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

 

July 2025

Henri Matisse. The Music Lesson, summer 1917, Oil on canvas. The Barnes Foundation.
The painting featured in The Art of Vanishing 

Finding (stumbling on?) the true story Lost and Found (and Found!) Books by Suzanne Karr Schmidt  was a great way to start off a reader's month! How did I find it? I did my usual daily check at Shelf Awareness (the Book Trade issue for July 1, 2025) where I found an item (and link) about the winner of the Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award. Of course I followed the link which led me to the Newberry Library and I started exploring. And I said to myself "What a wonderful blog!"

 

It seems there's no end to the "last" titles.  (See February 28, 2025 post.) I Found a few good ones (and a  couple of real duds) this month. I also made a mini-prompt (for this month) to salute the season with some books with "summer" in the title. Not surprisingly, the two prompts overlapped.

 

And what is summer without road trips? Richard Ratay gives a mixture of memoir and history of such trips in Don't Make Me Pull Over! His family trips in the 1970s mid-USA were not like our family trips in California in the 1940s and 50s. Then again, no two road trips are alike. Isn't that why we take them?

 

I read bunch of really good books this month. Even the lesser ones were mostly pretty good. And considering how much I read there weren't a lot of DNFs. I didn't read as much online as usual. Also I haven't been reading as much lit in translation as usual.

 

August may be a challenge. There seems to be some sort of problem with our library system deliveries. I have two books on the holds shelf and ten "in transit." Several have been "in transit" for over a week.  So today twelve books are being returned and only two are being picked up. No browsing because someone else is doing  the transporting for me. I have a list but it's going to be another scorcher today so she will just want to get the errand done as quickly as possible. I won't push my luck and ask for more.

 

I may be working on my "owned but unread" TBR shelf for a few days. I'll spend tomorrow  (the 31st) choosing some and doing some online stuff.

 

Update: She offered to take my list! (Four books.) 

 

But I'll still work on that TBR list. Really, I will! Sure.

 

Here's what she checked out for me: 

   Love Forms by Adam, Claire 
  The Woman in Suite 11 (Lo Blacklock, #2) by Ware, Ruth
  A Burning by Majumdar, Megha
  City of Night Birds by Kim, Juhea
  Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Mann, Sally
  Pan by Clune, Michael 

I'm not sure I will finish a couple of these. There are still ten in transit. 

 

Really, I will read from my TBR shelf. Maybe, if more holds don't come in. 

 

Here are the July reads. The fiction list is in jumbled order with the 'last" and "summer" prompt books singled out.

Fiction:

Blame by Huneven, Michelle 

Flawed characters galore trapped in a great story of recovery.

Off Course by Huneven, Michelle

Another good one by a favorite author. 

Far and Away by Poeppel, Amy 

House swapping between Berlin and Dallas. A fun read.

The Correspondent by Evans, Virginia 

Wow! It's been a while since I read a novel straight through in basically one sitting (taking time out to eat). Really, really good.  

Endling by Riva, Maria 

Wasn't sure I liked the meta bit but finally decided it was ok and ended up giving it four stars.

The South by Aw, Tash 

Another good one. Coming of age in rural Malaysia. 

The Accidental Favorite by Littlewood, Fran 

Three generations of a family spend a week in a glass house.  Nobody, except the reader, has a good time. 

The Art of Vanishing by Pager, Morgan 

What would happen if a viewer could climb into a painting? In this story it's Matisse’s The Music Lesson. 

The Hymn to Dionysus by Pulley, Natasha 

Excellent.  

The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Hogan, Ruth

Wavering between two and three stars. Almost everyone in the story is dealing with grief,  but in very different ways. I wish she'd spent more time developing characters and less on detailed descriptions of rooms and furnishings. 

Welcome to Murder Week by Dukess, Karen 

Fun. A bunch of Americans participate in a mock murder investigation in an English village.

I'll Be Right Here by Bloom, Amy 

Interesting characters.

The Misfortunates by Verhulst, Dimitri; translated from the Dutch by Colmer, David

Beer boozing Belgians. 

The Impressionist by Kunzru, Hari

I liked most of this... 

