice. And even when it's not, those around you become uncomfortable because they think you are wise.

Frazier writes beautifully, there's not a jarring sentence or an awkward word choice anywhere in this book. He also does the difficult job of threading the needle of being both faithful to the attitudes and behaviors of that time without alienating the modern reader. Varina is a sympathetic character, but Frazier never allows us to look away at the harm done by the system she lived in and tried to preserve.

I leaned against the counter, watching the clouds. I have been lonely in my life but never when drinking strong coffee, wearing my fleecy slippers, and standing in my own kitchen.

Lorena Hickok was born into a dirt-poor South Dakotan family but managed to make a life for herself as a journalist. When she met Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression, the two began a relationship that would last the rest of their lives in some form or another.

White Houses is Amy Bloom's novel about this relationship and about Lorena Hickok's life, which included working as a housemaid as a child and a stint employed by a traveling circus. There's a lot of detail about what life was like in the White House, during the Depression and Second World War, but mainly though, it's an account of two middle-aged women and their love for each other.

>101 RidgewayGirl: Varina has been staring at me from the bedside table for awhile now. You have convinced me she must move to the top of the short list!

clue, you have some good reading ahead of you. Frazier can write.

The Unforgotten is not a good book. It's not terrible, or offensive, and Laura Powell's writing, outside of some very odd choices of nouns, is fine. But the plot, which in able hands could have been a real page-turner, and in the hands of someone like Megan Abbott or Gillian Flynn could have been, well, unforgettable, here sinks under the weight of false suspense and overwrought and underdeveloped characters.

Betty is fifteen in 1956, where she helps her mother run a small guesthouse in a beach community. Her mother is a mentally unstable alcoholic, whose cycles of mania and depression are growing ever shorter. A group of reporters has taken over the guesthouse because there is a murderer in the area, the "Cornwall Cleaver," who targets young women. Betty longs for escape and so becomes infatuated with the odd and off-putting Mr. Gallagher, who is, it becomes quickly evident, is very bad at his job, and his only articles come from things Betty tells him.

There's a parallel story taking place in the present, with a mentally unstable older woman who becomes overwrought upon seeing a newspaper article about the man imprisoned for the murders decades ago. She flails and weeps herself around to finding Mr. Gallagher again, burdened by a terrible secret.

As the two stories converge, the answers were always the most predictable, and much of the suspense derived from characters not revealing identities or important information, even in their private thoughts. There are a series of salacious murders, but only two of the women are deemed important enough to name and the final reveal - the murderer's motivation - applied only to the final murder, leaving the reader to wonder who killed all those girls. There was a great deal of drama, weeping, running away in the night and general emotional turmoil for one book to hold and it soon became annoying. I do think that this book does provide a series of examples of what not to do, so it is not entirely a waste of time to read.

;-D Well, at least it had some redeeming value then. Sorry it was a disappointment but thanks for the review.

>106 mstrust: I only finished it because I'd been sent a review copy. They got their review. Still trying to figure out why marketing decided to compare Powell with Tana French and Louise Penny.

Some Trick: Thirteen Stories by Helen DeWitt is a collection of short stories all focusing on people who are very intelligent in one way or another. They struggle with money, compulsions or simply with everyday life. The academics value quick, erudite conversations, peppered with untranslated French, German and Latin. Each story, taken alone, comes across as clever and unusual, taken as a whole, the stories become variations on the same thing.

