Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals:

• Tin Man by Sarah Winman - from Penguin's Putnam imprint for review
• The Endless Beach by Jenny Colgan - from William Morrow for review
• Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages - from Penguin Random House for review
• Goodbye, Sweet Girl by Kelly Sundberg and
• The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar - both from Harper for review
• Daddies Do by Lezlie Evans and Elisa Ferro - from Sterling Children's Books for review

I've got an ARC of Tin Man and already read it (working on the review), so the finished copy shown above is just a bonus and I'll pass my other copy on to a friend, preferably another blogger. Out of Left Field is another middle reader, I think. I'm really enjoying all the middle readers and the occasional YA I've been getting, lately. The Secrets Between Us is the sequel to The Space Between Us, which I reviewed for HarperCollins' First Look program, eons ago. In fact, it was one of the rare ARCs from those days that I kept because I loved it so much. I just looked at my ARC and it was a January, 2006 release. There's a 2005 release next to it on the shelf, so that means I've been reviewing for publishers for at least a dozen years. If I can find the time, I may reread The Space Between Us before reading Secrets.  Daddies Do is a children's picture book, so of course I sat right down and read it immediately. Goodbye, Sweet Girl sounds like a combination of harrowing and uplifting as it's the story of one woman's experience with domestic violence and how she "learns to believe that she deserves better".



Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Reckless Rescue (The Explorers #2) by Adrienne Kress
• Daddies Do by Lezlie Evans and Elisa Ferro
• Boots on the Ground by Elizabeth Partridge

Loved them all. Boots on the Ground was particularly moving, with personal stories of experiences in Vietnam interspersed with what was going on politically and throughout the country, at the time (a light overview). The ending chapter pulls the book together and pierces your heart. It's so moving. 

and a DNF:

• Regrets Only by Erin Duffy

I don't normally mention DNFs in my Monday Malarkey but I got quite far into this one before giving up (160-something pages out of 350-ish). It's about a woman who discovers her husband is having an affair just months after she gives birth so she immediately files for divorce. Because they have a child, she's unable to move home to Chicago from Connecticut without likely losing custody. So, she's dealing with being a new mother, betrayal, and being a fish out of water at the same time. Unfortunately, I found the story trite, unrealistic, and predictable. When I realized I wasn't enjoying it, I flipped to the end to see if the end made it worthwhile to continue reading and it didn't excite me in any way (I don't mind knowing an ending if I question whether or not a book is worth sticking out) so I gave up. I think the reason I stuck it out for so long was because it was a change of pace and I like variety. It just wasn't for me, though.


Currently reading:

• Mad Boy by Nick Arvin
• Don Quixote by Cervantes

I read a few pages of Don Quixote, this week, and they were awful. Ugh. Seriously, I may just have to devote a week to finishing off this book, sometime soon. It's starting to really drive me nuts that I've made so little progress. Book 2 of Don Quixote is just not as good as the first. Mad Boy is set during the War of 1812 with raggedy Redcoats pillaging the land and a single skirmish (so far). It can be pretty raw and graphic, at times, but the writing is excellent and I'm invested in young Henry's quest to bury his mother by the sea.



Last week's posts:

• The Reckless Rescue by Adrienne Kress - book review
• The Not-so-Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis - book review
• Look for Her by Emily Winslow - book review
• Fiona Friday: Cattitude - cat photo

In other news:

I'm nursing a book-related injury. While moving my stack of this month's finished books to put Boots on the Ground in the right place (I pile them by size), I managed to knock 3 children's books off the shelf and onto my bare foot, where they all hit with astonishing precision. Wow, did that hurt. I iced it down but still have a whopper of a bruise that covers almost the entire top of my foot, along with a bit of swelling. I'm sure it would have been worse, had I not gone to bed with an ice pack wrapped around my foot. Putting on shoes was interesting, this morning (I think I'll survive, but it stings a bit). I've tripped over piles of books, before, but this is my first falling-book injury. Fortunately, it really has to do with the fact that my finished-books pile for April is a biggie. So, that's cool.

Still watching and enjoying Season 1 of Psych and I'm on Season 7 of Doctor Who, the first season starring Jon Pertwee, but that's about all I've watched. No movies and only one night of regularly scheduled TV.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Cattitude

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Look for Her by Emily Winslow

In 1976, Annalise Wood disappeared from her small hometown near Cambridge in England. Later, a body was found and determined to be hers. Now, a psychologist has had two visits from people obsessed with Annalise in a single week. Is it just a coincidence? Or is there reason to believe the police came to the conclusion that the body was hers too quickly?

New DNA evidence has turned up in the Annalise Wood case. Morris Keene and his former partner, Chloe Frohmann hope this evidence will help them finally close the case, but instead it unravels what little the police thought they knew. What happened to Annalise? What are the real connections between the two women who are obsessed with her? Or, is there any connection at all?

Look for Her is the 4th book in a series and I haven't read the first 3 books, but I thought the author did a pretty terrific job of filling the reader in on what happened in the previous book without giving anything away (the reasons the detectives are no longer partners and Morris has been left with a permanent disability), so I had no real problem with that. And, I thought the book was pretty well done, although I confess I guessed what happened to Annalise early on and I was right without knowing the exact details.

Recommended - Alternating between several viewpoints (the psychologist, Chloe, and Morris), the author does an excellent job of weaving a complex mystery and then tying all the strands together. I found Look for Her both compelling and satisfying. And, I really enjoyed the location -- occasionally, I found myself looking up particular landmarks, which I always enjoy. My only complaint about the book is minor and, you could say, pretty much irrelevant: I didn't think the characters sounded particularly English (so I wasn't surprised when I found out the author is an American married to a Brit, although she lives in England). I didn't feel any urge to go out and look for the earlier books to fill in the gaps, but I would definitely read any future releases by Emily Winslow.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Not-so-Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis

"She was in an all-out sprint down that hill to see if you were hurt."
"I guess," Oliver said. "But so were you. Friends don't just sit there while their friends maybe impale themselves."

