On The Same Page discussion

OVERVIEW

There will be some big changes in 2025. The biggest is that I will be retiring on January 23! I expect that to mean I will be able to read more, of course that remains to be seen. I probably won't be driving as much, so what will that mean for audiobooks? Two of my current book clubs are ending. That's because they are library-based and I will no longer be there. The current membership decided they did not want to continue without me. I do plan to add the St. David Society's book club to my activities. They only meet every other month. I have not participated previously because they meet when I am working, and that will no longer be a problem. I may or may not continue with the church book club, Perspectives. If I stay, I am not commited to participating every month. It depends on what books are picked. But it does challenge me to read more on social justice type issues. I've heard there is a book club at the library here in town. I don't know if it is monthly or every other month, but they pick an author instead of a book to read. I might check that out.

I still LOVE themes! So that hasn't changed. I settled on CATS as my main 2025 theme because of certain comments made in the lead up to the Presidential election. I don't wish to get political here, but let's just say that I am embracing my Crazy Cat Lady status this year. And as it happens, I am up to the letter C in focusing on those titles in my TBR. It is my intention to work through the alphabet and although I am turning 70 in a month, yes, I fully intend to make it all the way to Z in the next 24 years!
CATS just lends itself to so many other C words, like cozy, comfort, cottages, so my 2nd main theme will be cozy mysteries. As it happens, the list I came up with also all feature cats. Ha! I'm still a historical fiction junkie, so that isn't going away. I'm going to continue some historical lists from last year, and maybe add one or two that start with C. I'm thinking Charlemagne/Carolingian maybe instead of my usual Arthurian category. Maybe Civil War also.

I finished adding slips for all the books I've added to my Goodreads TBR this year. I use the slips to pick my random reads for the next year. These are sorted into 6 baggies - historical fiction (pre-1920), other fiction (post-1920 plus fantasy/sci fi, non-fiction, series (divided into 1st of a series, and series that are ongoing, old themes from previous years, and my Welsh/Arthurian titles. I had thought about not doing random reads this year, but then I decided to focus on titles that begin with C, and create shorter lists. So those lists are done. Now I just have to settle on what categories to choose for my Pyramid Goals (12 books that start with C, 11 historical fiction, 10 cozy mysteries, 9 cat books, or whatever I finally decide on.) The pyramid goals have tended to be "genre" things in the past, but I think they are going to be just other C mini-themes that strikes my fancy this year. Like Cornwall for locations, or castles, or corgis (corgwn actually is the plural, but English speakers would look at that word and go huh?)

I already mentioned book clubs, but I also belong to a group on LibraryThing called Reading Through Time, that has both quarterly and monthly goals. I may add some other challenges - I do like the cover color challenge. I'm not going to do the genre challenge this year, but there's a mini-motley challenge that looks interesting.

Above all, I just want to have fun with my book choices. That's why my themes this year are things like cats, cozy mysteries, children's books, chocolate, Christmas, castles, and places like Cornwall and the Cotswolds. I don't have to read every book on every list. They are just lists to choose from. The challenges all allow me to pick any book to fit a challenge theme. And it only has to be one book to meet a challenge. The lists give me a more manageable pool to select from than my entire TBR which is something like 4,000+ titles by now. One of these years I should do a major purge of things that I don't really think I will ever read. I do have an annual goal, both number of books and number of pages. I'm thinking about 75 books and/or 25,000 pages for 2025. That may prove to be too ambitious and I reserve the right to change it at any time during the year!

THEMES

2025 Main Theme: Cats
1. 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas
2. Cat and Mouse
3. Cat’s Eye
4. Touch Not the Cat
5. The Dalai Lama's Cat (The Dalai Lama's Cat, #1)
6. Track of the Cat (Anna Pigeon, #1)
7. Cat People (Non-fiction)
8. Pangur Ban
9. The Dreams of Gerontius
READ 10. A Midwinter's Tail

Clubs (now that I've joined the "welcome to retirement club...") with a focus on Ladies:
1. ...And Ladies of the Club
2. The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club
3. The Briar Club
4. The Cotswolds Cookery Club: A Taste of Italy
5. The Friday Night Knitting Club
READ 6. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club
7. The Sunday Philosophy Club
8. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
9. The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club
10. The Marlow Murder Club

Classic Literature Theme: The Odyssey
Prequels - The Odyssey and The Iliad
1. The World of Odysseus
2. An Orchestra of Minorities
3. An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
4. Omeros
5. Olympus, Texas
6. The Penelopiad
7. The Oceans and the Stars
8. Ilium
9. Ransom
10. Over the Wine-Dark Sea

Old Themes, Random Picks
1. Canary Girls (birds)
2. Crow Court (birds)
3. Count the Nights by Stars (stars)
4. Charlotte's Story (Pride and Prejudice)
5. Call of the Curlew (birds) - takes place on New Year's Eve
6. Compass (music) - translated from French
7. The Calculating Stars (stars)
8. A Canopy of Stars (stars)
9. Crow Hollow (birds) - can use for RTT 17th Century theme
10. Crow Lake (birds) - also Canada location

SERIES

Cozy Mysteries (with cats)
1. Cats' Eyes (Crazy Cat Lady #1)
READ 2. Curiosity Thrilled the Cat (Magical Cats Mystery #1)
READ 3. Lending a Paw (Bookmobile Cat Mystery #1)
READ 4. The Whole Cat and Caboodle (Second Chance Cat Mystery #1)
5. The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse (Cats in Trouble Mystery #1)
6. Murder Past Due (Cat in the Stacks Mystery #1)
READ 7. Cat About Town (Cat Café Mystery #1)
8. One Cat For the Road (Crazy Cat Lady Chronicles #1)
9. Cat on the Edge (Joe Grey #1)
10. A Tail of Murder (Cat and Mouse Whodunit #1)

Chronicles (in title, or as series)
1. The Chronicles of Iona: Exile (The Chronicles of Iona #1)
2. Chronicles of Jongleur, The Storyteller
3. Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1)
READ 4. Gods and Kings (Chronicles of the Kings #1)
5. The Light Years (The Cazalet Chronicles #1)
6. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (The Wolves Chronicles #1)
7. The Solitary Sparrow (The Margaret Chronicles #1)
8. The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles #1)
9. Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St. Mary’s #1)
10. Only Time Will Tell (The Clifton Chronicles #1)

New Series: Random picks
1. The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway #1)
2. A Conspiracy of Paper (Benjamin Weaver #1)
3. Circles (Shining Light's Saga #1)
4. The Cavalier of the Apocalypse (Aristide Ravel #1)
5. The Collectors’ Society (The Collector's Society #1)
6. The Colour of Poison (Sebastian Foxley Medieval Mystery #1)

