#WhereAreYouMonday

Today I find myself in 1920s New York City. Optimism is in the air. The war to end all wars is over and Black Americans have more opportunity than ever in the North.

#weekendreads

I‘m enjoying juggling only two books this Valentine‘s weekend.

“The Bell Jar” for #HashtagBrigade

“The Zero Stone” for #LitsySFBC

#OffMyShelf “Over 400 pages”

I think I‘d‘ve enjoyed this more 10 years ago (when I bought it likely)!

This is a fantastical story of a man who lives in the shadow of his criminal father and genius grandparents and who is pulled against his will into a clockwork conspiracy and a villain who hopes to obtain god-like powers that threaten the fabric of the entire world.

Clever, intricate but honestly I could‘ve done without much of the detail.

Hey #EBBR reading friends! I hope you all had fun solving cases with Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown. I freely admit, one stumped me (The Civil War Sword) and one I got only b/c I remembered the solution (The Happy Nephew). As an adult, I do think some of Encyclopedia‘s deductions would not hold up in court 😂

1. Did any particular case stand out to you over another?

2. Are you interested in continuing reading the next books with me on Litsy?

#OffMyShelf “Cover Buy”

A little stretch to make this fit the category. I bought it knowing nothing about it because of the EDITION rather than the cover. It matches my other books by Fitzgerald …

Fitzgerald‘s novels are short but challenging/perplexing. I enjoy the work but it takes a while to finish. This is about a run down theater school for children in London. It‘s sad in a shabby, melancholy way. The end was open, but rather chilling.

#WhereAteYouMonday

Today I‘m in 1960s London in the theater world and The Temple Stage School run by the larger than life Ms. Freddie Wentworth. The school feeds the local theaters‘ need for child actors while nominally educating and training them and remaining barely solvent. This is Penelope Fitzgerald, so there‘s a lot required of the reader to catch nuance.

@bookandbedandtea I was willing to let Nancy slide visiting someone‘s home at 9:00 PM in The Haunted Bridge. And I recall in The Mystery of the Ivory Charm, she interrupted someone‘s dinner at a restaurant. BUT calling on the phone after 11:00 PM? 😱 No No No No! I think we found the one thing that Nancy is NOT perfect at! 😂

#NancyDrewBR

#Hashtagbrigade

This is the edition I will be reading. Looking forward to this re-read to see if it still holds up for me. I first read it when I was in my twenties, not much older than the protagonist.

#weekendreads Currently reading these four books:

📕 Angelmaker and At Freddie‘s are two from my #Roll100 picks for February.

📗The Clue of the Tapping Heels is for #NancyDrewBR .

📘I Kissed Shara Wheeler is my #TBRTarot choice for the month.

Thank you @BarkingMadRead for leading the #Hashtagbrigade in this group read. Unlike some of the group‘s co-readers, I very much enjoyed this gentle, disjointed and plotless look at rural life in late 19th century England, which was based on the author‘s own experience. For me, the slow pace of the book really suited the chapter a day approach. 😃

This is also my first completed book for
#ChunksterChallenge2025
#AllergictoChunksters 👍👍

#SeriesLove2025 #WhereareyouMonday

I‘m pleased to be back on board and in the early 19th century with Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin as they sail to what was then known as New Holland (Australia) and the Spice Islands (Indonesia). This is book five in the 20 book Aubrey-Maturin series.

I sneakily read my February #Roll100 book already. 🤭 At just 152 pages, it‘s fits the “Shortest on TBR” #OffMyShelf prompt.

I prefer the Wayfarer books but Martha Wells is correct with her blurb here, “An optimistic vision of a lush, beautiful world.” Not a lot of plot or tension. Sibling Dex and Mosscap visit the settlements on Panga before they approach The City. Such a positive view of what humanity is capable of.

#OffMyShelf “Anthology/Essays”

I picked this up at a library sale a few years ago. I‘ve only read three novels by Oates, but am always curious about her work, due to her prodigious output. This was fine. A soft pick - short stories aren‘t really my thing. I need more. They were all suitably disturbing and unsettling. My favorites were “The Model” and “The Premonition”.

#WhereAreYouMonday

I‘ve started one of my February #Roll100 books early and find myself in 1930s Alexandria, Egypt among the various residents, religions, and expatriates all coexisting together. Durrell‘s writing is difficult to wade through at times, but I‘m doing better since can anticipate it.

🎶Another one bites the dust 🎵 #OffMyShelf “About Books”

A soft pick. It was for me quite superficial. Kakutani didn‘t necessarily convince me to read anything I wasn‘t already interested in except maybe moving Delillo‘s Underworld up a bit higher on my list. She also makes a lot of anti-Trump commentary, which I don‘t disagree with, but it will date the book in the long run. It was overall entertaining but I‘d prefer fewer books & more depth.

Welcome to 2025 and our first book of the year.

A couple of questions for any who have finished this month‘s #ClassicLSFBC pick. If anyone would like to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know.