The Homemade God by Joyce, Rachel

There were problems with this. The beginning was good and I liked the ending but I got bogged down and skimmed  a bit in the middle.  

The Horse by Vlautin, Willy

A washed up musician reminisces about booze, women, songwriting etc. while he tries to figure out what to do about a stray lame horse. Only 194 pages but 50 would have been enough.  Meh.

 

Chronicle of a Last Summer by El Rashidi, Yasmine 

A very nice reward for my personal prompt to read books with the word "last" in the title. 

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Friedland, Elyssa 

Three generations of two families face the decline of their Catskill resort. 

Our Last Resort by Michallon, Clémence  

This resort is not on its last legs in the Catskills. It's an upscale one in the Southwest. It has a dual timeline and both drag. It has its good points but it could be much better, My least favorite "last" book for this month. Or, rather, it my least favorite of those that I read. See DNF below for a couple that were worse! 

 

Summer at Gaglow by Freud, Esther

Also really good.  

Kakigori Summer by Itami, Emily 

What a lovely surprise.  When I first saw the title I thought "Kakigori" was  a place name. But it's not a place - it's a Japanese summertime treat. And so is this book. 

    

One Day When You Leave the Black Mountains by Lena Ruth Stefanović; translated from Montenegrin by Will Firth

Nonfiction:

The Last Sweet Bite: Stories and Recipes of Culinary Heritage Lost and Found by Shaikh, Michael 

A decent but difficult read.  

Last Call at Coogan's: The Life and Death of a Neighborhood Bar by Michaud, Jon

A bit of northern Manhattan (Washington Heights & Inwood) history (1985-2020). 

Don't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip by Ratay, Richard

Was getting there half the fun?  

 

You’ve Been Fictionalized! an essay by Michelle Huneven

 

Constantinople painted by Warwick Goble and described by Alexander Van Millingen (1906)

Rome painted by Alberto Pisa; text By M. A. R. Tuker and Hope Malleson (1905)

Two Gutenberg finds that I skimmed most of the text and enjoyed the pictures. 

OPEN-AIR CAFÉ, STAMBOUL

AT THE FOOT OF THE SPANISH STEPS, PIAZZA DI SPAGNA, ON A WET DAY

  

Chinese recipes by Nellie Choy Wong. Original publication date: 1927

Basic recipes but the cover is neat.

 

DNF:

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese by Paterniti, Michael 

Or, How to turn what could have been an interesting article on a foodie site into 344 pages of bullshit and blather. Abandoned at page 82. 

My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Allende, Isabel; translated from the Spanish by Riddle, Frances

Every so often I decide to give Allende another chance. Got to page 54 (of 336) this time. 

Food Person by Roberts, Adam D.

Lame. Quit at about 20% 

Last Light over Carolina by Monroe, Mary Alice 

Didn't keep my interest. 

Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Weisberger, Lauren 

Just awful! 

June 2025

“The sun’s farewell glance spread a woven gold mantilla on the naked shoulders of a grim, forbidding world and the motor car sank, helpless, into the mud as if, also, its day was done.” From El Toro

 

 

June didn't start off very promising. Presidential noir Just didn't sit well, Christopher Moore disappointed, and what could have been a good debut by Sarah Hamden had too many bad jokes.

I find it hard to believe that it's June and I just read my first book this year with a South American setting. I wasn't impressed. It was just so,so.

Things started looking better with Aftertaste and I Leave It Up to You but one was good the other was not. The stories were a mix bag. Swift and Trollope being the best.

I also read some from some of my favorite authors (the first five listed plus Doig, Swift, and Trollope).  

I continued with the "last" in titles. (See February 28, 2025 post.) The one about the library was not my favorite but I liked the Doig.

So it turned out to be a pretty good month of reading. and July looks promising. I just started Kakigori Summer and it looks pretty good. Today I'm picking up  Endling by Reva, Maria; Hombrecito by Sanchez, Santiago Jose; and I'll Be Right Here by Bloom, Amy.

Fiction:

Bug Hollow by Huneven, Michelle 

Super good family story. 

Albion by Hope, Anna 

Another  good one.

Enlightenment by Perry, Sarah  

Sort of off beat but I liked it.

