My Year in Books: 2023

I saw this meme at BookerTalk this morning and on a whim I decided to try it. The rules are: use only the titles of books I read in 2023 and try not to repeat any titles.

I had never been successful at it in the past, but here it is ...

In high school I was: The Optimist's Daughter (Eudora Welty)

People might be surprised by: Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket (Hilma Wolitzer)

I will never be: Something Wicked (Elizabeth Ferrars)

My fantasy job is:  Miss Marple (Agatha Christie)

At the end of a long day I need: Books for Living (Will Schwalbe)

I hate being: The Doomsday Carrier (Victor Canning)

I wish I had: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Jesse Q. Sutanto)

My family reunions are: City Under One Roof (Iris Yamashita)

At a party you’d find me with: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)

I’ve never been to: 84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff)

A happy day includes: Book Lust (Nancy Pearl)

Motto I live by: Sworn to Silence (Linda Castillo)

On my bucket list is: Bullet Train (Kotaro Isaka)

In my next life, I want to have: The Paris Diversion (Chris Pavone)

Also see this meme at 746Books and AnnaBookBel. 

Annabel has done this meme for many years, starting in 2009!

Short Story Wednesday: More Christmas Stories

I have now read 17 of the 26 stories in Murder for Christmas, edited by Thomas Godfrey. I did not read all of those this month; some of them I had read previously in other anthologies.

These are the last four stories I read in this book.

"Back for Christmas" by John Collier 

This is a short but effective story with a very clever ending. Dr. Carpenter and his wife are going to America for a lecture tour. Mrs. Carpenter has told all her friends that they will be back in England for Christmas, but he has other plans.  This story was broadcast on television in 1956 as part of the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

"A Christmas Tragedy" by Baroness Orczy 

This is the first piece of writing by Orczy that I have read. This short story tells how Lady Molly solves the mystery of murder of Major Ceely on Christmas Eve. She and her maid Mary were staying at Major Ceely's home, Clevere Hall, when the murder occurs. The introduction to the story by Thomas Godfrey indicates that there are a series of Lady Molly of Scotland Yard stories; the stories are told by Mary, her faithful maid. Twelve stories in the series were published in Lady Molly of Scotland Yard in 1910.

"Dancing Dan's Christmas" by Damon Runyon

This story was a lot of fun and had a great ending, but as usual when I am reading Damon Runyon's prose, I was confused by the street talk and many quirky characters. The story was originally published in Collier's Magazine in 1932.

"Christmas Party" by Rex Stout

I have read all of the mystery fiction by Rex Stout, multiple times, and this story was no exception. But it has been nine years since I read it last, and I have always enjoyed it. "Christmas Party" features Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie and is one of four stories in And Four to Go by Rex Stout. The story is 70 pages long, so it is really a novella.

The story starts with Archie refusing to accompany Wolfe to a meeting with a well-known horticulturalist because he already has plans to attend a Christmas party at a ex-client's business. I reviewed "Christmas Party" in 2014 in this blog post. 

If you are interested in a list of all the stories in Murder for Christmas, check out George Kelley's review at his blog. 

I do have a bonus Christmas story, from the Guardian. My husband sent me a link to the story and I read it immediately. It was just the right length.

"Yankee Swap" by Jonathan Escoffery

This story is set during the Christmas season, on a snowy day in Boston. The main character, Nathan, occasionally drives his car for a rideshare company, and on this day he does it because he needs extra money to fund his airplane flight to South Florida to visit his family for Christmas. The person who called the car for a ride is his ex-fiancee’s husband. Nathan is curious about this man, the man he blames for blowing up his world nearly three years earlier. I loved the way the story is told, how more about each of the characters is revealed during the ride. A very nice story, and a good story to read any time of the year.

The link to this story is here.

Winter Solstice: Rosamunde Pilcher

This book is way outside of my normal reading, and over 500 pages long, but I fell in love with it from the beginning and was immediately immersed in the story. It is the epitome of a comfort read... at least for me. And it was set at winter solstice and has a focus on Christmas, a big plus.

