#whatthedickens @Cuilin

I‘m going to have to bail on this one. The writing is dry and it reads like a dissertation. Example “At the point when Perceval rides out into the grey and empty dawn from the deserted castle, we are two-fifths of the way through Chrétien‘s work in its unfinished form.” That‘s a sentence chosen at random. ? I wanted to like it, but when reading becomes a chore, I‘m out. Too many good books out there. #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Another great installment in Maya Angelou‘s memoirs, (and vastly different from the last memoir I reviewed!) She was an amazing writer and she pays loving tribute to her mother without ignoring her faults. A definite 👍🏻
#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

I found the author to be too self-centered and judgmental to garner my sympathy. She snarks on about the “tourists” who are just after a picture for instagram, yet the hikes she describes taking in those parks I am familiar with are ones we took as a family when my kids were in the single digits - hardly epic hikes. This was my 1st #readyourkindle and I‘m just sorry it‘s not a paperback I can give away. @CBee

The illustrations in my edition are copyright 1966, and I think it shows. Not what I expect but suitably grim for Coketown! #whatthedickens @Cuilin

The first book of 2025! For my irl book club, written by a cellist, the wedding scene is full of all the horrors you know he has played. It was highly amusing and I enjoyed it highly.

Here are my #readyourkindle picks for January. Will I read them all? Doubtful. But I‘ll knock at least one of them off the TBR. @CBee

My first #bookspin and #doublespin of 2025!

Hard cover ready for reading at home (with illustrations by Charles Raymond) and Kindle edition for reading while out and about. I‘m ready for #whatthedickens! About half of my Dickens novels are in this binding, which I often find in second hand shops.

I always enjoy seeing people‘s reading stats, so here‘s my 2024 “year in books.” (The longest, in case you can‘t read the title, is Nicholas Nickleby.)

This has sat unread on my shelf for YEARS. I‘m glad to have finally gotten around to reading it, and while it‘s not exactly flattering to Dickens it was a well-crafted novel that explored those close to me “the Chief” and I‘m glad I read it. My final #doublespin of 2024, and (unusually for me) I‘m ready to start 2025 with no book in progress. It‘s a clean slate. @TheAromaofBooks

I‘m going to try to “read down” the backlog on my kindle. Because how many challenges are too many, really? 🤷🏻‍♀️#readyourkindle @CBee

My #bookspin for January is all nonfiction and heavily Tudor for #bookedintime. @TheAromaofBooks @Cuilin

Required reading for work is interrupting my “real” reading. 😂

Trying very hard to be funny, and showing it, this book is dated in its attitudes towards women and the characters were more caricatures than realistic. But a quick read and a local author, so I‘ll give it a so-so. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

A good book for a busy time of year when I don‘t have much time. Absurdist and at times you weren‘t sure if you were in “real life” or a hallucination, but funny. A soft pick.

No time to read this weekend as we had first Thanksgiving with one grown kids‘ family on Thursday (bottom pic) and with another today (top.) Lots of cooking, lots of fun, and my fridge is stuffed with leftovers. I won‘t have to cook for a week!

Happy Thanksgiving to all in the US! (And hey, we invite anyone to celebrate. It‘s the best holiday because it‘s all about food and family with no shopping required!) May your dinner turn out perfectly, your littles behave, and that one uncle (we all have one!) not embarrass the family.

My last #bookspin of 2024. @TheAromaofBooks

I liked the bits about his childhood, but when he‘d go off on long tangents on the history of Chemistry, he lost me. I quit reading the footnotes halfway through and wished for more details of his life, but he writes well and I didn‘t hate it, so I give it a so-so.

Thanks to all who reached out with suggestions, and to the team at LibraryThing. Litsy is once again working on my phone. One more thing to be grateful for this week. 🦃

Anyone else having issues? I updated my phone to the latest iOS, and now Litsy isn‘t showing any of the buttons! I can comment only if someone else already has, and I can‘t like, stack, or share! I haven‘t updated my iPad so I can get to it that way, but I‘m wondering what‘s going on.

A quick read, it raises questions to think about but is an easy read in terms of the writing. Still fighting this cold and needing easy today. A light pick.

I enjoyed this novelization of Hildegard von Bingen‘s life. I‘ve admired her music for years but didn‘t know much else about her. And this was a relaxing read for a sick day at home.

Staying home from church with a cold, I‘m listening to Hildegard von Bingen‘s music and starting this novel based on her life.

Morais gives us a rather unlikable character, who he then makes us love in this contemplative look at the end of life. There are lot of money thrown around and a LOT of fly fishing; we cross multiple borders, and speak many languages; but mostly is the plain truth that we all go through our final journey alone, even when surrounded by those we love.

I enjoyed this compilation of short works by Irving. The nonfiction bits were my favorites, oddly, especially the title piece and the Dickens pieces. The “author‘s notes” to the last selection, where he talks about meeting Thomas Mann‘s daughter on an airplane is also great. #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

The book the musical Come From Away is based on, read by a strong narrator. It is full of hope and goodness, although the Newfie‘s were both better and worse than in the musical, the passengers and crew also. Some changes made sense - you can‘t have a cast of 10k spread over multiple towns - and others less so. But a story that needs to be told in as many formats as it takes to get the message out there. Be kind. Help each other. Love.

