This was a love letter of a book to libraries and their importance using the 1987 LA Central Library fire as a jumping off point and its history as scaffolding.

#Roll100

My 6th #10beforetheend book

This was Kunzru‘s debut and while I think it shares themes with his later work regarding identity, race, and class, it‘s more conventional.

Moving from India to England to Africa, the story is Dickensian in scope. Pran is an Anglo-Indian boy who can pass for white. Circumstances put him on the streets, forcing him to adopt new identities to get by. He‘s always chasing after belonging, but underneath he is hollow.

#weekendreads

Unfortunately I have a (for me) busy four day weekend. Tis the season…ugh 😂 Nonetheless I should be able to finish at least two of my currently reading books.

The Library Book - #Roll100
The Impressionist and Home - #10beforetheend
Impossible Fortune because my library hold came in, though it could also work for #ChristmasCrimeChallenge

I don‘t have television but my parents do, so I watched this today after Thanksgiving dinner with my mom. I thought it was very well done. 👍

I was worried about Bognan‘s casting in particular but the actor was perfect. I want to live at Cooper‘s Chase. I can‘t decide whose apartment I love the most. I would have loved to have been on the set design team.

Hey #EBBR friends! This is your reminder to source your copy of the December title. This is book No.11 in the 25 plus book series. Apparently it was also reissued under the title “Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Exploding Plumbing and Other Mysteries”.

Please let me know if you want to continue to be tagged in these posts next year. Also, if anyone would like to join, say the word.

@LitsyEvents

#ChristmasCrimeChallenge “set in winter”
#Roll100

A quirky kind of mystery, occasionally funny, sometimes sad.

“The psyche is our defense system - it makes sure we never understand what is going around us. It‘s main task is to filter information, even though the capabilities of our brain are enormous. For it would be impossible to carry the weight of this knowledge because every tiny particle of the world is made of suffering.”

#christmascrimechallege “hard boiled”

It took me a few chapters to get used to the tone of this modern day noir that‘s deliberately mimicking and referencing Chandler‘s Philip Marlow. Set in LA (naturally) the detective is Korean-American Juniper Song. When one of her best friends asks Song to find out if his father is having an affair, Song gets involved in a string of murders and has to solve the mystery before she becomes the next victim.

#ChristmasCrimeChallenge “Short Stories” 🎅🏻💀🎄🔪

I ❤️ Agatha Christie and it‘s no surprise that I very much enjoyed this collection of Poirot short stories, most of which also featured Hastings.

I‘d seen all but two adapted for TV with David Suchet. The exceptions were “The Lemesurier Inheritance” and “The Market Basing Mystery” which were not filmed as part of the ITV production, though part of their plots were worked in to other episodes.

My 5th #10beforetheend

This is my 2nd Enright title and I don‘t think she‘s for me.

The writing is excellent, but the story is fragmented, nonlinear and an example of the unreliability of memory.

Narrated by the middle-aged daughter in an Irish family of 12 children. When her brother dies, she has to reckon with her past, her grief, her anger… I‘m sure many readers will come away with a clear idea of what really happened, but I‘m clueless.

Well #EBBR buddy readers, how did you do with this month‘s title?

I found them fairly easy to solve, though I also know that I read this one as a kid because I remembered the solution to “The Case of the Barefoot Thieves”. As a child who usually went barefoot outside in hot California summers, I remember wanting to test the solution out myself! 👣😅

73 The Traitor Baru Cormorant
The #Roll100 Challenge this year has really helped me get to some of those SFF books that have been long on my TBR! 👍🚀

58 The Library Book
I‘ve never read any Susan Orleans and this book feels like a good entry point . 👍📚

26 TO BE DECIDED John Irving title
I‘m torn between rereading or working toward completing his body of work and picking something I‘ve not yet read, like the tagged. 👍❓

#MajicMonday

Thank you for the tag @Eggs 😊

I completed a difficult months long work project in July of this year. My agreeing to take it on was part of my promotion. It‘s an annual report and not adequately supported in house, which is where a lot of the difficulty comes from. It stressed me out but I‘m proud I was able to successfully bring it together.

