What Are You Reading The Week of October 24, 2020?

New Week!

I am listening to Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald, a lovely collection of essays.

Here's to some good reads for everyone this week! Miss you, FredBacon.

Greetings! I recently finished, and relished, The New Men, the 6th book in C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series about English life, politics and society from the mid-1920s through the mid-60s. I love Snow's writing style and acute observations about human nature and relationships. You'll find a longer review on my CR thread.

I'm now back to my exploration of my friend Kim's recommended list of books on African-American history, as I've started Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow by Leon F. Litwack. This book isn't actually on the list, but it's Litwack's follow up to Been in the Storm So Long: the Aftermath of Slavery about the years during and immediately after the Civil War. Trouble in Mind if anything is even bleaker than Storm. My wife, because she loves me, wants to know why I have to read something so depressing and disturbing in the middle of a pandemic and a demoralizing political season. She's right, and yet I feel like I need to read this. I knew things were bad for my black countrymen and women, but I never really grasped the breadth of the oppression and the depth of the anguish. I wish I had read this 30 years ago. At any rate, I only have about 450 pages to go.

Still reading Bad Memory by Lisa Gray, The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, and Or What You Will by Jo Walton.

https://www.librarything.com/work/16563180/book/191388057
The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia
by C. W. Gortner
(OverDrive audio)

Just finished Finding Dorothy which is quite wonderful telling of how the book wizard of oz came to be, and how it became a movie, and the link between Maude Baum and Judy Garland. One of the few books with dual time lines that actually works!!!

Starting Late Migrations a Natural History of Love and Loss

I just started listening to Dan Rather's What Unites Us and I'm reading Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson.

>1 hemlokgang: Thanks for starting us off. I do hope Fred is ok.

I'm back to reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and now I've convinced my book club to read it too.

Oh I loved that book, would love to read it again. I didn't realize it was the first of a seriesWas sad to learn that the author died a few months back Now need to read those as well

Oh I loved that book, would love to read it again. I didn't realize it was the first of a series Cemetary of Forgotten Books Now need to read those as well Was sad to learn that the author died a few months back

I finished the dense, The Invention of the White Race: Vol 1 which focuses on the forces which foster the formation of a slave class, in the Caribbean, the Americas, and most thoroughly in Ireland. This is presented as background to be used as analogy in exploring the invention of the white race in Volume 2.

Just finished The Widow's Walk, by Robert Barclay, and was not impressed. Shallow characters, wooden dialogue, and some plot points that simply didn't make sense, even in a paranormal/fantasy story.

Taking a little break right now with Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need, but should be starting Patricia Finney's Unicorn's Blood today or tomorrow which will probably take me to the end of the month with 10 titles read and two DNFs.

>5 cindydavid4: I enjoyed that book!

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards – Lilian Jackson Braun
3***

Book # 1 in a cozy mystery series featuring James Qwilleran, a newspaper reporter in an unnamed Midwestern city, and an extraordinary Siamese cat, Koko.

I’m sure I’ve read this before, because it was vaguely familiar, but I did not have it on my “read” list on Goodreads, so decided to give it a go.

I love cozy mysteries, and this is a great series. Qwilleran is a good amateur detective. As a reporter he is appropriately curious and has a great excuse for gathering information. In this first outing, he’s been assigned to the features desk, writing about the local art scene. No, he’s not the art critic, he does public interest pieces on artists and events. Being somewhat new to town, he has a lot to learn and he’s finding quite a lot of intrigue in the local art scene … even before a prominent gallery owner is found murdered.

I like the way that Braun uses Koko to help Qwilleran. This is not a talking cat! (Although Siamese are known for their loud and interesting vocalizations.)

An altogether satisfying cozy mystery, and I recommend the series.

Finished listening to the absolutely lovely Vesper Flights.

Next up for listening is The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi.

Every Secret Thing
Laura Lippman
4/5 stars
Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller were childhood “friends”. After being kicked out of a birthday party they ended up walking home. On the way they find a young baby on a street porch alone. Thinking it was abandoned they took the child and hid her and the baby ends up dead. The two girls are convicted and the story picks up from their release from juvenile detention. Now another child has disappeared and the girls are suspected in the case. Compelling story!

Finished Bad Memory by Lisa Gray. Enjoyed it.

Added The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer to my rotation.

Just happened upon this book at my local used and had to get it a life like other people's I love any thing by Alan Bennet the madness of king george the clothes they stood up in and common reader among my favs. This is a memoir, and its really quite a lovely telling of his childhood and mental illness, and being different.

Also still reading late migrations which because of the poetic language, its going slower than I expected but still likeing it

also still reading the writer's library which I'll be reading for a while as if I read more than a few of these, they all sound alike

Finished The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer. It was enjoyable enough but definitely intended for younger readers.

Added Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith to my rotation.

Starting in on Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

After months of frantic work and panic, I have purchased and moved into a new home this week. It has been a grueling three and a half months to say the least. I still have a lot to do. It will be Thanksgiving before my life returns to anything approaching normal. The next three weekends are going to be spent cleaning out my old place.

Here's a photo of the majority of my library all boxed up and sitting in the living room of my new home. My LibraryThing stats page says that my library weighs 2743 pounds. My back says that it's more. :-D

I hope that I will soon be able to sit and read again. I am about 1/3 of the way through The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.

>20 fredbacon: Yay, you're back! Congratulations on your new house!

>20 fredbacon: Congrats!! Nice to see you back and almost settled!

I had no idea LT could tell me how much my books weigh...I really don't want to know!

>20 fredbacon: Have fun with your move!

Sean Connery
Actor
1930-2020
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54761824

In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, And Fun In The Sandbox
Carol Burnett
3.5/5 stars
Carol Burnett talks about her show The Carol Burnett Show, highlights some of the famous guests who appeared on it, her fabulous cast and some of her favorite episodes during the eleven years of the show’s run. Definitely for fans of her show! I enjoyed it.

>20 fredbacon: So glad you've sorted out your living arrangements. Hope to see you back here soon.

>20 fredbacon: So good to hear from you and know that you're on your way out of the rabbit hole. We were worried about you.

>20 fredbacon: Hey, wondered how you were doing, glad to hear all is well, that all you have to do now it unpack a few books .....heh Congrats on your new place, love wood floors You were missed around here. Welcome home

>20 fredbacon: Good luck

New topic for the week posted here.

I'm reading MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolfe.

Mike
www.mjpolelle.com

I finished reading Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse and Katharine Smyth's All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf. I enjoyed them both.
Smyth's book was a good source of information and inspiration as I read Woolf's book. Solace, indeed.

Now I'm reading Evie Wyld's new book, The Bass Rock. I've admired her earlier books After the Fire, a Still Small Voice and All the Birds, Singing and have been eagerly anticipating this new one.

Fred we missed you! Hope your move goes smoothly!

>32 polelle: I read Mrs. Dalloway 10 or more years ago and I can still conjure it up in my mind. I've read 100's of books since then and most escape me now without a prompt or two.

>20 fredbacon: Thanks for the update! Glad you found a new place to live and your books safely made it.

>18 seitherin: That book was the basis of the relatively new movie "Enola Holmes" on Netflix! Nancy Springer wrote a total of 6 books in the series.

>36 princessgarnet: I much enjoyed the Netflix show more than I did the book.