November 2021

Eyes still a problem hence not much online reading because of the brightness of the screen. However the major problem is that one eye has been cleared of cataracts and has new lens but the other eye hasn't been done yet (scheduled for next week). Still, I managed to read some good books. The novel about Coco Chanel was the only disappointment. Loved the Walser biography (a nice birthday present!). The two translated novels were excellent!

 

Fiction: 

The Interim by Wolfgang Hilbig; translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole

The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali; translated from the Hebrew by Daniella Zamir  

The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine

 Yes!

Feral Creatures (Hollow Kingdom #2) by Kira Jane Buxton

 Liked the first book better, but this was pretty good.

Still Life by Sarah Winman 

 A delightful romp with some serious moments. Must read more by Winman.

Airadne by Jennifer Saint

 An OK retelling bit not a great one.

No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield 

  A nice diversion but Gone Girl it ain't.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #1) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi; translated from the  Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot  

  This was fun I may seek out #2 when I want something not too challenging.

Mademoiselle Chanel by by C.W. Gortner 

  Bah!

Nonfiction: 

Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser by Susan Bernofsky

The Vanished Collection by Pauline Baer de Perignon; translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer 

  This was a LibraryThing advance reader copy giveaway. A bit dis-jointed but interesting account of a search for Nazi looted family art.

Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen

  The seven are:  Chao Yang Buwei, Elena Zelayeta, Madeleine Kamman, Marcella Hazan, Julie Sahni, Najmieh Batmanglij, and Norma Shirley. (There is also a brief nod to Julia Child.) Although I had previously heard about or seen tv/books/recipes by most of these, the only one whose background I knew much about was Elena Zelayeta. The chapter on Najmieh Batmanglij was my favorite.

October 2001

Quite a few books considering blurry vision and eye surgery. One (by Jeffers) was 800 pages and well worth the time and energy spent reading it. Cuba, another good read, was over 550 pages.  The first four on the fiction list were outstanding. The next pretty good. I enjoyed the poetry. I also had some fun exploring on Gutenberg. Only dud this month was Maud Dixon.

Fiction:

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Four Minutes by Nataliya Deleva; translated from the Bulgarian by Izidora Angel

Olga by Bernhard Schlink; translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

Oh William! by Elizabeth  Strout

Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams 

Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

  the least of the bunch, I can't figure out why I bothered to finish it.

The Liberry by Ian Hay

 Fun short story

 

Poetry:

Two Half Faces by Mustafa Stitou; translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

Childrens:

The Woodcutter's Dog by Charles Nodier; translated from the French (unnamed translator); illustrated by Claud Lovat Fraser

 

 

Nonfiction:

Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer

Modern Dancing and Dancers by J.E. Crawford Flitch

 Love the pictured in this 1912 publication.

Isadora Duncan

Regina Badet

The Book Collector essay by Charles Nodier; translated by Barbara Sessions; foreword by Philip Hofer

 

September 2021

A mixed bag for September. Having eye problems so not reading much at night. (Surgery Scheduled for late Oct-early Nov.)

Fiction:

Slipping by Mohamed Kheir; translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger

The Last Debutantes by Georgie Blalock 

 Gossipy London on the eve of WW2
Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi; translated from the Spanish by  Alfred J. MacAdam
Monkey Hunting by Cristina García
The Island  by Victoria Hislop

 Life in a Greek (Crete) leper colony
Indiana, Indiana by Laird Hunt
The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue

Love Like Water, Love Like Fire by Mikhail Iossel
 Meh. Advance Review Copy via LibraryThing

Nonfiction:
Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier by Richard Cahan

 Didn't care much for this collection.

Europe in Sepia by Dubravka Ugrešić: translated from the Croation by  David Williams

 Essays

The Field House: A Writer's Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine by Robin Clifford Wood 

  Liked the biographical part about Rachel Field; did not like the Robin Wood memoir part written as letters to Field.