Finished my first #ChristmasCrimeChallenge book! 📕 “red cover”

Inspector Daglish takes a holiday with his elderly aunt on the Suffolk coast when the corpse of a neighbor turns up.

I read this before but had no memory of the plot. It was a very entertaining re-read. I love how James makes virtually everyone look guilty. The ending was a little OTT and the confession of the murderer a wee bit convenient, but up until then I was hooked.

#OffMyShelf 26 letters in title
#10beforetheend
#37by37

Peter Carey is never going to be a favorite, but I do admire him even if I don‘t love him. This started off well but became baggy in the middle. A French aristocrat travels to antebellum America to ostensibly writes treatise on American prisons but really to escape political threats. He‘s accompanied by Englishman Parrot, a nominal servant but very much his own man and with a tragic past.

I missed #FridayHappyReadingHour yesterday but this morning I am enjoying my coffee and listening to the sound of the rain with the slider open.

I am ready to finish up the tagged for #NancyDrewBR as well as Parrot and Olivier for #OffMyShelf and #10beforetheend today.

Later, after errands and my parents, I will crack in to my pile for #ChristmasCrimeChallenge.

A soft pick. I picked this up because the essay about Tolentino‘s reality TV stint was referenced in “You Wanna Be on Top?” by Sara Hartshorne. Generally I found the collection to be interesting and smart, but maybe it‘s my attention span, the essays were all too long for me - about 30 pages each. I thought a lot about what I‘d have asked her to cut were I her editor. That said, essays aren‘t my usual fare.

#37by37 (only two more books to go!).

#OffMyShelf “made me happy”
#10beforethend
#37by37

This was a posthumous publication of four previously unpublished novels, four short stories and an essay by Pym - a must for any Pym fanatic. The title novel is the longest and the probably best, but I loved all of this collection. I just love Pym‘s sedate and subtly humorous style. Each section has a short introduction by the editor and Pym‘s long time friend, Hazel Holt.

#ChristmasCrimeChallenge

I‘m a little late for my own challenge! 😂 I‘ve settled on my pile of possibilities. Super pleased that some work for other prompts.

1. “Unnatural Causes“
2. “A Fatal Grace” #OhCanada
3. “Crime at Black Dudley” #HashtagBrigade
4. “The Mystery of the Yellow Room”
5. “Poirot‘s Early Cases”
6. “Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” #Roll100
7. “Six Wakes”
8. “Follow Her Home”.
9. “The Quincunx” #10beforetheend

#ChristmasCrimeChallenge

Here‘s a bingo board if that‘s a preferable method of keeping track.

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

Attention all #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub members!

We are about to start voting for next year‘s titles and are taking this opportunity to update the tag list. If you are still interested in being part of the club and want to continue to be tagged in 2026, please let us know in the comments below by next week Monday, November 17, 2025.

Thank you and happy reading! 😊📚

#majicmonday

Thanks for the tag @Eggs 😊

The smell of baking pumpkin pie 🥧 is definitely something I associate with the holidays. It‘s the only time of year I enjoy that particular pastry.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
#37by37

A very soft pick. It was a bit of a meandering hodgepodge. Taciturn, middle aged, and slightly witchy charwoman, Ivy Gover, inherits her uncle cottage outside the village of Nethersham in 1930 or so. There are a few village romances, a poignant foster son situation, a mean girl, class consciousness and class clashes. And then there‘s an epilogue 40 years later. It felt a little unfinished.

#OffMyShelf “orange cover”
#37by37 Readathon

A classic in trans literature and I love the non-ending - it felt honest. Maria is having a quarter-life crisis and manages to lose her job, girlfriend and apartment all in 24 hours. What trans wisdom could she possibly impart to maybe trans maybe not trans pothead JamesH in podunk Nevada? Raw, funny, provocative, and insightful. No one has all the answers.