The first story, Brutto, is about a young struggling artist who comes to the attention of a prominent art dealer and then sees her vision over-whelmed by his, and she's faced with the decision of whether to stick to her ideas, and perhaps have to give up art entirely to support herself, or allow her art to be changed into something unrecognizable. And in Famous Last Words, a young woman makes the following observation:

There is a text which I could insert at this point which begins, 'I'm not in the mood,' but the reader who has had occasion to consult it will know that, though open to many variations, there is one form which is, as Voltaire would say, potius optandum quam probandum, and that is the one which runs 'I'm not in the mood,' 'Oh, OK.' My own experience has shown this to be a text particularly susceptible to discursive and recursive operations, one which circles back on itself through several iterations and recapitulations, one which ends pretty invariably in 'Oh, OK,' but only about half the time as the contribution of my co-scripteur. I think for a moment about giving the thing a whirl, but finally settle on the curtailed version which leaves out, 'I'm not in the mood' and goes directly to 'Oh, OK.' X and I go upstairs.

Ottessa Moshfegh's characters are unpleasant people. They're morally flexible, utterly self-involved, make terrible decisions and often live in environments that reflect their personalities. Allowing a Moshfegh character into your life will invariably end in disappointment and legal difficulties.

In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the protagonist is a well-off, pretty young blonde woman with a nice apartment in Manhattan. She finds an utterly incompetent psychiatrist willing to write her an ever increasing number of prescriptions for various sedatives, anti-depressants and sleeping aids and sets out to enjoy a year of unconsciousness. It doesn't quite go the way she'd envisioned. Her only friend keeps showing up and she keeps needing new pharmaceuticals to stay asleep.

The character in this novel begin as shallow, unpleasant person and while she remains true to herself, Moshfegh forces her to develop and grow despite her intense desire to avoid everything. This is one of the best novels I've read this year.

>109 RidgewayGirl: I am definitely adding this one to the list. Eileen was an interesting and different read that I often find myself thinking about and an author that can have her story linger in my mind in that way is one that I want to read again.

>95 RidgewayGirl: I didn't keep up with the news but I hope you didn't suffer any from the storm. I was happy to hear that the cat got a new storm preparation collar! Now everyone is prepared.

We were busy keeping an eye on our wildfires after a long hot dry summer. It's very alarming to see flames from your living room, a first for me.

Judy, this one will linger, too.

Vivienne, you've had a terrible summer. We were far enough inland and so we just had a few days of rain. We get summer storms here where a few inches can fall in a short burst, so what we had was uneventful, except for the cat who insisted on going out, coming back a few hours later soaking wet and then staying in, but complaining about it. But he kept the collar on. The only storm effects we're still seeing here is that case of bottled water in the garage.

>108 RidgewayGirl: That quote. Just yikes.

So on Tuesday, VictoriaPL and I are going on a short road trip to Charleston, SC! I keep bothering her with bookstores, and literary-themed places to visit, but she hasn't cancelled yet! There are three bookstores to visit:

https://bluebicyclebooks.com

http://www.itinerantliteratebooks.com

http://www.buxtonbooks.com

And I'm eager to visit this little place:

http://poestavern.com/sullivans-island/

>114 RidgewayGirl: All of these look like fun, I love the idea of a bookmobile bookstore. You must report back!

I will, clue. Hopefully, with pictures.

Just because she is so cute, here's Melmoth, debating whether or not to leave home to travel the country with Jack Reacher. She has the requisite battle scars and she's fearless.

>114 RidgewayGirl: I have a picture of me at Poe's Tavern somewhere--probably on Facebook.

>116 RidgewayGirl: Such a cutie!

>117 RidgewayGirl: That's a lovely picture.

>117 RidgewayGirl: She's amazing.

>117 RidgewayGirl: What a beauty! :)

>117 RidgewayGirl: Sweet thing! Her life with you will be good.

>117 RidgewayGirl: A brave beauty!

>117 RidgewayGirl: - Wonderful picture of brave Melmoth!

i will pass all compliments and good wishes on to Melmoth. She is currently doing battle with my EOS lip balm.

She is an adorable kitty. It's so nice of you two to go Charleston and support their businesses after the hurricane.

