Tutu's Categories=Challenges

Well, I'm taking the plunge....when I looked at all the different challenges i was joining for 2010, I realized that I had my 10 categories. So each category will be a different challenge...many of them hosted by fellow book bloggers. I'm going to set this up with links to each challenge so if anyone wants to join a specific challenge outside of the 1010, you'll have the link to get there.

I'm figuring I'll read about 150 books next year, but I'm not setting numeric goals. Just going to kick back and clear out some of the books on my shelf, and get some library books I've been ogling.

I'm thinking I'm going to have one post here where i will simply list books as they are finished, since several of these categories allow books from other challenges. THat way I can have one list of everything.

I'll be posting my reviews to the book and on my blog, and also over on the 75 books challenge since I enjoy chatting with so many of my book 'friends' over there who don't do category challenges. Posts here are to track and say a few words.







So Here are the Books Read in 2010 along with the category i.e., the challenge they fill. (latest one first):

77. To Darkness and To Death SYLL, audio, Thriller and Suspense
76. The Help by Kathryn Stockett SYLL, audio
75. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen - audio books, SYLL
74. the map of true places by Brunonia Barry - ARCs completed
73. The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky - SYLL
72. On Hallowed Ground by Robert Poole - SYLL
71. Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson- SYLL, Audio
70. An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor - SYLL, Audio
69. Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga
68. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns - SYLL, Audio
67. West with the Night by Beryl Markham - SYLL
66. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier - SYLL, Audio
65. "U" is for Undertow by Sue Grafton - TSM, SYLL, Audio
64. Brunetti's Cookbook by Roberta Pianaro
63. Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon. SYLL, Audio, TSM
62. Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy. SYLL, TSM
61. Talking about Detective Fiction by P.D.James SYLL
60. Churchill by Paul Johnson. Audio, SYLL
59. Miss Julia Delivers the Goods by Ann B. Ross, SYLL Audio
58. James Madison: The Founding Father Robert Allen Rutland.- USPC
57. An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor. -SYLL, Audio
56. Dressed for Death by Donna Leon, SYLL Audio, Thriller and Suspense
55. Man from Saigon by Marti Leimbach, ARC
54. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, SYLL, Audio books
53. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, SYLL, TBR, MUYM, Audio
52. Jesus the Son of God by Kahlil Gibran
51. Plainsong by Kent Haruf. SYLL
50. Bailey's Day by Robert Haggerty. ARC completed
49. be the noodle by lois kelly. ARC completed
48. Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart. Audio, SYLL, Thrillers and Suspense.
47. Lake Magic by Kimberly Fisk. ARC completed.
46. The Woman who Named God by Charlotte Gordon TBR challenge
45. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
44. Burning Cold:The Cruise Ship Prinsendam by H. Paul Jeffers
43. Morning Show Murders by Al Roker- Support Your Local library, Audio books
42. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage.- Support Your Local library
41. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny- Support Your Local library, Audio books
40. Rome Has Spoken by Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabbens, eds.- Read from my shelves
39. The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron - ARC Completed
38. Shot to Death by Stephen D. Rogers - ARC completed
37. The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris by Mark Kurlansky. - ARC completed
36. Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice. - Support Your Local Library
35. House on Beartown Road by Elizabeth Cohen - Support Your Local library, Audio books
34. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver - Support Your Local library, Audio books
33. The Women Around Jesus by Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel - Read from My Shelves
32. The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom- Support your Local Library
31. The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel - ARC complete, Thrillers and Suspense
30. Buried strangers by Leighton Gage - Thrillers and Suspense, Support your local library.
29. The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall -Audio Books, Support your local Library
28. The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais - Audio Books, Support your local Library
27. Execution Dock by Anne Perry - Audio Books, Support your local Library
26. Weight of Silence by Heather Gundenkauf - ARC
25. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs - Thrillers and Suspense
24. The Khan Dilemma by Ron Goodreau - ARC
23. War Torn: Stories of war from the Women Reporters who covered Vietnam by Tad Bartimus, etal - War through the Generations
22. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny - SYLL, TSM, audio
21. Then Came the Evening by Brian Hart - ARC
20. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - ARC
19. Death of a Valentine by M.C. Beaton - ARC
18. Fireworks over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff - SYLL, ARC
17. China Lake by Meg Gardiner - Audio, SYLL, TSM
16. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly - Audio, SYLL, TSM
15. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake - ARC/Early Review
14. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto - MUYM (unfinished books)
13. The Body in the Cast by Katherine Hall Page - SYLL, TSM
12. True Blue by David Baldacci
11. The Book of William: How ... by Paul Collins - ARC
10. Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke - Audio, SYLL, TSM
9. Stop It!by Sally Lee - ARC
8. Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield - MUYM (contest wins)
7. The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba - ARC
6. Starburst by Robin Pilcher - Audio, SYLL, MYUM(Typically Brit)
5. Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley - RFMS, TBR, MUYM (Books Won)
4. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis - US Presidents, Read from my Shelves
3. A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming - Local Library, Audio Books, Thrillers and Suspense
2. Death Goes on Retreat by Sr. Carol Anne O'Marie - Support local library, Audio books, Thrillers and Suspense
1. A Year in the Merde - Read from My Shelves

So here are my 'categories' with shortened acronyms for future reference I'm not going to fill in lists ahead of time unless that specific challenge requires it.

1. Support your local library challenge SYLL
2. TBR Challenge
3. War throught the Generations Vietnam is the war to read in 2010. WTTG
4. Audio Books Category complete!
5. Thriller - Suspense mystery TSM Category complete!
6. US Presidents Challenge Pres
7. ARC/Early Review Challenge ARC/ER
8. Reading from My Shelves RFMS
9. Medical MysteriesRXM
10. Make up your mind challenge. MUYM (see msg.22)

1. Support your local Library Challenge my goal is actually to read at least 50 this year. In 2009, over 50% of the 170 books I read came from my local public libraries (there are 3 in the area). I'll just list them as they're finished. Some may be listed in other categories to, as this one allows cross overs.



1. Death Goes on Retreat by Sr. Carol Anne O'Marie - msg #28
2. A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming msg #29
3. Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke msg #43
4. Starburst by Robin Pilcher - msg #36
5. The Body in the Cast by Katherine Hall Page- msg#48
6. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly - msg#57
7. China Lake by Meg Gardiner
8. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
9. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs msg #82
10. Execution Dock by Anne Perry
11. The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais msg#86
12. The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall Msg #87
13. Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage msg# 92
14. The Case of the Missing books by Ian Sansom msg# 94
15. Called Out of Darkness Anne Rice
16. The Cruelest Month Louise Penny
17. Blood of the Wicked Leighton Gage
18. Morning Show Murders by Al Roker
19. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot msg 124
20. Burning Cold: by H. Paul Jeffers msg 120
21. Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart msg #129
22. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese msg #144 (the audio version)
23. wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel #145
24. Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
25. An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
26. Miss Julia Delivers the Goods by Ann B. Ross
27. Churchill by Paul Johnson
28. James Madison by Robert Allen Rutland
29. Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James
30. Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy
31. Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon
32. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
33. West with the Night by Beryl Markham
34. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
35. "U" is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
36. An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
37. Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
38. On Hallowed Ground by Robert Poole
39. The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky
40. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
41. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
42. To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Very interesting approach, Tina. I'm looking forward, once again, to getting a lot of book ideas from you in 2010.

2.TBR Challenge this one requires 12 books in 12 months, but the list must be posted by 1 January. So I'll be posting here shortly. They'll be crossed off when finished.

1. Beat the Reaper byJosh Bazell
2. Fitzgerald Ruse by Mark de Castrique
3. School of Essential Ingredientsby Erica Bauermeister
4. The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
5. Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley msg#31
6. Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir by Katrina Kenison
7. The Woman who named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths by Charlotte Gordon
8. Amigoland by Oscar Casares
9. A Separate Country by Robert Hicks abandoned
10. Generations:The History of America's Futureby Neil Howe
11. Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
12. Property by Valerie Martin

Now the challenge allows a list of 12 alternates (in case the fancy doesn't strike to read from the first list) so here are my alternates:

1. The Love Letters by Madeline L'Engle
2. When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman
3. Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
4. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
5. Here If you Need Me by Kate Braestrup
6. Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon
7. Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
8. Alligator: A Novel by Lisa Moore
9. Journey to Portugal by Jose Saramago
10.In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by nathaniel Philbrick
11. The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets by Bill Moyers
12. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

3. War through the Generations: Vietnam

Both my husband and I served on active duty during the Vietnam War, but we both would like to understand that era a little better. This challenge allows as few as 5 books in any genre featuring Vietnam. Five will be a stretch for me, but I think it can be done.



Here's my list read:

1. War Torn: Stories of War from the Women reporters who covered Vietnam by Tad Bartimus, etal. msg#69
2. Man from Saigon by Marti Leimbach

4. Audio Books
This challenge has four levels from the merely curious at 3 books for the year, to 20 for the obsessed. This one is a 'no-brainer' for me. Obsessed it is.



1. Death Goes on Retreat by sr. Carol Anne O'Marie msg #28
2. A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming msg#29
3. Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke -msg #43
4. True Blue by David Baldacci msg 46.
5. Starburst by Robin Pilcher - msg #36
6. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly - msg#57
7. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
8. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs msg #82
9. Execution Dock by Anne Perry msg 84
10. The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais msg#86
11. The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall Msg #87
12. The House on Beartown Road by Elizabeth Cohen
13. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
14. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
15. Morning Show Murders by Al Roker
16. Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart
17. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
18. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
19. Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
20. An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
21. James Madison: The Founding Father by Robert Allen Rutland
22. Miss Julia Delivers the Goods Ann B. Ross
23. Churchill by Paul Johnson
24. Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon
25. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
26. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
27. "U" is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
28. An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
29. Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
30. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
31. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
32. To Darkness and To Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

5. Thriller- Suspense CATEGORY COMPLETE!!!


12 books in 12 months. Given my love for this genre, piece of cake. Actually, the challenge queen even gives us a list of sub-genres to make it more interesting.

1. Death Goes on Retreat msg#28
2. A Fountain Filled with Blood msg#29
3. Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke -msg #43
4. True Blue by David Baldacci msg 46.
5. The Body in the Cast by Katherine Hall Page- msg#48
6. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
7. China Lake by Meg Gardiner
8. Death of a Valentine by M.C.Beaton
9. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
10.The Khan Dilemma by Ron Goodreau
11. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs msg #82
12. 9. Execution Dock by Anne Perry msg 84

Challenge Complete
Bonus books:
13. The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais msg#86
14. The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall Msg #87
15. Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage msg# 92
16. The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
17. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
18. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage
19. Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart
20. Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
21. Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy
22. Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon
23. "U" is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
24. To Darkness and To Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

6.The LT US Presidents Challenge
Read one biography for each president before the next presidential election. I'd like to make a dent in this list by reading 10 this year.
I really want to read them in order to get a better historical perspective, so I may have to start over (I read washington about 5 years ago!)



Non biograhphies - background or ancillary material:

1. Founding Brothers msg#30

Biographies
1. James Madison: The Founding Father by Robert Allen Rutland

7. ARCs and Early Review Copies

Another one that requires a list up front. I currently have 19 sitting here to be read, so that is my primary challenge. My secondary challenge will be to NOT request more than I can handle this year. I don't want to get any further behind. The List below is what I have on hand as of January 1st. I'm not promising to read them in this order, but this is the order in which I received them, so I should as much as possible go thru them that way.

I'll be adding a few more as I go thru the year since I signed up to do the GOLD level requiring 25 ARCs, but this gives me some (not much) wiggle room.

