January AlphaKIT: R and H

Welcome to the 2022 AlphaKIT. This is an unofficial challenge for the 2022 Category Challenge Group. Each month has two letters selected for you to use however you choose.

There are no rules. Just have fun and enjoy reading.

and

Please remember to update the wiki with your reading:
January AlphaKIT R and H

>1 majkia: *cough* You have B instead of R in the visible text of the link to the wiki.

>2 AnnieMod: Thanks. Fixed.

I didn't remember that alphabet group.

Got a few selected already!

✔Caramel Pecan Roll Murder
✔King Falls by R.J. Lee
✔Murder at the Bake Sale by Lee Hollis
Mystery of Albert E. Finch by Callie Hutton
✔Rationing
✔Renewed for Murder
✔Reserved for Murder
✔Ritchie Boy Secrets
Scandal At Bletchley by Hilary Manningham-Butler
✔They Stole Our Hearts

I am planning on reading Before the Poison by Peter Robinson and Dust Off the Bones by Paul Howarth.

My book club's next choice is "Echoes of the Runes" by Christina Courtenay, but we haven't set a date yet so I may be reading it in January, or possibly in February.

I plan on reading The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo and Gone Away by Hazel Holt

I'm planning on The Pucelle Connection by Estelle Ryan and Flesh and Blood by John Harvey for my Jan reads.

Planning on:
Redemption Ark - Alastair Reynolds
City of Dragons - Robin Hobb
Racing the Devil - Charles Todd
Where the Dead Lie - C.S. Harris
Mindstar Rising - Peter F. Hamilton

Starred!

Now...what to read...

One of my book club books will fit:
Our Darkest Night / Jennifer Robson

Other options:
Penelope / Rebecca Harrington
Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals / Hélène Rajcak, Damien Laverdunt

Oh no! Oh no! Now it is time to choose!

R & H

My year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh
I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes
Leave the World Behind, Rumaan Alam
Battle Royale, Koushun Takami
Sister, Rosamund Lupton
Friend Request, Laura Marshall
Normal People, Sally Rooney
The Darkness, Ragnar Jonasson
The Word is Murder, Anthony Horowitz
Home Before Dark, Riley Sager
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton
After the Quake, Haruki Murakami
South of the Border, West of the Sun; Haruki Murakami
After Dark, Haruki Murakami

I'm definitely reading The Homecoming by Andrew Pyper as my 'H', but still thinking on 'R'--I've got plenty to choose from, though! Something by James Rollins perhaps...

I am leaning towards Mistletoe and Murder by Robin Stevens, and Homespun Suspicions by Olivia Newport.

I'm planning to read Real Tigers by Mick Herron, which just happens to be the next in what has become one of my favourite series.

Roadwork (by Stephen King) is at the top of my list for January and;

Hopefully I can also tackle The Two Faces of January (by Patricia Highsmith) and Running the Rift (by Naomi Benaron)— both of which have been in my stacks for years!

I'll be reading An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, and possibly something by Heinlein.

There are so many choices for R and H! They are very convenient letters and I have so many books with these letters that it's hard to choose what to read.

I want to read Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King) by E.T.A. Hoffmann later today, and I will finish The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien in the not too distant future I hope.

Currently I'm also thinking about:

Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
Into The Water by Paula Hawkins
Howards End by E.M. Forster
Das Haus in den Wolken (Before The Storm) by Judith Lennox
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

I think I will go with the flow and see where my reading takes me!

And I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's choices!

• Roadwork (by Stephen King) - Bart Dawes is a middle-aged married man living in suburbia, but a road extension is being built through his neighborhood and has destabilized his already precarious mental state. Lashing out in rage at perceived tyrannies, he perpetuates a series of self- and other destructive acts. King, who often populates his novels in the past with characters who own a sort of pop-psychology that gives shape to Everyman philosophy (e.g. Glen Bateman in The Stand) twists this a bit in Roadwork: Bart rationalizes his behavior in a series of reflections & retorts that reflect the ugliness of his character, and possibly that of the 1970s male ethos as perceived by the author. This is a problematic book to like or even appreciate as King doesn't give the 21st-century reader a character or cause to root for. Personally, of the dozen King novels I have read, my least favorite and would have difficulty recommending in any context.

The page count for Roadwork is 400+; but it's an easy four-hundred pages so I finished it sooner than expected! I've got The Two Faces of January (by Patricia Highsmith) and Running the Rift (by Noami Benaron) still in the stacks for January though! :-)

Just finished You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo. What a fun space adventure!

I seem to have finished a book for this already. I received Murray Walker - Incredible! for Christmas from the husband, and finished it this morning. It was by Maurice >b>H>/b>amilton.