Megan Abbott writes a lot about the dark heart of female friendship. Not the trite idea of two women fighting over a man, like another issue of Archie Comics, but that intense friendship that arises, often between teenagers, where the real love and respect live side by side with competition and betrayal. In Give Me Your Hand, Abbott returns to the subject, but this time moves back and forth through time, recounting both the friendship between two teenage girls focused on the same goal, and their relationship a decade later.

Kit is raised by a financially struggling single mother in an industrial town in California. Senior year, Diane transfers to her high school and they are drawn to each other. Both are highly motivated, competitive and intelligent girls and under Diane's influence, Kit's world opens up to the possibility of going to university. They both are interested in chemistry, with their eyes on a scholarship that would allow Kit to afford to go to the state university. But Diane comes with a secret and it's when she finally confides in Kit that their friendship changes overnight.

Years later, Kit is a graduate student working in the chemistry lab of a noted female scientist. She's working hard, scraping to make ends meet and hoping to be chosen to take part in the glamorous new study that just received funding, when Diane walks back into her life, setting in motion a tragic series of events.

Give Me Your Hand is dark and noir and wonderful. Abbott drags the reader through every uncomfortable moment and emotion as she digs into the competitive world of academia and of female friendship.

In a Lonely Place is the reminder I needed of how perfect those early noir novels are. Dorothy B. Hughes has written an extraordinary novel told from the point of view of a very bad man. And even as she stays within his point of view throughout, she still manages to create strong female characters whose bravery shows despite the misogynistic lens through which they're seen.

Dix has moved to Los Angeles. He served in WWII in England where he was friends with Brub and when he is in Santa Monica one evening, he calls Brub up and they rekindle their friendship. There are two problems, one is that Brub is now a detective, working on solving a series of stranglings of young women, and the other is Brub's wife, who sees Dix much too clearly for his peace of mind.

What a fantastic novel this was. I enjoyed every paranoid, claustrophobic minute spent trapped in Dix's vile headspace.

>128 RidgewayGirl: Excellent review! Thumb.

>128 RidgewayGirl: Such a creepy book! I couldn't believe I'd never heard of her before seeing a review of this recently.

>128 RidgewayGirl: I'm glad you liked it. Hughes was a great noir writer.

Thanks, rp.

Charlotte, I first encountered Dorothy B. Hughes in a short story anthology called Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, put together by Sarah Weinman. There's not a dud in the collection.

Great review. I have In A Lonely Place on my shelves and have been saving it for a time when I really need a good book.

Mitch Landrieu was mayor of New Orleans when the statues came down. His book, In the Shadow of Statues, is about why he decided that he needed to use all of the political capital he'd built up over decades of public service to bring them down and the challenges he faced in doing so. But first the book is about growing up in NOLA, and how he entered politics, what it was like living through Katrina (he was Lieutenant Governor at the time) and what that experience taught him, as well as a bunch of wonky details about the work of campaigning and governance.

It's a mixed bag. Landrieu is a likable guy and his perspective, as a white Southerner whose family has been in Louisiana for generations, is an interesting one. His father was mayor of New Orleans during the desegregation of the schools and his memories of that time were well worth reading. Landrieu has a talent for seeing people as people, whether that person is in prison, a politician in the opposing party or yelling at him in the street. That quality of valuing everyone is a good one for a politician to have (and for the rest of us, too).

But the book wandered off into the weeds for me for much of the middle section, as Landrieu talked about various political campaigns he'd run or been part of, and he sometimes fell into the carefully coached language of a seasoned political operative as he discussed what could and could not be achieved.

In the end, though, In the Shadow of Statues ended with the heart of the book, that difficult fight to pull down those symbols of racism and segregation in a city that has a majority black population and of what message those statues sent. As someone who was deeply immersed in the history of Louisiana, his journey from dismissal of the idea to coming to the realization that it was the right thing to do was fascinating. And his final words, the speech his most famous for, is a powerful piece of writing.

Judy, you'll love it!

>117 RidgewayGirl:, What a great picture! And a great thought :)

>128 RidgewayGirl: I loved In A Lonely Place too and that really says something - if we both agree on a book!