1. Evolution of God by Robert Wright abandoned msg#32
2. Night Gardener by George Pelecanos
3. Book of William by Paul Collins -see msg 44
4. My Name is Will by Jess Winfield msg #56
5. Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
6. Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that redrew the Map of the New World by Douglas Hunter - abandoned
7. Boy who harnessed the wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba see msg#37
8. Artist in Treason: The extraordinary life of General James Wilkinson by Andro Linklater
9. Mercury in Retrograde by Paula Froelich
10. Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser
11. Maze Runner by James Dashner
12. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold -msg#63
13. When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the present by Gail Collins
14. Who Turned out the Lights: Your Guided Tour to the Energy Crisis by Scott Bittle
15. Broken Road to disaster recovery by Keifer Bonvillain msg #64
16. Triangle of Deception by Haggai Carmon
17. Moonlight in Odessa by Janet S. Charles
18. Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton
19. Exit Music by Ian Rankin
~~~~~~~~~~
ARC's Received after Jan 1, 2010:
1. Shut Up! by Sally Lee
2. Postmistress by Sarah Blake (ER won in Dec, recd in Jan)
3. Fireworks over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff
4. Then Came the Evening by Brian Hart
5.The Death of a Valentine by M.C. Beaton
6. The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
7. The Khan Dilemma by Ron Goodreau msg#80
8. Shot to Death 31 Stories of Nefarious New England/strike> by Stephen D. Rogers
9. The Eastern Stars by Mark Kurlansky msg#105
10. The Poacher's Son by Paul Dioron
11. Stressed in Scottsdale by Marcia Fine
12. Lost Love Found by Tim Gomes
13. This is Not the Story You Think It is Laura Munson
14. The Executor by Jess Kellerman
15. Lake Magic by Kimberly Fisk
16. Happy Hour by Michele Scott
17. The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer
18. Man from Saigon by Marti Leimbach
19. the Map of True Places

8.Reading from my Shelves



This is another clean out the TBR piles challenge, and requires a minimum of 20 (overlaps allowed.) I'll have no trouble getting 20 from my shelves, altho the rules actually state I'm supposed to find a new home for them once I've read them, and I'm not sure how I'm going to fudge that one, cuz I hate to part with books.

Books read

1. A Year in the Merde see msg 25
2. Supreme Courtship msg#31
3. The Women around Jesus see msg#95
4. Rome has Spoken - not quite finished, but enough to count see msg #107
5. Brunetti's Cookbook by Roberta Pianaro

9.Medical Mystery Madness



The challenge is to read 6. I think this one is going to be fun, and 6 is very doable. Here's my list (as completed)

1. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs msg #82

10. Take another Chance Challenge

This has been replaced by the Make Up Your Mind challenge linked here.

ooooh like the look of the Take another Chance Challenge, will definitely be back in January to have a nosey.

Very interesting, tutu! Glad to see you'll be around next year!

Tina - now I understand why you needed a big spreadsheet to figure out your reading for 2010. What a great idea (and a logistical nightmare!). Looking forward to following your progress.

It sounds like fun, but a lot to keep track of. I'll be browsing through often for more ideas.

Cindy etal, I actually have a big spreadsheet to track it all, and I figure that because they all allow overlaps, it's not going to be nearly as difficult as it seems. Except for the TBR and ARC challenges which require an upfront list, I'm just going to read a book, and then figure out which challenge(s) it fits in. I'm actually very excited. I have some great ARCs stacked up which I plan to list up in msg 10 today, and the TBR list goes into msg 5.

#6 - I'll be following your Vietnam reads, and will value your impressions since you were there! And thanks for the heads up on War through the Generations.

I'm currently reading and highly recommend Bonnie-Sue: A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam by Marion F. Sturkey (link to USMC Press), if you haven't read it already. I've been discussing my thoughts on the book on my current "75 Challenge" thread, so I'll refer you there rather than cut and paste large tracts of it here :)

Peter....I should probably clarify---I wasn't in country, just served in the personnel field back stateside. Hubbie did deploy to vietnam however, and we had literally hundreds of friends who all went through the enormous emotional experience. I've still got mixed emotions about doing this challenge---while it has the fewest books to complete, i think it will be the hardest for me in terms of handling whatever I read. Thanks for the links...you have a fantastic list of reading there. I love to read non-fiction, but find I can't handle that much of it....I need a bigger mix of fiction.

I did notice on your profile that you are an Inspector Montalbon fan....I just discovered that series this year and it has become one of my favorites. I have starred your threads and look forward to seeing your upcoming reading.

#20 - Thanks for starring me, and thanks for reminding me... I've been meaning to attach my review of the fourth Montalbano mystery, The Voice of the Violin, to the books 'home page', since reading it back in June. Tis done now!

Actually, I've been purposefully holding myself back from reading all the currently available translated titles in this series, as they form an eagerly anticipated respite from reading all that military nonfiction. I'll be treating myself to the fifth book soon :)

Make up your Mind

Thank goodness I haven't gotten started yet--I'm still tweaking...I have decided that the "Take Another Chance" Challenge (see msg. 13) was a bit too complicated to track...and I'm not really interested in winning prizes. Besides that I have several other blog-world challenges I've discovered, and one of my own. So I'm calling this last 'category' Make Up Your Mind.

It will consist of several sub-challenges-and as long as I complete at least two of the them, the category will be complete. I may add sub categories until January 10th.

The four subs are

a. The Typically British Reading Challenge

My cute picture of the British Bull dog keeps disappearing!!


I'm aiming for the "Gordon Bennett" level which requires reading 4 mysteries, cozys or novels by British authors.

1. Starburst by Robin Pilcher - msg 36
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
b. Re-read 'em, finish 'em, or git 'em outta here

I have some books on my TBR shelf that don't count as TBR's in the other challenges because I've read them before. I also have several abandoned books I've promised myself I'm going to finish. So I'm challenging myself to finish at least 6 of these.

Our Lady of the Lost and Found by Diane Schoemperlen
Book of Abraham by Marek Halter
Generations: The History of America's Future by Neil Howe
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto-msg#51
Women who run with Wolves by Clarissa Pinklola Estes
Rabbi Jesus by Bruce Chilton
Shadow of the Wind by carlos Ruiz Zafon Officially abandoned
History of God by Karen Armstrong
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell
44 Scotland street by Alexander McCall Smith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

c. Books Won Reading Challenge

I've been extremely lucky this year in winning books by entering various giveaway contests held by fellow book bloggers. There are 11 waiting for their chance in the sun. Many of them will do 'double dip' duty as meeting the TBR and Reading from my Shelf Challenges. If I read 6, the sub-challenge is considered complete.

1. True Blue by David Baldacci msg 46.
2. Death of a Valentine M.C. Beaton
3. The Woman who Named God by Charlotte Gordon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

d. World Religions Challenge

There are various levels to this one but.....
4. The Unshepherded Path (Also Known As: The Don't Tell Me What to Do Path): Read as many books as you would like about whatever religions you want.

I have an entire shelf labeled religion, and several on that shelf fit this challenge nicely. I've identified 3-4 I'd like to tackle during the year, so having the challenge will provide me an incentive to crack a spine or two.

1. Rome has Spoken by Maureen Fiedler

Ok I need a re-cap and I've not even started. How many books am I actually committed to read--it's a little confusing with all the overlaps allowed. And it's actually not nearly as many as it might seem. I'm committed to 50 from the library (20 can be audio). There are various challenges with overlaps involving books I already have at home. If I used multiple overlaps, I can do this with a minimum of 118.

If I have zero overlaps, every single book read goes into only one category, it will take 187 to finish. trust me there's a spreadsheet to prove it--I was a math major!.

Anyway....I'm certain I'll read at least 125 probably closer to 150 for the year. This will be a little less than 2009, but many of these are meatier. I'm trying to go for quality reads this year, not numbers. I'm not rushing to beat any deadlines except clearing out and then staying current on ERs and ARCs. If they get overwhelming, I'll have to discipline myself not to ask for anymore until I'm ready again.

Now it's off to finish my last couple 2009 reads (both great mysteries---see my 75 for 2009 challenge thread if you want the scoop.

Happy Holidays to all....out of towners arriving...must go clean the guest bathroom, then make up some shrimp dip. YUM.

#23 Tina, I suspect that you enjoy the planning and scheming almost as much as the actual reading! I always want to do everything the hard way, but you put me to shame. Enjoy your company, and rest up - looks like you're going to have a busy year next year!

Happy New Year...It's great to get started

A Year in the Merde

Author: Stephen Clark
Format: paperback, 276 pgs
Subject: life in France
Setting: Paris
Genre: fictionalized biography
Challenges: Read from My Shelves

A light piece of fluff destined for the library sale bin. The story of a very self-centered Brit who goes to 'work' in Paris for a year, and his discovery of and sarcastic take on French workers, French food, French women, the propensity of the French to go on strike for anything, and his misadventures as he tries to make himself understood with his schoolboy French. Heavy on the sexual adventures, light on brains.

Recommended only if you need something to take your mind off impending dental surgery.

#25 - I enjoyed A Year in the Merde about two years ago after picking it up at a book sale. At a subsequent book sale I then procured Clarke's Talk to the Snail: Ten Commandments for Understanding the French - also a light but immensely fun read. Then, a few months ago, at - yes - another book sale, I found the sequels to "A Year in the Merde" - Merde Actually (US title: "In the Merde for Love") and Merde Happens. Looking forward to reading them one day - just to take my mind off impending dental surgery you understand ;)

#26- Peter...I think Clarke's books probably have much more appeal to men than to women. If I got to spend a year in France, I'd be much more interested in art, food, and wine, than in figuring out how to hop in bed with every dude I laid eyes on.

Death Goes on Retreat

Author: Sr. Carol Anne O'Marie
Format: audio 8 discs, approx 9 hrs.
Characters: Sr. Mary Helen, Sr. Eileen, Kate Murphy,
Subject: murder
Setting: Santa Cruz CA
Series: Sister Mary Helen Mysteries
Genre: cozy mystery
Challenge: Audio Books, Support Your Local Library, TSM
Source: public library

Another cozy featuring the detecting nun, Sr. Mary Helen and her sidekick Sr. Eileen. This time the sisters get their calendar mixed up and show up a week early in Santa Cruz for a nuns retreat only to find that the place is full of priests who are supposed to be on retreat. After an encounter with an absolutely obnoxious cook who seems to hold the whole place hostage to her schedule, Sr. MH finds a body, the police show up, and the fun begins. The author presents the murderer early on, and keeps providing broad hints, but also goes to great lengths to prove that it cannot be this person. San Francisco detective Kate Murphy, from the dear sisters' home area, gets roped into helping. After a second death Sr. Felicita, the meek mousy lady in charge of the retreat center finds a backbone, the local detective (with help from Sr. MH of course) solves the mystery, and Sr. gives her sermonette on life to the reader.

This is the 2nd one of the series I've read, and while they're fun, they're a bit light, and this one was quite preachy. Still, an acceptable who-dunnit.

A Fountain Filled with Blood

Author: Julie Spencer-Fleming
Format: audio, 11 discs, 12 hours, 320 page equivalent
Subject: gay bashing, murder, environmental impact from developments
Setting: Upstate New York
Genre: mystery-police procedural + amateur sleuth
Challenges: Audio Books, Support Your Local Library,TSM

In this second of the series, Spencer-Fleming gives us another great thriller. I really enjoy the combo of the amatuer sleuth, Clare Ferguson, priest of the local Episcopal Church (and oh, by the way, retired Army helo pilot) and the professional crime fighter, police chief Russ Van Arsdale (oh,by the way, retired Army MP).

The story begins with the vicious attack on the town's Medical Examiner, who just happens to be gay, and shifts quickly to a demonstration against a resort development on the site of some alleged PCBs. Here we meet Russ's mother, a real pistol of an active elder, who gets herself thrown in jail by her son for demonstrating without a permit.

There is more murder and mayhem, and an incredible helo scene (we KNEW sooner or later Clare was going to fly again!). So no spoilers, but this plot was gut churning, and there were enough suspects to keep three police forces busy. I don't do spoilers, so we'll leave the story line there.

The issue of gays and same sex marriage is treated with delicacy and compassion, but in the end, I couldn't quite figure out if the issue of gay bashing was red-herring to hide the real reason for the crimes. I do have very mixed feelings about the blossoming romantic relationship between the two main characters however. We have yet to meet Russ' wife--she's always off working on her curtain business, and Spencer-Fleming has the two protagonists playing with fire. I can't wait til book #3 to see if sparks ignite.

Founding Brothers

Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Format: hardcover 246 pgs w/additional 30 pgs notes
Subject: Revolutionary war personalities
Setting: US 1790-1825
Genre: Historical vignettes
Challenges: RFMS, US Pres (background reading)

I was hoping this book would be a 'refresher' to bring me back up to snuff on the most telling issues of the American Revolution. I am rejoining the US Presidents' challenge, having read bios of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson several years ago, and didn't want to have to go back.

Ellis presents us six essays which are alternately entertaining, enlightening, and brutally boring. He seems to think that if 100 words would do, 500 are much better. I had a hard time in several places staying awake.

Interestingly, he begins with the Hamilton-Burr duel, and seems to feel a lengthy lesson in economics is needed to explain the enmity built up between these two.

Then he gives us a chapter entitled "The Dinner" at which Thomas Jefferson, the host, is reputed to have brokered a deal between Hamilton and Madison to allow for federal assumption of all states debt in exchange for allowing the federal capital to be situated in Virginia. We got page upon page of background, but I had a hard time finding the dinner.

The third chapter "The Silence" I found the most interesting, but also the most difficult to read. It refers to the decision of the Founders to avoid a discussion or decision about the question of slavery.

Next up is "The Farewell" a elucidation of Washington's famous address in which he puts forth his (and many claim Hamilton's) thoughts on the party system, the need for the country not to form alliances, etc. Again, enlightening, but pedantic.

"The Collaborators" I found the hardest of all to follow. To me it was a series of short paragraphs describing various friendships, alliances and relationships that helped patch together diverse policies.

And finally, "the Friendship". The most cogent of the chapters where Ellis gives us a condensed look at the magnificent letter writing that took place over the last 14 years of the lives of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

If you are a true history buff, you'll love this book. It is extensively researched, and well footnoted. If you are looking for a quick fill in, this might not be the book for you. I'm glad I read it, but I won't be pulling it off the shelf to re-read anytime soon.

Supreme Courtship

Author: Christopher Buckley
Format: paperback, 285 pgs (ARC)
Subject: politics, Supreme Court
Setting: Washington DC
Genre: humor
Challenges: RFMS , TBR, MUYM (Books Won) 1/6

A delightful romp through the pomposity of Washington Congressional and presidential politics. Christopher Buckley is a master at tongue in cheek. He presents us with a president who is as close to Ozzie Nelson as we can find. He bowls, he watches TV, he vetoes every spending bill Congress sends him because he doesn't think the American people should pay for some of these ridiculous boon-doggles. But most of all, he just wants this term to be over, so he can go home to Ohio and sit on his front porch.

Before he does that however, he has to appoint a Supreme Court justice, and Congress is not inclined to approve anyone he sends. In a burst of brilliance (watching late night TV) he decides to appoint Pepper Cartwright, star of a top-rated TV Courtroom Show and America's favorite TV judge. This political satire gets better with each page as we watch this Texas born and bred (but Fordham Law school educated) lady bring her own brand of straight-shooting, pistol packing, rodeo riding spirit to the here-to-fore straight-laced Senate confirmation committee, and then to the court itself.

It is frankly, laugh out loud hilarious.

Evolution of God by Robert Wright

I abandoned reading this scholarly tome last week. I have had it as an ARC since July, and have tried on three different occasions to tackle it. I cannot get past the first 40 pages. It is well-written, but has far too much detail about a topic that just couldn't grab me. I have never been interested enough in anthropology to read deeply. I have an overall intellectual appreciation of the subject, but no desire to delve into it.

I'm not ready to part with it yet. It's a NewYork Times notable book of the year (2009) and I'm going to try to read it in pieces instead of all at once. It's gotten such great reviews, I feel like if I persist, I'll get something out of it, but for now, I've got a bucket load of ARCs waiting, so it will have to go onto the DNF-try again pile.

I took a look at the description for Supreme Courtship and it sounds like it's right up my alley. Onto the TBR pile it goes. I've never heard of it before.

Oh Linda...you will LOVE Supreme Courtship. It's also out in audio I understand, and I'm sure you can get it on your Kindle.

Edited 29,30, 31 to include reviews.

Tina, yes, in fact, I ordered Supreme Courtship for my Kindle yesterday. However, now I'm thinking that a real book might've been a better option. I predict this will be a popular book around the office.

Starburst: A Novel

Author: Robin Pilcher
Format: audio 11 discs - 13 hrs (474 pg equivalent)
Characters: Angelique Pascal, Jamie Stratton, Leonard Hartson, Rene Brownlow, Thomas "TK" Keene, Gavin Macintosh, Albert Dessuin
Subject: various characters working through life problems
Setting: Edinburgh "festival"
Genre: Fiction
Source: Public library
Challenges: SYLL,Audio Books, MUYM (Typically Brit)

It's been quite a while since I read anything by either Rosamunde or Robin Pilcher. I had forgotten how incredibily character dependent their work is. It wasn't until I was half-way through that things started to "happen". I had almost given up by then.

In this story, set against the backdrop of an annual arts festival held in Edinburgh every August, Pilcher presents us with a beatiful and talented young female violin prodigy and her rather unlikeable teacher/manager; an absolutely down on his luck, but if you're a mother you have to hug him, recovering drug addict car thief who only wants to be a movie maker; an elderly retired filmaker called out of retirement to film a Japanese dance troupe performing at the festival; a young recent university grad trying to get his flat cleaned up, repaired and on the market so he can leave Edinburgh in September for his new job in London; a pyrotechnic genius designing and producing his final show (the "starburst") before he retires; a thoroughly delightful standup comic from a pub in the burbs, whose local patrons take up a collection to book her act into the festival; and a young newly-wed assistant to the festival director who is fending off an obnoxious ex-lover and trying to keep everyone happy.

How these people all come together and resolve all their individual issues begins to build in the 2nd half of the book, and doesn't completely finish until the very end. It is a somewhat soupy, sachrine story, in that in the end we don't have a lot of surprises, but it is a well written and gentle read.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Author: William Kamkwamba with Bryan Mealer
Format: paperback ARC - 374 pgs
Subject: growing up in Malawi; famine; science experiments
Setting : Malawi, 2000-2008
Genre: memoir
Source:Review copy from Harper Collins
Challenge: ARC

At the age of 12, William Kamkwamba is literally dying of starvation. His country, Malawi, a small land-locked slab of sub-saharan Africa is suffering raging famine exacerbated by totally corrupt and inept rulers. The Kamkwamba family (parents and 4 children) has been reduced to eating one small meal a day consisting of a small handfull of a grain concoction and sometimes the addition of a pumpkin leaf. William, the only son, has been forced to drop out of secondary school because his farming family cannot afford the tuition. The erratic rain patterns (too much, then too little) of the past year have meant that their tobacco and maize crops failed. No food, no money to buy food, no crops to sell to make money, malaria and cholera adding to the mix, and no work for William or his father. Life could have been very dismal.

But William is a curious and basically happy child. He returns to the local grade school where the village library is housed. There he spends his days reading everything he can get his hands on so he won't be too behind if the chance to return to school ever happens. He finds books that came in a shipment from America, among them Integrated Science and Explaining Physics. His world expanded, and he immediately realized that if they could have electricity, his father could run a pump that would allow them to manage their water supply and have not only one, but two harvests a year. His family would not have to spend money on kerosene to have light at night, nor would they have to go to bed when it got dark at 7pm if the kerosene were running low.

Inspired by his reading and by seeing bicycle lights glowing from the energy generated from the dynamos run by pedals, he set about to build a windmill to generate that electricty for his family. It never occured to him that this was something many would consider impossible. The story of how he scavenged, begged, borrowed or found enough work to pay for parts and tools, and then built a working windmill is only the beginning of this inspiring story. Once the windmill became reality, and his house was 'wired', his family became the local cell phone charging outlet, and visitors began arriving to see this strange contraption made of a bicycle wheel, a bamboo tower, melted PVC pipes for blades, and hundreds of feet of bare metal wires. My favorite part was the 'insulated' light switch made from a discarded flip-flop.

The story of his adventures out of his village after he was 'discovered' by scientists and philanthropists is even more endearing. His first airplane ride, sleeping on a real bed in a hotel, and most of all discovering computers and the internet are joyfully related. Now in his 20's, and a university student, William is determined to bring electricity and education to his entire country. I can't wait to see him succeed.

This is a book that can be enjoyed by readers from about age 10 through adulthood. It is an uplifting tale that affirms our belief in human nature. It would make great extra credit reading for a basic high school physics class.

Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield

If you are a fan of Simon and his cat, this compilation will certainly resonate. For us other cat lovers who are only peripherally aware of the role of this human and feline in the universe, the stringy, black and white scribbly cartoons don't add much to our life. This one either works for you or it doesn't, and for me, no words, no color, no familiarity equals no go.

I won this in an online blog contest sponsored by Hachette Books, and I am truly disappointed.

I already have The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind on my TBR list, and I will have to move it up now. It sounds like a great story.

We have a cat who adopted us about 4 years ago. We can relate to much of what is in Simon's Cat. DH found the online videos awhile back so we had some preparation for how he portrays the cat.

After seeing my blog post about this book (basically the same as #38) my daughter posted that she loved this book (she'd gotten it from her in-laws for Christmas) and gave me a link to the you-tube videos. If I'd had that context, the book would have made more sense. As it is, I liked the videos, but still found the still cartoons less than entertaining.

Key Lime Murder Mystery

Author: Joanne Fluke

Format: audio - 12 hours, 374 pg equivalent
Characters: Hannah Swenson, Norman Rhodes, Mike Kingston
Subject: murder at the country fair
Setting: Lake Eden, Minnesota
Series: Hannah Swensen myseries (#9)
Genre: cozy mystery- amateur sleuth
Source: public library
Challenge: Audio Books, Support Your Local Library, TSM

These stories could never be described as great literature, but by this time (#9) in the series, the characters are like old friends, and we now read them as much to find out if Hannah will ever make up here mind and choose between the two gentlemen vying for her hand: Norman, a suave, gentle, geekie, cat-loving dentist, who normallytreats Hannah like a china princess; and Mike, the local sheriff, who manages to come and extricate Hannah from the traps she gets herself into trying to solve murders that seem to occur on a regular basis in Lake Eden Minnesota.

Norman's tendency to play knight errant to Hannah means that he often finds himself being rescued by his rival. Hannah's mother and Norman's mother (who are in cahoots to marry their offspring to each other) also continue to muddy the waters, and her sisters continue to help out. Nothing new, but still fun and easy to read. And the recipes still make the series worth owning....like a set of cookbooks.

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World

Author: Paul Collins
Format: hardback, 247 pgs
Subject: Shakespeare's First Folio
Setting: England, New York, Washington DC, Tokyo
Genre: non-fiction
Source: Bloomsbury Publishing, review copy
Challenge:ARC

Paul Collins writes an entertaining and enlightening tale of the First Folio of William Shakespeare. I am by no means a Shakespeare scholar, although like most educated Americans, I've been exposed to his works both in high school and in college. So I was unsure whether this would really interest me or not. I am however interested in books, and how they are printed, published and distributed.

