RidgewayGirl and the Museums of Munich -- Part Four

Això és la continuació del tema RidgewayGirl and the Museums of Munich -- Part Three.

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RidgewayGirl and the Museums of Munich -- Part Four

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1RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 9:32 am

Autumn is my favorite season. School supplies, fresh starts and the cooler weather are all things I love. I'm starting to think about how I want to set up my 2016 thread, but there's still plenty of year left over here.

I really like the museums here in my temporary home of Munich, Germany. I like them a lot. So I thought I'd combine them with my 2015 Challenge this year. I've also decided that my only real goal for this year is to increase the proportion of books written by women from 50% to 60%. As I've done for a while, I'm doing ten categories with a goal of ten books in each.



Currently Reading



Recently Read



Recently Acquired




2RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 30, 2015, 8:25 am

Category One.

Books By Women

The Lenbachhaus is the home of The Blue Rider, an expressionist art movement that began in Munich and included Kandinsky, Klee, Marc, Macke and Münter. Gabriele Münter was Wassily Kandinsky's partner and a fellow artist. She remained in Germany and even after he returned to Russia and married, she saved his paintings and many others in the house they'd purchased in Murnau. Their work was considered "degenerate art" by the Nazis, and much was destroyed. Münter saved hundreds of works and donated them to the Lenbachhause in Munich. Recently, the museum was renovated and expanded, giving the works of The Blue Rider room to shine. Since a woman saved art, this is my category for books by women. The painting spotlighted here, however, was painted by Alexej von Jawlensky and is of the dancer, Alexander Sacharoff.

The Lenbachhaus remains one of my favorite museums.



1. Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates
2. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
3. Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes
4. The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
5. Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
6. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
7. Daydreams of Angels by Heather O'Neill
8. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
9. His Whole Life by Elizabeth Hay
10. Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
11. The Fever by Megan Abbott

3RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 25, 2015, 3:41 am

Category Two.

Books set in Cities

The Munich City Museum (Münchner Stadtmuseum) is located in the middle of the old city, within the long gone city walls in an old arsenal and stables. The exhibits I've seen so far include photographs of Greenland by a local artist/actor and a collection of silver pieces made by a local Jewish business that was forced to close when Hitler came to power.



1. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs (Newark, NJ)
2. After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman (Baltimore, MD)
3. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (London, UK)
4. Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Levy (Los Angeles, CA)
5. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (Naples, Italy)
6. Iphigenia in Forest Hills by Janet Malcolm (Queens, New York)
7. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (Baltimore, MD)
8. The Beat Goes On by Ian Rankin (Edinburgh, Scotland)
9. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (New York City)
10. Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell (London, UK)

4RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 29, 2015, 6:06 am

Category Three.

Books I Brought with Me to Munich

The State Museum of Egyptian Art (Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst) is full of amazing things carefully taken/looted from Egyptian tombs and brought to Munich. Europe is full of Egyptian things, although there are fewer mummies than there should be due to the idea that pulverized mummies were good for you. I brought a fair number of books with me to Germany and would like to read them.



Here is a picture of the interior:



1. In Matto's Realm by Friedrich Glauser
2. Our Daily Bread by Lauren B. Davis
3. A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash
4. Addition by Toni Jordan
5. The Warden by Anthony Trollope
6. Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
7. The Known World by Edward P. Jones
8. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
9. The Hanging Tree by Bryan Gruley
10. The Clarinet Polka by Keith Maillard
11. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

5RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 28, 2015, 8:03 am

Category Four.

New Books I Have Brought Home

The Haus der Kunst was built by the Nazis to celebrate the kind of art they liked. They burnt the stuff they didn't, called it degenerate and many artists either fled Germany, committed suicide or stopped painting altogether. The Haus der Kunst is a cold, haughty building. It was also one of the very few buildings in Munich to escape bomb damage, due to it being cleverly camouflaged and located at the end of the large Englischer Garten. After the war, it was first used as the recreation and mess hall for American officers (The lines painted on the marble floors to make basketball courts are still visible (although I haven't seen them). There was a debate as to what to do with the building, with many feeling that the best solution was to tear it down. Instead, it's been turned into a venue for visiting exhibitions of cutting edge art, the very stuff Hitler hated.



1. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
2. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
3. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
4. Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Rodi
5. Stoner by John Williams
6. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
7. Munich Airport by Greg Baxter
8. The Telling Error by Sophie Hannah
9. Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton
10. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
11. Here's Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane

6RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 17, 2015, 1:49 am

Category Five.

Borrowed and Library Books

The Hypo Kunsthalle holds temporary art exhibits that range from artifacts from Pompeii to Jean Paul Gautier. The museum is on Munich's most expensive shopping street, which joins Odeonsplatz to the Marienplatz. I haven't been here this year at all, although I'd like to see the current Keith Haring show before it's gone.



1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
2. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
3. Adam by Ariel Schrag
4. Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood
5. The Mad and the Bad by Jean-Patrick Manchette
6. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
7. Disclaimer by Renee Knight
8. The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell
9. Finders Keepers by Stephen King
10. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
11. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

7RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 26, 2015, 5:33 am

Category Six.

Books that Catch My Eye

The Brandhorst Museum not only houses the kind of art that people want to see (Richard Avedon, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, etc...), but the building is gorgeous. The exterior is covered in ceramic rods in 23 different colors. It's a lot of fun to look at, especially on grey, rainy days, when the historic buildings around it look grim.



1. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
2. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
4. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories by Hilary Mantel
5. Like a Charm edited by Karin Slaughter
6. Mr Mercedes by Stephen King
7. Edisto by Padgett Powell
8. Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt
9. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
10. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
11. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories by Stephen King

8RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 18, 2015, 2:37 am

Category Seven.

Books Published Within the Last Five Years

The Pinakothek der Moderne has become the museum that I've visited the most since arriving in Munich. It houses art from 1900 to the present, along with excellent temporary exhibits. The two exhibits that I've liked the most were a retrospective of Canadian Jeff Walls' photography and a close look at Ernst Ludwig Kirschner's paintings.



1. The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith (published in 2014)
2. Us by David Nicholls (published in 2014)
3. Let Me Go by Chelsea Cain (published in 2013)
4. A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison (published in 2014)
5. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen (published in 2014)
6. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill (published in 2014)
7. The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates (published in 2015)
8. It's Not Me, It's You by Mhairi McFarlane (published in 2015)
9. The Illuminations by Andrew O'Hagan (published 2015)
10. Make Me by Lee Child (published 2015)
11. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (published 2012)

9RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 9, 2015, 2:42 am

Category Eight.

Books That Have Been Nominated for an Award

The Alte Pinakothek is an enormous building that was once the largest museum in the world and holds the great masterpieces of Holbein, Dürer, Rembrandt, Raphael and many, many others. Despite its size, only a portion of the collection can be shown as there is a lot of it.



1. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (National Book Award Winner)
2. Outline by Rachel Cusk (Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist)
3. All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (Costa Prize for Fiction Shortlist)
4. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (NYT Notable Book of the Year)
5. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Tournament of Books Shortlist)
6. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (Nebula Award and Hugo Award)
7. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (Tournament of Books Shortlist)
8. The Green Road by Anne Enright (Bailey's Prize Shortlist, Booker Prize Longlist)
9. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (Man Booker Prize Longlist)
10.I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (Printz Honor book)

10RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 9, 2015, 4:24 am

Category Nine.

CATs

The Neue Pinakothek houses art of the 18th and 19th century. The CATs are themed side challenges with a new topic each month. The CATs for this year are the HistoryCAT, the SFFFCAT and the RandomCAT. There is no connection between the Neue Pinakothek and the CATs.



1. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (January HistoryCAT - Myths and Legends)
2. The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher (April RandomCAT)
3. The Day of Atonement by David Liss (May HistoryCAT - Plagues and Disasters)
4. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (May SFFFCAT - Girl Power)
5. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (May RandomCAT - Place name in title)
6. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (June RandomCAT - On the water)
7. Labor Day by Joyce Maynard (August RandomCAT - Dog Days of Summer)
8. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (October SFFFCAT - What Was That?)
9. The Woman from Bratislava by Leif Davidson (November RandomCAT - Books and the Big City)
10. Fallout by Sadie Jones (December HistoryCAT - 1945 - 1990)

11RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 4, 2015, 1:53 am

Category Ten.

Books Set in the Past

Villa Stuck is a museum dedicated to the works of Franz Stuck, and also a mansion decorated in the art deco style.



1. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
2. A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
3. Longbourn by Jo Baker
4. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
5. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
6. Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
7. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
8. The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernieres
9. Slade House by David Mitchell
10. UnderMajorDomo Minor by Patrick deWitt

13lkernagh
ag. 28, 2015, 1:16 pm

Happy new thread! I see you are making great progress with your challenge!

14RidgewayGirl
ag. 28, 2015, 1:48 pm

I'm on track, Lori, which is not usually the case. I'm hoping to match my best reading year and read 125 books, but I'll be happy with anything over my goal of 100.

15DeltaQueen50
ag. 28, 2015, 3:09 pm

The Autumn is my favorite time of the year as well, and after this long summer we've had, I am really looking forward to it. I was excited to see the thread about next years Cats go up as now I can start thinking about my next years Challenge and how I am going to set it up!

16christina_reads
ag. 28, 2015, 3:23 pm

Phew, finally caught up with your threads! Autumn is my favorite season as well -- so glad we're almost there!

Also, you had mentioned Mhairi McFarlane on your previous thread and indicated that you like to read (well-written) chick lit, especially if it's based on Jane Austen. With that in mind, I definitely recommend Here's Looking at You, also by McFarlane, which is subtly based on Pride and Prejudice! (The similarities become more apparent as you get farther into the book.) And I think her third book, You Had Me at Hello, is based on Persuasion, but I haven't read that one yet.

17dudes22
ag. 28, 2015, 4:28 pm

Happy new thread. I was going to say "Looks like you're right on track" until I saw you want to read 125, so you go girl!. Love your museum pictures, but I'm not seeing the one on the left in post #7. Can you check your link? And I love the picture on the far right in #6.

18rabbitprincess
ag. 28, 2015, 6:19 pm

Gorgeous fall colours in the first post! Happy new thread!

19-Eva-
ag. 30, 2015, 4:17 pm

Happy new thread! Great thread-topper - autumn colors are so very beautiful.

20RidgewayGirl
ag. 31, 2015, 3:11 am

Judy, I'll open the CATs discussion for nominations for next year tonight. I'm really curious as to whether there will be new suggestions, or whether we'll be choosing from previous years' suggestions and CATs.

Thanks, Christina. Here's Looking at You was cheap as an ebook, so I have that waiting for me for the next time I want something light and fun. I am always a sucker for chick-lit based on Austen.

Is it there for you now, Betty? It shows up for me. I think my goal for next year's thread is figuring out how to post my own photos and then just using those.

Thanks, rp and Eva. Autumn is my favorite season. And after the hot summer we've had, I am even looking forward to those grey, rainy days. I want to wear a cardigan!

21RidgewayGirl
ag. 31, 2015, 3:46 am

And now for two books that were fine, pretty much.



The Girl Next Door is Ruth Rendell's final novel, and it's better than her previous few. Which is not to elevate it to the level of her best work, but it was, at least, not bad.

The Girl Next Door begins with the discovery of a tin box containing two hands, found by construction workers underneath an old house. They date back to the final years of the Second World War, making this mystery less than a priority for the police. But the discovery brings back together a group of people who were children living in the area in 1944, and who regularly played in a series of tunnels behind their estate. Now in their seventies, they reconnect and the reunion unsettles their lives, as well as draws old memories, both bad and good, to the surface.

