Books Read in September and October 2025

 

I am so far behind on summarizing my monthly reading that I decided to combine my September and October books in one post. I read 5 books in September and 7 books in October and I enjoyed all of them.

Nonfiction

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (2017) by Margareta Magnusson

The subtitle of this book is: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. I read it about six years ago, and enjoyed it. On a second reading it did not inspire me so much, even though I have plenty of things to get rid of. This brief book (only about 100 pages) is full of humor and useful hints and reminders of how much you need to let go of as you get older, and written from the author's personal experience. 

Fiction

State of Wonder (2011) by Ann Patchett

This book is set mostly in Brazil. The story is about Dr. Annick Swenson, an older woman who has been researching a proposed fertility drug for a pharmaceutical firm based in Minnesota. She is living in the Amazon jungle working in a lab but she has not reported back on her progress for a long time. The other major character is Dr. Marina Singh, a pharmacologist working for the same firm; she is sent to Brazil by her employer, to find out the status of Dr. Swenson's research. There are many other characters, and they are all interesting. It is a very bizarre story, although it gets very much better at the halfway point. In the end, I liked the story very much. 

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf

Reading Mrs. Dalloway was a good experience for me. It was the first book I had read by Virginia Woolf, plus I had never read anything written in stream of consciousness style. It did take me a good while to adjust to that style of telling a story, and it got even more confusing when the story moves from Mrs. Dalloway's thoughts to various other people's ruminations.

The story is basically a day in the life of Mrs. Dalloway, but as Clarissa Dalloway goes through her day she muses about her past and her future: her daughter; her daughter's friend, who she doesn't like; and her own relationships with men over the years. My review is here.

Get in Trouble (2015) by Kelly Link

This short story collection was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. There are nine short stories; there are some that are science fiction, some are fantasy, and even one story that is straight fiction. I liked the stories and plan to read more by this author. My review is here.

Oh William! (2021) by Elizabeth Strout

I have loved all of Strout's books that feature Lucy Barton. In My Name is Lucy Barton, Lucy tells of one event in her life while she is married to William, and I really disliked him in that story. In each succeeding novel about their relationship I grew to understand him and Lucy more. The books are all about relationships; in this book, William is married to his third wife and Lucy's second husband died recently. See my thoughts here.

Alternate History / Espionage / Fantasy

At the Table of Wolves (2017) by Kay Kenyon

This is a spy story set in an alternative version of the UK and Germany in the years leading up to World War II. In both countries, there are people with fantastical paranormal abilities; these powers started showing up after World War I. For the most part, the "superpowers" are not very obvious and people have to be trained to use them. See my review here.

Fantasy

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (2022) by Rebecca Thorne

My son purchased this book at the book sale this year.  I was interested in checking out what a cozy fantasy was like so my son let me read it first. The story is about a lesbian couple who want to leave their current lives behind and open a bookstore in a remote location where no one can find them. The problem is that Reyna is a private guard to a powerful and cruel queen, and Kianthe is a powerful mage. Somehow they both manage to leave their responsibilities behind and move to a small town far from their previous lives to set up a book shop. My review is here.

Guards! Guards! (1989) by Terry Pratchett

This book is the 8th book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and the 1st book in the City Watch sub-series. The series stars Sam Vimes, but in this novel, the City Watch police force don't function very well in keeping the peace, because of the corruption at high levels in the city of Ankh-Morpork. This is only the third Discworld book I have read by Pratchett; I read Mort in 2016. So I had to get used to Pratchett's style of writing again. I enjoyed the book, even though it took me about half of the book to get into it and be able to keep track of the characters. The characters are all very strange and the book is satirical. I now have the next book in the City Watch series to read (Men at Arms).

Crime Fiction

The '44 Vintage (1978) by Anthony Price

This is the eighth book in Price's David Audley series of nineteen books, all published between 1970 and 1990. The series is in the spy fiction genre, and the stories are Cold War espionage. Except for this one, which takes place near the end of World War II, and is kind of an origin story for the two main characters in the series, historian and intelligence agent David Audley and Colonel Jack Butler.  I loved this book and all the other books I have read in the series; each book focuses on different historical event. The '44 Vintage would not be a good place to start the series, though.

The Satan Sampler (1979) by Victor Canning

This is the 6th book in a spy fiction series called the Birdcage books. They all revolve around a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. I enjoyed this book, although it wasn't as good as earlier entries in this series. See my thoughts here.

