mstrust & the ROOT of All Evil

Hi, I'm Jennifer and this is my third year ROOTing. I live in Phoenix and have hundreds of unread books in the house yet I buy more. You understand.
I finished 2020 with 108 read books with 40 of them being ROOTs. That's a 37% success rate. So I'm going for 50% ROOTs this year. To help with that, I'm calling books that have been on my shelf for at least two months a ROOT. I can often name the month and year I acquired a book.
Thanks for visiting, and good luck with your own ROOTs this year.
Come by my 75 Challenge: https://www.librarything.com/topic/327841#unread
Or my Category Challenge: https://www.librarything.com/topic/327230#unread

2021 ROOTs

1. Lady Windermere's Fan
2. The Riddle of the Third Mile
3. California Hotel and Casino
4. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
5. Britten and Brulightly
6. Almost Sleighed
7. Vegas Tabloid
8. My Life with Sherlock Holmes
9. Hoodoo Harry
10. Bibliotheca Classica
11. Selected Poems of W.H. Auden
12. The Murder of Dr. Chapman
13. The Golden Gate
14. Grateful American
15. Haunted Nights
16. Miao Doa
17. Welcome to the United States of Anxiety
18. Skinwalkers
19. Miss Marple's Final Cases
20. The Eyre Affair
21. And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
22. Redshirts
23. Not Taco Bell Material
24. Maigret Goes to School
25. Moby Dick
26. Elizabeth
27. High Tech and Hot Pot
28. The House on Mango Street
29. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
30. Face It
31. England As You Like It
32. Middle Men: Stories
33. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
34. Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii
35. The Sleep Tight Motel
36. Mr Monk Goes to the Firehouse
37. A Red Herring Without Mustard
38. Let's Get Invisible
39. Tales From the Crypt #1 The Stalking Dead
40. Halloween Night
41. Fire in the Grove
42. Son of Slappy
43. Alfred Hitchcock's Death Bag
44. Zombie Tales 4: This Bites
45. Hoodoo
46. The Stranger Beside Me
47. All Creatures Great and Small
48. The Murders of Richard III
49. Your Inner Hedgehog
50. An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good
51. Camp Austen
52. Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu

Hi Jennifer, good to see you again. Happy ROOTing!

Thanks, Connie! Happy ROOTing to you!

Welcome back, happy ROOTing! (I love those pictures!)

Love the bad girls Jennifer. Until last year I only counted books that were on the shelf by the previous year end as ROOTS but last year counted anything I owned. I like that so much better becasue I didn't let new books sit on the shelf and instead read a good mixture of new and old.

Welcome back and have a great ROOT year!

>5 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie, and happy ROOTing to you!
>6 clue: Ha, those bad book girls!
For 2020 I counted it for six months or more on my shelf, but as I'm constantly acquiring and weeding and sharing with my family, I had to give myself a break and cut it down to two months. Maybe next year I'll take your good idea and count a ROOT as anything I pull from my own shelf.
Happy ROOTing in 2021!

>7 rabbitprincess: Thank you, Princess, and to you too!

Good luck with your rooting! I too love the images :)

Happy 2021 Reading!

Thank you, Cheli, and thanks for turning on the lights!

Wishing you good luck with your ROOTing goals. Love the "I read an abridged book and I liked it." Ha! :-)

Psstt, Jennifer. Don't forget to join the group and become a member!

>13 This-n-That: Thank you, and good ROOTing to you!
>14 connie53: Ah! I did forget that, thanks for reminding me!
*Done!

Happy ROOTing in 2021, Jennifer!

Have a happy and healthy year of ROOTing, Jennifer.

>16 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita!
>17 Robertgreaves: Thank you, Robert, and happy ROOTing to you!

Here's the first:


1.Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde. Young and deeply in love, the marriage of Lord and Lady Windermere is suddenly in peril when gossip assures the Lady that her husband has been keeping company with a notorious woman. This rumor is confirmed to be true by her husband, who then begs his wife to invite this friend of his to their society party that night, which the Lady refuses to do. Lord Windermere issues the invite on his wife's behalf, openly telling her that he does so because this woman wishes to be welcomed into society and he plans on helping her in that.
A story of deception and the intense scrutiny a person lived under, where whatever your relatives did reflected on you. Many of Wilde's best lines are here. 4 stars

This is one of those old books that I've had on the shelf for so many years that I don't remember where I got it. Pre-LT, that's for sure, so it's a ROOT with very deep roots.

Happy New Year to All!

2. The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexter. The sixth of the Inspector Morse series. When a body, with all the identifiable parts missing, is pulled from the Oxford Canal, Morse and Sergeant Lewis are sent to figure out who it is and who put it there. The investigation takes them from the offices of Oxford University to the most seedy London clubs, and along the way they discover the pockets of the university where bitterness had been stewing for years.
This investigation is atmospheric, sometimes complicated, and also fun due to Morse's extreme crabbiness and arrogance. It's been too long between Morses.

I read this for the Mystery Group's water theme this month, and it's also a ROOT. I bought this a year ago.

Do you a specific number ROOTs you are hoping to read this year?

I don't. I've declared that I hope to have half of my reads this year to be ROOTs, but that's half of whatever number I end up with.

Lovely to see you're back. Happy reading!

3. California Hotel and Casino: Hawai'i's Home Away from Home by Dennis m. Ogawa and John M. Blink This is the true story of how Vegas icon Sam Boyd turned a non-descript and failing downtown casino, one that was a block away from Fremont, so off the beaten path, into a destination for Hawaiians. Research had shown Boyd that the greatest (heaviest) gamblers where Hawaiians of Japanese descent. Using airline promotions, heavy media presence in the islands, and turning their food selections from typical Vegas fare to traditional island and Japanese, the casino and hotel was able to build a loyal clientele.
Most of this book is told in interviews, with the longest being by co-author Blink, who spent decades working for Boyd in all job titles, including "dishwasher". This is as much a biography of Boyd's career as the story of The California. But it probably wouldn't interest anyone who wasn't interested in old Vegas.

I bought this in October.

"ROOT of all evil"! So clever! Good luck pulling ROOTS this year!

>24 MissWatson: Thank you, Birgit! I'm a big fan of the ROOTs group, as I'm someone who really benefits from being pushed to read what I already have. Happy reading in 2021 to you!

>26 Carmenere: Thank you, Lynda! Good luck with your ROOTs this year!

4. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.
Set in a small English village in 1950, this story is told by a remarkably intelligent eleven year-old, Flavia de Luce. When she overhears her father arguing in his study with a stranger and hears the phrase "We killed him", then finds a strange man dying in the cucumber patch, she puts two and two together and believes that her father must be the murderer. The police do too and the Colonel is quickly arrested. Flavia's natural detecting skills, her knowledge of chemistry and her willingness to ride her bike all over the village to snoop are more than anyone expected from a little girl.
I'm more than a decade late in discovering this book and now I'm trying to keep myself from gushing about how fun and clever it is to be in Flavia's company. I'm absolutely continuing the series.
This has been on my shelf for 3 years.

>28 mstrust: This is such a great series! I'm envious of your reading it for the first time. I've just put a hold on a library ebook for a re-read :)

I'm excited to start this series, and to find a great new-to-me author. Looks like a lot of fun!

5. Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry. Fernandez Britten has unhappily been a private investigator for many years. He began with the expectation that he would make the world a better place with his skill, but instead, he fell into doing so many adultery cases that he became known as "The Heartbreaker".
Finally something different comes along. A woman's fiancee has died recently and it's ruled a suicide, but she believes he was murdered. Britten, accompanied by his sidekick Brulightly, a tea bag that may be self-aware and chatty, or more likely is a sign of Britten's instability, begins looking into the dead man's life and finds more twists than a corkscrew.
This is a re-read and I enjoyed it as much, if not more now. I first read it eight years ago. Now I'm much more familiar with noir tropes, and I actually came away with a different opinion of the ending.
I've owned this for over 8 years.