Far Away from Close to Home: A Black Millennial Woman In Progress by Vanessa Baden Kelly
 Essays to make you think. Advance Review Copy via LibraryThing

Online:

Mancala, the National Game of Africa by Stewart Culin 

 If one can get past the notion in the title that "Africa" is a nation, this is an interesting study of a game that has (and was in 1894 when this was written) a distribution far wider than Africa.

The History of Coffee in France by Sue Aran

August 2021 - Second Half

Well I didn't manage to read everything on my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021" list. Actually there were 25 items on that list, I read 19 of them. There are a couple I probably won't read, the others? Maybe...

I also read a bunch of other things, several from my TBR shelves. Also did some weeding and got rid of some TBRs that I know I'll never read.

Here's what I read in the second half of August.

 

Fiction: 

Among the Hedges by Sara Mesa; translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell (my copy)

  Teenage girl makes friends with older mentally challenged man. 

Villa del Sol by Martha Reynolds (on Kindle, gift from the author)

  Rhode Island Politician's widow seek privacy in one of my favorite places -- Lugano.

All You Could Ask For by Mike Greenberg (my copy)

  A tale of three women with breast cancer.

The Clerk by Guillermo Saccomanno; translated from the Spanish by Andrea G. Labinger (my copy)
Prayer for the Living by Ben Okri (advance review copy via LibraryThing
Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola (review copy via Goodreads) meh.
Two Lines 31  edited by CJ Evans (this was part of a subscription, it's been at the bottom of a stack for two years)

Childrens:
The Seashore Book: Bob and Betty's Summer with Captain Hawes story and pictures by E Boyd Smith

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 Teachy but mostly pleasant text that tells kids what can be found at the seashore (in 1912). I liked the art work.

Nonfiction:

The Crest of the Continent: A Summer's Ramble in the Rocky Mountains and Beyond by Ernest Ingersoll

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  This was a real slog. Ingersoll, his wife, and three companions explore the Rockies in a private train apparently provided by the railroad as a promotional journey. Ingersoll is coy about his companions identifying them as "At least two of the gentlemen you would recognize at once, were I to give you their names." He calls these two "the artist" and "the photographer" throughout the text, the third he calls "the musician." Since the three are along for about half the expedition (the first 15 of 37 chapters) I did a little Web sleuthing. A biography of Thomas Moran (Thomas Moran: Artist of the Mountains by Thurman Wilkins) provided the answer. They were Moran; photographer William Henry Jackson; and John Karst a wood engraver called "the musician because he brought along his violin.

Ingersoll doesn't provide exact dates but the journey seems to go on forever with way too much description of places that all begin to sound alike. 

 

Online: 

Thomas Moran and the Spirit of Place gives more info on Moran and links to more.

 

Four Weeks in the Trenches: The War Story of a Violinist by Fritz Kreisler

 "The world’s greatest violinist served as lieutenant in the present war until wounded by a Cossack’s lance in a hand-to-hand fight before Lemberg. This book is the record of what he saw and experienced. It is the first account of the fighting by a man who actually fought, a story of hardship and heroism as graphic as it is thrilling. Illustrated from photographs." from an advertisement by the publisher (Houghton Mifflin) in The Little Review, May 1915.  

Note: the photographs are not included in the main text in Project Gutenberg. They may each be viewed separately from the eight JPEG Picture links. 

 

I found a nice series of water color books on Gutenberg

Chester Water-Colours by Edward Harrison Compton

 No text, just lovely artwork.

The Phœnix Tower (King Charles’s Tower).

 Cotswolds Water-Colours by George Frank Nicholls

 

I'm currently exploring:

Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts a student run journal from the University of Houston English Department.

August 2021 - First Half

I'm breaking August into two parts as it's getting rather long.

 

This month I have been concentrating on my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021" project. It's been going quite nicely. There have been a few interruptions as holds placed at the library ages ago have come in. Also there are several online wanderings mostly related to the project. Since the summer books are all on Project Gutenberg there is much Googling to identify people and places. 