The Dentist (2020) by Tim Sullivan

This is the first book in a series that features an autistic police detective. I was very pleased with the book. The plot was very good,  complicated but realistic. I liked the protagonist, Detective Sergeant George Cross, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. I liked everything about the book, including seeing what a person with Asperger's would encounter in a job, and how the person's coworkers may be affected. 

This series started in 2020 and there are already eight books in the series. I have already purchased the second and third books in the series and will be reading them in 2026.

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (2023) by Benjamin Stevenson

This is the 2nd book in the Ernest Cunningham series; I read the 1st book earlier this year. Both of the books are highly entertaining and humorous. Ernest, who narrates the story, makes a living writing about how to write mysteries. Prior to this book he has written a memoir about his experience with a serial killer. As the book begins, he is attending a writing conference set on a train.

More cat pictures...

London has now been with us five months. We are still adjusting to London and he to us. When we first got him he sat or slept on cat beds. Now he ignores them and uses the furniture (or sits on books). Click on the images for the best viewing quality. 

The Satan Sampler: Victor Canning

This is the 6th book in a loose series called the Birdcage books. They were published between 1971 and 1985. They all revolve around a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. The officials and the agents attached to the Birdcage group are generally amoral, although they believe that their mission is important to the welfare of the country.

Since this is a very difficult book to summarize, I am using the description on the dust jacket: 

On the death of his elder brother, Richard Seyton inherits the Seyton estate, which had been in the family since the fourteenth century. But the great Seyton Hall–showpiece of the estate–has been leased to an international charitable organization, the Felbeck Foundation for the Preservation of the Christian Heritage, which is not all that it seems to be. Determined to find a way to break the lease, Seyton is slowly enmeshed in a dangerous web of intrigue and underground politics, especially when the sinister intelligence organization know as Birdcage intrudes upon his affairs.

 

This story isn't quite as good as the earlier books. Some of the characterizations have less depth, and the spy story is very similar to the previous book. The evil practices and deceptions of the group are just as nefarious as ever, though. The story does feature several of the Birdcage characters from the previous two books, and I liked that. And the emphasis on the beauty of the countryside, the descriptions of the birds and animals, is still there. I loved the setting, the atmosphere, the use of nature. 

The Birdcage novels are usually somewhat of a downer in the end, which is realistic for spy fiction, but this one had a more upbeat ending than usual.

This quote is from the back flyleaf of the dust jacket of the first US hardback edition:

"For years now, Victor Canning has been moving into new directions with the suspense story. The spy thriller has become a novel of character with him. The doomsday book of fate intertwined with old family histories has moved into fresh insights of human foibles. The chase genre has been brought to three-dimensional life by the astute use of settings, where every bird and leaf become a part of the narrative." (Ed Hutshing, Book Editor, San Diego Union)

There are only two more books in the series, and I am looking forward to both of them.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   William Morrow and Co., 1980 (orig. pub. 1979)
Length:       233 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Birdcage books #6
Setting:      UK
Genre:       Espionage fiction
Source:      Purchased in December, 2024.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Seascraper to Tokyo Express

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Usually Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Seascraper by Benjamin Wood, which was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. The protagonist is a young man living with his mother in Longferry, a town on the English coast. He supports both of them by scraping fish off the sea shore, although his real goal is to be a successful folk musician. 

1st degree:

Using the title of the starting book, and the setting, I am starting my chain with The Seaside: England's Love Affair by Madeleine Bunting.  This is a nonfiction book about the seaside towns and resorts set on the coastline of England. For this book, the author traveled around the edges of England, staying in forty resorts in various types of accommodations. This is my husband's book, which he read in 2023 and gave a 5 star rating. I hope to read it someday.

2nd degree:

In The Seaside, Madeleine Bunting mentions a novel that is set in Bognor, a seaside resort town. The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff was published in 1931. I haven't read that book either, but I do have a copy to read, soon I hope.

From the French flap of the paperback edition I own:

Meet the Stevens family, as they prepare to embark on their annual holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued every September since. They follow the same carefully honed schedule – now accompanied by their three children, twenty-year-old Mary, seventeen-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie. 

Arriving in Bognor they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It's a bit shabbier than it once was – the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana (with a balcony!) and in their rediscovery of familiar beloved sights.

