December 2022 - Reader's Choice

The month of December can be a busy one, so this month’s theme is an easy one. You choose the historical fiction book that you wish to read. You could go back and revisit one of our earlier themes or you could pick something that we haven’t explored yet – it’s your choice.

Let us know what you are going to be reading and enjoy your choice. Please remember to update the Wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Challenge

I know this is a little early, but I have an ulterior motive for posting this.

Now that all the 2022 themes are posted - it's time to start thinking about 2023. In a couple of days I will post our 2023 planning thread and looking for volunteers to host next year's Reading Through Time.

I am planning on a number of light Christmas reads this year that will fit here:

- A vintage mystery set at Christmas - The Crime At Noah's Ark by Molly Thynne
- A historical romance - A Match Made At Christmas by Ellie St. Clair
- A family saga set just after WW II - A Sixpenny Christmas by Katie Flynn

Thanks for the heads up about the 2023 threads, Judy. I was late and missed out on hosting one in 2022.

>4 Familyhistorian: I will probably set up a planning thread on Monday, Meg.

One of my favorite Christmas reads is Debbie Macomber's "Can This Be Christmas?"

I'm going back to stuff I either missed or started but didn't finish during prior months/quarters. In particular, Don Quijote (Norton Critical) (only partly read for July's "Mental Health then and now" and I didn't cover anything else in July) and The Virginian (I didn't even get anything started for Third Quarter's "The Old West"). I've slipped up a little since summer with health problems.

I've got The Color of Lightning (by Paulette Jiles tentatively stacked for this one. It's a book I picked up after having read/listened to News of the World and Simon the Fiddler (narrated by Grover Gardner) when we were doing The Old West; but time got away from me. I say "tentatively" because, as much as I would really like to get this covered before the New Year, my reading energy has flagged a bit (as it usually does every October) and I'm still got a couple of pre-WWI things I'd like to get to.

I haven't gotten to winter yet, so this is probably a good time to do so

February theme: Rural life

Fountaineville / C. A. Simonsen
3 stars

In the late 1950s, Davis is the youngest of four (living) siblings in a rural area on the Prairies (Saskatchewan, I think). His oldest brother died in Korea. His only sister, Gracie (whom he is closest to) is dating the local minister’s son. He has two twin brothers. Davis is 11/12 years old, I believe. There is an older neighbour whose yard Davis passes by every day who intrigues him. But Davis sees something very unusual (and a bit scary for him) one day. Davis spent a lot of time with the elderly people in town (a “witch” he met who was telling a “story with a story”, as well as some of the men at the local Legion Hall), while at the same time dealing with things happening at home.

This was ok. I rarely enjoy stories within the main story. This one took up a lot of the book, and I ended up skimming through much of it (the story within, that is). Of course, it did mean something in the end. I found the family issues more interesting than either the additional story or the time spent with the older people.

I intend to finish reading a nonfiction history book Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14th Century by William Rosen then I plan on reading Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman. This is the fourth book in the Henry II/Eleanor of Aquitaine series by this author.

11 oh love all of Penmans work! Lionheart is one of my favorite of that series is devils brood Have you read any of her welsh books?

I have always enjoyed the historical books by Lucia St. Clair Robson and so it was no surprise that I loved her Ghost Warrior.

I read Daughter of York, about Margaret of Burgundy by Anne Easter Smith. Margaret was the sister of two kings of England (Edward IV and Richard III) and the 3rd wife of Charles the Bold (or ignorant as I like to call him!), Duke of Burgundy. (previous theme-The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire)

>12 cindydavid4:
I have NOT read any of the Welsh books. I have some of them on my shelves, but haven't started them.

>14 Tess_W: Taken a BB for this one.

>15 benitastrnad: after you finish Lion King, read here be dragons, about the illigitemate daughter of King John, given in marriage to the Prince of Wales Llewellyn Ab Iowerth. Its a story of the tug and pull between the two countries, and the tug and pull Joan must go through between her father and husband. Its the first book I read of hers back in college and it was the book that made me interested in visiting Wales, which I did many years later.

November theme: Ends and Endings (Death)

From Here to Eternity / Caitlin Doughty
3.5 stars

The author owns a funeral home in Los Angeles, but is a bit different in how she views death and burials. She is much more environmentally-conscious and would like for those of us in North America to be a little less… can’t think of a good word: uptight, maybe… about death. In this book, she travels to a few different places to see how various cultures deal with death. The places she visited include: Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Japan, and Bolivia. She also “travels” to a couple of places in the U.S. where they do things a bit differently (as much as possible within the restrictive laws): Colorado and North Carolina. She ends back at home in California.

This was interesting. I actually found the research being done in North Carolina (re: green “burials” – actually “recomposting” of the bodies) not only the most interesting, but the most appealing for me. Caitlyn herself would like to be offered up to vultures, as in Tibet. I already know I’d like some kind of green burial, but I expect what type will depend on what’s “allowed” where I am when I die. Some of the more interesting cultural customs (for me) were in Mexico (Dias de los Muertos) and Bolivia (natitas). Like with her other books, there is a hint of humour there, as well (maybe less than with her other books, but still occasionally). And there were some great illustrations!