>31 mstrust: The idea that somewhere there is a self-aware chatty teabag named Brulightly just makes me happy.

He's definitely the most helpful tea bag I've ever seen. And I really like that Britten looks like a big-nosed, depressed Gomez Addams.

I need a book with a self-aware object for a challenge. This would fit seamlessly.

Absolutely!

Love the picture in your first post! So funny

Thanks, Joyce!

Here's another. Non-fiction, I'm sure.

6. Almost Sleighed by Emily James.
This is the third in the Maple Syrup Mysteries series.
Nicole, a former defense lawyer at her parent's D.C. firm, is learning how to run the Michigan maple farm her uncle left to her. While checking the stables, she finds one of her employees, Noah, unconscious and bleeding. The question of whether Noah fell or was attacked is enough to make Nicole the prime suspect for Elise, the only female police officer in Fair Haven.
Realizing that she barely knows Noah, Nicole conducts her own investigation to find out if there would be anyone with a reason to put Noah in a coma.
And since deciding she was too attached to her friend Mark, the married coroner, Nicole is doing her best to live with the fact that everyone in the small town seems to hate her for breaking up with him.
This is a ROOT, having been on my Kindle for six months or more. I've read 14 books in total so far.

14 books! Wow.

That was my beginning-a-new-year rush. I can guarantee that I'm about to slow down.

7. Vegas Tabloid by P Moss.
Jimmy Dot is the dirtbag ringmaster of a weird little circus that suddenly became cool at The Fabulous Hotel and Casino. He signed a contract with the evil casino owner, Fuller, and now he's required to live in a casino penthouse, be paid more than he should ever have expected to see in his low-class lifetime, and he smiles for tourist selfies. He hates his life, mostly because his wife Jenny left him when he became a success.
Revson was a scientist who discovered that the pill to cure the common cold he was working on and got to final testing, has been shown to cause pancreatic cancer. He tracks down a famous investigative journalist at The Fabulous and pleads to have the pill and the pharma CEO investigated. That CEO, Randy Leeds, happens to be in The Fabulous too, and his opponents too often turn up dead, so Revson knows he's got a target on his back.

People with men who are cons and sociopaths, and women who are almost always prostitutes or being sexually abused. I can't say that I liked this because there were some scenes that were too graphic and perverse for my liking.

This has been on my shelf for a year and a half.

8. My Life with Sherlock Holmes by John H. Watson, M.D., edited by J.R. Hamilton.
The doctor's examination of his famous friend through their conversations and his own observations, mysteries removed, so that it becomes a biography of Sherlock Holmes. These are the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle with some editor's footnotes that clarify or comment.
Published in 1968, I expected this to weave a new story but it really doesn't. I think only the Holmesian completest would need this. 2.5 stars, a rating that is for the book being unnecessary, not for A.C.D.'s writing.
I read this for this month's Mystery pastiche theme, and it's a ROOT. It's been on my shelf for five years.

9. Hoodoo Harry by Joe R. Lansdale. Driving back from a day of fishing, Hap and Leonard collide with a bus driven by a terrified twelve year-old. The boy is killed on impact and the bus turns out to be a bookmobile that serviced the tiny towns along a backroads route, bringing books to impoverished kids. Why the boy was driving the bus is a mystery, but so is the fact that the bus and its proper driver, Hoodoo Harry, have been missing for fifteen years.
Number 38 of The Mysterious Bookshop Bibliomysteries. This is a really good one.

That sounds real intriguing.

I'm loving this series. It's so interesting to see the authors using the same theme.
If you want to see the whole list of Bibliomysteries, check out the shop's site. https://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/

Here's another one:

10. Bibliotheca Classica by Simon Brett. Unbearable snob Derrick is pulled away from his research on the Pre-Raphaelites when his wife, young Harriet, who had been a graduate student when Derrick was a professor, gifts him with a copy of an eighteenth century encyclopedia. Derrick is intrigued by the fact that the whole book has been bowdlerized and sees researching it as a good way to keep Harriet busy while he does his own important work.
Brett has created a fun story about academia and researching obscurities. I wish the very ending had been drawn out a little more but I still recommend this. 4.5 stars
This series is like popcorn.

This is my 21st book for 2021, so I'm staying on track for 50% ROOTs so far.

>44 mstrust: >47 mstrust: It sounds intriguing but I really don't feel able to commit to a series with 38+ books.

No need to, as by series I just meant that they are all of The Mysterious Bookshop's Bibliomysteries, not an ongoing connected story. I buy what grabs me at the moment.

11. Selected Poems of W.H. Auden. Keep in mind that I haven't studied any poetry since high school, where my teacher was into Shakespeare and the Cavalier Poets, very different from Auden. And I think he needs to be studied to fully grasp his work. There are some, like "Stop the Clocks" that can be appreciated from the first read, but so much of his poetry is dense and personal with meaning, with each line needing to be picked through, that the reader would benefit from having some instruction along the way.
I guess that's all I feel qualified to say, because I know there are people who spend their lives studying Auden, and he left plenty of work to study if this book of selected poems is any indication of how much he wrote.
This has sat on my shelf for more years than I can say, so it's a ROOT. Ten years, at least.

>50 mstrust: Aaaahh. It feels so good to get one of those really old ones done!

Ha, it does indeed!

12. The Murder of Dr. Chapman by Linda Wolfe. Dr. Chapman worked to cure stammering, creating a method lost to time as he made patients promise to never reveal how he treated them. His wife, Lucretia, was a self-made successful businesswoman, a teacher who founded the first boarding school for girls in Philadelphia. Eventually the Chapmans moved miles outside the city to a large house in order to give the students and their own five children a healthier environment. They had a reputation for giving people in need a place to stay for a night or two. It was because a young man named Lino Espos y Mina was directed to their home for free shelter in 1831 that the following events occurred.
Mina was a fraud, a thief and compulsive liar, and likely a sociopath. He was from Cuba, and at twenty-one, had already served more than a year in prison for taking part in robberies with a gang. When he arrived at the Chapmans he had nothing but told them he was the son of a famous Mexican general in San Francisco, he just needed to get in contact with his father in order to get money. This was a story, with many variations, that he told throughout the States, always that he was the son of a rich, powerful man and that anyone who was nice to him now would be rewarded with riches once his father was around. Plenty of trusting people fell for it, but only Lucretia went this far in her gullibility.
Others in the household recognized that Lucretia was increasingly frustrated with her husband, likely bored and angry that the bigger responsibility of their income fell to her while her husband became less ambitious. When the stranger with an exotic appearance and promises of a wealthy family arrived, Lucretia seems to have lost all propriety, fawning over the stranger who was half her age, and a servant reported that she soon was seeing signs that her mistress and the stranger were sleeping together. Lucretia paid for Lino to have new suits, openly doting on him and spending afternoons away from home with him. Within weeks of his arrival, Dr. Chapman was dead and Lucretia and Lino were married just days later. Was the death natural or was Dr. Chapman poisoned? The resulting trials were infamous.
This has been on my shelf for two years.

Hi Jennifer. Just popping in to see what you're reading and saying Hi.

>53 mstrust: This sounds so interesting! I have a weakness for historical crime stories.

>54 connie53: Hi Connie! I know, my ROOT thread can go quiet for long stretches so it's nice to get a visit.
I'm currently juggling a few: The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth, which is a ROOT, Grateful American by Gary Sinise on my Kindle, a book about animal behavior that I got last week, and I'm still working on Moby Dick. Still.