3rd degree:

I will continue in the beach theme for this next book in the chain: The Mask of Memory by Victor Canning. Canning is the author of one of my favorite espionage series, about a covert security group in the UK. The secret wife of one of the most experienced operatives in the group lives in North Devon and often walks on the beach, enjoying the scenery and the birds in the area. One of my favorite parts of the books in this series is the beautiful descriptions of the countryside and the wildlife, especially birds, in each of the locations.

4th degree:

And now I am linking to a mystery novel with a beach setting in Argentina. Where There's Love, There's Hate, published in 1946, was written by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Argentine writers who were married to each other.

Dr. Humberto Huberman is visiting the seaside at Bosque del Mar, Argentina. He is staying at a hotel owned by relatives. It is a small hotel and not many guests. On the first evening after his arrival, one of the guests dies, by poison. Dr. Huberman appoints himself the investigator, but of course the real policemen arrive soon enough. 

5th degree:

Fall from Grace by L.R. Wright, published in 1991, is a another mystery where a dead body is found on a beach. Sechelt is a real-life seaside community on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, northwest of Vancouver. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Karl Alberg is out sailing with his lover Cassandra when they see the body of a man on the beach. It turns out that he had fallen from a cliff above. The dead man was Steven Grayson, who grew up in Sechelt but has been living in Vancouver for the last ten years. The story is told from multiple perspectives (Karl Alberg's, Cassandra's, the various members of the community that are affected by the death).

6th degree:

The last book in this chain is also a mystery; two bodies are found on a beach, and the setting is Japan. In Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto, published in 1958, two detectives in different cities in Japan investigate the same crime and collaborate, sharing their thoughts and discoveries. A man and a woman are found dead on a beach in Kashii, and the police assume that it is a double suicide. Inspector Torigai in Kashii is first assigned to the case, and he has no reason to disagree with that determination, but he does notice some puzzling aspects and continues to have nagging questions. Later Inspector Mihara from Tokyo comes to discuss the case with Torigai.  Mihara thinks the deaths are related to a bribery scandal in the government. This novel was first published in English translation as Points and Lines.

My Six Degrees started out in England, then went on to stops in Argentina, Canada, and Japan. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on January 3, 2026. Kate has decided that the starting book will be a wildcard. Those participating in Six Degrees can either start with the last book in the December 2025 chain or, if you did not play in December, begin with the last book you read.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Dangerous Liaisons to Before the Coffee Gets Cold

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Dangerous Liaisons. This is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, published in 1782, with the original title of Les Liaisons dangereuses. It tells the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two lovers who plot to seduce and manipulate others. I don't know much about this book except that it was adapted to film many times; the one I am most familiar with is Dangerous Liaisons (1988), directed by Stephen Frears and starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich. Two other English language versions are Valmont (1989), directed by Miloš Forman, and Cruel Intentions (1999), which relocates the story to modern-day New York.

1st degree:

My first link is to another French novel adapted to the screen, titled D’entre les morts (1954), written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Hitchcock adapted the story as Vertigo, set in San Francisco instead of France.  The first translation of the  book to English was published in 1956 as The Living and the Dead. Pushkin Vertigo more recently issued a reprint of the novel with the title Vertigo.

2nd degree:

For my next link, I picked another book adapted to film by Hitchcock, The Rainbird Pattern (1972) by Victor Canning. It is the 2nd book in a loose spy fiction series called the Birdcage books. The film version was titled Family Plot, and is very different from the book. The basic elements of the plot remain, but the story is turned into a comedy.

3rd degree:

My husband and I have watched a lot of Hitchcock movies, and another novel that he chose to adapt was Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier. The adaptation, released in 1940, stars Laurence Olivier as the widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the unnamed woman who becomes his second wife.

4th degree:

Moving away from Hitchcock and adaptations, my next book is another by Daphne du Maurier, The House on the Strand (1969). I was surprised to find out that this book is a time travel story; my son found it for me in the science fiction and fantasy section of the book sale in 2023. I haven't read it yet so check out reviews at Constance's Staircase Wit blog and Kelly's Thoughts & Ramblings.

5th degree:

And now I move to another classic book of time travel, this time with a scientific basis: The End of Eternity (1955) by Isaac Asimov. This book is about a group of people called the Eternals, who live outside of time and either observe time at different points or make Reality Changes to make positive changes for the future. I read this over ten years ago but I remember I liked it a lot. Even though the book has very few women characters, there is definitely a romance of sorts, and it reads like a thriller.