Old Series: Random picks
1. A Corpse at St Andrews Chapel (Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon Chronicles #2 of 17)
2. Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady (Bloody Jack #2 of 12)
READ *3. A Conspiracy of Friends (Corduroy Mansions #3 of 3)
4. Dead Water (Shetland Island #5 of 8.5)
*5. The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7 of 8)
6. A Crown of Lights (Merrily Watkins #3 of 15)

Ongoing until I finish series
1. Alexander McCall Smith – 44 Scotland Street series
The Peppermint Tea Chronicles #13 of 17

2. Rita Mae Brown – Mrs. Murphy series (rereading, #18 will be new)
READ Sour Puss #14 of 33
Puss 'N Cahoots #15 of 33

3. Donna Andrews – Meg Langslow series
Swan for the Money #11 of 37

Next to read not listed above:
1. Sleight of Paw (Magical Cats Mystery #2)
READ 2. Tears of the Giraffe (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #2)
READ 3. Song of Redemption (Chronicles of the Kings #2)
READ 4. Calamity Jack (Rapunzel's Revenge #2)
READ 5. The Strength of His Hand (Chronicles of the Kings #3)
6. Buy a Whisker (Second Chance Cat Mystery #2)
7. Home (Gilead #2)
8. The Black Cat Murders (Heathcliff Lennox #2)
9. Tailing a Tabby (Bookmobile Cat mysteries #2)
10. Morality for Beautiful Girls (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #3)
11. Classified as Murder (Cat in the Stacks #2)
READ 12. Castle of Refuge (Dericott Tales #2)
13. Veil of Winter (Dericott Tales #3)
14. Faith of My Fathers (Chronicles of the Kings #4)
15. By Love Divided (The Lydiard Chronicles #2)
16. Purrder She Wrote (Cat Café Mystery #2)
17. Witch Chocolate Fudge (Bewitched by Chocolate #2)

HISTORICAL THEMES

Ancient World (Ultimate Reading List) continued from 2024
1. I, Claudius
2. Gates of Fire
3. The Hippopotamus Marsh
4. King and Goddess
5. One for Sorrow (an old leftover…)
6. The Eagle and the Raven

Babylon / Bible Stories continued from 2024, some of these were from the Ancient World list...
1. Babylonia
2. The Assyrian plus sequel
3. The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Esther
4. Isaiah's Daughter
READ *5. Gods and Kings (also on Chronicles list)
6. Babylon: A Novel of Jewish Captivity
-------------------------------------------------
A few more focusing on Nebuchadnezzar:
7. The Pride of Babylon: The Story of Nebuchadnezzar
8. Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon
9. The Hidden Prince
10. Fallen From Babel
11. Garden of Madness
12. Nebuchadnezzar, My Power, My World

Charlemagne/Carolingians
1. The Book of Dreams (Saxon #1)
2. Sebastian's Way: The Pathfinder (The Sebastian Chronicles #1)
3. Emma of the Ardennes
4. The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar
5. Eternal Light of the Crypts (Lux Aeterna De Cryptae): A Historical Fiction in the Ruins of Charlemagne’s Empire
6. Lotharingia: Charlemagne's Heir
7. The song of Roland: the Oxford text;
8. Two Lives of Charlemagne
9. Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country
10. The Silver Horn Echoes: A Song of Roland

Civil War (US)
1. The House of Lincoln
2. Lincoln in the Bardo
3. My Name Is Mary Sutter
4. Neverhome
5. Days Without End
6. Cold Mountain

RANDOM GENRE PICKS

Historical Fiction
1. The Crown Jewels Conspiracy: Book one in the gripping action-packed White Hart thriller series Prequel: The Bordeaux Connection: A prequel to the action-packed White Hart thriller series
2. The Captain's Daughter
3. City of Dreams
4. Child of the Morning
5. The Colour
6. Caribbee
7. The Coffee Trader
8. The City of Man: Inferno
9. Company of Liars
10. Courting Mr. Lincoln

Other Fiction
1. Celestial Persuasion (this is actually historical - slip in the wrong bag?) (tie in with Jane Austen's Persuasion)
2. The Chosen
3. A Country Road, A Tree
READ 4. Coyote Lost and Found
5. Christmas with the Queen
6. The Clockmaker's Daughter
7. Cloudstreet
8. The Curious Case of the Cursed Spectacles
9. The Crooked Path
10. The Curse of the Flores Women

Non-fiction
READ 1. The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology
2. Cecily Neville: Mother of Richard III
3. Coastlines: The Story of Our Shore
4. The Canoe Boys: The First Epic Scottish Sea Journey by Kayak
5. Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors
6. A Circle of Quiet (Crosswicks Journals #1) (reread)

LOCATIONS

Cornwall
1. The Cornish Coast Murder
2. A Cornish Recipe for Murder
3. A Death at Seascape House
4. Ross Poldark
5. The Curse of Penryth Hall
6. A Vow of Silence
7. Jamaica Inn
8. The Lost Girls of Penzance
9. Pengelly's Daughter
10. The White Hare

City/Country
1. The Drowned City
2. City of Masks
3. Cities of Women
4. Cataract City
5. The Just City
6. City of Darkness
---------------------------------------
7. Irish Country Doctor, An
8. The Horseman
9. The Bellbird River Country Choir
10. Snow Country
11. Border Country
12. Blood Country

Canada
1. Daughters of the Deer
2. The Forgotten Home Child
3. Crow Mary
4. A Place Called Winter
5. The Wolf in the Whale
6. The Shining Mountains: A Novel
7. The Rebel Angels
8. Cape Random: A Novel
9. Wenjack
10. Wildwood

OTHER CATEGORIES

Composers
1. Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
2. Symphony of Secrets
3. Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah
4. A Minor Deception
5. Ecstasy
6. Vivaldi's Virgins
7. Mozart's Sister
8. A Woman of Note
9. Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music
READ 10. Illuminations

Cafes
1. The Kookaburra Creek Cafe
2. An Eggscellent Day for Murder
3. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
4. Midnight at the Blackbird Café
5. Pomegranate Soup (Babylon Cafe #1)
6. Summer at the Cornish Cafe
7. BlueBuried Muffins (Black Cat Cafe #1)
8. Purrs and Peril (Norwegian Forest Cafe #1)
9. Cat's Café
10. Death by Coffee (Bookstore Cafe Mystery #1)

Corgi Dogs
1. Case of the One-Eyed Tiger
2. Cruel Candy
3. Corgi Cove
4. Christmas at Corgi Cove
5. To Fetch a Felon
6. The Corgi Chronicles

