Everything I Read in October, 2025

October:

114. There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, Jarrett Pumphrey, and Jerome Pumphrey - A children's picture book Carrie of Care's Books and Pie recommended to me, There Was a Party for Langston is about a party with dancing, apparently to open a special wing (or room) named after Langston Hughes. The book has a rhythm and so, in fact, do the illustrations in their own way. That surprised me. I checked the audiobook out via Hoopla, so at first I only got to hear that rhythm. Then, I found many of the illustrations online and I loved them. I don't think it's necessary for younger readers to know who Langston Hughes was in order to enjoy this picture book with its people dressed in words and showing joy. I do, however, think it would be especially enjoyable paired with a children's book of Hughes's poetry. I have one, myself, so I know they're out there. Thanks for the recommendation, Carrie!

115. Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe by Steve Sheinkin - I bought a copy of Impossible Escape after reading The Bletchley Riddle and deciding that I wanted to read something by Steve Sheinkin (one of the co-authors). It tells the story of Rudi Vrba, a Slovakian Jew who decided early in WWII that he wanted to escape to Britain to fight against the Nazis. He failed, was jailed and then eventually ended up in Auschwitz then Birkenau, two concentration camps where almost everyone went straight to the gas chambers and those who didn't were worked until they became too weak or ill and ended up there, anyway. It took Rudi years to figure out a way to escape with a friend and, when they did, they were able to get the word out about the massive extermination in progress. 

Sheinkin writes for middle grade and young adults, near as I can tell. I wouldn't give this one to a younger (middle grade) child because it is a harrowing, brutal, gut-wrenching story of the cruelty and evil of man, as well as a story of heroism and determination. But, it's a book that literally everyone should read because there are way too many parallels to what's currently happening in the US. Some of the quotes (similar to things said by members of the current administration), the way people lack any empathy at all and talk of those in the camps as vermin or subhuman . . . this is happening right here, right now. And, only that knowledge and the willingness to stand up against it can stop it. 

116. Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories NOT for the Nervous, ed. by Alfred Hitchcock - A collection of short stories published in 1965 with a lot of familiar names: Ray Bradbury, Ellis Peters, Richard Matheson, and Dorothy L. Sayers among them. The writing is high quality. Generally, the stories begin fairly innocuously and then the tension ramps up and you slowly realize what horror is afoot. My favorite was a sci-fi: "Dune Roller" by Julian May (written in 1951). The beginning was so boring that I considered abandoning it. But, I decided to be patient because I knew eventually things would start happening. Sure enough, something sinister was discovered and then it became a life and death race to figure out how to save the day. Bottom line: I will be watching for more collections edited by Alfred Hitchcock. This one was a library sale purchase. 

117. Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang - A little background: Fugelsang is the child of a Franciscan monk and a nun. They met, gave up their robes, and married but remained devout Roman Catholics and raised their children in the church. Young John Fugelsang (as he describes himself in his youth) sounds a lot like young me. I was brought up with a strong faith and could be a bit of a snot about it, feeling sorry for people who weren't raised in the church. Fortunately, we both grew out of the young, pious phase and started to analyze what people were saying and doing vs. what we'd been taught in the church. And, the main things that were hammered into both our heads were that we should love and welcome everyone, care for the have-nots, treat people as we would want to be treated, and not judge anybody. Fugelsang analyzes particular verses, usually taken out of context to fit an agenda, and explains what he believes their true meaning is. 

He also talks about how Paul's letters are often used to supplant the words of Jesus and why it's important to take the words of Jesus in their context or understand them as parables and learn the meaning behind the images. An excellent book that explains why Christians need to take care to focus on the words of the Christ who is the basis for Christianity and understand that Christian Nationalism is less Christianity than an excuse to hate. A lot of debunking of the way certain verses are used will probably make some people flaming mad but it's worth a read to challenge your viewpoints, even if you don't agree with him. 

118. The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen - I chose The Magic Fish for Banned Books Week and it also just happened to be National Coming Out Day on the day I read it. The Magic Fish blends a tale of the main character's immigrant family with fairy tales and the story of main character Tién's difficulty finding the words to tell his parents he's gay. Stunning illustrations are paired with wonderful storytelling. I love how the author/illustrator used his own experience, how his family would read to each other to try to find a common language that ended up a happy mishmash of Vietnamese and English. And, the ending is just lovely. Neither of the reasons for it being banned that I saw were, in my opinion, even remotely valid. 

119. Three More Stories You Can Read to Your Cat by Sara Swan Miller and True Kelley - OK, I have to get a copy of the first book because this is a hoot. Each of the stories are small, clearly meant for young readers and directed at the cat, as in: "When you were a kitten, you fell asleep with your entire head in your dry food bowl." (not a quote) If I did buy the first book, it would be for laughs because while my previous two kitties actually enjoyed being read to (I used to read them the children's books I was sent for review), my current cats do not. Highly recommended for little kids who like reading to their cats. 

120. The Fox in the Library by Lorenz Pauli and Kathrin Schärer - When a fox chases a mouse into the library, the mouse convinces the fox that it's not a place to go around eating mice. Instead, he should check out the books, which are great for learning and acquiring new ideas. The fox opens a book and sees a chicken. Well. That's a good idea. He goes off to get a chicken. Long story short, nobody gets eaten but the chicken oddly teaches the fox how to read and the fox becomes obsessed with reading, ignoring all of the chickens surrounding him in the final page spread. While I found the writing wobbly and a bit directionless, I suppose the point was that reading can be addictive to the point of forgetting about other things one normally would be doing. I can get behind that. An average read but I liked it.

121. There's a Ghost in this House by Oliver Jeffers - A little girl thinks there's a ghost in the house she lives in but she's never seen one. She takes you on a tour of the house. On the lefthand page is an image (a photograph) of a room and the girl (illustrated). On the right page is text with a slightly foggy transparency over it. When you turn the transparent page, ghosts are overlaid onto the room image. The ghosts are happy, smiling funny ghosts. They jump on the bed, hide behind the banisters, swing on the chandelier. You can't help but smile. A wonderful, non-scary ghost book for young children and weird grown-ups who can't stop reading children's books. I'll be saving this one to pull out in the fall and reread annually. Highly recommended. 

122. Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll - During the Blitz of WWII, Olive and Cliff are living in London with their sister Sukie and their mother, their father having been killed flying over France. When Sukie goes missing after a bombing, the children are evacuated to Dorset and end up living in a lighthouse. Olive, having found a coded message in her sister's coat pocket after the bombing during which she went missing, is convinced that Sukie is not only alive but that if she can figure out what the message means, she'll know what Sukie was doing and why. But, a small village near a lighthouse can be every bit as dangerous as London during the war. There's a lot to this story and it feels like most anything I say would be a spoiler but the bottom line is that it's a solid, middle grade read that I enjoyed and a good war story, as well. It did not turn out to be what I expected at all. 

123. Alone by Megan E. Freeman - Yet another middle grade book, Alone follows 12-year-old Maddie's experience after she sets up a sleepover in her grandparents' empty apartment but her friends can't come after all. Emerging from the apartment the next day, she discovers that her city in Colorado has been evacuated and she is totally alone. Nobody answers her texts or calls, she's too young to drive her mother's car, and after a while the power and water go off. Where has everyone been evacuated to and why? Will they find a way to return to Colorado to rescue Maddie? How long will she be forced to stay on her own with only the dog she adopted from an empty house for company? What will she do to survive? Alone is a compelling survival story, written in verse, in which most of the conflict is with nature and part of the challenge of survival is just in dealing with being alone. There's a follow-up book told from the side of evacuees and I'm strongly considering buying it because the explanation about why an entire state was evacuated is vague. I want to know more. And, I enjoyed Alone. Update: Keep reading. I bought the follow-up story. ;)

124. Mr. Willowby's Head Over Heels Christmas by Robert Barry - Another cute Christmas story by the author of Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree, a childhood favorite of mine and a 60s classic. The rhymes are a little awkward in Mr. Willowby's Head Over Heels Christmas, probably because it was a draft that has been made publishable by his son (had he ever found the time, I suspect Robert Barry would have refined it) but it's another fun story in the same vein. This time, Mr. Willowby is mourning the fact that his tree has not yet arrived with just a day left till Christmas. The animals of the original story save the day by finding a tree and bringing it to Mr. Willowby's house with a little help from Santa. I'll add this one to my Christmas rotation. I read it on the day it arrived, hence it landing on my October list. 

125. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household - The unnamed hero of Rogue Male begins his story in Poland, where he has been hunting and now has his sights on someone he calls "the Great Man." It's 1939 and the implication is obvious. But, is he serious about assassination or just using his scope to look at this unknown target? Caught, beaten, and left for dead, the hero must fight the elements and some serious injuries, find his way home to England, and then determine whether or not he's being pursued. When he figures out those who nearly succeeded at killing him are still determined to see him dead, he escapes to the countryside, where there are entirely different challenges from hiding in a city. A story of pursuit and survival that's a bit akin to The 39 Steps and written around the same time period, but with the hero completely on his own. I love this kind of story and really enjoyed Rogue Male. 