The story of how his works were published, and the tortuous journeys of these volumes is fascinating and presented with a clear and somewhat humorous narration. Collins follows the folios throughout the world, tracking ownership, explaining the differences in different editions, and painting word pictures of these archival masterpieces, including the gravy stains and tea cup circles left on the (now) precious pages. I was especially interested in two aspects, the collection at the Folger Library in Washington DC, and the collection owned by the Japanese and held at the Meisei University in Tokyo.

I did my library science graduate work at Catholic University in Washington DC, growing up in that area, and living there for over 20 years of my adult life. Shamefully, I must admit that I have never been to the Folger, and felt the loss as I read Collins' descriptions of the physical plant, and the incredible holdings. The Folger is at the top of my list for places to go the next time I visit the area!

We lived in Japan for almost 5 years, although before the Meisei's massive collection of Shakesperiana was begun. I found the descriptions of the area quite true, and also was intrigued by his descriptions of Japanese theatre and how Shakespeare has been adapted to it over the past hundred plus years. I am familiar with kabuki, and with the marvelous Japanese puppet shows: Bunraku. He explains:

Along with such alien notions as soliloquies, the poetry, the English system of meter and accent, didn't make much sense in Japanese. ...Japanese words are consonant-vowel, and because of the confoundment of R and L, Hamlet became Hamuretto, and Shakespeare himself turned into Sheikusupia.

Puppets provided an excellent solution to the problem.

Collins' love of early printing, and the Folios in particular, is evident throughout the book. It is well researched, and provides additional resources at the end. I just wish he'd presented a bit more framing up front so I could have figured out earlier what he was attempting to tell us. It took me almost 100 slowly dragging pages before the light went on and then the story snowballed. For book lovers and students of Shakespeare this volume will provide hours of enjoyment.

I just added that one to the list. It sounds good.

True Blue unabridged 12-cd set

Author: David Baldacci
Narrator: Ron McClartey
Format: 12 discs (hrs) - equivalent 372 pgs
Characters: Mase Perry, Beth Perry, Roy Kingman
Subject: murder, national security,
Setting: Washington DC
Genre: Thriller, suspense
Source: Hachette Audio contest prize
Challenge: MUYM (Books Won), Audio Books, TSM
This is a scary book. The plot is scary, the characters scare the living blankety blank out of me, and the premise is nightmarish because it is so real.

It has a well developed, tightly written plot with many twists, surprises, and heart-stopping developments. Within the first 5 minutes of this audio, we have a US attorney murdered and his body stuffed in a dumpster by ??? --- are they good guys or bad guys??? This question will drop to the bottom of the dumpster with the body and only reappear much later in the book. In the meantime we have a female prisoner being molested by a guard and threatened by other inmates while she's trying to hold on for 3 more days until her release. And we have a high powered, big money corporate attorney discovering the body of a colleague in his office refrigerator when he goes for cream for his morning coffee. So much for trying to come in early to get work done!

It has characters whose actions sometimes require us to suspend belief, (what would you do if you were facing a gang of hoodlums with automatic weapons??---I won't spoil it, but I'm not sure my choice would have been the one written). Our heroine is constatly ignoring common sense, speeding off on her Dukati, and getting into all kinds of trouble, but like WonderWoman, she manages to extricate herself---all without a gun, and often without the help of her sister the Police Chief or her buddy the lawyer !!

The good guys are almost stereotypical--the blond female Washington DC police chief Beth Perry; her sister Mason (Mase)--a cop wrongly accused of dealing drugs who has recently been released from prison and is trying to clear her name and get her badge and gun back; Ron Kingman, a college basketball star turned corporate attorney who befriends a homeless Vietnam vet by giving him shoes, twinkies, and keeping tabs to be sure he's ok. Cap'n (the homeless vet) is one of the most fun characters in the book. He provides a few sad but comic moments in a very intense book.

The bad guys are numerous and often masquerade as good guys. The good guys aren't above a little law breaking if it serves their purpose. In fact, one of the scariest aspects of this book is that it's hard to tell who's who----good guy? bad guy?

The story is almost a political commentary on the state of US national security today and the scariest premise of all is that this kind of activity is going on in the name of national security, and none of us will ever know, or could do a thing about it if we did know.

As an audio, it is well served by Ron McClartey's crime reporter voice. I just wish that Hachette would not have included all the sound effects that seem to be de rigeur in today's MTV world. I listen to audio books because I find it difficult due to physical limitations to hold books for long periods of time, and my eyes are getting 'old' and tired. So I want to listen to the book. I don't want a stage production. My mind still works and I want to be able to IMAGINE the bullets zinging, the motorcycles zooming, the cars crashing. And ...Please............the "dum dah, dum dah, dum dah" music used to fade into and out of scenes reminds me of JAWS. I almost expected a shark to pop up. It will be bad enough when they make this a movie (and you know they will!) and we have to see all this. Until then, I'd rather paint my own mental pictures thank you.

I'm not sure it's the book for me, but if I read it, I will definitely skip the audio. That would drive me nuts.

The Body in the Cast

Author: Katherine Hall Page
Format: 275 pages, hardback
Characters: Faith Fairchild, Penny Bartlett, Tom Fairchild
Subject: murder, catering, movie making
Setting: fictional town of Aleford, Massachusetts
Series: Faith Fairchild Mysteries
Genre: mystery- amateur sleuth
Source: public library
Challenges Support Your Local Library, TSM

An well-developed mystery featuring amateur sleuth, Faith Fairchild. This is the fifth in the series, but the first I have read. Although there are references to previous episodes, the story stands alone quite well.

Faith Fairchild, married to the local minister, mother of two pre-schoolers, runs a catering business "Have Faith." She is hired to provide food to the cast and crew of a big Hollywood movie being filmed in their small town outside of Boston. The film is to be a modern take on The Scarlett Letter. At the same time, the town is having an election with an unheard slate of three people running for one vacancy on the town select board. One of the candidates is royally detested by most people in town.

As the filming begins, bodies start turning up, discovered by Faith. Her black bean soup seems to be the culprit in a mass food poisoning that hits the entire crew. And everytime these incidents occur, filming must be delayed, and the director goes into a frenzy over his budget.

There is a cast of typical hollywood divas, under-appreciated crew members, spoiled children, all harboring enough secrets to keep NSA busy decoding for a year.

I enjoyed this book and will certainly look for at least one more in the series. Faith seems to be a tick above the standard amateur sleuth. She is helpful, thoughtful and quite intuitive, but does not strike off on her own, put herself in danger, or forget to involve the local police. A thoroughly pleasant book with the added feature of recipes for several of the offerings from "Have Faith" catering.

I also enjoyed this series, except for The Body in the Big Apple, which is written as a sort of flashback before Faith was married. That one was very disappointing.

I have mixed feelings about the Faith Fairchild books by Katherine Hall Page. Some, I've loved but others, not so much.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Author:Banana Yoshimoto
Format: 140 pages, paperback
Characters: Mikage, Yuichi, Eriko
Subject: life, death, relationships
Setting: Tokyo Japan
Genre: fiction
Source: purchased from alibris
Challenge: MUYM (finish books)

This is an exquisite little book written n prose that is elegant and eloquent. Mikage, a young girl living in Tokyo, is suddenly orphaned when her grandmother dies. She is living alone, mourning, emotionally lost, when she is invited to stay with a school mate Yuichi and his transgendered mother/father(?) Eriko in their larger, more modern apartment. Her relationship with them speaks of losing, dying, recovering, and living again.

The second short story Moonlight Shadow tells another story of love lost and is equalling touching.

I had started this book last fall and unintentionally left it in Virginia at a friend's house. She mailed it back last week, and I was so thrilled to be able to finish it. It is sparse, short, and beautiful. Well worth finding.

>48 tututhefirst:, 49, 50 - I enjoy many of the Faith Fairchild books, but I'll agree with Linda (and cmbohn). I also did not enjoy The Body in the Big Apple. I've loved some much more than others. One of my favorites actually features her friend Pix as the sleuth (The Body in the Fjord). There was one that I knew I had not read, but it felt that I had. I'm sure I'd read the same basic plot by another novelist.

Thornton, Linda, and Cindy, ....thanks for the heads up on the Big Apple....with several others to choose from, I'll be able to read more of these w/o having to waste time on one that's not up to snuff.

The Postmistress

Author: Sarah Blake
Format: paperback galley, 322 pages
Characters: Iris James, Harry Vale, Emma Fitch, William Fitch, Frankie Bard
Setting: Franklin Mass, London 1941
Genre: literary fiction
Source: LibraryThing Early Review program
Challenges: ARC

Set on both sides of the Atlantic during the early months of WWII, this is a compelling novel that pulls us right into the lives of Iris James-the Postmaster at Franklin Mass on Cape Cod; Emma Fitch-new bride of the town's doctor; Harry Vale-a WWI vet who is convinced that the Germans will land a Uboat on Cape Cod; and of Frankie Bard, the radio reporter working in London with Edward R. Murrow during the Blitz

Miss James is determined to maintain order and discipline in her life. The mail will be stamped and delivered on time without pause. Harry Vale wants her to lower the Post Office's flag pole by several feet, claiming it serves as a beacon to Germans off-shore. Iris balks at that suggestion, but agrees to petition the postal department for permission.

Emma, still recovering from a feeling of being abandoned by parents who have died, clings to her husband trying to establish an identity in this small town. After listening to Frankie Bard's emotional broadcasts about the hardships being endured by the British during the bombing of London, and after other events I'll leave to the readers (I DON'T DO SPOILERS), Dr. Fitch leaves behind his practice, his town, and his bride to go to London to help the many victims of the bombings. He writes to Emma every night, and she mails him a letter every day. He promises he will return after six months. When his letters suddenly stop, Emma becomes more detached, and Iris, as she watches her continue to mail her daily letter, becomes more concerned.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Frankie meets Dr Fitch in an air raid shelter one evening, and emerges to find her apartment destroyed and her roomate (who had been covering the Jewish story) dead. She convinces Murrow to let her go behind the war lines into Germany to find out what is really going on with the Jews. She goes through France and Germany, gathering stories but not sure how (or whether) she will be able to tell them.

It is difficult to write about this story without spoiling the ending. It's not necessarily a mystery, but this is a nuanced, evolving study of the impact of trauma, callousness, abandonment, death, and cruelty on the human beings who must live through war, and whose ability to survive, whose very humanity is constantly tested. Frankie's stories of horror and personal suffering are particularly poignant and her mental anguish as she struggles to find a frame in which to report them, and deal with her meeting with Dr. Fitch, are a cogent and mesmerizing thread pulling us along to an inevitable and powerful ending.

I encourage the reader NOT to read the cover blurb. The 'hint' there about what is going to happen is overplayed, and comes so late in the story, that it is better left behind. The forceful march to the inescapable ending, and Blake's exquisite character development and prose make this a compelling page-turner. It is a five star read, and the reader needs no road map to enjoy the journey.

many many thanks to LT Early Review program for making this copy available.

Adding that one to the list. Thanks!

Abandoned book - your TBR Pile is safe! My Name is Will by Jess Winfield.

I really wanted to like this book. I really did. I got it as an Advance review copy from the publisher and have tried my darndest to get through it for the past 9 mos to do a review. Not happening. To get more see my blog "Unfinished Friday" due to post at midnight tonite.

The Black Echo

Author:Michael Connelly
Format: 14 discs (16 hrs) 496 pgs equivalent
Characters: Harry Bosch
Subject murder, bank robbery, Vietnam vets
Setting: Los Angeles
Series: Harry Bosch
Genre: detective mystery, police procedural
Source: Overdrive download audio from public library
Challenge: SYLL, TSM

By now most of the literate western world is aware of Michael Connelly's Harry (Heronimous) Bosch-- a rugged individualist with great detective instincts. I finally got around to reading him last fall when I got an ARC of The Brass Verdict and decided I wanted to go back to the beginning of this fascinating character. Black Echo is the first of what is now up to fifteen adventures.

With still vivid memories of his days serving in Vietnam, Bosch is called to investigate the murder of someone who served with him. in a plot with many twists, and indelible characters who keep us guessing as to who is on which side of good or bad, Connelly presents us with a protagonist who shows humanity along with ingenuity. Paired with a female FBI agent, Bosch is soon on the trail of bank robbers who seem to be tied to his homicide victim. There are Internal Affairs investigators, pompous Police Captains, and officious FBI operatives, but somehow Connelly avoids stereotyping. Definitely recommended.

China Lake

Author:Meg Gardiner

Format: 12 discs , 416 pgs equivalent
Characters: Evan, Brian, Luke & Tabitha Delaney,
Subject: Cults, Naval Aviation, crime
Setting: China Lake Air Station California
Series: Evan Delaney mysteries
Genre: mystery- amateur sleuth, thriller
Source: Overdrive audio download from public library
Challenges: SYLL, Audio, TSM

A new protagonist for me. Evan Delaney, attorney turned writer, has been given temporary custody of her nephew Luke. Luke's father (Evan's brother) is a Naval Aviator who is deployed to keep the world safe for democracy. His mother abandoned him because she could not abide the 'Navy way' of life. Mom subsequently joins a cult, which cult subsequently tries to kidnap Luke.

Evan and her paraplegic boyfriend Jessie- another attorney-become caught up in a series of rather 'suspend your belief' adventures as they try to return Luke to his father, now back from sea and stationed at China Lake Naval Base in the desert of California.

The book becomes a combination of good cop/bad cop, Rapture meets Hollywood, biological warfare meets Top Gun. I enjoyed the story but found Evan's character really stretched my ability to believe any of this could really have gone down the way it is portrayed.

There are four more books in this series. I will probably look for at least one more to see how Gardiner progresses as a writer. If you like cop thrillers with lots of over the top action, you'll love this one.

Death of a Valentine

Author: M.C. Beaton
Format: Hardback, 246 pages
Characters: Hamish Macbeth, Josie McSween
Subject: murder, romantic entrapment
Setting: Scottish Highlands
Series: Hamish Macbeth Mystery
Genre: mystery- cozy, police procedural
Source: public library
Challenges: Support your local library

Hamish Macbeth finally goes to the altar??

The story opens with Hamish standing before the altar as the minister asks the familiar "If any amongst you know of any reason why this man should not be joined to this woman...."

After being assigned a wee lassie female police constable as his assistant, Hamish is confronted with a series of murders, and he suspects they're related. While he tries to avoid the amorous advances of Constable Josie McSween, he manages to investigate, and solve the crimes. Throughout the story though the reader anxiously waits to see. Does Josie get her man?

Hamish Macbeth fans would lynch any reviewer who tells! If you are a fan of this wonderful cozy police procedural series set in the Scottish highlands, you will surely enjoy this one. If you've not read any before, it works as a stand alone. And I'll never tell............

Fireworks over Toccoa

Author: Jeffrey Stepakoff
Format: paperback galley proof 260 pgs
Characters: Lily Davis Woodward, Jake Russo, Andrew Woodward
Subject: love, duty, relationships, fireworks
Setting: Toccoa Georgia 1945, 2007
Genre: fiction
Source: Advanced Review Copy from St Martin's Press (Thomas Dunne Books)
Challenge: ARC

Married for just a few weeks before her husband Drew left to go overseas during the war, Lily Davis Woodward, daughter of a wealthy Coca Cola executive, has waited three long years to take her place in society. Now just a few days before his scheduled return, she meets Jake Russo, war veteran and pyrotechnic engineer. He is preparing a huge fireworks show to honor the returning servicemen.

When they meet, love happens-- slowly, tentatively, tenderly and then with same explosiveness of Jake's fireworks.

In understated, elegant, exquisite prose, Stepakoff presents us with a painful, tragic, gorgeous, affirming love affair. The character development of Lily and Jake, as well as the presentation of Lily's parents and other supporting characters, gives us a picture of longing, duty, relationships, and heartbreaking honesty. Lily's dad for instance says to her when he suspects she's conflicted about her husband's return:

"I have been married to the same woman at least five times. Marriage comes in phases. Some good, some not so good. But you work through things, and you grow, and you change, and you stick by the decision that you made, even when you were seventeen. That is your duty." (pg. 178)

The searing anguish of these star-struck lovers reaches its peak when Lily must choose whether to leave her home and roam the world with Jake shooting fireworks, or stay with her husband.The resolution of her dilemma is heart rending but almost inevitable.I will not spoil it for other readers.

This is simply one of the best love stories I've read in my adult life.

Wow, I guess I'm going to have to find this one.

Abandoned -for now-Book: The Hemingses of Monticello:An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed.

I've been working on this one for almost three weeks. It is ponderous, tedious, learned, well-researched, and I've certainly learned a lot. It really isn't for any specific challenge, although I thought it would be good background material for my participation in the US Presidents challenge.

I'm putting it aside for now. I've had it as an audio, and it's not working. I think it might work better in print, and will look for it. I'm just finding that I'm tiring of the author's constant speculation based on 'we really have no positive proof.' I realize that historians have to make assumptions. For that reason, I try to read non-fiction written only by well-vetted authors. I felt that winning a National Book Award was plenty of vetting, but I also feel let down.

Let's hope a different format will remedy my indifference toward this one.

Lovely Bones

Author: Alice Sebold
Format: 328 pgs paperback ARC
Characters: Susie Salmon, her family, Ray Singh, Mr. Harvey
Subject: unsolved murder
Setting: Pennsylvania 1973 and forward
Genre: fiction
Source: ARC from Hachette Book Group
Challenge: ARC

Wonderful read. So many good reviews posted I can't add much. As you probably know, this is the story of a 14 year old girl, Susie Salmon, who is murdered, but whose body is not found. Susie narrates the story from heaven and shows us what her parents, her siblings, her schoolmates, the police,and the murderer are doing as everyone searches for her body. NO SPOILERS. IT's actually a beautiful story. I was afraid it would be too goulish, but it's not.

Can't believe I missed it when it first came out in 2002. My copy was an ARC of the recently re-issued paperback. It's now out in a movie, which I've not yet seen, but I'd definitely recommend the book. Just read it.

Abandonded Book: Broken Road to Disaster Recovery by Keifer Bonvillain.

An ARC I got late last summer self-published by the author. It is poorly written, surreptiously researched, and not vetted by anyone except the author. Billed as the undercover whistle blowing story of corruption in Louisiana and FEMA, the author sets out to prove he has the scoop. I just couldn't finish this one. It smacked of overblown self-importance--the author seemed to be the only person in the US who knew corruption and was qualified to report on it. If it hadn't been his 2nd such work, he is the author of Ruthless: A Tell-All Book about Oprah WinfreyI'd have had more inclination to pay attention. I felt like I should have been in the supermarket checkout sneaking a peak at the National Enquirer.

The writing was bombastic, snarky, overblown, and in need of good editing. After 50+ pages, I decided life is too short. If there's truly a scandal to be reported, then I'll wait til it breaks. I won't rate it because I didn't finish it.

Keep your eyes posted on the Member giveaway if you're interested. I'll probably post it over there in the next couple days.

</i>>62 tututhefirst: Some years ago, I read Annette Gordon-Reed's first book about Sally Hemmings. I remember finding it interesting, but feeling vaguely disappointed when I was done. It did, however, satisfy my curiosity about Sally, and I can't imagine how there could be enough additional information for another whole book, although I believe that the DNA tests were completed after that book was published.

Then Came the Evening

Author: Brian Hart
Format:; 262 pgs hardback
Characters: Bandy, Iona and Tracy Dorner
Subject:rebuilding relationships
Setting: Idaho valleys
Genre: fiction
Source: Bloomsbury publishers review copy
Challenge: ARC

This is an intense book. The setting is stark and beautiful--the wilds of Idaho.  I've never been there, but I had no trouble picturing the trees,the clouds,the winds,the gulleys,the old barns, and the valley.The scene is haunting.

The characters are intense.  There are three: Bandy, Iona, and Tracy. While several others play more than cameo roles, these three broken, dysfunctional, hurting, needy people form the basis of the story and and keep us from putting down this book while we read how they try to mend their lives and the lives of those they hurt.

The story itself is intense. There are action scenes, and scenes of incredible stillness watching two or three people trying to puzzle out what to say, where to go, what to do next. While there is no plot per se, there is a distinct beginning, a page-turning middle and a clear and dramatic end. The reader is pulled in from the very first pages and marches inexorably to an end at once fearful and hopeful.

Bandy Dorner, home from service in the Army, awakes from a drunken stupor in his crashed car, to find his house burned to the ground, and his pregnant wife running off with her lover. There's a struggle with the arresting law enforcement persons, and when next we see Bandy,the convicted felon sitting in a prison 18 years later facing the son he never knew he had. Tracy, tired of living with his alcoholic mom Iona, has run to meet and claim his other parent.

Iona manages to provide for her son during those long years of Bandy's imprisonment by first marrying an OK guy, and moving to Washington State. Then when that husband dies, Iona finds herself working a series of dead-end jobs, and moving in with her sister. Both ladies find it easier to 'bring home the bacon' by servicing gentlemen in their bedroom rather than waiting tables, or running a cash register, as long as the booze and drugs are well stocked.

As soon as he is old enough, Tracy sets out to find his roots. After visiting his father in the prison, he returns to the original family homestead in Idaho and begins to rebuild. When his father is released from prison, and his mother sobers up and comes to find the son she finds she misses, the three of them begin a slow waltz, circling each other, measuring how much effort building a relationship as well as a house will take.

Brian Hart gives us a gut-wrenching story in clean, clear, poetic prose. There is pain, hurt, violence, and heart-breaking betrayal while at the same time there is love, forgiveness, tenderness, and reaching out to rebuild what has been lost. We find ourselves routing for these people even as we fear the possibility of a train-wreck.

The ending is absolutely stunning. We should all hope that Hart has more in his repetoire where this came from. It's a keeper.

A Fatal Grace

Author: Louise Penny
Format: audio -8 discs (10 hrs), 368 pages equivalent
Characters: Armand Gamache, Jean Guy Beauvoir
Subject: murder in a small town
Setting: Three Pines, outside Montreal
Series: The Three Pines Mysteries
Genre: mystery, detectives
Source: public library audio book
Challenge: Support Your Local Library, Audio books, Thrillers Suspence and Mystery

Once again, Louise Penny takes us to that idyllic village in the Pines outside Montreal, where we all want to go on our vacation to experience the beauty, the quiet, the inhabitants whom we are beginning to regard now as friends. In this 2nd of the Three Pines Mystery series, we even begin to like that eccentric old lady Ruth, the poet, the head of the volunteer fire department.

Ruth contributes one of the more memorable lines of the book by insisting that soldiers about to die at the Somme yelled "F**K the pope!!" as they popped out of their trenches and went to meet their death. This is so comical coming from a prim old lady, that it actually becomes not offensive but hysterically funny, as it works into helping to solve the murder. NO MORE SPOILERS

Inspector Gamache and his team must find out who killed a woman who was electrocuted on a frozen pond while watching the town's annual Boxing Day curling match.

The fact that absolutely no one in the town liked the victim, or even seemed to know much about her, makes the job even harder. Penny is beginning to hit her stride in this one, as she offers us several different possibilities for the perpetrator, introduces some new characters, and expands on the character of Armand Gamache that we met in her first book "Still Life."

When we finally figure it out (or did we?) there's still several chapters left, and we find perhaps we didn't get it right after all.

I listened to this in audio and it's such a treat to hear the bi-lingual give and take, the elegance of the Quebecois as they go about day to day life. To read (or listen) to these books is to fall in love with characters, a town, a region. I can't wait to read more.

Oh, I bet this one was fun on audio. I really enjoyed the book, but hearing the French would have added a lot.

War Torn


Contributors: Tad Bartimus, Denby Fawcett, Jurate Kazickas, Edith Lederer, Ann Bryan Mariano, Anne Morrissy Merick, Laura Palmer, Kate Webb, Tracy Wood
Format: Hardback 340 pgs
Subject: Women reporters in Vietnam War (non-fiction)