Rendell is on much surer footing writing about contemporaries than she has been writing about younger people. One of the things that made her earlier books such a joy to read was how she made even the most twisted of characters both nuanced and sympathetic, and here she manages to do that again, although one character is only redeemed at the last minute.

If you've enjoyed Rendell's books already, you'll probably like this one well enough, but if you haven't yet read anything by her, please begin with something from a few decades ago instead.



While Joyce Maynard's novel, Labor Day, is told from the point of view of a twelve year old boy, the story centers around the relationship between his lonely, divorced mother and the escaped convict they briefly shelter. Set in the mid-eighties in a New Hampshire town, during the final week of the summer, the story begins with Henry, an outcast at school, who feels responsible for his mother's happiness. Adele is emotionally fragile and agoraphobic, leaving Henry as her sole companion and support. During one of their rare trip to pick up supplies, Henry meets a man who behaves oddly, friendly, but there is something off about him. Despite this, Henry agrees to give the man a ride, and, equally surprising, Adele doesn't object. Soon, they are technically being held hostage by an escaped felon. The truth is more complex, however, as Adele and Henry are so lonely that they are willing to voluntarily comply. Soon a relationship begins between Frank, the convict, and Adele and Henry.

In this book's favor, the writing was solid and it was certainly a page turner. On the other hand, there were some pretty big problems with the characters. Adele is passive. Really passive. There's not a moment when she speaks up for herself or makes a decision that isn't just going along with someone else's decision. And she mostly just sits around. Sure, she's describes as beautiful, with a dancer's grace and body, but this seems inadequate to cause the levels of love and devotion she attracts. There is, of course, a tragic backstory, but it doesn't fully explain her inertia, years later. And then there's Frank. A man perfect in every way, except for the small detail of being a murderer. He's sensitive, hard working, bakes, understands boys and cares lovingly for handicapped children. Has there ever been such a perfect man in the real world?

22thornton37814
ag. 31, 2015, 10:02 am

>21 RidgewayGirl: I do love the cover of Labor Day but I don't think I'll be adding the book to my TBR list.

23andreablythe
ag. 31, 2015, 4:50 pm

Happy new thread. :)

24mathgirl40
ag. 31, 2015, 8:43 pm

Happy new thread! I've got The Green Road on hold at the library, so I was pleased to see your positive review of it on your previous thread.

25mamzel
set. 1, 2015, 2:08 pm

Happy new thread! And your last book was quite timely. (So looking forward to three-day weekend coming up!)

26charl08
set. 1, 2015, 2:53 pm

Love the autumnal theme to the thread topper. I'm in denial about the year nearly being over, never mind planning a new thread! In awe.

27RidgewayGirl
set. 1, 2015, 3:00 pm

Probably best, Lori, although given our recent history of you disliking anything I love, you might well like it more than I did!

Thanks, Andrea!

Paulina, I look forward to finding out what you think about The Green Road.

mamzel, no long weekend here in Germany, but I did pull it off of the TBR because it seemed timely (and fit the RandomCAT.)

I love the changing leaves, too, Charlotte.

28rabbitprincess
set. 1, 2015, 9:00 pm

I finished Poldark! As far as I can tell, it stays true to the books, in both letter and spirit. Really looking forward to Season 2! It is due to begin filming soon...

29RidgewayGirl
set. 2, 2015, 1:54 am

Me, too, rp! So much.

30dudes22
set. 2, 2015, 7:52 am

I still don't see the picture, but don't worry about it. Reading's way more important.

>21 RidgewayGirl: - I've not read this book but the premise sounds so familiar. Was there a movie about something like this theme? And I do like the cover.

I've got a couple Rendell books in my TBR. I must try and get to them. (Of course I say that every time someone reads something from an author who is living there.)

31RidgewayGirl
set. 2, 2015, 10:35 am

Betty, Labor Day was made into a movie. I plan to watch it at some point. I think that if anyone can redeem that mom, Kate Winslet is that person.

32RidgewayGirl
set. 6, 2015, 9:49 am



I was surprised and pleased by Stephen King's foray into the crime genre with Mr Mercedes. I worried that he'd add in horror, or even just a touch of the supernatural. Instead, I read a well-written, tightly plotted detective novel, with engaging, three-dimensional characters. And at the end, there was a solid core of three characters, each very different, who had come together under unlikely circumstances. It boded well for the sequel, Finders Keepers.

Finders Keepers was just a lot of fun. The bad guy was, in the best King style, really bad, but also almost sympathetic in his motivations. And there's a kid, who is scared, but resourceful. For most of the novel sections about the kid, Pete, and the bad guy, Morris, trade off as their lives slowly move toward a violent intersection. And although I missed Bill Hodges, the retired police officer who has become a private detective, the wait paid off as he and his idiosyncratic assistant, Holly, and even their friend Jerome, now a college student home for the summer, enter into the story exactly when they are most needed.

The story itself revolves around how irrational a love of a book, or a fictional character, can be. Both Pete and Morris encounter a character much like Updike's Rabbit Angstrom at a critical point in their growing up and each reacts to the fictional character's fate in a different way. This is an entertaining crime novel that centers on the love of literature and the influence a character can have on a person's life.

33RidgewayGirl
set. 16, 2015, 10:50 am



The Known World by Edward P. Jones centers on Henry Townsend, a freed slave living in the decades before the American Civil War who owns a plantation and slaves. The novel centers on him, but beginning with the opening chapter, which starts after he has just died, the book is really about Manchester County, Virginia, and the people living in it, from Henry and his parents, to the county sheriff and his patrollers, to the wealthiest slave owner in the county, to the least fortunate slave.

Each chapter tells the story of someone different, circling back to certain characters, and giving the eventual fates of others. What results is a curiously well-rounded portrait of a particular time and place, wealthy in detail, but with a distance built into the structure, so that while I got to know many people intimately, I never felt as though I were ever inside their heads. It was an effective way of telling the story of something that could make for unbearable reading, giving it more the feel of an oral history.

This was a book that took me a few chapters to get into the format and writing style, but once I did, I read compulsively. The stories of the various denizens of Manchester County are still vivid in my mind.

34RidgewayGirl
set. 17, 2015, 5:14 am



Barchester Towers is the second of Anthony Trollope's books set in the fictional county of Barsetshire. I read the first, The Warden, and while appreciating the writing, never fell in love with the book. I had the same experience with Barchester Towers, until halfway through when things took off and I could not stop reading.

Like The Warden, Barchester Towers is largely concerned with wrangling between groups of Anglican clergymen, some of whom want to reform the system and others who have benefited from what is essentially an old boys network and are deeply invested in keeping things as they are. Trollope is clearly on the side of tradition, which left me siding with the obvious villains of the piece. Here, a new bishop is appointed by the government and it isn't the pompous Grantly, but Proudie (it must be said that Trollope's names are not as good as Dickens'), who arrives with not only a wife who expects a voice in matters, but also a personal clergyman, Mr Slope, whose ambitions manage to alienate everyone. And so the church in Barchester is split into two factions, both jostling for power, mainly in the appointment of various sinecures.

Trollope does a lovely job writing his female characters. While he's a big proponent of people knowing their place, he writes women as real people, with as much intelligence and personality as any of his male characters. And my favorite was Mrs Proudie, a woman accustomed to being in charge and who, when briefly thwarted, becomes a force to be reckoned with. Trollope also has an entertaining habit of going all meta here and there, to point out who the villains are, or to explain how he has tailored his story in order to fulfill the expectations of the reader.

On the other hand, I found Trollope frustrating in a few regards. He has a tendency to put some of the most interesting scenes outside of the story, so that the reader is only told of the result of a fabulous conflict or romantic interlude. This was a great disappointment, especially when an encounter has been foreshadowed and anticipated for some time. A paragraph or two telling the reader what happened is not good enough, Mr Trollope! He also has a habit of telling the reader things about the characters' personalities which are not bourn out in the telling of the story. Not only is he telling-not-showing, but he's telling us things that just aren't true. Specifically, that Mrs Proudie is a villain, or that a certain family is devoid of heart - despite Trollope telling the reader this several times, their actions show this to simply not be true.

I'm interested enough in the doings in Barsetshire to continue with the series, but I have my issues with Mr Trollope.

35thornton37814
set. 17, 2015, 1:01 pm

>34 RidgewayGirl: I discovered Trollope somewhere in the 1980s and read just about everything that was available to me at the time. I started with Barchester Towers. I really should re-read at least some of them at some point, but there are so many books and so little time. My time for reading seems to be down a bit in the last week and a half.

36RidgewayGirl
set. 17, 2015, 1:30 pm

Hi, Lori! My reading has been down this month, too.

37VivienneR
set. 17, 2015, 2:33 pm

>34 RidgewayGirl: Excellent review of Trollope. I started the series many years ago, and although I enjoyed The Warden I couldn't get interested in Barchester Towers - probably didn't give it enough time. Recently I've been collecting the books on Mt TBR for a second attempt.

38RidgewayGirl
set. 17, 2015, 2:52 pm

Halfway through it takes off, Vivienne. And like a bullet.

39VivienneR
set. 19, 2015, 1:31 pm

Good to know. Your Mr Mercedes and Finders Keepers book bullets were also right on target!

40RidgewayGirl
set. 21, 2015, 4:18 am



Elizabeth Hay's new novel, His Whole Life, tells the story Jim and his mother Nan during his early adolescence. It's a time of change in their lives, beginning with a summer spent on an Ontario lake as Jim enjoys his last summer of childhood and his mother decides whether or not to stay in her marriage. At the same time, Canada is preparing for the second Quebec referendum, and Nan's feeling about her family are entwined with her feelings about Canada's future.

This isn't a book were a lot happens. It's entirely domestic in scope, exploring families and forgiveness in families, which is usually exactly the kind of book I most enjoy. And the writing is very fine. Nonetheless, this book never really captured my attention; I was always turning pages and counting chapters. It never felt real to me. It did, however, capture the tension of that referendum vividly, with Canadians on both sides feeling passionately about the issue.

41RidgewayGirl
set. 26, 2015, 9:12 am



After a few serious books, it was time for something frivolous and so I picked up Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. It did not disappoint. Cath is a college freshman who had expected to room with her twin sister, except her sister wanted to try living apart. Cath is a shy loner, who lives more in the world of fan fiction for a series that sounds very much like Harry Potter. There, she's a popular author. At the University of Nebraska, she's a freshman struggling to get used to life without her sister and away from her bipolar father.

So this was a fun book. Cath and the people she meets are all engaging and Rowell has a real talent for dialogue. I was not very interested in the examples of Cath's fan fiction, but that's a minor quibble in a book that was just a lot of fun to read.

42christina_reads
set. 26, 2015, 1:40 pm

>41 RidgewayGirl: Love Rainbow Rowell! I agree with you about the fanfic parts of Fangirl, but otherwise it's such a fun book. If you haven't read them already, I highly recommend Rowell's other novels as well!

43RidgewayGirl
set. 27, 2015, 4:41 am

Christina, I've read all of her novels, except Attachments and I've enjoyed them all a lot. That said, I don't have any interest in her next book, which is based on the fan fiction parts of Fangirl.

44RidgewayGirl
Editat: set. 27, 2015, 6:46 am



Well, the new book by Hark! A Vagrant author, Kate Beaton is out and I have a copy. If you're not familiar with her work, she does comics about topics like the founding fathers, the Lady of Shallot, Wonder Woman, straw feminists and Wuthering Heights, along with stuff about obscure historical figures, Greek gods and riffs on old book covers.