126. Away by Megan E. Freeman - Companion to Alone (#123, above), Away takes you to the opposite side of the same story. When an unknown threat causes entire cities to be evacuated, Ashanti, Teddy, Grandin, Harmony, and Pax become friends at the encampment to which they're all sent. Told that some unknown and invisible contaminant has made their homes uninhabitable, the children eventually become suspicious. What is this contaminant that's so dangerous? Why has nobody in the camp gotten sick, in spite of claims that there are people becoming ill from contamination? And, when years go by, why have authorities not been able to successfully clean it up? From an abandoned quonset hut on the former military base, the children investigate. 

There are some issues with this book, but I chose to just let them go and enjoy the story. For example, after reading Alone, you really want to know what became of Maddie's parents so you can see the other side of Maddie's story. Instead, there are a couple of throwaway lines about her and you get to know an entirely different cast. Ashanti is Maddie's only connection and she just assumes Maddie's fine.  Fortunately for readers of Alone, you will definitely get answers about why everyone was evacuated and I for one really liked the new cast of characters. Like Alone, Away is written in verse. 

127. Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill - I have no idea how I found out about the Jenny Linsky books but I was unaware of them as a child, with one exception: I had the book about Pickles, The Fire Cat (and I still have a copy that I bought for the kids, covered in clear contact paper to protect it). When I read about Jenny Linsky, I bought a few used titles randomly. Jenny and the Cat Club contains 5 Jenny Linsky stories, beginning with how she was adopted by a former sea captain, who knitted her a bright red scarf. The scarf becomes important to the character, as do various objects and hats to other cats. I'm not going to go into the stories, but they are all sweet stories that are perfect for young readers who love cats, about how the cats have a club, Jenny joins it, makes friends, and eventually helps two other cats in need of a home become part of her family. It's lovely. I have two more of the books to read and I will probably try to track down the entire collection because I'm that way.

128. Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood - I know, I know. I just needed easy reading, this month. Yes, this is yet another middle grade and a good one. Lifeboat 12 is based on the true story of the S.S. City of Benares, a ship that was taking both paying passengers and evacuated children to Canada during the Blitz of WWII and sank after being torpedoed by a German U-Boat. Yet another book written in verse, the story is told from the POV of Ken Sharp, an evacuated child who ended up on the wrong lifeboat and survived both the sinking of the ship and 8 days on a lifeboat with limited food and water, crammed in with about 50 people. The author was able to interview the real Ken Sharp, who was 88 years old at the time, although the story is fictionalized. There is a great deal of extra info, including photos, at the end of the book. I found Lifeboat 12 fascinating and, at times, gripping. There is a second book that tells the story of the only other lifeboat from which people were rescued (most of the lifeboats were not successfully launched) and I've added it to my wish list. 

129. The Complete Flying Officer X Stories by H. E. Bates - This one's also Carrie's fault (Carrie of Care's Books and Pie). She asked me if I knew of H. E. Bates and I said yes, I was pretty sure I had one of his books sitting around unread. But, then I couldn't find it so I decided to order this set of WWII stories written by Bates exclusively for the Royal Air Force. Bates was inducted into the RAF specifically for the purpose of writing stories that would give the citizens an idea of what their RAF was doing. Brilliantly drawn, moving, sometimes edge-of-your-seat and sometimes quiet stories. The characters are sharply written, described as individuals — some cold and hard because of past loss, some cocky and confident, all aware of how war had changed everything for them. In the end, most of the stories are ones in which there are at least some survivors but that's not always the case. They're definitely written with a spark of truth that's unavoidable. Humorously, I read the longest story right after finishing Lifeboat 12 and it is also a story about survivors in a lifeboat as the plane holding the narrator catches fire and has to ditch in the water. Exceptional stories, especially recommended to people who love to read about WWII. 

Goodness gracious. This month was something. I made a big stress purchase of mostly middle grade books and some other random purchases as our beloved Isabel suddenly went into decline, the result being that I only read a single book that I've owned for more than a year. I am, however, extremely glad I bought all those books because I was at first very upset about Isabel and then grieving deeply. I needed light reads or I might have stopped reading entirely. 

Because I write my little reviews immediately after finishing each book, you will note that I said "my current cats" in one of the early reviews. I don't have the heart to update it to "cat". It's been a difficult adjustment as Fiona is a very quiet kitty and Isabel was chatty, playful, and demanding. Everything in my world feels muted and darker, right now. Escaping into books and art both help a little.

I was quick to ditch anything that didn't suck me in immediately so I liked or loved absolutely everything I read. I honestly can't even choose favorites. It was really a surprisingly great reading month in spite of being an awful one personally.

No attempt was made to work toward any reading goals, whatsoever. I didn't have the bandwidth to bother. Hopefully, November will be a better month for this family. We're taking it one day at a time. 

©2025 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. 

Isabel 2010-2025  Rest in Peace, my sweet angel. 

©2025 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. 

Everything I Read in September, 2025

September:

105. Postcard Poems by Jeanne Griggs - A sweet little book of poems, mostly about travel but some about the difficulty of seeing one's children fly the coop. Charming and made me think of my own travels. I could also, of course, relate to how hard it is to let go of your children as they go out into the world. This is definitely a volume I highly recommend and will keep for rereads. 

106. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger - Elatsoe (Ellie) is a 17-year-old with a special skill that runs in her family. She can call the  ghosts of animals from the Underworld. When her ghost dog (formerly a family pet) suddenly begins frantically running through walls, Ellie is concerned. He doesn't act this way unless something is very wrong. When a ghost reaches out to her, telling her the name of the man who murdered him. Ellie knows she must do her best to find justice. With the help of her friend Jay, her own skills, a fairy ring portal, and some snooping around a very strange little town, Ellie will do her best to unravel an untimely family death. A fantasy/mystery with an indigenous (Lipan Apache) heroine, Elatsoe touches on racism and grief in a dangerous magical world where one may have unique skills but they must be used with care or they'll cause harm. Elatsoe was a perfect read for #RIPxx, both genuinely frightening and atmospheric with some unique elements that I really enjoyed. It's the first in a series and I didn't love it enough to read on but I appreciated a lot about the story and would particularly recommend it to fans of books like Mexican Gothic. 

107. Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hanh - OK, first of all, my inner child is fine so I didn't read this book because I have old wounds to heal, although we all do have things that boomerang on us emotionally, now and then. Instead, I read Reconciliation because I was in need of some emotional support reading. The topic didn't matter; Thich Nhat Hanh is comfort reading for me. However, I liked what he had to say about speaking to your inner child, forgiving people who have hurt you (whether or not they're still alive) while recognizing that their own pain may have been the cause of damage done to you, learning how to confront people when they've said or done something to cause you grief, and dealing with your own suffering when old hurts come back to haunt you. My favorite part of Reconciliation was actually the personal testimonies written by people who had been through some sort of experience in dealing with the past through their Buddhist practices and how such practices helped them to move on and let go of the pain. While I didn't read this book out of need for help with past hurts, I thought it was excellent and will return to it if/when some old pain comes back to haunt me. 

108. One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn - I've read a couple of Mary Downing Hahn's ghost stories and someone recently mentioned her, so I went to Hoopla to look her up and found One for Sorrow. Annie has moved to a new town. On her first day at her new school, she's latched onto by Elsie. Elsie is determined to be Annie's best friend and even follows her home. But, Elsie is not a nice person. She is destructive, mean, and jealous. Eventually, Annie manages to extract herself from Elsie's literal and figurative grip and make her own friends. Then, the Spanish Flu arrives. Annie and her friends discover that they can pretend to be grieving in order to get into homes where the bereaved have set out a feast for mourners. But, when one of their classmates dies and becomes a vengeful ghost who goes from possessing Annie to destroying almost everything she owns, Annie ends up in a terrible bind. How can she help this vengeful ghost to move on and return to normal life? OK, so . . . I didn't like this one. All of the characters were bullies, at some point. While Annie was mostly a good child, because she resorted to bullying when her friends did, it was very difficult to get behind her when things were going wrong. I'll read more by the author, but probably not right away. Also read for #RIPxx.

109. The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin - 14-year-old Lizzie is half American. Her mother has gone missing in Poland during the German occupation and her brother is working but she hasn't seen him in quite some time. With the invasion of Britain looming, Lizzie's been summoned to Cleveland by her American grandmother. Convinced her mother is still alive and that she must find her, Lizzie jumps ship and then goes to the London address her brother has given her for correspondence. Jakob fetches Lizzie and takes her to Bletchley Park, where he's working to try to figure out how to break the Enigma code. There, Lizzie is put to work but she continues to try to unravel what's become of her mother. Will Lizzie find out what's become of her mother? Will Jakob and the other math whizzes with whom he works crack the Enigma code so that Great Britain can avoid invasion?  Absolutely one of the most delightful WWII books I've ever read. Lizzie is a hoot but also a kind and very likable person who happens to be extremely smart and observant. I loved everything about this book. It's upbeat, educational, and just pure fun. Highly recommended!

110. Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut - I'm a Vonnegut fan from way back, but my eldest son has just recently discovered Vonnegut and Galápagos was his first read by the author. He was so enthusiastic about it that he sent me his copy ("on loan only; I want it back.") Told from a million years in the future, the events of the story take place in 1986. Machines are taking over all the jobs, economies collapsing, people starving, wars starting over food. But, a handful of people have arrived in Ecuador to go on a nature cruise. Some will die and some will be the only people left on Earth, stranded on one of the rocky islands they've come to tour. This is not a spoiler as the narrator keeps telling you about what will happen to everyone and humorously puts an asterisk by the names of each of the people who are about to die. It goes back and forth in time a bit, so you're both waiting for people to die as you read and for other events to unfold while knowing a bit about how it all ends. A ridiculous little riot of a book that makes me want to dig out more of my Vonnegut reads. 

111. The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen (The Dragonships, #1) - Described as a sci-fi/fantasy mashup, I bought The Last Dragon on Mars after the author posted the thoughts of a child who read this middle grade story. It sounded intriguing and I loved reading about the child's enthusiasm. Good decision. Lunar lives on a very hostile Mars. He's a scrapper, a person who goes out after dust storms to look for salvage he can sell to help keep the other children he lives with fed. Mars is dying and Earth is giving up on Mars, leaving its inhabitants to starve. When Lunar goes on a scrapping mission and he's caught off-guard by other scrappers who know what he's after but not where it's located, he and the other scrapper working with him are attacked and barely escape into the militarized zone, where a young dragon has been hidden. When Lunar is chosen to be the dragon's dragoon, or rider, he must train to ride the dragon into space to save Mars. OK, that kid wasn't wrong. The Last Dragon on Mars is unique and action-packed, with great characters. It does require some suspension of disbelief and that took me a while. I had to let go of the real Mars and accept a planet with life. But, once I managed to block the invasive, "This is so far from actual Mars" and just enjoy the storyline, it was loads of fun, enough to give it 5 stars and pre-order the next in the series. 

112. The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich - I've read quite a few Janet Evanovich books and, in general, I love her writing. But, The Recovery Agent was disappointing. It has all the right elements, including some very funny side characters, plenty of action, explosions, and moments of kick-ass girl power. But, Gabriela is a surprisingly dull character and Rafer comes off as less sexy than annoying. And, we're supposed to buy into the idea of an MC who gave up a house in the Caribbean to get her ex out of her life? Oof, no. Having said all that, if you can tolerate descriptions and MC dialogue that are about as exciting as reading a grocery list, there is some well-paced action and a very nasty bad guy who is fun to root against. There are some fun bits of homage to Romancing the Stone. And, Pepe is a hoot. I just wish Evanovich had given Gabriela a personality instead of leaving all the fun lines to the secondary characters. 

113. The Day the World Stopped Turning by Michael Morpurgo - Another middle grade read, The Day the World Stopped Turning tells the story of Lorenzo and Kazia. Vincent, who is English, is 18 and has traveled to France, lured by a quote about following the bend in the road. When he becomes fiercely ill and collapses, he is saved by Lorenzo after his dog Ami spots Vincent lying in the road. Lorenzo is severely autistic, limited verbally, but he is sweet and his gentleness helps people and animals to heal. When Vincent begins to recover, Kazia tells the story of how Lorenzo and Kazia became friends and ended up living in the farm house in which Lorenzo grew up. It's a story in which WWII eventually features, as it takes place in Southern France, which was somewhat protected by the Vichy French until a certain point. How did Lorenzo and Kazia meet and end up together? What happened when the Germans arrived? And, how did Kazia learn English? All is eventually revealed. While I didn't actually like the manner in which the story was told, with Kazia relating the story rather than the author placing the reader within those events, the ending was pretty perfect and made me a bit teary so I gave it a higher rating than I expected to during most of the reading (4/5). 

OK, well. This month was my worst, by far, although I decided to "read harder" toward the end of the month and that helped to make my final book count feel somewhat respectable. While I had good reason for being too tired to read much of the month (nothing awful, just a bit of a challenge), I also wasted time on a book I wasn't enjoying. I went a full week before DNF'ing Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James at p. 123. I wasn't getting anywhere! Once I gave up on that particular read, things picked up a bit but I still had many days that I just didn't feel like reading. 

My favorites saved the day. The Bletchley Riddle and The Last Dragon on Mars were both marvelous in their own ways, the former light and informative, the latter adventurous. Galápagos was nutty fun and I loved Postcard Poems. Reconciliation was soothing and Elatsoe was fascinating and unique. I wasn't massively in love with The Day the World Stopped Turning but the ending made it all worthwhile. That leaves two that I didn't love. One for Sorrow and The Recovery Agent were both disappointing. I should have given up on One for Sorrow but I've enjoyed quite a few of the author's ghost stories, so I decided to keep going. Oh, well. At least I didn't spend money on it, as it was a Hoopla check-out. The Recovery Agent improved toward the end but wasn't up to Janet Evanovich's usual standard, in my humble opinion. 

As to my yearly challenges, I decided to let them go for the month. I didn't attempt to read any of those challenge reads I've mentioned (books I've meant to read and not gotten around to), nor did I ever open the Persephone book I chose for the month. Only one book was a title I've had for more than a year, the rest either purchased, borrowed, or checked out from the library, and I made a stunning number of stress purchases. 

Well. Some months are like that, aren't they? My reading has been picking up as I worked on it toward the end of the month and I have high hopes for October. No need to worry about an imperfect month. Onward! And, Happy Autumn!

©2025 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. 

Everything I Read in August, 2025

August:

89. Perry Mason: The Case of the Rolling Bones by Erle Stanley Gardner - Ohmygoodness, this one is so convoluted, I'm not sure how to describe it but I'll try. Perry Mason gets a job helping a trio of people who believe a man named Alden Leeds is being blackmailed. Alden is wealthy from a gold strike in Tanana, Alaska, years before. There are lots of complications to this tale: a girlfriend who is lying about her past, a former partner in the Klondike who may be dead or may be pretending to be Alden Leeds, the murder of a con man, and . . . everyone's lying. Even Perry Mason isn't shy about fibbing and misdirecting people. That's what made it confusing for me. So many unreliable characters! Still, I'm glad I read the book. It's been eons since I watched the TV show but friend Ryan mentioned that the Perrys of book and TV are different and I agree. From what little I recall, he seemed more strait-laced on the TV show. The Perry Mason of this book was edgier and deceptive in his own right. Check out the cover in my flatlay, below. It's a 1960 printing, very pulp-fictiony-cool. 

90. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane - Two couples, two generations. Brian and Anne Stanhope move next door to Francis and Lena Gleeson. Brian and Francis worked together early on in their careers so the Gleesons are excited when Brian and his wife move next door. But, there's something very strange about Anne. She's unfriendly, even hostile. And, yet, Peter Stanhope and Kate Gleeson (their children) become friends, until one fateful night changes the trajectory of both families' lives. So . . . I guess this is a family saga? I'm not sure how to mentally label it, but it's very character-driven and touches on all sorts of topics: family, friendship, love, mental illness, alcoholism, abandonment by a parent or both parents, trauma and its reverberations. It took me a week to get through Ask Again, Yes, not because I didn't like it but because I would stay up way too late reading obsessively and then not be able to read for a day or two due to fatigue. I enjoyed it — all the angst, the horror, the good and the ugly made it surprisingly gripping and the ending was very satisfying. 

91. Miguel Street by V. S. Naipaul - A fictionalized account of the author's childhood in Trinidad, Miguel Street is told as a series of vignettes, each focusing on a particular character. They are not told in timeline order. You may read the story of a person who ends up in jail or leaves the country in one chapter, for example, and then they show up as a secondary character in other tales. Very entertaining, at once charming, funny, unnerving (there's a lot of misogyny and beatings), and an interesting glimpse into life in an impoverished area. I was most interested in the culture and the patois. 

92. And Then, BOOM! by Lisa Fipps - A story in verse about a boy whose life keeps taking more punches. Joe lives with his grandmum (originally from England) in a gingerbread-style house. He has never known his father and his mother occasionally "gets the itch" and disappears. When Joe's mom is arrested, things go from bad to worse. Briefly homeless then living in a trailer, Joe and his grandmum do their best to survive but they're always hungry, always unable to pay all the bills. Then, tragedy strikes again and this time Joe's on his own. OMG, this book made me ugly cry. So good. I love the fact that there were always characters who tried to help, even if it wasn't enough. An excellent book to remind people of the importance of social programs for those who fall on tough times through no fault of their own. The ending is lovely and upbeat. A wonderful middle grade book, highly recommended. 