We meet Elfrida Phipps, formerly an actress on the London stage, at age 62. Two years previously she retired, moved to Dipton in Hampshire, England and bought a small cottage. Elfrida soon encounters Gloria and Oscar Blundell and their 12-year-old daughter Francesca and they all quickly become good friends. Oscar is 67 and much older than Gloria. 

Elfrida goes off for an extended visit with a cousin and his much younger wife and their young children. When she gets back from her month's visit, she finds that Oscar's wife and child were killed in an automobile accident, and that Oscar has no place to live, unless he goes to an old folks' home nearby. She offers to help get him moved and settled in Creagan, Scotland where he owns half of an Estate House which used to belong to his grandmother.

Shortly thereafter they are joined at the Estate House by three other people who need a place to stay at Christmas: Carrie, a young woman related to Elfrida; Lucy, her 14-year-old niece; and Sam, a businessman who is in the area to help rebuild a company that had fallen on hard times.

My Thoughts:

• The characters are all interesting. I got to know the main characters and care for them, but all of the peripheral characters had back stories. I will admit that the main characters are almost too good to be true, but that did not bother me enough to spoil my overall enjoyment of the story. (A good number of reviewers don't agree with my assessment of those characters.)
• Pilcher's writing style appealed to me. Each chapter is titled with the name of one of the five main characters and looks at the story from their point of view. She reveals the details of the issues that they are dealing with gradually throughout the book. The depictions of the Scottish countryside and the weather in November and December in this part of Scotland were wonderful.
• There are many mentions of books: reading them, buying them, books in homes, bookshops. I love that in a novel.
• The ending was exactly what I wanted it to be, and when I finished it, I was sorry that it was over. 

This was Rosemary Pilcher's last novel, and I don't know how it compares to her earlier books, but I will be looking for another one to read someday.

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Publisher:   Thomas Dunne Books, 2015 (orig. pub. 2000)
Length:       520 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:       Mostly Scotland.
Genre:        Fiction
Source:      I purchased this book in October 2023.

Books Read in November 2023

November was a very nice reading month. Two science fiction novels! Three novellas! A children's book set at Christmas! Two books from my Classics List! My total for the month was nine books, but that was mostly because I read three very short books and finished a book I had been reading over the last few months.

Nonfiction / Books about Books

Book Lust (2003) by Nancy Pearl

This is at least my third read of this book since it first came out. The subtitle is "Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason." Nancy Pearl was a librarian for many years and obviously has read a lot of books, and books from practically every genre. This book is filled with recommendations. I reread it because my tastes have changed over time and I always see some books that are new to me in it on each read. This time I was looking specifically for books about countries all over the world, or books using those countries as a setting. Since the book was published in 2003 it is not up to date, but I have always read more older books than current books so that does not matter to me.

Fiction / Children's 

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street  (2018) by Karina Yan Glaser

This is a middle grade children's book set at Christmas, and a very lovely read. It is the first in a series of seven books about the family. See my review.

Fiction / Horror

Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker

Many people, including my husband, have told me that Dracula is a very good read, and they were all right. The story is told through letters and diary entries and I enjoyed that format. It was much more accessible than I expected, although parts of it were challenging to read. This book is on my Classics List and I am glad that I finally read it. 

Science Fiction

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) by Becky Chambers

This book is an excellent space opera, the first book in a three book series called Wayfarers. See my review.

Rogue Protocol (2018) by Martha Wells

The protagonist and narrator of Rogue Protocol is a security robot that has both human and robotic parts. This third entry in the Murderbot Diaries series is a novella, as are most of the books in the series. My review of the first book, All Systems Red, is here. I would not start with Rogue Protocol because there is so little backstory for what has gone before. I have enjoyed all of the books so far and the fourth book is already on my shelves waiting to be read.

Crime Fiction

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain

Cain's first novel is a noir mystery and very brief, only 120 pages long. This was another book from my Classics List. See my review.

Where There's Love, There's Hate (1946) by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo

Translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Jessica Ernst Powell

This was a lovely short read at 128 pages. It may turn out to be one of my top ten books of the year. The introduction by Suzanne Jill Levine describes this book as a "tongue-in-cheek mystery somewhere between detective spoof and romantic satire." See my review.