Here's one about Lois Lane, trying to get things done:



And here's Ida B. Wells and the suffragettes:



Step Aside, Pops is just as imaginative, intelligent and funny as its predecessor.

45charl08
set. 27, 2015, 6:43 am

>44 RidgewayGirl: Those strips are great. Having just read Nimona and really enjoyed it, this looks like a good next step. Hopefully I've not exceeded the library's graphic fiction purchase quota...

46christina_reads
set. 27, 2015, 12:51 pm

>43 RidgewayGirl: Attachments is my favorite! But like you, I am very skeptical of Carry On...I'm planning to get it from the library (because I'll admit I'm curious), but I'm definitely not going to spend money on it!

Unrelatedly, I definitely need a copy of Step Aside, Pops! Kate Beaton is the best!

47mathgirl40
set. 27, 2015, 5:14 pm

>44 RidgewayGirl: I like the strips. I'll have to check out Kate Beaton's work!

48-Eva-
Editat: set. 27, 2015, 5:40 pm

>44 RidgewayGirl:
Oh, she's so great! BB for me.

49rabbitprincess
set. 27, 2015, 6:19 pm

>44 RidgewayGirl: As the duck from one of Kate Beaton's strips would say, "aw yiss!" Must get a copy ASAP!

Incidentally, I was at Windsor Castle today and the portrait of George IV in St. George's Hall reminded me of this strip: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php/index.php?id=26

50RidgewayGirl
set. 29, 2015, 5:18 am

Charlotte, I'm going to see if I can find a copy of Nimona now.

Christina, Paulina and Eva, everyone should read her. And she's especially funny if you enjoy books and history, so she's a perfect cartoonist for many of us here!

RP, okay, that's funny.

In sad news, we've been missing our dog, Emmie, who died in June. Planning for fall break isn't as fun without having to look and see if a place allows pets and I keep seeing pictures of places and thinking she'd love it. We spent one Easter on the northern edge of the Netherlands that she really loved, what with the wide beaches and dunes. This year we're planning a week in Denmark and the landscape is similar (no windmills), but she won't be with us.

And our other old dog was left behind in the US as I thought he was too delicate to make the trip and because he needed a large, fenced yard, since he is a greyhound and needs to run laps now and then. He had a tumor removed a few weeks ago which was cancerous and it's already coming back. He's also not doing so well. I'd like to fly over to take him to the vet and care for him for a few last days, but I may not see him before he dies. We are sad again and worried and I feel negligent as I am not there to take care of him. His caregivers are awesome, but that's a big load to put on someone else.

Guys? If you do have more than one dog -- space them out age-wise so this doesn't happen to you. I've been lecturing the cat on the importance of his staying healthy.

51mamzel
set. 29, 2015, 11:50 am

So sorry to here about the ails of your fur-buddies. I bet your cat paid close attention to you like cats do.

52RidgewayGirl
set. 29, 2015, 2:02 pm

mamzel, the neighbors have found a new food that he loves. They adore him. While it is nice to have people eager to catsit (he just moves in next door), sometimes I'd like a more faithful creature! He's home for the night now and I'll get the enjoyment of him when I go to bed. He likes to settle on top of me, where I usually put a book.

53mamzel
set. 29, 2015, 3:14 pm

Cats really do make you work for their fidelity!

54RidgewayGirl
set. 30, 2015, 4:56 am



Ian Rankin has collected the short stories that he's written about John Rebus, his curmudgeonly Scottish detective, in to one book, The Beat Goes On. I took my time working my way through the book, which is arranged chronologically in Rebus's life, and along the way rekindled my love of him. In the later books, he has sometimes veered from charmingly grumpy and old school, into a depressed misanthropist and I was happy when he retired. I liked Malcolm Fox, a character as far from Rebus as possible, and I wasn't thrilled when Rankin brought Rebus back (I realize that this is a minority view). But reading stories set all along Rebus's career was useful in reminding me how very good the character is, and how enjoyable it can be to see Rebus steamrolling along, ignoring protocol and getting the job done.

In each story, Rebus solves some mystery, bringing the perpetrators to justice and drinking a few whiskies or IPAs along the way. We see his partner change from Holmes to Siobhan and how he ends up being slightly less of a loner by the end of the book. While I recognized a few of the stories from previous collections, it was still worthwhile to read a sort of survey of Rebus's professional life. I'm looking forward to the next installment, Even Dogs in the Wild, due out in November.

55sturlington
set. 30, 2015, 8:30 am

I just went up to the top and checked the status of your categories. Looks like you are sure to finish your challenge! Way to go!

56RidgewayGirl
set. 30, 2015, 10:46 am

Yes, I'm in good shape this year! I may read a few longer books now.

57charl08
set. 30, 2015, 1:46 pm

>54 RidgewayGirl: You weren't thrilled when they brought Rebus back?

I did feel a bit sorry for Rankin at that point: I wondered how much it was a financial decision...

58-Eva-
oct. 2, 2015, 2:26 pm

>50 RidgewayGirl:
Aw, that's not good, but I had a bit of a chuckle trying to picture you talking to the cat, knowing how well cats take to being lectured. :) Our dogs are all about 5 years apart, so hopefully we won't have to deal with more than one at a time, when that horrific day comes. :(

59RidgewayGirl
oct. 2, 2015, 3:16 pm

Charlotte, I thought he'd gotten too bitter and unpleasant and tired of it all. And I really liked Malcolm Fox and I thought it was really interesting that Rankin had created a character so different than Rebus, but equally complex.

Eva, that is good planning on your part. But Meatloaf is getting great care and lots of affection. VictoriaPL even went over last night to kiss his smelly head for me.

60DeltaQueen50
oct. 2, 2015, 6:46 pm

Sorry to read about your state-side pet, Kay. It must be comforting for you to know that he is comfortable and getting lots of TLC.

I was also a little disappointed with the reappearance of Rebus. As much as I loved that series I felt it had run it's course and was looking forward to exploring a new character.

I am looking forward to getting my hands on Step Aside, Pops.

61andreablythe
oct. 3, 2015, 2:48 pm

>41 RidgewayGirl:
Ahhh, glad to see you enjoyed Fangirl. I loved that book. Interestingly, many of Rowell's fans loved the fanfiction so much, that it's been made into its own book, called Carry On, which is her first attempt at fantasy.

>44 RidgewayGirl:
Kate Beaton is such a delight. I need to buy one of her books, so I can just sit down and giggle in delight.

62RidgewayGirl
oct. 3, 2015, 2:53 pm

Andrea, Fangirl was a lot of fun. Rowell makes writing look effortless, doesn't she? I noticed that her next book was about the fan fiction in Fangirl. I'm not really interested, but I'm sure there are many who are. I still have Attachments by her to read, so I'm in good shape!

And I love having both of the Beaton books on my shelf. I often pull out Hark! A Vagrant to just page through.

63RidgewayGirl
oct. 4, 2015, 11:35 am

This is a sad, sad weekend. My big guy, Meatloaf, died yesterday.



He was a great dog. Not at all smart, in fact quite stunningly not-smart, but what he lacked in cognitive skills he more than made up for with the size of his gentle heart. Greyhounds are not known as a calm breed, but he was easy-going (except for thunderstorms) and he liked to lay down silently directly behind me when I was in the kitchen. He'd lean against people he liked, and he'd smile. He was a good dog and I wish he could have stayed with us longer.

And with our other dog having died in June, we are a household bereft of its center.

64rabbitprincess
oct. 4, 2015, 11:50 am

Oh no! I am so sorry for your loss. His sweetness just radiates out of that photo.

65RidgewayGirl
oct. 4, 2015, 2:09 pm

He was a big goofball. And he never managed to catch a squirrel, no matter how enthusiastically he tried.

66DeltaQueen50
oct. 4, 2015, 2:44 pm

So sorry for your family's loss. Pets really do become the center of our lives, don't they.

67dudes22
oct. 4, 2015, 5:21 pm

I'm so sorry for your loss, Kay. Two in one year is truly so sad.

68sturlington
oct. 4, 2015, 8:05 pm

I am so sorry. Too much loss.

69MissWatson
oct. 5, 2015, 4:57 am

What a sad time for you and your family. So sorry.

70RidgewayGirl
oct. 5, 2015, 5:12 am

Thanks, all. We do still have a cat and a half, but we are all a little subdued, even though there is no school today.

71AHS-Wolfy
oct. 5, 2015, 9:27 am

Sad to hear of your loss.

72RidgewayGirl
oct. 6, 2015, 10:57 am



The Illuminations by Andrew O'Hagan is a story about families, and how those connections shape us, and how we aren't always our best selves when we're with our families. The novel tells the story of Anne Quick, an elderly woman who will have to soon move from her sheltered accommodation into a nursing home, despite the efforts of the residence's warden and a neighbor who keeps a close and caring eye on her, fascinated by Anne's career as a professional photographer in New York. It's a far different life than that of retired women living in a small seaside town near Glasgow. But the novel is also about Maureen, a woman who is caring and diligent when she's with Anne, but despite her best intentions, difficult and tense around her own children and grandchildren. And it's about Luke Campbell, Anne's grandson, who is serving in the military in Afghanistan and watching his commanding officer fall apart. As the threads of the relationships draw them together, Luke wants to take Anne on one final trip to her beloved Blackpool, to see the famous illuminations one last time.

This is one of those deceptively quiet novels, revolving as it does around the memories of an elderly woman, but that stillness hides a powerful story of war and how we shape our stories. The Illuminations very much deserves its place on the Booker longlist. The writing and the intricate shape of the story are both very fine.

73andreablythe
oct. 6, 2015, 3:13 pm

>63 RidgewayGirl: I am so sorry for your loss. Hugs.

74RidgewayGirl
oct. 6, 2015, 3:18 pm

Thanks, Wolfy and Andrea. Cat is doing his best to occupy a lot of space, but he is only ten pounds worth of pet.

75thornton37814
oct. 6, 2015, 7:38 pm

>63 RidgewayGirl: Sorry about the loss of your beloved pet.

76RidgewayGirl
oct. 7, 2015, 3:25 am

Thanks, Lori. I expect to be buoyed up with stories and pictures about kittens soon enough! (hint, hint)

77dudes22
oct. 7, 2015, 7:16 am

>72 RidgewayGirl: - well that's a BB for me.

78thornton37814
oct. 7, 2015, 10:00 pm

>76 RidgewayGirl: I'm sure that when the kittens arrive, you all will be inundated with kitty photos! If they don't have them caught by the weekend, it will likely be Thanksgiving before I'm able to get them.

79RidgewayGirl
oct. 8, 2015, 3:42 am



Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer begins with the story of a man driving through bad Welsh weather to pick his daughter up after her train home was canceled. A moment's inattention sends his car through the guardrails and down a steep hillside.

Then there's Patrick, who is autistic. His mother is not coping well with the challenge of raising him in an isolated house in the countryside, but his father is caring and patient, taking Patrick with him to the betting shop and for long hikes. When his father dies, Patrick can't understand the metaphors used to explain his father's absence to him, and his determination to find out what happened to his father leads to him studying anatomy in university. Living in a run-down house with two flatmates, as well as interacting with his fellow students in the dissection class are stretching him to interact with others in a way he's never tried before. But what really fascinates Patrick is the challenge of determining the cause of death of the corpse they've been given to dissect. It takes over from his obsession with his father's death and becomes especially strong when he begins to believe that the cause of death on the death certificate is not the actual cause of death.