93. Catwings Return by Ursula K. Le Guin - The second in a series of children's books about cats born with wings, I found an ugly old copy of this book on a free books cart at the library when we went to drop off donations. The catwings have been living out in the country where two very kind children feed them; but, now two of them want to return to the city to check on their mother, a regular cat. They arrive to find that her dumpster home is gone and the buildings nearby are being demolished. After finding a kitten who also has wings (their sister), they search for their mother and find that she's now living in a new place and well cared for. The way I described it sounds a bit dull but it's quite an adventurous little book and I'm tempted to buy the entire series for fun. Free books are trouble. 

94. The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman - At 68 pages, I'm not sure whether to call this a short story or a novella but it feels like the latter. Lucas just wants to be left alone and he's doing quite well at avoiding people. He works from home, orders Thai food delivery, and enjoys playing video games. He doesn't need the complication of having other humans in his life. Then, someone ditches a frying pan in an inappropriate place and Lucas gets caught up in the neighborhood intrigue as the board refuses to throw away the pan for fear people will see it as an invitation to dump things. But then it happens, anyway, and the pile of refuse grows. A delightful, silly and humorous tale. I particularly loved the fact that a woman staying in a nearby apartment was there while a doctor pretended she was in a coma to give her a break from her exhausting family life. I could have used a coma break a time or two, many years back. This was a free e-book download and my third read by Backman. I've loved everything I've read by him, so far.

95. William, An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton - My Persephone read of the month has a nice preface by Francesca Beauman, the owner (or one of the owners) of Persephone Books. Thank goodness she described the contrast between the first, very placid part of the story and the outbreak of war because I was bored out of my mind for a time and almost quit reading. William Tully is a clerk at an insurance company in London. He's small and rather dull, not a very likable character. When he comes into a small inheritance after discovering a passion for speaking out  against the government (particularly against the military and war), he quits his job and meets Griselda, a suffragette who is also a passionate speaker, and they marry.

 Just before they leave for their honeymoon in Belgium they see the headlines about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and think nothing of it. They spend 3 quiet weeks in an isolated Belgian valley cottage, then suddenly the woman who brings them breakfast leaves a note (which they can't read) and doesn't show up to leave food for their evening meal or make their breakfast. With no idea what's happened, they arrive at her farmhouse to find danger, chaos, and a level of cruelty that they never could have imagined. For about 100 pages, the book focuses on what happens to William and Griselda and the horrors they witness and experience. Will they make it out of Belgium alive? Well, there's just not much more I can say without spoilers but I can tell you the story is so visceral and fast-paced for a time that it had my heart pounding. Considering the start, I would never have expected to give the book 5 stars, but once you get past about the 50-page mark, the pages fly. 

96. Well Done by Barbara Morrow - A reread, this children's book is one I bought when we were living in Ann Arbor at the scariest library sale, ever. So crowded. I'm a little crowd phobic. Well Done tells the story of a king and duke who don't like each other. If the king tells the duke to do something, the duke will always say, "No". This leads to a war in which the duke's people retreat to his castle grounds, leaving their livestock and fields. The king's siege on the duke's castle lasts so long that the duke's people begin to starve. Finally, the king says he's going to let the women and children go, but then he'll burn the duke's castle down. The duchess comes up with a plan and asks the king to let every woman take what they most value with them. He agrees and they all come out of the castle carrying their husbands. Youngest claims this is a true story. I am skeptical but it's a story I have loved since I bought it and the kids loved it, too. 

97. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner - This month's selection for the Contemplative Reading Project is a memoir by the singer in Japanese Breakfast about losing her mother and how she and her mother were most closely connected by the Korean foods her mother cooked and which she also ate on visits to Korea. This one was particularly rough in the middle because that was the point where she went into detail about her mother's cancer and decline. While my mother lasted a lot longer than Zauner's, it brought back some traumatic memories of how brutal a death it was, how exhausting to be a caregiver, and how traumatic to see my mother take her last breath (on a day that I was alone with her). However, I loved the descriptions of food and Zauner's stories about growing up Korean-American, as well as her struggles to become successful as a singer. The final part of the book, after her mother's death, is very uplifting so I'm glad I stuck it out but if I'd known there were details about a cancer death I would have skipped this book entirely. I didn't even bother reading about it; I just bought a copy blind. I'll be more careful in the future.

98. The Fall of Kelvin Walker by Alasdair Gray - The Fall of Kelvin Walker is set in the 1960s. Kelvin Walker is a Scot who has left his father's grocery store in search of a new life in London. Flush with cash, he goes to get something to eat before finding a place to stay and meets Jill. They talk for a while and he invites her to choose the most expensive place she can think of to eat supper, which it turns out he can't afford. Jill invites him home to her grotty flat, where she lives with Jake; and, Kelvin makes himself at home while absurdly trying to get a job by posing as someone well-known to get an interview. He gets kicked out repeatedly but eventually gets a very good job at the BBC based on his sharpness and ability to be adaptable in interviews. He rises rapidly but not everyone is happy about it. The book is wrapped up with the word "GOODBYE" on the final page (I kind of loved that). Kelvin is a strange character who means well and has a unique talent with words. But, too much confidence leads to his fall. An enjoyable, offbeat, very British read. The most common descriptor at Goodreads is "dour". Hmm. Kelvin is stern and unbending but confident so I'm not sure the word "dour" works for me, although when the fall comes, it is harsh. 

99. Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin - Yep, I bought the set. The first Catwings book is set in an alley in the poorest part of town, where Jane (a normal cat) and her winged kittens live. It's a rough place and the kittens are always in danger, although uniquely able to escape potential captors, due to the fact that they have wings. After some humans spot them and try to snatch the kittens, mama Jane tells Thelma, Harriet, James, and Roger that they must escape to the countryside to protect themselves. It's a long journey and one of them is attacked by an owl, but eventually they find two kind young humans who are willing to care for them without giving their secret away. A lovely little story. I'm glad I bought this set. 

100. Catwings Return by Ursula K. Le Guin (reread) - I reread the second book, this time the volume from the new set I purchased, so that I could read them in timeline order. Nothing has changed from the review above, except for the fact that I love this set so much I'm considering sending it to my youngest granddaughter when I finish and I loved it just as much the second time around. 

101. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin - Third in the series, this time a regular kitten named Alexander goes off on his own through the cat door of his nice house and gets lost then chased up into a tree. Unable to figure out how to get back down on his own, Alexander is surprised when Jane, the Catwing kitten found by her siblings in the second book, flies into the tree and shows him how to get down. Jane only says two words and otherwise refuses to speak. So, Alexander decides it would be a debt repaid and a kindness to help Jane learn to speak by talking through what happened to her that led her to stop speaking. And, then he gets adopted by the farm family that cares for the Catwings kitties. Another great entry, both adventurous and sweet. 

102. Jane on Her Own by Ursula K. Le Guin - In this final entry in the Catwings series, young Jane (the cat found hiding in an attic in a building about to be destroyed in Catwings Return) decides that living in the country is too dull for her and she's ready to go exploring. So, she says goodbye and heads for the city. There, she is caught by a man and becomes a sensation, which also makes her unhappy. Finally, she escapes to find her mother. I didn't love this one as much as the others, although the final couple of pages made it more tolerable. I kind of hated that Jane left Alexander. But, in the end it says she stayed with her mother but came back to the farm to visit her siblings and Alexander. OK, whew. I'm better, now. I loved this series. The books are slim, from 42-54 pages, and all beautifully illustrated. I'm so glad I found one for free. I doubt I'd ever have known about them, otherwise. 

103. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - First published in 1877, this classic children's story is narrated by the horse, Black Beauty. I had no idea. All I knew of this book was that "it has horses" when I picked it up at the library sale, a couple months ago. Nor did I realize it was so old! Set in England in the late 19th century, Black Beauty tells the tale of a working horse who is sold repeatedly, sometimes ending up with kind owners and grooms, sometimes with cruel ones who don't know how to treat a horse properly. It's basically a morality tale, probably typical of the time period, and can be a little preachy. But, it's also quite an interesting learning experience about horses — what different jobs they performed and loads they carried or pulled, how important the right food and correct temperature of water were for their health, the different types of bits and reins, how a small stone or an uneven road could lead to disaster without the right kind of experience or care on the part of the driver. The story comes full circle with an early character returning to Black Beauty's life at his final home. Lovely. 

104. The Faceless Adversary by Frances and Richard Lockridge - John Hayward was having a great day but now he's in trouble. The police think he killed a young woman and they have proof. But, he's never seen the girl in his life and her identity is hazy. Was John set up? If so, why? Who was the young redhead that was murdered and why would someone choose John as the fall guy? Will John and his fiancée figure it out before it's too late? The "mistaken identity" trope sucked me right in. When John's confused and the police are so sure at the beginning, there were some vague North by Northwest vibes. I loved that and the fact that I never felt lost in plot twists. My copy of The Faceless Adversary, published in 1956, was a library sale find. I'm ranking it as one of my top discoveries from a library sale. 