Chocolate
READ 1. Dark, Witch & Creamy
2. Chocolate House Treason
READ 3. The Chocolate Maker's Wife
4. The Chocolatier's Ghost
5. Bread and Chocolate
6. The Chocolate Cat Caper

Christmas
1. The Cat of Yule Cottage
*2. Christmas at Corgi Cove
*3. Christmas with the Queen
4. A Redbird Christmas
5. The Christmas Hirelings
READ 6. Murder at Melrose Court

FEATURED AUTHORS

Elizabeth Chadwick
Titles in roughly chronological order...
READ First Knight (Arthurian)
The Conquest (1066)
The Winter Mantle (1067)
The King's Jewel (1093)

Series:
The Coming of the Wolf (1069) (prequel to The Ravenstow Trilogy)

The Summer Queen (1140s) (Eleanor of Aquitaine #1)

Bernard Cornwell
Series:
The Winter King (warlord Chronicles #1)

The Last Kingdom (The Last Kingdom #1)

The Archer's Tale aka Harlequin] (Grail Quest #1)

Standalone:
Stonehenge
Azincourt
Fools and Mortals

Ann Cleeves
A Bird In The Hand (Palmer-Jones #1)

The Crow Trap (Vera Stanhope #1)

Dead Water (Shetland Island #5)

The Long Call (Two Rivers #1)

A Lesson In Dying (Inspector Ramsey #1)

Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone
The Woman in White

Willa Cather
O Pioneers!

LEFTOVERS AND SHINY NEW THINGS
Leftovers are things I started last year (or even in previous years) but didn't finish, and also books that I keep listing to read year after year, but somehow never get to them. So this list is at least an attempt to keep them on my radar! I've worked some of these into other lists so they may be duplicates here.

Leftovers from 2024
1. ...And Ladies of the Club - been trying to read this 1000+ page book for several years now.
2. Ygerna: A Pendragon Chronicles Prequel Novel - this may be a "prequel" but it is a chunky book in its own right. Yes I want to read the whole series.
3. The Evening Chorus
4. The Summer Queen - hopefully I'll finally get this trilogy started, since Chadwick is one of my focus authors.
5. Wolf Hall - another trilogy I've started, and I do love it, I just never seem to finish it!
6. The Beacon at Alexandria - started, but it got set aside.
7. Her Royal Spyness - this is one I keep listing and never get to...
8. Death at La Fenice - another series I keep listing to start...
9. Cup of Blood - ditto. This one isn't the first of the series, but it comes first chronologically
10. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - another chunkster I've started several times

Library books currently checked out or on hold
I guess you could say these are all leftovers...
READ 1. The Lost Words ILL - will be one of my first books of the year
READ 2. Gingerbread - audio - Dec. group read for The Reading Loft
READ 3. Watership Down: The Graphic Novel
4. Daughter of Time
READ 5. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - Jan. book for Perspectives book club
6. Isaiah's Daughter
7. The Door
READ 8. Gods and Kings
READ 9. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (reread)
10. The Book of Witching

Old Shiny New Things (yep, leftovers...)
1. Hester - ARC
READ 2. Wanderland - purchased
3. The Running Grave - purchased, Audible
4. The House of Lincoln - ARC
5. Wild and Distant Seas - ARC
6. Within The Fetterlock - purchased
7. The Road to Avalon - purchased
8. A Vision of Light - purchased, Audible
9. Stormbird - to reread series, Audible
READ 10. Good as Goldie: A Breaking Cat News Adventure - purchased, saved to be first book of 2025

New Shiny New Things
READ 1. The Lost Spells

New Rabbit Holes
Gingerbread
READ 1. The Winter's Tale (NCS edition)
2. The Gap of Time
3. Exit, Pursued by a Bear
4. Winter's Tale
possibly,
5. Florizel and Perdita. A dramatic pastoral, in three acts. Alter'd from The winter's tale of Shakespear. By David Garrick. As it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane.
6. Greene's 'Pandosto' or 'Dorastus and Fawnia': being the original of Shakespeare's 'Winter's tale'

BOOK GROUPS
Daytimers and A Good Yarn are discontinuing with my retirement. But I'm adding the Saint David's Society's book group which I have a keen interest in, but they always met at a time when I was working. Won't have that conflict now! I am continuing in the church book club, Perspectives, for now, especially since they have lost several members last year. I'm not terribly invested in it, so we'll see how it goes. Also listing the monthly picks of one of my online groups, The Reading Loft. I probably won't read every month's book but I'll have it here. Other online book group reads I will add if they interest me....

The Red Dragon Book Group
READ 1. Feb. 1: Wales: The First & Final Colony
2. April 5: Braids of Song: Weaving Welsh Music into the American Soul (The author will join us via zoom.)
READ 3. June 7: Sugar and Slate
READ 4. Aug. 2: Clear
5. Oct. 4: Fireside Tales
6. Dec. 6: The House of Water: a captivating and addictive domestic thriller with an unforgettable twist

Other Welsh Random Picks
Formerly under "Locations" but it made sense to move them here, because it is Welsh stuff...
1. The Chinese Sailor
2. Crimson Shore
READ 3. Closure
4. The Clockwork Crow
5. The Corpse with the Silver Tongue
6. China Court: The Hours of a Country House

Perspectives
READ 1. Jan: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
READ 2. Feb: The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
READ 2023 3. Mar: Horse
READ 4. Apr: Gilead
READ 5. May: Wanderland - discussion was cancelled this month.
READ 6. Jun: Wandering Stars
7. Summer/Sep: James and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
8. Oct:
9. Nov:
10. Dec:

The Reading Loft
(April update: Since there are books chosen that may have long waiting lists, or that I don't want to read, I am editing this to add the theme, and may indicate an alternate title to read instead.
READ 1. Dec (discussion in Jan) (theme - a holiday read): Gingerbread
READ 2. Jan (theme - mythology): Stone Blind
3. Feb (theme - a love story): One Day - tried it, didn't care for it.
My alternate: Love in the Scottish Winter Highlands
READ 4. Mar (theme - wild animals, flowers, or gardens): The Twilight Garden
5. Apr (theme - pets) : The Ghost Cat - long waiting list, but I'll read it eventually. In the meantime, I've read several other cat books!
READ 6. May (theme - English civil war or restoration): Tidelands
READ 7. June (theme - ocean or river): The Frozen River
8. July (theme - witches and wizards): Daughters of the Witching Hill
9. Aug (theme - photography or painting): The Cottingley Secret
10. Sept (theme - pirates): The Tenth Gift
11. Oct (theme - spooky): The Ghost Woods
12. Nov (theme - children's book):
13. Dec (theme - festive):

Other Group Reads

READING THROUGH TIME BOOK GROUP
A Library Thing book group focused on historical fiction with Quarterly and Monthly themes.