6th degree:

There are many  different takes on time travel stories. Some are science fiction, using machines of some type to take the person back in time. Others lean more towards fantasy. In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, visitors to a tiny café in Tokyo can take advantage of a special service; they can travel back in time if they drink a cup of the special coffee made by this café. This is the first book in a series about the café and its unique brand of time travel.

My Six Degrees took me from France to England and then to the past via time travel. Have you read any of these books? If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on  March 1, 2025 and the starting book will be the 2023 Booker Prize winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.

Birdcage: Victor Canning

Birdcage is about the machinations of a British intelligence agency, referred to as "Birdcage" because its offices are in Birdcage Walk in London. There is very little oversight of this covert security group and the agents are generally amoral, although they believe that their mission is important to the welfare of the country. In reality, the higher ups are just trying to protect the government in question which they serve blindly.

This story is set in Portugal, Gloucester, and London. A young nun leaves her Portuguese monastery, feeling that she has betrayed her vows. She attempts to drown herself in the sea but by some miracle is rescued at the last minute. The man who rescues her is a regular guy, easygoing and not ambitious. 

We soon find out that the nun's real name is Sarah Branton, daughter of Lady Jean Branton, a former agent for the Birdcage group. Lady Jean is dead, but the Birdcage agents are keeping an eye on Sarah to make sure that she doesn't have damaging information about their group.

This is the fifth book in a very loose series about the Birdcage group. Especially in the first few books in the series, it is hard to see any connections between the books; there are no repeating characters for example. The tone is the same, and the department is unnamed in the early books. But as the series continues some of the agents feature in multiple books. However, my point here is that though I may be reading them as a series, they easily can be read as standalone books. 

It only recently occurred to me that this series often has a psychological / romantic suspense plot running through it. In fitting with the espionage aspects of the story, the outcome of these romantic plots are entirely unpredictable; sometimes there is a happy, optimistic ending ... sometimes not. This one is even more obviously of that type, since Sarah Branton and the man who rescues her quickly develop a bond and a growing attraction to each other.

I enjoy the glimpses of nature, and especially birds, running through all the stories. The sense of place is very prominent. I think this might be distracting to some readers, but it is one of the elements that keeps me coming back for more. The stories in this series can be very dark.

Victor Canning is one of my favorite authors. He wrote a lot of books starting in the 1930s and through the 1980s, some general fiction, some children's fiction and some spy fiction. I have stuck with his spy fiction or mystery novels so far, but I want to try some of his general fiction too. 

Today I was reading about Canning's life, and discovered that he was friends with Eric Ambler, another espionage author whose books I enjoy. This information was in a book by John Higgins, A Birdcage Companion. Per Higgins' website:

In 1940 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent for training with the Royal Artillery in Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, where he trained alongside his friend Eric Ambler. Both were commissioned as second lieutenants in 1941. We get a glimpse of Canning in those years from Eric Ambler's autobiography, Here Lies Eric Ambler.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Heinemann, 1978
Length:       233 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Birdcage books #3
Setting:      Portugal and the UK
Genre:       Espionage fiction
Source:      Purchased in December, 2023.

Books Read in August 2023

I read nine books in August and completed all of the books on my 20 Books of Summer list. I did not review them all, but did better than usual in that area. I read four nonfiction books, although three of them were shorter books. All of the books I read in August were very good.

Graphic Nonfiction 

Number One is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions (2022) 

by Steve Martin, Drawings by Harry Bliss

This is a short and entertaining graphic memoir, in which Steve Martin, star of many films and currently starring in the TV series Only Murders in the Building, tells selected stories about his career in the movies. That portion of the book is supplemented by cartoons drawn by Harry Bliss. This book was his second collaboration with Harry Bliss; the first was A Wealth of Pigeons: A Cartoon Collection.

A Fire Story (2019) by Brian Fies

Brian Flies tells the story of his and his wife's escape from the Tubbs fire that engulfed their home in Santa Rosa, and their experiences following the fire, with all their possessions gone. My review here.

Nonfiction / Letters 

84, Charing Cross Road (1970) by Helene Hanff

I loved reading this very brief book of letters between Helene Hanff in New York City and Frank Doel in London, starting in October 1949. My review here.