This was an interesting month. I started with the Perry Mason book, which I think I bought at an indie bookstore (either The Strand or Square Books) and then felt slumpy, even though I was enjoying my reads. Crying in H Mart was a difficult read so that may have contributed to the slump problem, although I thought it was excellent and it's pretty typical for me to have a reading slump toward the end of the summer. 

Of the books I read, 6 were books that I've had for over a year, 2 came from recent library sales and 1 off a library cart of free books, 3 were recently purchased (one as a set — the Catwings books), and I read one e-book. So, it was a pretty successful month for reading older books I've been hanging onto. Most will not stay in my house. Crying in H Mart was my only book club read. I started another but just wasn't getting anywhere, in spite of enjoying what little I read. And, there was another book I set aside, so I had two DNFs. I'll get back to both; it just wasn't the right time for them. 

I also read my Persephone book of the month and enjoyed it. The last photo below is just silly. As I was reading Black Beauty and getting ready to read The Faceless Adversary, I kept thinking they looked like condiments. So, I took a photo of my ketchup and mustard books. I actually don't own any ketchup or mustard, so I had nothing cute to pose them with. 

I didn't read any additional books I've been planning to read, as per my yearly goal. And, the book-buying ban has gone totally out the window. I'm giving up on it completely, but will try again in 2026. However, we have been very successful at ridding ourselves of older titles as I've gone through all of the cabinets of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and some bookshelves on a separate wall. So, 8 boxes full of books went to a local library (not my city's library but a nearby library system where I have friends to let me know when they're open to donations). And, we still have at least 8 more boxes of books that we didn't manage to haul there in time. But, they're all ready to go when they open up for the next library sale! 

Happy Reading!

©2025 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. 

Everything I Read in July, 2025

July:

75. Wonder by E. J. Palacio - Well, that was a surprise. I have been aware of this book for many years but I never thought to pick it up until I happened across a copy at the local Goodwill shop, a couple years ago. August Pullman was born with a host of problems and even after many surgeries, his face is quite badly deformed. He's been homeschooled but at 10 his parents have decided it's time for him to go to school. At the new school, his face shocks almost everyone. But, as his fellow students get to know him, Auggie goes from being bullied and only having a few friends to being admired and loved. I laughed, I cried. You can't help but fall in love with the Pullman family. What a great book. 

76. Generation X by Douglas Coupland - I have probably had this book since the 90s (blushing). Published in 1991, it tells the story of 3 friends who have gone to live in California to find themselves, having rejected more lucrative but dull jobs (Andy and Dag) and an annoying, rich, somewhat vapid family life (Claire). This book is an absolute time capsule. MTV and CAD! Stereo consoles, K-cars, and leftover decor from the Sixties! Memories of Space Food Sticks! The most fascinating thing about this book, for me personally, was that my Millenial eldest son has the same complaints as the Gen X characters. Life was so much easier for their parents and they screwed it up for us, Andy thinks. You Boomers and Gen X had it easy and screwed it up for us, says my kid. Some things never change. I enjoyed this book mostly for the blast from the past. 

77. The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech - Naomi and Lizzie are both orphans living in Blackbird Tree (no state named, but in the US). When a boy named Finn falls out of a tree, both girls go out of their way to try to figure the boy out. Where does he live and where did he come from? As summer break begins, the two are roped into spending time with the elderly, swept up in tragedy, and transported to another country when unexpected connections lead to a huge surprise. This is a book I found while cleaning the shelves (another one!). It's got some issues. It's apparently contemporary, but the clothing descriptions, the way people talk, and the fact that there's a boarding house all make it difficult to tell whether the book is contemporary or historical. And, the connections in the end are wildly implausible. Having said all that, I read The Great Unexpected in an afternoon (something that seldom happens) because I just couldn't put it down. And, I smiled a lot. I'm glad I didn't discard this book based on the unenthusiastic reviews. 

78. Bluets by Maggie Nelson - "Lyric essay or prose poetry" says Wikipedia about the unique writing style of this thin volume of vignettes about or with some connection to the color blue. I listened to the audio while reading the book (a first) and discovered in the process that my eyeball reading and listening ear don't coordinate. I am, by nature, a contemplative reader who latches onto words or sentences or paragraphs, rereading them till I'm ready to move on. Yep, it was a Contemplative Reading Project selection. Eventually, I got tired of backtracking when the two reading methods didn't sync up and just listened. While the author's delivery is flat, I think audio is a great way to read Bluets.What I disliked was all the sexual references. In the book, Nelson says she applied for many grants for this writing project and she described the book as "hedonistic and horny." But, the literary references, the thought-provoking connections to a single color . . . there were a lot of interesting moments. I would have preferred essays so she could have taken some of those thoughts further. There's definitely plenty to contemplate and Buddy's notes were extremely helpful. 

79. Thieves' Dozen by Donald E. Westlake - Long ago, during my mystery-gobbling phase, I read an anthology that contained a story about John Dortmunder, a hapless thief. I've never forgotten it. Westlake had a delightful, comedic touch. I came across Thieves' Dozen (a collection published in 2004) while working on my huge, ongoing book purge and the writing is every bit as entertaining as I remembered. Apparently, this book contains every Dortmunder short story ever written, plus a final one in which all of the characters are basically meant to be the same thieves but they have different names as the author was exploring how name changes made the characters different in his mind. Tremendously fun reading, highly recommended. 

80. Eight of Swords by David Skibbens - The first in the Tarot mystery series, published in 2005, you will not be surprised to hear that I found this during the book purge. I sense a theme, here. Warren was a member of the Weather Underground during the 60s (a socialist terrorist organization) and he's been on the run for 30 years. Now, he's a tarot reader in Berkeley. When a teenage girl asks for a reading and he doesn't warn her of how ominous her reading is, he feels guilty and begins investigating after she's kidnapped. I thought this book was average; I enjoyed it but felt that it tried to be about too many things at once. Still, I'm glad I read Eight of Swords because I'm always here for changing things up a bit. 

81. Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume - Tony loves basketball, has some great friends and a paper route, and is starting to notice girls. When his father sells an invention hoping to get extra money to help Tony's big brother, whose wife is expecting, the family is suddenly wealthy and everything changes. They leave their modest neighborhood for a fancy house on Long Island, Grandma is replaced in the kitchen by hired help and takes to her room, and Tony is stuck hanging out with a rich neighbor who is not a person Tony can respect. I really enjoyed Then Again, Maybe I Won't. Tony is a great character. He's annoyed by the wealth and social climbing and knows right from wrong. 

Favorite line: 

The three of us stick together. That way if we have trouble finding the right classrooms we look stupid as a group instead of three individual stupids.

82. Count by Melvin Burgess - A middle grade book found on Hoopla when I was looking for a dystopian book by the same author (unfortunately not available on Hoopla or in the US, for that matter), Count is a very silly book about a boastful boy who decides to count to ten million, can't stop, and becomes a sensation until it all comes crashing down. A clever and fun read. I'm glad my British friend Rebecca led me to this author. 

83. Musical Tables by Billy Collins - Poetry! In this case, Collins focuses on short poems. I wondered, at first, if he was following some particular type of poetic style or meter but nope. He just has a fascination with short poetry and in the author's note, he quoted two very short poems that he found particularly outstanding. There's a very harsh Goodreads review in which the reviewer makes some very good points about why he gave it a single star and I kind of agree with him in some ways. But, I mostly base my opinion of poetry on feelings. Does it resonate in some way? Did I nod or laugh or smile or feel it like a gut punch? I marked a half dozen poems that made me laugh or smile and took a snapshot of one about insomnia, which I can relate to all too well (below) So, Musical Tables was a winner for me. 

84. High Wages by Dorothy Whipple - In 1910, Jane Carter needs a job that pays well and she knows Chadwick's has the best wages, so she applies. As a shop girl in Chadwick's, she helps customers select fabric, ribbon, buttons, and such for dressmaking and home decoration. Jane's boss has a tendency to cheat her out of her commissions and he's not interested in updating his shop to reflect the new, ready-made trends. But, Jane has big ideas. When she's unable to convince her boss to lease a nearby building to open a shop for ready-made clothing and hats, a friend steps in to help. Will Jane be able to make it as a shopkeeper? Jane is a great character. Men have a tendency to try to take advantage of her because she's pretty and innocent, but Jane has strength, determination, and can stand up for herself. Then she falls in love with the wrong man. Her life as a shopgirl and then shop owner is not without challenges but I loved her grit and focus. I adored High Wages. It's definitely my favorite by Whipple, so far. 

85. Walking Words by Eduardo Galeano, illus. by José Francisco Borges - Walking Words is Eduardo Galeano's take on folk tales. I had some particular favorites and some I didn't care for, but overall I enjoyed the book. The block print illustrations are wonderful. A find during my book purge. Yet another book I've had since the 90s. Yikes. Took me long enough. 

