Friday, July 31, 2020

Fiona Friday - Sweet kitty kiss and new catnip toy

I forgot it's Friday! Darn Coronavirus throws everything off. I've already posted this image to Facebook but I adjusted the color a bit because it was a little yellowish. It was by far my favorite kitty photo of the week so apologies to those who have already seen this one. I'll throw another below for funsies.


Fiona got a new catnip squirrel, last week. Isabel occasionally plays with it, too, but I've found Fiona using it as a pillow, occasionally. She is definitely appreciating it the most.


It was a delightful week with the kitties. :)


©2020 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.

Thursday, July 30, 2020

The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley


The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is the sequel to The War That Saved My Life, which I reviewed, here:

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

And, because it's a sequel, there may be some spoilers, so I'd advise you to skip this review if you're concerned that I might give away a plot point or two from the first book. 

In The War I Finally Won, this middle grade WWII fiction continues the story of Ada, her brother, Jamie, and Susan. In case you don't want to click through to the first review, just a quick reminder of what happens in The War That Saved My Life: Ada is stuck at home with a cruel mother who occasionally locks her into the cabinet and won't let her leave the apartment, even to attend school, embarrassed about Ada's club foot. But, when her little brother Jamie is evacuated to the country, Ada finds a way to tag along and they end up with a depressed woman, Susan, who rises to the challenge of dealing with a traumatized child who has not attended a single day of school.

In The War I Finally Won, Susan has become the children's permanent guardian, Ada has surgery to fix her club foot, and the family has moved after losing their home to a direct hit by a bomb. Now that they know their mother has been killed, Ada is struggling with whether or not Susan will abandon them and upset by the fact that Jamie has begun to call Susan "Mum". There are some other plot points I don't want to give away because I think it's best reading them as they unfold but, as in the first book, there's a good deal about horses. In The War That Saved My Life, a horse named Butters figures heavily into the plot about Ada's healing.

The War I Finally Won is a very plot-driven story packed with emotional scenes that gives you that wonderful "you were there" sensation. There are so many moving scenes, in fact, that I pretty much cried my way through the book. At one point, I was reading in bed and I cried enough that I had to sit up because I was soaking the collar of my shirt. I consider that a positive. I like a deeply affecting book.

Highly recommended - It is necessary to read The War That Saved My Life, first, because The War I Finally Won is a continuation of the story in that book and much of what's in the latter will not make sense if you haven't read the first book. Both are excellent. While I didn't think the characters sounded British when I read their dialogue, that was the only indication that the author is American. Otherwise, the time and place were clearly thoroughly researched.


©2020 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.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan


Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan was one of the most exciting things I found on that day I flipped through every fiction page on Book Outlet. Friends have been gushing about Shaun Tan's illustrations for years. I honestly didn't pay attention to the title so it wasn't until right before the book arrived and I read a review that I found out Tales from Outer Suburbia is just what it sounds like, a slim book of short stories, beautifully illustrated.

I thought of Tan as merely an illustrator but his quirky stories are loads of fun. My particular favorite is the one that goes with the cover image. I don't want to give anything away because all of the stories are so surprising and fun. At least one made me laugh out loud and repeat the story to my husband. I will reread this book numerous times, I'm sure.

Highly recommended - Tales from Outer Suburbia is a pure delight, not only for the uniqueness of the short fiction but also for the stunning illustrations. It's an eyeball feast. I'll be looking for more by Shaun Tan.

©2020 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, July 27, 2020

Monday Malarkey



Recent arrivals (all purchased, top to bottom):


  • In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders
  • Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
  • My One Square Inch of Alaska by Sharon Short
  • Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
  • Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
  • Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama
  • Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken
  • Golden State by Ben H. Winters
  • The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman
  • Trumpocracy by David Frum


A lot of these have been on my wish list for some time, so I went a little hog wild on a day I was feeling down in the dumps. Apparently, this is a common thing for book lovers. Someone in one of my book groups on Facebook asked people to admit how many books they have coming in the mail *right at this moment* and one woman said, "I have 48 in my cart at Book Outlet."


Books finished since last Malarkey:


  • Bubble Kisses by Vanessa Williams and Tara Nicole Whitaker
  • Stranger Planet by Nathan W. Pyle
  • Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
  • The End of October by Lawrence Wright
  • Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
  • I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O'Farrell
  • The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
  • Stop! Bot! by James Yang
  • Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
  • The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
  • The Plains by Gerald Murnane
  • They Called Us Enemy by Takei, Elsinger, Scott, and Becker
  • Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
  • Dominicana by Angie Cruz


I guess it's been a while since I did a Monday Malarkey post. I'm planning to do them every other week, so there will not be a Monday Malarkey next week but I'll post one two weeks from today. In case you're wondering, part of the reason I managed to read so many books in the past few weeks was my participation in the "Laid-back reading challenge" via Instagram. I enjoyed being in a small group reading for a week together and chatting. It inspired me.