~p. 153

Oliver is practically an expert on the Civil War. He knows all about the battles, the heroes, the generals -- he even does Civil War reenactments and is planning to participate in the anniversary of the Gettysburg battle. He's been waiting ages for his history teacher to get around to the Civil War and he can't wait to do a Civil War project. But, then he's assigned to do a documentary on Private Raymond Stone, an everyday soldier who was killed by disease before he even got to fight in a single battle. What's the point of that? Even worse, he has to work with a partner. Ella is messy and flunking everything. The last thing he needs is someone to get in his way, much less a slacker like Ella.

But, as Oliver and Ella get to work on their project, he discovers there's more to Ella and Private Stone than he could possibly have imagined. Ella is smart and fun to work with. And, they've discovered a mystery that involves the young soldier and his enlistment. The more they dig, the more intriguing Private Stone's story turns out to be. And, the longer they work together, the more Oliver finds to like about Ella. With the help of a third friend, Kevin, the trio works to dig up the true story of Private Raymond Stone and create a film that will knock the socks off their teacher while, at the same time, Oliver is beginning to find Ella distracting in a very good way.

Highly recommended - I loved everything about The Not-so-Boring Letters of Private Nobody. It's smart, funny, educational, and a little romantic. Since the story is told from Oliver's point of view, the romance is told from a male perspective (refreshing and rare). I also loved the fact that the teacher's objective is to show his class that war is not just about the well-known names and dates; it's also about the lives of everyday people whose contribution may be small but still meaningful. But, the best thing about the book was that besides being a tremendously entertaining book, there's a realistic aspect to it. I kept finding myself thinking, "This feels like life in a real classroom," during the classroom scenes. And, wishing I had a teacher like Oliver and Ella's. Sure enough, the author is an 8th grade social studies teacher. No wonder it felt so real. And, boy, does he have a terrific sense of humor. I will definitely be looking for more books by Matthew Landis.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Reckless Rescue (The Explorers #2) by Adrienne Kress

Change of pace! I've just finished The Explorers: The Reckless Rescue at 12:39 AM, my time (I know . . . good grief) so I'm opting to use a format I used waaaaay back in 2007. Yes, really, I've been blogging for-freaking-ever. The idea is to make it easy reviewing because I'm beat. Either way, I'm going to tell you about the book, so whatever works, right?

What led you to pick up this book?

I read the first book in the series The Explorers: The Door in the Alley in June of 2017 and loved it. Adventure! Humor! Danger! It's crazy fun, enough so that I was not even put off by the cliffhanger ending. And, I hate cliffhanger endings. So, when a thoughtful publicist offered to let me review the second in the series, I jumped at the chance. Here's a link to my review of the first book:

The Explorers: The Door in the Alley by Adrienne Kress


Summarize the plot but don't give away the ending. 

Sebastian has been kidnapped by three dangerous men because he holds the key to an important map in his photographic memory. Evie has promised to rescue him. When Sebastian ends up running from his kidnappers after landing in Korea, Evie travels with Catherine (one of the Filipendulous Five explorers) to Australia to find someone who can help them locate a man who has part of the map whose key Sebastian has memorized. But, wherever they go, danger follows.


What did you like most about the book?

Adrienne Kress has a knack for combining silly humor with fast-paced scenes -- lots of running, climbing, jumping, dodging, racing around corners, etc. I love it all. I also loved the way the author used a K-Pop band -- something I'm sure young readers will appreciate -- to add a little unusual flavor to Sebastian's story.


What did you think of the main character?

There are really two main characters: Sebastian and Evie. The book alternates between their two stories and I like them both. Sebastian is a rule-follower and in this story he must break rules, now and then, to save his hide. Evie is every bit as smart as Sebastian but her brain works a little different and they tend to complement each other. I appreciate a smart heroine.


Share some quotes from the book.

Oops, I didn't mark any quotes. But, the chapter headings are every bit as fun as the story, itself (and so are the footnotes), so here's a chapter heading:

Chapter 38: In which everything comes to a head. Or whatever body part you feel like, really. 

See? Silly. I love silliness. The storyline is really so fast-paced that I didn't take the time to mark anything. Talk about silly.


Share a favorite scene from the book:

I love the action scenes -- all of them -- and there are quite a few. At the beginning, for example, there's a bit of turbulence on the plane (which is why Sebastian ends up in Korea . . . not the final destination) and when they land, Sebastian does something daring and runs for his life. The author does a fantastic job of writing just enough description that you understand exactly what is happening but it's minimal, at the same time. So, the pages just fly. And, that probably was one of my favorite scenes.


Highly recommended - At the end of my review of the first book in The Explorers series, I reiterated my hatred for cliffhangers. Oh, how I loathe them. Did I tell you I'm not a fan of cliffhangers? I like a book to stand on its own. These don't, sorry, and I do dislike that. But, this series is so fiercely, hilariously entertaining that I'm not entirely peeved that there are clearly two more to come and The Reckless Rescue ended, again, on a cliffhanger. In fact, this cliffhanger made me literally laugh out loud. Best cliffhanger ending ever. I hope I'm still on somebody's list of reviewers when #3 comes out. I did have trouble understanding what was going on, at first. It took a while for my memory to warm up. But, the author just throws you into the active volcano of her imagination and you can't help but get blown right into the action, so . . . who cares what happened in the first one? OK, yeah, at some point you need to figure it out. But, while you're remembering, you'll be having an awful lot of fun, I promise.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals:

• Regrets Only by Erin Duffy - from HarperCollins for review
• The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik by David Arnold - from Penguin for book tour

I love the pop-art psychedelic look of that Noah Hypnotik cover, don't you? So eye-catching.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Isosceles' Day by Kevin Meehan
• Tin Man by Sarah Winman
• Warren the 13th and the Whispering Woods by Tania del Rio and Will Staehle

Currently reading:

• Don Quixote by Cervantes
• The Explorers: The Reckless Rescue by Adrienne Kress

I committed to doing a review of The Explorers: The Reckless Rescue tomorrow and I've barely begun to read it, so wish me luck and quick reading. As to Don Quixote . . . I'm not even going to set goals, for now, I'm doing so badly. I'm considering taking a week off of everything else (reading other books, blogging) to finish it up, soon. We shall see. I'm ready to be done with it.