So Far Gone by Walter, Jess 

A good book but a bad time for me to be reading it.

Written on the Dark by Kay, Guy Gavriel 

Good but not GGK's best.

 

The Undercurrent by Sawyer, Sarah 

A very good debut novel. 

I Leave It Up to You by Chong, Jinwoo
A solid three stars. Korean/American

The Wangs vs. the World by Chang, Jade 

Another good Asian/American story. This one is Chinese/Taiwanese/American.

10 Marchfield Square by Whyte, Nicola 

A slow paced cozy. Good, bit it could use a jolt of caffeine or something.  

The Tokyo Suite by Madalosso, Giovana; translated from the Portuguese by Dantas Lobato, Bruna

Meh. Nanny tries to kidnap her charge. Fails. Set in Brazil.

People We Meet on Vacation by Henry, Emily

Very light "friends to lovers." Next month I'll probably have totally forgotten it. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. 

What Will People Think? by Hamdan, Sara

Debut novel. Mixed on this one. I liked the basic story--but.... The humor in it was everything I hate about stand up comedy. Crass ethnic jokes.  Unfunny. and the cover blurb says "hilarious." No, it isn't.

See: Loss. See Also: Love. by Tominaga, Yukiko 
Just not very good. Disorganized, put together from previously published material.

 

Last Bus to Wisdom by Doig, Ivan

I enjoyed this 1950s road trip (by Greyhound bus). A twelve year old boy and his great uncle run away from home....well, not exactly but sort of.

The Last Chance Library by Sampson, Freya 

Stereotypes galore: people, plot devices, relationships, places, events, etc.

 

Short Stories: 

The Faking of the President: Nineteen Stories of White House Noir by Carlaftes, Peter  

The trouble with this is the subject. Nothing writers of noir fiction could write about the presidents could possible be more noir than what actually goes on.

Contents: Foreword: by Peter Carlaftes -- Burning Love / by Alison Gaylin -- Is This Tomorrow / by Angel Luis Colón -- Y2 Effin' K / by Gary Phillips -- Article 77 / by Eric Beetner -- All Big Men Are Dreamers / by Mary Anna Evans -- Reckless Disregard / by Abby L. Vandiver -- 999 Points of Light / by S.A. Cosby -- The Dreadful Scott Decision / by Greg Herren -- The Great Compromise Of 1901 / by Erica Wright -- The Madison Conspiracy: Dolley Madison's Zinger / by Christopher Chambers -- Long Live Long / by Kate Flora -- Mother of Exiles / by S.J. Rozan -- Services Rendered / by Nikki Dolson -- In Mother We Trust / by Sarah M. Chen -- Andrew Jackson Beats Death / by Adam Lance Garcia -- Old Pharaoh / by Danny Gardner -- The Camelot Complex / by Alex Segura -- The Event That Didn't Happen / by Travis Richardson -- But One Life to Give / by Peter Carlaftes.

 

Atavists: Stories by Millet, Lydia  

Loosely linked stories with recurring characters. Some of the stories lack coherence and are more like episodes than stories. A couple end abruptly with the end seeming to have little to do with the story. There was some good stuff but not enough.

Contents: Tourist -- Dramatist -- Fetishist -- Artist -- Terrorist -- Mixologist -- Gerontologist -- Pastoralist -- Cultist -- Futurist -- Insurrectionist -- Therapist -- Cosmetologist -- Optimist.

 

Twelve Post-War Tales by Swift, Graham 

Best of the short story collections. 

Contents: The next best thing -- Blushes -- Chocolate -- Beauty -- Zoo -- Hinges -- Fireworks -- Kids -- Black -- Palace -- Bruises -- Passport.
 

The Mistletoe Bough a story by Anthony Trollope

 

Poetry: 

Cathay by Ezra Pound and Bai Li , 1915. The title page calls these "Trenslations by Ezra Pound" but they aren't really translations. See Wikipedia entries:   Cathay (poetry collection) and Li Bai for more information on how these translations came about and why Li Bai is referred to as "Rihaku."

 

The Wikipedia entry for Li Bai led me to lots of Net wandering.... 