Trying to do "make up" for having missed July's "Mental Health – Then and Now" and the third quarter's "The Old West." I am hoping to finish Don Quijote in the Norton Critical before year's end, which will cover July; but I just finished A.C. Wise's Wendy, Darling 3½***, in which a significant element is Wendy's incarceration in a mental hospital by her two brothers (their parents having died), who are in denial about Never-Never Land in the siblings' adulthood.

wow, would not have thought about Don Quijote, but yes that would fit! But is being a dreamer the equivalent to being mad or meerly a fool? Or is tilting at windmills a ticket to madness?

Funny story; my mom took me to see the broadway touring production of Don Quiote, I was probably about 11. And she realized there was a scene coming up that she didn't want me to see. So she sent me to the car to get something for her. A few years later when I read the book, I realized that she knew nothing about the story and not sure why she took me anyway

And Wendy, Darling sounds interesting. and yes will also fit! Can you tell me why you rated it 3.5? Or do have a review link? thanks

>20 cindydavid4: But is being a dreamer the equivalent to being mad or meerly a fool? Or is tilting at windmills a ticket to madness? Whether or not he's mad, he's treated as a madman by his friends.

I like reinterpretations of classic fantasies, so I had a leaning toward Wendy, Darling. But it does tend to be a little slow at times. Very good, but not outstanding. For a recent and very good queer version (but nothing to do with "madness"), there's Tink and Wendy.

I have finished Queens' Play which taught me more about life at the court of the Valois and Scottish history than I thought possible.

>22 MissWatson: "taught me more about life at the court of the Valois and Scottish history than I thought possible."

LOL! in a good way or a bad way? 😂

>23 kac522: In a good way, thankfully.

I listened to A Jane Austen Christmas - Regency Christmas Traditions by Maria Grace. It is my reader's choice because I was looking for something about Christmas, and I found this on audible. I liked it a lot, apart from the fact that the last third consists of recipes only. You can find my review here.

The Runaway Daughter was a story of 1920s England. It brought the class consciousness and limited lives of women into the spotlight with the tale of a daughter who fled the restrictions of life in a northern mill town for the lights and dubious company to be found in London. It was a good story with a surprising ending.

Some of my reading for December:

The House Witch by Delemhach
Humorous Fantasy *****
“When Finlay Ashowan joins the staff of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. No one knows where he comes from or how he came to be where he is, which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly uncanny meals.”

A Quilt for Christmas by Sandra Dallas
Historical Fiction *****
“…it is 1864 and Eliza Spooner's husband Will has joined the Kansas volunteers to fight the Confederates, leaving her with their two children and in charge of their home and land. Eliza is confident that he will return home, and she helps pass the months making a special quilt to keep Will warm during his winter in the army.”

The Winter Sea by S. Kearsley
Historical Fiction *****
“In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown. Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.”

Deck the Halls with Hounds by D. Rosenfelt
Christmas Mystery ***
“Reluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter doesn’t usually stop to help others but seeing a dog next to a homeless man inspires him to give the pair some money to help. It’s just Andy’s luck that things don’t end there. Soon after Andy’s encounter with them, man and dog are attacked in the middle of the night on the street.”

A Christmas Deliverance by A. Perry
Christmas, Historical Fiction ***
“A courageous doctor and his apprentice fight to save London’s poor—and discover that the hearts of men can be colder than a winter chill—in this gripping holiday mystery. Scuff has come a long way from his time as a penniless orphan scraping together a living on the banks of the Thames. Now he’s studying medicine at a free clinic run by Dr. Crowe, a thoughtful if stoic mentor. ” Fairy tale ending.

I have also finished The siege of Krishnapur which turned out be a real gem. It fits the Q1 theme of the 19th century.

This month I read:

Middlemarch by George Eliot--written in 1872, this is set 1830-32 England. This was a re-read for me on audiobook.
An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor--written in 2009, and set in 1965 in a Northern Ireland village.

Two nonfiction books:


Our America: A Photographic History, Ken Burns (2022)--about 250 classic iconic photographs from 1839 to the present day, selected by Ken Burns, with a short description of the historical events surrounding each photograph. I learned many new bits of American history from this book.



The Ken Burns book led me to discover more about photographer Lewis Hine, so I picked up Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell Freedman with photos by Lewis Hine (1995). This is a YA biography of Hine, who photographed working children at the beginning of the 20th century. His pictures are of children in factories, on farms, in homes, on the street and many other places where young children were working. His photographs helped to bring about major reforms in child labor laws.

I love Ken Burns, did not know about that book, wonder if hed every make a documentary of it

>30 cindydavid4: I recognized several of the photographs in the book as ones used in his documentaries, especially The Civil War, but I think there were others. All the pictures are black & white.

The book is a huge coffee-table sized book and very heavy. I borrowed it from my library.