library_mistress is reading in 2019

Last year, I read about 65 books.

1/2019: A sinner without a saint by Bliss Bennet - I finished the last volume of the historical romance series "The Penningtons" yesterday. The Penningtons are four siblings (three brothers and one sister), each of which has their own volume. I liked the books - strong women with their own head, sex scenes that are not embarrassing as in many romances, plot twists, interesting characters, british/irish background. I also like the language.

started: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin.

Welcome back!

Here is my introduction so that you know in which thread you have landed :-)

I'm library mistress, I am a librarian (who might have guessed) working as a data manager. I collect books with librarians as characters so you will see a lot of bibliomysteries and library romances in my thread. If you come across a librarian character or library scene in a book I don't own, please tell me :-) I also like to read science fiction/social fiction and I am interested in all things forest/tree/wood/timber. I collect language dictionaries and also like to read ABOUT dictionaries.
I try to participate in the "read harder challenge" (https://bookriot.com/2018/12/12/2019-read-harder-challenge/) and thus expand my reading horizon. I am also a member of the Girly Book Club where I also read books I else wouldn't have discovered/bought.
I would like to expand my library with steampunk and satire and am open for your recommendations!

thanks! :-)

Dropping off my star, Monika!


Can I assume you are familiar with the Invisible Library series?

A good starter steampunk is Leviathan
I'm an on-again, off-again, fan of the online Gaslight fantasy Graphic novel Girl Genius that my daughter and costuming tendencies pushed on me, but we are a graphic novel heavy household.

I'm reading Death at Fountains Abbey, and the action has just moved to the library.... I love it when libraries (or reading) turns up in books, look forward to finding more through your thread.

Happy reading in 2019, Monika!

I'm also a librarian who's a sucker for books with librarians in them or that involve libraries somehow so I'll be keeping an eye on your reading. :)

Happy 2019
A year full of books
A year full of friends
A year full of all your wishes realised

I look forward to keeping up with you, Monika, this year.

Thank you all for the lovely wishes :-)

2: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

3: Rivers of London (Midnight Riot) by Ben Aaronovitch. This was a SantaThing book and I loved it - I just ordered the next three volumes.

4: Die Milch der frommen Melkart sowie andere Texte aus dem Feuilletonpreis der Land- und Forstwirtschaft 2003 - This is an anthology with the eight best texts of an journalistic writing contest about agriculture. Contributors are Martin Rasper, Kirsten Wenzel, Stephan Börnecke, Jacqueline Hénard, Heinz Stalder, Fanni Fetzer, Egyd Gstättner, and Stefanie Holzer.

ronincats: I own the first volume but I haven't got to read it so far. Do you recommend it?

thank you, quondame! I just ordered Leviathan - it really sounds interesting!

>13 library_mistress: Yes, it is a lot of fun. In some ways, the first book is the weakest of the lot, though. I just finished the fifth in the series and thoroughly enjoyed it.

5: The princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace - I rarely read poetry, I am usually so fixated on a plot that it is embarrassing 🙈 Somehow I discovered and decided to buy "The princess saves herself in this one" which is the debut book of Amanda Lovelace. She says in an interview for Affinity Magazine (http://affinitymagazine.us/2016/12/23/an-interview-with-goodreads-poet-of-the-year-amanda-lovelace/): "It's a story of rising from the ashes of abuse; it's the story of how I survived and keep surviving till this day. It's the story of how I learned that a knight in shining armor was never going to come save me, and that I was the one who had to save myself". It appealed to me, some of the poems really moved me and touched a chord.

I started The wife between us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen for Girly Book Club today. I won't be able to take part this month, but I still want to read the book.

>15 library_mistress: The Wife Between Us looks like one I would enjoy. Thanks for the mention!

Happy Monday, Monika!

6: finished The wife between us - wow, I don't read thrillers a lot so I don't have much comparison but the plot twists really surprised me, and I read it very fast.

Today, I started An introduction to behavioural ecology (for my studies) and, yes, The life-changing magic of tidying by Marie Kondo ;-)

7: Whispers under ground
8: Moon over Soho

Another two volumes by Ben Aaronovitch :-)

9: SS-GB by Len Deighton - I discovered it in the National Archives' bookshop's sale, and it fits in my "reading harder challenge"-list as alternative history. It is a murder mystery set in a 1940s London where the UK has capitulated and is occupied by the Nazis whom the USSR allies with. King George is held captive in the Tower. The main character is a Scotland Yard officer trying to find his way under the new commanders. The ending surprised me and left me breathless.

>3 library_mistress: Re: "If you come across a librarian character or library scene in a book I don't own, please tell me "

If you include children's books, I like to recommend Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. I didn't see it in your library, although perhaps you don't catalogue that young a genre. The illustrations are wonderful as well as the very engaging story.

As a read-aloud book, it's particularly attractive because the story is written so well that the constant re-reading that kids demand doesn't wear thin. Well, tedium does set in after reading it 5 times in one day. However, I've always agreed with Diana Wynne Jones philosophy that the reading-out-loud is the litmus test of a good children's book.