Last week's posts:

• February 2018 Reads in Review - Brief descriptions of everything I read in February
• March 2018 Reads in Review - Same as above, but for the month of March
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders - book review
• Fiona Friday: Biscuit making in progress - cat photo

In other news:

I just accidentally discovered the show Psych. I know I'm behind the times but I was trying to look up one thing and happened across Psych, instead, so I played the first episode of Season 1 and I'm totally hooked. For a few years, my niece used to make excited posts every time Psych came on or was about to come on and I just ignored them. I had no idea what the show was about and we tend to have pretty different taste in TV. I might pay a bit more pay attention to her posts, in the future. Wow, what a fun series! I'm also enjoying the third Doctor in Dr. Who. We actually met Jon Pertwee many, many years ago when he came to the Big City to speak (and brought the car, Bessie).

Fiona loves TV time because it's her lap time, so I'm sure she'll appreciate the fact that I've found something new to watch.




©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Biscuit making in progress

Cooking is very serious business. 

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Having never loved or been loved in that previous place, they were frozen here in a youthful state of perpetual emotional vacuity; interested only in freedom, profligacy, and high-jinks, railing against any limitation or commitment whatsoever. 

~from. p. 118, description of three young male ghosts

Well, what of it. 
No one who has ever done anything worth doing has gone uncriticized. As regards the matter at hand (as regards him), I am, at least, above any--
Thus thought Mr. Lincoln.
But then his (our) eyes shut, in a slow remembering sorrow-wince. 

~p. 236

Lincoln in the Bardo is a tale of life and death, ghosts and letting go. Willie Lincoln has just died and his father has taken him out of what the ghosts in the bardo call his "sick box" (his coffin). In his grief, President Lincoln attempts to will his son back to life. Now, Willie's trapped between life and whatever comes next. I had to look up the word "bardo" and found that it's a Buddhist term for the place between death and the next life. I'm not sure that's how Saunders uses the term. It feels more like a place to avoid heaven or hell, one in which it requires some effort to stay or into which one is thrown when someone refuses to let go (as in Willie's case).

I've heard people describe Lincoln in the Bardo as "weird, really weird" and that's true. It's certainly offbeat and unusual. But, Saunders is pretty much the King of Weird, in my opinion. His imagination is boundless, his use of the English language masterful, his storytelling strong, his use of metaphor mind-boggling (I'm thinking mostly of his other work when referring to metaphor), and his characterization beyond reproach. So, while the story may be an odd one, I always got the sense that Saunders knew exactly where he was taking the reader and why -- and he did it with flair.

Those last few pages definitely make it clear what the author was trying to say in his unique way: Life is grand, enjoy it while you can.

Highly recommended - I gave Lincoln in the Bardo 4 out of 5 stars because it was not a book that grabbed me and held on, but I can't take off more than a point. The writing is so skillful that it's hard to criticize anything about Lincoln in the Bardo beyond saying that it's weird and jumpy. If only for the fact that Saunders set his story in a place that required the creation of dozens of different voices, you have to admire the craftsmanship involved.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

March 2018 Reads in Review

March reads (click on title to read full review, with one exception):

26. The Brontë Sisters by Catherine Reef - A biography of the Brontë family for younger readers (YA, I think) that is comprehensive enough for adults to enjoy and will make the reader eager to read or reread the Brontës. Includes some wonderful photographs to help fill out their story.

27. Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills - The intertwined biographies of the first six black millionaires in the United States. I've struggled with reviewing this book because it faded from memory quickly (also, I didn't get to it soon enough), but I do recall both enjoying it and wishing the stories had been told as separate bios rather than jumping around from one millionaire's story to another.

28. Nothing Left to Burn by Heather Ezell - A wildfire, a mystery (Who set the fire?), guilt, depression, and a relationship that seems outwardly strong but may be dysfunctional are at the heart of this gripping but immensely disturbing YA. I couldn't put it down.

29. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James - Two murderers have left bodies on the same property, near Idlewild Hall: one in 1994 and one in 2014. Are the murders connected? And, does a girl who went missing in 1950 have anything to do with the murders? A wonderful suspense.

30. Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen - A YA set in WWII about a Jewish girl with Aryan features but no papers who is on the run after her mother is killed. After finding a friend who is also in danger, she goes undercover in a Nazi girls' boarding school, charged with befriending a scientist's daughter to find important information about a terrifying new bomb. Another fantastic book.

31. The Saboteur by Paul Nix - The true story of a French aristocrat who joined the Resistance and heroically risked his life on a number of important missions. He also was captured several times. The action scenes are movie-worthy.

32. The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso - The story of two elderly women who hate each other. One is black, one white. Both experienced painful rejection but neither can see what they have in common. When disaster strikes, the women are thrown together. Will they ever learn to get along? A reread and even more wonderful the second time. F2F discussion of this book was amazing.

33. Supergifted by Gordon Korman - A gifted boy, challenging himself by joining a cheerleading squad in the normal school he attends (after being kicked out of the academy for gifted children) pretends to be the hero who stopped a disaster from potentially killing a family when he realizes his friend needs to keep his heroics a secret. But, when his fame gets out of hand and his friendship with the real hero is threatened, what will happen? A smart, funny book for middle readers.