❄️ INVITATION! ❄️

Before we know it, the holiday season will be upon us. @RaeLovestoRead and I are joining forces this year hosting the #ChristmasCrimeChallenge . 🔪 😱

Make a TBR of the crime fiction you want to read between November 11 and December 31.

The prompts are suggestions - follow them or go rogue! Tag us with your pile of possibilities and reviews. We want to know! Tagging those who participated last year but all are welcome. 🤗

#FridayHappyReadingHour

I‘ve had a kind of unproductive work day. Lots of noodling but few results. So I gave up on it and am calling it - the weekend starts now! 😊

Joining the fun for the #37by37 Readathon hosted by @MatchlessMarie starting tomorrow and running till November 13. 😃

My goal is to finish these seven books, most of which will do double duty for other read alongs or challenges: #EBBR #NancyDrewBR #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub #10beforetheend #OffMyShelf

Hey there fellow #EBBR sleuths! It‘s time to get your paws on a copy of this month‘s title if you are interested in joining in. I think I might have read this one before. The kid on stilts is jogging my memory.

This buddy read is open to all. If anyone would like to be removed from or added to the tag list, please let me know.

@LitsyEvents

I took the recommendation from @RamsFan1963 and got the green goddess salad this time at Panera while waiting for Penny at her grooming appointment. 😋🥗📖

#weekendreads

📕Finish up Three Day Road for #OhCanada

📗Continue The Woods in Winter for #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

📘Continue Nevada for #OffMyShelf “orange cover”

📙Maybe finish Civil to Strangers for #10beforetheEnd

Happy Halloween 🎃 #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub readers! Reminding y‘all that our last title in 2025 is the tagged in November. I‘ve started it and I will say, if you are a dog lover, you will appreciate it. #JusticeforMrJones&JimJams 🐶!

Read at your own pace and make sure to tag us in your review and any related posts.

This buddy read is open to anyone. If you would like to be added to or removed from the tag list, say the word.

@LitsyEvents

#OffMyShelf “Nonhuman MC”
#10BeforetheEnd

This was a little too hard SciFi for me - I‘d probably like it better adapted to film. But I am glad to have read it so I know Vinge is not for me. It‘s an ambitious novel with a wide scope. Two children crashland on a planet run by sentient dog packs-only each child end up with a different warring faction. Meanwhile their ship holds the only key to stopping The Blight, which is devouring the universe.

#Offmyshelf “romance”
#10beforetheend

This was a really lovely portrayal of life and love across three generations of women in a family from the 1930s to the early 21st century. Penelope Lively is such a great writer. I can just pick her stuff up, no need to read the blurb. I know I am in good hands.

I bought this used at a library book sale and it had a clipping of the review of the book from the LA Times Book Review from June 17, 2007.

Hello #EBBR friends! Did you read this month‘s title and if yes, how did you get on with it?

Overall I liked it but feel the cases don‘t quite hold up quality-wise compared to the earliest ones. The solution to the first story I feel like I have encountered before, in a Colombo episode or something. 😅 The Case of the Girl Shortstop ⚾️ sadden me. I hope today Edwina would be allowed to play on the team.

#FridayHappyReadingHour Unwinding and transitioning to the weekend.

I‘ve just finished the tagged book, my last #Roll100 for October.

My focus now is on the first two #10BeforetheEnd titles.

And then I need to get started on the #OhCanada pick for Sep/Oct. 🤞

A soft pick. @Jari-chan did warn me!

This reads a little like a novella length fairy tale for adults.

Diane is born to a mother who is incapable of loving her. Despite receiving love and affection from her grandparents, father, & siblings this lack cripples her emotionally and establishes her overachieving adult trajectory. Only through a violent tragedy is she able to close the circle by connecting another victim of the same trauma.

#Roll100

#sundayfunday

Thank you for the tag @Eggs 😊The tagged is the first book that came to mind. 👻

So far the only reading I‘ve managed today is some great signage! ✊🇺🇸

Here‘s my #10beforetheend selection. I‘m always looking for something that encourages me to read what I already own.

