November 2025

 

A sign? I did some browsing at a local library the other day. I decided to see if there was anything of interest to me on the New SCF shelf and the Langmead looked like something I might enjoy. Next display over was the New MYS section with the Bain book which had just gone onto my TBR list. I found a comfy chair and read a couple of random pages in each and decided to check them out. 

 

Next I got out my phone and looked at my list of possibles at this library and there was the Jemisin series! So I added book #1 to my stack. Next morning my daughter was perusing my shelf, "Hum, cities. Do I see a new theme here?"

 

"Well maybe, but I'm not stopping the "last" theme. See, there are two of those on the shelf. I also have holds placed on another five!"

 

She told me she had read and liked the Jamisin book and had read something else by Langmead and liked it. Then she took off to her cozy reading spot and I started my morning adventures on "The Internets." I opened LibraryThing, clicked on "folly" (left column menu on Home: page) and selected "Book of Yours" (which brings up a random title from my collection). What was the book?  This Is Not Your City  (Caitlin Horrocks) a short story collection I read and liked back in 2012!

 

All things point to a new theme, but I'm also keeping the "Last" one. Here are the word 'City' in the title books I picked up on this library trip: 

  City of All Seasons by Langmead, Oliver K. 
  The Ivory City by Murphy, Emily Bain
  The City We Became (Great Cities, #1) by Jemisin, N.K.

I can't help thinking there must be a book or two out there somewhere that have both "last" and "city" in the title. 

 

Here's what I read this month (liked them all unless otherwise noted).

 

Fiction: 

The Lamplighters by Stonex, Emma 

Three man Cornish lighthouse crew goes missing.

Heartwood by Gaige, Amity 

Female solo AppalachianTrail hiker goes missing in the Maine woods. 

Love After Love by Persaud, Ingrid

One of my not-so-plain-brown-wrapper birthday gifts. (see October 2025 post) This one set in San Fernando, Trinidad and New York City. I really liked it.

Evensong by O'Nan, Stewart 

Aging women taking care of aging women in Pittsburgh.

Some Bright Nowhere by Packer, Ann

Dying woman's husband and her besties cope with care giving. Set in Connecticut & Maine.
The Eleventh Hour by Rushdie, Salman 

A good collection. I highlighted my favorites. 

Contents: In the South -- The musician of Kahani -- Late -- Oklahoma -- The old man in the piazza. 

 

The Ivory City by Murphy, Emily Bain

This mystery set at the 1984 St. Louis Fair was OK. She got the historical setting, the fashions (both personal dress and interior decor), and available technology just fine but I wish she'd (or an editor/fact-checker) had spent more research on the language of the time.

The Gardener's Plot: A Mystery by Benoit, Deborah J. 

Another OK mystery. 

Queen Esther by Irving, John

I wish he hadn't written this mess. 

 

Nonfiction: 

Athens: Food, Stories, Love: A Cookbook by Kochilas, Diane 

Loved it! It's more than a cookbook.

The Art of Jacques Pépin: Favorite Recipes and Paintings From My Life in the Kitchen by Pépin, Jacques  

I don't cook much these days but I sure like foodie picture books.  

The Other Girl by Ernaux, Annie 

The author's musings on the child her parents had and lost before Annie was born.

Things That Disappear by Erpenbeck, Jenny; translated from the German by Beals, Kurt

A delightful little book of brief essays. 

Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age by Wiencek, Henry 

Architect Stanford White and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Rather creepy guys. I kinda wish I'd skipped this one. 

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by O'Connor, Anne-Marie 

Another winner from my brown-wrapper gifts.

 

 

Sotheby's : Leonard A. Lauder, Collector | Evening Auction, 18 November 2025, Lot 8. 

Gustav Klimt: Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer)

This auction came up just as i finished The Lady in Gold. What a treat to read the the cataloge notes for this painting.  

 

Checked out from library but decided not to read:

The Everlasting by Harrow, Alix E. 