34. Good Behavior by Blake Crouch - Three novellas about Letty Dobesh, a meth addict and thief who wants to break free from her addictions but is constantly tempted and ends up in several very dangerous situations. Loved the tense pacing in these stories.

35. Bus! Stop! by James Yang - A children's picture book about an unnamed boy who misses his bus and then finds that all of the buses that show up at his stop are very, very odd. Low on words, high on fun, each bus that passes is crazier than the last. Absolutely delightful.

36. Up in the Leaves by Shira Boss and Jamey Christoph - The true story (picture book) of a boy who lived in New York City and hated the crowds, so he escaped to Central Park and built tree houses to hide out in. Each year, they were taken down in the fall and each spring he built a newer, more elaborate treehouse, till he was offered a job working in the park, trimming trees. A wonderful story!

37. Gloria's Voice by Aura Lewis - The true story of Gloria Steinem's life for very young feminists, this picture book uses age-appropriate wording for the very young but also includes a more detailed bio and page-by-page descriptions of what's happening in each spread, so that it also offers further information for older children, a really great way to make a book grow with a child.

March was such a fantastic month it's hard to believe. I can't even pick favorites. I pretty much loved everything. Even Black Fortunes, which I found difficult to read because of the way the various bios were intertwined rather than separated, was fascinating and well worth reading. The Saboteur was the other book I found rather slow, because the exciting action scenes were buffered by a great deal of background. But, I'm glad I read them. Everything else was so fantastic there's hardly any purpose to saying much more about them.

At any rate, it was a terrific month for quality. In case you're wondering, the stamp at the top of the book pile is there because Bus! Stop! is a long book but the shortest in height. So, I put Bus! Stop! at the top because of its size but then needed something to weigh it down so it wouldn't topple off the pile.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

February 2018 Reads in Review

February:

18. Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi - A very unique YA about an Iranian American, Saaket (also called Scott), who has not found his passion and goes on a road trip to find the professor he thinks can help him find the "grit" he needs to stick with something long enough to determine what exactly it is he wants to do with his life. I liked the uniqueness and how the author pulled the strands of the storyline together, although I found the storytelling sometimes a bit uneven.

19. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken - More than a funny book by a satirist, Al Franken tells the story of how he became a Democrat and then a senator and all about learning how to work for the people without embarrassing himself or his family. An amazing book, both entertaining and educational.

20. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (e-book) - The story of a black girl who witnesses the senseless shooting of a friend by a police officer and must make the decision whether to stay quiet about the injustice or become an activist in memory of her friend. Deeply moving and especially great for discussion. I had trouble with the vernacular and that made the book slightly lesser for me, but discussing it helped me to understand it in ways that I couldn't through the fog of language frustration and expanded its meaning for me.

21. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande - One of the best nonfiction works I've ever read, the story of the author's slowly growing understanding of how we need to change our way of looking at end-of-life decision-making. His own father's decline and his life as a doctor both informed the author's perception of how we should treat the elderly and the dying -- with focus on quality of life and making sure family understands and supports the individual's wishes for fulfilling what's most important during their final years. Everyone should read this -- truly, everyone.

22. Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth - A brutal fictional tale about two boys who experience tragedy and make the mistake, in their grief, of joining up with a group of men who claim to be in search of revenge for the sake of the teenagers but really have their own cruel ends in mind. Set in Australia, I found the setting vivid in both good and bad ways (some scenes were almost unbearable). I particularly enjoyed the ending, which is immensely satisfying after many pages of hideous violence.

23. I Am the Boss of this Chair by Carolyn Crimi and Marisa Morea - An adorable picture book about a cat whose territory is invaded by the newly adopted kitten in his home. When he can no longer stand watching the kitten take over his toys, his door, and his chair, he chases the kitten around the house, unexpectedly discovering that it's fun having a companion around to play with and cuddle.

24. The Statue and the Fury by Jim Dees - The host of Oxford, Mississippi's Thacker Mountain Radio Show and a local journalist, Dees describes a single year in Oxford, when the residents were fighting over the downing of trees, whether or not to put up a statue in honor of its most famous resident, William Faulkner, and where to put it. Especially fun for locals and fans of Faulkner.

25. Our Native Bees by Paige Embry - An excellent nonfiction book about one woman's quest to learn all about the bees that are native to North America. Packed with gorgeous photos of bees and written with humor, the author talks about what she's learned from interviewing and hanging out with various experts, including how to identify the many different species of bees, the challenges to their existence, which bees are the best pollinators, how they're studied, how farms in need of pollinators purchase their services, and what ordinary people can do to encourage bee populations.


February is invariably my slumpiest month because I start the year with kind of a bwwwoooom noise behind my reading glasses and then at the end of the month I'm a little bit fizzled out. And, yet, it was not a bad month, quantity aside.

I particularly loved Our Native Bees, I Am the Boss of this Chair, Being Mortal, and Al Franken, Giant of the Senate. I Am the Boss of this Chair was just pure fun -- a cat book! A story that mimics my own experience with the cats in my home! I loved it. The rest of the books were learning experiences and I hope to reread Being Mortal and the Al Franken book, some time. The bee book would go on a coffee table if I had one (but I don't, so onto the good shelves it goes).

I had some issues with Down and Across. Toward the beginning of the book I was uncertain I'd finish it, but the farther I got into it the more I enjoyed it and I ended up really appreciating it for its uniqueness. It also ended well. The Statue and the Fury is fun but, again, it's not a very cohesive piece of writing. So, it wasn't a favorite but I enjoyed it very much and I know my kids will love it because they both have lived in Oxford and can appreciate the unique personalities of the local crowd.