 

Nonfiction: 

El Toro : A motor car story of interior Cuba by Estep, E. Ralph;  Packard Motor Car Company, 1909

A great road trip! 

 

So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs—and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease by Levenson, Thomas

Okchundang Candy by Go, Jung-soon; translated from the Korean by Park, Aerin

Memoir of her life with her grandparents. Middle Grade. 

Beer, its history and its economic value as a national beverage by Salem, Frederick William, Publ. 1080

His motto is  “Beer Against Whisky."  He argues against prohibition and Sunday closings. There are lots of statistics of beer production, ingredients, alcoholic content, etc., especially for the years 1878-79. 

One Day at the Saigon Zoo by Connla Stokes 

 

DNF:

Days of Light by Hunter, Megan 

At about halfway through I got really tired of the empty characters. 

Sleep by Jones, Honor  

Ugh! 

Aftertaste by Lavelle, Daria
Started out really good and descended into chaos. The format was confusing and I just didn't care to figure it out.

Anima Rising by Moore, Christopher

Sometimes I really like Christopher Moore but not this time. Too much gross sex, violence, etc. 

Parasol Against the Axe by Oyeyemi, Helen 

Another author whose work I sometimes like but I just couldn't get into this one. 

May 2025 -- Second Half

 

Back to print books and there are some good ones here.  Two road trips with mixed up families. Both were a mixture of light and dark; serious subjects given a light touch. In fact most of what I read during the last half of May dealt with dark themes. Interesting how they were all given different treatments.

And I managed to continue collecting the word "last" in titles. (See February 28, 2025 post.) One was pretty good the other was a DNF dud. 

Fiction: 

The Names by Knapp, Florence 

Three tellings of the same lives.  All rather dark.

The Red House by Morris, Mary

Jews in WW2 Italy. More darkness.

Old School Indian by Curtis, Aaron John 
An ailing Akwesasne (St. Regis Mohawk Tribe) man returns to the Rez after living in Virginia and Florida.

Awake in the Floating City by Kwan, Susanna

Dystopian novel. San Francisco flooded. Artist/caregiver. debut novel

Run for the Hills by Wilson, Kevin

Newly found half siblings go on a road trip.

The Road to Tender Hearts by Hartnett, Annie 

A 60 something man, his single daughter, his newly found orphaned grand niece and nephew, and a cat go on a road trip. 

 

Famous Last Words by McAllister, Gillian 

Some suspense, some twists, some police procedures, family relationships, maybe too many notes. But I'll probably give this author anther try.

 

Target Island a story by Mariah Rigg

 

Nonfiction:

Mijn Land, Zuid-Holland, Vol. 3 (of 11) by G. J. Nijland; Jan Godefroy, illustrator. (1929)

Just for the pictures, I don't read Dutch. 

 

Eat the City: A Tale of the Fishers, Foragers, Butchers, Farmers, Poultry Minders, Sugar Refiners, Cane Cutters, Beekeepers, Winemakers, and Brewers Who Built New York by Shulman, Robin

Interesting subject but the structure within each was choppy. It would have been nice to have some pictures,

 

Notes on Jacaranda Season an essay by Evelyn Fok

 

DNF:

The Book Eaters by Dean, Sunyi
It's rare for me to give up on a book when I'm half-way through but at page 157 I quit. 

Play the Fool by Chern, Lina 

Too many dumb choices in too few pages. Only read three (short) chapters.

Upon a Starlit Tide by Woods, Kell 

Read 122 of 432 pages and not much happened. The pace was way too slow.

The Last Ferry Out by Bartz, Andrea

Read the first fifty pages, got bored, skipped and read the end. I have no interest in what's in between.

May 2025 -- Weekend Online Intermission

Except for a few minutes of bedtime reading of actual physical books each night, my mid-May weekend was spent online.

On Saturday the 17th I did my usual morning puzzles and stuff and then went Net surfing.

I explored TSLR (The Shanghai Literary Review) Online which publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translation, reviews, criticism, art, and interviews. 

Another lit magazine I spent some time with is Hazlitt which includes "journalism, fiction, columns, interviews, comics and more...."

A random Gutenberg search turned up some fun picture books and some oddities.