Currently reading:


  • Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum


I'm still not even past the introduction of the Tatum book so I imagine it will be one of those books I put in my "currently reading" category a couple of times and then potentially drop, even though I'm still reading it because saying I'm still reading it makes me cringe. But, I'm sure I'll eventually finish it. It's just going to take some time.


Posts since last Malarkey:




I decided I like doing a sort of "round-up" post of what I've read and posted, now and then, so while I considered getting rid of Monday Malarkey, I've wholly rejected the notion, now. It will continue, just spaced out a bit more.


In other news:

This week, Huz and I were watching a medical professional on the news. He said that even after the human trials for COVID-19 vaccines are finished, a vaccine will have to be mass produced and then somehow distributed to the public and because all of that takes time, he couldn't imagine that it would be less than a year before we can go back to normal. Huz turned to me and said, "Another year with you? Ugh," and I laughed because I know when he's joking. Seriously, kids, this is the best thing about a long marriage. Get yourself a partner who can insult you and make you laugh because you know he's kidding.

Anyway . . . a year. What an awful thought. We are introverts and we're doing okay but we still occasionally get a little stir crazy. Yesterday, we drove the 30 miles back to Vicksburg to go through a drive-through Mexican place, really just to get out of the house. The girl in the drive-through window wasn't wearing a mask (against local mandate). I don't know if I'll go there, again.

The worst news of the week is that I have finally reached the stage of knowing someone personally who died from COVID-19. I knew that time would come. First, it was knowing people who knew people who had the virus, then knowing someone personally, then knowing a bunch of people who had it personally, and now . . . my favorite childhood Sunday School teacher, the mother of one of my best friends has passed away.

Please wear a mask and socially distance.

Here's a behind the scenes photo of Fiona with my books because . . . of course she had to check them out:


The purple is a tumbling mat I use for yoga because a yoga mat is too thin for me, now.

I'm on my last week of that painting class, Postwar Abstract Expressionism. It has been the most amazing learning experience. I've taken some so-so classes through Coursera but Postwar Abstract Expressionism was first rate. The only problem I had with it was the inability to ask questions of the instructor. There was no common board where that kind of interaction could take place. But, I learned a lot and have had so much fun with the painting lessons. While I'm working on the final lesson, I'm already scouting around to see what kind of class I can find to participate in, next.

Have you found anything wonderful to help fill your time with new learning experiences during the pandemic?

©2020 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.

Friday, July 24, 2020

Fiona Friday



©2020 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.

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Stop! Bot! by James Yang


Full disclosure: I went to high school with the author of Stop! Bot! (we were in journalism and on the school newspaper staff together) so I buy his books at least in part to support him.

Having said that, Stop! Bot! by James Yang is simple and silly with an unexpected ending. A little boy's bot (a drone) has gone out of control and is flying up the outside of a high-rise building. As the bot heads upward, people try to catch it to help the boy in increasingly ridiculous ways. For example, a giraffe tries to reach it with its long neck and someone reaches out with one of those oversized sponge hands you can buy at sporting events. Everyone fails until the surprise twist, which has something to do with bananas.

And, it really is bananas. But, clever, which reminds me that back in high school James had a comic strip in our school newspaper. I remember saying, "James is so clever!" about a million times. I always loved that comic strip.

Recommended - I like this book, particularly the ending, but I must add that I read some reviews and noticed the chief complaint is the minimal number of words. James is a graphic artist and his books tend to be low on text. If that bothers you, Stop! Bot! is not the right book for you. I buy them more for the joy of owning some of James' illustrations than for the wording, myself. But, I do like the story. I wish my grandchildren were nearby so I could read it to them and see their reaction to it.


©2020 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.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica


The Good Girl by Mary Kubica is about a judge's daughter who is kidnapped. The fellow who kidnaps her was supposed to drop her off with a criminal for whom the kidnapper does various jobs, but he thinks she might be in danger of being killed and decides to hide out with her in a remote cabin. The decision to go to the cabin is so spontaneous that he has no idea how they're going to survive, how long he'll keep her captive, or how to end the mess he's gotten himself into. Months pass and winter sets in. Will they both survive?

In a second timeline, the judge's daughter is no longer a captive but she has selective amnesia and is so traumatized that she hardly speaks or eats. What happened and is there a way to jog her memory?