I've started The Two Faces of January (by Patricia Highsmith) - I'm only two or three chapters in and there's already a dead body! I remember reading an article about Highsmith's work late last year (unfortunately, I do not remember where or by whom; but it was probably in context of her diaries...) that said something to the effect of, "There's mystery. And there's suspense. And then there's Highsmith"!

I read Mistletoe and Murder by Robin Stevens for the letter "R".

I just finished Radio Silence (one of my SantaThing gifts) for the letter R.

Completed The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah for H.

I read Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill with the author's name providing both letters.

Starting "The House on the Strand" by Daphne du Maurier

I read Missing May by Cynthia Rylant for my first book in January, and my first AlphaKIT!

Last night, I stayed up a bit later than usual to finish Patricia Highsmith's mystery/suspense novel, The Two Faces of January. Rydal Keener is an American living the life of a flaneur in Greece when he spots a man sho strongly resembles his father. And so begins the fateful cat-and-mouse course of events for Rydal and an American couple on the lam in Athens. The narrative unfolds with with plot twists and the inner machinations of the two men in what I can only describe as a sort of mesmeric style not unlike watching a car wreck happen in slow motion: You know it's going to be bad, but you can't tear your eyes away! Inasmuch as I consider Shirley Jackson the master of horror in her ability to inject psychological suspense into her stories (cf The Haunting of Hill House), so too I view Patricia Highsmith in regard to the thriller genre.

I've finished Flesh and Blood by John Harvey, the 1st book in the Frank Elder series

>28 fuzzi: Good choice! I really love that book.

I finished City of Dragons by Robin Hobb.

>31 LadyoftheLodge: I enjoyed it as well. The trip to Charleston struck me, as we pass by the gold-domed capitol building on our annual trip to Chicago to see the Grands. :)

Starting "Jane Austen At Home" by Lucy Worsley

I read In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden.

Penelope / Rebecca Harrington
2.5 stars

Socially-awkward/inept Penelope is off to Harvard, her mom providing tips for her to make friends, etc. Her roommates don’t seem interested in becoming friends, so Penelope tends to hang out with some of the boys a couple of floors below in their dorm. Eventually, she is roped into helping with a non-speaking part in an experimental/absurdist play.

Everybody in this book was weird. Penelope seems a bit clueless as to academic life (not quite sure how she got into Harvard…). There was a lot of crushes that everyone was having on everyone else; it rarely seemed to be reciprocated. None of the characters were likeable, in my opinion, so I didn’t really care all that much what happened and if they ever got together.

Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals / Helene Rajcak, Damien Laverdunt
4 stars

This is a children’s book with large illustrations and cartoons explaining 27 extinct animals (well, 26 extinct, and at the time of publication, the giant tortoise George would likely to be the last of his species; he has since died). The book is divided into geographical areas and the animals focused on went extinct between 15,000 years ago up George (in 2012). Each animal gets a cartoon that either explains a myth or maybe a person who studied or “discovered” them, a large illustration with info about how/when it went extinct and general bits of info about it, as well as some stats like size, weight, etc.

I really liked this. I got my copy from the library, but to be honest, it’s such a quick read and there is a tiny bit of info about each, I don’t know how much I will remember. For that reason, I feel like this is a book that might be nice to have (though I can’t see myself buying it, but others might want to) in order to look back on.

I liked the little cartoons, and the corner with the stats also showed a silhouette of the animal beside a human for a size comparison (for birds, the silhouette compared the animal to a human hand). I thought that was a nice addition. One I will remember – I had no idea there were once giant 6’ beavers running around North America! It does frustrate me that the majority of these animals went extinct, due to (or at least in part) humans – hunting, habitat loss, and/or bringing invasive species with them. There is also a glossary at the back to help kids understand some of the terminology.

Finished Battles at Thrush Green by Miss Read.

I just read Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding -- highly recommended for fans of Firefly!

I've finished The Pucelle Connection by Estelle Ryan. One of my most favorite series

>40 dudes22: i really liked that series too. I've gotten away from it and need to get back to it.

So Far:

What's Your Pronoun?: Beyond He and She by Dennis Baron


James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot


Undeath & Taxes by Drew Hayes


Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary


Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

>42 dreamweaver529: you've been busy!

Read The Woman in Black by Susan Hill for H.