Setting: Vietnam
Genre: Non-Fiction, personal recollections
Source: public library

When I think of Vietnam, I think of the soldier's faces. Unguarded, innocent, smiling. They were all so young, unprepared for the filth and degradation of war. No one wanted to be in that distant, strange land, but they did not complain. Some felt it was their duty to come to Vietnam. Some never stopped questioning why they were there. But they fought; they died....I wanted to write about these men.----Jarate Kazickas War Torn, "These Hills Called Khe Sanh" pg.121.

In 1966, when I graduated from an all-female college, women were just beginning to embrace the concept that opportunities were open to them, that we went to college to get an education-not a husband, although many of us still embraced the "womanly" occupations of school teacher, nurse, and librarian. I joined the Navy, and found myself (after a rigorous Officer Candidate training in Newport RI) serving in a schools command personnel office in Newport where for the next two plus years, I spent 50% of my time, signing orders and travel papers and getting clearances to send graduates of the Navy's various training schools in Newport to duty in Vietnam. None of my Newport classmates (all females) served in country. The only women the Navy sent were nurses. I signed their orders, but I didn't go through training with them and I didn't go to war with them. My war was at home, convincing myself that our country couldn't possibly make the horrible mistake the war protesters screamed we were making.

My husband graduated from the Naval Academy that same year, and many of his classmates did go to Vietnam. Several didn't return. He went in 1972, commanding a large ocean going tug ferrying barges in and out of that dangerous area. We don't talk a lot about the war. To this day, I cannot go to the Vietnam War Memorial (THE WALL) without breaking down in tears. It's not just for the people we know. The tears are for all the people we didn't know, that we'll never have the chance to know, and for the loved ones who never had the chance for a long life together like we have had, for the incredible carnage and anguish our country endured because of what is known as Vietnam.

So........it was with a great deal of trepidation that I took on the reading challenge War Throughout the Generations: Vietnam sponsored by Anna and Serena. I wasn't certain I was ready to tackle what I was sure could only be an extremely politicized and polarizing experience. I don't watch war movies, I can't stand to see anything with blood and guts and guns and grenades. I even have trouble reading some 'thrillers' if they're too graphic. Is it that if I can't picture it, then it didn't happen? I'm especially sure that I'll probably never be able to publicly blog about my still conflicted thoughts.

War Torn, was the perfect book for me to begin my reading, and maybe even to begin to examine my feelings. Written by nine women who served as war correspondents in Vietnam during various periods of the conflict between 1966 and 1975, the diverse perspectives, adventures, and experiences of this group helped me to come to grips with the fact that it's ok not to be able to resolve our feelings. They came from a variety of backgrounds and educations (one had never worked in any journalistic capacity - she got to Vietnam as a pediatrician's girlfriend!), they had an assortment of marching orders (from covering traditional women's items like families and food to going anywhere the military would permit them), and they had a wide range of reactions.

I was struck so strongly by their love of the country and the people. Anyone I've ever spoken to who went there speaks of the beauty of the land, and the gentleness and integrity of the people. The government may have been corrupt, and the land may have been decimated by all participants, but these women were all able to find something positive to bring out of their experiences. I was especially struck by their insistence of getting the word out about what the average GI was really going through, by trying to get to know them, convincing field commanders to let them accompany troops in the field, and then report about soldier's heroism, fears, and battlefield wisdom.

I was also struck by the difference between "the war" as experienced by those who stayed mainly in Saigon, and "the war" out in the valleys, in the mountains, in the villages.

Kate Webb: "...back in Saigon it was different. You got back more often than not stinking, sweat caked, mosquito bitten, and badly in need of a shower, the images of the last week or ten days --the loss, the nerves, the bitterness, the adrenaline, the fear-- to lights, booze, laughter, and martinis on the terrace of the Caravelle (hotel) pg. 68.

The courage (some might say recklessness?) exhibited by this group as they schlepped up mountain sides wearing 100 lb packs, burned leeches off their arms and legs, waded across rivers holding their precious cameras and tape recorders over their heads, ducked into trenches to avoid flying mortars was not what was expected of 'little ladies' of our generation. Several were wounded, a couple have debilitating physical issues that will follow them for the rest of their lives. They adopted Vietnamese children, wrote books, and basically did what they were supposed to do--they reported what they saw.

Several admitted however, that they had been unable to think about or reminisce about their time until this project was proposed. It was only in this book, 25 -30 years after they left, that they allowed themselves to confront some of the very emotional issues they had to bury in order to report in an objective manner. Kate Webb was taken prisoner (in Cambodia) at one point. In writing about the experience, her ability to detach and report is impressive.

With the lack of any news or reference point, any reality check, in the grey limbo of 'the prisoner'--where you are not among the living or the dead of the war, but trapped in a gray twilight with no links to the living world--you reach a point inside yourself that you wouldn't reach otherwise. Pg. 78

There are other memorable quotes from several of them:

Anne Bryan Mariano: "Being in the field proved to me that while there are many cases of individual courage and heroism among soldiers, there is nothing about war itself that is heroic." (pg. 39)

Tad Bartimus : "In my youth I thought I was invincible, that if I didn't get shot or visibly maimed, I'd get away clean. But surviving a war doesn't mean you escape being its victim. .....my ongoing health problems (from exposure to Agent Orange?) remind me that thousands of veterans still fight the Vietnam War every day in their own bodies." pg. 188, 217.

Laura Walker, who 'hitchhiked' to Vietnam with no press credentials or experience, writes eloquently of the other group of women who served in Vietnam, and about whom as a group not much has been written, the nurses.

The myth is that women weren't in combat. In an official sense, that's true...Nurses saw the war from the inside out, from the rotting wounds infested with maggots to the stink of burned flesh, the mangled limbs, and the sucking chest wounds....The nurses wanted, willed, hoped, believed, prayed, and yearned for their patients to live so much that each death felt like a defeat. Nearly every nurse came home with a debilitating and corrosive sense of failure embedded in her soul. If only she ad been a better nurse, more would have survived.

These are powerful and empowering stories-- for women and men. If you want to start reading about actual 'in country' experiences, this is a great place to start.


Challenge: War Thru the Generations

January Recap

I read 23 books (not counting the four I abandoned) -they're listed in msg#1 at the beginning of this thread.

Of those my top five are

1. Fireworks over Toccoa
2. Then Came the Evening
3. Supreme Courtship
4. True Blue
5. The Postmistress.

Unfortunately, Fireworks and Evening won't be in the stores until next month...But they are worth waiting for.

It was a great month....

69 - Wow, Tina, great review. I was born in 1969, so I have no memory of the Viet Nam war at all. All I know is gathered from what my parents said, and they didn't say much. Today my kids ask me what the war was about, and I really don't know what to say. As the generation born during the whole thing, it seems like we are struggling to understand it because those who lived through it still don't know themselves what to say. It still feels raw and unresolved to them, and the rest of us born afterward have no clear picture of what really happened. This book sounds like a good place to start. Maybe it's a good time for me to start reading about it.

Great Review.

My husband and I graduated in '68 and he joined the Navy - spent some months in Newport, then served on an aircraft carrier whose pilots flew missions over Vietnam and Cambodia. I've thought for a long time that the ship's crew tended to avoid becoming too friendly with the Navy fliers because of a subconscious realization that on any given day some of the planes wouldn't be coming back. Even today he doesn't read about the war and can't watch movies like 'Good Morning, Vietnam' and gets angry when he thinks too much about the protests that were going on back in the states.

I never knew how hard it was for you. My tears wouldn't stop as I read your words.

sending a big hug

A great review of War Torn, I am definitely going to be looking for a copy. Thanks.

Did you see that your War Torn review made it to the hot list? Way to go!

Thanks to Cindy and Judy for your kind words. I had to go 'unlock' the hot reviews because I'd hidden them on my home page. LOL.

WARNING I may be off line for awhile. My computer has developed some nasty nasty behavior (I don't get the blue screen of death, I get the white screen of black dots screen of frozen nothing) so it's in the hospital now going through a queen's ransom worth of diagnostics.....
thankfully hubbie let me use his, and I can check email on my blackberry, but it's not the same as visiting with you all (or blogging) on a full screen with regular keyboard. So stand by, just means I'll have more time to read and have lots of reviews stacked up.

#69 -Thanks for your excellent review of War Torn. My current read, on the Australian experience in Vietnam, references another book that might be of interest to you - Minefields and Miniskirts: Australian Women and the Vietnam War by Siobhan McHugh. Originally published in 1993, a revised and updated edition was reissued in 2005 by Hachette Livre Australia. The book was also adapted for the stage by Terence O'Connell, so potential purchasers should be careful which book they're buying - the original or the stage play!

peter -that definitely sounds like it will be worth pursuing. It's not in our state system anyplace, so when I get my computer back up with all my bookmarks, I'll start searching my other sources. Thanks for the heads up.

The Khan Dilemma

Author: Ron Goodreau
Format: paperback ARC galley proof -282 pages
Characters: Rich Danko, Max Siegel, Franny Rappaport
Subject: corruption, National Security, rogue intelligence
Setting: Las Cruces, California
Genre: crime fiction; suspense
Source: ARC from iUniverse publishing
Challenge: ARC cleanup challenge, Thrillers and Suspsense

An outstanding debut thriller. Cashing in on the abundence of homeland security rogue operations scenarios sweeping the literary and video world, Ron Goodreau, practicing DA and new author, gives us a tight, chillingly believable plot with a host of good guys/bad guys (who's who we're never sure), fast paced action, excellent dialogue, and characters you can definitely picture.

A young Pakistani, Raheem Khan, has been caught red-handed by a citizen neighbor at the scene of a double homicide in a quiet residential neighborhood. Rich Danko the current DA in Las Cruces is under investigation for corruption when he is approached by FBI agents to quelch Khan's indictment avoiding a splashy trial, and ured to make the whole thing go away. Hoping to work a quid pro quo with the Feds, he hands off what he considers to be a career buster mess to his hated rival and assistant DA Max Siegel. Max immediately smells a rat and enlists the help of his favorite investigator, retired Special Forces paratrooper Franny Rappaport. Both Max and Franny dislike the FBI's handpicked lackey Detective Dale Cox and set out to discover "the rest of the story."

The plot rolls along, the pages turn quickly, and within a few hours the incredible ending arrives. It's a story worthy of a movie script. I hope that Max Siegel, the hunky protagonist turns up in more books. He is a lawyer one could almost learn to love.

#80 sounds like the kind of book I love reading - great review, Tina!

Author: Kathy Reichs
Format: audio book- 9 discs (10+hours),320 pg equivalent
Characters: Detective Ryan, Temperance Brennan
Subject: murder investigation, identification of remains
Setting: Montreal, North Carolina
Series: Temperance Brennan
Genre: crime fiction
Source: audio books from public library
Challenge: Support your Local library, Thrillers and Suspense, Medical Mysteries, Audiobooks

My first Reichs read. Being as claustrophobic as I am,I had a hard time with the subject matter (NO SPOILERS). I also felt that she was trying to politicize her obvious bias about the professional credentials required for various forensic experts. I'll read another one before passing judgment on the series.

Basically, Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, is working various cases in Montreal and in North Carolina.(I gather our heroine bi-locates. When bad judgements appear in her examinations and reports,she sets out to discover who or what may be sabotaging her good name. Four different murders of elderly women and identifying the remains of a family lost on a boating trip 40 years ago are all begging for her attention.

There is a love(on again, off again?)interest with a detective named Ryan,a wonderful cat and a snarky neighbor. The lineup is good, the plot was well developed, and without the campaigning it would have been an enjoyable read.

Another ARC I'm ashamed to admit I've had since last summer. Wish I hadn't waited so long

Weight of Silence

Author: Heather Gudenkauf
Format: bound galley edition - 384 pgs
Characters: Calli, Deputy Sheriff Louis, Petra, Martin, Antonio
Subject: missing children, selective mutism
Setting: small town in Iowa
Genre: fiction
Source: Mira Books
Challenge: ARC completion

An absolutely heart-pounding read. I picked it up last night to start it so I could get an idea of about how long it would take. I finished it 3 1/2 hours later. I still need to gather my thoughts for a review, but it's a terrific read. I was reluctant to start it since it dealt with missing children, and after some of the darker reading I've been doing, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle it.

Gudenkauf writes from knowledge of disabilities. One of the little girls who is missing suffers from 'selective mutism.' Much of the book deals with the mystery of why she is unable to speak. Their is an element of mystery, a poignant lost love, great emotional development of all the characters.

Briefly (NO SPOILERS) Calli and Petra - BFFs- aged 7, go missing early one morning. Parents, police, and townspeople begin the search in the woods behind the girls houses, where they liked to wonder. Ben, aged 14, Calli's brother goes into the woods to search.

The book deals, in very short chapters, with the search for these two. Every character has a story, and Gudenkauf allows those characters to speak in their own voice. Normally I find changing voices a distraction, but here it works really well.

The results of the search, and the resolution of personal issues I'll leave for the reader to find out.

Execution Dock



Author: Anne Perry
Format: audio book, 10 discs ( hrs.) 304 pgs equivalent
Characters: Hester and William Monk, Oliver Rathbone,
Subject: murder and child enslavement
Setting: Victorian England
Series: William Monk novels
Genre: detective mysteries
Source: Overdrive download from public library
Challenge: Thrillers and Suspense, Audio Books, Support Your Local Library

This is #16 in Anne Perry's William Monk series, and although I eventually enjoyed it as much as the others, this one almost had me giving up. She spends an inordinate amount of time to say the same things over and over again.

We understand that Monk has identity issues. We understand he has an inferiority complex. We understand the complexities of his relationship with Oliver Rathbone. We quickly figure out that Hester is suffering for her husband's mental anguish and wants to help, but good grief....get over it and get on with the book. It's #16, and while the author certainly needs to identify issues for 1st time readers, we don't need all 15 previous books worth of finger wringing.

In this story, Monk's mentor Durbin is dead. Monk and his 2nd in command Orme, capture one of their top ten criminals - a notorious peddler of pre-pubescent males for pornographic pictures and for catering to the 'needs' of gentlemen of Victorian England with the cash and discretion to participate in these sorts of activities.

NO Spoilers, so this may be a little thin....Oliver Rathbone is hired to defend the wretch and Monk and Hester are called to testify.

The ensuing trial and its aftermath add more and more plot twists, give us more of Perry's incredible insight into the mores of the period, and culminate in a great splash of an ending. Definitely worth reading if you're a Perry fan. If you're new to the series, it might do to start back a bit further.

first category (AKA Challenge) complete!

My last book finished up the required books for the Thrillers and Suspense category.

like I'm really going to stop reading mysteries. RIGHT.......

The Monkey's Raincoat



Author: Robert Crais
Format: audio 8 hrs, 237 pgs equivalent
Narrator: Patrick Lawlor
Characters: Elvis Cole, Joe Pike
Subject: murder, abduction
Setting: Los Angeles area
Series: Elvis Cole detective series
Genre: mystery - private detectives
Source: Overdrive audio download
Challenge: Thrillers and Suspense, Support your local library, Audio books

Like I said....I'm really going to stop reading mysteries....yeah........

This was a perfect book for me right now. With the computer down for the last week, I spent some time catching up on my needlework and listening to audio books whilst doing so. This one had been sitting on my MP3 for awhile, and I decided to see what it was all about.

Robert Crais has published over a dozen Elvis Cole/Joe Pike detetive mysteries. While this is the first one I've read, it certainly will not be the last.

Elvis Cole, Vietnam Vet and now private eye is in business with the enigmatic Joe Pike, who later gets his own series, but plays a pumped up cameo role in this one. A beautiful but tearful lady appears in his office to report his husband and 8 yr old son missing. As Elvis begins detecting, he finds himself embroiled in a nasty fight over drugs, with the requisite dealers, Hollywood talent scouts, did I say it was set in Los Angeles? domineering friends, Mexicans, Eskimos, a friendly cop willing to help him, and the stereotypical upper level "special ops" cop pushing him out of the picture. At one point, all I could think of was Rockie and Dennis in The Rockford Files.

This story had a believable plot, with terrific dialogue and characters I could believe. I may have wanted to smack a few of them upside the head, but I could believe them, root for (or against) them, and although I didn't care for some of the tactics used by either side in this undeclared war, I found they read true.This is a series I'm definitely looking forward to getting into. I want to know more about Elvis and his very puzzling partner Joe Pike. I want to see if they can keep up this pace.

The Case of the Missing Servant



Author: Tarquin Hall
Format: audio book 8 hrs, 23 minutes, equivalent 340 pgs
Characters: Vish Puri, Rumpie, Tubelight, Facecream, Flush
Subject: solving crime in India (non-fiction)
Setting: modern day India
Series: Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator Series
Genre: mystery - private detective
Source: Overdrive download from public library
Challenge: Support your local library, Thrillers and Suspense, Audio Books

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The author manages to take a basic mystery cozy format and give us a well drawn portrait of life in modern day India by contrasting the lives of haves and have-nots. Vish Puri is a fascinating, intelligent, well-educated, detective who lives with his "Mummie-ji" (think Grandma Mazur from Janet Evanovitch), his wife Rumpie (she calls him "Chubbie" and tries unsuccessfully to regulate his caloric intake) and several servants who are well paid and well treated.

Puri's office crew all have wonderfully descriptive nicknames (they call him "Boss") -Tubelight, Flush, Facecream-- and they go about helping him not only serve a large clientele of parents researching prospective spouses for the arranged marriages so common in India, but also helping to prove the innocence of a famous lawyer accused of the murder of his servant Mary who has disappeared. The family only knows her name was Mary and she was not from their town. No last name, no picture, no registration papers, etc. Puri smells a rat and goes about trying to find Mary (how many gazaillion women in India are named Mary?) find out if she was murdered, and if so, who did it.

The portrait of India reminded me of Alexander McCall Smith's loving portrait of Botswana in the 1st Ladies Detective Agency series. Vish Puri is a believable, likeable detective and readers should hope that more of his adventures are forthcoming.

That sounds really good. I really like the Inspector Ghote series, set in the 70s and 80s in India, but I'd love to read an updated series.

Cindy - I hadn't heard of the Inspector but I just checked and they have one in our local library. I'll put in on the list to take a look next time I'm there. Thanks for the lead.

I read a couple of his book last year, and one of them made it to my Top 10 of the year - Under a Monsoon Cloud.

My husband loves Ghote and I find his adventures interesting as well.

30 Buried Strangers


Author: Leighton Gage
Format: hard copy 308 pages
Characters: Mario Silva, Arnaldo Nunez, Hector Costa
Subject: crime, police corruption
Setting: Sao Paolo, Brasilia Brasil
Series: Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation
Genre: police procedural
Source: public library
Challenge: Support Your local Library, Thrillers and Suspence

Another detective, another geographic setting, and more police corruption. In this one, Mario Silva, Chief Inspector for Criminal Matters of the Federal police of Brazil, is trying to solve a crime in the city of Sao Paolo. What are these bones discovered when a dog dug one up? They're obviously human, but there appears to be a mass grave with 30-40 bodies. When the local cop on the scene, Delegado Tanako, is killed, Silva's boss reluctantly lets the team go from their base in Brasilia to investigate, although he'd much rather they stay in town and dig up some dirt on the man who is running against him in the upcoming elections.

While in Sao Paolo, Silva and his deputy Arnaldo and his nephew Hector, also become involved in locating a family missing from that cities' infamous favelas (slums). Could this disappearance be connected with the bodies in the mass grave? Many theories are advanced, many palms greased, a little romance blossoms, and Silva goes back and forth between Sao Paolo and Brasilia, while his crew continues to track clues. Who are these people? Are they related? Why were they killed? And what happened to the witnesses who reported the other family missing? There are characters who are quite nasty, others who are quite likeable, and the plot certainly contains enough action and clues to keep us turning pages. In fact, I was so engrossed in finding out how it ended, that I read the last 35 pages while working out on the eliptical!

Leighton Gage, the author of this well-plotted who-dunnit, lives part-time in Brazil. His knowledge of this huge country is obvious, and his ability to weave the language, the regional diversity and the mores of this nation into the story is exceptional. The reader gets a clear picture of modern day crime activities in Brazil, and gets a crime detective who hopefully will appear in upcoming episodes.

The Singer's Gun

Author: Emily St. John Mandel
Format: galley proof 304 pgs
Publication date: May 4, 2010
Characters:Anton, Elena, Aria, Agent Broden
Subject: moral choices
Setting: New York City, Ischia Isle- Italy
Genre: fiction
Source: ARC from publisher
Challenge: ARC completion

I'm not sure I liked this book, on the other hand, I didn't dislike it. It was very slow getting started, the characters were not very likable, (although I suspect they are quite representative of real people), and I had a hard time figuring out just where the author was going with the story. Suddenly at around page 150 it finally started picking up steam and I felt like it would not be a waste to finish it.

Essentially, except for the Homeland Security officer Alexandra Broden who is investigating immigration and passport fraud, just about every other character in the book is participating in some kind of fraud. There are two couples who shouldn't be couples, there are parents who find nothing wrong with teaching (or at least encouraging) their son and adopted daughter how to cheat at everything, there are the 'innocents' who are living lives of fear based on fraudulent identities; there are blackmailers, murderes, bullies, smugglers, and there's Anton and Elena--the central characters--whom Mandel would have us believe are just a poor schmucks who truly dislike what they are doing and want to change, but don't know how.

This was an ARC I got from Unbridled Books (I think via Shelf Awareness?) and it's not a bad book. It has eloquent blurbs touting the splendidness of the author's prose. Yes, the prose is clear, it's concise, and it paints a good picture. I just wasn't buying the premise the picture was painting. To finish the book is to arrive at the last page seriously depressed that such people exist in our world.

It's hard to explain or review this book without spoilers. It would be a GREAT book for a discussion group because the moral judgments and choices depicted all could have been different, but that would have made a different story. It's a good read, but probably not for everyone. If you can objectively handle dishonesty, cheating, theft, manipulation, and corruption, then you will probably enjoy this read.

And given the taste of today's movie going public, it would probably be a box office hit.

The Case of the Missing Books


Author: Ian Sansom
Format: Trade paperback, 336 pages
Characters: Israel Armstrong
Subject: bookmobiles (mobile libraries)
Genre: cozy mystery
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your local library

Another new series for me. I'd seen this one recommended by several readers on LT threads, and our local library had a copy to check out. It's not great lit, not even great mystery writing, but it is an amusing, pleasant cozy read.

Israel Armstrong, a down and out librarian wannabe from London, tires of his job working in a bookstore, and prodded by his girlfriend (who appears to be tiring of his "Poor me" attitude) takes a job as librarian in Tumdrum, County Antrim. He arrives to find a notice on the door that the library is closed due to 'reallocation of resources'. He is shocked and dismayed to find that he is expected to drive a mobile library (i.e., a bookmobile), live in a renovated chicken coop, and Oh yeah....by the way, the library's books --all 15,000 of them--- seem to have disappeared.

His misadventures due to language difficulties and his personal fuddy-duddiness (is that a word?) are somewhat humorous, and are the stuff of which BBC comedy shows are made.

As I said, it was a fun read, but nothing to rave about. I'm not sure how on earth the author is going to make a series out of this, so I'll probably try one more just to see how the rather thin plot is expanded