86. Take Me With You by Andrea Gibson - I bought a copy of Take Me With You after hearing the author (who was nonbinary and preferred the pronouns they/them) read from the book in a video clip sent by my friend Susan after Gibson's death. The reviews for this book are wild — quite polarized; most either love the book or hate it. It didn't feel like poetry to me, at first; it felt more like reading Hallmark sentiments. I couldn't relate to a lot of it. But, sometimes I laughed, sometimes I got a little teary. I adjusted to the style. I occasionally cringed at confessional bits (never a favorite). Sometimes the writing was profound or pithy, sometimes just a bit of clever wordplay. Most importantly, I feel like Andrea Gibson has helped me to finally understand what it means to be nonbinary. I'm sorry this tender soul has left the Earth. 

87. A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice by Rebecca Connolly - I bought A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice for discussion with one of my online groups. It tells parallel stories that intersect. First, Kate Connolly is a 3rd class passenger from Ireland, traveling on the Titanic to the United States with friends. You get to see what it's like to travel in steerage and the camaraderie between passengers, most of whom were not from the U.S. The other storyline is about Capt. Rostron of the Carpathia, the ship that came steaming to the rescue when they heard that the Titanic was sinking. The first part of the book is slow but when the Titanic begins to sink, the pace picks up with Rostron organizing the rescue and pushing the Carpathia to its limits while Kate is rushing to find a lifebelt and escape the sinking ship. It then becomes a story of how class didn't matter, everyone mixed and even some of the survivors helped others. It's also very focused on trauma and emotion. So . . . the bad. The book is not overly well written. The author has some quirks of language and mannerism that I would expect a good editor to help eliminate. However, I still gave it 4 stars, probably a slightly too-high rating but I liked the different viewpoint of a steerage survivor and the Carpathia captain, having read many books that were mostly told from the Titanic side only. 

88. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill - I read about Sea of Rust when friend Carrie posted an update on Goodreads and immediately added it to my wishlist. Then she encouraged me to read it right away, so I ordered a secondhand copy (which looks good as new, actually). Described as a "post-apocalyptic robot western," it tells the story of Brittle, a Caregiver robot who survived the war between humans and AI (both robots and large databases that have become sentient). Brittle collects and sells parts from dying robots. But, Caregiver parts are becoming scarce. And, when another Caregiver decides to poach Brittle's parts by shooting her, a journey across a desert filled with rusting parts leads to a final shootout in a quest to save the remaining independent robots from CISSUS, a massive Artificial Intelligence mainframe that seeks to turn robots into facets, mindless parts of the whole (much like the Borg of Star Trek: Next Generation). Quite a wild ride, this one. Thanks for the rec, Carrie!

OK, then! This was a pretty terrific month. Of the 14 books I read, 8 were books I've had on my shelves for at least a year, 5 were recent purchases, and 1was checked out via Hoopla. Progress getting through the books I own!

There is thunder and lightning nearby, so I'm not going to dash off to open another window so that I can see how I did on my annual goals, but I did clearly read a Persephone book and plenty from my shelves, so I'm happy. On to August!

©2025 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. 

Everything I Read in June, 2025

June:

62. A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver - I've been deliberately saving A Thousand Mornings to read in June so that I'd have at least one poetry book to read, mid-year. I didn't mark any of my favorite poems. Instead, I must have been feeling a little poetry deprived because I pretty much slammed my way through it in a single evening. I try to space out the reading of poetry books but I just love her poetry so much that it's hard to put down a Mary Oliver book, although I do take time to reflect while reading. For the uninitiated, Oliver is much like another favorite poet of mine, Robert Frost, in that her focus is often on nature and she has a delightful sense of humor but is also willing to show her anger at how we treat our world or to describe the rawness of nature. Another wonderful read. I will reread many times, no doubt. 

63. Blubber by Judy Blume - When Linda does a report on whales, she gets the nickname Blubber because she also happens to be a little overweight. Wendy is the gang leader who gave Linda the nickname and who comes up with all the cruel pranks (tripping Linda, pulling her skirt up so the boys see her underwear, making her say something awful before they allow her into a bathroom stall) but narrator Jill goes along with everything until Wendy goes just one step too far. Then, she rebels and Wendy turns the bullying onto her, giving Jill a demeaning nickname and putting her through similar torturous pranks. This is such a sad book. It's mostly about cruelty and it didn't seem to me that anyone learned a lesson at all. The only way I'd consider this book in any way useful is if it was one that adults and children read together so they could discuss the pain of bullying and why it's wrong to go along with it, even if you're not the instigator.  

64. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy - My copy of The Hunt for Red October originally belonged to my father. I've had it since 1990 and the rest of my immediate family read it long ago but I had not, so I decided to add it to my challenge books for the year. I'm so excited to have finally read it! Parts were edge-of-your-seat, especially the scenes in which the Russian ship is trying to sink the Red October and there's much jockeying about, with characters saying the fun stuff like, "Right full rudder. Ease off on your bow planes," or whatever. It took a while for me to get into the story as I'm not exactly a techie but it's a good book and reading it felt like a little wave toward heaven as it was the one item I stole from my parents' house so I could have something (deliberately without great value) of my father's after he died. We watched the movie after I finished. It still holds up! I think this quote on p. 393 of the book is particularly relevant to our time:

"Mr. Ambassador, any person in the United States, regardless of his nationality or the manner of his arrival, is entitled to the full protection of our law. Our courts have ruled on this many times, and under our law no man or woman may be compelled to do something against his will without due process."

65. When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo - Darwin is Rastafarian and has taken a vow not to go anywhere near the dead or cut his dreadlocks. So, when the only job he can find is digging graves and he needs to get his dreads out of the way, he is horrified but decides that supporting himself and his mother is more important than their beliefs and he moves to the city to work. Yejide comes from a family in which the women have a strong connection to the dead that's passed down the family line. When Yejide's mother dies, she is next in line to receive the gift. Darwin and Yejide dream of each other and seem destined to meet. But, both have challenges to face. Darwin has noticed strange things at the graveyard and getting caught up in them will put him in danger, while Yejide feels her new connection to the dead is more burden than gift. All this takes place in Trinidad, a new location for me, reading-wise.When We Were Birds is a strange story but I enjoyed it. I read it for group discussion and there was a lot to talk about. The discussion was excellent. I definitely recommend it as a group read. 

66. Cats on Catnip by Andrew Marttila - Cats on Catnip is a book of photographs of cats playing in piles of catnip, eating it, rolling around, looking crazy-eyed or calm. It feels a little weird listing it as a "book read" because the only text is an introduction and the name and age of each cat pictured. Otherwise, it's just a lot of cat photos. But, whatever. Andrew Marttila is married to the "Kitten Lady" and I've followed the two of them for years. I love his photos of cats and had it in the back of my head that I'd like to see the book someday, but not necessarily buy it. Fortunately, I happened across Cats on Catnip while looking for another cat-themed book on Hoopla. I had to do a good bit of screen pinching to get a closer look at each of the cats. A real upper of a book if you love looking at cat photos. Cats on catnip are pretty funny. 

67. Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship by Victor Appleton, II - While going through boxes of books to whittle down my possessions, I found this Tom Swift (the third in the series) in one of the boxes. It was the rocket ship cover that really grabbed my eye. Published in 1954, it tells the story of a race to circumnavigate the Earth in space. Tom Swift is a boy genius who works on a private island with engineers, designers, a cook, a doctor, and others. He and his friend Bud are planning to fly Tom's rocket, soon. But, there's competition and his rivals are willing to do anything to sabotage Tom so that their leader can rule from space. A rollicking adventure, very fast-paced, and also extremely silly. Say, Tom needs a new invention or part? It's ready within days or even hours. The implausibility level is high. There are also Martians communicating with Tom but it's understandable that in the 1950s sci-fi writers knew little about whether there was life in our solar system. Worth enjoying for the adventure but it suffers from the passage of time and the writing is a bit oddly choppy, which also may be a remnant of the era. 

68. Indian Country by Gwendolen Cates - Indian Country is a coffee table book in which the photographer traveled around the United States photographing Native Americans. Gorgeous landscape photos (sometimes presented as two-page spreads, which are breathtaking) are interspersed occasionally between the portraits, along with quotes from some of the people pictured. Most focus on things like community, ancestry/history, spirituality, and nature, as well as the memory of colonization and the fact that genocide and history written by the occupiers have rendered a lot of America's first residents invisible but they're resilient and refuse to be silent. A beautiful and very moving book. I got teary reading about descendants of Wounded Knee survivors holding a ceremony in the memory of their ancestors. 

69. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen and Blair Lent - Saddest story ever. A little girl who sells matches has a bad day and is afraid to return home without any money to give to her violent father. So, she stays on the street on a freezing night and lights her matches, one after the other, imagining warm things until she runs out of matches and freezes to death. This is another book I found in a box while working on dramatically purging my personal library. It's old and grubby and I brought it home from a library sale intending to use pieces of the illustrations in collage, which I still plan to do. But, I always have to read books before taking them apart. I also can't bear to take a book apart unless it's either a terrible story (this one's obviously a classic so not awful) or in appalling condition. 