 

 I have been updating the original post with "date read" notes. Of the 23 items on the list I read 4 in June, 5 in July, and 8 (as of Aug. 12) in August. That leaves 6.

 

Fiction:

Fault Lines by Emily Itami. (Advance copy via Goodreads) A pleasant summer read about a restless housewife in contemporary Tokyo.

A Song Everlasting by Ha Jin. (library book) A self-exiled singer from mainland China trying to make a go of it in New York and Boston.

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia. (library book) The paths of two women immigrants one Cuban and one (undocumented) Salvadorian cross in Maimi.
Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce. (library book) A complicated, multi viewpoint, story set mostly in the Black nightclubs of 1920s Chicago.

Short Stories:

Rocket Summer by Ray Bradbury (This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1947.)

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

Ham Sandwich by James H. Schmitz  (This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction June 1963.)

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 

Poetry:

Queen Summer; Or, The Tourney of the Lily and the Rose by Walter Crane 

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

Summer of Love by Joyce Kilmer 

   One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 A collection of nearly 60 poems, most of them mercifully short. As for the longer ones, I confess to not getting past the first few stanzas. Too much verse with too little poetry. Here's a sample, the eighth poem in the collection. I should have quit then, if not before.

SLENDER YOUR HANDS

Slender your hands and soft and white

As petals of moon-kissed roses;

Yet the grasp of your fingers slight

My passionate heart encloses.

Innocent eyes like delicate spheres

That are born when day is dying;

Yet the wisdom of all the years

Is in their lovelight lying.

 

Nonfiction:

Around the World in 80 Plants by by Jonathan Drori; Illustrated by Lucille Clerc. (library book)

 I love his descriptions and her lively illustrations.

 

Handbook of Summer Athletic Sports edited by Fred Whittaker. Published in 1880

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  When I chose this one I hoped for something campy and that it is.

I had also hoped for more illustrations but what few there are entertaining. Who knew that walking was such a popular sport? In my surfing online I found that BBB.com recently published an article about it:

The strange 19th-Century sport that was cooler than football by Zaria Gorvett. This is well illustrated and great fun.

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

   One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

The Three Brothers, Yosemite National Park

"I spent the afternoon in a grand ramble along the Yosemite walls. From the highest of the rocks called the Three Brothers, I enjoyed a magnificent view comprehending all the upper half of the floor of the valley and nearly all the rocks of the walls on both sides and at the head, with snowy peaks in the background. Saw also the Vernal and Nevada Falls, a truly glorious picture,—rocky strength and permanence combined with beauty of plants frail and fine and evanescent; water descending in thunder, and the same water gliding through meadows and groves in gentlest beauty. This standpoint is about eight thousand feet above the sea, or four thousand feet above the floor of the valley, and every tree, though looking small and feathery, stands in admirable clearness, and the shadows they cast are as distinct in outline as if seen at a distance of a few yards. They appeared even more so. No words will ever describe the exquisite beauty and charm of this mountain park—Nature’s landscape garden at once tenderly beautiful and sublime. No wonder it draws nature-lovers from all over the world." from Muir's entry of August 13 [1869].

Pavlova

 

 

Ernesto Garcia Cabral: A Mexican Cartoonist by G. R. G. Conway  

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 Many of the subjects are 1920s Mexican political figures but there are also caricatures of William Howard Taft,  William Randolph Hearst, Henry Ford, Anna Pavlova, Jack Dempsey., and other internationally known people of the times. There are also cartoons of political and social issues.

 I had a good time Googling in order to compare his drawings with actual photograph of his subjects.