A few will do double work for the #OffMyShelf challenge.

The Quincunx will meet #Allergictochunksters and #ChunksterChallenge2025 .

It‘s also a holdover along with The Illusionist from the #14Books14Weeks challenge. 🙊

Wow! 🤯 It doesn‘t get much better than Le Guin, IMO. This book reminded me a little of PKD only it made sense because it was UKLG. 😜

What would you do if you knew your dreams could affect reality? Unfortunately I think most of us would try to use this to our advantage as the terrifyingly normal Dr. Haber does. Who would wish such power away like George Orr?

A great (and short) philosophical novel hidden in an entertaining SciFi story.

#OffMyShelf “flower on cover”

Very sweet, romantic, and charming but not my cup of tea. The comparison to “The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society” is apt (which I also didn‘t love) . This has a similar vibe, though not epistolary.

Eight people come together in post WWII England to share their love of Austen and protect her literary legacy. Their communion helps each of them heal their own trauma and provide a sense of belonging.

#weekendreads

📕For the first time in a long while I am reading the #NancyDrewBR selection on time! 😅

📗”Don‘t Let‘s Go…” is a #Roll100 pick for October 👍

📘”Await Your Reply” is left over from #14Books14Weeks ! 😬

#FridayHappyReadingHour 🥂

Enjoying a Diet Pepsi on ice as I wind down for the weekend. I‘ve got five books on the go and enjoying them all.

The first book in Stout‘s long running Nero Wolfe mystery series. It was a wee bit long-winded but generally satisfying as a whodunnit. What makes it special are the characters: Wolfe tends his orchids and never leaves his brownstone while Archie Goodwin acts as legman and amanuensis (and the Watson to Wolfe‘s Sherlock).

I was curious about the series because Robert Jackson Bennett based his detective team in The Tainted Cup on Wolfe/Goodwin.

#OffMyShelf “pub year ends in 5”

“Well, there are a lot of things we don‘t know and choose and prefer not to know”.

Mantel‘s debut from 1985. Great writing but creepy, very dark and disturbing. There‘s something not quite right about the Axons: elderly Evelyn and her mentally challenged adult daughter Muriel. Unknowingly intertwined is former neighbor Colin, an unlikable school teacher, who is having an affair with Muriel‘s social worker.

Oops! 🙊 I almost forgot to post the #EBBR reminder for October! Hopefully all who plan on reading this next entry in the series either already have their copy or have placed their holds.

Even if the September title wasn‘t my favorite, I always look forward to reading these books each month and remembering how little kid me just loved them.

If anyone wants to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know.

@LitsyEvents

#majicmonday. Thanks for the tag @Eggs

Two things I like about my job:

💼 I get paid. 😜

💼 My boss is awesome! 🤩

One thing I dislike about my job

💼 People who can only delegate but cannot DO! 🙁

#FridayHappyReadingHour

Sitting down with a stack of books and tonic water on ice. Aahhhh….

Officially kicking off the #turnthepage readathon today!

My goal is to just make headway in any or all of the three novels I have on the go at the moment. Unfortunately I have work tomorrow and a busy weekend with some drive time. But I do have the Fleming and the James titles available on audio via Hoopla, so maybe I can listen a bit, if I‘m not too stressed by traffic. 🤞

Hello fellow armchair detectives! What did you think of this month‘s #EBBR selection? No doubt 10 year old me would have enjoyed this as much as any of the previous ones, but old lady me found the cases a little lackluster…maybe a tad uninspired?

I missed a few as usual, though how anyone who is not a whale 🐳 aficionado would know anything about ambergris is beyond me. 😂

#HashtagBrigade

I really enjoyed the re-read. It‘s been decades since I first read it and I got a lot more out of it this second time around. That‘s the beauty of classics and modern classics- they reward multiple reads. While I still prefer the idyllic first section with young (and in love IMO) Charles and Sebastian, I appreciate as an older person the bittersweet feelings for one‘s youth.

Thank you for leading the charge @BarkingMadRead 😊