A New New Me by Oyeyemi, Helen 

Perfection by Latronico, Vincenzo  We Are Green and Trembling
We Are Green and Trembling by Cabezón, Gabriela 

The Persians by Mahloudji, Sanam 

The Dinner Party by Sandt, Viola van de 

Last Acts by Sammartino, Alexander

October 2025

 

Some of my "blind" birthday books. (There are a total of ten.) 

 

Fiction:

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Alameddine, Rabih 

Not his best but very close. 4+ stars 

What We Can Know by McEwan, Ian

It was good, not great 

The Turner House by Flournoy, Angela

Saga of a large Black family in Detroit 

We Need No Wings by Cardinal, Ann Dávila 

Widow comes of age at sixty. 

The Original Daughter by Wei, Jemimah James 

Sisters (one adopted0 in Shanghai

A Murder in Paris by Blake, Matthew

The murdertook place in 1945, the consequences are now. 

The Grand Paloma Resort by Natera, Cleyvis 

The dark side of luxury resorts. 

He Started It by Downing, Samantha

Diabolical family road trip 

Empty Wardrobes by Carvalho, Maria Judite de; translated from the Portuguese by Costa, Margaret Jull; introduction by Zambreno, Kate

Heart the Lover by King, Lily  

Really disappointing, almost DNF

Vintage 1954 by Laurain, Antoine 

Fun light read. 

Pocket Bear by Applegate, Katherine

A Middle Grade story about rescued stuffed animals and a real live cat that befriends them. 

Starring Adele Astaire by Knight, Eliza

Bio-fic which lacks energy.  One of my birthday books,

The Last Spirits of Manhattan by McDermott, John A.

Ghost guests at an Alfred Hitchcock party. 

     
The Dogs of Detroit by Felver, Brad

Gritty short stories focusing on grief, well written, but not to my taste. 

Contents: Queen Elizabeth - Throwing leather - Evolution of the mule - The ear of good feelings - How to throw a punch - Unicorn stew - Stones we throw - In the walls - Out of the Bronx - Hide-and-seek - Country lepers - Praemonitus, praemunitus - Patriots - The dogs of Detroit.

 

The Reunion by Angela Song    
"Having any kind of heartbeat at eighty-four years was a good sign, right?"

Nonfiction: 

We Survived the Night by NoiseCat, Julian Brave 

Excellent A huge amount of information about the history, politics, customs, and lives of  Native Peoples of Canada and USA. 

This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web by Berners-Lee, Tim  

Filled in some gaps,

Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization by Queeney, Tim

Uneven, I skimmed a lot.  Also Googled a bit because this could have used some better illustrations.

The Roma: A Traveling History by Potter, Madeline

Learned a lot from this. 

The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West by Sandweiss, Martha A. 

Native American history, plains.

 

COMIC: One Sioux chef's attempt to reclaim Native American cuisine by Rachel Faulkner White, Chelsea Saunders, LA Johnson

 

The Golden Melons of Samarkand by Anna Ansari

 

DNF:

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Desai, Kiran 

Booker shortlist - but I'm not reading six hundred and something pages of bad writing. 

American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States by Malik, Anela  

Learned nothing from this. A coffee table book that is heavy and awkward to hold. For all its size, it's shallow.
The Wayfinder by Johnson, Adam 

Way too much of a good thing! Read 300 of 736 pages. Library get it back and I won't pick it up again. 

 

Checked out from library but decided not to read:
Little Movements by Morrow, Lauren 
What a Time to Be Alive by Chang, Jade 
If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You by Stein, Leigh

Misinterpretation by Xhoga, Ledia

September 2025

 

 

Too many (ten+) DNFs this month. Am I getting too picky? Or am I getting sloppy the early selection process?  Maybe, but I did read some really good books this month.
 

Still finding books with "last" in the title.  Two were really good; two were DNFs. 

 

Read in September: 

Fiction: 

The Sisters by Khemiri, Jonas Hassen

This might end up being the best book I read this year! 