>136 whitewavedarling: Admittedly, I was inspired by this picture from Hurricane Florence.



>137 VictoriaPL: Every so often, Victoria. And we do both love noir.

Speaking of Reacher. . .



A Jack Reacher thriller is usually a reliably entertaining read. Lee Child has written a few that were duds, but the quality is generally high and The Midnight Line is a perfectly respectable entry into the series. In this one, Reacher finds a woman's class ring from West Point in a pawn shop and sets out to find the owner, a quest that takes him into the world of opioid drug dealing and addicted veterans, and also into Wyoming, which he likes.

I heard somewhere that Lee Child is one of those writers who don't write with an outline, but let the story take shape as they write. I suspect that a closer look at The Midnight Line would show the flaws of this way of writing a complicated thriller, but the Jack Reacher novels are intended as entertainment and in that, this novel succeeded for me.

>138 RidgewayGirl: Doesn't look like a day when cats should be outside. Poor little dear.

I hope Michael isn't creating similar weather patterns for you. Stay dry.

Vivienne, it is rainy and windy today! School was even canceled. While the dog is determined to stay IN, the cats keep asking to be let out, and then they are outraged at the rain and leap back. And then, ten minutes later, they want to check if maybe the weather is fine.

>138 RidgewayGirl:, I saw that picture and read about it, too! Hurricane season has been so rough this year, but that's a great picture that I don't think I'll ever forget.

Lethal White is the fourth installment in the series written by J K Rowling under the name Robert Galbraith. The series follows Cormoran Strike, who works as a private detective in London, England, and his partner, Robin, who originally worked for him as a temp assigned to corral his paperwork, but who has since become a detective herself. While each book in the series follows a different, unrelated crime, the real story is that of the friendship between Robin and Strike and so the series is best read in order.

As someone who has been waiting for this book for some time, I can tell you it did not disappoint. I'm eager for the next one and I'm glad that Rowling has hinted at plans for a lengthy series.

>143 RidgewayGirl: - I still have to read #3 before I get to this one, but I do enjoy the series and am glad it continues to be good.

Betty, you've scheduled things well. Book three ends on a bit of a question mark, and book four picks up on the same day. So if you're left on tenterhooks by book three, you can move right on over to the next book and not wait three years.

>145 RidgewayGirl: - Sounds like that will be a plan, if I remember when I get there.

>143 RidgewayGirl: Saving it for my holiday! Can't wait to read it - it did feel like it was a long time coming.

Charlotte, it was so good. Rowling really writes friendship and relationships well. I'm already looking forward to the next book, but with Tana French and Kate Atkinson having new books out, I have other books to look forward to reading.

I'll be having surgery at the end of the month to remove a non-cancerous tumor. The surgery will be fine, it's laparoscopic and the surgeon went to some effort to convince me that the scars would be minimal, but why he thought, looking at me, that I was going to be parading around my fifty-year-old self in a bikini on the beach is anyone's guess. Anyway, there will be a few days in the hospital and I'm looking forward to some reading time.

His Favorites by Kate Walbert is a novel best read with as little knowledge about it as possible. The book begins with fifteen-year-old Jo hanging out with her two best friends one night, when they decide to steal a golf cart and go joy-riding around the course.

His Favorites is a very short novel, that covers a lot of ground, but each paragraph and sentence is so well-crafted, and the book is so well put together that it has the impact of a much larger work. If you decide to read it, I highly recommend learning as little as possible about the plot as possible.

Hi Kay,

Just checking to see what you're up to reading wise. I enjoyed Lethal White immensely, although maybe I should have reread Career of Evil to refresh my memory a bit. I'm on a short waiting list for the new Tana French and a very long list for the Kate Atkinson.

As I write this, I'm remembering that I never touched base with you and Victoria about the Karin Slaughter we were supposed to be reading together. Oops! I think I just tore through it and didn't come play on LT at the time.