>55 Caramellunacy: I do too! I prefer a little time to have passed between a heinous murder and my reading about it.
I think the author of this one did a really good job in her research. There were a few spots here and there when I thought I could do without her flourishes, but it's an interesting story.

>56 mstrust: 4 Books at the same time is too much for me. And even now when I'm reading 2, I prefer one book over the other.

Right now I'm reading Het onzichtbare leven van Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab as tree-book
and The once and future witches by Alix E. Harrow on my reader.

The tree-book is the preferred one.

I'm usually juggling two to three at a time. I live in a three story house and the novelty of that wore off years ago. So when I want to read I'm often too lazy to walk up a flight and find a book I'd already started, so I'll pick up one that's nearby.
I'm unfamiliar with your current authors.

>58 mstrust: I did not know them before I saw them mentioned here or on my RL book-club. The book by Schwab is really very good. And different.

Thanks for the rec! That's going on my WL!

13. The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth. In 300 pages of iambic pentameter, this is the story of John, who is desperately lonely and calls up a former girlfriend, Jan, to help him figure out how he can find love. Jan jumps right in and places an ad, then sorts through to find good matches for John, which ends with him meeting and falling for attorney Liz. They're very happy together, but their relationship angers Liz's old cat, Charlemagne, who takes great pleasure in destroying John's things and peeing on his pillow.
This is also the story of John's best friend, Phil. His wife left him and their young son a while ago, something they are still dealing with, but Phil finds an unexpected love in Ed, Liz's brother. Keeping their relationship hidden to their family and friends, there is also the issue of Ed's Catholic guilt, which seems to come up when Phil believes they should be at their happiest.
Remarkably fleshed out, these are characters that have hidden sides and the ability to evolve. They deal with parenthood, illness, government and corporate pollution, and religion. Yes, it's hard to read a poem this long, yet it's filled with humor. 4.5 stars

This is a ROOT, as I bought it two years ago.

>61 mstrust: I've got this on the bookshelf, and I've loved all the Seth books I've read so far, but I've always felt a bit daunted by this one because of the whole poetry thing. But your review is very reassuring that when I get to it I won't be too overwhelmed!

I'm happy to reassure you that this isn't an intimidating book at all. Though it contains some serious topics, it will also have you laughing.

I'm hosting April's ScaredyKit. Join us for our month of "Possessions". https://www.librarything.com/topic/330597#unread

>64 mstrust: I'm not that interested in Scary books like that. The cover scares me the moment I saw it. It must be the eyes! So I won't join but I hope you have a great time reading scary books!

Are you referring to My Best Friend's Exorcism that is pictured on the April thread? :-D The cover resembles an 80's teen horror VHS tape, which I find amusing. But I've read the book and it certainly has some creepy stuff in it so you're wise to steer clear.

Good! I will see what you have to tell here on your horrific reading!

I'm sure I can write a review of my latest scary read, Haunted Nights, that will make you glad you didn't read it yourself ;-)

14. Grateful American by Gary Sinise.
An autobiography by the actor/director, best known as Lt. Dan from the film Forrest Gump. Most of this book is his personal life and career, childhood and family, how he started acting, and then how he co-founded the famous Steppenwolf Troupe of Chicago. There are anecdotes about the famous actors he's worked with and about the making of Forrest Gump. He also discusses his wife's alcoholism and treatments.
Bookending this are discussions of Sinise's work with the USO and veteran's groups, which has taken him to performing in war zones, visiting wounded soldiers and acting as an ambassador for Vietnam Vets groups. He speaks of his gratitude to the people who have fought for America.
I've had this on my Kindle for many months.

>68 mstrust: Looking forward to that! -)

15. Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton.
A collection of short stories published by Blumhouse Books, part of Blumhouse Productions.
Here are stories that feature traditional horror tropes, such as the haunted house or secluded cabin, but each story has an unexpected twist that brings a freshness and true creepiness. These are character driven stories rather than gory, in fact there's little blood. All the stories have at least a part that takes place on Halloween.
In "We're Never Inviting Amber Again" by S.P. Miskowski, a jerk who hates his sister-in-law is given proof that she isn't just an attention-seeking weirdo. In "The Seventeen Year Itch" by Garth Nix, the long-time employees of a psych ward try to convince a new doctor that they need to take special precautions on Halloween with a certain patient.
Well-chosen, well-written and highly recommended. 4.5 stars

This has been on my shelf for two years.

>71 mstrust: And there it is! This sounds like it's more psychological then just events that are scary. I would read that but it's not translated. A pity!

16. Miao Doa by Joyce Carol Oates. 34. Miao Doa by Joyce Carol Oates.
Thirteen year-old Mia doesn't know how to handle her situation. The boys at school seem to have formed a club dedicated to touching and body-checking the girls who are developing, and right now, that means Mia is being harassed daily. Things get worse when her parents divorce and her mother marries a creepy guy who is clearly watching Mia.
Her one bit of happiness is the feral cat who Mia sneaks into the house, a cat that grows big and still maintains the ability to hunt prey. 4 stars

A novelette I've had on my Kindle about six months.

17. Welcome to the United States of Anxiety by Jen Lancaster.
Based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Lancaster explores the needs of the modern American and why these are making us unhappy. Topics are personal appearance, parenting, crime and police, politics and division, and the internet, which figures prominently in many of the other topics. The author looks at the differences between what used to be a situation that only a few people would know about and would be forgotten, versus now, when a stranger can take a pic or video, post it, and your mistake will live forever.
Most surprising to me, as this is the first I've read by the author so knew nothing about her personal life, was the author's discussion about cutting her parents out of her life because of her mother's outlandish and manipulative behavior, which included contacting the author's publisher to make claims of libel.
An interesting and often humorous look at modern life, and sometimes she has advice for lessening stress. 3.5 stars
I've had this on my Kindle for many months.

March- six ROOTs! I don't know if I've ever read that many in a month.
So far I've read 35 book total, with seventeen being ROOTs. Since I've been going for 50/50, I'm doing okay.

>75 mstrust: Woo hoo, excellent total!

Ha, thanks, Princess!

>75 mstrust: Yes, That is really good, Jennifer.

Happy Easter for you and yours!

Happy Easter, Connie!

Happy Easter to You!

18. Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman.
Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police, are working the homicides of a couple of older men on the reservation, men who didn't seem to know each other and had few acquaintances, so the officers can't find a connection, especially when they might have to include in the death count a young health services woman who was so disliked that there could be any number of people who would be glad she was dead. When Chee turns out to be an intended victim and he finds indications of Navajo witchcraft, the officers are even more confused.

This was my first Hillerman, and I believe it's something like the seventh of the series, so it's interesting to find that Leaphorn and Chee aren't partners or even friends. The relationship is very much boss and subordinate, and they don't even work at the same station, so an unusual investigative team situation. The location covers the vast Navajo Nation, with the characters going to remote villages and Gallup. I'm familiar with some of these places and that makes it enjoyable, being able to picture the locales. I figured out whodunnit early on but that didn't stop it from being a good read. 4 stars
I read this for the April ScaredyKit group, this month's theme being "Possession", but there's no possession in this story, it's witchcraft. I've had this since January.

19. Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie. A collection of short stories, some of which don't feature Miss Marple at all. There are some good ones though, like "The Case of the Caretaker", in which a local bad boy who had to leave the village due to his behavior returns years later with a new, wealthy bride. The couple is relentlessly harassed by an old woman but no one can figure out why.
My least favorite was "Strange Jest", which features one of Christie's rich old uncles who enjoys playing games with his will. There are two stories in the collection that involve the supernatural rather than criminals, and one story in which Miss Marple is the narrator, which I don't remember her doing elsewhere. I was worried by the title of this book that she'd be killed off here but it didn't happen. I read this for the MysteryKit. 3 stars
I bought this in 2014.

20. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Thursday Next is a war veteran who came back while her brother didn't. Her father, whose work with the mysterious ChronoGuard outfit made it necessary for him to leave his family and go skipping through time, occasionally appears for a minute or two. She also lost the love of her life ten years ago and hasn't gotten over it.
After a chance at a huge promotion goes very wrong, Thursday chooses to transfer to a smaller office in her hometown of Swindon, a move that has everyone in SpecOps confused. Thursday's choice is proven to be a good one when Acheron Hades, the worst villain in the U.K., begins kidnapping characters out of famous novels and holding them for ransom. Making things worse, the Goliath Corporation, the largest and most influential company in the world, has bought itself control over SpecOps, so is there to figure out a way to make money off the whole situation.
The plot is about espionage but along the way we meet Rochester and Jane, Pickwick the Dodo, Spike, the SpecOps agent who hunts vampires, and Thursday tries to sort her love life. I haven't read this in 20 years (this year is it's anniversary) but I loved it as much as I did then. 5 stars

>83 mstrust: Has it really been that long? I remember really loving this series - it may be time for a re-read...if I can only find my copy!

Also - WHEN is the winter of our discontent?

>83 mstrust: Oh I love that book! I've not read the whole series (just the first two, I think), but fully intend to as they're just so silly and clever and delightful.

>84 Caramellunacy: Now! I love the Richard III scene, with the audience behaving like it's The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

>85 Jackie_K: I remember not loving the second book, but I may have been disappointed because the first was so incredible. I need to try it again and see how I feel all these years later.

>86 mstrust: Yes, it was always going to be hard to live up to The Eyre Affair, but although I didn't think book 2 was quite as good I did still enjoy it. It must be 'Difficult Second Album' syndrome.

I'm going to re-read Lost in a Good Book. I agree, it must have been so difficult to come up with a follow-up to such a fantastic debut.

I've heard so many good things about de Fforde books. A pity they are not translated, only the first one, so I will try to find a copy of that one.

I'm very surprised the Thursday Next series hasn't been translated by now. I liked The Big Over Easy from Fforde too, which is the beginning of his Nursery Crimes series, so you might see if that's available.

21. And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Written in 1945 but unpublished until 2008, this story is set in NYC and has two narrators. Kerouac wrote the chapters told from the view of Mike Ryko, a sometimes merchant marine who has lived on and off with Janie for a year. She wants to marry while Mike seems to be indifferent to the idea and runs out the door with his friends whenever given the chance.
Burroughs writes the chapters labeled "Will Dennison". Will is from Reno, has some family money and a wife he visits once a year. He is unflappable whether being hit up for money or listening to a murder confession. He helpfully gives a detailed tutorial on how to prepare morphine for shooting up. Dennison is the only person who seeks out the company of Al, an older creepy stalker who is obsessed with good-looking teen Phillip, who is himself the most horrible of the bunch.
They move as a group; Mike, Will, Al, Phillip, Janie and Barbara, always asking each other for money, cigarettes or dinner, and though they're broke they manage to always be guzzling liquor. Aside from Mike and Phillip repeatedly sleeping too late to get chosen for a freighter, not much happens until near the end when Phillip snaps. This is still a worthwhile read if only to experience a very early Beat novel. 3.5 stars

I've had this for over a year. This is my 40th book overall, so I'm still on track for 50/50 in my ROOTs goal.

22. Redshirts by John Scalzi.
When Dahl is assigned to The Intrepid, he joins the spaceship crew along with a handful of new recruits, who quickly form a tight bond. They realize that each of them is replacing a crew member who was recently killed in some horrible and weird way, like ice sharks, and that it can't be just bad luck that makes the lower level crew members pretty much guaranteed death while a small core of long-time crew are guaranteed to survive anything. Dahl and his friends know they each have an expiration date unless they figure out what's going on.
What would happen if the expendable redshirt crew members of Star Trek knew they were slated to die just to show that crew members could die, and what if they very much wanted to live. I really liked this sci-fi comedy. 4.5 stars
I've had this one the shelf for four years.

>90 mstrust: I'm surprised too. Only De zaak Jane Eyre is translated.

>92 mstrust: I remember reading that one a few years back - I really liked the Star Trek spoof / comedy parts (NOT KERENSKY!), but it lost me somewhere in the metaphysical musings. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, though!

>93 connie53: Huh. I guess Fforde isn't as big with European readers as with English speakers? That's all I can think of. Fun author though.
>94 Caramellunacy: I did, though I admit that the time travel rules and Hester switch went a bit over my head. I didn't care. I enjoy the bitterness of the lower ranking crew members and the obliviousness of the higher ranking crew.

>95 mstrust: I know some of my RL book club love his books, but the publishers clearly don't.

>81 mstrust: Your thoughts about Skinwalkers is about the same as mine for Dark Wind. Pre-Chee and Leaphorn friendship. It'll be fun to see how their relationship progresses.

>96 connie53: Maybe time for an e-mail to his Dutch publishers asking, "What's the hold-up, Bub?"

>97 Carmenere: I've started looking for more from this series. I'm going to guess that I put off reading Hillerman for so long because I had an older relative who loved his books and that person wasn't someone I'd take literary recs from ;-D

>98 mstrust: I can always read them in English.

23. Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla. Carolla's look at his life of growing up in North Hollywood in the 70's and 80's, and his years of manual labor before getting into radio at L.A.'s KROQ.
The chapters are headed by pics of each of his living spaces throughout his life, whether his childhood home, a garage or the homes he was able to buy when he became successful. A too large part of the book is given over to his group of gross high school friends, then to how gross he and Jimmy Kimmel were when they were working together. The whole book is fast paced and the most interesting parts to me were when Carolla's discussing his family, his tangents about general bad behavior, and the random people who pop into the story, like Grandpa Munster slapping elementary school-aged Carolla across the face for getting mouthy. 3 stars
I've had this for four months.

>99 connie53: Of course!

24. Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon. The Inspector is visited by a schoolmaster who believes he's about to be formally accused of murdering his village postmistress, who was found in her home with a bullet through the eye. He's right.
It seems that the only reason the schoolmaster is arrested is because one of his pupils placed him in a location to have committed the crime, while the man says he's been accused because he's a hated newcomer to the village. Maigret doesn't know what to think about the crime, but a little excursion to the country for oysters and wine sounds good, and he might look into the murder. 3.5 stars
I read this for this month's "Senior Citizen Detective" theme in the MysteryCat. I've had it on the shelf for 3 years.

25. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The epic story of life on a whaling ship. The narrator, Ishmael, tells of his friends and crew, the weird, one-legged captain, and how they find and kill whales while keeping a lookout for one whale in particular. There are chases and fights with the whales and between rival ships. Most of the story is expository and some of these topics are really interesting, such as a discussion of the family dynamics of whales, the mythology of whales, the varieties of whales and even English law regarding whales. He is a highly intelligent guide with many areas of expertise, while in lots of other chapters he's a dull gas bag, discussing the merits of different types of rope or complaining about how he'd have a harpooner do the job if he were in charge. The scenes of the whale killings are so disturbing, even 170 years later, and the chapters of the parceling out of the whale body is revolting. Yet the writing is eloquent and can be fast-paced.
I've spent a year and a half dipping in and out of this book, reading it for a day or two, then not touching it for two weeks. It was my Doorstop of the Year for 2020 that became my Doorstop for 2021. I'm glad I read it, it deserves to be considered a Great American Novel. 4.5 stars

I've had this on the shelf longer than I've been an LT member, maybe 15 years? I expect this will be my deepest ROOT of the year.

Congrats on finishing Moby Dick! That is a fantastic achievement.