Flashlight by Choi, Susan 

Good, but not as good as The Sisters.  

The Retirement Plan by Hincenbergs, Sue

After reading the above two complex novels, it took me a few chapters to get into this straight narrative style. It was a fun read once I got into it.

The Impossible Thing by Bauer, Belinda

Also really good. Bird's egg thieves in East Yorkshire,

In the Family Way by Becker, Laney Katz

Ah, women's place in the sixties. 

Girls Girls Girls by Blanckensee, Shoshana von

Young lesbians from Long Island set out to make a life in San Francisco in 1976. I really liked this one.

Women, Seated by Yueran, Zhang; translated from the Chinese by Tiang, Jeremy 

Strange but very readable.

The Midnight Hour by Chase, Eve

I really enjoyed this twisty tale of family secrets. 

A Year of Marvellous Ways by  Winman, Sarah  

Another winner!

The Redemption of Galen Pike  by Davies, Carys

No need to highlight any - I liked them all!
Contents: The quiet -- On Commercial Hill -- Jubilee -- The travellers -- Myth -- Bonnet -- First journeyman -- Precious -- The taking of Bunny Clay -- Miracle at Hawk's Bay -- In the cabin in the woods -- The coat -- The redemption of Galen Pike -- Wicked fairy -- Creed -- Nothing like my nightmare -- Sibyl.

  

At Last by Silver, Marisa 

Two women with little in common tolerate each other because they are mothers-in-law together. A good three generation story.

The Last Lifeboat by Gaynor, Hazel 

Another good book I wouldn't have read except for the "last"in the title. This is a WW2 story about survivors of a shipwreck of a vessel carrying children evacuees from England to Canada. 

 

I kind of wish these were on the DNF list but I did muddle through them, with regrets:

Vianne (Chocolat, #0) by Harris, Joanne 
Disappointing. I finished it but I couldn't really suspend my disbelief and find the tricks magical. It's offensive to good cooks and chefs to suggest that someone could learn how to cook all those recipes in three months.Too much sugar.

Play Nice by Harrison, Rachel 

Billed as horror but it really isn't. Not suspenseful either.  Actually it's not much of anything.

Hunchback by Ichikawa, Saou; translated from the Japanese by Barton, Polly  

Terrible. 

An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories by Park, Ed 

A couple of these were OK (highlighted), but most were boring. 
Content: A Note to My Translator -- Bring on the Dancing Horses -- The Wife on Ambien -- Machine City -- An Accurate Account -- The Air as Air -- Seven Women -- The Gift -- Watch Your Step -- Two Laptops -- Weird Menace -- Thought and Memory -- Well-Moistened With Cheap Wine, the Sailor and the Wayfarer -- Speak of Their Absent Sweethearts -- Night Eating Syndrome -- Slide to Unlock -- An Oral History of Atlantis. 

 

Some good online fiction:

Disappearance by Stefan Kiesbye - Northern California (Santa Rosa) noir

Body Language by Juhea Kim

Crossings by Bryan Washington

 

Nonfiction: 

Ready for My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream by Lubin, David M.

Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from my Palestine [A Cookbook] by Tamimi, Sami

Love a beautiful cookbook. 

Clam Down: A Metamorphosis by Chen, Anelise
A mixture of memoir and essay as Chen deals with the aftermath of a divorce. 

When The Snow Leaves Town by Emile Holba

Stunning photographic essay of Spring coming to Ilulissat, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland).
This is just one of several galleries on the British documentary photographer's Web site.

 

Here are some samples of why The World of Interiors is becoming one of my favorite browsing spots:

Clickbait to Cliché by Tony Liu

"Are algorithms divorcing words from their true meaning? Turning terms such as ‘chinoiserie’ into hashtags also denudes them of context and nuance. And, argues the co-founder of Diet Prada, online overdose consigns designs to obsolescence before their time."