I remember hearing a lot of positive buzz about The Good Girl when it came out. I wasn't as enthusiastic as most, when I closed it. I figured out literally all of the plot twists way early in the book. Whether that was just lucky guesswork or the author dropped too many hints, I can't say. But, in spite of that, I enjoyed The Good Girl and would probably read Mary Kubica again.

Recommended but not a favorite.


©2020 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.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O'Farrell


I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O'Farrell is definitely in my Top 10 2020 reads, so far. Subtitled "Seventeen Brushes With Death," it is a memoir that examines 16 times O'Farrell easily could have lost her life but survived or escaped danger. The final essay is about her daughter's extreme allergies and how the author cherishes every day with her, knowing that she could lose her daughter at any time.

Highly recommended - The writing in I Am I Am I Am is spectacular. Stunning prose, often unsettling but always written in a way that makes you feel the raw emotion of near drowning or the sharp fear of encountering dangerous men, the genuine grief of loss after a pregnancy disaster. Just an amazing work of art, really. I don't know about other readers, but O'Farrell had me thinking about my own frightening experiences for days. Also, the last line of the final essay choked me up.


©2020 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, July 20, 2020

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (#2 in the Murderbot Diaries series)


In Artificial Condition by Martha Wells, Murderbot (a part human/part robot that is neither male or female) decides to flee the area in which it is required to stay after being freed from the watchful eye of the corporation that used to own it. Murderbot is in search of answers about what happened in the disastrous killing for which the security unit has given itself the moniker "Murderbot". Was Murderbot responsible for scores of deaths? Did it go rogue or is there more to the story?

To keep from being detected, Murderbot has to interfere with cameras, convince various spaceships to let it aboard, and figure out how not to look like a security unit. During the long, boring parts of flight, Murderbot watches videos.

The best thing about Artificial Condition is probably the relationship that Murderbot builds with a particular ship's bot pilot. I didn't know whether the pilot should be trusted or not for a good portion of the book and I liked that uncertainty.

Recommended - While it takes longer for the action to crank up in Artificial Condition than it did in the first book, Martha Wells' writing is stunning and I have no regrets about buying the entire series. I'm deliberately spacing out the reading and trying to save my Murderbot books for times when I feel myself falling into a slump. They're fantastic for breaking the spell because they're so action-packed it's almost impossible to put a Murderbot book down.

Click through to read my mini review of the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series, All Systems Red. You'll need to page down a bit.


©2020 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.

Friday, July 17, 2020

Fiona Friday - Just pointing this out

After saying I was unsure about whether or not I'd continue with Fiona Friday, I remembered this photo and decided it's worth putting up on the blog. Such a perfect little pose. There are two other photos of Isabel with The End of October, but this was my favorite because of the little gesture with the paw.


Eh, might as well share all three. She's such a cutie.



©2020 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.

Thursday, July 16, 2020

The End of October by Lawrence Wright


OK, a little commentary on blogging, first. I disappeared briefly because I was considering giving up blogging but chose not to say I was leaving for good, just in case. I mean, I have to write. I just didn't know if I needed to keep writing about books, if that makes sense. And, sure enough, I decided I'm not done. I need to write about books, at least occasionally. The End of October is really the only book that I've felt like I really needed to talk about. A week has passed since completion, but I still have thoughts and would love to hear what anyone else thinks. I have a few ARCs left but not many, so if I don't mention receiving a book from a publisher, you can assume it's owned or borrowed, from now on.

The End of October by Lawrence Wright is a pandemic novel. When I first started reading it, I referred to it (on Instagram) as "dystopian" but then I started rethinking that and decided it's really a medical thriller, although things fall apart and society becomes a bit dystopian because of the illness. And, while I think it's a bit too long and occasionally dives into unnecessary detail, it still managed to be a page-turner, most of the time. There are some slow bits.

When Dr. Henry Parsons hears that there's been an outbreak of a mysterious illness in Indonesia, he goes there to investigate, telling his family that he'll be home in time for his son's birthday. Instead, he finds a novel virus (yes, much like our current virus situation) that has been contained to an encampment. But, shortly after, the virus begins to spread and one of the people who has been exposed hops on a plane to Saudi Arabia for his once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca. Henry follows to try to contain the disease. There, the virus takes hold with a vengeance and Henry is stuck for months, once the country is locked down.

OK, so hmm. I had so many thoughts about this book. Henry works for the CDC and I had a bit of a problem with the major plot point of Henry being stuck in a foreign country for two reasons:

1) The author repeatedly says Henry is very, very important - I don't think I would have believed an important American government official would be left stranded in another country, anyway, but . . .