🚀In many of the stories, Bradbury addresses a real-world issue such as colonialism, racism, or censorship. How successful were these stories for you? Do you have any favorites?

Welcome to 2025 and our first book of the year.

A couple of questions for any who have finished this month‘s #ClassicLSFBC pick. If anyone would like to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know.

🚀It‘s an interesting discussion point to debate if Bradbury is even a “science fiction” writer. Certainly, his writing style is special - quite poetic at times. Would you classify him as SciFi or literary fiction or something else?

#OffMyShelf Nonfiction

Why I bought this book 18 years ago? 😂 I think I must have read a review, probably in EW? Glad this challenge finally made me pick it up. I too rarely read nonfiction - this was about Mary Shelly‘s half-sister‘s short life. Quite sad but I found it interesting. How Fanny‘s might have been different had her mother lived. Since little is known about Fanny Wollstonecraft, a lot of the book is more about her famous family.

#EBBR
Encyclopedia Brown Buddy Read

Tagging those who expressed interest in revisiting or discovering this children‘s detective classic by reading the first book in the series in February. I‘ll check in with you all around mid month to see how we fared matching wits with the boy detective!

All are welcome. 😊 If you are interested and would like to be added to the tag list, let me know.

Three #Roll100 picks for February are quite short which bodes well for me completing all four, though Durrell is a struggle for me at any length.

📙6 Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

📘60 At Freddie‘s by Penelope Fitzgerald

📗42 A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

📕 82 Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell

#WhereAreYouMonday

This Monday finds me on the Planet Mars. It‘s only the second time I‘ve visited here in books, I think, having only previously read Andy Weir.

Super short, provocative book about a man‘s attempt to erase himself and his entitlement as a white, middle class American man. What‘s he running from? What is his agenda? Definitely a book that made me think. It also made me a little paranoid. Thanks for the recommendation @Lesliereadsalot

I had to look up the etiquette of calling cards. So complicated!

#HashtagBrigade

#weekendreads

📕Continuing with Indian Horse for #OhCanada .

📗Started Sugar Street based on @Lesliereadsalot ‘s intriguing review.

📘The Best of All Possible Worlds is my last #Roll100 for January and I don‘t like it at all.

📙Continuing on with Lark Rise a chapter a day for #HashtagBrigade

Another #OffMyShelf book. “book with a map” Also #SeriesLove2025

This was excellent. The family relationships were lovely and it was often quite funny. Peters made a good call when she decided to “resurrect” the Master Criminal.

Due to the dangers of travel during WWI, the Emerson‘s opt to remain in Luxor indefinitely. Ramses becomes embroiled with the secret service again and the whole family travels incognito to Turkish occupied Palestine.

#49bdaygiveaway

Thank you Lynn for this generous opportunity. 😊 I hope your day was fantastic! 🥳 I wish you many happy returns. 🎂 The tagged book is the first in mystery series I‘ve been eyeing for a while.

#WhereAreYouMonday

I find myself in Canada today. I‘ve just started the inaugural #OhCanada read. New author for me and the first couple chapters are promising, though I know it‘s also going to make me sad.

#OffMyShelf “hardback”

This book disappointed me. It‘s not quite memoir nor is it a proper history of jigsaw puzzles or of children‘s games. It‘s a hodgepodge and, IMO, it didn‘t always hang together. Some will find the hodgepodge charming, no doubt. Still, Drabble is a good writer, so it wasn‘t always a slog and I did learn the occasional fact, which hopefully I will remember. Like the Temple of Mithras in London.

#weekendreads

As is often the case, I have too much on the go. The Golden One for #SeriesLove2025 and is on audio. The #NancyDrewBR will go fast. I‘m enjoying the slow pace of my #HashtagBrigade book Lark Rise to Candleforth. Girl, Interrupted is a whim read and I‘m almost done. Quite different from the movie. Haunted is for #Roll100 and not my cup of tea-short stories. The Pattern in the Carpet is just ok but will work for #OffMyShelf.

#ThreeListThursday #TLT

This list was a little Moomim Troll heavy? And of the 27 I‘ve read, 12 I only read as an adult.

In any case, these are three of my childhood favorites.

#OffMyShelf (Published over 10 years ago)
#Roll100

I didn‘t realize this was the start of a 16 book series! 😬 First published in 2006.

This is the story of Uhtred, the Saxon son of a Northumbrian Eorlemann who is taken at the age of 10 and raised by the invading Danes. The Last Kingdom refers to Wessex, which is the last Anglo-Saxon holdout against the Danes. This is excellent historical fiction. Violent but likely historically accurate.

In 1912, young Pamela inherits her romance novelist Aunt Addie‘s unpublished first novel. 20 years later she discovers the truth behind the manuscript and Victorian melodrama and the real reason Addie never married.

A soft pick for this month‘s #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub selection. It was humorous, though “The Bastard of Pinsk” went a little too long for my patience. But mostly I found it sad, and I don‘t know if that was the author‘s intention?