This is the kind of crime novel where, after a few chapters, it's impossible to put it down. Bauer has done a fantastic job weaving the stories of the two main characters into something riveting. And the way in which she tells Patrick's story through his eyes is very well done. He's at a disadvantage in some ways; being unable to read facial expressions or the way he takes comments literally, for example, but he's also able to exert a dogged determination to find answers, well beyond what anyone else would be willing to do. Bauer does a credible job both describing Patrick's reactions to people and events and in describing the reactions of people to Patrick. This is also quite a creepy and atmospheric book, as much of it is set in a hospital ward full of coma patients.

80dudes22
oct. 8, 2015, 5:40 am

And another BB.

81RidgewayGirl
oct. 8, 2015, 5:43 am

Well, that was interesting. A couple of hours dealing with the Deutsche Bank having put a hold on my credit card. First they wouldn't deal with me, since my husband arrived in Germany a few weeks before the rest of us, he opened the account and so they would only talk to him, despite my name being on the account, too. That put me in a cheerful mood, let me tell you.

So he got to deal with them. And he had no idea about anything (I do all the banking and financial stuff. He is capable, but dealing with money makes him cranky.). So I ended up talking with them after all. They thought my buying tickets to a ComicCon were out of character (yes, but the kids want to go) and so put a hold on the card. The whole thing could have been resolved in twenty seconds.

Meanwhile, every dinner time conversation now involves costuming decisions for said ComicCon. I'm wearing jeans, a t-shirt, comfortable shoes and possibly a cardigan if it's chilly. I feel we can now move on, but no. (It is fun that they are so excited.)

82DeltaQueen50
oct. 8, 2015, 3:31 pm

I loved Rubbernecker when I read it and Belinda Bauer has joined the ranks of Denise Mina, Sophie Hannah and Morag Joss as top female mystery writers that resonate with me.

83RidgewayGirl
oct. 9, 2015, 10:21 am

Judy, I do love her writing. I was worried through the first part of Rubbernecker that she was going to do the expected thing, but I have learned to trust her as a writer and I'm looking forward to reading more from Bauer.

84RidgewayGirl
oct. 9, 2015, 10:49 am



The very best part of Bryan Gruley's crime series about journalist Gus Carpenter is the setting. The working class town of Starvation Lake is located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where hockey, especially when it involves the local team, is the most important thing going on. So when a wealthy developer from Detroit moves into a big house on the lake and decides to build a new and better hockey arena, the town is enthusiastic enough to gloss over signs that something shady is going on. Enough to want to cover over what might be a murder, downgrading it to a suicide, even as Gus tries to write the real story of what's going on. The newspaper owners are much more interested in the promised advertising revenue from the new arena to allow his stories to be published.

The Hanging Tree is the second in a mystery series that begins with Starvation Lake. It is full of the atmosphere of a gritty, down-on-its-heels northern town that lives and breathes hockey. Gus is a native son, the star goalkeeper who let the critical puck hit the back of the net during the play-offs, the guy who left for the big city of Detroit, only to return in disgrace years later to find that that missed puck is still a topic of discussion. He's both a native son and an outsider, still determined to be the best journalist he can, despite the reduced circumstances of now writing for a small, weekly paper primarily functioning to generate ad revenue. The plot is sturdy enough, although Gruley isn't great at writing female characters. Gus is an interesting guy, and I'll admit that having grown up in two Canadian cities that elevated hockey to a religion, I very much enjoy revisiting a version of that world.

85cbl_tn
oct. 9, 2015, 2:13 pm

I'm so sorry to hear about your most recent loss. I hope your cat has taken your lecture to heart so that you don't have to go through this again for many more years.

86RidgewayGirl
oct. 9, 2015, 2:18 pm

Carrie, we considered giving him his walking papers today. Last night, in the wee hours, he threw up cat food all over my husband. That was fun. Currently, he is posing artfully on the orange mohair throw on the back of the sofa. He knows orange suits him.

87thornton37814
oct. 9, 2015, 3:38 pm

>86 RidgewayGirl: So your cat has decided to become a Vol?

88lkernagh
oct. 9, 2015, 9:15 pm

Finally finding time to make a more fulsome round of threads to catch on all the goings on. So sorry to read about Meatloaf. What a sweet face he had.

Another great review for The Illuminations. Looks like I need to consider reading that one sooner rather than later. Yay for going to ComicCon but Good Grief on the whole banking/credit card issue. Luckily my other half and I have never had that issue with banking but we go through the same rigamarole every time we deal with our telecom provider. I am listed as the primary account holder as I was the one who set up our phone/internet service and it has taken FOREVER for them to realize that my other half (listed on the account) is the one they have to deal with as I have tasked him with ensure that we continue to get the service we want/need.

89RidgewayGirl
oct. 10, 2015, 11:25 am

>87 thornton37814: Lori, what is a Vol?

>88 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori. He was a good dog.

I'm convinced that corporations are so large that they no longer have any need to provide customer service. And their customer service departments are so large and the employees so underpaid that it's all automated and those customer service representatives' only goal is to get you off of the phone as quickly as possible (hold time not included)./end rant

90thornton37814
oct. 10, 2015, 7:56 pm

>89 RidgewayGirl: A Tennessee Volunteer. The colors are orange and white. ;-)

91-Eva-
oct. 10, 2015, 11:07 pm

Really sorry to hear you lost your friend - he looks like a lovely guy.

92RidgewayGirl
oct. 11, 2015, 5:47 am

Lori, if he ever finds out that being college football fan involves people coming over and sitting, he'd be a fan of every team. Last night my son had a friend sleep over and they camped in the living room, with the intention of staying up all night. The cat was not going to be sleeping on our bed with all that going on just downstairs. When I got up this morning, I found all three of them asleep on the sofa, utterly exhausted, the cat in the middle.

Thanks, Eva. He was lovely. And I find myself missing even the things we didn't love, like his habit of goosing anyone who bent over in shorts. He had a long, almost prehensile nose that was both cold and wet.

93-Eva-
oct. 11, 2015, 10:07 pm

Anyone who bends over in shorts deserves a little goosing. :)

94VivienneR
oct. 12, 2015, 2:51 am

Sorry to hear about Meatloaf. He looks, and sounds like a real sweetheart.

95RidgewayGirl
oct. 12, 2015, 3:15 am



The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernieres is the story of a family before, during and after the First World War, and has an old-fashioned feel to it. The McCosh family are wealthy and middle class, living in a beautiful town outside of London, with their four daughters. They enjoy the company of their neighbors, and one of the girls even becomes engaged to the boy next door, just as he marches off to fight in the Great War. Following both the family members as they experience life on the home front, and the sons of the neighbors as they fight in various capacities in the war, The Dust that Falls From Dreams is meticulously researched, with the author clearly feeling great affection for the characters he has created.

Louis de Bernieres can certainly write. And he's adept at keeping dozens of characters and their intertwined stories going, but there were a few flaws in this impressive book that are worth mentioning. The first is that the research is not always shown lightly enough. One feels the weight of the unnecessary detail and the elaborate description far too often. The family, as well, is too ideal. Not that there cannot be happy families, but it does become obvious over time that poor people exist only to allow the various McCosh family members to show their benevolence. The aftermath of WWI was one of economic turmoil in Britain, with many returning soldiers dealing with injuries and amputations that restricted their ability to work, many more soldiers unable to find employment and many families left without their breadwinner. This is barely noticeable in this novel, as the men who do return, return intact and into easy futures. It was as though any unpleasantness was to simply be ignored.

And finally, there was one character that set my teeth on edge. She was the most beautiful, charming and saintly girl imaginable, and all the boys were in love with her, and remained so; even if they last saw her when they were twelve, they would still be unable to love any other woman for the rest of their lives. And she was, frankly, a self-absorbed pill of a woman. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what the attraction was or how she managed to fool her entire family so effectively.

Quibbles aside, there was something very enjoyable about spending time with this charming family and their friends. It was a pleasant way to learn about everything from life as a WWI flying ace, to spiritualism in the 1920s, to the importance of golf to the businessman. This looks to be the beginning of a series of novels, and I will certainly pick up the next, with the understanding that this is a gilded version of history, smooth and velvety, without grit, but not without sorrow.

96dudes22
oct. 12, 2015, 8:58 am

I have a couple of de Bernieres' books in my TBR and at least one is on my possibilities list for next year. I do love the cover on that book and may take a BB on just that fact alone.

97RidgewayGirl
oct. 12, 2015, 9:07 am

Betty, the other books by de Bernieres that I've read (Captain Corelli's Mandolin and his Latin American trilogy) were all very well-written and had a lot more humor in them than The Dust that Falls from Dreams.

98dudes22
oct. 13, 2015, 7:14 am

Yes, Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the one I have on my reading list for next year. The other one I have is Red Dog. It's quite small so maybe I'll try to fit it in this year.

99andreablythe
oct. 13, 2015, 7:00 pm

Not my cup of tea at the moment, but I have to say that The Dust that Falls from Dreams is a gorgeous title.

100RidgewayGirl
oct. 14, 2015, 1:23 pm

Andrea, de Bernieres has a talent for titles. My personal favorite is The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts.

101LittleTaiko
oct. 14, 2015, 8:51 pm

I'm so sorry to hear about both of your dogs dying so close together. So hard to deal with. It sounds like your cat will help fill the void.

102mathgirl40
oct. 15, 2015, 9:40 pm

>63 RidgewayGirl: I'm so very sorry to hear about your loss.

>95 RidgewayGirl: Nice review. I've been reading more historical fiction lately and this one looks like a good one.

>81 RidgewayGirl: Dealing with banks can be so frustrating. Last year, my RBC account was frozen (because of their error). I discovered this when I tried to use my debit card. When I called their hotline at 7pm, I was told they couldn't investigate until my branch opened the next morning. What really made me fume was the unhelpful customer service rep's cheery closing remark: "Remember that we're here for you, 24/7!"

103RidgewayGirl
Editat: oct. 16, 2015, 2:40 pm

Thanks, Paulina and Stacy. A house without a dog just feels less inhabited.

Paulina, The Dust that Falls from Dreams is excellent historical fiction. And, yeah, banks.

There was an English language charity booksale today. I only bought one book more than I'd intended, but still donated twice as many books as I brought home with me, so that's good, right?

104rabbitprincess
oct. 16, 2015, 8:22 pm

>103 RidgewayGirl: Starter for Ten! One of my favourites! Thinking I'll have to rewatch the movie soon.

105DeltaQueen50
oct. 16, 2015, 9:52 pm

>103 RidgewayGirl: Only overbuying by one is very good, indeed!

106RidgewayGirl
oct. 17, 2015, 2:39 am

rp, how do you think it ended up on my wishlist?

Thanks, Judy, I thought so myself!

107dudes22
oct. 17, 2015, 6:02 am

Still, more out than in is a good thing!

108RidgewayGirl
oct. 17, 2015, 1:24 pm



Bill Clegg's debut novel, Did You Ever Have a Family certainly had a buzz going about it. Clegg has written two memoirs, but his first novel was showered with positive reviews and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Told from various points of view, Did You Ever Have a Family tells the story of an early morning house fire that takes the life of four people. The cause of the fire was determined to be an electrical failure, but there are certainly rumors. The books follows various characters with more or less connection to the family during the years after the fire, from the mother of one victim and partner of another, who is dealing with crippling grief, to the woman who cleans the motel room she eventually stays in. Clegg's writing is assured and he has a premise here that has the potential to be powerful.

But this brief novel never quite achieves what it promises. There are so many characters that the two women at the center are not given enough time to become more than a symbol of bereavement, rather than an exploration of what they are feeling. And partway through, Clegg is distracted into exploring the cause of the fire, which drains momentum from the central story of overwhelming grief. There is no room in this novel to do all the things it wants to do, and so the story of why the fire started (the least interesting part of the book) is the only element fully explored. The grieving mothers remain ciphers.