2) Recent events show that it's possible to get out of a locked-down country. In fact, a friend's daughter was stuck in Peru when the country locked down. My friend had to make a lot of phone calls to get help from local government, who assisted her in acquiring the right documents and advised her on where to have her daughter go and when. I don't know if the US government charged my friend to get her daughter home but they did send at least one plane to pick up American citizens who had been stranded and wanted to return home (apparently, you could stay or go; it was up to the stranded individual).

So, that bugged me. But, the other thing that drove me crazy was how Henry was portrayed as heroic and a wonderful husband, father, and lover, blah, blah, but he definitely put his job ahead of the family. Having been the wife of someone who travels constantly and has put his job first, sorry, I could not see Henry's choices as heroic.

Having said all that, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to those who enjoy Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, and whoever else writes medical thrillers (I haven't read one for a while, so I don't know who the current shining stars may be), if only for the ability to compare the book to current events.

The virus in The End of October is different than Covid-19. It's a hemorrhagic virus (eww) like Ebola and it's much more deadly. During the time Henry is stuck in another country, the US is being ravaged by the disease and it's so easily transmissible and deadly that it becomes difficult to obtain food and other necessities. At one point, the electricity goes off and stays off for days.

Anyway, sometimes it can be a bit gruesome but that kind of goes with the territory when you're talking medical thrillers. I didn't rate it at Goodreads and I still don't know how to rate the book. I liked it but didn't love it. I thought it was a pretty quick read but a bit overlong. I probably would not read it a second time. Besides finding Henry a bit too heroic, I thought he was a little distant and difficult to relate to or even like; he's a bit gruff. There are also some weird little details, like Henry losing a cane (he's a little damaged from childhood illness) and not even trying to acquire another one. Either you need it or you don't, right? I just thought that was bizarre. While in Indonesia, he probably could have easily found a branch to whittle into shape but he didn't even try to locate a substitute.

So . . . this review and the last were slightly more casual and I plan to continue that way. I don't want to spent an inordinate amount of time on the computer and am planning to shut down my social media till after the election, soon (except Instagram). Most of my posts will probably be more Instagram-like, with a nice photo of the book and minimal description. I haven't decided whether or not to bother with Monday Malarkey and Fiona Friday. Maybe I'll just post a cat photo when I've got one that I want to preserve? We'll see. I'm feeling my way, right now. Change is good.


©2020 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.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen


Quick thoughts only. Northanger Abbey is probably the last book by Jane Austen that I'll read and that puts me at 5/6 of her novels, plus the unfinished Sanditon (the version finished by Kate Riordan), Lady Susan, and her juvenilia. The only book I couldn't get through is Mansfield Park. I hated the book and I hated the movie so much that I abandoned both so I doubt I'll ever get to that one, but who knows?

The writing in Northanger Abbey reads a little less mature than that of Pride & Prejudice and other works so, without looking up the publication date, I'm presuming it's an earlier work. I have no idea, though.

Catherine is invited to Bath by a neighbor. There, she meets and falls for a man named Henry Tilney while also becoming friends with a couple young ladies, one of whom is obviously attracted to Catherine's brother, James. When she's later invited to the Tilney home, Northanger Abbey, to stay with Henry's sister, Catherine is made nervous by a story Henry tells her (the Gothic elements of the novel) and she keeps getting caught opening doors and drawers that she shouldn't because her vivid imagination has her conjuring up all sorts of frightening possibilities. Northanger Abbey is really quite funny and a little nerve wracking. I enjoyed it immensely. Recommended.


©2020 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.

Wednesday, July 01, 2020

Stranger Planet by Nathan W. Pyle


I wrote about the first collection of Nathan W. Pyle's alien comics, Strange Planet, in a mini review post, which you can find by clicking on the title in this first sentence. Suffice it to say, I've been following Pyle for quite some time, first via Twitter and then Instagram, and I just love his sense of humor.

The comics are based on language. Aliens express the same things we do (or, at least, the expressions Americans are familiar with) using different words, like "imagine pleasant nonsense" for "sweet dreams". I've snagged this page off the internet and am pretty sure it's from the first book but it's a great example.


Lovers of words can't help but appreciate Pyle's cleverness. I adore how he thinks. I'll often read his comics and then walk around thinking about how these aliens might reword the things I'm doing. Plus, they're really cute.

Highly recommended - I think I expressed my love of Strange Planet better in my mini review, so I encourage you to hop through the link if you're interested in reading more. Stranger Planet is more of the same and I can't even tell you how excited I am to expand my collection. I hope Pyle publishes a dozen more of these books. His delightful aliens always make me smile. I'm going to find a special place on the shelves for these two and hope I'll have to make room for more.

Fiona was very helpful when I did my photo shoot of the book cover, btw. I got some nice laughs watching her play with the spaceship.





©2020 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.