Nonfiction / History

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory (2010) 

by Ben Macintyre

This is an extremely well-written history telling the story of Operation Mincemeat, a plan to deceive the Germans related to the next target that the Allies planned to attack. Sicily was the most obvious target, but intelligence agents wanted to convince the enemy that the attack would be on Greece or Sardinia. My review here.

Science Fiction

The Last Colony (2007) by John Scalzi

This book is the third in the Old Man's War series; the first two books are military science fiction, which I did not think I would like, but I did. This entry in the series was an interesting combination of a story about the colonization of a planet and the resulting effort to protect the planet from a group that wants to annihilate it. I rated The Last Colony higher than the other two, but I read the first two books ten years ago. Maybe I am a more generous grader of books now (which I would just as soon not do anyway), or maybe I liked the emphasis on people and relationships in this one.

Crime Fiction

The Mulberry Bush (2015) by Charles McCarry

This is the last novel that Charles McCarry published before his death in 2019. It is a standalone spy story about a man whose main focus is getting revenge for his father, a spy for the CIA whose career ended in disgrace. Now the son has succeeded in getting a job with the CIA and is bent on avenging the wrong that Headquarters did to his father. My review here.

Sleep and His Brother (1971) by Peter Dickinson

This is the fourth in a series about Jimmy Pibble. In the first two books, he was a Scotland Yard detective; now he has been forced into retirement. His wife is a volunteer for a charitable institution and asks him to look into a problem they are having. There are vague supernatural elements, which is not surprising since Dickenson was a well-known author of fantasy books. The book is very short, around 200 pages, but very dense, not an easy read at all. I loved the story and the writing.

The Doomsday Carrier (1976) by Victor Canning

This was another short book, under 200 pages, and the fourth book in a loose series called the Birdcage books. They all revolve around a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. A chimpanzee has escaped from the facility where it had been infected with plague bacillus, with the goal of creating an infectious carrier of the disease after a three week incubation period. The story follows the chimpanzee as it continues to elude capture, and two people who hope to catch it and return it to the facility before it becomes contagious. Concerns are addressed about the ethics of doing this kind of research and the dishonesty of government officials in trying to keep the truth from the public.

A Man's Head (1931) by Georges Simenon

There are 75 novels featuring Inspector Maigret, and each of those that I have read is different. Maigret often behaves strangely, at least for a policeman of his rank. In this case, Maigret arranges the escape of a condemned murderer from prison. The man, Joseph Heurtin, was convicted of having killed a rich American woman and her French maid. Maigret is sure that Huertin could not have done the crime, even though the proof of his guilt is strong. He plans to have the man followed once he escapes, and see if he will lead the police to the real culprit. Maigret gets very personally involved in this one. An alternate title for this book is A Battle of Nerves, which is definitely an accurate description. The Maigret novels are always good reads, brief, and usually with some humor.

Currently reading

For my Classics List, I am reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith; I have read about half the book. This book is the starting book for Six Degrees of Separation in October, and is on my Classics List. 

The annual Planned Parenthood Book Sale started on September 15th. We have been to the book sale several times since it started, and will go again on Sunday, the last day of the sale. I have bought way too many books, so maybe I won't find too many more to buy.

The photos at the top of this post are of the Silver-leafed Princess Flower plants in our front flower beds. Last month's photos showed the first purple blooms on the plants. The photos in this post show the plant in full bloom. 

The photo immediately above is a flower on our Butterfly bush. The plant has done very well and gotten taller than we expected.

Photos taken and processed by my husband. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

The Mask of Memory: Victor Canning

I read The Mask of Memory by Victor Canning in March of this year. Published in 1974, it is the 3rd book in a loose series called the Birdcage books. They all revolve around a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. The agents are generally amoral, although they believe that their mission is important to the welfare of the country. 

In this book, there are two plotlines. One deals with an effort to expose nefarious activities of a left wing trade union movement before an election; the most experienced operative in the security group, Bernard Tucker, investigates this situation. 

The second narrative revolves around Bernard's wife, Margaret, who has been neglected by her husband and is growing more and more unhappy in the marriage. Margaret walks on the beach near her home frequently; she meets Maxie Dougall on one of her walks. Maxie had engineered the meeting, and has plans to ensnare her in a relationship. The reader discovers that Bernard has kept his wife and his home in North Devon from his boss and coworkers in the security group, and will probably lose his job if this is discovered. 