109mamzel
oct. 17, 2015, 11:13 pm

>103 RidgewayGirl: Big thumbs up for the Zusak and Sepetys books! I hope you find them marvelous.

110lkernagh
oct. 18, 2015, 11:23 am

Stopping by with Happy Sunday wishes and taking a BB for The Dust That Falls From Dreams.

111RidgewayGirl
oct. 18, 2015, 2:58 pm

I was pleased, mamzel. And I had just read a review of the Sepetys before going to the sale.

Thanks, Lori. I'm interested in finding out what you think when you do read it.

112RidgewayGirl
oct. 20, 2015, 4:18 am



Can a person be damaged beyond repair?

Hanya Yanagihara's Booker-nominated novel, A Little Life begins with the stories of four young men who were college roommates, becoming best friends, forming relationships that will continue through adulthood. The main focus, however, is Jude, the socially awkward, fiercely intelligent member of his happy group. Unlike his friends, Jude doesn't share stories of his childhood and is made visibly uncomfortable when anyone asks him about his past. His first fifteen years of life will turn out to have been nightmarish, with steadily escalating abuse until the physical damage done to him results in a permanent disability.

But beginning with meeting his roommates at a prestigious university in Massachusetts, his fortunes change dramatically. First he makes close friends, something he has longed for, not just his roommates, but many other people are drawn to him, and remain devoted to him, all wanting the best for him. Then he finds success in his career, becoming both wealthy and admired in his career as a lawyer. His friends are also remarkably successful; despite having chosen creative careers as artist, actor and architect, each reaches the top of their chosen paths with only minor set-backs to trouble them. Then he finds parents and even love. A Little Life looks at a man who has everything, but who was emotionally damaged by the abuse he suffered, and explores whether or not the emotional damage done to him is as permanent as the physical damage.

This is a powerful novel, and Yanagihara is able to create great sympathy for her main character. The reader is rooting for Jude, and celebrates with each little gift of happiness or security he receives. But A Little Life is also a flawed story, going on with too much repetitiveness and detail about various exotic vacations and lovely dinner parties spent with his large and relentlessly caring group of friends. The level of wealth on display ends up detracting from the power of Jude's story, as he has stunning weekend houses built, or buys or is given generous and thoughtful gifts. The novel is also far too long. I'm generally a fan of a long novel that allows me to remain in the company of characters who interest me, but the sheer number of dinner parties and long weekends spent in luxurious settings grows onerous, especially as there is little to no character development taking place. It's not that the rich cannot suffer, it's just that all that wealth is a distraction from the meat of the novel.

113sturlington
Editat: oct. 20, 2015, 8:33 am

>112 RidgewayGirl: Hmm. I thought The People in the Trees was a powerful book and was considering reading this one, but I am very put off by the super-sizing of novels right now. Sounds like I should take a pass. Nice review!

ETA Darn auto-correct! I meant super-sizing of novels.

114charl08
oct. 20, 2015, 6:54 am

>112 RidgewayGirl: I was also impressed by The People In the Trees but decided that the subject matter of this one, so soon after her focus on a similar topic was too much for me
I might come back to this later on (although your review gives me pause).

115RidgewayGirl
oct. 20, 2015, 7:13 am

Shannon and Charlotte, please don't be put off. It is a worthwhile book and I was ready to give it five stars through the first half, when the lack of forward momentum and the other flaws began to be noticeable. Yanagihara can write, and I'm certainly going to read The People in the Trees. It's flawed, but also brilliant.

116sturlington
oct. 20, 2015, 8:36 am

>115 RidgewayGirl: It's the length that bothers me. Taking almost a month to read The Goldfinch, which would have been a brilliant book had it only been cut a bit, has scarred me unfortunately. I look at books with a lot of good buzz like this one or A Brief History of Seven Killings or this new debut novel City on Fire at 900 pages(!), and I just feel daunted. There are so many books I want to read and so little time...

117LittleTaiko
oct. 20, 2015, 9:13 pm

>112 RidgewayGirl: - It was just named the top fiction book by Kirkus Reviews which caught my eye and now your review. I'm interested but am a bit put off by the length too.

118RidgewayGirl
oct. 21, 2015, 2:13 am

Shannon, that makes sense. I loved The Goldfinch, in part because of its size, but that had a forward momentum. I think a book should be as long as it needs to be, whether that's 200 pages or 2000, but A Little Life needed a serious edit. Obviously, many people disagree with me! I do wonder that if Yanagihara wasn't an important person in the NYC literary world (she edits the T Magazine for the NYT), that she might have gotten a more forceful edit?

Stacey, give it a go. Yanagihara can write, and the book is immediately engrossing. And it took 350 pages before I started to notice the flaws. If it had been 200 pages shorter, and a little more economically realistic, I would have given it five stars.

119mathgirl40
oct. 24, 2015, 5:40 pm

>112 RidgewayGirl: I too had been thinking of reading A Little Life because I'd loved The People in the Trees so much. I still plan to, but I might put it off until I have a large chunk of time to devote to it.

120RidgewayGirl
oct. 26, 2015, 3:44 pm



So, another Jack Reacher novel. This time, in Make Me, Lee Child takes his large and battle-scarred protagonist out into the vast reaches of the middle of the US, to a small town called Mother's Rest, which is important in that it has a train station and some sizable grain silos, but is otherwise unremarkable outside of its odd name. Reacher planned a brief stop before continuing on with his peripatetic life, but is drawn into helping a private detective find a missing colleague. This being Reacher, things get complex and violent, but it's nothing that he can't handle.

It's fun watching Reacher unravel puzzles. Child gives all the details of how Reacher solves the mystery, and how he predicts what the bad guys will do next. He is also good at creating large casts of characters and making each memorable by giving each a telling detail, without bogging the story down with descriptions. Bog down is something a thriller about Jack Reacher never does.

This installment is solid, with a return to one of Child's favorite locations. It's well-plotted and the short chapters flew by. Reacher is a man with principles, although most of us would recoil from some of them, including a cavalier attitude towards murders of convenience. Reacher isn't really a kind man and he's far from being a hero, but it is entertaining to watch him bust heads and shoot things.

121VioletBramble
nov. 1, 2015, 8:59 pm

Just catching up on threads this evening. I'm very late but wanted to say how sorry I am to read about the loss of your dog, Meatloaf. Esp. since it came on the heels of losing your other dog. He does look like a sweet boy in that photo.

122RidgewayGirl
nov. 2, 2015, 2:21 am

Thanks, Kelly. We miss our smelly companions. There's less vacuuming, going away for the week was easier, and yet we would be so much better off with a dog in the house.

123RidgewayGirl
nov. 2, 2015, 5:05 am



Any concerns that the Cormoran Strike series would lose steam are happily quashed in the first chapters of the third book, Career of Evil. J.K. Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith, is only getting started, and this installment is the best yet.

I'm not going to say anything about the plot of Career of Evil; if you've been reading the series, you'll prefer me not to, and if you haven't, you should go back and begin with The Cuckoo's Calling. These are well-crafted crime novels, staying true to the private detective genre, with clever and hard-edged plots, with satisfying conclusions. These aren't cozies, however, so if you don't like gritty, give this series a pass.

124dudes22
nov. 2, 2015, 5:15 am

I'm hoping to get to book 2 in the series next year.

125clue
nov. 2, 2015, 7:52 pm

> 123 I'm so glad to hear that the series continues to be good. I have the book but have 3 others in progress and I keep telling myself I really do have to finish those first. Maybe I can spend this weekend reading it. I think she has done a terrific job with these characters.

126-Eva-
nov. 2, 2015, 11:09 pm

>123 RidgewayGirl:
Excellent news! I'm in line at the library, but it's always good to know that the quality is up to par.

127lsh63
nov. 3, 2015, 4:22 am

I have to say Kay you have me curious about Career of Evil. I thought I would have a longer wait in the library queue, but it showed up yesterday. I love it when library holds just appear when I'm not expecting them!

Now I'm off to ditch my current read😊

128RidgewayGirl
nov. 3, 2015, 6:01 am

Betty, I'm envious that you have those books still to read. Now I wait for book four.

Eva, Lisa and clue, it's a gripping story, so try to find a time where you can just read it if you have to. I was on vacation, and often had to pick Denmark over Cormoran, which was difficult.

I had originally planned to check out the ebook, especially since it was listed well before the publication date, but upon seeing that I was number 28 in the queue, even months before it was released, I broke down and pre-ordered it. I'm not sorry.

129RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 7, 2015, 7:00 am



20th Century Ghosts is a collection of short stories by horror writer Joe Hill. The stories in this collection range from classic horror, to creepy, to coming-of-age with a twist, to ghost stories. And they are, for the most part, very, very good.

130RidgewayGirl
nov. 8, 2015, 10:16 am



Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari is both a humorous book written by a famous comedian, a serious look at how courtship has changed over the past few generations, and a guide for dating in the modern world.

Getting married and starting a family was once seemingly the only reasonable life course. Today we've become far more accepting of alternative lifestyles, and people move in and out of different situations: single with roommates, single and solo, single with partner, married, divorced, divorced and living with an iguana, remarried with iguana, then divorced with seven iguanas because you iguana obsession ruined your relationship, and, finally, single with six iguanas (Arturo was sadly run over by an ice cream truck).

Ansari has an engaging and easy-going tone to his writing and he is genuinely interested in both his chosen topic and in people in general (and also food. He talks about food a lot). It was helpful for me, as someone who is part of the previous generation, to learn not only how meeting potential partners has changed with the digital age, it hasn't necessarily changed for the worst. My parent's generation generally met and married young, to someone living within a few blocks. Courtship was short -- people were looking less for a soul mate, than for someone with shared values to build a life together. My generation generally met through friends, and married later. The current generation marries even later, with a longer courtship and the percentage who meet through an on-line dating site is increasing every year.

Along with talking to people from different generations, Ansari also looked at dating practices across the world, from the macho-infused streets of Buenos Aires, to Tokyo where, in addition to eating some delicious ramen, Ansari learns about "herbivore men" -- young men who have essentially given up on meeting women.

This isn't the most scholarly book I've read, but it is one of the most amusing. And Ansari is serious about the subject and worked with sociologists and researchers to write something more substantial than I'd expected.

131RidgewayGirl
nov. 9, 2015, 4:46 am



I Am the Messenger by Australian author Markus Zusak tells the story of Ed Kennedy, who works (illegally) as a cabbie for a shady firm and who one day thwarts a bank robbery. Soon after the (incompetent) robber is sent to jail, Ed begins to receive playing cards in his mailbox, giving him addresses. Ed has to fix something at each address, but he has to figure out what and for whom all on his own.

This is a very different book from the book that made Zusak famous, but it's also well-written and imaginative. Intended for young adults, the novel is simpler and more straightforward than I would have liked it to be, but I'm not the intended audience. I was taken up into Ed's world, and I liked the hapless Ed, a guy who had been drifting through life, living alone except for the Doorman, an elderly and exceedingly redolent dog he had inherited from his father. Ed has a great heart and a quick intelligence, he just needed people to look out for and avenues to use his inventive brain.

My one quibble with the book is that the ending is weak, but this may be due to the needs of the genre, where things need to be stated more overtly than I prefer. Still, this is an excellent book; well-written, imaginative and with an exceedingly likable protagonist.

132LittleTaiko
nov. 12, 2015, 9:29 pm

>130 RidgewayGirl: Between your review and the interview I heard on Fresh Air with him about his new TV show, I'm definitely intrigued by this book. Will have to add it to my wish list.