>103 mstrust:
Well done, you

>104 rabbitprincess: >105 Nickelini: Thank you both! I does feel like I've accomplished something :-D

>103 mstrust: Congrats, Jennifer, glad you loved Moby Dick almost as much as I did.

I still have many books on the shelves pre-2008 (when I joined LT). Somehow it feels very good when I have read one of those.

Thanks, Anita!
I have lots of pre-LT books staring at me from the shelf. I joined in 2008 too. I think the problem is either that I've looked at them for so long that they become part of the wall or they aren't new and exciting any more, but I still intend to read them "someday".

I joined LT in November 2009. And have pre-2009 books unread too. In fact I'm reading one now.

26. Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall.The story of the depraved, wealthy family of Cuttners, as told by their most twisted member, fourteen year-old Elizabeth, who instigates most of the craziness. In the first chapter she tells the reader that she's living at her grandmother's because she's killed her parents. In the second chapter she tells the reader that her uncle is her lover. There's a long list of personality disorders with Elizabeth and Uncle James, but it's impossible to guess what's going to happen next as Elizabeth is getting instructions from Frances, the 400 year old witch in the mirror.
Take The Bad Seed and mix it with Lolita, then add in the urban legend of Bloody Mary. This book is called a "forgotten classic". It should be as well-known as The Bad Seed as the writing is just as good and the story as scary. The bizarre atmosphere the Cuttners live in shadows everything they do, even when we first meet James, who comes knocking on the locked cabin screen door when Elizabeth's parents are at the lake.
I stepped back from the door and waited to see what James would do. I suppose you think I was being childish, but it was more than that. James liked to perform little desperate acts. The circumstances of his life were purposely odd and messy, and they forced him to behave desperately. That pleased him and I liked to add to his pleasure.

I would guess this will be the craziest story I read all year. 4 stars
I read this for this month's ScaredyKit. It's my newest ROOT. I bought it in February at The Writer's Block.

>109 connie53: Way to go, making the effort to get to those really old ROOTs!

27. High Tech and Hot Pot: Encounters and Escapades Inside China by Stephan Orth. Orth is a German travel writer. For this book he used the Couchsurfing app to meet most of the people who became his travel guides, logging in and looking for people who would give him a bed for a couple of nights and show him their neighborhoods. The variety of people he bunked with varied, from a female artist whose newly built studio was razed by the government in what she believed to be a plot to silence her controversial work, to a car dealership trainee whose apartment was so small that he and the author had to share the one bed. He stayed in a rural village with a family and was horrified to learn that they had cooked a dog to give him an honorable dinner, and he stayed in a city of nearly 10 million with a young man who was addicted to the internet and video games.

Orth had to lie in order to take this trip across the country, telling the Chinese Consulate that he had no intention of writing a book about China, that he was just visiting a friend and would see just two cities. He knew that if he admitted to his plans for a book, to meeting strangers all across the country and to informing the official about an app that allowed foreigners to sleep in Chinese homes and see ways of life the government hid from the outside world, he would be denied entry.
His journey was one of constant juxtapositions, going from modern metropolises to villages that seemed unchanged for a century. One of his app hosts turned out to be a tv host who drove Orth to a poor village in order to exploit him for her show, another turned out to be fascinated by Nazis, and another was a married policewoman who had a brief fling with the author. He also secretly interviewed probably the last person the Chinese government would want a foreign writer to meet, a government official who is also a Uyghur, the ethnic group who is currently enslaved in reeducation camps. Along the way he met many regular people who just wanted to meet a tall European.
The "tech" part of the title figures prominently in his travels as he was shocked by the level of surveillance the citizens live under, with pretty much their every move being monitored through street cameras and online monitoring of their phones and computers. One of his hosts pays for their dinner with a phone app called Sesame Credit, which is connected to Alibaba. Orth explains that the app holds all her financial records, which is translated into a point system that follows the customer throughout her life and that the government has access to it. Having high points can get you a line jump when seeing a doctor or a better response in online dating. Orth's friend knows her every move online is being watched, she's had proof and it creeps her out.

The development of Sesame Credit, and other such apps, will soon enable an almost complete surveillance of the population...
Here you can lose points by failing to pay you debts on time, for example, or driving through red traffic lights of visiting online porn sites. Conversely, those who pay rent punctually, save a child or report a crime are rewarded with points. It is almost as if somebody is sitting somewhere judging every living moment, then rating it with: good, medium or bad...A number of cities are already running pilot schemes where even political opinions are incorporated into the ratings. "It's all about what you have posted online and how your friends respond," says Simone. "...if a friend of mine criticizes the government on Weibo, it will also affect my points in the future. It's crazy that such plans haven't caused an international outcry, isn't it?"

It gives an extensive look at the wide variety of people living across China, and while some of the people he met had remained in their hometown, many he met had lived abroad and returned, out of a sense of duty to their family or the hope they could improve lives, but what they had in common was a knowledge that their government had too much control of their lives. This was an LT ER. 4 stars
This had been on my shelf for seven months. It's my twenty-seventh ROOT out of fifty books overall.

28. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Told by young Esperanza in short, deceptively simple chapters. Her family lives in a rundown section of Chicago and one of the first things she tells the reader is about a nun from her school making Esperanza feel ashamed of her family's rental. When her family moves to a better home she has to make new friends in the neighborhood, meeting domineering sisters Lucy and Rachel, and pretty but doomed Sally. Esperanza takes the reader around her neighborhood to introduce the residents and witness flashes of their lives. The reader begins to see, through her narration of the goings-on, that Esperanza isn't as mature as the kids her own age, and while she doesn't get through her childhood unscathed, she may ultimately be better off. 3 stars

This has been on the shelf for 3 months.

29. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. Just before her ninth birthday, Rose discovers a terrible talent, that she can taste the feelings of whoever made the food she's eating. That she learns this while trying to eat her own mother's cooking teaches Rose that her family isn't what she thought. Her parents are kind and loving to her and her older brother, but this weird ability with food is unbearable and it extends to food she eats in school or restaurants.
But just as Rose learns to cope with her own problem, her brother, who has always kept people at a distance, begins to exhibit even stranger behavior.
A story of what goes on underneath the surface. With each chapter I thought this would be the one where the parents quietly split up. 3.5 stars
I know I've had this on the shelf for more than a year, maybe two or three.

30. Face It by Debbie Harry. The autobiography by Harry and rock journalist Sylvie Simmons. If you're a Blondie fan, as I have been since elementary school, you'll love this. Harry's childhood, discussions about her adoption, and growing up in the 50's and then the hippie era. She talks about spending years trying out this and that, looking for something that made her happy while knowing she didn't want to get married and be normal. Harry's natural weirdness comes through even when she isn't talking about music, something that I find endearing.
She discusses meeting Chris Stein, her Blondie co-founder, co-writer and longtime boyfriend, Blondie bandmates, the infamous Hall of Fame induction and the managers who ripped them off, along with discussing the tours and meeting lots of famous people, and the start of punk at CBGB's. She is candid about drug use and rape, and her looks and aging.
This is a heavy book, both because Harry has a lot to say and because it's made with heavy cardstock. It's really heavy. There are photos, of course, but not an excessive amount, and probably even more drawings of Harry from fans that she's saved over the years. I would have given this 5 stars if not for the still unanswered questions about the band's fracturing. 4.5 stars

I've had this on the shelf for a year and a half. I'm at 30 ROOTs, 54 books overall, so I'm doing just fine.

>115 mstrust:
I was very tempted by this one until I saw it at a book store. Its size scared me

:-D Yes, it's not for the casual listener, you have to be a fan to spend all that time struggling to hold such a thick book open. It was certainly built to last.