                                                                                                                                     

After Icebergs with a Painter by Louis Legrand Noble 

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

This was fun! The "Painter" in the title is never actually named in the text, he is simply referred to as  C_____.  But it was clear to people of the time (1859) that it was Frederic Church, a landscape painter of the Hudson Valley School. An exciting and interesting account both of travel of the time and Church's efforts to get up close and sketch the icebergs in spite of rough seas and bouts of seasickness. 

 I was curious of what became of whatever Church painted as a result of this trip. That led me to this gem:

 

The Voyage of the Icebergs: Frederic Church’s Arctic Masterpiece by Elanor Jones Harvey; Gerald L. Carr, contributor.

 This traces the history of the painting from an unsuccessful attempt by Church to sell it in New York, to it's shipment to London to a successful sale. Thence to obscurity in Manchester (England) until it was found and shipped to New York to be sold at auction in 1979. It was purchased by an anonymous buyer setting an auction high for any American painting. And then gifted to to the Dallas Museum of Art.

 

From there I went online to Olana, Church's Hudson Valley home which is now a New York State Historic Site. Lovely, and just a couple of hours away from my place. Have added it to my "Places to Visit after Covid19" list.

July 2021

 

THE CHIFF-CHAFF
             (Phylloscopus rufa)             
From Our Summer Migrants

Very good reading in July (other than the Ken Follett, which was dreadful).

Fiction: 

Vera by Carol Edgarian

 San Francisco, 1906.

The Hidden Palace (The Golem and the Jinni, #2) by Helene Wecker

 A thoroughly satisfying squeal. 

The Dark Library by Cyrille Martinez; translated from the French  by Joseph Patrick Stancil  

Red Island House by Andrea Lee

 Expats in Madagascar

The Paris Library by  Janet Skeslien Charles 

 The American Library in Paris during World War 2
Winter in Sokcho by by Elisa Shua Dusapin; translated from the French by Aneesa Higgins

 Off season in a South Korean seaside town.

A Thousand Moons (Days Without End #2) by Sebastian Barry

 I haven't read the first book but it didn't seem to spoil my enjoyment of this one.

Address Unknown by Katherine Kressmann Taylor

Indian Summer by Emily Grant Hutchings 

 The beginning made me think that this might turn out to be a DNF bummer, but then I really got into it and enjoyed it. Some background info on Emily Grant Hutchings.

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

  Read the first few chapters, then skipped and skimmed thinking it would get better. It didn't. This was very, very bad. Ugh!

Short Stories: 

Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat

Summer Guests by James H. Schmitz  (This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1959)
 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

Summer Snow Storm by Stephen Marlowe (This etext was produced from Amazing Stories, October 1956)

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 

Nonfiction:

The White Road: Journey into an Obsession by Edmund de Waal

Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley  

The Appalachian Trail: A Biography by Philip D'Anieri
The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss

Bicycling with Butterflies by Sara Dykman

 A round trip adventure!  For more see her Beyond a Book

Our Summer Migrants by James Edmund Harting: An Account 0f the Migratory Birds Which Pass The Summer In The British Island; illustrated by Thomas Bewick

 The illustrations are lovely even though they are only in black and white. I found myself Googling for colored pictures. After reading Sara Dykman's Butterfly book where the emphasis is on protecting a species, it was rather disturbing how often these 19th Century ornithologists shot the birds in order to study and identify them. Of course in 1875 they didn't have color photography and fast cameras, but still....

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 

Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember Their Mothers edited by by Esmeralda Santiago and 

Joie Davidow

Contents:
First born / Esmeralda Santiago
My mother in the nude / Maria Amparo Escandon
"Hello, Dollinks" : letters from Mom / Mandalit del Barco
Persephone's quest at Waterloo : a daughter's tale / Alba Ambert
Mami, a.k.a. Doña Lola / Piri Thomas
Mami's boy / Gustavo Perez Firmat
Travels with Mami / Liz Balmaseda
September 19, 1985 / Ilan Stavans
A mother named Queen Solitude / Jaime Manrique
!Mamita Linda! / Francisco Goldman
Mi Mommy / Dagoberto Gilb
How (in a time of trouble) I discovered my mom and learned to live / Junot Diaz
Just a woman / Gioconda Belli
Frida, Friduca, Mami / Marjorie Agosin.