133RidgewayGirl
nov. 13, 2015, 3:08 am

>132 LittleTaiko: And the things he's said about his father. He really is a classy, sympathetic guy. He also wrote an article about his disappointment at finding out that the Indian guy in Short Circuit was played by a white guy, and about talking with Fisher Stevenson about it. I am going to have to watch his show.

134RidgewayGirl
nov. 13, 2015, 3:33 pm

What's your book nerd score? I got a measly 35.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/whats-your-book-nerd-score/

135mamzel
nov. 13, 2015, 4:43 pm

Measly 35??? I'd say that's pretty high. Considering I work as a librarian and think of myself as a big reader I only got 17.

136VivienneR
nov. 13, 2015, 4:53 pm

I got a measly 35 too but there were some "no" answers that could have been "yes", like "cried in public" (not so that anyone would have noticed) and a "designated reading nook at home" (no, I have a few).

Great quiz!

137DeltaQueen50
nov. 13, 2015, 5:38 pm

Yeah, I would say that 35 definitely qualifies you as a dedicated "book nerd". I got 28 and I think "book nerd" would still apply.

138cbl_tn
nov. 13, 2015, 6:56 pm

I got 25. I guess I'm not as much of a book nerd as some of my friends probably think I am!

139charl08
Editat: nov. 13, 2015, 8:04 pm

I think it's 40, but I only counted missing a train once: should I have counted it for every time? (!)

And >136 VivienneR: I think crying tactfully still counts. And I agree just one reading place / nook seems to limit your options. Not to say that I would turn down an offer of say, a customised library with couch.

140clue
nov. 13, 2015, 9:02 pm

I got 32. I had to laugh at the one that asks if you have recorded every book you've ever read. My answer was no, I didn't start recording them until I was 14. I'm 66 now.

141lkernagh
nov. 13, 2015, 9:22 pm

I got 20 so adding my voice to the others who say 35 is a pretty good score. ;-)

142Nickelini
nov. 13, 2015, 10:34 pm

38 over here.

143dudes22
nov. 14, 2015, 6:03 am

I ended up with 23.

144RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 18, 2015, 2:19 pm



I spent the first chapters of A Man Called Ove thinking that there was no way I was going to like the book. The main character, Ove, is an unpleasant old man, difficult to get along with. He's a widower, forced into taking an early retirement and he is angry at the world. Not my idea of someone I'd like to spend time with. But Swedish author Fredrik Backman's novel won me over. Ove is a curmudgeon, but this is about how he is pulled into being a part of his community against his will, due to the determination of a pregnant Iranian neighbor and a homeless cat.

A Man Called Ove feels as though it might of been written by Alexander McCall Smith, with a deceptively light style. Chapters include A Man Called Ove Does Not Pay a Three-Kronor Surcharge, A Man Called Ove and Countries Where They Play Foreign Music in Restaurants and A Man Called Ove and a Society Where No One Can Repair a Bicycle Any More. While some of the events in the book are humorous and some are very sad, they are all written in a matter of fact tone that enhances both the humor and the tragedy.

145dudes22
Editat: nov. 18, 2015, 3:02 pm

>144 RidgewayGirl: - OK, you've caught my attention. On the BB list it goes.

146RidgewayGirl
nov. 18, 2015, 3:07 pm

Betty, it's really charming. And I don't charm easily!

147clue
nov. 19, 2015, 5:46 pm

> 144 This has been on my shelf since January! Maybe I'll get to it in December but December is already looking crowded. One of my friends told me last month she really liked it and I thought then, well, maybe in November...

148RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 25, 2015, 4:13 am



Slade House is a ghost story, set in David Mitchell's world of The Bone Clocks. It stands alone, though, and should be just as fun to read if you haven't read the previous book, and maybe even more so. It's a slighter book than usual for him, both in size and substance.

Slade House exists impossibly, a grand house surrounded by gardens, located off a narrow alley that skirts behind a row of council houses. It shouldn't be there, and maybe it isn't, but for the people invited in, once every nine years, it is all too real. Can the deadly cycle be broken?

This is a fun, creepy story, perfect for a cold, dark evening. The book naturally divides into five separate stories, each following a similar pattern, but each time the protagonist is different and the pattern varies. Mitchell excels at creating vivid, believable characters, and here he is at his best, as we follow, in turn, a timid boy, a less-than-admirable police officer, a plump university student with a hopeless crush and an intrepid journalist as each finds out a little more about the house and its inhabitants. There's a bit too much explanation at the end, but Mitchell's story is so inventive that I can see that the urge to show off all the cogs and wheels was simply irresistible.

149RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 25, 2015, 10:32 am



I had low expectations when I began Ruth Rendell's final novel, Dark Corners, and those expectations were met. I read for nostalgia's sake - Rendell is one of my favorite crime novelists and it's sad to know there will be no more, but I would have been better off rereading one of her earlier books. Which is not to say there was no point to reading Dark Corners. The book is written in her voice, with her ability to put together ordinary people and deeply disturbed individuals, as well as her skill at keeping a plot moving.

On the other hand, this was clearly a book written by an elderly person about young people, and it's set in modern day, so that the characters all behaved oddly, as though they had abruptly time traveled and were still uncertain about the ways the world had changed. They would have fit beautifully in a book set fifty years earlier, but they all seemed more than a little bizarre in 2015. The plot was also weak, not in forward momentum, but in plausibility.

The story revolves around Carl, a novelist who takes a renter for the top floor of his house as he works on his second book. Carl is an odd character; incurious about the world around him in a way that seems unlikely in a writer, with a passive personality, but that's nothing compared to the man he lets the flat to; Dermot is obsessed with religion, and a natural sneak. When he discovers something about Carl, he is quick to blackmail him, and Carl is quick to allow himself to be blackmailed, lacking the imagination necessary to find a solution. Then there's Lizzie, who is living on very little money in a terrible flat. When a friend is murdered, she moves in and uses her dead friend's clothes, make-up and food. She's frivolous and selfish, with a tendency to lie when convenient, and her straight-laced father dislikes her. But her frivolity and fibs will be punished in time.

The plot is weak, and there is so much going on, from muggings to bombs to kidnapping to murder, all smashed together. Rendell at the height of her powers would have woven these disparate threads into something amazing, but this is not a plot that even the most credulous of readers can accept. If you adore Rendell's writing and have read all her other books, you'll be reading this anyway, but this isn't the book to begin with. She has written so many better books.

150DeltaQueen50
nov. 25, 2015, 5:36 pm

As much as I have enjoyed Ruth Rendell over the years, I think I will not bother with her last few books. I'd rather remember her for books like A Judgement in Stone, Lake of Darkness or A Demon in My View.

151RidgewayGirl
nov. 26, 2015, 1:51 am

I should have done that, Judy. I'm just congenitally incapable of not doing a little jump of joy and grabbing the new Rendell, even when I know it will not be good. Years of conditioning.

152mstrust
nov. 26, 2015, 11:36 am

153RidgewayGirl
nov. 26, 2015, 12:00 pm

Thanks, Jennifer! We're having frozen pizza tonight. The kids had school, Dirk is still at work, and I spent the afternoon baking cupcakes for a sleep-over my daughter's throwing tomorrow night. But the cupcakes turned out very well - dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

154VivienneR
nov. 26, 2015, 12:28 pm

>149 RidgewayGirl: Like aging opera singers, there comes a time when (some) authors should retire. Interesting review, though.

And, happy Thanksgiving. It seems in Canada we hear more about Thanksgiving in the US with each passing year. Maybe because we all wait for it so that Christmas shopping may begin tomorrow.

155Nickelini
nov. 26, 2015, 3:33 pm

>154 VivienneR: It seems in Canada we hear more about Thanksgiving in the US with each passing year.

I agree. It's all very odd and unpleasant.

156mstrust
nov. 26, 2015, 7:38 pm

>153 RidgewayGirl: With all our conversations about Phoenix and Prescott, I don't think you ever mentioned being Canadian! So I missed you by a month. I hope you enjoyed your cupcakes because dark chocolate and peanut butter frosting sounds fantastic.

>155 Nickelini: How awful.

157RidgewayGirl
nov. 27, 2015, 2:32 am

Vivienne and Joyce, it's still easier than living in the US, though! But it is nice here in Germany, where today is just an ordinary Friday. The Christmas markets open on December first.

Jennifer, I've moved around a bit! And I'm hoping to get one of those cupcakes, but I'm not holding my breath.

158mathgirl40
nov. 28, 2015, 9:46 pm

>149 RidgewayGirl: It's too bad this final book by Ruth Rendell was a disappointment. Since I still have plenty of Rendell's older novels yet to read, I'll work through those first.

159clue
Editat: nov. 28, 2015, 11:57 pm

>123 RidgewayGirl: I agree this is the best of the series, and the other two were very good! I continue to be amazed at Rowling's ability.

I had seen a couple of days ago that the BBC is planning on filming the Cormoran Strike Mysteries, a series based on the first 2 books and that HBO is likely to come in as a partner. Rowling and her agent Neil Blair will be executive producers. You know how it is with a book you really like though, it's hard to imagine a film can be as good.

160RidgewayGirl
nov. 29, 2015, 3:35 am

That's what I'd do, Paulina. I do plan to reread her earlier books when I feel like reading a Rendell.

clue, I'm eager to see who they cast as Cormoran and Robin. I'll then disagree with the casting, but be won over when I actually watch the show. Which I will be doing.

161charl08
nov. 29, 2015, 7:33 am

Yes, I think I'll be noting casting, disagreeing and watching too. Read a interview in yesterday's paper where she talked about writing the fourth book. Tried not to cheer.

162RidgewayGirl
nov. 29, 2015, 10:10 am

Charlotte, she promised to start the fourth book where the third one left off. She said it would be cheating to skip that wedding reception!

163RidgewayGirl
Editat: nov. 29, 2015, 10:47 am



The Woman from Bratislava is a Danish thriller about spies, the influence of history and family ties. Set during the early days of NATO bombing of Serbia, Leif Davidson explores the history of Nazism in Denmark and the more recent history of the Cold War, when Denmark's location on the Baltic Sea gave it strategic importance.

Teddy is a university lecturer whose dissertation concluding that the Soviet Union would remain strong for the foreseeable future came out early enough to get him his current position, but too late for him to have become a full professor before his field of study became obsolete. He frequently joins groups traveling through eastern Europe, and it's on one of those tours that he's visited by a Yugoslavian woman who claims to be his half-sister. Meanwhile, his other sister is arrested when the opening of Stasi files indicates that she is the Danish spy, formerly known only as Edelweiss, who had passed important state secrets to the Soviet Union. The police officer assigned to find out who fed her the information is sent all over eastern Europe, from Prague to Budapest to the Albania port city of Durrës, as he seeks to find the woman who claimed to be Teddy's sister, and who seems to hold the key to all the secrets.

Spy thrillers are not really my thing, but the novel did a fantastic job of illuminating a time and place that I know less than I should about. From the Danish history of having troops fighting on the side of the Germans during WWII, until the war was lost and those same men who had fought in the SS were vilified and imprisoned when they returned home, to those chaotic days when formerly communist countries became capitalist overnight, to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, this book was full of historical events I know little or nothing about.

The translation was iffy, and seemed to have been either done in a rush, or by someone with less than complete fluency in English. Eye shadow sets off the color of a woman's iris, for example, and clothing is referred to as "self-colored" more than once. Still, I was happy to have a less than stellar translation than none at all.

164Chrischi_HH
nov. 30, 2015, 10:03 am

>163 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for the review, this goes straight on my BB list. Seems like I missed a lot of Danish authors even though I lived there for 4 years...