1st Quarter: The Renaissance
READ The Lady Flirts with Death
READ Her Majesty's Mischief
His Dark Lady
When Knighthood Was in Flower
READ Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation

Jan: Look to the Heavens
READ The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology
The Calculating Stars – (meteorite, space travel)
Celestial Persuasion

Feb: Colors
READ Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Mar: Sweet, sweet revenge
READ Rapunzel's Revenge

2nd Quarter: 17th Century
READ Tidelands
READ The Lady of the Tower
READ The Chocolate Maker's Wife

Apr: All is Not as it Seems
Company of Liars

May: Fairy Tales
READ Court of Swans

Jun: People on the Move
Wanderland

3rd Quarter: 18th Century
The Frozen River

Jul: Composers
READ Illuminations

Aug: Don't Get Checkmated

Sep: Highlands & Islands

4th Quarter: Napoleonic Era

Oct

Nov

Dec

RANDOM CHALLENGES

Cover Color challenge (On the Same Page group challenge)
January: white and silver


February: pink and spring green



March: gold and brown



April: yellow and pale blue




May: purple and beige



June: turquoise and lavender



July: red and blue


August: peach and aqua

September: green and coffee

October: orange and black

November: cranberry red and tan

December: rose gold and navy blue

Mini-Motley Challenge (On the Same Page)
This sounded doable and interesting, so I'm adding it... And if I haven't read the prompt title, I might read it too....
1. I Capture the castle. Find a book with a castle on the cover.
READ (Tower of London) (Dericott Castle - fictitious)

2. The Heart of Darkness (READ). Find a heart or depiction of darkness on the cover.
READ

3. The Master and Margarita. Find alcoholic drinks on the cover.

4. The Woman in White. Find a white cover or a woman on the cover.
READ

5. The Grapes of wrath (READ). Find grapes or fruit on the cover.
READ

6. The Call of the Wild (READ). Find an animal from Alaska on the cover.

7. The Lord of the Rings (READ). Find a Lord, rings, or jewelry on the cover.

8. Moby Dick (READ). Find ocean animals or an ocean on the cover.
READ

9. The Secret Garden (READ). Find a garden or flowers on the cover.
READ

10. Frankenstein (READ). Find a monster on the cover.
READ

2 alternatives.

1. The Time Machine (READ). Find a clock or any machine on the cover.

2. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Find a photo, a picture, or a gray
cover.

PYRAMID GOALS
Making this about themes this year instead of genre focused.

12 Cozy Mysteries (9/12)
Sour Puss
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
The Whole Cat and Caboodle
Murder at Melrose Court
Lending a Paw
Tears of the Giraffe
Cat About Town
Dark, Witch & Creamy

11 Cat books (7/11)
Good as Goldie: A Breaking Cat News Adventure
Sour Puss
A Midwinter's Tail
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat
The Whole Cat and Caboodle
Lending a Paw
Cat About Town

10 Chronicles (4/10)
Gods and Kings
Song of Redemption
The Strength of His Hand
The Lady of the Tower

9 City/Country titles


8 books set in Cornwall (1/8)
A Midwinter's Tail

7 Club titles (1/7)
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

6 Canada titles


5 Corgi books (1/5)
Sour Puss

4 Composers (1/4)
Illuminations

3 Chocolate titles (2/3)
Dark, Witch & Creamy
The Chocolate Maker's Wife

2 Christmas books (2/2)
A Midwinter's Tail
Murder at Melrose Court

1 Classic (1/1)
The Winter's Tale

JUST FOR FUN

Book suggestions from colleagues on my retirement:
1. The Interpretation of Cats: Understanding the Psychology of Our Feline Companions
2. The Eyes & the Impossible
3. Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
4. North Woods
5. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
6. Water Witches
7. Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night
8. The Dalai Lama's Cat
9. All New Square Foot Gardening
10. A Cat's Tale: A Journey Through Feline History
11. A History of Welsh Music
12. The Briar Club
13. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
14. We Have Always Lived in the Castle
15. Gardening with Cats: A Cat's Guide to the Flowerbed
16. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

Coloring Books


Cookbook of the Month
The Book Lover's Cookbook (ebook)
1. Macaroni and Cheese - Very quick and easy, just a white sauce with cream cheese and grated cheddar melted in. A touch of Dijon mustard and chives. Very nice with some rosemary triscuit on the side. (Feb.)
2. Nearly a Meal Potato Soup - called for two heads of roasted garlic. Surprisingly, I've never done that before in all my years of cooking. It won't be the last. The recipe did call for bacon, and I used seitan. (Mar.)

International Vegetarian Cookery
1. Eggplant and Cheese with Rice (Middle East) - Super simple and surprisingly good. I loved it and will make it again. It's just onions, peppers (I used red), eggplant, and tomato sauce. Add cheese and serve over rice. It called for Meira. I tried some specialty cheese shops in the Twin Cities and nobody had it. So I used Dutch Edam.


Other C Categories to Track:

Titles that begin with C:
A Conspiracy of Friends
Coyote Lost and Found
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat
The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology
Calamity Jack
Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation
The Charter
Closure
Court of Swans
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Castle of Refuge
Cat About Town
Clear
The Chocolate Maker's Wife

Colors in titles:

Clergy:
Gilead
Illuminations
Clear

Cotswolds:
Dark, Witch & Creamy

Castles:
Court of Swans
Castle of Refuge
The Lady of the Tower

Cottages

Carolingians:

Civil War:

Cafes:
Cat About Town (Cat Cafe Mystery #1)

RANDOM HOUSEKEEPING STATS
Miscellaneous statistics and other record keeping

Total books read: 55

Cumulative pages read: 15,832

Genre breakdown:
Contemporary: 4
Cookbooks: 1
Cozy Mystery - 11
Fantasy fiction: 1
Graphic novel: 3
Historical fiction: 13
History/Biography - 1
History/Politics - 1
Humor/Comics - 1
Literary fiction - 3
Memoir - 2
Mystery/ Thriller - 2
Mythology/Fairy Tale Retelling - 4
Plays/Drama - 1
Poetry/Art - 3
Science/Nature - 1
Travel - 1

Format:
Print Book - 9
E-Book - 17
Audiobook - 30

Source:
Owned (print) - 4
Owned (ebook) - 11
Owned (Audible or Chirp) - 8
Libby - 28
Library - 4
Archive.org - 1

Chunkiest books on my lists:
1. ...And Ladies of the Club - 1184 p.
2. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - 1006 p.
3. The Running Grave - 960 p.
4. Ilium - 731 p.
5. The Eagle and the Raven - 704 p.
6. The Iliad - 704 p.
7. Penmarric - 702 p.
8. The Woman in White
9. The Crown Jewels Conspiracy: Book one in the gripping action-packed White Hart thriller series - 628 p.
10. The Clockmaker's Daughter - 608 p.