Good luck with your upcoming surgery, and I hope you enjoy your reading time. My family thinks I'm nuts because I had an appendectomy in late October a few years ago and I was reading my usual slice and dice gore, plus it was close to Halloween also lol!

Lisa, I really liked Pieces of Her, but I suspect that it wouldn't stand up to too much scrutiny. But I was in the mood for something fast-paced and entertaining and Slaughter did not disappoint. What did you think?

And I am, of course, putting together a wee stack of books to bring with me to the hospital.

Hi Kay,

Well I'm a little biased because I am a big fan girl of Ms. Slaughter. That being said, I thought Pieces of Her was a good fast paced thriller, a little different from her usual fare. I probably rated the book half a star more than I should have just because I love the author.

Good luck with your surgery, Kay. Also good luck with your reading in the hospital as I've always found that there were so many interuptions that it was difficult to get a good chunk of reading time in.

Lisa, have you been to one of her book signings? She is a hoot.

Judy, thanks. I'm not a fan of hospitals (and why are they always so cold?), but I'm hoping I can get some reading done and also wear my own pajamas.

Hope the operation goes well and that your reading stack proves suitably diverting during your recovery!

Good luck with the surgery and may you feel well up to reading!

Good luck, Kay, with your surgery and with getting to wear your own pajamas. Maybe they'll help with the cold.

Hope the surgery goes well and that you feel like doing lots of reading.

Thanks, everyone. My surgery is scheduled for October 29. I asked my husband if I should save the tumor for a Hallowe'en decoration and he was deeply disgusted with me.

I'll echo everyone else's wishes for a successful surgery, Kay! I hope you get some reading time. Take care of yourself.

>159 RidgewayGirl: Ha! Hope it all goes well.

Good luck for your surgery! As a nurse I have had a few requests over the years to keep various sundry unmentionables, although never a tumour! One woman wanted me to give her the stitches I'd just removed from her hysterectomy wound, because her mum collected everything medical related to her children and she said her mum would never forgive her if she'd let me throw them away. After that I always asked people before I removed stitches if they wanted to keep them, and without exception they all thought I was weird for even asking. You can't win!

Thanks, guys.

Jackie, my daughter did save the staples and pins (really more like large drywall screws) used when she broke her femur. And my mother saved my baby teeth. She tried to give them to me at some point, but I didn't want them. Which, of course, I regret now as I can think of many crafts projects to which actual human teeth might just add a real air of je ne sais pas.

>159 RidgewayGirl: spoilsport!
>162 Jackie_K: My Mum kept my stitches from when I smashed a pane of glass with my head, so she's clearly as wierd as your patient. I chucked them out at the first opportunity!
Hope the surgery goes well and that your jamies are nice and cosy.

Joining the others in wishing you a successful surgery and some fabulous reading time during recovery!

Catching up here - good luck with your surgery!

I've taken 4 BBs from this one thread - while I was tagging them, I saw that I have taken more BBs from you than anyone else on LT! Congratulations! :)

Wishing you all the best for your surgery! After my recent stay in hospital I advise you to take your cosiest pyjamas and socks too. I felt like such a baby for complaining of the cold. When I phoned my husband with a list of things to bring me, PJs were at the top of the list.

Thank you everyone.

Vivienne, I'm bringing a pair of giant wool socks I would wear on winter evenings in Germany. And my cozy pajamas that cover the parts of me a hospital gown fails to do.

Lisa, I'd apologize, but my reading has been great this year. I hope you like those books as much as I did when you get to them.

Lori, I'll be at the main hospital downtown instead of the one I'd expected, so it has a Starbucks and therefore a source of decent coffee. It's practically a reading vacation!*

Helen, when my Mom fell and had to get staples on her head my son was in awe of how badass she looked. So she gave him the staples when they were removed. I should ask him what he did with them.

