Bookshelf Traveling - October 31, 2020

Time for another round of Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which was created by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness and is currently hosted by Katrina at Pining for the West.

This bookshelf is directly below last week’s and you can see it begins with two hardcover Brenda Jaggers (I had to reread A Winter Child last weekend – still a 5, with a quirky ending) there was no room for above.  Next are my Daphne du Mauriers, although I think I loaned Rebecca to my niece and The House on the Strand is in a box I mailed in May to my sister in New York.  The post office periodically sends unconvincing updates to say they are still looking for it.  That USPS sent my box of books to North Carolina instead of New York does not give me a lot of confidence many of those mail-in ballots will be delivered in time to be counted next week.  Thank you for nothing, Louis de Joy. 

WWW Wednesday: October 28, 2020

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Bookshelf Traveling - October 24

Time for another round of Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which was created by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness and is currently hosted by Katrina at Pining for the West.   The idea is to share one of your neglected bookshelves or perhaps a new pile of books.

This shelf contains primarily historical fiction/upscale historical romance by British authors Brenda Jagger and Stella Riley and Canadian author Susanna Kearsley.  Jagger (1936-86) wrote just nine novels, several of which were set in 19th century Yorkshire.  She is best known for The Barforth Trilogy, which consists of The Clouded Hills, Flint and Roses, and The Sleeping Sword (these were retitled in the US which is always annoying when you think you've found a new one).  It is a wonderful series set in the late 19th century in which independent women struggle with identity, marriage, class, and the expectations of those around them.  I am trying to remember which are my favorites so took A Winter’s Child down from the shelf beneath the one pictured and began rereading.  Set in Yorkshire just after World War I, it is about a young widow who spent the war nursing soldiers in France and returns home to rebuild her life near her husband's family.  I gave it 5 stars the last time I read it.

WWW Wednesday: October 21, 2020

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m currently reading The Day of the Dead by Nicci French; this is the eighth and concluding volume in the extremely compelling Frieda Klein suspense series.  I accidentally read this first (don’t do what I did; there were too many spoilers) so had to go back to read the whole series.  Frieda is a fascinating character because she is so self-contained (everyone finds this frustrating, including the reader but it is part of what makes her so interesting).   She is a very calm and deliberate psychotherapist, despised by her enemies, loyal to her motley crew of friends, and so insightful she is able to solve crimes the police cannot (this reader is usually in the dark too). 

Bookshelf Traveling - October 17, mostly mysteries

Time for another round of Bookshelf Traveling in Insane Times which was created by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness and is currently hosted by Katrina at Pining for the West.   The idea is to share one of your neglected bookshelves or perhaps a new pile of books.

This shelf holds many of my paperback mysteries, although, surprisingly, starts on the left with the history of Jordan Marsh, the former New England department store chain.  My first real job was in its executive training program and I was interviewed for the book by local historian Anthony Sammarco.  Anyone interested in Boston history should follow him on Facebook's Lost Boston.

A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson - and the danger of too much imagination

Title: A Perfect Gentle Knight
Author: Kit Pearson
Publication: Penguin Canada, hardcover, 2007
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Setting: 1950s Vancouver
Audience: Middle Grade verging on Young Adult

Description: The six Bell children have relied on each other and their passion for the Knights of the Round Table to cope with losing their mother three years ago.  Their father, who was in the car accident too, is also grieving but he stays in his study and only emerges on Sundays to take the children to church and out to dinner.   The rest of the week they attend school but otherwise run wild; Sebastian, the eldest at 14, leads his siblings in knightly games every afternoon and even the 6-year-old twins are pages enthusiastically practicing their swordsmanship.  But Sebastian is being bullied at school, Roz decides she wants to be a normal junior high student, and the three youngest children are becoming rude and grubby.   Cordelia (Corrie), the narrator, begins to worry that the game is getting out of hand and is unnerved when Sebastian tells her he is the reincarnation of Sir Lancelot.  She holds the family together as long as she can,  terrified of precipitating a disaster by confiding in an adult until it is almost too late.

#1956Club Knight's Castle by Edward Eager (because we all think Ivanhoe should have wound up with Rebecca)

I decided to share an old favorite for my last entry in Simon and Karen's #1956 Club.