Shortest books (for when I am getting behind and need to read something short):
READ 1. The Lost Words - 112 p.
2. Wenjack - 112 p.
3. The song of Roland: the Oxford text; - 126 p.
4. The Corgi Chronicles - 134 p.
5. Emma of the Ardennes - 156 p.
6. Cat People - 176 p.
7. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - 181 p.
8. Pangur Ban - 182 p.
9. A Vow of Silence - 188 p.
10. The Clockwork Crow - 192 p.

Oldest books on my lists
1. Within The Fetterlock (added 2007)
2. Her Royal Spyness (2007)
3. Mozart's Sister (2007)
4. Vivaldi's Virgins (2007)
5. City of Dreams (2008)
6. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2008)
READ 7. The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology (2008)
8. Wolf Hall (2010)
READ 9. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2011)
10. Hounded (2011)

Magazines read:

Smithsonian, May 2019. 88 p.
Neanderthals. Inuit people. A family that feels no pain. Riding the rails with the hoboes.

Discover, Sept/Oct 2023, 66 p.
Dark secrets of university bone collections, parasomnias, artificial ice, hypnotherapy for IBS

Smithsonian, June 2019, 88 p.
50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, Stockton Rush and his quest to make a deep-sea submersible (the Titan) which would take passengers to see the Titanic (a bit creepy to read, given what happened this past year...)

Discover, Jan/Feb 2023. 72 p.
The James Webb Space Telescope, Mystery of Long Covid, discovery of Shackleton's ship

Smithsonian, Jul/Aug 2019. 124 p.
Geraldine Brooks on The Holy Land, python hunting in the Everglades, William T. Vollmann on Melville in Polynesia.

Birds & Blooms, Apr/May 2023. 58 p.
Cutting garden, warblers, raindrop photos, Bullock's oriole

Smithsonian, Sep 2019. 88 p.
The new treasures of Pompeii, John Steinbeck's fantastic ocean voyage, Mungo Man, Saturn's rings

National Geographic, Dec 2024, 132 p.
Pictures of the Year, a lost Inca city, Notre Dame, rattlesnakes

I love your breakdown. I enjoy Margaret Atwood's work. Penelopiad was very interesting. I've not read Cat's Eye yet. Track of the Cat was very good. I've got Nevada Barr on my bucket list to finish the Anna Pigeon books. I'm also hoping to read The Calculating Stars in 2025.

Enjoy your 2025 reading.

I like your idea of doing different themes. I've been reading several Japanese books lately--and so many feature cats. Obviously, others as well.
Enjoy your list and another year of reading!

What a great list with some fun themes. I have read both The Iliad and The Odyssey, but that's it. Hope you enjoy your 2025 reading.

I Love the categories, Laurel!!

Good luck and happy reading

Bill wrote: "I love your breakdown. I enjoy Margaret Atwood's work. Penelopiad was very interesting. I've not read Cat's Eye yet. Track of the Cat was very good. I've got Nevada Barr on my bucket list to finish..."

Thanks, Bill. I'll have more of the lists posted later this evening.

Love your themes! Can't wait to see your reviews

Happy 2025

Congratulations on your retirement! I like your goals and themes. Mostly new books to me, I've only read Only Time Will Tell and I, Claudius - both good.
Can't wait to see your reviews, happy reading!

Amazing lists- Good Luck on it & your retirement!

I have finished editing the lists above, and ready to go! Here's to 2025!

Hi Bill - I think maybe you meant to post this somewhere else? Can you move it, please?

Bill wrote: "I've had a pretty good year. According to Goodreads, I've read 155 books. Having said that, I've DNF'd 5ish of those books. I've also read many graphic novels, but they all count. Right? I've two b..."

Bill! I know you want to enable our addiction; but this is crazy!?? LOL

Laurel wrote: "Hi Bill - I think maybe you meant to post this somewhere else? Can you move it, please?"

Indeed I did. I blame it on my new laptop... I'll move to my thread.. LOL

Bill wrote: "Laurel wrote: "Hi Bill - I think maybe you meant to post this somewhere else? Can you move it, please?"

Indeed I did. I blame it on my new laptop... I'll move to my thread.. LOL"

😩🤣

JANUARY PLANS

I'm carrying over
Queen By Right for yet another year. But here's hoping I don't stall out! There's just a lot of new things I need to start....

Groups and challenges:
Perspectives is reading
READ The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
The Reading Loft is discussing
READ Gingerbread (December pick) and then
READ Stone Blind is the January pick.
The Red Dragons (St. David's Society book club) will be reading
READ Wales: The First & Final Colony for February. I won't start that until later in the month.
The Reading Through Time monthly prompt is "Look to the Heavens" and I'll be reading
READ The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology
The cover color challenge is silver or white, and I am waiting for a hold on
Chocolate House Treason
I'm also reading
READ A Midwinter's Tail which has a silver (or gray?) cat on the cover.

My first book of 2025 will be
READ Good as Goldie: A Breaking Cat News Adventure which I'll have done by the end of today.

I also have a couple of library books that need to be returned soon:
READ The Lost Words and
READ Watership Down: The Graphic Novel

I'll wait until later in the month to start thinking about the 1st quarter RTT theme, which is The Renaissance. I'd like to finish out the Simon and Elizabeth series, which isn't on any of my lists, but there we are. The next one in the series is
READ The Lady Flirts with Death

JANUARY LOG

Finished:
Good as Goldie: A Breaking Cat News Adventure - finished Jan 1
The Lost Words - finished Jan 3
Sour Puss - finished Jan 10
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - finished Jan 21
A Midwinter's Tail - finished Jan 25
Stone Blind - finished Jan 27

Currently reading:
Queen By Right - restarted Nov 1
Gingerbread - started Jan 2 (paused Jan 3 until I get and read Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale)
The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology - started Jan 2
First Knight (Archive.org) - started Jan 5
The Winter's Tale (NCS edition) - started Jan 17
Chocolate House Treason - started Jan 17
Wales: The First & Final Colony - started Jan 17
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat - started Jan 31

Next up:
The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
The Lost Spells
Coyote Lost and Found

Waiting for holds:
Daughter of Time
Isaiah's Daughter
Gods and Kings

Still might read:
The Beacon at Alexandria
...And Ladies of the Club
Ygerna: A Pendragon Chronicles Prequel Novel
The Summer Queen

New Acquisitions:
I'll Get Back to You - gift. Written by a friend of the family and especially of my nephew Connor.
The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story - Amazon .99
Into the Fall - Amazon First pick
The Salish Sea - free kindle
Closure - Audible credit
Crimson Shore - Audible credit
The After Cilmeri Series Boxed Set: Daughter of Time/Footsteps in Time/Winds of Time/Prince of Time - Chirp audiobooks, .99
Crossroads in Time - Chirp audiobooks, .99

#1 Good as Goldie: A Breaking Cat News Adventure
Yeah, I have to give Goldie 5 gold stars.