70. A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit - There's a hilariously accurate review of this book at Goodreads, in which the reviewer says A Field Guide to Getting Lost is like going to a cocktail party where you're stuck talking to an "undeniably smart" person who thinks everything they've done is worth describing in excruciating detail. I agree with that but at the same time, I actually enjoyed this book of essays about many different meanings of becoming lost. Sometimes, I felt like the author started an essay well and then went so deep into the weeds that . . . she lost me. That feels punny but it's accurate. My favorite essay was the most straightforward, about explorers and people who were captured by Indians and how they didn't just become lost; they lost their former selves. Some lost their ability to speak their original language, lost interest in wearing clothing or sleeping on beds. That essay was marvelous. In another, she describes living in the desert and being in love while she was a fledgling writer. But, then she oddly goes way off the tracks. If Solnit had stopped at her personal story, I would have loved it but the change of topic was less a segue than a jolt. At any rate, Solnit kept me busy looking things up online, which is always fun, and I was entertained enough to finish so I rated it 3.5/5. 

71. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong - The Emperor of Gladness is the story of a young man named Hai, whose family immigrated from Vietnam. At the beginning of the book he's on the verge of suicide when an elderly woman shouts to him. She is Grazina, also an immigrant but from Lithuania who escaped from Hitler and Stalin during WWII. She needs someone to care for her and he needs a place to stay. She has dementia and he helps her keep her pills straight, plays along with her memories when the pills don't work, and gets a job at a restaurant called HomeMarket to pay for their groceries. Hai is addicted to painkillers and lying to his mother about what he's doing. The Emperor of Gladness is the June selection for the Contemplative Reading Project. Even when I was only partway into the book, I felt like I needed to reread it because there's some imagery that I began to slowly became aware of and I'd like to reread to explore that imagery. Buddy is a professor and he picks up on things that I miss, so I always enjoy reading his thoughts, which you can find under the group name "Contemplative Reading Project" on Substack.

Side notes: I enjoyed The Emperor of Gladness, although the topics (depression, drug addiction, dementia) are heavy. Toward the end of the month, I went to a Silent Reading Party at a neighboring county library (where I have friends, including former blogger Brittanie) and one of the people I sat next to for the social part said, "I really want to read what she's reading," pointing at my book. When I told my eldest son about the Silent Reading Party he said, "Wow, you really know how to party, Mom!" Anyway, I highly recommend both the book and Buddy's group. And, I'll try to keep my one-paragraph reviews to one paragraph (hopefully shorter) next month. I notice they're getting way too long. 

72. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, a retelling by Cerys Matthews, illust. by Kate Evans - Under Milk Wood is a radio play but this adaptation has turned it into a lively children's book. It's the story of a Welsh town's residents, who rise with the stars and sleep after a hard days' work. The characters are humorously described and colorfully illustrated. What I didn't like was the fact that I could recognize Dylan Thomas's style (since I read his A Child's Christmas in Wales every year) admidst the adapted bits. I wanted more Thomas, less adaptation. But, once I grew accustomed to the author's updated voice, I really enjoyed it. I found that you can find a film version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton online and I hope to watch that, soon. I'd also like to get my hands on the radio play. 

73. Letters from Rapunzel by Sarah Lewis Holmes - I'm guessing this is a middle grade book but I'm uncertain. A one-sided epistolary, Letters from Rapunzel is not what it sounds or looks like from the title and cover. It's about a girl whose father has been hospitalized with clinical depression. After he left, the girl (who calls herself Rapunzel but is otherwise unnamed till nearly the end) finds a torn-up letter tucked next to the cushion of her father's favorite chair. He's been writing to someone who he says is responsible for his best poetry. Rapunzel writes to this person, hoping they will respond and be helpful in some way. But, nobody replies, so you read the unfolding story of her challenges at school and at home while her father is struggling and "Rapunzel" is stuck in after-school homework sessions. I loved this book. It's light with a fairly heavy topic, cleverly written and with a great ending. 

74. The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki - A magical café where one can get their astrological signs read and explained shows up only on nights with a full moon. There, customers are served special drinks and desserts by giant cats. The first customer is a screenwriter whose scripts are no longer wanted. When she realizes that her signs indicate that she's doing things wrong, she makes changes to her life. This same pattern continues with other characters, all of whom are tied together as a group that used to walk to school together. Unfortunately, The Full Moon Coffee Shop is not a book I found either magical or entertaining. I thought it boring and disjointed. I read it for my Zoom book group so it will be interesting to see what everyone else thought but it definitely wasn't for me. 

Favorites were Indian Country, The Emperor of Gladness, A Thousand Mornings, Letters from Rapunzel, When We Were Birds, and The Hunt for Red October. 

Update on my yearly goals:

1. Book-buying ban. Let's just update that one with a photo of recent purchases, most for discussion (in the foreground, some bought in May). Not pictured: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, a total impulse purchase that arrived yesterday. 

2. Read from bedroom stacks: Ditched this goal, but I did manage to read 6 that had been on my stacks for at least a year. Most of the others were discussion books or came from recent library sales. 

3. Read some specific books I've been wanting to read: Success! I finished The Hunt for Red October and I'm very happy to have finally broken through that mental block (dead person's book) in order to read it. After finishing the book, we watched the movie. It has held up brilliantly, in spite of some older technology that will make people who lived through the 80s chuckle. 

4. Read one Persephone book per month: Alas, no, but I have started reading the book I meant to read in May . . . and then June. And, it's very good, so far. 

In other bookish news, I have been doing a major book purge in my home library. Here's part of it (you can click to enbiggen: 

I've boxed those all up neatly, now, and it's only a fraction; I have 12 boxes of books ready to go. They haven't made it out the door but we'll start working on that, soon. You can see we're a little messy initially, then we go back and pack things up neatly before taking them to donate. Some we hope to take to McKay's Used Bookstore but that requires a trip to Tennessee. We shall see. At any rate, I don't know what clicked but I'm basically doing Swedish Death Cleaning, keeping only the books I intend to read or that still hold interest for me. Anything even remotely questionable is going. Biggest surprise: My YA collection. I went through a YA phase a few years after starting the blog and kept all my favorites + a few unread titles. I was shocked at how easily they went to the discard piles. I guess my YA phase has ended, at least for now. I did keep a few favorites but not many. It's wild to look at the shelves and see so many open spaces. 

©2025 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. 

Everything I Read in May, 2025

May:

52. The Ice Monster by David Walliams - Elsie is an orphan in Victorian London living in torturous circumstances in an orphanage. After she escapes, she has nowhere to live but the streets. When a woolly mammoth encased in ice is brought to the Natural History Museum, where she occasionally sleeps in a broom closet to avoid freezing outdoors, Elsie is determined to see it. And, when a mad scientist who lives in the basement figures out how to bring the mammoth back to life, Elsie, the cleaning woman (who is hilarious and my favorite character), and the woolly mammoth are in for a wild adventure. If you can get past the extremely gross first chapter, the rest of the book is very fun. But, this is my second middle grade read by Walliams and he has a tendency toward the disgusting in his humor — not surprising if you've seen his adult comedy, but as a child, parts of his books would have given me nightmares. So, while I enjoyed this story, I will not read any more of Walliams' books. 

53. Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams - I bought Careless People because Mark Zuckerberg didn't want people to read it, which naturally made me curious as to why. The story of the author's time working for Facebook begins when it was a small company and she, as a diplomat from New Zealand who worked at the United Nations, thought it had potential to become a force for good. She wanted Facebook to be able to become involved in the creation of regulations dealing with this new form of social media and felt that would be a perfect job for her. After Wynn-Williams managed to get hired, she found that the company's founder was painfully shy and disinterested in meeting heads of state and other diplomats. But, once he began to see the benefits of knowing people in high places, exploit them, and even become more powerful than they are — relying, as they do, on reelection while he keeps his position — his greed for expansion, lack of empathy, and underhanded ways of fobbing off government regulation and lying in congressional investigations became too much for the author. Written with clarity, lightness, and precision (either she kept extensive notes or has a memory like a vault). The title is aptly based on the quote from The Great Gatsby that begins, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money . . . "

54. Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford - At a family gathering, the adults converge on the deck while the children play inside. When the children look out a window and see something inexplicable and spooky in the woods, 3-year-old Abi runs from the room and doesn't return. The children eventually go off to look for her and tell the grown-ups when they're unsuccessful. The adults shrug them off. Mostly told in 1st person plural with the children as the collective "we", the group decides they must find Abi and off they go. But, things go wrong, another child disappears, and they frequently become distracted, frightened, or hurt. Interspersed throughout are chapters about their grandmother "Beezy" and the family history. A book so utterly its own that I'm stunned it's got a fairly low (3.3) rating at Goodreads. I was enchanted, mesmerized, captivated, unsettled, tickled, saddened. There's a tragedy but there's also the humor of little Owen and his eggs (you just have to read it). Creepy, weird, discussable, and a book worth studying, if you ask me. Side note: Idle Grounds is the book I mentioned in April that I ordered because I wanted to read it immediately, if not sooner. I have no earthly idea why. I love the cover and I was interested in the description but I seldom feel so compelled to buy a book now. I felt like the universe was trying to tell me something. A five-star read for me. 