Only Killers and Thieves and The Hate U Give were both rough reads. Violence and grief permeate both, but Only Killers is just relentlessly vicious, whereas The Hate U Give is more emotional. Only Killers is, however, a fictionalization of real-life historical events. So it's not violent for no reason; its purpose is to show a horror of the past, just as The Hate U Give is a fictionalization of the reality of "death by cop" similar to the many that have taken place in recent years. Both will gut you a bit, but both end on triumphant notes so I felt like they were well worth the horrifying scenes, although I confess there was one point in Only Killers that I just had to skim, it got so brutal.

All in all, a slow reading month but a good one, in my humble opinion. You can click through to my full reviews via the link in the title of each.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals are very, very pretty:

Top to bottom:

• Tin Man by Sarah Winman - from Penguin for review
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - purchased for F2F discussion
• The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (and Their Muses) by Terri-Lynne DeFino and
• Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day - both from William Morrow for review
• Vintage Hughes by Langston Hughes - purchased for National Poetry Month
• Era Emilia by I. I. Mendor - from Glagoslav Publications for review
• Mad Boy by Nick Arvin - from Europa for review
• Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam by Elizabeth Partridge - from Viking Books for Young Readers for review

Clockwise from top left:

• But the Bear Came Back by Tammi Sauer and Dan Taylor and
• Albie Newton by Josh Funk and Ester Garay - both from Sterling Children's Books for review
• Sleep Train by Jonathan London and Lauren Eldridge - from Viking for review
• Isosceles' Day by Kevin Meehan - from The Cadence Group for review

Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Rocket Men by Robert Kurson
• If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
• Sleep Train by Jonathan London and Lauren Eldridge
• But the Bear Came Back by Tammi Sauer and Dan Taylor
• Albie Newton by Josh Funk and Ester Garay
• How to Forget a Duke by Vivienne Lorret

This was absolutely not what I expected my week to end up like! I was already reading Rocket Men and anticipated finishing that and then reading If You Come Softly, yes. But, then I planned to finish Lincoln in the Bardo and read 200 pages of Don Quixote. I never did feel like reading either of the latter two, although I managed 50 pages of Lincoln in the Bardo and I like what I've read. It's just not grabbing me the way I'd hoped. Then, 3 children's books arrived and I gobbled them down immediately, as always. Still couldn't talk myself into reading either of the two books I planned on making my focus books, so I decided maybe I was in need of something radically different. Fortunately, I had a romance ARC just waiting for me. How to Forget a Duke (amnesia, strapping duke, Emma fan) sucked me in. And, that capped off my week nicely. It was a really good reading week.


Currently reading (or trying to):

• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Don Quixote by Cervantes
• Warren the 13th and the Whispering Woods by Tania Del Rio and Will Staehle

Honestly, none of these books got touched often, even though they sat in my "Current reads" section at Goodreads, all week. But, hopefully, they'll get the attention they deserve, now.



Last week's posts:

• Bus! Stop! by James Yang (book review)
• Up in the Leaves by Shira Boss and Jamey Christoph (book review)
• Gloria's Voice by Aura Lewis (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Peaceful (cat photo) 

In other news:

Here is a cat with a sexy romance novel cover.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday on the Wrong Day - Peaceful

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Gloria's Voice by Aura Lewis

Gloria's Voice by Aura Lewis is the story of Gloria Steinem: "Feminist, Activist, Leader," as the subtitle says. I read one of Gloria Steinem's many books, last year, for my feminist reading project and never got around to writing a post about it, but I was fascinated by Gloria and thrilled to see that someone has written a children's book about her.

Here, little ones can get an introduction to her life. Beginning with childhood, the book talks about her wishes and dreams, how she wanted to be famous and help others, and how she was sidelined by her need to take care of her mother when her parents separated and her mother's mental illness meant Gloria had to act as the adult. It then moves on to her trip to India, followed by her decision to become a journalist and the frustration about having to write about things she didn't consider serious, how she came to realize that women everywhere just wanted to be heard, and the creation of Ms. magazine.

Gloria's Voice is for ages 4 and up, so it's told in very simple terms with gorgeous illustrations that have "flower power" coloring similar to the stage prop in the Sixties show Laugh-In (we've recently started occasionally watching an old Laugh-In episode, now and then, or I might not have recogized the similar coloring). But, there's a  more in-depth one-page bio at the end of the book, followed by a page of references for further reading and page-by-page notes on the details of each spread. So, even after one has grown past the picture book phase, there's a lot more learning material and ideas to read further for young feminists.

Highly recommended - One of the things I love about Gloria's Voice is that there are almost no men illustrated in the pages of this book. It's about a woman trying to bring attention to women's voices and that's reflected in the illustrations, which are gorgeous, by the way. The exception is a single man standing in a line to get a copy of Ms. magazine. The page-by-page notes at the end of the book explain that the image is of Gloria's husband, to whom she was married for three years (till his death). Those details and their explanations take the book from a picture book about a feminist leader to an educational book that can long be used as a reference or a starting point to learning more. I love that.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

*GIVEAWAY* - I Am the Boss of This Chair by Crimi and Morea - ENDS FRIDAY!!!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

The winner of this drawing is Petite. I will notify you by email. Thanks to all who entered!


THIS IS A QUICK GIVEAWAY: Please note dates and times.

Click on the following title to read my review of I Am the Boss of This Chair. 

I'm giving away one copy of I Am the Boss of this Chair by Carolyn Crimi and Marisa Morea because I loved it so much that I want to spread the joy. Please read the rules carefully.


GIVEAWAY RULES:

1. This is a quick drawing with only 3 days to sign up. Sign-up ends Friday at noon, Central Standard Time in the US.

2. Drawing is only open to residents of US or Canada.

3. Comment and leave me an email address for contact purposes. You may put spaces between the name portion and the @ in your email address to prevent passing bots from adding you to mailing lists, but you absolutely must leave an email to qualify.

You do not have to follow my blog or Twitter to enter, but if you're interested in following me on Twitter, I'm @Bookfoolery. Unfortunately, I must warn you that while I attempt to keep this blog free of political posts (apart from book reviews), I'm politically inclined on Twitter. I also post about books, art, photography, history, and travel, retweet anything that makes me laugh or smile (lots of cat and scenery photos) and post links to all reviews.