After a token amount of housework the exploring continued on Sunday....

Emma Sloley's web site led me to another lit magazine - Craft - which includes  fiction, creative nonfiction, essays and interviews. "All published creative pieces include an author’s note and an editorial introduction that both discuss stylistics in the work."  Also JMWW a weekly journal of fiction, poetry, flash, essays, and interviews.

A visit to one of my favorite sites The Good Life France revealed that I was a tad late for a special saint's day.  Saint Honoré | A French cake & Patron Saint of bakers  an essay by Ally Mitchell reminded me that it was Friday, May 16. As always, TGLF has gorgeous food pictures.  Cake!

Not to worry as my housemate did go bakery shopping that day and came home with muffins, scones, and croissants. But I don't have pictures because...there were snacks and breakfasts between then and my discovery of the article.

Fiction: 

Three Punky Dunk Books:

Published P. F. Volland, Chicago, 1912 with no author/illustrator credit. According to Wikipedia Charlotte B. Herr was the author. The illustrator was probably Frances Beem.

Punky Dunk and the Spotted Pup   (Illustration above is from this book)
Punky Dunk and the Mouse
Punky Dunk and the Gold Fish

 

Other works  by Herr on  Gutenberg: 

The Wise Mamma Goose (Volland, 1913) Illustrated by Beem
How Freckle Frog Made Herself Pretty (Volland 1913) Illustrated by Beem

 

Their Mariposa Legend: A Romance of Santa Catalina (no publisher nor date given on the Gutenberg edition; The Library of Congress record has:  Pasadena, Calif. : Post Printing and Binding Co., c1921. LOC also credits an illustrator but the Gutenberg file has no illustration.)

This a longer work and is not a picture book. I am struggling to read this and doubt that I'll get any further than these opening paragraphs

   " It began to happen a long time ago, centuries ago, when, in a fragrant rush of rain, spring came one day to Punagwandah, fairest of the Channel Islands. Beneath the golden mists of sunrise danced a radiant sea. On steeply sloping hillsides where thickets of wild lilac bloomed, the lark shook from his tiny throat a tumult of glad music. In shadowed niches of the canyons lilies waited to fill with light their gleaming ivory cups. Spring in very truth was there.

And looking down upon it from her cavern bower high above the beach, watched the Princess Wildenai. Kneeling there, the light of dawn shining on her long black hair, she was, herself, the sweetest blossom of the spring. Loveliest was she among all the maidens of the Mariposa and of royal blood besides; although of this the great chief Torquam, who even at that moment lay sleeping in his lodge of deerskin on the crescent beach below, knew more than he had ever told.

With eyes rapt, her breath scarcely stirring the folds of softest fawnskin drawn across her breast, the princess bent her gaze to where the waves ran silver on the ocean's distant rim. There she knew the sun must rise and, as the first dazzling ray sparkled across the water, she rose slowly until she stood erect, a slender, graceful figure against the dim, gray rocks, and stretching her arms toward the East, spoke in the musical words of her people. "

 

Other works illustrated by Beem on Gutenberg:

Bully Bull Frog and His Home in Rainbow Valley by Elizabeth Stafford Fry (Rand McNally, 1921)
Dolly and Molly and the Farmer Man by Elizabeth Gordon (Rand McNally, 1914)

And now for something a little more serious...

A Simple Soul  a novella by Flaubert, Gustave

 

Two from TSLR:

 “Quarantine Hotel”  a story by Zhou Hau Liew

 Nan a story  by Alyson McDevitt

 

from Craft:

The Sand Nests a story by Emma Sloley

because if something no right, you no suppose sit down and look a story by Ayotola Tehingbola

 

Nonfiction:

From Gutenberg:

The Russian Ballet by Ellen Terry ; illustrated with drawings by Pamela Colman Smith (Bobbs-Merrill, 1913)

 

From Hazlitt:

The Women Who Speak For the Gods by By Juli Min 

shamanism in Korea

Mourning My Dad, the Identical Twin By Allison LaSorda 

From JMWW:

Things I Wish I’d Bought essay by Emma Sloley

Your Lebanon: Four Sides an essay by Sandra Carlson Khalil

May 2025 -- First Half

“Waddle for your life!” squeaked Puddle, hanging on tight.