Fiction, Juvenile:

Two picture books by French Artist  André Hellé (more, in  French, on  Wikipédia). Loved the pictures so much that I read in French (with a lot of help from Google Translate). It was worth the effort.

L'Arche de Noé (1925)

Histoire de Quillembois Soldat (1919)

Poetry:

A Summer's Poems by Francis J. Lys

Written in August and September, 1893, in Halstatt, Austria. I didn't get much feel of place from them as the they seemed labored and overworked. Constrained, perhaps, by the requirements of rhyme and form.

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  

Online:

Abandoned Rails about old railroad lines in the USA

 

Lost Figures from Mid-Twentieth Century Mexico by Paul Gillingham

 Brief essay on the importance of muleteers, newsboys, and spies in the forming of the nation of Mexico.

Robert Walser and the Russian Ballet by Susan Bernofsky

Remembering Little Syria, a Forgotten Manhattan Neighborhood by Allison Meier

Remembering Manhattan's Little Syria  by Carmen Nigro

What’s left of New York’s Little Syria a short but rich tour by Jeff Karoub

The battle to save New York's 'Little Syria' from being forgotten by Arthur Macmillan

 Some background information about the neighborhood setting of The Hidden Palace.

June 2021

I wasn't planning on listing my non-reading, used to be routine, activities but getting my hair professionally cut for the first time in sixteen months was a really Big Deal! I cut it myself three times (with in between trims on the bangs) during quarantine: the first time I did a really good job but who could see it? the second time was so-so but it looked OK for a medical visit; the third time was a real mess and by the time I was fully vaccinated it looked terrible! 

Another biggie! I resumed my water exercise class. Ahh, did it feel good to be back in the pool! 

As for the reading...some surprises, a couple of disappointments, but mostly good reading.

Fiction:

 Abide with Me by Strout, Elizabeth
  Always reliable Ms Strout

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Zapata, Michael

 I loved this!

Summer : a novel by Wharton, Edith 

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  Unusual Wharton - it's not about the gilded privileged set.

Checkmate to Murder: A Second World War Mystery by Lorac, E.C.R.
 So enjoyable to read the classic mysteries from the British Library/Poisoned Pen Press. Ah the world without smartphones!

Maids by Skelly, Katie
  A graphic interpretation of a real crime (murder) that took place in France in 1933. Grisly but good. 

They Were Found Wanting - They Were Divided (The Writing on the Wall: The Transylvania Trilogy #2-3) by Bánffy, Miklós; translated from the Hungarian by Thursfield, Patrick and Bánffy-Jelen, Kathy
   The Trilogy has been on my to-read list for ages, I'm glad I finally got to it.

 

Turbulence by Szalay, David 

 Linked short stories. One of my favorite reads this month.

A Passage North  by Arudpragasam, Anuk
  I really liked the author's The Story of a Brief Marriage so I was looking forward to this. I received an electronic review copy from the publisher and it was a real struggle to read in that formatI think I need to get a print copy and read it again.

The Charmed Wife by Grushin, Olga  

 I enjoyed this modern day look at the aftermath of the Cinderella story, but I liked Grushin's Forty Rooms more.

Migrations by McConaghy, Charlotte  

 An Irish/Australian woman breaks her parole to follow the migration of arctic terns from Greenland to Antarctica. 

How Beautiful We Were by Mbue, Imbolo 

 An African village vs American Oil interests. This one fell flat for me.

Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop edited by Penzler, Otto

 Seventeen short mystery stories, each by a different author, set in and around Penzler's Manhattan bookshop.  A fun "summer" read.