*Probably not, but a girl can dream.

And I know we don't bring up politics, and for good reason, but this is who I met today and she is amazing!

>168 RidgewayGirl: Wow! Awesome! Jealous! :)

I thought I would get a lot read the last time I was in the hospital (for knee replacement surgery - Thursday to Sunday), but I was so exhausted I hardly got anything read.

Lisa, I'm hoping that's not what will happen to me. I mean, knee replacement surgery is huge, and my surgery is just the simple eviction of an uninvited guest.

It's a lot harder to review a book I loved than one that I found flawed. And so I've put off reviewing The House of Broken Angels for a week now. Luis Alberto Urrea has filled this novel with a loud, boisterous extended family, brought together for a birthday celebration, let the reader see each character's struggles, flaws and dreams and then knit that all together into a novel with a great deal of heart.

Big Angel is dying, but he has one last birthday celebration before he goes. When his mother dies, he even postpones her funeral a week so that people won't have to make two trips. The House of Broken Angels takes place over a single weekend, where relatives are brought together at Big Angel's house in San Diego, from a university professor to an undocumented veteran, and everyone in between. Urrea draws a vivid portrait of a large family and of the complex and flawed man who has fought to protect them. He's both unsparing and compassionate in his portrayal and I was so sorry when the last chapter ended.

>171 RidgewayGirl: Morristown's e-book and audiobook collection lacks that one, but Knox County has it available in audio. All copies are out at the moment, but I put it in my wish list.

>171 RidgewayGirl: - BB - You get me way too often, and here's another one that sounds like something that's right up my alley - as they say...

Lori, I'd be interested to find out what you think of it. There is a fair amount of swearing in it, however.

Betty, you get me quite often, so fair is fair. Also, this one was excellent.

>174 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for the warning. If it gets too bad, I'm sure I'll abandon it.

I have been stalking your catalogue and I am very jealous that you have a signed copy of The Great Believers - I am really enjoying this novel.

Lori, forewarned is forearmed? Or at least aware going in.

Charlotte, I am very happy to have gotten to hear Makkai discuss her book. It really made me excited about it. I'm finishing up another book I picked up at that same book festival - interlinked short stories about a dying town in east Texas that was underneath the space shuttle Columbia when it exploded.

>177 RidgewayGirl: Sounds good. Glad she is a good speaker about her book: I hope it reaches lots of readers.

When The Duchess of Malfi is widowed, her two brothers are insistent that she not remarry, leaving her fortune intact for them. She remarries, but in secret, to a commoner, and they keep their secret long enough for her to bear three children. Eventually, though, they are betrayed, and by a trusted friend, the desperately ambitious Bosola. The play reminded me of Othello, being similar in the sheer quantity of murders and in increasingly overwrought behavior of everyone involved.

This was a surprisingly easy play to read. The play jumps forwards in time without explanation and the character development is minimal, but it's certainly entertaining.

I rarely reread books, and never just a few months from the first read, but after hearing Tayari Jones discuss her novel, An American Marriage, at the Decatur Book Festival and my book club choosing it for October's book, I wanted to read it again.

The first time I read the book, I read it quickly. An American Marriage does not lack for forward momentum and it was good to read the novel more slowly, paying attention to language and how Jones chose to tell the story. I found it to be a stronger novel than I had initially thought and although there was a lack of character development in a few of the characters, it looked more deliberate on a second reading.

I enjoyed the act of rereading and I'd like to do more of it. I suspect though, that without the push of needing to be able to discuss a book in detail, my rereads will remain few and far between.

Calypso by David Sedaris is just great. This is Sedaris at his best, with personal essays continuing the story of his life and his colorful family, although like his other collections, this one has moments of melancholy and clear-eyed sadness, especially as he discusses his mother's alcoholism and his sister's suicide. In Calypso, Sedaris buys the beach house his father had always talked about buying and much of the action takes place as he meets up with various members of the Sedaris clan at the Sea Section to do everything from feeding a lipoma to a turtle to playing Sorry with his niece.