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (by Peter Hopkirk; narrated by Alex Wyndham). This is non-fiction, but reads like an adventure tale with massacres that made me weep (Kyber Pass 1842) and, amazing feats of strategy, leadership &, courage; but more importantly, an overview of the geopolitics then that still have ramifications today. The narrator, a British reader who has become one of my favorites, related tales with his signature touch of controlled exuberance that engages without sensationalism. The only reason I'm not giving this a full five stars is because I still have to go buy the book for the maps! (I did a quick internet search for various places, but still...) 4.5 stars

COMPLETED Jane Austen At Home by Lucy Worsley

I finished my audiobook Abendglanz by Hanna Caspian. I didn't realized that I could use it for AlphaKIT until I had finished!

I just finished re-reading His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik for "H." I'd forgotten how much I love this series!

>49 christina_reads: I enjoyed that series too!

Just finished The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin - a memoir that came from a blog project by the author. 4 stars

The Five / Hallie Rubenhold
4 stars

This book looks at the five (cannonical) women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper. It doesn’t look at the murders, but it is a biography of each of the women.

So, they weren’t all prostitutes. In fact, most of them weren’t. They were all, however, poor and had trouble finding money to pay for a place to sleep on many nights. Most of them were also alcoholics (well, my perception is that they were – I’m not sure the book actually says that).

In any case, I’m surprised the author was able to find as much information about them as she was. A number of years ago, I read another book that focused on the Ripper victims, but it was thin. I don’t remember it well (only the cover), and I thought I kept it, but it doesn’t look like I did, or I would have checked, but my assumption was that there just wasn’t a lot of information about five very poor girls who grew into women in the mid to late 19th century. But Rubenhold was able to find quite a bit. I was extra surprised to read about Mary Jane Kelly, but I won’t spoil it!

I listened to the audio book and my mind wandered occasionally, but not much. I was interested enough a few times to rewind, as well, so as to not miss what was just said.

February thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/338756

I read Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers for another H book.

I finished another H read: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, my first novel by this author.

Finished Black Order by James Rollins. What you'd expect from him--enjoyable, though I don't enjoy his Sigma Force novels as much as his stand-alones. Short review written, regardless. A 4* read for me.

The Only Alien on the Planet / Kristen D. Randle
3.5 stars

When Ginny and her family move across the country when Ginny is in grade 12, she does not want to go, and is lonely. She becomes friends with her neighbour, Caulder. There is an odd boy at school, Smitty, who doesn’t talk. None of the kids have ever known him to talk. Not only that, he doesn’t show emotion or any kind of reaction to anything. He is, however, very smart. Ginny is a bit reluctant, but Caulder insists on introducing her to Smitty. The premise behind them visiting is that Ginny needs help with math (she really does!), and Smitty is able to help by showing her how to figure it out on paper. Caulder and Ginny eventually consider themselves “friends” with Smitty, but something soon goes wrong…

I liked this. Ginny and Caulder frustrated me at times when (I felt that) they pushed Smitty too hard or just couldn’t seem to understand why he was having trouble, but I guess – teenagers? And I sometimes wondered what the psychologist was thinking, but what do I know!? I did love the interactions between Ginny and her brothers, though. The last bit of the book picked up a bit with a confrontation, but it wasn’t quite enough to bring my rating up to 4 stars. 3.5 stars is still good for me, though. I liked it.

Just finished Real Tigers by Mick Herron.

This is my current favourite series. Herron's writing is terrific, and he neatly provides literary sections, usually openings and endings, while the text is filled with black humour and a sly complex plot. Slough House, ruled by Jackson Lamb, is where MI5 agents end up when they screw up an op. And although Lamb is personally repellent, he is my favourite character. In this episode, his assistant is kidnapped in a "tiger attack", an attack that is not what it seems, which could result in the end of Slough House or even MI5 itself, under Home Secretary Boris Judd. The ransom is intel to be stolen from Regent's Park, MI5 headquarters, an almost impossible task given their unbreakable security, a place filled with failures who just haven't been caught yet, so they can still wield big sticks.

The only copy available in my library system was in audio format and the narrator was humdrum, a tad disappointing. I believe print works better for Herron.

I read The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay for R.

I've started Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb for RH.

I read another "H" book, Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley.

I read another R book, Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule.

I read Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith for this my first AlphaKIT

I just finished Der Ritter mit der Web-Adresse - Walisische Panoramen by Michael Bengel, another R book.

Last night, I finished reading, The Wrong Kind of Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #1; by Lexi Ryan ) - Nic's wedding day ends in disaster and she ends up in Jackson, IL-- a lake side community with a OB-GYN doctor/single dad, Ethan in need of a nanny for his daughter. The title comes from a line within, "Love born in a lie is the wrong kind of love." Well, there is a lot of lying in this book: lies by commission, lies of commission, white lies, self-deluding lies... but the underlying theme is how clinical depression is the biggest liar of all. Kudos for Ms Ryan for tackling a complex issue in a small town contemporary romance; but I'm not sold that it made this a good, much less great romance. A lot of joy and humor was subverted in service to the theme which made the pre-requisite HEA somewhat rote and dull. Ordinary sex graphically depicted, again somewhat rendered prosaic by the tension and issues at hand.