My Thoughts:

The story is very complex and there are twists and revelations throughout the book. Canning does a beautiful job of developing interesting characters. Margaret was the most sympathetic character, but all were interesting and I wanted the best ending for all of them. Thus the book was much more upbeat than the first two books in the series.

Another plus for me is that this novel had beautiful descriptions of the countryside and the birds in North Devon. Maxie is an artist, although not very good, and he supports himself selling his drawings of birds. 

I enjoyed the first two books in the series, Firecrest and The Rainbird Pattern,  but this one was my favorite so far. I will be moving on to the fourth book in the series, The Doomsday Carrier, soon. It is on my 20 Books of Summer list.

The blogger (Nick Jones at Existential Ennui) who introduced me to this series questioned whether the books were really a series after reading the first three books and not recognizing any connecting characters in the books. I had the same experience. The description of the series at the Spy Guys and Gals web site notes that there are some characters that occur in multiple books, and some of those show up in this book. Nevertheless, I think these books can be read as standalone books. 

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Collier Books, 1990 (orig. pub. 1974)
Length:       260 pages
Format:      Paperback
Series:       Birdcage books #3
Setting:      UK
Genre:        Espionage fiction
Source:      Purchased at Planned Parenthood book sale, 2019.

A Summer Challenge: 20 Books of Summer 2023

 

This is my eighth year of participating in the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. The event is hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. 

This year, 20 Books of Summer starts June 1st and ends September 1st. I completed my list of 20 books in 2018 and 2019, but in other years I had mixed results. 

I always have a problem with reviewing all the books, but this year I am putting my priority on reviewing the books rather than finishing the list. We will see how that goes.

The event is very flexible. You can go for 15 Books of Summer or 10 Books of Summer if 20 is more than you want to commit to. Books can be substituted along the way. And that is fine. See this link for a description of the event. 

Coming up with the list is the best part. Here is my list of books.

Mysteries

Mindful of Murder by Susan Juby

A Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths

Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

A Man's Head by Georges Simenon

Murder Most Fowl by Bill Crider

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny 

Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill

Sleep and His Brother by Peter Dickinson

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes

Spy Fiction

Our Man in Camelot by Anthony Price

SS-GB by Len Deighton (alternative history)

The Mulberry Bush by Charles McCarry

The Doomsday Carrier by Victor Canning

Science Fiction 

The Last Colony by John Scalzi

Fiction

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and Frank Doel

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullars

Nonfiction

Jane Austen Cover to Cover by Margaret Sullivan

Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions by Steve Martin, illus. by Harry Bliss (graphic novel)

A Fire Story by Brian Fies (graphic novel)

Books Read in March and April 2023

I skipped a reading summary for March so this is a combo summary for March and April. I read ten books in March and five in September. In April, all the books I read were crime fiction. In March, I read a biography, a graphic novel, two books of general fiction, and a fantasy novel, in addition to crime fiction novels. 

Nonfiction / Biography

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family (2001) by Mary S. Lovell

After reading The Six by Laura Thompson, I felt like I could benefit from another look at the Mitford family. I hoped for more information about Jessica, Pam and Deborah. And I definitely got that. Also more about their parents, although their brother Tom was only touched on. See my full review here.

Graphic novel

A Man and His Cat, Vol. 3 (2019) by Umi Sakurai (Writer and Artist) 

There are 10 volumes in this Japanese manga series. In the first volume, a widower, Kanda, seeks a cat as a companion, and finds his perfect match at a pet store. The man falls in love with his new cat and names him Fukumaru. The stories in the first and second volume are mostly about Kanda learning to live with and take care of a cat. In the third volume, some earlier relationships in his life are explored. I will be reading more in this charming manga series. See my review of volumes 1-3.

General Fiction

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) by Elizabeth Taylor

Mrs. Palfrey, a widow living on a fixed income, has just moved into an extended residence hotel in London. There are a small number of older residents who are living there permanently. She is proud and trying to fit in, and ashamed that she has no one to visit her.  It explores the time in life when people are alone and moving toward a time when they need more care, so it is not very upbeat but also not a complete downer. It was a very good book and I will be looking for more by this author.

Dear Life: Stories (2012) by Alice Munro

I started reading this book of short storied in November 2022 and finished them in March of this year. There are fourteen stories in the book. Some of them are exceptionally good and I liked the stories overall very much. Alice Munro is a Canadian author and I liked the Canadian setting. I will be reading more of her short stories. See my posts on the first eight stories and the next six stories.