This might be the best one yet. I shall have to reread all eight books to confirm. Definitely not just for kids. Come on, I'm 70 and these are an automatic purchase. Also, I happen to have 4 apples sitting on the counter, so in the next day or two I'll be making that applesauce recipe.

Description: This just in: There’s a new cat in the neighborhood and she is all kinds of mysterious! The Breaking Cat News crew has never met a cat quite like Goldie before. Street smart, wildlife savvy, and determined to solve the mystery of how her People vanished, Goldie is here to turn life in and out of the studio upside down! Along the way they’ll meet trash collecting raccoons, a fork wielding squirrel, and one brave little chipmunk! Go undercover with Tommy and Beatrix as Goldie gets to the bottom of this case with the help of Lupin’s (stolen) tape recorder. It’s an exciting adventure for the BCN team with friends old and new, and you’re invited! The fun doesn’t stop there! The “More to Explore” section includes all new paper dolls of Goldie and the wild lands creatures, as well as fun disguises for Beatrix and Tommy, and a tasty applesauce recipe to try.

Cumulative pages: 236

I may be going down a rabbit hole with Oyeyemi's Gingerbread. I read a review that said you cannot understand this book unless you have read Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. So I may postpone reading this further until I have done that. I have put a hold on the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition of The Winter's Tale (The New Cambridge Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare (8-Mar-2007) Paperback. I will also listen to the play, and perhaps watch one of the TV versions if I can find it streaming for free. I love classic tie-ins, so then I might also have to read Jeanette Winterson's retelling, The Gap of Time. There's also a book Exit, Pursued by a Bear by Johnston....

Since I am soon to be retired, I think I am allowed to go down as many rabbit holes as I want to....

#2 The Lost Words
5 purple stars

This is a huge book with utterly gorgeous paintings. The poetry has a lot of clever play with words and rhymes. I would venture to say this is more of a coffee table book for adults than a picture book for children. But then there is a wonderful "study guide" for educators that can be downloaded free from www.johnmuirtrust.org/initiatives/the... . As a coffee table book, I could wish that it were fatter - 200 pages instead of 100. And I could wish for a smaller edition that could be carried around. Then I discovered that they have a second book called The Lost Spells which is exactly that.

Description: In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary ― widely used in schools around the world ― was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around forty common words concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. The list of these “lost words” included acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher, newt, otter, and willow. Among the words taking their place were attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, cut-and-paste, and voice-mail. The news of these substitutions ― the outdoor and natural being displaced by the indoor and virtual ― became seen by many as a powerful sign of the growing gulf between childhood and the natural world. Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out to make a “spell book” that will conjure back twenty of these lost words, and the beings they name, from acorn to wren. By the magic of word and paint, they sought to summon these words again into the voices, stories, and dreams of children and adults alike, and to celebrate the wonder and importance of everyday nature. The Lost Words is that book ― a work that has already cast its extraordinary spell on hundreds of thousands of people and begun a grass-roots movement to re-wild childhood across Britain, Europe, and North America.

Cumulative pages: 348

Kudos on the first books read for the year, Laurel!

Wow! Got my hold on The Winter's Tale already. I need to try and get through The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology before I start it. Heading to Illinois tomorrow for our family "Christmas." Will finish up Sour Puss and start The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. I'm generally a fan of the Mrs. Murphy mysteries, but this one is quite disappointing. More than halfway through and no murder yet. Not much else going on either except endless discussion of viticulture. I miss the post office! I had thought I might have to go visit my mom instead this weekend. She is still in the hospital but doing okay - seems to be responding to the antibiotics - though I think she is not happy about her situation. We will probably be going next month to clear out her apartment. She will likely be remaining in the skilled nursing section of West Hills and we can't afford to hang on to her apartment. It seems doubtful that she will get to the point where she can go back to it. The broken hip and now the new wounds in her legs and infection has been a real set-back for her. It's so hard to see her unhappy and not be able to do anything about it. I won't really be free to go until my retirement is official - just two more weeks!

#3 Sour Puss
2.5 yellow stars.

This is not a review. Comments are for my own recollection and may contain spoilers...

Time: Takes place in May. Harry is not yet 40, so presumably about 39. Harry and Fair have just gotten remarried.

Characters: Harry and Fair, Susan, Boom Boom and Amelia, Blair and Little Mim, the Rev. Jones. An old boyfriend of Harry's - Archie - they presumably had a fling after the divorce, but he has never been mentioned before, so that's a little odd...

Animals: Tee Tucker, Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and the barn animals - Miranda the blacksnake, Flat Face the Owl, and Simon the possum. The barn animals get to be heroes this time.

This really dragged for me until the last quarter of the book brought in some action with the animals. Harry is now growing grapes and there is endless discussion of viticulture, global warming, bio-terrorism, etc. No murder or mystery until well past halfway in the book. As always, it is the animals and their snarky comments that keep me coming back for more. And I really miss the post-office.

Description: After an unexpected rekindling of their romance, Harry and her veterinarian ex-husband, Fair Haristeen, have happily remarried. But the excitement of their nuptials is quickly overshadowed by the murder of Professor Vincent Forland, a world-famous grape and fungal expert who was in town visiting the local vineyards. After Forland’s decapitated body is discovered, the residents of Crozet believe that this was a political murder and settle back into their routines–until a local is also found dead, killed in the same gruesome manner as Professor Forland. Now residents can’t help wondering, is this really the work of an outsider—or one of their own? No longer working in the post office, Harry had just planted a quarter acre of grapes, which fuels her natural curiosity over just what the two murder victims knew and had in common. Once the warmth of spring arrives, the grapevines blossom and Harry’s furry entourage discovers the first critical clue. But how can they show the humans what they’ve learned? And how can they—or anyone—stop the killing?

Cumulative pages: 620

What a great start!!

Mid-January update:

I've got three ILL books that have arrived and can't be renewed, so these have got to be prioritized:
READ The Lost Spells - an easy one day read
READ The Winter's Tale - only two weeks left on this one and I haven't started it yet!
Chocolate House Treason - a chunkster at 700 pages. I'm going to have to parcel this out and not get behind, or I'll have to re-request it and wait for it again.