COMPLETED Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves

Starting "Echoes of the Runes" by Christina Courtenay

Completed Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots for H.

This book had a lot of potential, but I was a little underwhelmed. I loved most of the supporting characters, but the main character just missed the spot for me. Her motivations were not evil enough, or virtuous enough for my tastes. I wanted her to either embrace the evil motives or have a stronger case for heroes being worse for the world than villains. Overall, it was an OK read. I would love to read a book from some of the other characters points of view.

I have completed both my AlphaKit reads for January with Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer, and Before the Poison by Peter Robinson. I enjoyed both of these books.

I just finished another H book, Never Fall for Your Fiancée by Virginia Heath. A fun but farfetched Regency romance.

I read Tender at the Bone, a food memoir by Ruth Reichl.

I finished The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story - Kate Summerscale for H.

I found this book very interesting. Fodor tries to investigate in a scientific way to find definitive proof. He comes up with three explanations for the things that are happening to Alma: it could truly be that she is haunted by spirits, it could be that she has psychological issues that manifest themselves in supernatural ways, or she could be a fake. I like how the author doesn't try to tell you the answer either, she simply presents all of the evidence that Fodor collected and lets you decide. I also like how the book puts the case in historical context. England had just finished one world war and was on the brink of getting into another one. Spiritualism had taken hold with seances and mediums being plentiful. Overall I recommend this to anyone interested in the subject, just don't pick it up expecting any real answers or a scary ghost story.

COMPLETED Echoes of the Runes by Christina Courtenay

For H I read The Hate U Give - really good, I have booked for the live talk on her new book tomorrow.
For R, I read a fantastic fairy tale - Rumaysa. The book follows Rumaysa as she takes control of her own story. I loved the rejigging of well-loved stories.

I've finished a few books that fit this month:
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan, 3.5*
Unsinkable: a Memoir by Debbie Reynolds, 4*
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, 4*

Claiming Hamlet as beginning with H

Lab Girl / Hope Jahren
3.25 stars

Hope is a research scientist and professor. She studies trees. This is a memoir primarily focusing on her life starting as a student (though there is a little bit when she is younger). She and fellow scientist and best friend, Bill, set up a lab at a different university three times. Eventually, amidst their long working hours, Hope gets married and has a son, while dealing with bi-polar disorder.

I know most people loved this. I’m waffling between good and ok. I liked the biography/memoir parts of the book. I found some (but not all) of the science interesting (my favourite science chapter was the one on desert plants.) Where I definitely lost interest was in the philosophical parts. She did tend to mix her science with philosophy. Too much philosophy my liking, anyway.

Another H book -- All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins.

Starting "Money From Holme by Michael Innes

Finished Changeling by Roger Zelazny.

The Heights / Louise Candlish
4 stars

When Ellen spots a young man she recognizes but hasn’t seen in two years, she is shocked. That man was supposed to be dead! She made sure of that. Keiran was a friend of Ellen’s son, Lucas, and a very bad influence. Things went very wrong due to that friendship and Ellen just couldn’t stand to see Keiran around. How is it possible he’s back?

I really liked this. Much of the book was told from Ellen’s point of view and it was easy (at least for me) to get caught up in her anger and her adrenaline! The book did also show the POV of Ellen’s ex (and Lucas’ father) Vic. This certainly brought some interesting information and twists to light, but his POV was more business-like and so I wasn’t quite as caught up. At the same time, it also pointed out what an “unreliable narrator” Ellen might be (although I was already questioning that). Maybe that’s not the correct phrase, but it did show how obsessed she was (rightly or wrongly).

I finished Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett.

It was a fun book with a lot going on. There were times when it all seemed a bit too much, but that is typical for Discworld. I like the character of death and I am a sucker for stories with death personified in general. I think this would be one that I would prefer in audio or as a TV/movie adaptation to bring all of the craziness to life. Overall, it was a fun read with some great characters and a lot of humor.

I finished Floating in My Mother's Palms by Ursula Hegi. This was written before her more famous novel Stones from the River, but is set post-WWII in the same German town, with some of the same characters. It is called a novel, but it is more a series of memories by a woman of her girlhood, circa the mid-late 1950s. There is a real sense of life and attitudes in postwar small town Germany.

This month I managed one H book: Tigerman, by Nick Harkaway.

I finished another one I am counting for January (I had almost finish but didn't want to take it with me on a trip because of its weight): Black and Blue by Ian Rankin.