Favor (1988) by Parnell Hall

Stanley Hastings is a licensed private detective in Manhattan, but his job is to pursue leads for an ambulance chaser lawyer. In this 3rd novel in the series. Stanley does some investigating in Atlantic City, to help out a policeman friend of his. See my review.

City Under One Roof (2023) by Iris Yamashita

This debut novel is set in an isolated small town in Alaska, Point Mettier. The isolation is imposed by natural forces, a major storm that closes the tunnel that provides the only access to the city. All 205 residents in the town live in one high-rise building. The story follows three characters: Amy Lin, a teenage girl who lives with her mother; Cara Kennedy, a detective who has come to the city to investigate some body parts found on a beach; and Lonnie Mercer, an eccentric loner who has a pet moose. All the main characters were interesting and most of the secondary characters are suspicious. Just about everyone has secrets they are hiding. A second book is scheduled to come out in February 2024, and I will be reading it at some point.

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken when we were walking to the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Goleta. It wasn't the time of year for the butterflies to be there, but it was a great walk and our first visit to the area in years.

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

Where There's Love, There's Hate: Casares and Ocampo

I did not formally take part in Novellas in November, but I did read three novellas in November. This was one of them at 128 pages. 

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; they get to know each other. 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.

The introduction describes this book as a "tongue-in-cheek mystery somewhere between detective spoof and romantic satire." It is a light-hearted story that does not take things too seriously. Dr. Huberman tells the story in first person narration so the reader only gets the story from his perspective. As noted, he considers himself to be the investigator (or at least a valued assistant to the police), but really no one seems to be very good at finding the culprit. The characters were all fun and sometimes not what they seemed. What I really loved was all the asides about books and writing and even book translations (one of the female characters translated and edited detective novels). The ending surprised me.

The authors, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, were Argentine writers, married to each other, who originally published this book in 1946. The book was translated into English in 2013 by Suzanne Jill Levine and Jessica Ernst Powell. Levine also wrote the Introduction.

This book could fit the Beach square in the Wanderlust Bingo Challenge I am undertaking. 

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Publisher:  Melville House, 2013 (orig. publ. 1946)
Length:      128 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:       Argentina
Genre:        Mystery
Source:       On my TBR since 2014.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street: Karina Yan Glaser

The Vanderbeekers live in Harlem, in an apartment that takes up two floors of an old brownstone. There are five Vanderbeeker children; the youngest child is almost five and the oldest two girls are twins, 12 years old. Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbeeker struggle to make ends meet.

Eleven days before the end of the year, the Vanderbeekers are notified that the lease on their apartment will not be renewed; they have to be out by the end of the year. Thus packing and looking for a new place has to be done at the same time as Christmas preparations and celebrations. There is no explanation from their landlord, Mr. Beiderman, as to why they have to leave, although they have had a strained relationship with him for years. When the children learn that they have to move, they are all very upset. They love their neighborhood and their home. The children come up with a plan to convince Mr. Beiderman to let them stay.

I decided to read this book after seeing Cath's review at Read-warbler last December. It is a middle grade children's book set at Christmas, and a very lovely read. I was mainly attracted to the setting; it did not hurt that the family lived in two floors of a brownstone building. And that the book had illustrations, including a map of the neighborhood. 

I loved the characterizations of the children especially; in a family of five children, each had a distinct personality. The ages were 4 and three quarters, 7, 9, and 12 year old twins. My favorite character was Oliver: the middle child, the only boy, and the avid reader in the family.

This is the first in a series of seven books about the family. I don't know how realistic this is or if that matters for children's fiction, but I was caught up in the story and was emotionally invested in the ending, so it worked well for me.

This is a great read for Christmastime. And, because the book is aimed at children, it was a fast and easy read, even at over 300 pages.

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Publisher:  Clarion Books, 2018 (orig. pub. 2017)
Length:      311 pages
Format:      Trade paper
Series:       The Vanderbeekers #1
Setting:      Harlem, New York City, New York.
Genre:       Children's book
Source:      Purchased in 2023.