Good luck!

Up in the Leaves by Shira Boss and Jamey Christoph

Up in the Leaves by Shira Boss and Jamey Christoph is the true story of Bob Redman, a New Yorker who disliked the city crowds as a boy. He liked to climb and loved to escape to Central Park for the quiet. Bob began to climb the trees and hide out in them.

Up and down and up, he explored the trees: the fluffy
pink cherry tree . . . the sticky, pokey pine . . . . 
He slipped through the door of a wide beech.
He stepped up the staircase of a tall oak. 
Each tree was its own world, every limb an adventure. 

Bob liked being up in the trees so much that he started to gather salvaged parts and built himself a treehouse. He'd read in his treehouse, feed the squirrels, sometimes even stay at night to map the stars. Each year, when the leaves fell, his treehouses would be exposed and they'd disappear, taken down by park employees but when the leaves returned he'd build a new one. Over time, the treehouses became more elaborate (the final one was 5 levels) and his friends helped him find salvaged materials and joined him up in the trees.

Eventually, Bob was caught by park employees but the book has a happy ending. He was offered a job as an arborist in the park, climbing trees and trimming them.

Highly recommended - What a terrific story! Lovely prose and cheerful illustrations bring this inspiring true tale to life. While the book is geared to young children, there's an epilogue with a bit more detail and a photo of Bob on the final page so children can see Bob in real life (sitting in a tree, of course!) and tie illustration to reality. On the book flap, you'll also discover that the author is married to Bob. How cool is that? I absolutely love everything about this book. I smiled all the way through it.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Bus! Stop! by James Yang

Bus! Stop! by James Yang is the delightfully fanciful story of an unnamed boy who misses his bus. "Bus! Stop!" he shouts as the bus pulls away. The bus doesn't stop and he has no choice but to wait for another bus. As a series of strange buses and people (or even creatures) file to the bus stop, each picks up its unique passengers and leaves, the boy making brief observations about each:

"This does not even LOOK like a bus!" he says about a bus that picks up sailors and is shaped like a ship.

Each bus is unique: a bus with its wheels on stilts whose passengers who fly up to the door, a stagecoach-type bus with a horse and passengers who look like they arrived via the 19th century, a domed bus that may have bouncy seats as the passengers all appear to be bouncing or floating, and possibly a bus full of aliens. I found an interior spread of the domed bus (which I hope you'll be able to enlarge if you click on it):

After regretfully watching it leave and wondering if he should have taken the bus shown above because it looked like a fun one, the boy climbs onto the next bus and is taken into outer space. As the bus flies away, it passes an outer-space bus stop where a girl with a cat shouts, "Bus! Stop!" and the boy seems to empathize with her predicament.

Highly recommended - I absolutely loved this book. It has few words, relying instead mostly upon the artwork to show the boy's dilemma and the totally unique buses and passengers that arrive. Full disclosure: I received a copy of Bus! Stop! for review from Viking (in return for my unbiased review) and I went to high school with the author and artist, James Yang. I appreciated his art and sense of humor back then, when he had a comic strip in our school newspaper. James' art has matured and he has long since found his personal style as a commercial artist. Bus! Stop! is classic James Yang. I love the detail of the cat in the background that moves from one window to another, the variety of crazy buses and passengers, and the simple idea of how it feels to miss one's bus and then have to wait and wait and wait for the right bus to show up.

Note: I'm dedicating this week to children's books. If you've got a little one to read to (especially if you or the child in your world is a cat lover), don't forget to sign up for my Giveaway of I Am the Boss of this Chair. The winner will be announced on Friday, which also means Fiona Friday will be shifted to Saturday, this week.
©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

Recent arrivals:

• The Lost Family by Jenna Blum and 
• Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi - both from Harper for review
• How to Forget a Duke - from Avon for review

Variety is clearly my watchword. I'm excited about all three of these books. The Lost Family is my #1 Most Wanted summer title (release date is in June) and Vivienne Lorret wrote one of the stories in the Christmas romance anthology I read in December. I remembered her name when I saw How to Forget a Duke on offer and jumped at the opportunity to request it.  I don't read romance often, but I do enjoy it for the change of pace.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
• The Not-So-Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis 
• Look for Her by Emily Winslow

I finished the latter two books this weekend, thanks the fact that I had such an awful reading week that I told my husband I was going to read until my eyes crossed. I ended up only reading between chores, but I still managed to finish the two books and get all of our intended weekend tasks finished, so I'm declaring the weekend a success.

Currently reading:

• Rocket Men by Robert Kurson
• If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Don Quixote by Cervantes

Oh, man. I am getting so tired of typing "Don Quixote" every week, at this point. And, I didn't read a single page, last week. This week, I'm going to shoot for 200 pages. Wish me luck. We're now about 10 days away from F2F group discussion, so I'll focus on Lincoln in the Bardo as soon as I finish Rocket Men. Rocket Men is about the Apollo 8 mission, the first to orbit the moon, and it is written in a way that makes your heart literally beat faster. I was alive during that Apollo moonshot, although young enough I was unlikely aware of it, but even in spite of the fact that I know it was a success, the reading is stunningly exciting. I will likely finish reading it tonight (mostly because I can barely stand to set it down). If You Come Softly is very short (YA, I think) so I'm sure I'll finish that pretty quickly, too. I'm enjoying it but it's a bit slower paced than I expected.


Last week's posts:

• Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie (book review)
• Good Behavior by Blake Crouch (book review)
• Fiona Friday - Hashtag kitty (cat photo)

I almost had myself convinced I wasn't going to get around to reviewing anything at all, last week, and then I finished Princesses Behaving Badly and felt like writing. And, I just continued to sit at the desk till I'd finished writing about Good Behavior, as well. If not for that one day, I probably would have only posted a cat photo because I had a few sleepless nights, last week, and was just not in the mood to read or write much.