Dream Sequins by Kira Goodey; Photography by Brooke Olsen
"The Las Vegas Showgirl Museum is an ode to the high-camp spirit of the Sin City spectacle, with over 40,000 costumes, photos and pieces of memorabilia amassed by its owner, the dancer and choreographer Grant Philipo."

The Year of 100 Birds, Week Ooh I Dunno by Lev Parilian

Lev adds a bird to his list. 

  

Glassworks Magazine Fall 2022. Issue 25: Published on Sep 30, 2022; a quarterly publication of Rowan University's Master of Arts in Writing
Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DNF: 

The Phoenix Pencil Company by King, Allison  

This looked promising but at about 1/3 through it started going downhill fast. Weird and cringy.

Spectacular Things by Dorey-Stein, Beck

Fundamentally by Younis, Nussaibah 

Didn't really start this--maybe another time. The library wants it back.

The Lake Escape by Day, Jamie

A big disappointment because I liked The block Party and One Big Happy Family. This one drags and the characters seemed flat.

Automatic Noodle by Newitz, Annalee 

A noodle shop in San Francisco run by robots (after a future civil war)? Should be fun but is was dismal. Read 44 of 160 pages.  

Moderation by Castillo, Elaine  

Where Are You Really From by Chou, Elaine Hsieh

I tried to read every one of these stories and couldn't finish any of them!
 Contents: Carrot legs -- Mail order love -- You put a rabbit on me -- Featured background -- Happy endings -- The  dollhouse -- Casualties of Art: a novella.

Something to Look Forward To: Fictions by Flagg, Fannie 

Read four of the stories (there are around 30) before I choked on the down home sweetness.  Blech!!!!

Starting From Here by Saunders, Paula

Shallow, predictable coming of age story. She wants to be a ballet dancer,,,I'd call it a YA but it's not even that. Short  chapters that don't say much. 

  

The Last Sunrise by Todd, Anna 

Person who picked up my holds warned me that this is bad. She was right. I requested it because of "last" in the title and also because it's set in Mallorca. That didn't save it.

Last Seen by Ellison, J.T.

Read the prologue. Too something: contrived? gory? not worth my time?  

August 2025

A Vigorous Pull. From Canoeing in Kanuckia

 

A strange month with a lot of good reading but also with several rejects. Some of the rejects had to do with poor blurbs and others with timing. For example, when I requested the Ruth Ware book I was in the mood for it but by the time I got it my mood had changed.  

 

The "word 'last' in the title" prompt continues with a couple of good ones, a "meh," and a dud.

 

Read in August (listed in a hodge-podge order):

  

Fiction:

City of Night Birds by Kim, Juhea 

Excellent! Ballet dancer in St Petersburg, Russia

Universality by Brown, Natasha

Sharp look at class, race, media, etc. in the UK

The Listeners by Stiefvater, Maggie 

Loved this story of enemy diplomats and the W.Va  luxury resort that housed them in early 1942. 

My Other Heart by Strenner, Emma Nanami

Two Asian/American girls spend the summer between high school and college searching for their identities. Good story, well written. 

Sister Europe by Zink, Nell

Two middle-aged men, a woman of a certain age and her standard poodle, two teen girls (one of them trans), and a handsome young Arab prince who identifies Swiss are wandering together through nighttime Berlin. Why are these people even together? And why is an off-duty plainclothes vice cop following them? Apparently they have nothing better to do. I enjoyed this road trip on foot from a boring award event to a glass house by way of an underground club and a Burger King.

A Lesser Light by Geye, Peter 

A light house on Lake Superior in 1910. A really, really good novel. 

 

Love Forms by Adam, Claire  Almost DNF because the simplistic writing seemed somewhere between Middle Grade and YA.  However the final couple of chapters were quite powerful so I finished it and gave it three stars. But I also checked another book of hers that I decided not to read.

The Big Finish by Fossey, Brooke 

An OK feel good story set in a small Texas assisted living facility. Somewhat stereotypical characters and a cover that is really misleading. There is no road trip on a motorcycle except for a very short one. Other short trips (in a van) to Walmart, a mall, and a cremains scattering.