Women Around Jesus by Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel


This was the first of my annual list of Lenten reading. It is also one from my TBR shelf- it's been sitting there since the early 90's. Unfortunately, that is one of the negatives about the book---there is nothing in here past that date, and I think there certainly has been more written on the subject.

That said, in this one the author looks at various women mentioned in the bible or other contemporaneous writings and then researches thoroughly future mentions and interpretation of the traditional view of these women. The reading is very academic, although the book cover mentions that this is an example of "the forgotten art in theology: the use of imagination". I found the imagination too dry to get my arms around. Recommended for anyone looking for scholarly discussion, but not for general reading. I had a hard time finding 'relevance' although there were interesting tidbits.

If you're interested in the entire Lenten reading list, it's posted Ash Wednesday Already - It's too early to be Lent on my blog.

after I made that list, I added my current read Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice which I'm enjoying immensely--review soon

>94 tututhefirst: I hated that book by Ian Samson when I read it. I didn't like the main character nor the plot. I generally love library mysteries, but that is one series that I will not revisit. I just wish Jo Dereske would write some more Helma Zukas ones!

>95 tututhefirst: It's interesting to me that you have deliberately set up Lenten reading. I was noticing last week that for the past 3 years (since I've been keeping track and listing books read each month) that February and March are when I've chosen to read books about religion. I suspect it subconsiously has a lot to do with Lent -- maybe next year I'll also plan a Lenten read.

Called Out of Darkness


Author: Anne Rice
Format: 245 pages, hardback
Subject: religious faith; conversion
Genre: memoir
Source: Public library
Category: Support your Local Library

Another of my Lenten reads....An honest, soul-searching, look into the personal faith journey of one of America's most noted novelists. Going from Roman Catholicism to atheism and secular humanism back to Roman Catholicism, she allows us to see her upbringing in very Catholic New Orleans during the late 1940s and 1950s, her struggles with reading, and gender issues which attending first a Catholic college, and then a state university in Texas. She gives us breath-taking detail of the journey, in some cases TMI, and only gives us her "conversion" and subsequent love affair with Jesus in the last 15% of the book.

I've never read any of her vampire or other novels, but have read both of her Christ the Lord novels and found both of those very inspirational. Her early education in catholic school with the Sisters of Mercy brought back many memories of my years with this wonderful group of women. The issues she dealt with on reaching young adulthood were hauntingly recognizable to many of our generation. A great start to put me in a reflective mindset for Lent.

The House on Beartown Road



Author: Elizabeth Cohen
Format: 272 pages, 7 hrs, 35 min audio
Characters: Elizabeth, Daddy, Baby
Subject: Aging, Alzheimer's, single parenting
Setting: current, upstate New York
Genre: memoir
Source: Overdrive audio book download through public library
Challenge: Audio Books, Support Your Local Library

A heartbreaking story about a woman who moves from Arizona to an old farmhouse in upstate New York with her artist husband and one year old daughter. Subsequently, her 80 year old father comes from Arizona to live with them. Daddy has Alzheimer's. Hubbie has a total lack of marital commitment and leaves, and she is left to raise the baby and the father. She writes eloquently of the struggles her father has to remember and the struggles of her daughter to learn.

Daddy walks around now this way, dropping pieces of language behind him. The baby following picking them up.

She writes about the surprising (to her) neighborliness of others on the street as they bring wood up to her porch, plow her driveway and shovel her walk. She tells us about her attempts to find help, her sister's problems dealing on the opposite coast with their mother. Through it all, her daughter is the shining star who brings everyone together.

"It isn't fatal Daddy, you could live a long time. You'll just forget things. " That's the same thing as being dead.", he says.

The story is poignant in its outlook, but surprisingly not a tear jerker. It is inspiring.

Writing gives me a sense of control. It has its own special alchemy. I can make what is terrible turn beautiful.

Highly recommended to anyone who is dealing with, or may ever have to deal with issues of aging. It's not preachy, it's not a how-to. It's simply a well-written moving story very worth reading.

Animal Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life



Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Format: 14 hrs audio, 400 pages equivalent
Subject: local organic farming
Setting: rural western Virginia
Genre: memoir
Source: Overdrive audio download from public library
Challenge: Support your local library, Audio Books

One of the few "year of this and that" books I really enjoyed. Kingsolver's family decides to live off the local area for all food for a year. They raise turkeys/chickens, bake bread, grow vegetables and fruit and gather anything they don't produce from local farmers markets and sources no more than 100 miles away.

They agonize over buying some items not locally produced - coffee, olive oil, flour, spices. They debate whether to take a vacation when crops must be tended and chickens fed and watered. The text is actually written not only by Kingsolver, but by her husband Stephen Hopp who gives us short 'articles' full of statistics and facts about the entire industrial agriculture empire in the world, and by her daughter Camille, who left in the middle of this year of living locally to attend college and try to implement the lifestyle on campus. Her essays on various recipes and nutrition add quite a bit to the story.

The audio was read by the author, and I was engaged from the beginning. By the end, when we get quite a detailed lesson in the sex life of turkeys, I was rolling on the floor laughing, but came away with great admiration for this dedicated and loving family.

101- Yours is the first review that made me think I might like this book. Maybe I will pick it up and look through it after all.

Oh Cindy, I definitely think you would really like it. I definitely wouldn't be able to follow this life style completely, but I do think there is a lot to like about several of their ways of doing things. One of my biggest disappointments here in Maine is the sighting of our lot---not enough space to do any serious vegetable gardening, incredibly short growing season, and so many trees that I don't get enough sun to even do decent container gardening.

We did buy a share in a CSA farm last year, and if that farm stays in business, we'll do the same this year. At least we have great farmer's markets, and a booming local farms and producers for sheep, goats, and cattle. not to mention fresh seafood, maple syrup, blueberries, cranberries and apples

It does sound interesting. Apparently a lot of people think so since there is a waiting list at my local library...

The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of...



Author:Mark Kurlansky
Format: paperback galley 288 pgs
Subject; baseball; sugar cane; poverty
Setting: San Pedro de Marcoris, Dominican Republic
Genre: non-fiction
Source: ARC from publisher
Challenge: Completing ARCs

Not what I expected, not what I'd recommend. An ARC I owed a review on. Very disappointing in that there was not one mention of my favorite player from the Dominican Republic--David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox. more comments are here on my 75 thread I'll blog faintly about it AFTER my giveaway ends March 19th. In the meantime, if you want to read a free copy, feel free to enter.

Shot to Death



Author: Stephen D. Rogers
Format: 257 pgs
Subject: crime
Setting: various
Genre: short stories
Source: ARC from author
Challenge: ARCs completed

This is a delightful collection of short (3-8 page) stories. While the title and cover would leave one to believe they all have a murder (or at least a death by gun) as a central motif. Actually, they are much broader in their scope, their actions, their plots, and their resolutions.

The author suggests that this is not a book to be read straight through. Rather, each story stands alone and can (and should) be read separately. This is exactly how I read it. It is a perfect book to pick up when you have only 5-10 minutes to read. Each story is robust enough that it could be expanded into a decent novella, if not full length novel or mystery story. Each leaves the reader pondering what just happened and what might happen if there were 20-100 more pages.

It would be an especially good book to leave on the nightstand of the guest room. Perfect for sleepy guests who just want a little something to read, and much classier than a magazine or guide book.

The Poacher's Son


Author: Paul Doiron
Format: paperback galley - 324 pgs
Characters: Mike Bowditch, Jack Bowditch, Charley Stevens
Subject: father-son relations; Maine Warden service
Setting: Maine wilderness
Genre: fiction
Source: Barnes and Noble First Look Club
Challenge: ARCs completed

My first participation in Barnes and Nobles' First Look Club. This is a very impressive debut novel/mystery. The author, who is editor of DownEast magazine, lives right here in my neck of the woods. He presents us with a well-defined cast of characters with a wide range of motivations. The setting is lush and well painted, and the plot is a true page-turner. Mike Bowditch, 24 yrs old, is a Maine Game Warden whose father is a suspect in a double murder. The book starts quickly with Mike tracking a bear on the loose who has stolen a pig; when he returns to his cabin hot, tired, thirsty, and lonely, he gets a call from his father who says he needs help. Mike hasn't seen him in over two years, and learns the next morning that Jack Bowditch is suspected of killing two people in the North Woods of Maine, and has escaped into those woods.

The following chapters are full of flashbacks to a less than happy childhood, a lousy relation with his father, descriptions of his previous and current relationship with his girlfriend Sarah, and Mike's struggle to decide where his loyalties lie. The action is concise and believable. Mike is truly conflicted, trying to balance his feelings for his father with his desire to do his job and his need to feel validated in many of his life choices. NO spoilers. It is definitely recommended if you like good characters and lots of action. It is especially recommended if you like the great outdoors, Maine, and wildlife. Let's hope that Warden Mike Bowditch appears in future works.

Many thanks to Barnes and Noble for the copy of the book and the great online discussion at the First Look Club.

More Lenten reading: Rome Has Spoken


Author Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben, eds.
Format paperback 224 pages + bibliography and notes
Subject Papal pronouncements over the years
Genre: non-fiction, essays
Source: my own shelves, signed copy from author
Challenge: World Religions, Reading from my Shelves

The subtitle tells it all: A Guide to Forgotten Papal Statements and How they Have Changed Through the Centuries.

A very academic but interesting volume reviewing various "issues" that seem to have been interpreted and enforced differently over the two centuries of Roman Catholicism. The topics cover the range from evolution to the slavery, from Galileo to usury, and include the current buzz topics of contraception, women's ordination and divorce.
Each topic presents first the scriptural references cited over the years, and progresses with quotes from the early fathers, to Papal pronouncements over the years, to conciliar declarations (if available) and ends with an essay from a noted scholar of today.
Some topics are more interesting than others, but all are well researched, intelligently and objectively presented. A book worth reading for those wanting to know how the Catholic Church got to certain "beliefs" and what might happen in the future.

107- That sounds good!

The Cruelest Month



Author: Louise Penny
Format: audio book 11.7 hours, 416 pages
Characters: Inspector Armand Gamache,
Subject: murder in a small town
Setting: fictional village of Three Pines, Quebec
Series: Chief Inspector Gamage
Genre: mystery, police detective
Source: public library audio b
Challenge: Support Your Local Library, Thrillers and Suspense, Audio Books

This not the final book in Louise Penny's wonderful Chief Inspector Gamage series, but it is the final one for me to read to be caught up. While they are understandable on their own, given the choice, I would have preferred to read them in order. In fact, that is one of my goals for later this year or next year, to read them back to back in order...hopefully before her next book BURY YOUR DEAD comes out later this year.

Of course, reading this one, now the fifth I done, I still put the book down and long to go and live in Three Pines But then I ask myself why? Why on earth would I want to live in a town where there are so many murders? Where old women roam the street talking to ducks? Where secrets seem to be hidden in every crack of every ancient building?

Well because...

Because all of these people seem to care. They care about the earth, the animals, themselves, their lovers, their neighbors, and most of all they care about their village--its history, its current state and its future. Who wouldn't want to be part of this? And who wouldn't want to stop by Olivier and Gabri's bistro every evening for a glass of wine, a poetry reading, a book discussion, or simply to watch the sunset, or the rain fall.

These are genuinely gorgeous books. They soak us in the warmth of this village. We know these people. They're our friends now, and we want them not to have to endure any more sorrow. But we know that life deals out sorrow with happiness and that's why we keep returning. They're real to us. And we want to be part of it. Penny's ability to write clear prose exploring human emotions and darkly buried secrets and terrors is special. She is in a league with Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and Donna Leon.

If you haven't read her, be sure to get these so you can be caught up when the 6th on comes out in the fall.The first in the series is STILL LIFE and it's every bit as good as this one.

"You may go now...I have wine and scotch and all the books I could want to read."== I have to go back and double check which character said this, but I loved this quote. Whoever it was was sitting in the bistro by the fire...

I've been recommending Louise Penny to every friend who likes mysteries and winning her a lot of fans.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that she is my favorite currently-writing mystery author.

Tina, I just got something in email from Amazon about their "best book of March," a debut novel about the Vietnam War called Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes.

Thought you might be interested in this, though I can't remember whether you're including fiction in that category.

Thanks Linda...yes we are doing fiction, and I have that one, along with the Early review book I just got notified I "won" -- The Man from Saigon. I've also got Lewis Sorley's new one The Better War:the Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam I'm supposed to read five, and I'm doing them at a very slow pace--like one every other month--because it's such an intense subject, and I want to be sure I don't get too emotionally upended.

I like your idea of reading about a war each year. I've read quite a bit about WW2, for instance, but very little about WW1 or Vietnam. Good idea. Something to consider for 2011, perhaps.

I can well imagine that it'd be intense. I'm planning to start that new book, Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation and expect that to be something I can do only a bit at a time.

Wow, Tina, it's been a while since I've checked in here. You've been reading a lot of interesting books. I've added The Poacher's Son to the wishlist, made another mental note to give the Louise Penny series a second try, and actually paused to consider Rome has Spoken before deciding to give it a pass since I'm not Catholic and probably won't have the frame of reference to appreciate it. I also think you've got a great plan in focusing on a different war each year - I especially admire your determination to read about Vietnam given your personal history. I don't have a single direct tie to the war, but am still reluctant to stir up the memories of an unsettled society by examining it more closely.

#113 Tina - I look forward to your review on Sorley's A Better War, which was originally published in hardback in 1999. I also plan to tackle it in the near future.

I'm currently in the middle of two books on the Vietnam War. Namely, a political history: Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975 by A.J. Langguth, and a naval memoir of the river war: Man of the River: Memoir of a Brown Water Sailor in Vietnam, 1968-1969 by Jimmy R. Bryant.

I recently finished Vietnam: The Australian War by Paul Ham, which I can't recommend highly enough; as I do BONNIE-SUE: A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam by Marion F. Sturkey, which was my first book for 2010.

I don't read fiction normally (in fact I've recently purged 99% of my fiction collection), but I will make an exception later this year with Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann, given its autobiographical nature. I also have Heinemann's Black Virgin Mountain: A Return to Vietnam, so I'll read these back to back.

Several Vietnam memoirs such as Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, Palace Cobra: A Fighter Pilot in the Vietnam War by Ed Rasimus, and Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram by Dang Thuy Tram, are also in the pipeline.

On the wish list for 2010 is The Army and Vietnam by Andrew F. Krepinevich.

There are several other books on my Vietnam War stack, but I just don't know whether I'll fit them in this year!

Peter....I admire your ability to read that much non-fiction. I am not able to read nitty-gritty descriptions of any war, don't handle violence well (in fact I had to put a great mystery down last nite when the bad guys started chopping off fingers one by one)...so I'm treading very carefully through this Vietnam read. I think I'll be able to finally look at the war if I try it through the prism of well-written fictional accounts. 1st person and eye-witness I'm really not too ready for.

I was surprised and pleased to have finished War-Torn earlier, and will also some about the memorial in DC, but that may be as far as I'm able to get.

I look forward to your reviews of all those books you listed. I think this challenge will be a valuable one for all of us participating.

Blood of the Wicked


Author: Leighton Gage
Format: hardback, 304 pgs.
Characters:Chief Inspector Mario Silva, Delegado Hector Costa
Subject: crime and corruption
Setting: Brasil, 1970-80
Series: Chief Inspector Mario Silva
Genre: detectives, police procedural
Source: public library
Challenge:Support your Public Library, Thrillers and Suspense

This one is a bit violent and bloody for me, but I finished it anyway. I had read the next one in the series, Buried Strangers, and was anxious to back-fill information about the main character. Blood of the Wicked is the first of the Inspector Mario Silva series, set in Brazil. Silva is a member of the Federal Police force, so he is called to various locations throughout the country. Gage gives us a good solid introduction to Brazilian justice in the 60's and 70's during the military rule--not a brand we'd like to have here, and not a pretty site.

In this story, we get Silva's background and motivation for being a cop. We meet his nephew Hector Costa, also a cop, and are introduced to the theory of Liberation Theology, prevalent in South America during that period, but in this story recently condemned by Rome. The story opens with the murder of a Bishop. I don't like to do spoilers, but will say that in solving this murder, Silva must deal with street crime, pedophiles, corrupt (and I mean Very Corrupt) local and state police, even more corrupt judges, more murder, torture, child abuse, martyrs, selfish landowners, landless peasants, corrupt (yes Very Corrupt) and evil priests, saintly priests, abused women, and an obnoxious boss more worried about his image than justice.

In spite of this ugliness, Silva, with the help of a couple of holy people, manages to bring the severest perpetrators to justice. Nuf said. It's a great read, and, if you haven't read any of the others, holds great promise for more to come in future books.

Morning Show Murders



Author: Al Roker
Format:8 discs (9 + hrs), 320 pg equivalent
Narrator:  Al Roker and Dick Lochte
Characters: Chef Billy Blessing,
Subject: murder; TV shows
Setting: New York
Genre: amateur sleuth detective mystery
Source: public library
Challenge: Audio books, Support your Local Library

A very predictable, run of the mill mystery. Chef Billy Blessing (a poorly disguised stand-in for Al Roker of NBC's TODAY Show fame) runs a restaurant, lives in digs upstairs, has a running gig on the Morning Show doing interviews, food segments, Man-about-town, etc. However, he does not get along with one of the show's producers who turns up dead early in the story. Food from Chef Blessing's restaurant is found at the victim's home, and the poor guy seems to have died from poison contained in the food. Chef Blessing is of course accused of the murder, and decides he'll have to take things in his own hands and solve this crime.

There is a believable but non-too-exciting side cast of characters, and several plot twists that aren't twisty at all. They were basically ho-hum. I listened to this one on audio-- it was OK, but much as I like the real Al Roker on TV when I only have to listen to him in 3-4 minutes segments, I found his voice very irritating for long run narration. The whole thing was so unimpressive, I almost abandoned it out of boredom.

And there weren't even any good recipes.

Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam and the Greatest Sea Rescue of all Time



Author: H. Paul Jeffers
Format: hardback, 304 pages
Subject: shipwreck, fire at sea, US Coast Guard rescues
Setting: Bay of Alaska, Oct 1980
Genre: non-fiction, documentary
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your public library

This is one of those serendipitous discoveries that I thought I was just going to page through and ended up staying up well past my bedtime to read cover-to cover.

You could say this is a book about heroism, or a book about a terrifying adventure, or a book about carelessness and poor seamanship, but however you want to look at it, it's a true story about a little known episode in an otherwise glorious history.

Members of my family (me included) have made numerous cruises on Holland America's ships (including the Alaska cruises) and never heard about this little adventure.  The story here is about the fire onboard the MS Prinsendam, the ineptitude of the crew in extinguishing it, and the harrowing experiences of the 350+ passengers (most of them quite elderly) who endured hours waiting to be rescued as they bobbed up and down in lifeboats in scanty attire while the sea roiled from the edges of a major typhoon. It was October and it was cold and dark.

The US Coast Guard, and several civilian tankers did a stellar job of rescuing every single person who was onboard (including the now famous pianist Yanni), and getting them to safety.  While the author could have used a good editor to strain out a lot of extraneous material ---he seemed to think we needed the entire career history of every person involved in this debacle---it was still a quick read.  I'm just not sure I'd recommend it to someone about to plunk down thousands of dollars to go on a cruise, although I'd definitely recommend paying attention to the life boat drill when they say dress warmly and bring your life jacket.  Altogether an engrossing read.

For your Vietnam category, I thought I'd recommend Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow. It was the main text used in the Vietnam history class I took in college. I think it was also the basis for a documentary on the country/war.

And if you like sea adventure stories, I loved Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, about the sinking of the SS Central America in the 19th century and the salvage efforts in the 20th century. Our local public radio station read it on Chapter-a-Day a few years back. Ab fab.

I have the Karnov book on my list, but hadnt' heard of Ship of Gold---I'll bet hubbie has read it and probably has it squirreled away in his den somewhere---will have to go digging. Thanks for the suggestions.

My husband and son both loved Ship of Gold.

45 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks



Author: Rebecca Skloot
Format:  hard cover, 384 pages

Subject: medical ethics, cell research
Setting: Baltimore, MD, Clover VA
Genre: non-fiction science reporting
Source: public library
Challenge: Support Your Public Library

I didn't think I'd get this so soon. I put it on reserve at the library and was told I was 48 in line for 37 copies. Then three days later, it came in. I thought I was just going to leaf through the pages but found myself engaged right away. It's set mostly in my hometown of Baltimore, and is so well written and such a compelling story, that I had to read it straight through. It's the story of a poor black woman, Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cancer tumor was so unusual that doctors at Johns Hopkins took samples before they began treating her for radiation back in 1951. She died within the year, but her cells from the tumor turned out to be some absolutely fantastic ones that are almost impossible to kill and are incredibly easy to reproduce and use in medical research. Her cells are known to scientists as HeLa (the first two letters of her first and last name).

Her family never knew about the procedure or about these incredible cells growing and being used all over the world. They are reportedly responsible for Dr. Salk's success in developing the polio vaccine for instance. Today, her descendants are so poor they can't even afford to go to the doctor. It's an incredible story of a reporter wanting to find out about the cells, the family, and the research. It's well written, fairly easy to understand, and a must read.

The author has established an educational trust for Henrietta's descendants.

The Woman who Named God

Another of my lenten reads.


Author: Charlotte Gordon
Format: 400 pages
Characters: Abram, Sarai, Hagar
Subject: Abram's journey and the roots of three great religions
Setting: Canaan desert and surrounding area
Genre: non-fiction
Source: blog contest prize (my own shelves)
Challenge: TBR Challenge, Read from my Shelves

A very readable, very scholarly discussion of Abraham's families and their antecedents in modern day religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. While this could have been very dry and boring, it wasn't. Gordon covers Abram's entire life from his call by God to leave his home to his meanderings over the years through various lands up to his burial. The research and notes are extensive and well-documented, but don't get in the way.

Gordon looks at Abran's long journey and life through all prisms: Jewish, Christian and Islamic scriptures, (both the Bible and the Koran) as well as other historical and religious writings. She will present an incident or story and then explain how each religion views the episode, what learned teachers and rabbis have said over the years, and offer the pros and cons of each interpretation.

