Reading Summary for October 2021

This month I read seven books. Five of them were in the crime fiction genre, although some of those were more suspense than mystery, with the crime in the background. Most of those books were picked specifically for R.I.P. XVI. For that event, I also read a fantasy novel that borders on horror by Ray Bradbury. The last book I read this month was from my Classics Club list.

This month the communal driveway for our condominium has been torn up and inaccessible. The work started on September 20th and was supposed to be finished in no more than 4 weeks. This was what it looked like on October 22nd.

General Fiction

The Moviegoer (1961) by Walker Percy

This was my pick for the Classic Club spin, and I am glad I finally read a book by this author. It is set in the South, in New Orleans.  Binx Bolling is from a rich family, is a veteran of the Korean War, and has been set up as a stock broker by relatives. He likes going to movies, making money, and going out with his secretaries. He also has a lot of existential angst. Family members pressure him to pursue other careers and get more serious about life. This is one of the few books set in the South where I had some recognition of my own feelings and experiences. We were at a much lower socioeconomic level than the characters in this book, though. I was on the fence about this book until the ending, which I loved.

Fantasy / Horror

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) by Ray Bradbury

A traveling carnival brings evil to a small town in late October. See my review here.

Crime Fiction

The Thirteenth Tale (2006) by Diane Setterfield

If I had to pick a favorite book for this month, this would be it. It grabbed me emotionally and I enjoyed every page. See my review here.

A Little Local Murder (1976) by Robert Barnard

This is a light, humorous satire about the residents of an English village. The ending packs quite a punch. See my review here.

The Quickening (2020) by Rhiannon Ward

Rhiannon Ward is a pseudonym for Sarah Ward, who wrote four British police procedural mysteries previously. Three of those I read and liked a lot. This is a suspense novel with gothic elements, spooky and sort of creepy, not my usual type of reading. It is set in 1925 and highlights how many families lost sons and fathers to World War I. The main character is a female photographer who is documenting the contents of an estate that is in disrepair and being sold. There is an excellent subplot about a séance that took place back in 1896, and its continuing effects on the family, but I did not care for the overall emphasis on spiritualism. 

Skeleton Key (2000) by Jane Haddam

I read this book in October because the story is set at Halloween. It is the 16th book in the Gregor Demarkian series. This was a reread and it was a good choice from the series. See my review here.

Fête Fatale (1985) by Robert Barnard

This book has a lot in common with A Little Local Murder by the same author, which I also read this month. This story is set in a small English village, and many of the characters are quirky and somewhat unlikeable. But, unusual for Barnard's books, the story is narrated by a woman, the wife of the local veterinarian. She claims that the village is run by women and she is unsympathetic to the control they wield and how they use it. Some of the villagers are in a tizzy because a more orthodox vicar is being brought in to take the place of the previous incumbent of that position.

Currently Reading and More

This month I am reading novellas for Novellas in November. I have read four so far and enjoyed all of them.

Currently I am reading Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, a historical novella that starts in 1917 and follows events in a man's life through several decades. Set in Idaho and Washington, mostly.

We still don't have access to the driveway, at least for driving, although now we can walk on it. In this photo, taken yesterday, you can see that the pavers have been installed all the way to the street but entry is still blocked. 

This last photo, also taken yesterday, shows the driveway at our end of the drive. A lot of finishing still needs to be done. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

The Thirteenth Tale: Diane Setterfield

Vida Winter is an author who has had much success in her writing. She has also always concealed the truth about her past–her birth, her childhood, and how she escaped her past. At the time this novel begins, she is old and facing death, and she has decided to tell the true story of her origins. She picks Margaret Lea to write the story. Margaret has written short biographies of a few authors; Vida has researched her and thinks that they could work well together. 

Margaret lives with her mother and father and works in her father's antiquarian book store in London. She enjoys what she does and has not looked for any life outside of the book store and her family, even though she and her mother have a strained relationship. 

Vida Winter writes to Margaret requesting that she write her biography. Margaret visits Vida at her home in Yorkshire. The project is intriguing, but Margaret does not know how much to trust to Vida's veracity. She knows that Vida has invented many stories about her life. Margaret also has mysteries in her life, mysteries she would like to solve. Eventually she is convinced to write Vida's biography and to live with her while they are working on it.

There are two narratives in The Thirteenth Tale. Vida narrates the story of her family and her childhood during sessions with Margaret. Margaret narrates her story of working with Vida to write the biography and her separate research on Vida's past and her home, Angelfield, plus her research into the mysteries in her own life. 

My thoughts:

I have long had the idea that I don't like gothic novels. Maybe my tastes have changed or broadened, but lately I have read several books with gothic elements and enjoyed them a lot. The Thirteenth Tale was a page turner, although parts of it moved slowly. It took me a while to read although it was only a bit over 400 pages long. I loved the journey that Margaret takes to uncover the mysteries in her life and in Vida's, and I loved the ending. It was a very emotional reading experience for me. And the writing was very good; it was a joy to read.

I have read that this book borrows heavily from several classic books (such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Rebecca). Any of those that I read were read long ago, so I did not recognize this. And I am not sure why this would be a bad thing. Obviously, with one main character being a writer and the other working in a book store (and very serious about her reading time), this is a book that will appeal to book lovers, with lots of references to books and authors. 

I was not sure which genre this book fits in. I think it was marketed as a mystery and many readers at Goodreads categorize it that way. There are mysterious elements and there is a crime, but there is no investigation of a crime. There are elements of romance, but that element doesn't overwhelm the story. Just enough romance for me. 

This was another good read for R.I.P. XVI (Readers Imbibing Peril).

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Publisher:  Atria Books, 2006.
Length:    406 pages
Format:    Hardcover
Setting:    UK, London, Yorkshire
Genre:     Gothic Mystery
Source:    On my TBR for 15 years.