The Iliad - I need to start this soon as there is an online group read of The Odyssey beginning in Feb. and I want to read this one first!

Currently reading
READ A Midwinter's Tail - this is proving to be much better than I was expecting. Not a light, fluffy fantasy, but a mystery with some supernatural elements.
READ The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - 3 hours left. Hope to finish before book club meets on Tuesday evening.
READ The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology - I own this one, so I can set it aside to focus on the Shakespeare play.

Also coming up in two weeks is the Red Dragon book club, so I need to get started on
READ Wales: The First & Final Colony

#4 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
4.5 blue stars, rounded up.

This is a rich tapestry with a lot of threads. Some reviewers have complained there are too many characters and it is too meandering, but this is a book about community and neighbors. It is like listening to your grandfather tell stories about the people he knew back when. It is those stories that is the heart and soul here. The plight of Dodo after the death of Chona is the glue that binds all these stories together and kept me reading to see how "karma" might play out for everyone. It is also a rich tapestry of themes: immigration, the American dream, racism, justice, redemption.

Description:
When workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Cumulative pages: 1,005

In honor of joining the "Welcome to Retirement" Club, I decided I had to add another theme. The new list is added to message #2 Themes: Clubs, with a focus on Ladies. This is a theme that I already have tagged books with on my TBR, but haven't taken on the theme with a list before. With just a couple new additions, these titles were already on my TBR shelf.

I have also added a list of book suggestions given to me by colleagues on my retirement - under Just For Fun, message #14.

#5 A Midwinter's Tail
4 red stars

This wasn't the "fluffy" read I was expecting. It had a compelling plot, with some suspense and family secrets revealed. The folklore/magic element was there but more hinted at than overt. The cat is clearly something beyond ordinary, but nothing is actually revealed about it, so I guess that will remain a mystery. There's also a bit of romance. The combination of cats, Christmas, and Cornwall is what drew me to this book thinking it would be a one off holiday read, but instead I am seeking out what else she has written, especially the historical fiction written as Laura Madeleine. And the blog on her website (lauramadeleine.com) has some amazing sounding recipes including Courgette and Cardamom Loaf Cake, and Cranachan Cake.

Description:
It's nearly Christmas and committed Londoner, Mina Kestle, is close to signing a deal that will make her career and give her everything she's ever wanted. And then she receives a mysterious letter in the post along with an ancient key, sent by her long-estranged godfather . . . Davy Penhallow is an artist who lives on the tiny Cornish island of Morgelyn with only his pet cat, Murr, for company. Mina hasn't seen or heard from him in decades, but now it seems he wants her to look after his cottage - and his cat - while he recovers from a stroke in hospital. Mina doesn't know why Davy has written after all these years, but she intends to do what's right: sort out the cottage and the cat and then get back to London in time for her career-saving meeting, before everything she's built comes crashing down around her. But the more time Mina spends in the cottage, looking after Murr and remembering the magic of Cornish folklore, the harder it becomes for her to tear herself away. And when she discovers that a set of ruthless property developers are coming for Morgelyn, she realises she might be the only one who can stand in their way to save the island, Davy's cottage and Murr's home.

Cumulative pages: 1,229

#6 Stone Blind
5 blue stars.

This snarky and very, very funny retelling turns the tale of Medusa on its head. The audiobook is narrated by the author and she did a marvelous job. All the different voices just came to life and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Apparently the author is also a stand-up comedian. There is a lot of jumping around between points of view, but I had no trouble following all the threads, as the various characters were so well-drawn. I will definitely be looking for more of her books.

Description: The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know. When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene’s temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon’s actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude. Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . . In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman—injured by a powerful man—is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa’s story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.

Cumulative pages: 1,602

FEBRUARY PLANS
Finishing up:
READ The Winter's Tale and then will return to
READ Gingerbread

Groups and challenges:
Perspectives is reading
READ The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

The Reading Loft is reading
One Day for March

The Red Dragons (St. David's Society book club) will be reading
Braids of Song: Weaving Welsh Music into the American Soul for April. I probably won't start it until March.

The Reading Through Time monthly prompt is "Colors" and I'll
possibly be reading
The Universe in 100 Colors: Weird and Wondrous Colors from Science and Nature or
The Secret Lives of Color

The cover color challenge is pink or spring green:
READ book:Closure|17033175] (pink)
READ Watership Down: The Graphic Novel (green)

RTT 1st quarterly theme: The Renaissance:
READ The Lady Flirts with Death
Wolf Hall and sequels

For no particular reason, I'd like to get started on listening to
The Iliad
The Odyssey
and I'll be making another car trip to Rapid City. I have these checked out on Libby:
READ Coyote Lost and Found (which is also a pink cover...)
READ The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (reread)

Still reading from January:
READ The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology
READ Wales: The First & Final Colony
READ First Knight
READ The Lost Spells (must be returned this week...)

Not started, but needs to be returned and I will rerequest it (nevermind, I purchased it...):
Chocolate House Treason

FEBRUARY LOG

Finished:
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat - finished Feb 1
The Lost Spells - finished Feb 4
The Winter's Tale (NCS edition) - finished Feb 5
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - finished Feb. 13
Coyote Lost and Found - finished Feb. 16
A Conspiracy of Friends - finished Feb. 17
The Lady Flirts with Death - finished Feb. 17

Currently reading:
The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology - started Jan 2
First Knight (Archive.org) - started Jan 5
Wales: The First & Final Colony - started Jan 17
The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family - started Feb 4
Gods and Kings - started Feb 19

Next up:
Gingerbread
Watership Down: The Graphic Novel
One Day
Closure

Waiting for holds:
Isaiah's Daughter

Still might read:
Queen By Right - restarted Nov 1 (PAUSED)
Chocolate House Treason

New Acquisitions:
Chocolate House Treason - Kindle, 6.99, I was going to have to rerequest this 700+ page book through ILL, and the price seemed worth it to avoid that hassle...
The Warbler: A Novel - Amazon Feb. First Reads
The Lost Spells - Amazon purchase, but I had points
The Royal Rebel - Kindle, .99
A Welsh Murder Mystery Box Set #1–4 - Kindle, $3.99
A Villa in Sicily: Olive Oil and Murder - Chirp books, free
The Good Knight - Chirp books, free
The Uninvited Guest - Chirp books, bundle offer, $2,97...
The Fourth Horseman - Chirp books, bundle
The Fallen Princess - Chirp books, bundle

#7 Curiosity Thrilled the Cat
4 red stars

This was just what I needed, something light and cozy after a stressful week. The setting is Minnesota, but there is no Minnesota-ness here. Mayville Heights could be anywhere. The magical aspect did play a role in solving the mystery, otherwise I think it seems a bit superfluous. Perhaps this will be developed more in future books. The cats are fun, but I could tell the author was not a cat owner (her bio confirmed that). The mystery was pretty good. There were at least three different threads going on providing red herrings, and I didn't guess the murderer. There's the obligatory love interest with the detective which I am sure will continue. The other characters were more interesting to me, and I hope they will all continue to feature in the series: Rebecca, Maggie, Everett, Oren, and others. This is why I read series - for the community and the characters as much as the actual mystery. I will read more of this one.