I thought when I started the book that it was going to be only about Abraham and Sarah, but found that the title really referred to Hagar. In fact, I think when I got it, I thought it was another fiction like Diamont's RED TENT. It isn't fiction, and I definitely found myself enlightened by ideas I'd never pondered before. Although it is deep reading, it is enjoyable and certainly recommended.

Lake Magic



Author: Kimberly Fisk
Format: mass market paperback, 336 pages
Characters: Jennifer Bekinsale, and Jared Worth
Subject: relationships
Setting: Pacific Northwest

Genre: fiction- romance
Source: LibraryThing Early Review program

A pleasant romance with just enough sexual tension to keep the reader from falling asleep. While not the traditional bodice ripper, the story is fairly predictable: girl loses love of life; love of life's best friend shows up. Girl hates new guy, new guy thinks he hates best friend's girl. Both must work together to keep the dead dude's business going.......you get the picture. As a sideline to add interest, there are some family dynamics from girl's side-- a career woman sister whose son is floundering without parental guidance, overbearing mother, stuck-up attorney brother...etc etc etc.

In spite of the formulaic plot and setting, the characters are reasonably well drawn, the writing is clean, and in the end.......well no spoilers here.

I do wish the editing could have been tighter. After a while, the recitation of the mental gymnastics of the two main characters got to be a bit much as they struggled to resolve the angst of this relationship. All in all tho, it's an nice read for a rainy afternoon.

I was reading something tonight, can't remember what, about a new book out with Jesuits in the title. I thought of you.

Hmmm, aha, now I remember. It is The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life by James Martin.

Ghost at Work



Author: Carolyn Hart
Narrator: Ann Marie Lee
Format: 8 discs (10.75 hrs)- 336 page equivalent
Characters: Bailey Ruth Raeburn, Kathleen Abbott, Sheriff Cobb, assorted good and bad guys
Subject: Murder in a small town
Setting: Adelaide Oklahoma
Series: Bailey Ruth Mysteries #1
Genre: Cozy mystery
Source: Overdrive download from public library
Challenge: Support your Public Library, Thrillers and Suspense, Audio Books

A pleasant cozy. Bailey Ruth Raeburn has already died and gone to heaven. After a while of almost boring wonderfulness, she enlists in the heavenly rescue squad to return to earth and help people in trouble. Her first assignment is to go back to her hometown of Adelaide Oklahoma to help her grand niece Kathleen Abbott who is afraid she or her husband, the rector at St. Mildred's episcopal, will be accused of murder. After all, there is a dead body on the back porch of the rectory.

Bailey Ruth didn't have time for training in heaven before she undertook this assignment. Her continual violation of the "heavenly precepts for emissaries" lands her in hot water with her heavenly mentor Wiggins as she tries to intercept evidence, interview suspects, and find out who dunnit while keeping herself invisible. Her appetite for good home cooking keeps getting in the way, and her need to help constantly has objects flying through (or suspended in) the air as she whizzes, whisps, and zooms from spot a to spot b, all the while forgetting that while she may be invisible the bag of evidence she's just scooped up isn't. Neither can the corporeal objects melt through solid walls or doors. Her antics to overcome these difficulties are truly amusing.

All in all, Hart presents us with an endearing character, a solid plot, lots of good suspects, and a fairly surprise ending. I'll be looking for another of these to see if Bailey Ruth can learn how to do this job in a more efficient manner and whether she'll be able to get off probation and become a full-fledged emissary.

I read the Christmas one, which I think is second, and thought it was pretty good, not great. I want to go back and read the first one.

I always seem to have one category that I play around with/am never satisfied with.

I'm thinking of changing one category to "God and religion" and will take a look at your Lenten reading.

I really ought to just follow your lead and call it the "make up my mind" category.

#131 ... or the "I can't make up my mind" category!

A couple of kiddie lits I got to review this week.....

Bailey's Day by Robert Hagger and Share from the Heart by Marilyn Randall. (no touchstone available)

Bailey is a delightfully illustrated story about a dog who belongs to a mailman. When his owner goes to work in the morning, Bailey eats his food, takes a nap and then goes out into the yard, where he promptly disobeys the rules and goes out roaming with the dog down the street. They have a series of adventures, including hiding when they see the mailman coming. They finally do get found out, the mailman takes them home, and then chides them for breaking the rules.

I would have liked this book a lot more if it had included some indication that the bad doggie understood that he was "bad" and there were some hint of unhappy consequences for disobeying. There aren't and that will have to be one for the parents and grandparents who will enjoy reading this really well written and illustrated story to children. In addition to the colored drawings, the book includes photographs of the author's dog - the real Bailey. Lots of fun for the little one.

The Randall book OTOH, is not going to be nominated for a Newberry or Caldecott by me...The author claims it is designed to help children understand the concept and values of sharing. In it, we see two young boys strolling along, confronting a fire-breathing dragon, being scared and then learning that the dragon just wants to be friends. The children and the dragon take the time to explore their feelings towards each other and in the end adopt each other as 'family.'

I would have liked this book so much more if it had been in prose. The forced non-rhythmic poetry doesn't rhyme well, doesn't scan well as poetry and is extremely difficult to read aloud. I give all children's books the read aloud test with our pre-school group at the library, and trust me, this one did not work. There are far too many words on a page, and although there is a delightful (and rather simple) illustration on each page, the children lose interest about 1/3 of the way through. The vocabulary just doesn't ring well in the forced rhyme scheme for reading aloud. It will work much better for precocious 1st and 2nd graders who can read it to themselves. And it's just plain preachy.

I think together, they'd count for one ARC reviewed.

Plainsong



Author: Kent Haruf
Format: Trade paperback 301 pgs
Characters: Tom Guthrie, Ike and Billy, Victoria Roubideaux, the McPherons
Subject: life in small town America
Setting: Colorado, sometime in late 20th century
Genre: fiction
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your local library

This one was not on my original radar screen at all. Our local senior center has a monthly book discussion group I decided to join. They chose this for next week's discussion and since we had a copy on the shelf at out local library where I work, I grabbed it, and said "ok, I think I can read this by next Monday" don't forget I also have to finish Cutting for Stone by next wednesday for another book group!!

I opened the book, read the first chapter, and could not put it down. I took it to the dentist, I took it to the Annual Town Meeting (and those of you who live in New England KNOW how hard it is to read there!), I took it to bed and read into the night...it is absolutely gorgeous, luscious, and at the same time just plain simple. Like a quilt with a seemingly easy pattern and only a few colors, but whose design is so intricate you almost can't piece it.

Haruf presents a picture of small town America...a prairie farm town outside of Denver in Colorado. He takes a few people and shows us how those lives intertwine through ordinary everyday happenings:

*There is Tom Guthrie, a high school teacher who is dealing with a recalcitrant bully (and his parents) in one of his classes, whose wife is so mentally ill she won't come out of her room and who eventually leaves him, and his two sons Ike and Billy 9 and 10 whose small town paper route requires that they get up at daybreak every morning to go down to the train depot, roll the newspapers and then deliver them via their bikes before coming home to eat breakfast and get ready for school.

*There's Victoria Roubideaux, a beautiful, shy, high school student whose mother locks her out of the house and will have nothing to do with her when she discovers her daughter's pregnancy.

*There's Maggie Jones, another high school teacher, who befriends Victoria and others in town, and who has been pining for Tom Guthrie for a long time, all the while caring for her very old mentally addled father.

*And there are the McPheron brothers, as American Gothic a pair as you can imagine. These two are just absolutely worth the entire book. Bachelor farmers who were orphaned before their teens, they live alone 17 miles outside the town, go to bed by 9 at night, get up with the chickens, and rarely speak since there doesn't seem to anything but hog belly futures to worry about. At the urging of Maggie, they take in the homeless Victoria, and the rest as they say is history...

This is an exquisite book, written in superbly simple descriptive prose that leaves you breathless, both with the characters, the settings, the various episodes of living and the warm loving portrayal of small town life. I borrowed this from the library, but you can be sure this one is going on the wishlist to buy so I can read it again and again. It is easy to see how it was a National Book Award finalist.

be the noodle

Author: Lois Kelly

Format: trade paper back, 124 pages
Subject: death, dying, care-giving
Genre: non-fiction essays
Source: review copy from the author
Challenge: ARCs completed

No that's not a typo....lois kelly ignores the energy needed to shift into uppercase fonts.  She instead focuses on the important in this short, pithy, well-written and extremely readable little book.  It will be cherished by anyone faced with caring for a loved one through the final days of a lingering death.

Lois, oldest child of Bette, takes over the week day watch at her mother's side at her beach house on Cape Cod, as Bette slowly faces death from lung and brain cancer. I found it especially touching that Bette chose to have surgery to remove an especially large brain tumor (there were several) but eschewed chemo because doctors said that removing the tumor would at least give her back the ability to read.  And if she had to wait for death, she could at least read while she was waiting!  Trying to respect her mother's wishes, while dealing with well meaning, and well wishing neighbors, friends, and relatives, provides the basis for the advice given here.
Written as 50 short lessons to be learned, the introduction describes this as

"...a caregiver's adventure guide based on my wild, wondrous and life changing journey helping my mother die at home...this book will help you navigate the adventure and become a compassionate, crazy-good caregiver, one of the most courageous jobs you never wanted."

The title refers to those styrofoam tubes swimmers use to support themselves in the water....it helps them stay afloat while they still retain use of their arms and legs.  Her mother loved to swim, and always disdained using noodles. In the end, both mother and daughter recognized the beauty in letting Lois 'be the noodle.'

Of the 50 "lessons" here are a few of my favorites:

• Caregiver lesson #4: tell all those generous friends and neighbors what kind of food you would appreciate. otherwise, beware the banana bread bombardment.


• Caregiver lesson #19: celebrate peepers and other rituals (if you don't live near a body of water, you probably won't get it, but it was special to me.)


• Lesson #14: escape into old photographs.

It's not depressing at all. It is cheerful, uplifting and inspiring. There are helpful hints from the time the diagnosis is made (and accepted) to dealing with after the funeral issues. Highly recommended for anyone in a care giving situation, or as a gift for someone you know who is a loving caregiver or will someday become one.

My bookclub is reading Plainsong for our next read, so I'm thrilled to hear it get such a good review from you.

Noah's Compass



Author: Anne Tyler
Format: audio book 8 discs, 288 pgs equivalent
Characters: Liam Penneywell
Subject: aging, mid-life
Setting: Baltimore
Genre:fiction
Source: audio download from public library
Challenge: Support your public library

I finally finished one of Anne Tyler's books. This one really took a long time to get going, and it was certainly a depressing tome. It is the story of Liam Penneywell, a 61 high school teacher, who has been riffed from his job, twice divorced, and then burgled and attacked on his first night in a new apartment. The entire book is a seemingly never ending slog through Liam's quest for remembrance, and his attempts to figure out his non-too-successful life. It is truly depressing. However, as a reader/reviewer, one must say that Tyler certainly writes well....she is obviously trying to portray this sorry shuffling "old" not old man, and she does a superb job of doing it with minimalist prose. Finally, as we get to the end, Liam has a conversation with his ex-wife that really sums up this character in a nutshell. They were having a conversation about how his life had gone.

"Are you telling me you really agree? You believe you're a bad person?" (ex-wife)

'Oh....not bad in the sense of evil," Liam said. " But face it, I haven't exactly covered myself in glory. I just don't seem to have the hang of things somehow. It's as if I've never been entirely present in my own life."

One day he has a conversation with his grandson Jonah about Noah and the ark. Jonah wants to know how Noah knew where to go since he didn't have any gas and he didn't have a compass. Liam tells Jonah that Noah didn't need a compass as he wasn't really trying to go anyplace. He just had to stay in the ark and float around and eventually he'd be there. Liam seems to look at the last years of his life in the same way.

After he takes a job as a "zayde" at a Jewish preschool, he realized

..He had lost his last chance at love...he knew that....he looked around at his current life...the classroom filled with Big Bird Posters, his anonymous apartment, his limited circle of acquaintances, and knew this was how it would be all the way to the end.

How depressing.

I think I'll pass on this one. God knows I don't need anything depressing right now.

Plainsong has been in my TBR pile for 18 months: I really must get around to reading it. Hopefully your glowing review will be the kick I need.

Plainsong looks too interesting to pass up. I've already got Noah's Compass on my wishlist, and you're giving me second thoughts. I'm going to leave it there for now, but will be watching others' comments as they show up.

I've never read any Anne Tyler, but this is not inspiring at all. Plainsong does look good though.

I'm way past time to do a progress wrap up since I decided not to do tickers for each challenge category this year ---my poor feeble brain couldn't remember all those passwords for the darn tickers. Anyway, I just finished a wrap-up post on Tutu's Two Cents so if that sort of thing interests you - go for it.

Of the 53 read so far,

46% from the library, 54 belong to me
35% audio, 65% in print

no facing pie charts....

NO Pie Charts!?!?!

Cutting for Stone



Author: Abraham Verghese
Format: audio 18 discs (approx 24 hrs), 688 pages trade paperback
Narrator: Sunil Malhotra
Characters: Marion and Shiva Stone
Subject: practice of medicine
Setting: Addis Ababa Ethiopia, New York
Genre: fictional narrative memoir
Source: audio: Public library; print - my own copy
Challenge: Books from my shelves, TBR, audio, support your local library

I can't believe it took me three tries to read this book. Late last autumn, I began listening to the audio, but found it difficult going. It wasn't the accent of the narrator---I found that charming and easy to understand. It wasn't the writing--that was clear and moved along at a good clip. It just seemed that the story didn't hold my interest, and it seemed like it was going to be exceptionally long. Then I got the print copy from the library, and tried reading it. Again, I found myself unable to get past the first 100 or so pages. So I put it aside, vowing to try again later.

Two weeks ago I noticed one of our local libraries was having a group discussion of this next week, so I thought perhaps having some other insights might help me get through it. I dutifully began listening to the audio again thinking I'd be able to pick up where I left off, but found I had to go back to the beginning. (At least, thought I, even if I can't finish it again, I'll be able to participate in some of the chat.)

This time however, after one hour, I was so hooked, I went to Amazon and ordered myself a copy to come next day air. I finished it four days later, having both listened and then re-read the text. I did not want it to end.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

Cutting with Stoneis a superbly written, beautifully narrated story of the lives of Marion and Shiva Stone, born identical conjoined twins in a hospital in Ethopia; they were separated at birth. Their mother, who died giving birth, was an Indian Carmelite nun who worked as a surgical nurse at the hospital where they were born. Their father, an Indian born Englishman, Thomas Stone, was the hospital's only surgeon who botched the C-section he was called to perform because the obstetrician was out of town. Dad disappears hours after the birth, unable to deal with a pregnancy he claimed to know nothing about and the death of his beloved Sister Mary Joseph Praise.

The orphaned twins were adopted and raised by two doctors at the hospital, Hema (the obstetrician) and Ghosh (the internist turned surgeon). There was an entire staff of surrogate parents to help in raising the boys. Medicine and its practice, including surgery was normal dinner conversation in the household. It was small wonder both grew to become doctors.

We are involved in the coups and political unrest in Ethiopia during the second half of the 20th century including the arrest and imprisonment of Ghosh, and the twins' later dealings with a rogue army bandit who threatens to kill them; we watch as the humble hospital in Addis Ababa continues to care for a diverse group of patrons, from the emperor's family to the poorest of the poor, with little funding and often crudely fashioned homemade instruments. We are given broad but specific (and sometimes gory) details of medical procedures in language the layman can understand, even though the amount of detail sometimes slows down the story. We watch as the boys mature, learn to dance, quote Shakespeare, and learn the art as well as the science of medicine from their parents. We see one of them fall hopelessly in love and then see one betray the other.

When Marion leaves to go to America, we are made brutally aware of the differences in medical practice in the two countries. It's not that the two countries have doctors of different abilities making the difference, rather it is the difference in resources and expectations that is vibrantly portrayed. Marion's residency in surgery at a hospital in New York eventually brings him face to face with his biological father and ultimately leads to history making and life changing experiences for all the family.

This book is long. It is 18 discs on audio (almost 24 hours of extremely well narrated story read by Sunil Malhotra) and 688 pages in print. It is difficult to do it justice in a review because, although written as a fictional narrative memoir, it is a novel with a spectacular ending that deserves not to be spoiled.

Forget about my abortive initial attempts (blame it on the weather or something) it is a story that is engrossing, exciting, appealing, easy to read and extremely difficult to put down. It is also one that I will want to read again and again. In both its print and its audio versions it is a story not soon to be forgotten. It is simply one of the best books I've ever read.

Wolf Hall

Author: Hilary Mantel
Format: 560 pages , audio 18 discs (approx 24 hrs)
Characters: Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, Ann Boleyn, Cardinal Woolsey
Subject: Thomas Cromwell
Setting: England 1529-1534
Genre: historical fiction
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your public library, Audio books

The title of this Man Booker Prize book is a bit misleading. Wolf Hall is the home of the Seymour family, and while they were quite influential in Henry VIII's reign, I don't remember even one scene being set there. Nor was the book about the Seymours. This is the story of Thomas Cromwell, beginning with his abused childhood, through his vagabond but experience-rich youth when he traveled far from England throughout Europe, fighting for the French, learning several languages, and honing his intellectual and accounting skills. It concentrates on the years 1529 through 1534 (about the end of the Boleyn reign.)

After his return to England, Cromwell lands a position in the employ of Cardinal Woolsey. Although he remained loyal and grateful to Woolsey, he managed to distance himself from Woolsey's troubles with Henry by keeping his religious convictions very private--in fact, one is left somewhat unsure even at the end as to what were Cromwell's true beliefs about organized religion. In the meantime, he (Cromwell) is diligent about employing and training young, bright, under-advantaged youths to carry on his work.

Before reading this, I did not have many preconceptions of what made Thomas Cromwell tick. Mantel does a superb job of providing us background for his actions, his motivations and his relationships with some of the most powerful people of the era. His relationship with Thomas More is presented as sympathetic, although I felt an almost repugnance for the More portrayed here. Ann Boleyn also comes off rather negatively, but it is fascinating to see Mantel showing us Ann B and Cromwell using each other to get where they wanted to go. And of course, there is his relationship with Henry himself. Mantel's Cromwell seems to be able to tell H the VIII the blunt truth with considerable impunity, and thus is often recruited by other nobles to be the bearer of not good tidings.

Finally, I was enthralled by the portrayal of Ann's sister Mary Boleyn. Was she gullible, vulnerable and used? Or conniving, sly, and manipulating?

This book is long, but written to move right along. I listened to the audio version which was exceptionally well done by Simon Slater. It is a book where it is sometimes difficult to tell who is actually speaking, and Slater's intonation certainly helps sort that out. The descriptions of living conditions, dress, manners, and customs are all richly elaborated, and Mantel uses just enough vernacular to make it truly authentic without making it difficult to follow. 5 Stars.

Okay, put Cutting with Stone on the "Loan to Cheli pile". You convinced me that I might find this book enjoyable.

Even though we're far apart, its wonderful we can share books!

I've never heard of Cutting into Stone. I will have to look for it.

Ok..it's Cutting FOR Stone, not into. It refers to a part of the Hippocratic Oath that says "I will not cut for stone" referring to operating to remove gall stones - an operation that ususally resulted in death back in Hippocrates' day.

Man from Saigon



Author: Marti Leimbach
Format: hard copy - 347 pages
Subject: female reporter in vietnam (non-fiction)
Setting: Vietnam late 1960's
Genre: fiction
Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer program
Challenge: ARCs completed

I'm not really sure how to review this book. It's a novel, purportedly a love story? It's set in Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam war and is written by an author who has never been to Vietnam, even after the war. Never served in the military. She indicates that her primary resources are others' writings about their experiences. I guess for fiction it's ok, but I couldn't buy the premise, and I felt she took a story that could have been written in 150-200 pages, and stretched it to 300. I found my eyes glazing over often. The physical descriptions of the jungle are well done; the rest of the descriptions seem to me to be hackneyed re-runs of other's imagery and depictions. The constant back and forth of settings and POV is really disconcerting. I often found I had to stop and figure out where we were and who was talking.

Having read non-fiction stories by several of the actual female reporters who did go to Vietnam, I had a hard time believing or relating to this one. The story is about the experiences of a female reporter who is sent to Vietnam to produce women's interest stories. Susan, the reporter, has an affair with an American reporter, but also forms a working relationship with a young vietnamese photojournalist named Son who uses her hotel bathroom as his darkroom, and sleeps on a pallet in the corner of her hotel room. Her American lover is convinced the Vietnamese is a spy. Susan and Son are captured by Vietcong and held captive for a large portion of the book. It is difficult to determine who Son is, what his actual role and allegiance are and what Susan's feelings are about him. In the end, the reader is left for far too many questions about what the author was trying to say.

I was disappointed.

Dressed for Death

56 Dressed for Death



Author: Donna Leon
Format: audio book (8 discs, 9 hr 45 min) 278 pgs equivalent
Characters: Guido and Paola Brunetti
Subject: murder and crime
Setting: Venice
Series: Commissario Brunetti
Genre: police procedural mystery
Source: public library
Challenge: Audio Books, Support your Local Library

Another great episode of Commissario Guido Brunetti and his crew as they solve the murder of an alleged transvestite prostitute, and the criminal activities of a large non-profit involved in the murders. This is the 2nd of the series, and in this one we meet the Senorina Electra, Brunetti's secretary and admin assistant extraordinaire. More great scenes of Venice, and the surrounding area.  More wonderful tempting descriptions of Italian eating , and a well developed plot with great characters.

I just love these books, but I started in the middle of the series, and have decided to come back and pick up the beginning ones as they become available at the library. You are missing a treat if you've never read them, and an even bigger treat if you don't listen to them. David Colacci does a spectacular narration on the audios.

An Irish Country Doctor


Author: Patrick Taylor
Format: audio 9 discs (10 hours, 48 minutes, 352 page equivalent
Characters: Dr. Barry Laverty, Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, "Kinky" Kincaid
Subject (non-fiction)
Setting: rural Irish village of Ballybucklebo
Series: Irish Country
Genre: fiction
Source: public library
Challenge: Audio Books, Support your Local Library

This is the first in this really fun series. Think James Herriott without the animals. It's the story of Dr. O'reilly, the curmudgeonly but loveable small town GP who knows everyone and their secrets, and who isn't afraid to use placebos when he thinks they'll solve the problem. He is getting on in years, however, and the workload is increasing, so he advertises for an assistant. Enter Dr. Barry Laverty, fresh from medical school, full of book learning and under-tested people skills. The two strike up an immediate if grudging respect for their different styles, and Dr. L settles in. Like most small GPs of the era (probably mid 70's) the office (or surgery as it is called in Ireland) is co-located with the living quarters, ably presided over by the housekeeper-cook, Kinky Kincaid. The story is one of love, respect for people, and small town life. The adventures of the "Doctors Dear" as Kinky calls them, are heartwarming and just the things for a quick, loving read. If you liked Jan Karon's Mitford series, you'll love these.