#WhereAreYouMonday

I‘m mainly in Long Bennington in Lincolnshire off the Great North Road where Margaret Drabble‘s maternal grandparents had a tea house and lodging during her childhood. This is a gentle, introspective memoir, focusing mainly on one favorite aunt, but also quite meandering.

#12Booksof2024

I read a lot in December due to time off work. Most of my favorites I‘ve already posted about for challenges. I want to highlight this title because I love Kunzru as an author. It didn‘t delve into the fantastical like others from him but it‘s still a crazy story. I appreciated Kunzru‘s intelligence and questioning of reality-why we value what we value. In large part, it‘s about art; what isn‘t art; how society commodifies art.

#weekendreads

My weekend plans are to get stuck in to these three books. It‘s been blissful two weeks with only having to check my work emails occasionally. Next week it‘s back to the grindstone 😭 with far less puttering and reading time available.

#12Booksof2024

I really loved being back with Jackson Brodie in this latest novel, which I read in November. I love Atkinson overall and I particularly love her Jackson Brodie books. They are both melancholy and hopeful and can also make me laugh.

Actually, I am drawn to chunky novels - I love ‘em! 😂

I realized that I had a number of planned books for 2025 (FOUR are for #HashtagBrigade !) that would fit the #AllergictoChunksters and #ChunksterChallenge2025 , so I‘m hopping on board. More may be forthcoming but for now I have:

Lark Rise to Candleford - 556 pages
The Mill on the Floss - 579 pages
The Woman in White - 626 pages
Wives and Daughters - 679 pages
The Quincunx - 781 pages

I‘ve gathered my January #Roll100 selections. The Bernard Cornwall book is also available on audio through the library, which will definitely help me manage these by month‘s end. 🤞

#12Booksof2024

I thought this was a good start to Osman‘s new series. His books are dependable to me. Not the best, but dependably satisfying and entertaining, which I appreciate

#12Booksof24

In September, I finally read the first in Abercrombie‘s much loved First Law series. I now understand the appeal; why readers raved. The characters are great and unlike some fantasy series (ahem) the entire trilogy is published! I‘m looking forward to continuing with the next book, hopefully in 2025. 🤞

These are my tentative goals for #SeriesLove2025 . I need to concentrate on getting to “Fools Fate” by Robin Hobb, , “Marking Time” by Elizabeth Jane Howard, and “The White Monkey” by John Galsworthy. I keep putting them off.

#12Booksof2024

A book I admired more than I enjoyed it. I‘m cheating a bit here. I started it in August, but didn‘t actually finish until October. It‘s quite long! I am surprised, however that this is not as well known as Ulysses or Mrs Dalloway, because it is a really good example of modernism.

Happy New Year #FurrowedMiddleBrowClub members! 🥂🍾 We‘re kicking 2025 off with the tagged title. It sounds super intriguing: a book within a book, a secret lost youthful romance, maybe some present day romance too? We shall see!

All are welcome. If anyone would like to join in and be added to the tag list, please let me know. Equally, if anyone wants to be removed, say the word.

#12Booksof2024

The #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub pick in July was a delightful surprise for me. If the rest of Fair‘s works are as sly and humorous as this one, I may have found a new favorite author!

Finished my last book for the #ChristmasCrimeChallenge hosted by @RaeLovesToRead !

I laughed out loud quite a bit reading this book. It is a bit mind-boggling involving ghosts, time travel and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Adams‘ love of computer science also figures in the plot. Lots of fun.

#WhereAreYouMonday

This last week of 2024 I‘m bouncing between late 1920s London and a village in Sussex reading Margery Sharp‘s debut novel.

#12Booksof2024

Writers don‘t get much cooler than Joan Didion. Many are put off by her removed and sometimes chilly style, but that‘s exactly what appeals to me. This is a collection of essays, most first published elsewhere in the 1960s.

It's teeny tiny, but this is my #Roll100 list for 2025 ! Last year I did really well until July and then I crapped out. 😂 But still, I read a bunch of books from my TBR as a result, which is the GOAL. Thank you @PuddleJumper for organizing!

#12Booksof2024

I read 3 good mystery novels in May. A Taste for Death by PD James and Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz were both great. But I am highlighting this because I‘d been sitting on reading this for years and it kick started my appreciation for French‘s slow as molasses style and encouraged me to become a completist of her novels. This is part 1 of 2 featuring ex-Chicago detective Cal Hooper who‘s retired to a rural Irish village.

My second to last #ChristmasCrimeChallenge completed.

These Martin Beck police procedurals from 60s-70s Sweden are well deserved classics of crime fiction. In this one, a child rapist and murderer is terrorizing Stockholm and police resources, already stretched thin, are under extreme pressure to prevent the next brutal crime. It takes hard work (little forensics and limited technology) and sharp patrolmen and detectives to succeed.