Description: When librarian Kathleen Paulson moved to Mayville Heights, Minnesota, she had no idea that two strays would nuzzle their way into her life. Owen is a tabby with a catnip addiction and Hercules is a stocky tuxedo cat who shares Kathleen's fondness for Barry Manilow. But beyond all the fur and purrs, there's something more to these kitties. When murder interrupts Mayville’s Wild Rose Summer Music Festival, Kathleen finds herself the prime suspect. More stunning is her realization that Owen and Hercules are truly special—perhaps even magical. Now, with a little legwork from her four-legged friends, Kathleen may be able to solve this purr-fect murder...

Cumulative pages: 1,926

You've got some challenging books there. Enjoy!

#8 The Lost Spells
5 gold stars

I liked this even better than The Lost Words. A much more intimate sized book. My favorite poem was The Jackdaw, although I loved many others. And I have a new favorite phrase, though goodness knows when I'll ever be able to use it: "tractor troubadour." Oak was lovely, and Snow Hare has some wonderful imagery. Swallow almost had me holding my breath, and Silver Birch (A Lullaby) has a special poignancy as my mother sleeps more and more under hospice care.... "Snow is falling, my silver-seeker; soon the path will be lost to sight, soon the day will give way to night... Look over your shoulder at where you have been; the edge of the wood can no longer be seen... Rest your head now, silver-seeker; close your eyes and cease your searches where the blackbird brightly perches, where the catkin softly brushes, here among the gleaming birches. Break of dawn is far away but you are safe, my silver-sleeper, safe to sink down deep and deeper; In the night the birches watch you with their black, unblinking eye, standing guard and keeping vigil while you make your dreaming journeys." That is not the whole poem, but I needed to have this here, where I can read it again as some kind of blessing or invocation over the next few weeks. I will be buying the book.

Description: The Lost Spells evokes the wonder of everyday nature, conjuring up red foxes, birch trees, jackdaws, and more in poems and illustrations that flow between the pages and into readers’ minds. Robert Macfarlane’s spell-poems and Jackie Morris’s watercolor illustrations are musical and magical: these are summoning spells, words of recollection, charms of protection. To read The Lost Spells is to see anew the natural world within our grasp and to be reminded of what happens when we allow it to slip away.

Cumulative pages: 2,166

#9 The Winter's Tale
3 green stars

This is a great edition for university students, and performers and directors. For the casual reader and for high school students, I would pick something else, maybe the Pelican edition. I appreciated the introduction and the different approaches to staging the play, but the extensive textual notes was too much. I quit reading them after the first act, except for the occasional obscure word.

As for the play itself, it starts out as a tragedy, but then it ends up as a comedy. I almost felt like this could be made into a Gilbert and Sullivan style production. There are plenty of songs and dances, shepherds, and clowns, the bear, of course, a shipwreck, a pair of young lovers, and an almost farcical ending where the statue of Hermione comes back to life...

Description: The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive introduction. The Winter's Tale is one of Shakespeare's most varied, theatrically self-conscious, and emotionally wide-ranging plays. Much of the play's copiousness inheres in its generic intermingling of tragedy, comedy, romance, pastoral, and the history play. In addition to dates and sources, the introduction attends to iterative patterns, the nature and cause of Leontes' jealousy, the staging and meaning of the bear episode, and the thematic and structural implications of the figure of Time. Special attention is paid to the ending and its tempered happiness. Performance history is integrated throughout the introduction and commentary. Appendices include the theatrical practice of doubling.

Cumulative pages: 2,472

#10 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
5 blue stars

I first read this about 11 years ago, after watching the TV series. I couldn't get into the audiobook version then, but I had no issues with it this time. Definitely would rate it higher than my original 3 star rating. I do still think the TV version had a tighter "script", more laugh out loud moments, but also more danger/suspense. Would probably give it 5 purple stars - also for the stunning cinematography of the African landscape.

Original 2014 review: Tried the audiobook several years ago and just couldn't get into it. I think the narrator's accent was hard to understand. Then I watched the TV series and loved it so much I bought it. Charming, funny, with some dark drama, and wonderful photography. It made me want to know more about Botswana. I am also a big fan of Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series. I watched the TV show again recently with my mom, and she wanted to read the book, so I decided this was a good time to do the same. It's still charming, but I think it lacks something of the humor and drama of the TV series. The various cases seemed more tied together in the TV series, and we had the back story of her first marriage to Note Makoti underlying the romantic tension between Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matakone. I'm continuing with the second book because the TV series did draw from more than was in the first book, and we'll see if more of the backstory is there.

Description: This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.

Cumulative pages: 2,707

#11 Coyote Lost and Found
5 blue stars

Not quite 5 purple stars like the first book, but pretty darn close. I did think one escapade was too much over the top, but otherwise another heart-tugging, heart-warming adventure with Coyote and her dad, her friend Salvatore, and of course, new friends that they meet along the way. Coyote and her dad continue their healing journey from deep loss and grief, learning to let go of the past, and for Coyote - coming to terms with her dad's new romantic relationship. This is set during the first year of Covid and I thought Dan did a good job making that a part of the story, with school closings, and dealing with anti-Asian prejudice.

Description: It's been almost a year since Coyote and her dad left the road behind and settled down in a small Oregon town. . . time spent grieving the loss of her mom and sisters and trying to fit in at school. But just as life is becoming a new version of normal, Coyote discovers a box containing her mom’s ashes. And she thinks she might finally be ready to say goodbye. So Coyote and her dad gear up for an epic cross-country road trip to scatter the ashes at her mom’s chosen resting place. The only problem? Coyote has no idea where that resting place is—and the secret’s hidden in a book that Coyote mistakenly sold last year, somewhere in the country. Now, it’s up to Coyote to track down the treasured book . . . without her dad ever finding out that it’s lost. It’s time to fire up their trusty bus, Yager, pick up some old friends, discover some new ones, and hit the road on another unforgettable adventure.

Cumulative pages: 2,989