31. England As You Like It by Susan Allen Toth. Toth has written several books about traveling around England, part travel guide, part memoir, they are books of slow, calming travel with lots of manor houses and gardens, usually with her husband James.
This book is geared towards the first-time traveler to England, and as it was published in 1995, much of the travel advice can be skipped as the internet has made things like writing to a historical society for pamphlets obsolete. But these first few chapters can also be read to remember how much effort had to be made back then.
Toth travels by her "thumbprint theory" which is trying to spend a week at a time in an area that covers no more than the size of her thumb on the map. While this is a good way to get to know a place better than moving around, it works best for someone who knows they will be returning often.
My favorite chapter was one about Daphne Du Maurier's area of Cornwall, seeing Menabilly, Du Maurier's home and the inspiration for Manderlay, and exploring her neighborhood. But there is also a fun chapter about shopping for biscuits and sweets at Sainsbury's and another chapter explaining why she and her husband prefer packing their own food rather than eating in restaurants. 3 stars

I noted in a thread ten years ago that I owned this, so it's a super ROOT.

32. Middle Men: Stories by Jim Gavin. A collection of short stories about young men who are struggling to achieve but find themselves coming up short. That might sound like a depressing premise but Gavin gives each story a little dose of oddity mixed in with the reality of underachieving. The stories take the reader all over California, from San Francisco, Hollywood, Riverside, and on the freeways.
In "Play The Man" a highschooler gets kicked off his basketball team because he's an average player on a team of future greats, which leads to him transferring to a mediocre school with a mediocre team where he can be the star player.
In "Elephant Doors", Adam finally gets a good job in show biz as an assistant on a long-running quiz show with a legendary host. He's been pursuing stand-up for years and getting nowhere, so he's happy to finally have a paycheck, a cool new friend and some tiny status, but he is always taken aback by the famous host's weird conversations.
The title story was what I was hoping for. Gavin was the creator of one of the best shows ever, Lodge 49, and in this story there's a lot of the surreal quality and unique personalities that ended up in the show a few years after this book was published. It's about Matt, who was adrift and depressed after his mom's death until his father pulled strings and got Matt a sales position in the plumbing supply industry. After a year in this job he has no interest in or talent for, Matt meets old-timer Larry, who pulls back the curtain to show Matt the movers and shakers in the toilet racket and explains how deals get done in such a cutthroat trade.
4.2 stars
I've had this for six months.

Hey there! I just caught up with your thread, here. I agree with all who have voiced admiration for Thursday Next. Talk about imagination well rendered! Also, nice review of Hippos. I agree with your assessment: fun, but mostly an historical curiosity. All in all, very entertaining reviews. Cheers!

Hi, Jerry, I'm glad you found me!
And aren't you nice? I sometimes worry that I'll give too much away, so I'm often more tight-lipped in my reviews than I'd like to be, but I'm very happy if anyone finds them helpful or entertaining.

33. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. Published in 1971, this is the story of the residents at the Claremont Hotel in London, a long-term residence for elderly people who, for one reason or another, find themselves in the hotel's shabby elegance until it's time to go to a nursing home. Mrs Palfrey is widowed with one daughter living in Scotland who has never invited her mother to live with her because, as they both know but don't say, they don't really like each other. Mrs Palfrey's grandson lives in London and works at the British Museum, but can't be bothered to visit. These hotel residents have sharp eyes, and some have sharp tongues. The constant badgering of Mrs Palfrey to explain why her grandson hasn't visited is recognized as a humiliation to the elderly group of regulars, and leads her to a small deceit to save face.
While the story rests mostly with Mrs Palfrey, each resident is dealing with their loneliness and exclusion from families that find their age an inconvenience. 4.5 stars

I've had this eight or nine months.

>122 mstrust:
I loved Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. Wonderful, although also depressing.

>123 mstrust:
That's quite the picture and title!

Mrs Palfrey is certainly sad and could easily depress. But Taylor was such a writer that I never wanted to stop reading.
I think the book title could be called The Macbeth Method of career advancement. Surely it's effective.

34. Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii by Lee Goldberg. Unwilling to let his assistant Natalie get away to Hawaii for her best friend's wedding, which would leave him without anyone to drive him and hand him disinfectant wipes, Monk drugs himself up and gets on the plane to Hawaii. They're halfway through the flight before Natalie realizes he's onboard and that her vacation is ruined.
Monk also manages to ruin the wedding, drive the hotel staff up the wall, solve a string of burglaries and a murder, and is determined to expose a tv psychic as a fraud. He visits many famous Hawaiian spots and a luau too, all against his will.
This series of Monk novels, mostly written by Goldberg, are really fun, and since the author was also a writer for the show he voices the characters perfectly.
I've had this for a year or two.

Happy 4th!

35. The Sleep Tight Motel by Lisa Unger. Maddie is in the middle of nowhere, driving an old beater that is about to breakdown. She's trying to outrun Erik, her scary boyfriend, who is maybe a day behind her but gaining fast and sending threatening text messages that tell her she can't escape him. As her gas tank is nearly empty and she's exhausted, Maddie pulls into the Sleep Tight Motel, a little place along the interstate run by Drew, a lonely man who couldn't be nicer. But between the two of them they can't figure out why Maddie keeps hearing screaming and scuffling in the empty room next door.
A kind of re-imagining of Psycho, but with a big twist at the end. I read this on Kindle, it's part of their Dark Corners collection. I don't know if this is considered a novella or a long short story. It's the first I've read by this author. 4 stars
This has been on my Kindle for more than six months.

>111 mstrust: Thanks Jennifer!

>114 mstrust: On my digital shelves somewhere and placed on my soon to read list

>123 mstrust: I had to smile when I saw the that title!

Hi, Connie!
I have to admit that my ROOTs are taking a backseat for the moment. Since a bought a new Kindle a few weeks ago that came with four months of their Kindle Unlimited free reads, so I'm gobbling those up as fast as I can before the deal expires. Still reading ROOTs, just not as fast.

>130 mstrust: very understandable, I would do that too. Free books! duh!

Ha! I'm feeling greedy about them, like I'm stuffing my face with cake!

>128 mstrust: That sounds creepy but fun!

I really liked it and I'll read more from the author. I know she's popular but I tend to avoid bestsellers.

>128 mstrust:

That sounds real interesting, Jennifer. I've read some books by her, but this one is not translated. A pity cause I think it's a story I would like.

I'm surprised it hasn't been translated, she's such a popular author. Maybe Amazon will release it in a Dark Corners anthology?

36. Mr Monk Goes to the Firehouse by Lee Goldberg. When the local firehouse dog is found murdered, Natalie's twelve year-old daughter is so upset that she asks Natalie's boss, San Francisco's consulting detective Adrian Monk, to investigate. There's no doubt the dog was murdered, and it happened while the entire crew was working on a house fire in which the resident died. Well, Monk just has to investigate that too, and learns that the whole street is overjoyed that the nosy old lady is dead, because she was the one keeping them from a huge payday. Which means there are lots of people with motives.
The first of the Monk novels, he's as funny and aggravating as you'd find in the tv series.
This has been on the shelf for a year.

Wow, it's been a long time.


37. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley. In this third book of the series, Flavia gets her fortune told by a gypsy at the village fete and promptly sets the old woman's tent on fire. Trying to make it up to her, Flavia invites the gypsy to set up her caravan on the grounds of Buckshaw, Flavia's ancestral home. When Flavia goes back to check on her, she finds that the woman has been beaten nearly to death, and so Flavia, the eleven year-old genius, is once again at the center of a crime, which embarrasses her family and aggravates Inspector Hewitt.
Spending time with Flavia is so fun, whether she's asking nosy questions, experimenting in her laboratory or getting even with her older sisters. 4.5 stars
This has been on my shelf since around January.
This is my 37th ROOT out of a total of 78 reads overall, so I'm just short of my goal of half ROOT overall. I've been reading a lot of Kindle Unlimited lately, but my freebie period will end in October.