In other news:

Because I had a bad blogging week, I didn't get around to posting my drawing for the cat book I Am the Boss of this Chair. I'll try to get that up, tomorrow. I've never used Rafflecopter, so I have to read up on it to see if that's what I want to use. TV-wise, we hardly watched anything because we were too busy emptying cabinets and replacing old drinking glasses and dishes with new ones (same dish design, although they're more off-white than the originals). I know, so exciting. But, actually, it was kind of fun clearing out all the old stuff -- dishes with cracks and chips that were no longer microwave safe -- with fresh replacements. And, the drinking glasses we had left were just a hodge-podge of leftovers from various sets in which most had been broken, over the years. With the exception of a few one-offs that we're attached to, all of those partial sets of glasses are going to be donated or passed on to Kiddo if he wants any of them. It's nice to start out fresh.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Hashtag kitty

Well . . . her feet look close to an impression of a hashtag.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Good Behavior by Blake Crouch (The Letty Dobesh Chronicles #1-3)

Good Behavior by Blake Crouch is not a novel but a collection of three novellas starring the same heroine, Letty Dobesh. Letty is a meth addict and a thief. Her behavior is so far from anything I've ever known or experienced that it's worth mentioning up front that you may find her a character impossible to relate to. That doesn't matter. The point is the taut plotting, the tension, the exciting action scenes, and Letty battling with herself, her needs, and her desire to stay clean and crime-free long enough to find and become mother to her son, again. While Good Behavior collects three Letty Dobesh stories under one title and the same title has been used for the TV series about Letty (which I have not seen), the stories don't all directly match up to the television episodes.

I read the Kindle in Motion version of Good Behavior, which was available from the Amazon Prime Library when I checked it out, a couple months ago. "Kindle in Motion" means there are some features you wouldn't find in a typical e-book, like gifs from the TV series, still photos, and the neon title flashing on the cover image. There is also some extra text describing the creation of Letty, the writing of both the stories and the series, which stories appear in the series and in what order, and the differences between the stories and the script.

The Pain of Others - In the opening novella, Letty Dobesh has recently been released from prison and gone straight to robbing hotel rooms with the help of someone who works in the hotel and has acquired a master key card. All is going well, for a time. Letty happily stuffs her bag full of electronics, jewelry, and the contents of the mini bars. Then, she hears a key card in the final lock. Unable to escape, Letty hides in a closet and overhears plans for the hotel patron to do a hit job. Should she call the police or stay out of it? Her decision will put her in danger, either way. What Letty decides is both fascinating, terrifying, and shocking. The ending will make you rethink the entire story and Letty's decision.

Sunset Key - The most heart-pounding of the three stories shows Letty with an everyday job, at the beginning. But, then she loses her job and is bang out of luck. Where will she go and what will she do? Whenever things go wrong, her first thought is getting a fix. But, then a dangerous man named Javier offers her an opportunity. A fabulously wealthy man is about to go to prison for the rest of his life and he wants to spend a single night with a beautiful woman. He owns a valuable painting. If Letty can snatch the painting and get off the island in the Florida Keys quickly, the payoff will be substantial. Letty is hesitant because it sounds more like prostitution than anything else, but she agrees when she hears her job is theft. Everything seems to be going well, but then the job is turned on its head and Letty realizes nothing she was told was the truth. Will Letty get off the island or will she die at the hands of a truly evil man?

Grab - Letty is tired of living from one drug fix, theft, or prison sentence to the next and decides it's time for a major change. So, she hits the road, intending to drive from the South to where her young son lives, in the Pacific Northwest. But, then she realizes she's being followed. Letty confronts the man and finds he's been tracking her because he heard she's good at what she does and he needs a very good thief to help him pull off a heist in Las Vegas. She's not that far from Vegas and the heist is a high-dollar theft. The only thing that keeps Letty from getting high when she's down is stealing. So, she agrees. But, things don't go quite as planned. Their getaway driver disappears and Letty's former therapist is in town, so she asks him to drive for them. He's suicidal. Will he show up at the right time? A surprising twist at the end of this story explains that absolutely nothing was as it appeared.

Highly recommended - I have not yet felt like Blake Crouch let me down. His stories are tense, his characters well-developed, the action thrilling. There's always something that isn't quite what you think it will be, but Crouch really used that to heart-pounding advantage in all three of these stories. Letty is a character that you don't have to relate to and don't even desire to. She's intruiging, kind of a nightmare, and a walking contradiction. You just want her to survive. But, you never know for sure if she will.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie is a nonfiction book with short biographies of princesses real and fake (apparently, pretending to be a princess is a thing) across many centuries. It's divided into the following sections:

Warriors: Princesses who fought their own battles
Usurpers: Princesses who grabbed power in a man's world
Schemers: Princesses who plotted and planned
Survivors: Princesses who made controversial and questionable choices
Partiers: Princesses who loved to live it up
Floozies: Princesses notorious for their sexy exploits
Madwomen: Princesses who were likely mad, or close to it

Some of those categories interested me more than others and some princesses were more interesting or appealing or weird or just plain fun to read about than others. I enjoyed reading about Hatshepsut, for example, because I'd read about her being erased from Egyptian history and then rediscovered later but knew very little about her, beyond that. Rodriguez McRobbie explained the erasure in a different way than I'd read about in the past and I learned a lot more about the actual person. Princess Margaret's story was interesting, too, as I knew she was always considered a troublemaker and a jealous sister but apparently I didn't pay much attention to the details of her life. For those who aren't familiar with her, Princess Margaret was Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister.