Dead of Summer by Maxwell, Jessa 

Darker and not as good as Maxwell's The golden Spoon. The villains were a bit overdrawn, but I liked that the "good" characters were all flawed in some way. The whole NDA thing was a poor device.

Off the Books by Frazier, Soma Mei Sheng 
Supposedly a road trip but the narrative got lost in too many digressions about what happened in the past. Chinese Americans trying to rescue a Chinese child.

Cheesecake by Kurlansky, Mark
Too many characters, not much plot. He's better at nonfiction.

The Greatest Possible Good by Brooks, Ben

I was bored. I Skimmed. I wasn't at all invested. Blah. 

 

Show Don't Tell by Sittenfeld, Curtis   

There is something really wrong with a short story when you find yourself skimming. This is a collection of a dozen such stories. Yawn.

Contents: Show don't tell - The marriage clock - White women LOL - The richest babysitter in the world - Creative differences -    Follow-up - The tomorrow box - A for alone - The patron saints of middle age - Giraffe and flamingo - The hug - Lost but not forgotten.

 

Room on the Sea: Three Novellas by Aciman, André 

Of the three novellas, I enjoyed The Gentleman from Peru the most. Room on the Sea was ok but seemed old-fashioned and stilted. I did not care for the first person direct address narrative used in Mariana. I guess it's supposed to be an imaginary letter to a former lover but it is so tedious. There is also an interesting Postface which explains the source material for Mariana (and, perhaps, the reason for the narrative voice).

 

The Last Illusion of Paige White by McCausland, Vanessa 

Really good. An Instagram influencer mysteriously dies. Her childhood friend searches for the truth. Set in Australia. 

Last Night Was Fun by James, Holly 

Rom-com, enemies>friends>lovers with You've Got Mail overtones. A pleasant read.

Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride by Leitch, Will  

A guy who views himself as a decent cop is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He tries, for insurance purposes, to die in the line of duty. He fails. Not quite a three star read. Also not a road trip.

 

From Project Gutenberg:

The Black-Eyed Puppy by Pyle, Katharine (1923)

I do enjoy dog stories. This one from 1923 is cute but has its period problems. One of the black dogs has a name would not be acceptable in a childrens book today.. The performing dogs are treated humanely which may have been a whitewash of what really happened behind the scenes in animal training at the time.

Graceful would jump right over me.

From my shelves:

Amanat: Women’s Writing from Kazakhstan selected and translated by Zaure Batayeva and Shelley Fairweather-Vega ; with contributions by Sam Breazeale and Gabriel Moguire 

Contents: Juliet / Zhumagul Solty - An awkward conversation / Zhumagul Solty - Aslan's bride / Nadezhda Chernova - Orphan / Ayagul Mantay - Hunger excerpt from The Nanny) / Aigul Kemelbayeva - Propiska / Raushan Baiguzhayeva - The beskempir / Zira Naurzbayeva - The rival / Zira Naurzbayeva - Amanat / Oral Arukenova - Procedures within / Oral Arukenova - A woman over fifty / Lilya Kalaus - How men think / Lilya Kalaus - The stairwell / Lilya Kalaus - Operato drama / Lilya Kalaus - Black snow of December / Asel Omar = The French beret / Asel Omar - 18+ / Aya Omirtai - Poet / Madina Omarova - Once upon an autumn evening / Madina Omarova - Excerpt from School / Zaure Batayeva - Excerpt from The anthropologists / Zaure Batayeva - The lighter / Olga Mark - My eleusinian mysteries / Zira Naurzbayeva.

I have been reading and enjoying this a bit at a time for nearly a year. 

 

Nonfiction: 

from public libraries; 

King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution—A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Anderson, Scott 

Shudder.... 

The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs by Jason Diamond

Too many personal and pop culture digressions in what could have been an interesting book. No index.