They really remind me so much of our family doctor whose office was in the basement of his house where his wife, a nurse, would take phone calls and schedule house calls for him to make between his morning and evening (yes - imagine - he had office hours from 7-9 every nite) office hours. He was known to come at midnite when my dad was on shift work and my mom with 4 small kids (she didn't drive) phoned to say one of us was "poorly".

Real comfort food for the mind and soul.

Those Brunetti books are on my list for this year.

James Madison: The Founding Father



Author: Robert Allen Rutland
Format: 12discs (11 hrs 40 min) 287 pg equivalent
Subject: Life and contributions of James Madison
Genre: Biography
Source: public library audio book download
Challenge: US President's Biographies

Several years ago--I think it must have been in the late 70's--I decided I wanted to read a biography of each of the US Presidents in order of their service. I figured that way I could learn about the history and the personalities in an organized fashion. I did fine until I got to Madison. There just didn't seem to be any good solid but readable edition of his life on the shelves in Northern Virginia where I was then living. So I put the whole endeavor on hold. Now I'm back. The US President Challenge has a goal of reading them all before the next election....

This is a well researched, very readable biography of one of our early presidents. Rutland makes the case that Madison is truly "The Founding Father" since he was present and actively involved in all aspects of the nation's birth and early years up to the cementing of the concept of a united group of states acting and being perceived by the world as one nation.

The book dwells mostly on his years when he represented Virginia at the Continental Congress, then served in the House of Representatives during Washington's term. He also served as Secretary of State before becoming the 4th President. His authorship of the majority of the Federalist papers in support of ratification of the constitution was explained with many elucidating quotes to highlight how he felt the nation should progress. At the time of his death, he had the only set of notes surviving from the Continental Congress, notes that have served to enlighten us as to the thinking of the founders as they brought the country to birth.

This was a very interesting and enlightening book about one of the most important and influential presidents we have had, who often gets lost in the shadows of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson.

As I've been doing this US President's Challenge, many of the participants have remarked on how difficult it has been finding a good biography of Madison. This one is bare bones, but does have enough flesh on its bones to give us a decent feel for the man and his accomplishments. It certainly has opened my eyes to see how he fits into the procession of presidents, and will form a good basis for going to the next one in the line. It was especially well done in the audio format I found, holding my interest even through boring workouts on the elliptical

My library has this one, yay!

Miss Julia Delivers the Goods



Author: Ann B. Ross
Format: 8 discs (10 hrs, approx) 352 page equivalent
Characters: Julia Springer Murdock, Hazel Marie, Mr. Pickens, Lillian

Setting: any small town in North Carolina
Series: : Miss Julia
Genre: : cozy mystery
Source: Public libary
Challenge: Audio Books, Support your public library

Miss Julia is always good for a dose of Southern charm, manners, and lessons on the proper way for a lady to comport herself and butt into everybody's business. In this episode, Miss Hazel Marie finds herself "in the family way" without benefit of the propriety of matrimony. Miss HM has sent Mr. Pickens (her erstwhile suitor) packing, and refuses to have anything to do with him, or to tell him of his impending fatherhood. Oh, and she has to help Sam, the police, and Mr. Pickens the private detective find out who broke into Sam's office and stole the papers he had for the book he was writing.

She is concerned, naturally, about Hazel Marie's reputation in this small town, but HM swears Miss Julia to secrecy. The zany schemes concocted by Hazel Marie, Miss Julia, and the long-suffering maid Lillian, for keeping her 'condition' hidden from the busybodies, and how and what she is going to explain to her son Lloyd, are quite entertaining. The author could have probably chopped 50 pages out of this one without losing anything. Reading this is like eating fudge....one piece is delicious, two is great, but by the time you get to the third piece, you realize you've had about enough. Miss Julia's interference in everyone's life, and Hazel Marie's over-the-top performance as the put-upon (can you say "Woe is ME"?) southern belle got to be a bit much toward the end. If you're a fan of southern cozies, this is one for you. If you prefer your tea unsweetened, this one may need several slices of lemon to tame it.

Churchill



Author: Paul Johnson
Format: audio - 4 discs ( 4 hrs, 40 min) 192 pgs equivalent
Subject: Winston Churchill
Genre: biography
Source: audio book, public library
Challenge: Audio Books, Support your local library

Paul Johnson is one of my favorite writer/historians. He has the ability to present his material in a manner that is both intelligent and readable. This was a refreshing and short biography of Churchill focusing on his political career.

It is obvious from the beginning that Johnson is a devotee, and he mentions several times that he actually met and spoke with him, but still in all the book is fairly objective.I found the chapter where he discusses Churchill's immense power held during WWII. He poses the question "Did Churchill save Britain?" and the presents 10 reasons why he would answer in the affirmative. The book is worth reading for that chapter alone.

I was fascinated to read that Churchill stood for Parliament under six different 'labels': Conservative, Liberal, Coalition, Constitutionalist, Unionist, and National Conservative. I knew about his service as a journalist, 1st Sea Lord, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, but some other achievements were new to me. I heartily approve of Churchill's answer to the question: "To what do you attribute your success in life?"

Without pause or hesitation he replied: "Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down. Never sit down when you can lie down."

This is a well-written and researched biography touching on the high points of the life of a great statesman. It can stand alone or serve as the jumping off point for more in-depth studies. It certainly made me want to pull out a few of Churchill's books sitting on our shelves and read them. He is credited with writing between 8 and 10 million words in his lifetime. I think I'll look for a few thousand to start with.

That Churchill book sounds like a really interesting read. I've never read anything by Churchill either.

Talking About Detective Fiction


Author: P.D. James
Format: hardback 196 pages
Subject: writing crime fiction
Genre: non-fiction
Source: public library

A short, readable treatise on the history, structure, and importance of detective fiction written by one of the genre's best practitioners. P.D. James, at the age of 90 has more than a few decades of successful crime writing to her credit. In this easy to understand book she reviews what works and why, features the best of the Golden Age of detective fiction --defined as between the two world wars-- and goes on to opine about where the genre is heading in the future.

She gives us quotes from other critics and writers; she explains how she develops her stories; she offers her thoughts on which is more important-setting, plot, or characters. There is a delightful chapter about four of the women who were the stars of the Golden Age-Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh.

In explaining why this is such an important form of the novel, she writes:

The classical detective story is the most paradoxical of the popular literary forms. The story has at its heart the crime of murder, often in its most horrific and violent form, yet we read the novels primarily for entertainment, a comforting even cozy relief from the anxieties, problems and irritations of everyday life. (pg. 175)

She certainly validated my love of the genre when she ended by saying:

Our planet has always been a dangerous, violent and mysterious habitation for humankind and we all are adept at creating those pleasures and comforts, large and small, sometimes dangerous and destructive, which offer at least temporary relief from the inevitable tensions and anxieties of contemporary life. A love of detective fiction is certainly among the least harmful. We do not expect popular literature to be great literature, but fiction which provides excitement, mystery and humour also ministers to essential human needs. (pg. 195)

Well worth reading for any lover of crime or detective fiction.

62 Blunt Darts



Author: Jeremiah Healy
Format: hardcover 192 pages
Characters: John Francis Cuddy
Subject : search for a missing teenager 
Setting: Boston and surrounding towns
Series: John Francis Cuddy
Genre: detective fiction
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your local library; Thrillers, Suspense and Mysteries

I read this for a mystery book club discussion. It's a delightful, well-written example of pure detective fiction. As the first one of the genre I read after reading P.D. James' book Talking about Detective Fiction, I really had fun as some of her comments resonated about how such novels are constructed. There are likable characters, believable plot twists, and enough of the Boston setting to make it quite enjoyable.

Basically, John Francis Cuddy, private detective, is hired to find a missing 14 yr old boy, Stephen Kinnington. Stephen's grandmother is the person doing the hiring, as the boy's father, Judge Kinnington seems to want the lid put on the boy's disappearance, does not seem anxious to find him, and everyone in the town is afraid of His Honor.

Cuddy's search lands him in some unfortunate scrapes as the judge's talons reach further and further, but he is determined to find the boy. No spoilers, but it's a quick read, easy to follow, not at all banal example of good detective writing. The widower Cuddy is the kind of lost lamb, educated, loner that every woman wants to make lasgana for. As the first of over a dozen in the series, it has whetted my appetite for more of this gentleman's detecting.

Death in a Strange Country



Author: Donna Leon
Format: 8 discs (9+ hrs), 304 page equivalent
Characters: Guido & Paola Brunetti, assorted cops and criminals
Subject: murder, corruption
Setting: Venice and environs
Series: Commissario Brunetti
Genre: detective fiction
Source: public library
Challenge: Audio Books, Support your public library


In this episode of the Commissario Brunetti series, Guido Brunetti is called to investigate the body of an American soldier found floating in the canals of Venice.  The soldier is stationed at Vicenza, over an hours train ride away.  Brunetti feels he is not getting honest answers from the Americans he interviews, and feels he is being rushed to come up with a 'death by mugging' verdict that doesn't seem to fit. At the same time, he is also called to deal with the 'theft' of three priceless paintings from a wealthy business man's palazzo.  Eyewitness accounts of the crime don't seem to match the victim's account.

And the plot gets messier and murkier.  NO SPOILERS.  It's a great mystery, with compassionate, intelligent, educated and urbane characters.  Leon gives us an inside look at corruption at all levels of the justice system, as well as poignant vignettes of regional dialects and characters. This series reminds me quite a bit of Leighton Gage's series featuring Inspector Mario Silva. Both Silva and Brunetti are well-educated and almost aristocratic in their thinking, but at the same time entirely sympathetic and caring about all the people on whose behalf they are supposed to be fighting crime. Another detective that comes to mind in this same vein is Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley. The Brunetti series is fast becoming my favorite, and I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to get to Venice to visit the scene.

My only minus to this particular audio was the narrator.  I have listened to several others in this series all done by David Colacci, but this one was done by Anna Fields and while I've been pleased with other books she's read, her voice just didn't do it for me on this one.  Brunetti is a macho hunky male, and part of the joy of listening to these has been Colacci's wonderful ability to use Italian dialect and accents for all of Leon's diverse characters.  The female voice detracted from the story for me, but it is a measure of Leon's great writing that it didn't deter me from finishing it.  I even got in an extra 20 minutes in the pool because I wanted to finish listening to it!

Another Category Complete!!

I just realized that I have completed the Audio Book Challenge Category - I had signed up for 20 audio books (the obsessed level) and I'm already up to 24!!. With all these great detective stories,novels, and biographies the public libraries are stocking these days, both physically and as downloads, I'm like a kid in a candy store.

I will be adding more to this list never fear---it's the only way I can bring myself to get that daily exercise the doctor insists on. Why----it's almost fun.

"U" is for Undertow



Author: Sue Grafton
Format: audio - 11 discs (14 hrs), 403 pg equivalent
Narrator: Judy Kaye
Subject: private detective working cold case
Setting: Santa Teresa California (fictional town)
Series: Kinsey Milhone private detective (Aka Sue Grafton alphabet mysteries)
Genre: detective fiction
Source: public library audio download
Challenge:Support your local library, audio books

I hadn't read a Sue Grafton in several years and was pleasantly surprised by the well-crafted story in this one. Kinsey Milhone, a divorced, living alone private investigator, is confronted with a cold case and a possible material witness when the police aren't quite sure it's worth pursuing - yet. By weaving together the back stories of the major players in the crime with the current search for what really happened, Grafton gives us a more complex mystery than some of the earlier ones in the series.

All the regulars are still present-landlord Henry, bistro proprietress Rosie, and detective Chaney Phillips; Kinsey still lives over Henry's garage, still runs most mornings, still eats quarter-pounders with cheese, and still grouses about life in general but wouldn't change a lick of it.

Essentially (NO SPOILERS), this is the story of a young man who 'remembers' seeing what he believes to have been the burial of a kidnapped but never found young girl--of course he saw this on his 6th birthday and he's now 18!  No wonder the police aren't sure they want to believe him. Kinsey helps him sort through the memories, and goes on---of course---to unearth and solve the case. Nuf said. A great read.

64 Brunetti's Cookbook



Author: Roberta Pianaro
Format: 288 pgs
Subject: Food

Genre: cookbook
Source: Amazon online purchase
Challenge: Read from My Shelves (although I'm NOT giving it away!!)

This is not a beginner's cookbook. There are no pictures of the recipes, nor are the dishes familiar to the majority of Americans raised to believe Italian equals breaded veal parmesan, and ravioli with meatballs. What it does offer is a collection of wonderful northern Italian dishes, featured in the very popular Commissario Brunetti detective series written by Donna Leon. I could read these adventures over and over. Brunetti is one of my favorite fictional characters, and between his wife Paola, his dear, now departed Mama, and all the lovely tratorria in the area, a story of his adventures always includes many scenes of food, eating, and family mealtimes.

There are wonderful essays by Roberta Pianaro about food sources, growing and harvesting, and the changes taking place in the modern city of Venice in which the old markets are being replaced by glass shops, and other tourist attractions The recipes are well presented, well arranged, and definitely have one reaching for the olive oil, the apron, and a glass of wine to begin the cooking adventure.

Each section of recipes includes an except from one of Leon's books featuring not only the food, but the entire philosphy of eating that is the foundation of Italian life: Mangia, mangia, ti fa bene (Eat, eat, it's good for you). It even has the recipe for Brunetti's mother's "Lasagna con cuori di carciofo e prosciutto" (Lasagna with artichoke hearts and Prosciutto).

I certainly will have no trouble following the exhortations with this wonderful guide at my disposal. After paging thru the entire book, and reading the essays, I have at least fifteen bookmarks sticking out virtually screaming "Cook this first!" This is a book for the serious Italian cook, the serious Donna Leon fan, and the serious lover of good seafood and fresh produce.

Now...as an aside, and thank goodness my Mom does not read the LT threads, I was rolling on the floor laughing with tears in my eyes when Donna Leon described her culinary background. Seemed her mother was Irish (so is mine) so great diversity, particularly in the seafood and produce department, was not one of her strengths in the kitchen. I will quote Leon:

Another cooking secret I can now reveal--my lips having been sealed by a vow of silence during her lifetime--is my mother's secret for cooking vegetables...This recipe serves across the board and can be used for any and all vegetables, and it is with great pride that I pass it on to new cooks:

1. Open the can.
2. Pour into a saucepan.
3. Add 100 grams of butter.
4. Boil until contents are reduced to a grey mush, stirring when necessary.
5. Add salt.
6. Serve.

If you substitute "pressure cooker" for "saucepan" in #2, and skip # 3 and #5, you have the reason that my Italian father marched me off to my Brownie troop with instructions to the leader that I was to earn the cooking badge pronto. He then made sure I went weekly to my Italian grandmother to learn how to cook.

In the meantime, tutti a tavola, mangiamo

Falling Angels



Author: Tracy Chevalier
Format:   7 audio discs; 416 pgs equivalent
Narrator: Anne Toomey
Characters: The Coleman Family, The Waterhouse Family, Jenny Whitby, Simon Field
Subject: women's roles 
Setting: Edwardian England
Genre: fiction
Source: public library
Challenge: Support Your local library; Audio books

This novel (a New York Times Bestseller in 2001) is a sweeping period piece of the stratified society of London in the early 1900's, just as Queen Victoria dies, and the Edwardian age is ushered in.  Set against a backdrop of the Women's Suffrage movement, it is essentially the story of two young girls (in today's parlance they'd be BFFs) who live next door to each other. The story is eloquently told from the voices of nine different characters, with additional ample views of three others.  Ordinarily, that would be about 8 points of view too many, but Chevalier makes it work in a glorious way. We watch as time goes by for:

Maud Coleman - the only child of Kitty and Richard, serious, intelligent, and subconsciously understanding that many of the rules of Victorian England are essentially meaningless and best left behind. She longs for a friend and finds one in

Lavinia (Vinnie) Waterhouse - the devil may care (but only if carefully acted out within the rules of proper society) oldest child of Gertrude and Albert. Lavinia even writes a 'book' about the proper way for a lady to get through formal mourning. That section alone is a treasure. She also longs for a friend (while trying desperately to shed herself of her hanging on younger--but much wiser--sister Ivy May.) Maud and Lavinia meet in the cemetery where they discover their family graves are next to each other. Together Maud and Vinnie spend many an afternoon scampering through the graveyard where they make the acquaintance of

Simon Field - the young gravedigger who, with his father, spends his life watching the comings and going of all levels of society and gains the wisdom to see that in the end, everybody ends up under the ground. Simon gives us (and the girls) a grounding in reality, and is able to go where the 'proper ladies' can't. He sees much, hears much, knows much, and manages to keep most of it to himself, until secrets need to be shared.

Kitty Coleman - the restless and disenchanted wife of Richard, mother of Maud. She was traumatized by childbirth, and further shocked to the core of her being when, during a New Year's house party, her husband engages in, and insists that she does also, what is today known as 'wife swapping'. Her withdrawal from him (and from life in general) is brutal and substantial. Only later will she recover and join the Women's Suffrage movement, risking all to play out her desire for personal freedom.

Richard Coleman - a proper English gentleman of the era. He knows nothing about anything going on in his household (that is a woman's domain) and cares only for cricket, star-gazing at the local observatory, and doing exactly what he is told to do by his mother...

Edith Coleman - a grand dame of staggering (and perhaps swaggering?) mien....she causes her son, her daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter to kow-tow to whatever she says is 'proper' and refuses to hear of any other way of doing things. Even the Coleman's cook threatens to quit whenever Edith appears on the doorstep. Her most egregious act comes when she decides (over the objections of Kitty and Maud and Mrs. Baker the cook) to dismiss

Jenny Whitby - the maid. Jenny's story gives us the other side of the coin. Young girl with no education, no dowry, no prospects, living in poverty who comes to the big city to go 'into service' in exchange for room, board, and a few coins to send home to her starving family. No SPOILERS, but her story is central.

Gertrude and Arthur Waterhouse - the gentle couple who live next door to the Colemans. Their financial circumstances are not as good as (nor would Edith Coleman allow that their blood lines are either) their neighbors. Gertrude tries to follow society's dictates, tries to keep a rein on Vinnie - but can't help spoiling her--and secretly detests the Colemans and what they stand for. Arthur is simply grateful to be able to play cricket with Richard on Sunday afternoon, and happy that his wife and daughters have suitable family companions in the ladies next door.

When all these stories are spun together in the setting of the cemetery with the Suffrage Movement providing drama and excitement, and the Cemetery "Guvner" John Jackson providing a humanizing and humane persona, it is a riveting and poignant story. What happens to these women and how their actions influence and impact one another is in many ways the universal story of sisterhood, in other ways the never-ending story of sin and a chance for redemption. Whether redemption occurs is left to the reader to discover.

Cold Sassy Tree



Author: Olive Ann Burns
Narrator: Tom Parker
Format: discs (12 hrs,55 mins); 400 pages equivalent
Characters: Mr. Blakesley, Miss Love Simpson, Will Tweety
Subject: life in small town Georgia
Setting: early 1900s, fictional Georgia Town "Cold Sassy"
Genre: Fiction
Source: public library audio download
Challenge: Support your local library; audio books

This is often described as a coming of age novel, and is billed as young adult lit. It is actually a very sensitively written story set in Cold Sassy Georgia in 1906 and 1907. It is as appealing to adults as to high schoolers. The main character E. Rucker Blakesly scandalizes the town by marrying the milliner who works in his general store a scant three weeks after burying his first wife Miss Mattie Lou.

Told from the viewpoint of his grandson, Will Tweedy, we see how the young second wife Love Simpson is shunned by Blakesly's two grown daughters Looma and Mary Willis, and how young Will is taken into Love's confidence when she claims that she is only a housekeeper to his grandpa, and it is a marriage in name only.

As time passes, we see southern culture at its best and worst. The townsfolk are given ample opportunity for greatness and meanness. Grandpa opens a car dealership in addition to his general store, Will Tweedy learns to drive, and along the way discovers girls. Olive Ann Burns gives us a loving picture of small town life, and leads us through an exquisite story of love, forgiveness and hope.

This is one of those fortuitous finds recommended by one of my fellow staff members at the local library. She is another audio book fan, and focuses a lot on material for our school age, and teen age readers. She knows me well enough to say "Tina, you will love this--you must download it and read it." I'm so glad I listened to her. She was right. The audio was absolutely delightful, but I'm sure it would be just as entertaining and uplifting in print.

West with the Night



Author: Beryl Markham
Format: trade paperback 296 pages
Setting: British East Africa (1920-1940)
Genre: Memoir
Source: originally from library, but personal copy bought from Amazon
Challenge: Support your local Library

An amazing memoir written by a pioneering aviatrix about her early life in British East Africa (now Kenya) as a farmer's daughter, race horse trainer, and eventually, bush pilot delivering mail, supplies, and ferrying people across the uncharted territory of eastern Africa. She was the first person, male or female to fly solo from London to America going from east to west. Her mother left her with her father in Africa to return to England. "Baru" as she was called by the natives, worked with her father, living in mud huts, then later her own wood cottage, reading at night by oil lamp. There is no mention in the book of any nanny, governess, or tutor. She appears to be entirely self-taught, a concept making this book all the more exceptional.

Her exquisite prose makes the book. The story is exciting and interesting, almost unbelievable (I suppose teen aged white women could go hunting lions accompanied only by African tribesman and equipped only with a spear!) but told with such clear and image-evoking words that the reader just sinks into this book. It is a book to be savored, read slowly, marked up, and read again. And if it's first read as a library book, it is one to run out and purchase to have to look back at.

I found myself breathless and stopped dumb in my reading tracks at points, having to put the book down, and then read and re-read passages. My library copy is full of little yellow stickies to mark such passages as:

(speaking of a 'pet' lion kept by her father's farmhands): "He spent his waking hours..wandering through Elkingtons' fields and pastures like an affable, if apostrophic, emperor, a-stroll in the gardens of his court."

"One day the stars will be as familiar to each man as the landmarks, the curves, and the hills on the road that leads to his door, and one day this will be an airborne life. But by then men will have forgotten how to fly; they will be passengers on machines whose conductors are carefully promoted to a familiarity with labelled buttons, and in whose minds knowledge of the sky and the wind and the way of weather will be extraneous as passing fictions." (this book was written in 1942, and she was relating this as she spoke of her early flying lessons around 1925-30.)

Her imagery, particularly when relating treks through African jungles and deserts is spellbinding:

"You could expect many things of God at night when the campfire burned before the tents. You could look through and beyond the veils of scarlet and see shadows of the world as God first made it and the hear the voices of the beasts He put there. It was a world as old as Time....When the low stars shone over it and the moon clothed it in silver fog, it was the way the firmament must have been when the waters had gone and the night of the Fifth Day had fallen on creatures still bewildered by the wonder of their being."