Saul Indian Horse is just a young boy when he is taken to live in a residential school, a boarding school set up to force First Nations children to lose their native way of life. It's a brutal life where many don't survive, and those that do are broken, but Saul finds an outlet and escape in hockey, playing first with other boys from the school, but then moving on to the Native League and further.

Richard Wagamese packs so much into this slender book, and does so with the assurance of a master at his craft. There's a real joy communicated as Saul plays hockey, and the harshness of his childhood is written about with a matter-of-factness that makes the abuse seem both routine and extraordinary. There's a grace to this harsh tale that will stay with me.

>182 RidgewayGirl: Kay, Indian Horse certainly is a book that stays with you, I read it last year and I still find myself thinking about it often. It moved me.

Judy, I thought it was fantastic. Wagamese didn't waste a single word.

>182 RidgewayGirl: - >183 DeltaQueen50: - OK - I got shot with two BBs for this. You two rarely steer me wrong. Sounds like a book I'd like a lot. I'm even thinking about a whole category next year just for the BBs I have built up over the years.

>185 dudes22: Betty, great minds think alike - I have built in a category for book bullets!

Kathryn Schwille's debut novel, What Luck, This Life, is structured as a series of short stories and vignettes all centered on the dying town of Kiser, deep in the thickets of east Texas. When the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in the air in 2003, the pieces rained down on this rural community. Schwille explores the lives of the ordinary people in Kiser, their dreams and disappointments, all against that measure of time of before and after the disaster.

Schwille's writing is similar to that of Elizabeth Strout and Alice Munroe. She has an eye for detail and a love of the ordinary. She manages a compassion for all of her characters from the most hapless to the most manipulative. This is an impressive debut and I'm looking forward to reading whatever she writes next.

Well, the Great Hospital Experience was a bit of a bust - they went in, discovered that the thing was larger and located differently than they'd expected, so they closed me back up and sent me (groaning dramatically) back home. I see my gynecologist tomorrow and find out what they now suggest. I'm looking forward to finding more out, as I was not very alert when everything was explained Monday.

What a let down! I hope the experience wasn't too distressing and that they find out a solution soon.

Sorry, your hospital visit wasn't all that you hoped for, Kay. My fingers are crossed for a speedy, safe and easy solution for you.

Oh, that sounds rubbish - fingers crossed that you get an explanation that makes sense and a plan to sort it out quickly and safely.

Vivienne, I am very sore in places, but otherwise, fine.

Judy, I'm hoping the solution is that the mass can just live there, like it was doing before a routine screening found it. I'm not exactly clear on why the surgeon didn't just remove it anyway, but as I am now fully conscious and my GYN is very good at explaining things, I hope to have a clear picture on Friday.

Ha! Thanks, Jackie. I'm not sure why the best time to discuss the results of surgery with the one who was operated on is while they are still trying to figure out where they are exactly.

It makes no sense why they didn't remove it while they had you open unless the position of it was a really big deterrent. I hope they sort it out quickly.

That sounds very frustrating Kay. No one wants surgery but once you get mentally and physically prepared for it, you want it over with. I hope everything gets straightened out soon.

That's annoying, both the interrupted surgery and the being told important medical information while not fully conscious!

I hope things turn out well in spite of everything!

Thank you all for your concern. My gynecologist thinks that it's probably just rampant endometriosis and I've been lucky to have no symptoms. So everything is going to be left as it is, and just monitored. Pretty much the best possible outcome and I feel very lucky.

>198 RidgewayGirl: I'm glad it will be monitored, but it seems to be the best case scenario for the moment.

Well, you just can't be away from LT for more than 5minutes without thins happening, it seems. So glad things turned out ok for you, Kay. And I agree it seems odd that they try to tell you things while you're still groggy.

New thread!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/298331