>17 library_mistress: Have fun with Kondo! I liked it a lot and have read many of the decluttering titles since then. I'm looking forward to your review/comments, although on LT I didn't see that you post reviews on 'Your library'. Are there any in English on a blog? I did follow the links to http://library-mistress.blogspot.com/

>3 library_mistress: Does the "library scene" include private in home libraries of characters or should it be limited to institutions? So many of the books I read with the "unconventional" heroine include library scenes.

10: finished The life-changing magic of tidying by Marie Kondo - Sometimes I had to smile. e.g. at "It is not uncommon for people to purchase a book and then buy another one not long after and before they have read the first one" - really? Unbelievable! :-D But the book was surprisingly useful. I know I have difficulties with letting go, and this does not only apply to things I keep in my house. I first wanted to skip the chapter about books (I love books! I don't want to give them away! etc.), but I realised I also have many books simply to own them, not because they "spark joy" anymore (what they did when I acquired them). But I will start decluttering with clothes and papers. I moved to my current house eight years ago and I still have unopened moving boxes :-o

started Mail obsession. A journey round Britain by postcode by Mark Mason today.

Dear quondame, mainly in the sense of institution - I started collecting because I was interested how library workers were represented in fiction. But chances are good that I am interested in a book where the main characters have remarkable libraries at home which are part of the plot.

SandyAMcPherson: thank you for the recommendation! I discovered I really don't own it, I just have Michelle Knudsen's Evil Librarian, I will order it immediately. I also buy and catalogue children's and YA books (for myself and for my niece & nephew).

11: The memory tree by Britta Teckentrup - so moving I snivelled while commuting in the metro. "Fox had lived a long and happy life, but now he was tired. Very slowly, Fox made his way to his favourite spot in the clearing. He looked at his beloved forest one last time and lay down. Fox closed his eyes, took a deep breath and feel asleep forever". The other forest animals share fond memories, and then something wonderful happens...

12: Bäume und Sträucher treffsicher bestimmen mit dem 3er-Check by Ulrich Hecker - I have started studying forestry this term, and I attend a course about dendrology. I will train identifying trees and shrubs with this book and other books.

13: The storied life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

> 27 I read The storied life of A.J. Fikry this past January as one of my 75-challenge books.

The premise for the book was very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of it ~ I don't recommend you read my review, however, because I made some general remarks that could be spoilers (I usually hide specific spoilers, but that's hard if I'm commenting in an overview sense).

14: Mail obsession. A journey round Britain by postcode by Mark Mason

started Fencing with death by Elizabeth Edmondson

long time no update!

15: Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

16 and 17: Foxglove Summer and The hanging tree by Ben Aaronovitch - I am hooked on this series :-)

18: Waldbaden – das kleine Übungshandbuch für den Wald - a book with exercises for forest bathing / forest therapy by Ulli Felber. I attended the first of two seminars for my certification as a forest bathing trainer last weekend.

19: Ein Leben für den Wald, the memoirs of Walter Kremser, a German silviculturist and forester who was born and worked in an area which is Estonia today.

20: Fencing with death (Losing Larry) by Elizabeth Edmondson

currently reading: Imposture: A Novel, a Lord Byron / John Polidori novel by Benjamin Markovits

21: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler - got it for SantaThing in 2016 and finally I read it.

22: Pouncing on murder by Laurie Cass, a librarian mystery novel I enjoyed.

23: The bear and the nightingale by Katherine Arden - a novel based on Russian folklore. Wonderful.

started The Radium Girls by Kate Moore for Girly Book Club.

24: I finished The Radium Girls today. I had never heard of their fate before and was really shocked and angry when I read this.

Hi, just popping by to see what's new in your library world.

I agree, the handling of Radium "back in those days" was gruesome. How could they be so unprotected? (Rhetorical question)!

I'm on an Elly Griffiths reading binge. Very amusing, well written mysteries. Fun for summer days.

Oops, haven't updated for a long time! I had exams and other things to do, I did learn and read a lot, but not so many books.

25: Lies sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch - another one ;-)

26: Abitur-Wissen Ökologie - ecology textbook for my exam

27: Less by Andrew Sean Greer - for Girly Book Club. I was not very impressed in the beginning but learned to love the main character during reading. I really liked it.

28: Monday starts on Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky - very funny and imaginative

started You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld - for Girly Book Club

thanks, archaeologist mysteries sound interesting!

long time no update! I was snowed under with learning and exams, but finally I am a certified forest educator :-)

29: You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld - for Girly Book Club

I discovered a mystery series by Camille Minichino with a professor for mathematics as main character. In two volumes, librarians play a role, so I bought the books for my collection of fictional librarians and also read the other ones. I hope there will be a fifth volume soon!

30: The Square Root of Murder
31: The Probability of Murder
32: A Function of Murder
33: The Quotient of Murder

34: The great believers by Rebecca Makkai. Der Roman spielt in der Gegenwart und in den 1980ern zur Zeit der AIDS-Krise in Chicago. "In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup: bringing an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying". Empfehlenswert!

35: Der Forstwirt by Joachim Morat - forestry introduction, read for my exam

36: Zeitgemäße Waldwirtschaft - forestry introduction, read for my exam

37: Pasta Mortem - a new volume of the librarian-featuring Supper Club Mysteries

not yet finished: Barkskins by Annie Proulx

started today: Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children by Ransom Riggs

I'll look for your thread on 75 Books Challenge for 2020!

Happy new year! I'm looking forward to a year of books with library scenes!