Started the month by finishing Outermark which was a great read. Then I started and rejected The Champagne Letters (not listed below because I only read a few chapters). Then the excellent A House for Miss Pauline. Then the so-so Sweet Vidalia. Is this how the month will go? Back and forth between great and notso great?

Looked up Dianna McCaulay which led me to PREE an online magazine for new contemporary writing from and about the Caribbean. It includes  fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays, interviews and experimental writing. Also poked around a bit on the website of  The Jamaica Environment Trust which McCaulay founded.

Actually the first half of May delivered some fine reading!

Fiction:   

Outermark by Brown, Jason 

One Fifth Avenue by Bushnell, Candace

New Yorkers being at the center of their little universes.

Things Don't Break on Their Own by Collins, Sarah Easter 

Lots of things are broken in this tale of a dysfunctional family.

A House for Miss Pauline by McCaulay, Diana

Are there ghosts in this Jamaican house built from the rubble of a slaveowner's plantation? 

David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair by Némirovsky, Irène; translated from the French by Smith, Sandra; introduction by Messud, Claire

Perspective(s) by Binet, Laurent; translated from the French by Taylor, Sam

Yes! Loved this investigation of a murder in 16th Century Florence.

The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Hooper, Elise 

Another good one!

Elektra by Saint, Jennifer 

A good retelling.

The Lilac People by Todd, Milo 

A different look at WW2 in Germany. LGBT+

Midnight at the Dragon Café by Bates, Judy Fong 

Got a slow start on this but stayed with it and ended up liking it.

Red Clay by Fancher, Charles B. 

A promising debut.

Sweet Vidalia by Sandlin, Lisa 

soso

The Usual Desire to Kill by Barnes, Camilla 

Tedious.

 

The Dinky Ducklings by Lang Campbell (Algonquin Publishing Company, 1928) 

Fun artwork, some racist language typical of the times.

The Last Lady of Mulberry: A Story of Italian New York by Thomas, Henry Wilton; illustrated by Pollak, Emil

First published in 1900. I don't think it aged well.

 

Preservation a story by by Andrew Cominelli

Bouyon a story by Savannah Balmir

Cassiopeia a story by Gabriel Urza

 

Poetry:

Water, Water: Poems by Collins, Billy 

 

Nonfiction:

Raising Hare: A Memoir by Dalton, Chloe; illustrated by Nestor, Denise

Excellent! 

Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life And Works by Weiss, Jonathan; translated from the French by Weiss, Dace

Informative discussion. Sheds some light on Nimirovsky's depiction of Jews.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Garten, Ina

A pleasant read

Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive by Stein, Eliot 

Too much padding, too much of the author.  After the first two or three essays they all sounded alike.

Domestic life in New England in the seventeenth century: A Discourse Delivered in the Lecture Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, it being one of a Series designed to mark the Opening of the American Wing. By George Francis Dow. [1925}

 

I Know I’ll Be OK as Long as I Have a Bag of Frozen Peas in My Freezer short essay by by Rachel Perlmutter

Do we have peas in our freezer? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

 

The Sutter County Museum  has a searchable archive of the Hustorical Society's Bulletin.

Sutter County Historical Society News Bulletin,  Vol. XXXV No. 4 Yuba City, California October. 1994

This publication interests me because I spent some formative years in the area. This issue contains an article by Marian Regli ("Teaching in a Rural School"). Her wedding in June 1947 is the first wedding I can remember attending.

 

Rejects These were returned to library unread (decided not to read after a chapter or less):

Checkout 19 by Bennett, Claire-Louise

Experimental novel that didn't work for me--didn't get far at all
The cure for women : Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the challenge to Victorian medicine that changed women's lives forever  by Reeder, Lydia

Boring and not worth my time
The fact checker : a novel by Kelley, Austin

This "laugh-out-loud funny" book isn't --it doesn't even make me smile.
The big fix by James, Holly

Can't remember why I ditched this

Raw dog : the naked truth about hot dogs by Loftus, Jamie

Might be the worst book I tried to read this year.