Even Ernest Hemingway, who at some point crossed paths with Ms. Markham, remarks on the back cover:

"...she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But she can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers...I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book."

Who am I to argue with Hemingway?

On Hallowed Ground by Robert Poole.
The Story of Arlington National Cemetery



Author: Robert Poole
Format: Hardcover =339 pgs including 68 pages appendices and notes
Subject:history of Arlington National Cemetery
Genre: non-ficton
Source: public library
Challenge:Support your public library

As a veteran of the US Navy, married to another Navy veteran (and retiree), I went out of my way to track this book down. Both of us are at a point in our lives where the subject of funerals comes up often, and we have attended dozens of funerals at Arlington to honor friends and shipmates. One of our biggest questions has always been "where do we want to be buried?" My children both live within 10 miles of Arlington, and until we moved to Maine 6 years ago, I literally drove past rows and rows of graves on my way to work in Arlington every morning for 16 years. While I don't qualify for burial on my own (I didn't do enough time to retire), my husband does, so I rate burial there as his spouse. But we both had sort of taken it off the short list because it seemed so big and impersonal. In fact, my husband used to work in the Navy Annex building up the hill from the Pentagon and overlooking the cemetery, and then later at the Pentagon, and says he's not sure he wants to spend eternity in site of his old offices. It is a beautiful, quiet, well-maintained park like space to stroll through, but stay there forever? Hmmmm...

After reading Robert Poole's excellent story of the history, the sentiments, the politics, and the rich heritage of this glorious site, it's at least back in consideration. Read the full review

Many thanks to all of you who recommended this one--it is definitely a winner and one of my few 5 stars.

The Food of a Younger Land




"A Portrait of American Food -before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional -- from the lost WPA Files.

Author: Mark Kurlansky
Format: hardback 388 pages
Subject: food, recipes, social customs
Genre: non-fiction, collation
Source: public library
Challenge:Support Your Local Library

During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) created the Federal Writer's Program (FWP) to provide work for unemployed authors. There were a number of projects that evolved, including a series of guidebooks for the different states. Late in the 30's, the "America Eats" project began. There were actually a series of projects in different sections of the country, which were intended to be combined in one huge report. WWII intervened, and the reports from individual writers were never collated or published.

Enter Mark Kurlansky, researcher extraordinaire. He has taken the long abandoned manuscripts, culled out the best and put them together in this delightful look at how our parents and grandparents ate.

The book is divided into the original five geographic sections envisioned by the FWP. Each section features representative essays, stories, recipes, anecdotes, reports of festivals and church suppers, along with photographs and drawings. I started this book as an audio, which while well done, did not lend itself to savoring all the information, so I borrowed a print edition from the local library. It is such a fun read, that it is now on my wishlist to purchase so that I can add it to my food collection. It is part history, part social memoir, and part cookbook. All of it interesting and enticing. Some of my favorites include

From the Northeast:

- the North Whitefield Maine Game Supper,
- the almost infinite discussion of the variations of clam chowder,
- the glorious reminiscences of the New York Automat (complete with 5 page glossary of slang and jargon for short order cooks in New York);
- the "Italian Feed" in Vermont;

From the South:

- recipes for possum, squirrel, rabbit, rattlesnake and chitterlings;
- a good recipe for crab imperial (an outstanding and scrumptious chesapeake bay dish well remembered from MY youth--it was THE dish for banquets, weddings, and any big celebration--no girl left home in Maryland without knowing how to make it).
- The introduction to Mississippi food written by Eudora Welty is one of her earliest works and representative of the kind of work the FWP engendered.

From the Middle West:

- recipes and stories about food favored by various Indian tribes such as buffalo tongue as a delicacy favored by the Sioux (who incidentally never used salt until they were introduced to it by white men in the early 1900's);
- the Lutefisk favored by the Scandanavians who settled in the Great Lakes region;
- recipes from the cooks serving the vast lumberjack camps in Michigan---

"At night they came into camp stamping with cold and grim with hunger. In the cookhouse the long tables were loaded with food; smoking platters of fresh mush, bowls of mashed potatoes, piles of pancakes and pitchers of corn syrup, kettles of rich brown beans, pans of prunes, dried peaches, rice puddings, rows of apple pies." pg. 269.

From the Far west

"The life of these people is not entirely one monotonous round of fried beans, baked beans, boiled beans, and just beans,varied only by an occasional jack rabbit or two...";

- there were numerous recipes and essays about salmon, smelts, clams, Montana Beaver Tail, and Washington Wildcat parties.
- This fascinating section also included a list of Colorado superstitions (pg. 296) of which my favorite is #12: " You will receive mail from the direction in which your pie is pointing, when it is set down at your place at the table."
- The recipe for Depression Cake is almost identical to one I inherited from my gram (via my mom) which is known in our family as "YUM YUM Cake"--I still make it every Christmas.
- And the essay by Claire Warner Churchill entitled "An Oregon Protest Against Mashed Potatoes" had me rolling on the floor.

The Southwest section was the shortest--for some reason the WPA lumped only Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Southern California into this section. Most of the recipes were heavily influenced by the Spanish American presence so prevalent in that area.

- Don Dolan contributed an essay entitled " A Los Angeles Sandwich called a Taco."
- There were also several essays and discussions of the food (and customs) of the Choctaw and Hopi Indian tribes, and
- A story about Oklahoma prairie oysters (aka the results of 'cattle neutering'.)

The book concludes with lists of cookbooks available during the era, and a current bibliography for more up-to-date resources. This is a tour de force. Kurlansky has done a yeoman job of taking a ton of material and getting it down to a manageable and enjoyable volume. A great read for anyone interested in social history and food.

the map of true places



Author: Brunonia Barry
Format: galley proof -406 pages
Characters: Zee, Finch, Melville, Hawk
Subject: Dealing with mental illness , Parkinson's disease
Setting: Salem Massachusetts
Genre: literary fiction
Source: LibraryThing.com Early Review program
Challenge: ARC Completed

This could have been a really depressing book. After all the subjects are suicide, bi-polar disorder, Parkinson's disease, betrayal, and depression. Instead of leaving the reader reaching for the Prozac bottle however, the story ends leaving the reader uplifted.

It is a great story about a story (is it true or is it a fairy tale?), and about a young woman's search for herself, her mother, and her future. Zee Finch is a pyschologist whose patient Lilly (a young woman close to her age) jumps off a bridge when she should have been at her appointment with Zee. Since Lilly reminds Zee of her own mother (the original story-teller) whose bi-polar disease caused her to commit suicide when Zee was 13, our heroine is doubly bummed. Is she mixing up the two women in her own mind? In addition, her fiance is pressuring her to make plans for their scheduled wedding and Zee seems unable to make any decisions. She's not even sure she wants to get married.

She instead chooses to go home to see her father, whom everyone calls "Finch," a noted Hawthorne scholar who lives directly across the street from Hawthorne's house in Salem. Finch suffers from Parkinson's disease, and it becomes immediately evident to Zee that his condition has dramatically worsened since she last saw him. Her patients back in Boston are shifted to others in the practice while she deals with the mountain of issues associated with caring for an aging and ill parent who daily becomes more demented. The rest of the story that follows is touching and to tell it here would ruin an excellent read. The short chapters, the crisp prose, the outstanding dialogue, the building suspense surrounding several characters, all lend themselves to keeping the reader awake long past bedtime to find out how it ends.

I almost wish this book didn't have an epilogue. Although the story's ending is quite well-done, the epilogue seems to have been written to answer all the questions a non-dreamy reader might have about "what happened after that?" Instead of leaving us with a delightful suspicion and willing to use our own imagination to write several different scenarios of what might have been, the author seems intent upon tying up every last string so everything can be shoved neatly into one secure package. Still in all, it is a book worth savoring.

If you're looking for a good vacation fiction read with some romance, some suspense, and a well written story, you won't go wrong with this one.

>169 tututhefirst: I'm glad to see you liked Brunonia Barry's new book. I loved The Lace Reader and am looking forward to reading this one.

I know you don't do spoilers, but I nevertheless didn't read your whole review (just the first & last paragraphs); since I know I'm going to read it, I'd rather know nothing about it except whether or not you liked it. I'll come back after I'm done to read the rest of your review ...

I admit to still being skeptical about this one. Given the mental health issues I'm dealing with in my family, I'm a little leery of anything like this. I just don't see how this could be a fun read. But I haven't read anything by this author before, so I might easily be wrong. Like I said, I'm just hesitant, despite the good review.

Now that we're back home, I can settle down and catch up on reading. I really didn't get much done while we were on the road. I did finish this, although it took me a while. I kept going back to listen to parts again, thinking I had missed something, but I think it's just the way the book was written.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress



Author: Rhoda Janzen
Narrator: Hilary Huber
Format: audio 8:15, 272 page equivalent
Subject: life as a non-practicing Mennonite
Genre: memoir
Source: public library audio download
Challenge: Support Your Local Library; audio books

It's uproariously funny in parts,--almost bawdy, and not at all what I was expecting. I can't figure out what the point was. It's just a rambling series of autobiographical reflections about the life of a 43 yr old college professor whose atheist husband of 15 years leaves her for a guy named Bob he met on gay.com. She certainly has a rather sarcastic, smart-A viewpoint, and I enjoyed that.

She tells us about a car accident, her going home to recuperate with her parents, which leads to vignettes about growing up 'in the community', her mother's champion flatulence, the advise she gets from everyone about coping with her suddenly single state, but nothing seems to tie together. Worth reading, but don't expect the definitive treatise on anything.

The Help



Author: Kathleen Stockett
Format: audio 18 hr, 464 pages equivalent
Characters: "Skeeter" Phelan, Minnie, Aibileen, Hilly Holbrook
Subject: racial discrimination, social mores, civil rights movement
Setting: Jackson Mississippi
Genre: fiction
Source: public library audio download
Challenge: Support your public library; Audio books

A good book can be defined as one that is easy to read with a great ending.  A great book is one that is so engrossing, with characters so real that the reader is left with an empty feeling when the book ends.  I just didn't want it to be over. I want more.  I want these people to tell me what happens next.

Often I run like crazy in the opposite direction when I see a book getting rave reviews from everybody.  I put off reading this one, in spite of everyone telling me I HAD TO READ this. This time, everybody was right. I have now joined the ranks of all those who are convinced this is one of the best books written in the past year. 

Set in the Mississippi of the mid 1960's as the civil rights movement was happening, the book tells the story of black women who served as "the help" in white households in Jackson MS.  A recent college graduate, white girl Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan wants to be a journalist, but the only job she can find is writing the housekeeping advice column in the local paper.  Raised in a household with "help", she has no idea how to answer the questions, and turns to one of her friend's maids, Aibileen, to get the answers.  In the meantime, she serves as the newsletter editor for the local Junior League, where her membership brings her into contact with the prevalent and open racial and class prejudice of the era.

Her relationship with Aibileen, coupled with her rising frustration with the stereotyped role her parents and friends expect of her, leads her to seek an outlet in writing.  She is encouraged by a New York editor, who suggests that she write stories of the maids and their families and submit it as a book. In a world where black women working in white houses are forced to use separate bathrooms (many of them outside), where they are taught from early girlhood to never question or talk back to whites, where they never sit with whites, keep their dishes separately, work long hours at less than minimum wage with no Social Security or other benefits, and count them selves lucky to get a $10 bonus or hand-me-down dress at Christmas, and where a white woman's word against them (whether true or not) can land them in jail, getting these maids to share their stories with her is the hardest part of Skeeter's endeavor.

The story is told by Aibileen, by her friend Minnie, and by Skeeter.  Each has her own secrets, her own hopes, her own fears.  They all live and work in the same circle of people, and know many of each other's secrets.  Skeeter must deal with an "on again, off again" relationship with the State Senator's son, a mother who is very ill but very intent on her daughter's following all the prescribed social norms, a best friend who turns out to be a truly bigoted tyrant, and a deadline for her book that looks to be impossible.

Aibileen must encourage all the other maids, keep her own secrets and several from other maids, and still meet with Skeeter to help her record and capture the stories.  Minnie, the third point of view, is a wonderfully vibrant character with a true 'smart-ass' sense of humor, a tendency to mouth off and get herself fired, and, who, for most of the book, works for a white woman Celia who is despised as "poh white trash" by all the other Junior Leaguers.  Minnie is torn between staying out of Celia's business and mentoring her in proper white woman behavior.  The relationship that develops between these two is so well-written that you find yourself rooting for both of them.

The tension builds as Skeeter writes the stories, changing the names and the town, and assures them that it will be published anonymously, while the maids worry what will happen if their white families ever realize who they really are, and what is being said about them publicly.

The book is incredibly well written, and the audio reading is rich with dialect and accents.  It has truly believable characters, a range of issues related to the overall racial and class dynamic, and a plot that builds one step at a time holding the reader's attention from the beginning.  It flows so well that it is impossible to put it down.  One of my few five star reads this year.

I've heard so many wonderful comments about this book that I'm simply going to have to overcome my contrariness at refusing to try what everyone else raves about. Excellent review.

#174, Sandy, I think I said the same thing around here somewhere (though maybe on Tina's blog).

I don't usually go for books "everyone" loves. However, my very insistent (and persistent) mother has been hounding me on this one so I thought I'd at least give it a shot. (That and the fact that so many people with similar tastes have raved about it.)

I started it yesterday and am about 15 percent into it. What a terrific book. These attitudes are unbelievable to me.

In fact, just realized...no Cubs game or Blackhawks game tonight, which means plenty of The Help reading time tonight. Woo-hoo!!

We read The Help for book club and I was skeptical. But I'm really glad we did! It turned out to be a great book and a great discussion.

To Darkness and To Death



Author: Julia Spencer- Fleming
Format: audio - 14 hrs; 370 page equivalent
Characters: Clare Ferguson, Russ Van Alstyn
Subject: Murder, big business takeover of wilderness
Setting: Upstate New York
Series: Clare Ferguson/Russ Van Alstyn mysteries
Genre: police/amateur detective
Source: public library
Challenge: SYLL, Audio, Thrillers and Suspense

Ingredients: Ex Army helicopter pilot now Episcopal priest (oh yeah- she's female); retired Army MP, now Police chief, lots of illicit romantic tension, no sex, a couple of Forrest Gump level criminals ("stupid is as stupid does"), a small town very professional police force, a giant conglomerate taking over bazillions of acres of pristine woodlands, a flawed recluse harboring a grudge, a priggish British suitor, a pompous Episcopalian deacon, several disenchanted businessmen watching their life dreams disappear under the onslaught of 'progress', loggers, mill-workers, and do-gooders.

Spencer-Fleming's ongoing series continues to build the romance between Rev. Clare Ferguson and Police Chief Van Alstyn, this time giving us more of a glimpse of the Chief's wife Linda. The story opens with a reported missing person, and Clare's being called out on the search and rescue mission (she wants to keep her Army skills honed). The ensuing tangled story that emerges from the results of the impending sale of acres of property by the Van der Hoeven family has many subplots. The criminal characters are run-of-the mill criminals...they're ordinary townspeople who have not learned to deal with their emotions, their greed, and their longing to keep things from changing. I did think Spencer-Fleming went a little over the edge though on some of the scenes. I mean really! How stupid can people be and still be believable?

I enjoy this series, and plan to spend several hours this summer reading #3, which I skipped because it wasn't available at the library, and then 5, 6 and 7. Like a good soap opera, they hook you into continuing so you can see what happens to the star-struck lovers. Worth a read.

Abandoned book: A Separate Country



Author: Robert Hicks
Format: hard copy  432 pgs
Characters: Eli Griffin, John  Bell Hood, Anna Marie Hennen Hood
Subject: I WISH I KNEW!!!
Setting: New Orleans post civil war
Genre: Historical (?) Fiction
Source: My own shelves (won in a contest last year)
Challenge: Read from my Shelves

I really wanted to like this book....the cover is appealing, I love New Orleans, and I generally like historical fiction.  I had seen several reviews which indicated that this one took a while to 'get into' so I gave it 180 pages!!!  I'm officially declaring it over, done, not to my liking.  Supposedly it is the story of General John Bell Hood, one of the most controversial Confederate generals, and of his wife Anna Marie, as told by their memoirs.  I found their search for justification and redemption BORING to say the least.

I know that the HRBG is discussing this one online right now. I certainly wish them better luck than I had. We are scheduled to discuss this one at our senior center book group on Monday, at which time I will have to eat crow and apologize for ever suggesting this ponderous package of pages to them.

#177 I love this series and am excited about the new book coming out this summer. In just a few days, I think, isn't it? I've had a hold on it for more than 6 months - whenever the publication date was announced.

#177 Wow-I'd better get busy and catch up..I just got #3 yesterday from the library, and still have at least 3 or 4 more. Looking forward to it. I just still have very ambivalent feelings about this illicit romance, but it sure is fun watching it play out.

178 - Definitely sounds like one to avoid! And your review made me smile. What is the HRBG?

Highly Rated Book Group....HRBG

Is there an LRBG, too?

Thank you Cheli for being such a good secretary for my thread. I just got back from the dentist where I was allowed to wear my e-pods and listen to my audio book. What a great way to pass a dental visit (just a cleaning, so no loud drilling involved!) My hygienist is an audio book addict herself, so we're always trading hints. She's jealous that she's not allowed to listen while working, but i suspect that's just as well. I wouldn't approve of that anymore than I approved of the little twit 'lifeguard' I put on report last week for sitting up on her stand texting away on her iphone. I want her attention on my blubbering butt so when it starts sinking, she can instantly respond! I haven't seen her back since.

Well.....I think I'm going to do like several others and semi=abandon this thread, and re-do it. I haven't posted here in over a month, as I've been spending all my time on my blog and my 75 challenge thread (latest one here

But in the interest of keeping up with some of these challenges anyway, here's where I am.

1. Support your Local Library - that challenge is complete - I've read 53 to complete the goal of 50
2. TBR I'm woefully behind the 12 books in 12 months. I keep reading new books and can't seem to get to these that have been sitting here since before December. Finished (or officially abandoned) 2 of 12.
3. War Through the Generations read 5. I've completed 2 and have 2 more I know I will read.
4. Audio Books An absolute no brainer for me. I've Completed it Twice. The goal was 20, so far I've done 41.
5. Thriller & Suspense Another No Brainer. The goal was 12. I've done 32.
6. US Presidents Challenge I said I wanted to read 10, I've done 2, and may only get to one more.
7. ARCs completed I've completed 26 officially this year. There are still several left from last year, although they've been published now for so long, they no longer count as Advanced Reviews. I'm really trying to keep up with the current ones.
8. Reading from My Shelves I've read 8 of 20 and that's only because I bought a couple of them this year!
9. Medical Mysteries I've only read 2 of the 6 in the goal.
10. The Make up your Mind Challenge Since I completed two of the four sub-challenges this one is COMPLETE too:
a. Typically British Challenge - read 4 - I've done 2 so far.
b. Re-read 'em, finish 'em, or git 'em outta here -read 6 - I've read 2, abandoned 1.
c. Books Won in Contests - read 6 - I've read 7 so this one's complete.
d. World Religions challenge - AN INSTANT WINNER since you can read however many you want. I read one.

Well ....the ultimate bummer....God only knows what happened to the message I THOUGHT I POSTED about how I've redesigned this challenge.

Maybe it didn't like my drawing a line:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Any way, I'm starting a 2nd half 2010 challenge, cancelled some of my categories, and re=done others. To make it more readable, I've started a new Thread.

See ya there!

>168 tututhefirst: I had to add The Food of a Younger Land especially after I saw that there is a list of some of the cookbooks that were available for this time period.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

There's a second book about the WPA America Eats program that came out at about the same time. I received it for a Christmas but haven't gotten to it yet :

America Eats! : On the Road with the WPA by Pat Willard

Well here's my wrap up---I think I did better than i thought, but just don't have the energy to double post. My reviews are all in the books themselves, and the list of books (and which challenge they apply to ) is listed by quarters on my 75 books in 2010 threads here:

1st Qtr 2010
2nd Qtr 2010
3rd Qtr 2010
4th Qtr #1
end of year wrap

To recap my challenges this year, here are my 2010 end of year stats:

I read 180 books and there may be at least 2 maybe 3 more by the end of the year...

70 were audios
5 were 'e' books (and there will be many more next year since I got a NOOK for christmas).

I decided to make my categories 10 different challenges. I actually ended up joining XXX challenges and completing XXX of those.

Categories completed:

Support your Local Library

Goal - "Just my size" - read 50 books from the library
Finished reading - 104

TBR Challenge
Goal - read 12 in my possession (and on a list) January 1, 2010
Actually read - 3

War through the Generations
Goal-- originally set at "dip": 5 books
Actually read got to "wade" level - 7 finished

Audio books
Goal - obsessed level - 20
Actually read -70
also downloaded 5 "epub"

Thriller-Suspense mystery
Goal - 12 books in 12 months
Actually read - 57

Advanced Reading Copies/Early Review challenge
Goal - 12
Actually read - 47

Reading from my Shelves
Goal - minimum of 20
Actually read - 20

Medical mysteries
Goal= 6
Actually read - only read one - Completely abandoned this one early!!!

Typically British Reading challenge
Goal -"Gordon Bennett" level- read 4
Actually read -12

Books Won Reading challenge
Goal - read 6
Actually read - 9

Book club selections
Goal: 10 books
Actually read - 14

Memoirs a late category I added to challenge myself
Goal: read 10
actually read - 20

Then I also participated in three ongoing lifelong challenges:

The US Presidents Biographies -11
Goal read 4
Actually read 2

Reading through the States
Goal 50 states
Actually read 8 this year, 25 complete.

The Dewey Decimal Challenge.
38 read this year - 94 completed toward goal of 890 assigned sub-categories.

Actually, even tho I didn't meet each and every goal, I'm really pleased with all the books I read this year. I'm NOT going to join any challenges this year. It's been a busy reading year, but I'm taking a pass on the 11 in 11 group. I've decided I'm going to spend the year just reading all over the place, wherever the whim carries me. I have decided to concentrate on reviewing books that I receive, reading the many leftovers on my shelves, cataloging the rest of our books still in the 50+ boxes from our move to Maine 6 1/2 years ago, and reading books from the two book clubs I belong to here in Maine.

There are already some great books showing up on publishers lists for 2011, and there is no dirth of already published ones sitting here on my shelves, or residing on my MP3, or which will land on my new NOOK, so I do feel comfortable setting a goal of reading 150 books during 2011. Stick around ---- 2011 promises to be fun.

Tina, it looks like you had a great year. Have you set up a thread in another group for next year? Will you post a link for those of us who don't want to lose track of you?

180 books! Congratulations!

Sandy -- I'm working on my new thread for next year, and plan to get it up sometime in the next 2-3 days. Still trying to catch up on all of this years'...I will certainly post the link here so people can keep track if they're inclined. Off to hunker down for the blizzard that's appearing as we speak.

I've heard about the big storm that is hitting the east coast - we only got a little cold air and some light sleet. Stay warm and safe.