 Authors:  Charles Ardai, Lisa Atkinson, George Baxt, Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Thomas H. Cook, Ron Goulart, Jeremiah Healy, Edward D. Hoch, Rupert Holmes, Andrew Klavan, Michael Malone, Ed McBain, Anne Perry, S. J. Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Donald E. Westlake.

 

Juvenile fiction:

A Tale of the Summer Holidays by Mockler, Geraldine

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  I was surprised. This was written in the 1890s. I expected tame and sedate. I got a contest the resembled the grass-bomb wars we had defending our "forts" in 1940s rural California.  Good fun.

 

Poetry:

Mortal Summer by Van Doren, Mark

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 What a mishmash! Greek deities and Christian archangels journey to America and mess with rural (hillbilly?) society. Why? Not Van Doren's best effort.  It made little sense.

Nonfiction:
Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way by Gaines, Caseen

 A learning experience.

 

The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History by Givhan, Robin 

  High fashion never made much sense to me. Still doesn't.

 

Letters to Camondo by Waal, Edmund de 

  Well worth the read..

 

Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America’s Most Exclusive Shoreline by Kahrl, Andrew W.

 Some Connecticut history. Wish it had been better organized because it's an important story.

 

Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook by Lipe, Mi Ae 

 Great book but its 4.1 pound weight overwhelmed me even more then the overabundance of collards, chard, lettuce & other greens in our very own CSA box!

My Summer in a Garden, and Calvin: A Study of Character by Warner, Charles Dudley 

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  Warner was a neighbor of Stowe and Twain in the Nook Farm area of Hartford. Similar writing style to Twain. Fun to read. Gardening is not easy in these parts which is why I don't do it.

Online:

Enough with Copenhagen! It is Time for U.S. Cities to Learn From Models Closer to Home by Juan Miró 

Six Degrees of Wikipedia: Find the shortest path between any two Wikipedia pages

 

Several short pieces at New World Writing (published on June 11):

 

   Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things
   Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement
   Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats
   Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces
   Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

 

The Filing Cabinet by Craig Robertson "The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of the 20th-century. Like most infrastructure, it was usually overlooked."

 

20 Best Zucchini Recipes We signed up for a CSA subscription and expect the zucchini will soon be filling the box. I do know lots of zucchini dishes but more is more. In addition to the recipes, this site has tips for handling (including freezing) the squash.

Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things

Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement 

Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats

Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces

Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

High Voltage

Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things

Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement 

Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats

Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces

Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

May 2021

Now that I'm vaccinated I probably can stop logging all these little errands and such. So here's the activities list for what I hope is the last time:

5/3  Verizon store for new Smartphone

5/4   Mah Jongg

5/11 Mah Jongg; Mazzicato Bakery (Middletown): Library

5/18 Mah Jongg; brief walk downtown.

5/25 Picnic; Library

Weather has been cold and rainy so I haven't been out and about as much as I'd like but I've had plenty of time to read some really good books this month. (Nice to be able to browse in the library again!)

Fiction:

They Were Counted (The Writing on the Wall: The Transylvania Trilogy #1) by Bánffy, Miklós; translated from the Hungarian by Thursfield, Patrick and Bánffy-Jelen, Kathy; foreward by Fermor, Patrick Leigh 

Abigail by Szabó, Magda; translated from the Hingarian by Rix, Len

Silence Is a Sense by AlAmmar, Layla 

Oraefi: The Wasteland by Sigurðsson, Ófeigur; translated from the Icelandic by Smith, Lytton 

Miss Mole by Young, E. H. (Emily Hilda) 

Send for Me by Fox, Lauren

Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License by Escandón, María Amparo 

Aviary by McNamer, Deirdre

The Sicilian Method   (Commissario Montalbano #26) by Camilleri, Andrea; translated from the Italian by Sartarelli, Stephen 

The Children's Blizzard by Benjamin, Melanie 

The Performance by Thomas, Claire 

Amy and Isabelle by Strout, Elizabeth

Improvement by Silber, Joan

 

Verse:

