September 2022

Once again it was a month of library books and light stuff (featuring animals) from Project Gutenberg.

Some good reads and a few duds and disappointments.

I did read one from my own shelves and weeded a couple of others without reading.

And now, for next month, there are two waiting on the holds shelf and another seven "in transit."  and I haven't even started The books of Jacob.

Checked out Aug 31

A Tidy ending : a novel by Cannon, Joanna

Finished Sep 3.  An unreliable narrator who frequently got on my nerves but I really liked this novel.

Dear Edward : a novel by Napolitano, Ann

Finished Sep 4.  Sole survivor of airplane crash.  Liked it.

 

Checked out Sept 1

Amy among the serial killers : a novel by Willett, Jincy

 Finished Sep 13. Fun. A bit confusing at times but that didn't really matter.
Fox Creek : a novel by Krueger, William Kent

 Finished (sort of, there was much skimming) Sep 7. Love Krueger's writing but didn't care for all the detailed cat and mouse stuff. This was the first of the Cork O'Connor series that I've read, although it's the 19th in the series.  I'll skip the rest but will try to read Ordinary Grace.
Inventing Latinos : a new story of American racism by Gómez, Laura E. 

 Finished Sep 13 Nonfiction. OK
Four Treasures of the sky by Zhang, Jenny Tinghui

 Finished Sep 5  Chinese in USA in 1890s

The Broken Girls by St. James, Simone

Finished Sep 7. Wayward girls, crooked cops, snoopy journalists, secrets, and a ghost! 

Checked out Sep 8
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Liu, Ken

 Finished Sep 26. Read about half. Sort of fantasy, sci fi, futuristic, AI takes over, etc. Just not my thing.
Ghost Forest by Fung, Pik-Shuen

 Finished Sep 11.  Meh
Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World by Shephard, Sue 

 Finished Sep 27. Not bad but pretty much a review course for me. A lot of stuff I already sorta knew.
The Bell in the Lake (The Sister Bells, #1) by Mytting, Lars

 Finished Sep 19. So good....so very good!

 

Checked out Sep 19

I Walk Between the Raindrops : Stories by Boyle, T. Coraghessan

 Finished Sep 25. Most of these were good. There was only one I didn't finish.
Killers of a certain age by Raybourn, Deanna,

 Abandoned Sep 27. Sorry this just didn't make it with me.
The books of Jacob by Tokarczuk, Olga
Other birds by Allen, Sarah Addison

 Finished Sep 23. A pleasant read.

Call Me a Cab by Westlake, Donald E. 

 Finished Sep 21 A fun road trip.

From My Shelves:

Belgrad Noir edited by Ivanović, Milorad 

Finished Sep 29

A Review Copy won on LibraryThing ages ago (Oct 2020). I found I hadn’t reviewed it because it was miss-shelved. Since it was in 2020 I'll blame the Covid!.

It was ok but not one of the best of the Akashic Noir series. It certainly shows the very dark side of Belgrade but most of the stories were thin on plot and characterization. Lots of violent revenging and avenging for things that happened in the past. The stories were informative in a social science kind of way but not so much in a literary way. They lacked the suspense and ironic twists that I like in the noir genre.

Online:

 

Pierre-Joseph Redouté:The Raphael of Botanica by Sue Aran
 

Nostalgia and disappointment by Tom Hayward 

 Because in A Tidy Ending Joanna Cannon mentioned "paste sandwiches" and I had no idea of what they were. So "paste" is "potted meat" which I do remember having as a child. This article also caused me to put in a request for Pickled, potted, and canned: how the art and science of food preserving changed the world by Sue Shephard. Hope it comes in while I'm still in the mood to read it!

 

Gutenberg finds:  

 

 

 

 

 

The Alley cat's kitten by Caroline Fuller (originally published 1904)

 

Lots of cats and also some dogs, rabbits, horses, and more in this book of the adventures of an animal loving family.

 

 

 

Dogs of all nations by W. E. Mason 

Produced for The Panama-Pacific International Exposition 1915.

" A complete work, profusely illustrated, bearing on the world’s different varieties of the dog, grouped under their several nationalities, with descriptive matter explaining the characteristics and utility of each."

In addition to the portraits and descriptions of the togs there are also the following chapters:

Dogs of Warfare           
British Sheepdogs
Training the Shepherd Dog
Police Dogs
The Hunting World and the Use of Dogs
The Gun and Coursing Dogs of the World
Whippet Dogs and Whippet Racing
The Sled Dogs of Alaska

 

 

Lives of Two Cats by Pierre Loti; translated from the French by M. B. Richards; illustrated by C. E. Allen

 

 

 

 

Our Friend the Dog by Maurice Maeterlinck; translated from the French by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos; llustrated by Cecil Alden. Charming essay on dogs in general and one dog, Pelléas, in particular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That Pup by Ellis Parker Butler; illustrated by Frederick Strothmann 

 "Murchison, who lives next door to me, wants to get rid of a dog, and if you know of anyone who wants a dog I wish you would let Murchison know. Murchison doesn't need it. He is tired of dogs, anyway. That is just like Murchison. 'Way up in an enthusiasm one day and sick of it the next."

 

And so the author, Murchison, and two other neighbors try to get rid of that pup.  It ain't easy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Royal Picture Alphabet (of humour and droll moral tales, or, Words & their meanings illustrated) by John Leighton

Dd.     DELIGHTFUL, Pleasant, Charming.
These boys are bathing in the stream
When they should be at school:
The master’s coming round to see
Who disregards his rule.

A different sort of alphabet book. Some of the rhymes are a bit forced to fit meter and moral.

 

Tame Animals , anonymous, published by George Routledge and Sons, no date.

 Six pictures (hare, goat, cow, sheep, dormouse, and ass) with brief text.