Irving, writing about Vienna in the 1960s. But it could be the US in the present day.

My #doublespin for November started with a mini memoir of how Irving decided to become a writer. A good start. @TheAromaofBooks

I finished in two nights. Now I have to wait until 2025 for the next one! Spending time in Three Pines is calming, which I needed. More under spoiler tag to protect the innocent. 😀

I need Gamache tonight. And yes, I‘m eating my feelings.

Doig‘s language is rich and poetic and usually calming. But there‘s a lot of death in this slim novel, so while it occupied my mind, it didn‘t distract me enough on this fraught night. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

While it was a bit repetitive, and the dragging out of Alice‘s story felt gimmicky, this is an interesting look at the consumer DNA market. I have not taken a test due to some of the ethical dilemmas she discusses. But I have at least one 1st cousin who has, so it may be a moot point. There‘s much to think about here for sure.

Searching for analysis of our novel, this poem popped up. If you can‘t read it here it‘s available online here https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50464/give-all-to-love
Wow. Once again Wharton expects us to be well read, as well as well travelled, and it all makes so much more sense. I still don‘t like V and think Halo deserves better, but we all make stupid choices sometimes. 😂 #whartonbuddyread

I always feel odd reviewing memoirs - like I‘m judging their life, not their writing. But this one is excellent living and writing. Like The Last Lecture it is full of positive but real sentiments/ philosophy, not trite, pat answers. I respect an author who respects his readers.

Like many collections of short stories this one was uneven. The first was the best, and I wished he had developed it into a novel, or at least a novella. Lots of men/boys struggling with feelings of inferiority and trying to hide them in bravado, which got tiring by the end. Soft pick.

An enjoyable, character driven look at a small neighborhood and two small girls trying to make sense of the grownups nonsensical behavior. Lots of humor and a little mystery. Just what I needed.

November #bookspin is an odd-lot assortment of books on my shelves I‘ve been meaning to get to. @TheAromaofBooks

Wow. This was a brutal section for me. Vance has sacrificed any sympathy I ever had for him. He‘s not young and impulsive anymore. He‘s selfish and cruel. I wish Halo had better options, but she needs to be shed of V.! Thoughts about either V or H‘s behavior? #whartonbuddyread

I loved this memoire of growing and raising your own food. I never had any delusions of it being easy (enforced child labor in my mother‘s garden) and I‘m happy for someone to slaughter and butcher the meat I eat, I want to know where my food comes from. I love how generous she was with her food, even after someone stole her one and only watermelon. And the way the neighbors came together, all different cultures and backgrounds bonding over food.

I felt like this was a better portrait of Dr. Thomas than Miss Jane, partly because Watson seems better at writing men than women, partly because there was so much focus on his inner life. The peacocks are his (and the cover makes you think Jane Austen will figure into it, while it‘s Jane Eyre. There are beautiful descriptions and contemplative language.

Vance goes off on a wild goose chase sure to get him in trouble. The Delaney‘s, Alders, Mrs. G, and Chris all collide in the south of France. And Wharton is hammering it home that, putting people in different clothes, houses, hotels, etc doesn‘t change who they are. Do you think Halo, back in Forgotten-by-the-Sea (rough translation of Oubli-sur-mer ) knew what she was doing? And if V can‘t write without hurting others, is he a genius or a monster?

Scholarly but very readable. I enjoyed this look at Tudor women, focusing on the wives, yes, but also others of the era. There are a lot of characters to keep straight in Henry VIII‘s court, but it gets easier with each book I read.

Vance goes to extremes, although all his extremes are selfish, even when he thinks he‘s being noble. And the double standard is spotlighted clearly. It‘s ok to “know” a man who‘s living nonmarried, but the woman of the couple must be cut dead. Is there any hope for this pair? Especially with Lewis being so poutily stubborn? (Picture is a detail of a painting by Corot of the forest at Fontainebleau.) #whartonbuddyread

This is a difficult book ton review (and to read.) TW for incest and child abuse, I almost gave up on it early on. But Price‘s prose is strong and he manages to make the protagonist, if not lovable, at least pitiable. You have to get all the way to the end to understand why Price is so relentless with details, yet it still leaves a darkness and ick factor that I didn‘t expect from him. Pick for the prose & voice; pan for the protagonist.

Not a good picture, but since it wasn‘t a good book, I don‘t care. Full of sayings that could be embroidered on pillows or painted on old barn wood. The “poetry” doesn‘t scan, the “twist” is a total eye roll and no one behaves in character. It may be an #unpopularopinion but I didn‘t like it. Now there‘s room for another book on my shelf. 😀#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

To quote from the website The Mount “In a rare interview, Wharton listed The Gods Arrive as one of her five favorites. The other four were Hudson River Bracketed, The Custom of the Country, Summer, and The Children.” Are we going to see E. W. more intimately in this? It‘s also the only sequel she ever wrote so she must have loved these characters. But she doesn‘t let us think for long that this will be a rare happy relationship! #whartonbuddyread

I recognize this as an important book, but I can‘t call it an enjoyable one. Very grim with few if any likable characters, and plenty of grisly deaths. The narrator was good, but not the best early-morning exercise listening.

Not ready to stop reading about the Tudors after The Mirror and the Light, so I‘m hoping these 3, plus the tagged book not pictured, will scratch that itch. #bookhaul