Hi Jennifer. I hope you can pick up the ROOTing but I can understand about the free kindle books.

Hi! I'm doing my best to mix in ROOTs with my Kindle. I think I'll do better as I have so many physical Halloween books I want to get to.

38. Let's Get Invisible by R.L. Stine. Max, his younger brother Lefty, and a group of friends discover a hidden room in the attic that contains an old-fashioned full length mirror. Why would this be hidden away? The kids find that when you pull the light chain, the person standing in front of the mirror becomes invisible. The kids become obsessed with it, but fun comes at a price.
This is a good one, as the descriptions of what Max feels as he's invisible are worrisome, like a bad drug trip. Stine includes his tropes in spades here. The kids with the more dominant personalities push Max into doing what he knows is wrong, you have the character who wails, "Noooo!" (I wait for it in every book), and the kids are lacking even a spark of evil as they use invisibility to throw magazines around rather than burn the neighborhood down. 4 stars

Hey! You're doing really well plucking those ROOTs. I've been away but I'm back with a rather fresh, not too deep, ROOT. It's good to get those little suckers while they're small.

Hey right back atcha!
Oh, thanks for pointing out that 80 was my book total, this one was actually my 38th ROOT. I always fit in a couple of Stine's at this time every year.

39. Tales From the Crypt #1 The Stalking Dead. A collection of scary, sometimes gory, stories that date from 1970 10 2017. In "Die-Vestment", a very old and incredibly wealthy man finds poor people who will sell him their internal organs to help their families, but the old man doesn't honor the contracts.
In "Zombie Bank", the only two human employees at the bank are a mistreated gopher and the beautiful, flirty secretary. And then there's just one human employee. In "Undertow", we meet a grieving young mother, but this is a horror story, so it isn't as it seems.
3.5 stars
1.5 Walkers

Ha! Finally, my book is available on Amazon!
Here's proof- https://www.amazon.com/Maple-Motherload-Guide-All-Things/dp/B09FS6ZY18/ref=sr_1_....
Not shilling, just a feeling of triumph.

>145 mstrust: Congratulations!

>145 mstrust: Congratulations! Hope you really are dancing like this doggo (who looks like a Dr Seuss character)!

>146 rocketjk: Thank you!
>147 Charon07: Thanks! Ha, you're right, there is a Seussian look!

That's amazing! Congrats

>145 mstrust: Congratulations, that's awesome!

>149 Nickelini: >150 Jackie_K: Thank you both!

40. Halloween Night by R.L. Stine. Drippy high school senior Brenda and her friends hate Brenda's cousin Halley. She's living with Brenda's family while her parents go through a bitter divorce, something that happens frequently in the Stine universe. Not only have Brenda's parents forced Brenda to give up her room to Halley, she also has to share her car and clothes with her cousin, who then helps herself to Brenda's boyfriend.
Brenda's rage makes her see the upcoming Halloween party as the perfect time to teach Halley a lesson, a final one.
Not a great story, but you finally get what you'd always wanted in these Stine teen stories, a character who goes from a doormat to a psychopath.

This is my 40th ROOT in a total of 86 reads.

41. Fire in the Grove by John C. Esposito. On November 28th, 1942, a popular nightclub and restaurant in Boston was packed with around a thousand people. By law, there should have been half that. The many exits should have been unlocked and usable, but the majority were locked or blocked to keep guests from skipping out on their checks. The owner had even built a coat check room across one exit. The decor was supposed to be flame-retardant, but the fire started in one of the paper-mache palm trees and withing seconds spread to the thousands of feet of fabric draped across the ceilings. Within ninety seconds the fire had engulfed the basement lounge and spread to the main floor dining room, killing more than 50 servicemen and cowboy star Buck Jones.
The Cocoanut Grove Disaster is still the largest nightclub fire in American history, killing just under 500 people. It tested new theories in medicine and led to innovative treatment of surviving burn victims, including pinprick skin grafts.
This book includes the many trials of the owner and his employees, in which the extensive level of corruption among the Boston licensing boards, the fire department and even the mayor were exposed, yet really only the owner was punished.
4 stars

91. Goosebumps Most Wanted: Son of Slappy by R.L. Stine. Jackson is such a good drip that he never gets in trouble and even volunteers at the youth center. He's a typical Stine doormat who is even bullied by his younger sister. But then Jackson and Rachel are packed off to spend a week at their grandpa's isolated mansion, and grandpa is not only a collector of ventriloquist dummies, he has a scary butler who warns the kids to stay away from one in particular, the evil Slappy. Guess which one Jackson takes home to do an act for the youth center fundraiser?
This one got better as it progressed and had a creepy ending.
3 stars

This has been on the shelf for 3 years.

43. Alfred Hitchcock's Death Bag. A collection of crime stories. I could see these as episodes for Hitchcock's tv series, though some were a bit dull on the page which is unusual for one of Hitchcock's books. I think the best story here was "To Avoid A Scandal" by Talmage Powell, originally published in 1958, about a very precise, quiet man who believes he's found a quiet woman who will fit perfectly into his ordered life, but after marriage she turns out to be less timid than expected.

Congratulations, Jennifer!

Thank you!
I'm happy to say that it's being carried in the Vermont Maple Museum, Zeb's General Store in New Hampshire and Stanley's Olde Maple Lane Farm in Ontario.

>157 mstrust: Hey, I've been to Stanley's! They do a good pancake breakfast during maple syrup season :)

I'll bet! They're packaged foods look good too!

44. Zombie Tales 4: This Bites. Graphic novel of many short stories by different artists and writers, all with a zombie theme. The art work is satisfying but most of the stories are too brief and need a few more pages to flesh them out.
2.5 stars
1 Walker

45. Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith. Hoodoo is the name of a twelve year old boy living in Alabama in the 1930's. It's also the word for the African folk magic his family practices, though Hoodoo has yet to discover any talent for hoodoo himself until he visits a fortuneteller at the fair. When her prophecies begin appearing, Hoodoo is terrified to realize that it's all leading up to him having to fight the demonic stranger the old woman warned him about.
A spooky story of demons and ghosts set among African-Americans in the South. Running a close second to that main plot is all the Southern food and the cooking and eating of it.

This is my 45th book out of 97 reads overall. I've had this for six months.

46. The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule.
This was Rule's first book and it truly launched her career in true crime, though she had been a true crime magazine writer before. And before that, she was a cop.
Rule had volunteered at a crisis hotline in the early 70's and happened to work many of the same shifts as a young student named Ted Bundy. Like lots of women, Rule enjoyed Bundy's company, though because of their age difference, Rule saw him as an interesting friend, not a potential boyfriend. She didn't recognize that he was a sociopath.
This book covers more than 15 years of both Rule and Bundy's lives, in which Rule gets divorced, goes to Hollywood to write her first screenplay, raises her children and pursues her career as a writer. Bundy became a transient murderer and rapist who kidnapped, tortured and killed young women and a twelve year-old child. Law enforcement was often outmatched by Bundy, both because he could appear so normal and blend in, but also because once he was in custody they expected him to behave like a normal person, not to starve himself to fit through a tiny hole in the ceiling, or to jump out a two story window, which he did.
Bundy's multiple trials are included, for which Rule had a press pass. Bundy's ability to antagonize one minute and plead for mercy the next is on full display, and we see a man who prized his own skin above all else.