I hope you had a great time in Aarhus, by the way! :)

165RidgewayGirl
nov. 30, 2015, 12:36 pm

>164 Chrischi_HH: Such a good time in Aarhus, and in the Jutland countryside. It always works best with the kids to pick a place, get a holiday house, and explore one area for a week rather than to travel around and they prefer rural settings. While I feel like we got a good look at the area around Ebeltoft and Aarhus, there is clearly quite a lot more of Denmark to see. I did almost have a heart attack when I opened the credit card statement, until I remembered all those charges were in Danish Kroner!

166RidgewayGirl
nov. 30, 2015, 2:20 pm

Three things. First, I have reached my goal of 100 books read this year, although I still have a few categories that need one more book.

Secondly, I have spent years keeping my husband in books. He was reading one or two books a month and I was having no problem keeping a small stack for him. Then, last Christmas, I got him all the Game of Thrones books, which he loved, but in those months, I lost the habit of keeping an eye out for books for him. And he's reading more. So I've been stuck looking through my own books for stuff for him and, astonishingly, it's working. I won't stop looking for those books he'll like, but it's fun that he's reading the stuff I am, too.

Finally, I tweeted that I'd read Megan Abbott's book, The Fever, and loved it, and she tweeted me back. So exciting.

167Nickelini
nov. 30, 2015, 2:25 pm

I keep my husband in books too, but he's easier than your husband because he falls asleep almost as soon as he starts reading. We're both pretty sure he reads each page three times as he reads each book. I only have to find him a few a year.

168DeltaQueen50
nov. 30, 2015, 6:00 pm

I guess keeping husband's in books falls to a lot of us. Mine suddenly started reading a lot more this year as well and had me raiding my shelves looking for books for him, luckily we both like mysteries. I've got him a Kindle for Christmas and loaded it with mysteries, westerns and adventures which hopefully will please him.

169dudes22
nov. 30, 2015, 7:02 pm

>162 RidgewayGirl: - Wedding reception?????

>168 DeltaQueen50: - I'm sure he'll love it!

I usually only have to get my husband one or two books a year. But lately he's been noticing what I'm reading and asking if he can read it after me.

170thornton37814
nov. 30, 2015, 8:45 pm

Just catching up and dropping in to say hi.

171RidgewayGirl
des. 2, 2015, 2:57 am



Megan Abbott is one of my favorite authors. She's adept at writing about the hearts of teenage girls, and she doesn't shy away from darkness. Her latest book, The Fever, does not disappoint.

Deenie is a teenage girl with a close group of friends. She lives with her father, who worries about her fearlessness and her fragility, and her older brother, who concentrates mostly on his hockey, and who is confused by the attention he gets from girls. Then, Deenie's best friend has a seizure in class and is taken to the hospital, where test after test is taken and where she lies in a coma. The subsequent days are confusing, as other girls in Deenie's circle suffer from seizures while at school. And hysteria mounts, both among the high school girls and their parents, some of whom are sure the source of the mysterious condition is the newly introduced HPV vaccine.

Abbott tells the story from inside the heads of Deenie, her brother and her father, allowing the reader to be as confused as the people in the community. The Fever is a vivid portrayal at how a group will react when it feels threatened, and how confusing and intense adolescence can be, especially when your world is falling apart.

172cbl_tn
des. 2, 2015, 6:30 am

Congrats on reaching your goal for number of books read!

173RidgewayGirl
des. 2, 2015, 8:33 am

Thanks, Carrie! I'd say I have a month of free reading, but I do have a few categories to fill.

174DeltaQueen50
des. 2, 2015, 6:23 pm

I love Megan Abbott and I will be getting to The Fever eventually - sounds good!

175VivienneR
des. 5, 2015, 10:20 pm

>159 clue: I better get to my Cormoran Strike Mysteries before they become a tv series!

176RidgewayGirl
des. 9, 2015, 4:40 am



UnderMajorDomo Minor is Patrick deWitt's follow up to the wildly successful, funny and clever The Sisters Brothers. Here he turns his wit from the wild west to an off-kilter and vaguely fairy tale-feeling European setting, where young Lucien (Lucy) Minor gets a job as an Undermajordomo in a castle a long train journey from his childhood home, where he has mainly distinguished himself as being entirely undistinguished. The castle, and the ramshackle village outside its gates, is like nothing Lucy has encountered before, from the unrepentant pick-pocket he meets on the train on the way to his destination, to the baron of the castle itself. Each character is technicolored and prone to inexplicable actions, for which Lucy largely plays the straight man, although he finds himself to be more willing to take action than one would have thought knowing him at the beginning of the novel.

UnderMajorDomo Minor is as madcap and humorous as one would expect, but there's a strained quality to much of it, as well as a lack of substance underneath the clever wordplay. Many of the individual sentences were undeniably witty, but the story as a whole failed to make much of an impression.

177charl08
des. 9, 2015, 8:27 am

Pity to hear that this didn't make a good impression, especially given the hype: hope your next book is more engaging.

178VivienneR
des. 11, 2015, 11:47 am

I wonder why Patrick de Witt books capture so much hype. After all the raves I heard about The Sisters Brothers I was was not exactly disappointed, but left wondering what all the noise was about.

179RidgewayGirl
des. 11, 2015, 2:01 pm

Charlotte, I wasn't going to read this one, as I'd liked, but hadn't loved, The Sisters Brothers. I'd found it to be more style than substance. But the description of this one seemed so intriguing.

Vivienne, that was my reaction to The Sisters Brothers, too. I'll skip the next deWitt.

180RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 11, 2015, 2:46 pm



Sadie Jones's new novel, Fallout, hit me at just the right angle. I fell in love with this book about English theater in the early seventies, when everything was changing. It's the story of three young people who become close friends, opening a theatre together in the rooms above a pub. Paul wants to be a producer, Leigh is the stage manager, and Luke does a little of everything, while he writes plays in his spare time. There's a lot here about the inner workings of plays, described in a way that was both understandable to the layman and utterly absorbing.

But at it's heart, Fallout is a character-driven book. Luke, the son of a taciturn Polish father and a mother who has been in a mental asylum since he was five, is desperate to belong, and he finds security in his friendships with Leigh and Paul. But then he meets Nina, an insecure actress who was raised by a controlling and abusive mother. Paul is an oldest son and he feels his father's disapproval for his uncertain career. And Leigh just wants to work in the field, but not as an actress and she demands that people treat her work with the same respect they'd give a man. She's down to earth, and she steadies both Paul and Luke. They are all in their early twenties, living on their own for the first time, both excited and terrified of the careers they've chosen to pursue.

Fallout is also about London in the 1970s, when social constrictions were loosening, but only so far, and new plays were being written that wanted to say something, co-existing with sex farces designed to take advantage of the new openness toward stage nudity and Shakespeare's eternal presence.

181RidgewayGirl
des. 20, 2015, 6:48 am

One book to go in filling all my categories! Of course, I've chosen a lengthy one...

182RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 22, 2015, 5:03 am

And I've now finished the 2015 Category Challenge! This fills the last space in my final category.

183RidgewayGirl
des. 22, 2015, 5:02 am



The Clarinet Polka by Keith Maillard is Jimmy Koprowski's story. After serving a tour of duty during the Vietnam War, Jimmy returns home to the dying steel town of Raysburg, to the working class Polish-American neighborhood he grew up in. Despite being stationed on Guam for the duration, Jimmy still thinks he deserves a little break before getting started with his life. So he moves back into his attic bedroom, takes the job his father finds for him of working part-time at a small appliance repair shop and begins drinking in earnest. He has plans to go to Texas, but never quite gets going. He ends up involved in an unhealthy affair with an unstable married woman, and in his sister's attempts to put together an all-girl polka band.

This novel is rich with details about Polish-American life; from the food and the language, to the church and the history of the immigrants who settled in this corner of West Virginia, against the Oho river, and worked in the steel mills. One of the girls in the band has parents who were DPs, and the novel explores how this new wave of Polish immigrants fit in with the second and third generation immigrants, as well as what happened in eastern Poland during the war. The Vietnam War, along with the student protests are also a large part of the novel, as well as how the returning vets readjusted to ordinary life.

The Clarinet Polka is dense with information, but it never bogs down. Jimmy is interested in this stuff, so he makes it interesting for the reader. I found myself enjoying pages about the history of polka music, to the point where I more than once had to listen to some of it. I still don't like it at all, but I enjoyed learning about it - which isn't something I thought I would ever say. And Jimmy's story is interesting, too. He's a likable guy, slowly being taken over by his addiction, which was beautifully handled in the novel. All in all, The Clarinet Polka is a book well worth the time spent reading it.

184dudes22
des. 22, 2015, 6:37 am

Congratulations on finishing your challenge, Kay! No BB for me on this one, so maybe I'm safe until next year? ;)

185RidgewayGirl
des. 22, 2015, 6:49 am

Thanks, Betty. I hope to start my 2016 thread soon, but I also hope to read a book or two more this year.

186cbl_tn
des. 22, 2015, 7:17 am

Congrats on completing your challenge!

187MissWatson
des. 22, 2015, 9:36 am

Congratulations on finishing!

188AHS-Wolfy
des. 22, 2015, 10:35 am

Congrats on completing your challenge!

189mamzel
des. 22, 2015, 12:32 pm

Closing another great year of reading with a bang. Hope next year gives you lots more great books.

190rabbitprincess
des. 22, 2015, 5:02 pm

Hurray, congratulations on finishing your challenge! :)

191VivienneR
des. 22, 2015, 5:33 pm

Congratulations on finishing your challenge. Sounds like a good finish too!

192Chrischi_HH
des. 23, 2015, 4:35 am

Congrats on finishing your challenge! :)

193MissWatson
des. 23, 2015, 6:59 am

All the best wishes for a Merry Christmas!

194RidgewayGirl
des. 23, 2015, 1:03 pm

Thank you, all!

195lkernagh
des. 23, 2015, 11:56 pm

>148 RidgewayGirl: - Of all the reviews I have read for Slade House, your review is the only one to convince me to give it a go. :-)

>166 RidgewayGirl: - How exciting that your husband is reading the same books you do! My other half is a non-fiction or nothing, whereas I love my fiction and only dabble in non-fiction reading.

>176 RidgewayGirl: - Sounds like UnderMajorDomo Minor is more my cup of tea than The Sisters Brothers, which fell a bit flat for me... Hum, maybe UnderMajorDomo is more of the same. I do own a copy of Ablutions that I picked up at the last big book sale. I haven't gotten around to seeing if that one fits more with my reading interests.

>178 VivienneR: - After all the raves I heard about The Sisters Brothers I was was not exactly disappointed, but left wondering what all the noise was about. That was my exact experience with The Sisters Brothers. That, and it was a little too dark for my tastes.

Congratulations on finishing your challenge!

196RidgewayGirl
des. 24, 2015, 3:14 pm

Lori, I'll be interested in finding out what you think about Ablutions. And the husband reading what I read has taken almost twenty years!

And it had to happen at some point. After several years of perfect (and near perfect) SantaThing experiences, I was due a dud. I'd asked for books from diverse and global voices, and mentioned that I liked award winners and literary fiction. I got three bestsellers by white American authors and one book by an African American woman author - but that was a duplicate. Oh, well. I'll return them and pick a few off of my wishlist instead. The suggestions people made were excellent, but sadly ignored, but I may order from the suggestions - a few were for books I'd never heard of. The only real loss is the loss of my hopes of taking a new book up to bed with me this Christmas Eve, which is hardly a tragedy - there are a few books on my tbr!