55. The Best of Reader's Digest: Timeless Favorites - I've mentioned before that I'm looking for a specific story from Reader's Digest that was the genesis of my interest in WWII. Well . . . it's not in this collection but I found this and one other "best of" type Reader's Digest book while working at the library sale and there appeared to be some WWII stories, so I figured I would at least enjoy those. I didn't plan to read the entire book. But, it really took me back to my childhood days, when I'd read my mother's Reader's Digests from cover to cover. A little murder and mayhem, a bit of humor, and some tear-jerkers rounded out this collection of stories and essays. My absolute favorites were a story about a couple separated during WWII and reunited by a tablecloth hanging over damaged plaster to cover it for a Christmas service, an essay about what actor Danny Kaye learned about parenthood while traveling to help promote vaccination in other countries, and the story of a Medal of Honor recipient. A very enjoyable read. 

DNF: I haven't started a book and abandoned it for a while but I thought this one's worth mentioning. The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender is a book about mental illness and it starts with a gripping phone conversation in which a mother calls her sister saying she thinks her daughter "has a bug in her". The sister is 8 1/2 months pregnant, so she sends her husband to fetch 8-year-old Francie and make sure her mother is hospitalized. You can read more about it at Goodreads. When I left her, Francie was 27 and considering a life change while reflecting on two strange things she saw as a child. I was captivated at first, then bored. I kept putting the book down and not wanting to pick it up, so I gave up around p. 70 or so. But, the book has a wide range of reviews/ratings. Some consider it magical. Some found it dull or middling. I liked Bender's writing enough that I'd like to try reading some of her other work. This one just didn't work for me. 

56. Dust by Dusti Bowling - Dust is about a girl named Avalyn who has asthma and nearly died of an asthma attack when she was living in Tulsa, as a toddler. So, her parents moved to a desert town with little wind and surrounded by mountains to avoid dust storms, a place that didn't grow allergens like ragweed. She's now in middle school. When a new boy named Adam arrives at school, dust storms appear at the same time. Avalyn is an empath who can feel someone's emotions by touching them. She knows something is horribly wrong in Adam's life, but not exactly what that is. He's quiet and unwilling to talk about his life, even when they slowly become friends. She's convinced that if she can absorb emotions, Adam has an equal ability to cause dust storms. But, in order to help him, she's going to have to betray his wishes. A story of bullying and sexual abuse, this middle grade book reminds children that it's more important to say something and get help, whether you're being abused or someone you know is, than to keep secrets. I love Dusti Bowling's books; they have heart. Avalyn is a likable character and so are her friends, all of whom are bullied. My only complaint about this book is that Avalyn's preparing for a spelling bee but the lengthy spelling words often aren't defined (a handful are). A glossary would have been a good addition. 

57. Hedy's Journey: The True Story of a Hungarian Girl Fleeing the Holocaust by Michelle Bisson and El Primo Ramón - An excellent true story about the author's mother, who escaped Hungary during WWII. Beginning her journey alone by train after her family had fled ahead of her, Hedy traveled to Austria and then flew to Spain. There, she met up with her family and they managed a number of obstacles on their way to life in the US. The book is written for youngsters as it's a picture book but there's additional information, lots of photos of Hedy and her family, and a glossary. A five-star read, in my opinion, very clearly written and gripping with subdued but lovely illustrations. 

58. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico - Anna and Tom are Millenials, digital nomads from Southern Europe who have chosen to live in Berlin. There, they do graphic design from home and hang out with a circle of expats. They first move from one apartment to another and then when they settle, occasionally go on working vacations and rent out the apartment. They collect plants because doing so is an in thing. They go to art galleries and farmers' markets with their group. But, they're always searching for something elusive, a kind of perfection that they can never quite grasp. I read Perfection because my elder son gave it 5 stars and told me I should read it. At first, I found it pedestrian and dry. Reading it was like watching grass grow. But, then my Millenial son and I talked about the first half of the book and seeing it through his eyes made me realize there were scenes I enjoyed. I just had to bluster through the prose bits that didn't thrill me. When I finished, we discussed again and I have to say . . . reading and discussing with your grown children is such a joy. We had latched onto many of the same scenes, finding them hilarious in a subtle/understated way. It took me a week to read 115 pages of Perfection but now I can't stop thinking about it.

59. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks - This month's selection for the Contemplative Reading Project is a book about how patriarchal society does damage to both men and women, how the first feminist movement either overlooked men or treated them with hatred, how we (both men and women) indoctrinate our children into the patriarchy, and what the author proposes to create a healthier society. The most fascinating thing about this book to me was that it's so accurate to what I've seen and experienced that I was noticing the way she describes people talking about the patriarchy/men absolutely everywhere -- in the news, social media, books and movies, even the old letters I've been reading. And, I agree with her about how our societal view of masculinity and how we raise boys needs to change, but I dislike the term "feminist masculinity". There is a growing movement of misogynists/women haters and I think their rage towards women dictates a need to leave feminism out of the terminology. My opinion. An amazing read and one I plan to reread to mark up for future reference. Highly recommended. It would require some major societal buy-in to make change happen so I encourage everyone to read and discuss this book. 

60. Room on the Sea by André Aciman - Room on the Sea begins with a man trying to see what the woman next to him is reading. They've been called up for jury duty and are stuck beside each other, so they chat. Then, they start getting coffee together, lunch, breakfast, taking long walks and chatting about their love of Naples, their frustrations. They are charmed by each other but they're also both married and, yes, both feeling adrift from their partners. The question slowly becomes, "Will they or won't they?" Will they ditch their partners or have an affair? Will they take off to Italy together? A very short novel (or maybe novella; I'm not sure) at 158 pages, I liked the simple, straightforward writing and the banter but the answer to the "Will they or won't they?" question . . . I didn't care for the direction it went and that's obviously a personal preference. Still, I'm glad I read it because it was a light, quick read that gave me a little bit of a brain break. Read for Tiny Book Group on the Fable app. 

61. The Book of Delights by Ross Gay - I really enjoyed Ross Gay's Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, so when Books & Pie Carrie asked if I'd like her copy of The Book of Delights, I answered with an enthusiastic YES. And, what a delight it turned out to be, a total upper of a book. The Book of Delights is a collection of essays about things that delight the author. One of his biggest delights, which makes frequent appearances, is his love of plants, gardening, and nature. I'm a total tree-hugging, "Protect Our Natural Resources" kind of gal, so those were among my favorites. There were a couple essays I didn't love but so many more that I did that I gave it the full 5 stars. Also, it's worth mentioning that reading The Book of Delights helped me with a writing challenge I've been trying to tackle, so I doubly appreciate getting to read it. 

Update on my yearly goals: 

1. Book-buying ban - Oopsy, this year's ban is sooo not going well. Having said that, I think the only book I bought this month was Room on the Sea and that was for a book group, so it's acceptable. Still, I count 5 books from this month's reads that were recently purchased, which doesn't help with #2.

2. Read from the bedroom stacks - Sigh. Only two books came from the bedroom stacks: Dust by Dusti Bowling and The Ice Monster by David Walliams. Hedy's Journey is a book I found while cleaning a room, so we'll say it also counts since it's one I already owned and the objective is to read books I already own. The Book of Delights was brought to me recently and promptly added to the bedroom stacks but that's cheating. 

3. Read some specific books I've been wanting to read - Not completed, but yes I'm reading one of my planned books, The Hunt for Red October, and it will absolutely be finished by the end of June, so I'll say that's a 1/2-yes on this goal. 

4. Read one Persephone title per month - Ah, darn. Nope. This is the first month I've failed to read a Persephone title and it's solely because I had a DNF and a mid-month slump. The beginning of the month was great. I was rolling! And, then . . . nothing. I just couldn't get myself to read or I'd read a few pages of The Hunt for Red October and then either fall asleep or find myself drifting off, thinking about other things and staring at the ceiling like a cat who appears to have spotted a ghost. 

So, basically, this month was an utter failure when it comes to my annual goals (apart from the 1/2-yes of my planned read of a book I've put off forever), and yet I just don't feel like that matters. I'll move on and keep challenging myself to complete each of these goals as the year progresses. Plus, I read some terrific books and I absolutely do not regret buying the ones I bought. I loved most of them and one provided a break from heavier reads. And, best of all, one of the books resulted in a couple of terrific conversations with my eldest son. That's always a win. I highly recommend reading and discussing books with your grown kids, if you can! 

I didn't read any e-books, this month. Incidentally, that chicken in the top photo was made by my daughter-in-law, who is now selling knitted and crocheted things at festivals and the weekly farmers market. Isn't it cute? 

©2025 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.