 

from my shelves: 

Unvarnished: Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr by Carr, Emily; edited by Bridge, Kathryn

 

From Gutenberg: 

Canoeing in Kanuckia; or, Haps and mishaps afloat and ashore of the statesman, the editor, the artist, and the scribbler. Recorded by the commodore and the cook (C[harles]. L[edyard]. Norton and J[ohn]. Habberton) New York, G.P. Putnam's sons, 1878.

A little too Vigorous.

Online: 

 “Slow Children Crossing.” Fun with Misplaced Modifiers! by Hume, Virginia 

Content Warning: There are a few clips and quotes referencing D----d T----p

The Strunk and White Takedown: Why America’s Favorite Style Guide Doesn’t Teach Good Style by Sara Levine

I'm amazed the S&W is still used.

Decades of Deco: A new city-spanning festival celebrates 100 Years of Art Deco in Miami Beach and Mumbai by Ivan Shaw

After looking at the Art Deco spread, I spent a good bit of time exploring its source publication The World of Interiors . Some good stuff there.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DNF (didn't get to far with these - less than 10%):

Pan by Clune, Michael 

It is well written but I don't want to read coming of age with panic attacks.

O Beautiful by Yun, Jung

Lame. She's going to write a free-lance article on the North Dakota oil boom? She can't even handle an obnoxious male seatmate. How's she going to be around oil men? I don't want to know.

She Doesn't Have a Clue by Moke, Jenny Elder 

Mystery set on an island at a wedding with former lovers forced to share a room. yeah, sure... 

Last Seen Alive by Douglas, Claire
One of the "last prompt books" that didn't make the cut. A boring thriller? 

  

Checked out; decided not to read: 

Flesh by Szalay, David 

The Woman in Suite 11 (Lo Blacklock, #2) by Ware, Ruth

A Burning by Majumdar, Megha

Golden Child by Adam, Claire     

Hazel Says No by Berger Gross, Jessica 

 

Booker Longlist/Shortlist 2025

Oct 1: Library has the rest of our lives on order = hold placed

           the loneliness of.... is on holdshelf waiting for me to pick up! 

 

Sept 24 - Shortlist announced:

    Flesh
    The Land in Winter
    The Rest of Our Lives
    Audition
    The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny over 600 pages of stuff I don't want to read!
    Flashlight

 

Sigh....One I inspected and rejected without reading (Flesh). One I found boring (Audition). One I probably won't see til January (The Rest of Our Lives). Two I've placed holds on (The Land... and The Loneliness of,,,).

Which leaves Flashlight which I liked.

 

Longlist thoughts nefore Sept 24:

This list is more interesting to me than some recent longlists. I was actually looking at several of these before the list was announced. 

Status as of 8/22 (will update as I read): 

(*updates 9/9) (update $9/11)

read and liked - 3-$4

read and was lukewarm - 2 

holds placed - 5 - *4

currently reading - *1 $0

currently unavailable - 1 * now on order in Encore System

decided not to read - 2

As of now (8/22) I can get all but one at my local libraries (and they will probably order it soon). Will one of the two that I have already decided not to read win it all? Or perhaps it will be one of the ones I'm lukewarm about? 

Love Forms by Claire Adam -- read (8/2) but don't think it's prize caliber

The South by Tash Aw - read (7/21) liked it

Universality by Natasha Brown - read it (8/16), liked it

One Boat by Jonathan Buckley - hold placed

  

Flashlight by Susan Choi - ("in transit" for me)  picked up 9/3, *started reading 9/9, $Finished it, liked it

 

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai - hold placed - ready for pickup Oct 1

 

Audition by Katie Kitamura - read (4/20) Yawn. I think I've read too much Kitamura. 

 

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits - sounds interesting but my libraries don't have it. Looks like the USA ed won't be published until January 2026; *9/9 on order in Encore . Yay@ Hod placed at Lion Oct 1

 

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller - hold placed

 
Endling by Maria Reva - read (7/5)  liked this one

Flesh by David Szalay - checked it out from library,  but have decided not to read it.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood - not at all interested in this.

Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga - hold placed