197VivienneR
des. 24, 2015, 3:37 pm



Merry Christmas, Kay.

198rabbitprincess
des. 24, 2015, 4:00 pm

Merry Christmas! Hope there will be more lovely books for you under the tree.

199RidgewayGirl
des. 24, 2015, 4:11 pm

Thanks, Vivienne! Enjoy your holidays.

There may be one more book under the tree, rp, although my family avoids giving me books. It would be like giving a bottle of wine to the bartender, I believe is their opinion. They do want books from me, though.

200luvamystery65
des. 24, 2015, 4:30 pm



Merry Christmas

201lkernagh
des. 24, 2015, 4:47 pm

>196 RidgewayGirl: - I will probably try to get around to reading Ablutions some time in the new year. In the meantime, stopping by to wish you and your family the very best this holiday season!

202RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 25, 2015, 5:40 am

Thanks, Roberta and Lori.

Happy Holidays, everyone! Here's a picture of one of the many Christmas markets here in Munich. This one's in the center of town, at the Marienplatz. We managed to visit a half dozen this year, and while they are more atmospheric when there's snow, it was nice to not get chilled feet and hands.

203lsh63
des. 25, 2015, 6:29 am

Merry Christmas Kay! I'm laughing at your post in #199, my friends and family absolutely will not provide me with any more books or B&N gift cards, they're trying to help me I suppose . Everyone does like to ask me for recommendations though.

204dudes22
des. 25, 2015, 7:32 am

Merry Christmas, Kay and here's hoping we all have a good reading year in 2016 and lots of book bullets!

205RidgewayGirl
des. 25, 2015, 8:33 am

Thanks, Lisa and Betty. May 2016 be our best reading year yet.

206cbl_tn
des. 25, 2015, 12:26 pm

Merry Christmas! I'm sorry to hear your ST selections were a disappointment. I hope the suggestions contain a few gems that will be highlights of your 2016 reading.

I didn't receive any books either, although I did gift a few.

207RidgewayGirl
des. 25, 2015, 1:44 pm

Carrie, I'll return them and get a few of the fantastic books suggested. And SantaThing has been outrageously good to me - I think that my expectations were too high. I'll be signing up next year.

My 2016 thread is open. I'll be here until the end of the year, though.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/209538

208RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 26, 2015, 10:02 am



In many ways, horror works best when it's not too drawn out an experience. Layering on the suspense often results in my feeling like it's just all too unlikely, the kiss of death for that genre. Stephen King is the master of horror, but even his books tend to be less tightly written than they could be. His short stories, however, never fail to hit their mark. Of course, for Stephen King, the definition of short story is loose, with many of his best edging over into novella territory, but the need to keep the story as concise as possible results in King's most effective writing.

Here, with The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, King collects some stories published elsewhere, from Blockade Billy, which was published as a novella in 2010, to Ur, which he wrote as a kindle single. Ur was, by far, my favorite in the collection, because of the premise of the story, in which a college professor orders a kindle and receives the wrong kind, one which gives the owner the option of downloading books by authors from parallel universes, of which there are millions. So in one ur, Hemingway didn't write The Sun Also Rises, but did write two novels he didn't write in this ur, and you could download those two novels for a few dollars each. Of course, this being King, the magical kindle has a distinct downside.

I enjoyed the stories in this collection, and while there are stories I'll remember more than others, there wasn't a dud in the book.

209VioletBramble
des. 26, 2015, 9:39 pm

Happy Holidays Kay!
No snow in Germany either? It was 72 degrees here on Christmas Eve. I walked home from work at 9pm without my coat. There were young children playing on the swings in the playground. It was strange.

210RidgewayGirl
des. 27, 2015, 7:03 am

Kelly, we are supposed to have a drop in temperatures with the new year. And before the holidays, I had a few mornings where I had to chisel a good layer of ice off of my car. I guess we should enjoy it as long as it lasts.

211-Eva-
des. 27, 2015, 6:26 pm

Congratulations on finishing! Too bad about the SantaThing duds - usually people don't get things that wrong. Love the picture from the Christmas market - Germans tend to be really good at those! :)

212RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 28, 2015, 10:16 am



I'm a sucker for modern interpretations of Jane Austen's novels. I will read any I come across, despite my experience being that most are substandard at best. Here's Looking at You has the advantage of having been written by Mhairi McFarlane, who knows how to write breezy Chick-Lit where the main character is neither flighty nor really into shopping.

This version is very loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, with a few scenes and characters somewhat similar the inspiration. Lizzie's part is ably played by Aurelianna Alexi, known as Anna. She's a professor at the University College London, and assisting the British Museum with a special exhibition. Pretty nice gig. She's also looking for a relationship, although her internet dating has resulted in a lot of dates with duds. Then she runs into James Fraser, the mediocre Darcy character. He'd bullied her in school, but doesn't recognize the grown-up, self-assured woman as the girl he publicly humiliated for a laugh.

And that was my problem with this book. Darcy was haughty and full of himself, but never weak and cruel to those less fortunate than himself. In Chick-Lit, if you don't like the love interest, it's quite an unsatisfying read. Fraser may be good-looking, but that in no way trumps his entitled and privileged attitude. And neither McFarlane's writing nor Anna's charm can overcome that sizable flaw. Still, the cat is fun, as are Anna's friends. Tellingly enough, in this version, no one wants to be Darcy's friend. There's no sign of a Bingley to be found.

213LauraBrook
des. 28, 2015, 12:00 pm

Hi Kay! I have a lot of catching up to do here. First, I'm so sorry for the loss of both of your pups this year. One is bad enough, but two is really pushing the limits. Cat had better step up and live forever! Second, I've added every book you've read on this thread to my TBR, so "thanks" for that. ;) Third, I think I'll skip Here's Looking At You because I need a Bingley in my retellings. And four, I got a Book Nerd Score of 43! Public transportation isn't a big thing in this area of the world, and the bus system we have doesn't go anywhere near the places I need to go, so... yeah. Doesn't help with my Nerd score.

Hope you're doing well, and enjoying the last few days of 2015! (((hugs)))

214RidgewayGirl
des. 28, 2015, 1:09 pm

Thanks, Laura. Cat is working hard to be as much pet as he can possibly be. And the other McFarlane book I read, It's Not Me, It's You was excellent. The guy in Here's Looking at You just pushed all my stay-away-from-this-guy buttons. Also, your tbr count proves you're a true book nerd! I'm looking forward to following your reading and your life next year!

215christina_reads
des. 29, 2015, 2:18 pm

>212 RidgewayGirl: Hmm, good point about the lack of a Bingley! I didn't really notice that when I was reading it, but you're totally right!

216charl08
des. 29, 2015, 3:29 pm

>212 RidgewayGirl: Oh what a shame. I'm hovering over Val Mcdermid's Northanger Abbey. I don't read her crime novels, but like the blurb for it.

217RidgewayGirl
des. 30, 2015, 5:59 am



I don't know how one boy could have caused so much disappointment without ever giving anyone any grounds for hope. Man, I should say, since he's well into his thirties. No, he must be forty by now. He is not the eldest or the youngest or the best or the bravest, only the most beloved.

In Marilynne Robinson's beautiful novel, John Ames is an old man with a younger wife and young son. Gilead is the letter he writes to the son he knows he won't be able to guide into adulthood. Ames is still a pastor at the small church his father once preached in, in the small town of Gilead. His closest friend is the retired Presbyterian minister and the letter talks about his relationship with Boughton and his family, as well as giving his son a family history, from his own grandfather, a fiery abolitionist preacher who wore his weapons into church, to his thoughtful, peace-loving father who gave him much of his own personality and theology, to the disgust of his grandfather.

This is a deceptively quiet book. Quite a lot happens, but Ames is such a fair-handed and reflective person that even moments of high drama appear measured, although that does not impair the impact of the events. Ames is a man of faith, but he isn't blindly faithful. His theology is thoughtful and willing to tackle mysteries and to not solve them; to look at men's hearts and still give them the benefit of the doubt. This is a book to read more than once and I'll keep my copy for the future. I'm also eager to read Robinson's other novels.

Transgression. That is legalism. There is never just one transgression. There is a wound in the flesh of human life that scars when it heals and often enough seems never to heal at all.

With many thanks to Jennifer (japaul22) for telling me to read this book. It should not have taken me as long to get to it as it did.

218thornton37814
des. 30, 2015, 10:26 am

>217 RidgewayGirl: Gilead is one of my favorite books from recent years.

219RidgewayGirl
des. 30, 2015, 11:08 am

Lori, I knew it had quite a reputation, but it floored me all the same. I'm glad I have her other books to look forward to and I sent my father a copy of Gilead.

220mathgirl40
des. 30, 2015, 5:58 pm

Congratulations on finishing your challenge!

I've never read anything by Marilynne Robinson, but it's probably about time. Many people have recommended Gilead to me.

221dudes22
des. 31, 2015, 7:24 am

You've intrigued me with your review of Gilead. I read Housekeeping a few years ago and only rated it 2 stars. Since it's rated almost 4 stars on the book page, I think it might have been a case of right book/wrong time. Which means I might have to reread it too.

222RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 8:40 am

I'm eager to read her other novels, Paulina. Gilead was fantastic.

Betty, it's always interesting when a book you dislike is widely loved. When should we give an author a second (or third) chance? For me, I tend to go by their literary standing, which does not always serve me well. I gave Philip Roth three books before calling it, but I guess that I can at least knowledgeably discuss why I dislike his writing? And it did take me the full three tries to learn to appreciate Joyce Carol Oates. On the other hand, it took me less than fifty pages to understand that Louise Penny is not an author I enjoy, despite the love she receives here. Which is a long way of saying that if you want to give Marilynne Robinson another go, it wouldn't be a waste of time (Gilead is a slender book, and many people who have read both say that Lila is even better), but nor would it be a bad decision to just read all the many other books in existence instead.

Also, Gilead is a quiet book, and while there is a plot, it's subtle and doesn't show itself until late in the book. So don't go in expecting a strong storyline and fireworks.

223lsh63
des. 31, 2015, 8:48 am

I enjoyed Gilead, Home and Lila all this year. I think you described Gilead perfectly , a quiet book. After finishing each one, I was just in awe of the wonderful writing.


224RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 9:01 am

Lisa, I'm glad to still have the other two to read, but I'm going to try to spread them out a bit - Marilynne Robinson isn't exactly churning books out. Still, Home will be read soon.

225RidgewayGirl
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 12:09 pm

Happy New Year, everyone! Here in Germany, fireworks will be set off, all night long. Fondue is the traditional meal and every single German person will watch an old British short called Dinner for One. So we are having people over for fondue and my son and husband have amassed an impressive selection of fireworks for between fondue and cake.

If you'd like a look at a staple of German pop culture, here is Dinner for One. It's only ten minutes long, but it will give you a real insight into German humor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HpGJHvuANM

226dudes22
des. 31, 2015, 12:39 pm

222 - That's so true, Kay. If we all liked the same books, where would be the fun in that. I do like a quiet story and already have a few in my TBR for next year. I think I'll put Gilead on the back burner and keep your comments in mind for some time in the future.

227VivienneR
des. 31, 2015, 4:57 pm



And, thanks for all the BBs this year!

228-Eva-
des. 31, 2015, 7:28 pm

>225 RidgewayGirl:
Dinner for One is shown on telly every New Year's in Sweden as well!

229RidgewayGirl
gen. 1, 2016, 7:26 am

Likewise, Vivienne!

Eva, I've heard it's also big in the Netherlands. I don't really see how this became THE thing to watch, but it has grown on me.

See you over on the 2016 Category Challenge, everyone!