Title: Knight’s Castle
Author: Edward Eager
Illustrator: N.M. Bodecker
Publication: Harcourt, Brace & World, hardcover, 1956
Genre: Children’s fantasy

Description: This follows Magic by the Lake and is about the offspring of the children in Eager’s best-known book, Half Magic.   Roger and Ann, visiting their cousins in Baltimore while their father is in the hospital, are taken to see the Elizabeth Taylor movie of Ivanhoe and are enthralled.   They start reenacting Ivanhoe with the castle Aunt Katharine gives Roger and new soldiers from their Uncle Mark, and then at night the soldiers come to life and they find themselves back in the days of Ivanhoe and Bad King John . . .  with complications resulting from lead soldiers, oversized dolls, and difficult cousins.

#1956Club - Fifteen, an iconic teen novel of the 1950s by Beverly Cleary

The 1956 Club is a meme created by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings to showcase books published in a specific year.  

Title: Fifteen

Author: Beverly Cleary

Publication: 1956, William Morrow hardcover (2007 paperback edition)

Genre: Young Adult

Description: Jane Purdy is fifteen and yearns for the glamorous life of a magazine teenager – a boyfriend and dates and the perfect outfit for every occasion.  Instead, she is stuck babysitting for spoiled children and watching smug Marcy Stokes drive by in convertibles with whatever boy she wants.  Then Jane meets cute Stan Crandall when he is delivering dog food where she is babysitting and he asks her out!  Jane is thrilled but isn’t sure how to behave, what to wear, or even if her parents will give permission – or even worse, embarrass her when in front of him!  More importantly to the reader, Jane needs to develop enough self-confidence that she doesn’t hide her real feelings and self.  

The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor #1956Club

The 1956 Club is a meme created by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings to showcase books published in a specific year.  

Title: The Last Hurrah
Author: Edwin O’Connor
Publication: Little, Brown, hardcover, 1956
Genre: Fiction

Description: The Last Hurrah depicts the final campaign of an old-time mayor, Frank Skeffington, an Irish politician who has managed big city politics with equal measures of charm and graft, annoying the Protestants who manage the banks and law firms so much they are supporting his opponent, any opponent.  Disappointed in his own son, Skeffington invites Adam, the nephew he barely knows, to join him on the campaign trail.  Adam, a cartoonist unfamiliar with politics, is wary of being drawn into Skeffington’s corrupt world but curious enough to follow the old charmer to wakes and rallies and sessions with hangers-on, and surprises himself by coming to admire and care for his uncle.

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham #1956Club

The 1956 Club is part of a meme created by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings to showcase books published in a specific year.  Other featured years are 1924, 1938, 1944, 1947, 1951, 1965, 1968, and 1977.

Title: Harry the Dirty Dog

Author: Gene Zion

Illustrator: Margaret Bloy Graham

Publication: HarperCollins, hardcover, 1956

Genre: Picture Book

Description: Harry was a white dog with black spots who liked everything, except . . . getting a bath. So one day when he heard the water running in the tub, he took the scrubbing brush and buried it in the backyard. Then he ran away from home.

Six Degrees of Separation - From The Turn of the Screw to The Return of the Twelves

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up.   This month’s starting point is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1843-1916), a gothic novella about a governess sent to the desolate countryside to care for two orphans, with blood-curdling results. 

I have recently felt that Henry James is everywhere (not to mention his brother William - I had a class in college that met in the building named for him).   My first book is The Summer Before the War (2016), a historical novel by Helen Simonson set before WWI that I liked so much I persuaded my book group to read it.  The story includes a character based on Henry James although it took my mother to point this out to me.   A few years ago she and I visited Rye together, where the book is set and where James spent his last years.   In fact, he wrote The Turn of the Screw while living in Rye. 

Void Moon by Michael Connelly

Title: Void Moon
Author: Michael Connelly
Publication: Hachette Audiobooks, 2009 (originally published 1999)
Genre: Suspense

Description: Cassie Black is a beautiful woman selling luxury cars in Los Angeles but she has many secrets.  One is that she recently finished serving six years in prison for manslaughter.   Another is the identity of the child she watches from afar when she is not working.   Cassie was planning to go straight but when she needs a large sum of money she ignores the warnings from her well-intentioned parole officer and approaches her old friend Leo for a gig.  Unfortunately, the only heist he has available involves returning to the Cleopatra casino in Las Vegas, where everything went so fatally wrong for her before.  What really happened that night is another secret.  Cassie’s instinct is to say no but she needs the money urgently, although Leo’s warning about the Void Moon both exasperates and unnerves her . . .