Fantasy

Assassin's Apprentice (1995) by Robin Hobb

I haven't read a lot of fantasy, and certainly not a lot of high fantasy. This first book in the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb has a medieval fantasy setting.  I took  a chance on this one because of Cath's review of The Mad Ship from the Liveship Traders Trilogy by the same author. I loved it and I will be reading more of the trilogy. My review is here.

Crime Fiction

Time to Murder and Create (1976) by Lawrence Block

This is the second book in the Matthew Scudder series. I read the first book in the series back in 2011 and it took me this long to return to it. My goal is to read as many books in the series as I can; there are 17 books. In this novel, Matthew is hired by a criminal to avenge his death. The criminal, who has been supporting himself with blackmail, supplies Matthew with information on his current victims, as he suspects one of them of planning to murder him. I enjoyed this book and read it very quickly, but I suspect that the series get much better as it goes along.

Baby, Would I Lie? (1994) by Donald Westlake

This book is the second book in a two-part series about Sara Joslyn and Jack Ingersoll. Both are journalists, and they are covering the trial of country singer Ray Jones for the rape and murder of Belle Hardwick. See my review here.

The Mask of Memory (1974) by Victor Canning

The Mask of Memory is the third book in the Birdcage series. The series is about a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. In this book, one of the top agents is leading a double life. He is married to a woman who lives in North Devon; she does not know what he does for a living and sees him infrequently. No one in his group knows that he is married, or of the existence of the home in North Devon. I enjoyed the first two books in the series and this one was also very good. I will be moving on to the fourth book in the series, The Doomsday Carrier, soon.

4:50 from Paddington (1957) by Agatha Christie

This is the 7th Jane Marple mystery. Jane Marple's friend Elspeth McGillicuddy sees a man strangling a woman in a passing train. She tells the railway officials and later the police, but no one can find any evidence of a crime, and they don't really believe her. Jane Marple decides to investigate. After finishing almost all the Hercule Poirot novels in 2021, I now want to finish up the Miss Marple series.

Murder in a Nunnery (1940) by Eric Shepherd

The first of two short novels set in Harrington Convent. I read this book for the 1940 Club organized by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. My review is here.

Bad Faith (2002) by Aimée and David Thurlo

Bad Faith is the first book in a series about a nun who solves mysteries. The setting is in New Mexico. Sister Agatha is an extern nun who deals with the outside world for her order. I liked the mystery but the really interesting part was reading about the cloistered nuns and their daily life. There are only six in the series and I would definitely read more of them if I have the time.

The So Blue Marble (1940) by Dorothy B. Hughes

This book was Dorothy B. Hughes' debut mystery novel. It is unlike any other book by Hughes that I have read. In a Lonely Place and Ride a Pink Horse are noir novels, with a much more serious tone. This one is also on the noir side but more fantastical, and requires a good bit of suspension of disbelief. See my review here.

The Blind Man of Seville (2003) by Robert Wilson

Although I had decided earlier to stop reading Robert Wilson's novels because most of them had too much graphic violence and sex for me, I took a chance on this book, because it is set in Seville, Spain. This book did have those elements, but I was glad I took a chance on the book. The setting and character development was very good.

The Echoing Strangers (1952) by Gladys Mitchell

This is the 25th novel in Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley series. There are two plot threads. The first takes place mostly in the village of Wetwode on the River Burwater, where Francis Caux lives with his guardian, Miss Higgs. A murder victim is discovered near to the riverside bungalow that Francis lives in. The second follows a separate murder investigation in the village of Mede, where Derek Caux, Francis's twin, lives with his grandfather, Sir Adrian Caux. I read this book as part of a group read hosted at Jason Half's blog. The first of four posts about the novel is here.

Body Line (2011) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

I used to love the Bill Slider mystery series but got side-tracked. In April, I decided to pick it up again with Body Line, the 13th book in the series. I had just finished a very violent and dark police procedural and I wanted to go in the opposite direction. There is a strong focus on the lives of the two major characters (Slider and his partner Atherton) in addition to the investigation of the crime. I will be looking for the next in the series.

My husband was on jury duty for a few days recently. The images at the top and bottom of the post were taken at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, while he was there. The courthouse building has lovely grounds and architecture. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.