I've always found it confusing to hear Bundy described as handsome, as he is by many women here, including Rule. I don't get it, he's always looked like a thin-lipped, scrawny nerd to me, not good-looking at all.
I'm also a little on the fence about Rule's friendship with Bundy, which lasted for years and saw them exchange many letters and phone calls even while he was being charged with a litany of horrible crimes. Rule includes many of Bundy's written passages and transcribes many of their phone calls, which makes me lean towards the obvious, that Rule, and especially, Bundy were using each other. Rule wanted to get a career as a book author started and she happened to know a serial killer. Most people, especially women of that time, would have run the other way when a guy they knew was accused of murdering women, but Rule seems to have hung onto Bundy with both hands, claiming she didn't believe in his guilt for years, even in spite of her having worked with many of the cops who were charging Bundy. To me, it defies belief that a former cop who writes up crime cases thought that he could be wrongly charged with so many heinous crimes by multiple states. She wanted the story, and to get it, she had to be Bundy's friend so he'd keep in contact with her. And Bundy, knowing Rule talked to her former co-workers often, used Rule to get inside information about how much the police knew, but he also surely knew she would write about him and he wanted to be famous.
I really tried to finish this by Halloween as it was the October ScaredyKit theme, but I have the anniversary edition, which has an epilogue, an afterward and a new final chapter, making it a real doorstop. It's a remarkable feat in true crime writing and I see why it's a famous book. 4 stars

47. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot.
Young Scotsman Herriot had just passed his veterinary exams in the 30's when work of any kind was hard to come by. He was fortunate to be taken on as an assistant by Siegfried, and established vet with a practice in the Yorkshire Dales. Soon they were joined by Siegfried's younger brother Tristan, who had failed his vet exams but still helped on the rounds. This is a region that took adjustment for the young vet, as he was an outsider and the terrain was difficult, made worse because Herriot's loaner car didn't have brakes. He proved himself to be smart, innovative, and courageous, as he described shoving his hands in places that make the reader cringe. He does whatever he can to help both the animals and the farmers who are often on the edge of survival.

This is one of my best reads of the year. There are grim situations, but Herriot also writes of his hilarious date with Helen, when the rest of the house tried to cobble together appropriate dinner clothes for him, or the comical frustration of dealing with a boss who didn't listen. 5 stars

>163 mstrust: I am listening to this one on audio and am really enjoying it. My parents used to play a radio drama or maybe audiobook version of this on long road trips, so I have a lot of fond memories.

I have vague memories of my mom watching a series on PBS when I was a kid, but for some reason I'd always thought there was a religious aspect to the books. I watched the new PBS version this year and loved it.

>165 mstrust: have vague memories of my mom watching a series on PBS when I was a kid, but for some reason I'd always thought there was a religious aspect to the books. I watched the new PBS version this year and loved it.

You mean it's NOT religious? I've never seen it or read it, and I always thought it was religious too. It's because the title is the second line of the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwFNOvz0x-I

"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the lord god made them all . . . . "

Other than funerals, I haven't been to church in a decade, but I'll always remember the hymns

I'm sure that's why I had the impression that there was a religious angle, even though I wouldn't have been able to come up with that hymn. Thanks for the info!
The book is all about animals and the young vet. He treats every creature, from a Peke named Tricky Woo to horses and cattle.

48. The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters. Sir Richard Weldon has called his group of fellow Richard III cosplay friends to his castle for a grand weekend celebration. A letter has been discovered which would prove once and for all that King Richard did not kill the princes in the tower, and is now in Weldon's safe-keeping until his upcoming reveal to the press, which clamors for information outside the gates. Inside, Sir Richard and his friends dress and behave as the people who were in King Richard's circle, but they are joined by expert Jacqueline Kirby, a sarcastic American who will hopefully authenticate the letter before the press sees it. The fun is thrown off course when the participants are attacked in the order that "anti-Richards" believe the king killed his foes.
A fun, historically dense story, with Jacqueline taking a very active part in solving the mystery. Peters was Barbara Michaels, which was also a pen name for Barbara Mertz. 3.5 stars

This has been on my shelf for five years.

>168 mstrust: I read this one ages ago (I think this may have been my introduction to the Princes in the Tower) and would love to come to it again now with slightly better background in the period!

My introduction to the princes in the tower was a tv show along the lines of "In Search Of..." I think I was in junior high, because in high school I was the only kid in English who'd heard of it. The next day my teacher brought me a big lapel pin of Richard III as a prize, ha!

49. Your Inner Hedgehog by Alexander McCall Smith. Things are going surprisingly well at the Institute of Romance Philology, with the incessant and bitter rivalry between Professor Dr Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld and Professor Dr Unterholzer at a truce for the moment. Then a new assistant librarian arrives, a young woman who decides that the library doesn't need to hold twenty-two copies of Professor Dr Dr Igelfeld's opus Portuguese Irregular Verbs and clears them off the shelves. This begins the assistant's assault on tradition and respect at the institute, backed by the man in the highest position, the mysterious His Magnificence, who believes it's time to prove that the institute isn't elitist.
This is my favorite series from McCall Smith and I'm glad that he's continuing with this latest book. It's quirky and the humor frequently comes from the undignified situations that occur to this small group of utterly composed men who just want to do their research on linguistic minutiae. This book is different from the previous in the series in that it addresses current events somewhat, with a young academic who wants to be given control over the institute. 4 stars

I've had this on the shelf for a few months.

50. An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten. A collection of short stories about Maud, a woman of nearly ninety years old who lives in an apartment in Gothenburg. Maud has no family or friends and she likes it that way. She enjoys traveling, and since she has lived in her apartment rent-free for seventy years, she has the means. But even a quiet old lady has problems. The difference is that Maud knows how to fix her problems quickly and go on with her business.
This is a fun little murder collection and I'd be happy to read more about Maud. 3.5 stars

51. Camp Austen by Ted Scheinman. Scheinman grew up with a closer acquaintance to Austen than most children, as his mother's career in academia led to him reading the classics of British literature, and she took the family to live in England for some time, where he gained more insight into historical context. Mom's connections also led the author, as a grad student, to work for the four-day "Austen Camp" in North Carolina. Which quickly led to him being pressed into service as the camp Mr. Darcy, expected to provide witty conversation and dancing to the unattached women at the camp, which was the majority of guests. He attended seminars about Austen life and literary topics while dressed in Regency clothes and affecting an English accent, and even spoke to the assembly himself.
While Scheinman does spend some time describing what goes on at an Austen Camp and introducing readers to the other guests, a few days at such an event would make slim pickings for a book, so the majority of this is an exploration of Austen's life and her work, with a critique of how her detractors tend to miss the point of her plots and characters. 3 stars

This is book #51 out of 104 total.

52. Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu by Lee Goldberg. When negotiations over a new contract break down, the San Francisco police force stages a call-out, known as "blue flu", and this includes Captain Stottlemeyer and Lt. Disher. The mayor offers Monk a badge, the very thing he's wanted for years as a police consultant. He's also made the captain of the homicide dept. and given a team of ex-police, all of whom were put on the non-active list for one good reason or another, as Monk and his assistant Natalie soon learn. Their first day sees them investigating the murder of an astrologer to the wealthiest citizens, and three seemingly unrelated murders of opportunity. They also investigate a serial killer who targets female joggers. And Monk and Natalie have the additional problem of being scabs during the walkout.
I believe this is the fourth in the series. 4 stars
I've had this for 3 1/2 years.

I think I've wrapped up my 2021 reading. My goal this year was to hit 50% ROOTs in my overall reads, and I ended up with 52 ROOTs of 105 overall books. That's a win!

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you in the 2022 ROOTs.
Merry Christmas to you!

>175 mstrust: That is the perfect card for us ROOTers!

Isn't it? Someone understands.

Hello Jennifer!

Trying to catch up on threads again. I want to wish you

Thanks so much, Connie! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!
(Sorry for the delay, we arrived back home last night.)

No need to say sorry. We are all busy with things. And Christmas is not a time to spend on LT.

I'm still doing laundry and putting away Christmas gifts.

Wishing everyone a Happy 2022!