It took me a while to get into Princesses Behaving Badly because of the writing style, which is a bit dry and inaccessible (and slow). I didn't consider abandoning it, but I just wasn't enjoying the book, at first, and then at some point I realized what it's problems were and got used to the pace. Then, I started to enjoy reading about the princesses and the courageous, evil, crazy, etc., things they did. I looked up a few of them online to see images or photographs of them and some of them interested me enough that I'd like to read more about them. A handful were people I'd read about peripherally and got to know a little better and some were the wives of famous men I was familiar with (the Prince Regent, namesake of the Regency Period, for example).

My biggest problem with Princesses Behaving Badly is the problem I had, In general, with history in school. History requires a bit of storytelling flair to be fully accessible, in my humble opinion. Throw too many names, dates, and/or locations at a person (at least, this person) and it all just goes over their head. Occasionally, this author would not only throw in a date where the age of the princess would have done, but then would also give her age in the next paragraph when referring to something that happened at another time, so that you knew her age in one case but not the other. Sheesh. Just tell the reader how old the heroine was when each event happened, rather than make us subtract to figure it out. Even saying, "When Ignatia was 27, in 1543, the ceiling fell on her head" would have worked fine and added few words. The result is a bunch of bios that alternately make your head hurt and mesmerize.

Recommended hestitantly - I enjoyed Princesses Behaving Badly more, the farther I read. But, I still found it stiff and dry. It could have been a much more interesting book. So, mixed feelings on this one but I would say if you like reading about women who broke the mold and don't mind a book of historical bios that's a bit slow, go for it. Just don't expect sparkling descriptions and a quick read. 


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey

This week's recent arrivals require two separate photos, thanks to the fact that a couple of the books have plastic covers and black spines (and, therefore wouldn't show titles if stacked up).

Arrivals, left to right:

• The Aftermath of War by Jean-Paul Sartre - purchased  (In case you're wondering, it's weighed down by a small, brass abacus due to a slightly bent cover)
• The Not-so-Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis - from Penguin for review
• From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein,
• High Season by Judy Blundell,
• Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg,
• Crux by Jean Guerrero, and 
• Providence by Caroline Kepnes - all from Random House for review

I don't know how I came to receive that raft of books from Random House (I don't recall entering any drawings, so I suspect they're unsolicited) but it's quite an interesting variety. Of the five, I'm most interested in From the Corner of the Oval, a memoir by a stenographer in the Obama Administration. And High Season certainly looks like a nice, beachy read. The Not-So-Boring Letters of Private Nobody is a middle grade book and I think I'm going to have to read it immediately. It's screaming at me. And, The Aftermath of War is one I ordered after reading some excerpts from the book. I've never read anything longer than an excerpt or letter by Jean-Paul Sartre, but I doubt it will be as challenging as something on the order of Being and Nothingness.

Children's books!

• Bus! Stop! by James Yang - from Penguin for review
• Up in the Leaves by Shira Boss and Jamey Christoph, and 
• Gloria's Voice by Aura Lewis - both from Sterling Children's Books for review

As always, I sat down to read the children's books the moment they walked in the door. This particular trio is unusual in that I loved all three enough to give them 5 stars. They're all so very different - a fanciful story about a boy who misses his bus, a true story about a fellow who built treehouses in Central Park to escape the city bustle, and the children's bio of a feminist icon. All are terrific in their own ways and I can't wait to share them with you.


Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Good Behavior by Blake Crouch
• Bus! Stop! by James Yang
• Up in the Leaves by Shira Boss and Jamey Christoph
• Gloria's Voice by Aura Lewis

While there were nights I didn't read at all (I didn't finish a single book till Thursday night and the book I most wanted to complete is still in progress), the arrival of all those children's books really made my week and Good Behavior was an entertaining, fast-paced read. So, last week ended up being a good reading week, if a bit different than anticipated.


Currently reading:

• Don Quixote by Cervantes
• Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Look for Her by Emily Winslow

I'm now on Book 2 of Don Quixote. I only sat down with Don Quixote twice and it took a while to warm to the second book, but I read 100 pages. So, that's good. And, I'm 2/3 of the way through Princesses Behaving Badly. It was the book I wanted to finish, last week -- what I call my "focus book" of the week -- and I enjoyed the reading but sometimes I needed to let one or two of the bios roll around in my head. So, it's not the quickest read and at some point I decided, "Eh, whatever. I'll finish when I finish." I'm not far into Lincoln in the Bardo at all. That one fell by the wayside. No hurry; I have two weeks to finish reading it before discussion. And, I started Look for Her, last night, because I wasn't in the mood for any of the other books I'm reading. The pages are flying and I needed the feeling that I'm accomplishing something in my reading, so I'm glad I picked it up.


Last week's posts:

• I Am the Boss of this Chair by Carolyn Crimi and Marisa Morea (book review)
• Supergifted by Gordon Korman (book review)
• Fiona Friday (cat photo)

Not a big posting week, but it didn't matter at the time. I only had a single book left to review on Thursday. And, then I finished Good Behavior and the children's books arrived. The concept of "catching up on reviews" is such an elusive thing, isn't it? 

In other news:

I finished the William Hartnell Dr. Who episodes and have moved on to Doctor #2, Patrick Troughton. I am loving Patrick Troughton and his companion, Jamie, so far. There were so many missing episodes in the final William Hartnell season that two of the companions only can be seen in a single episode (Polly and Ben), which is disappointing because it didn't take long to fall for Ben. And, the transition from Hartnell to Troughton is completely missing. But, I liked Troughton from the get go. He's a much more upbeat Dr. Who than Hartnell and lacks the arrogance of the first incarnation.

I learned a bit of bookish trivia while looking up various companions, this week. Dr. Who's Jamie, who came from 18th century Scotland and wore a kilt, was the inspiration for Jamie Fraser in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. She was unaware that the actor's first name was Frazer when she named him, but liked the look of a man in a kilt and the time period and location from which he hailed, so that was the genesis of her hero. How cool is that?


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.