More About Teddy B. and Teddy G. The Roosevelt Bears by Seymour Eaton (Paul Piper)

 Audio recordings of this and other Roosevelt Bear books can be found at LibriVox

  

Nonfiction:  

American Covenant: National Parks, Their Promise, and Our Nation's Future by Soukup, Michael A Book Arts of Isfahan: Diversity and Identity in Seventeenth-Century Persia by Taylor, Alice 

Cult Writers: 50 Nonconformist Novelists You Need to Know by Smith, Ian Haydn

 Short (one page) bios, very basic 

Life of James Mars, a Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut by James Mars; first published in the 1860s.

Online:

A Glance at the Life and Times of Miklos Banffy some background material on the author and setting of   The Transylvanian Trilogy which I started this month

Highway of Darkness: A Mystery Reader’s Road Trip Up California’s Highway 99 by Jane Rosenthal

Twenty Books of Summer 2021

 

It's been ages since I've signed up for any challenges but I'll give this one from 746 Books a try. 

 

Since the number twenty is not a challenge for me (I've already read over 80 books this year), I decided to do something to make it more challenging. Project Gutenberg is one of my favorite places to explore so I decided to read twenty books from there -- all with the word "summer" in the title. So I did a quick word search. Of course the results did not all have the word in the title; some were in the author or subject field. For some it wasn't obvious why they came up.

After eliminating those, I still had way more then twenty results. I sorted them to get a variety. There were a lot of travel journals and children's books so I just took a sampling of those. Even so, I ended up with more than twenty but I know from past experience that the some stuff on Gutenberg can be too tedious to finish. Therein lies the Challenge! (That and taking time to write brief  reviews.)

Fiction (5):

Summer by Edith Wharton  (read 6/18)

Staccato Notes of a Vanished Summer (from Literature and Life) by Howells

Tamawaca Folks: A Summer Comedy by L. Frank Baum

Indian Summer by William Dean Howells 

Indian Summer by Emily Grant Hutchings (read 7/24)

Short Stories (3): 

Summer Guests by James H. Schmitz (read 7/8)

Rocket Summer by Ray Bradbury (read 8/3)

Summer Snow Storm by Stephen Marlowe (read 7/9)

 

Poetry (4):  

Summer of Love by Joyce Kilmer (read 8/12)

A Summer's Poems by Francis J. Lys (read 7/21)

Mortal Summer by Mark Van Doren (read 6/19)

Queen Summer; Or, The Tourney of the Lily and the Rose by Walter Crane (read 8/3)

  This one for the illustrations:

  

Juvenile (2):

 A Tale of the Summer Holidays by Geraldine Mockler (read 6/23)

The Seashore Book: Bob and Betty's Summer with Captain Hawes by E. Boyd Smith (read 8/30)

 

Nature (3):  

Our Summer Migrants by James Edmund Harting (An Account 0f the Migratory Birds Which Pass The Summer In The British Island) (read 7/25)

My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner (read 6/27)

  Because it's in Connecticut

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir (read 8/8)

 

Travel (4 titles, 5 volumes):

The Crest of the Continent: A Summer's Ramble in the Rocky Mountains and Beyond by Ernest Ingersoll (read 8/23)

After Icebergs with a Painter by Louis Legrand Noble (read 8/11)

Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland. vol. 1/2 by Sir Richard Francis Burton and 

    Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland. vol. 2/2 

Summer Days in Shakespeare Land by Charles G. Harper 

 

Other (2):

My Summer with Dr. Singletary by John Greenleaf Whittier 

Handbook of Summer Athletic Sports by Fred Whittaker (read 8/6)

Kinda Campy, I hope   

 

Extras (2): 

 I'm not sure why these two came up on a search for "summer," but they look like fun so I'll read them!

Ham Sandwich by James H. Schmitz  (read 8/8)

Ernesto Garcia Cabral: A Mexican Cartoonist by G. R. G. Conway  (read 8/8)