WWW Wednesday – February 7, 2024

WWW Wednesday is hosted 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?

My January 2024 Reading

My favorites this month were The Violin Conspiracy; Harbour Street; Turning Pages, a publishing memoir; and a reread of Charlotte Fairlie.  Now that I am taking public transportation to work after several pandemic years of driving, my audiobook usage has declined but I can read actual books as I sit on the bus and subway.  It has been downright freezing waiting for them to arrive, however!

Six Degrees of Separation – from Coach to Marry in Haste

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is the last book I read in January, which is Coach by Michael Lewis (2005). It’s a novella about an influential baseball coach at the school Lewis attended in New Orleans but it’s really about the generational divide – how modern parents coddle their children and “protect” them from character building experiences and Coach Fitz’s more acerbic approach had upset current parents who wanted him fired. 

The Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum #Ozathon24

Title: The Land of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Illustrator: John R. Neill
Publication: Reilly & Lee Co., hardcover, 1904
Genre: Juvenile fantasy/series

Description: In this sequel to The Wizard of Oz, Baum returns to the magical realm to describe what happened to Dorothy’s companions, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, as well as introducing several new characters. The most important is Tip, a boy brought up by old Mombi, a witch.

Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam - historical fiction set in 1920s Edinburgh

Title: Hazardous Spirits
Author: Anbara Salam
Publication: Tin House Books, trade paperback, 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 1920s Scotland

Description: Although Evelyn’s family experienced difficult times when she was younger, she has now been comfortably married for five years to Robert Hazard, a respectable and reasonably prosperous accountant in Edinburgh. Everything changes when he tells her he can communicate with spirits.

The Couple in the Photo by Helen Cooper

Title: The Couple in the Photo
Author: Helen Cooper
Publication: Putnam, trade paper, 2023
Genre: Psychological suspense
Setting: Present-day Britain

Description: When Lucy married Adam, his two best friends from university, Cora and Scott, also became her closest companions. The two couples live just minutes apart in Leicester, their four children are inseparable, and they even bought a weekend cottage together and spend all their free time rehabbing it. But one day when Lucy casually glances at a coworker’s honeymoon photos, she sees one of Scott with another woman in the Maldives when he was supposed to be in Tokyo.

A Spoonful of Time by Flora Ahn - a culinary time travel

Title: A Spoonful of Time
Author: Flora Ahn
Illustrator: Jenny Park
Publication: Quirk Books, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Setting: Present-day California

Description: Maya lives with her widowed mother, who works at a law firm, and her grandmother, Halmunee, who moved in with them recently and may be suffering from dementia. Although Halmunee’s memory is erratic, she remembers the traditional cooking she learned as a girl in Korea and is determined to share this with Maya.

Charlotte Fairlie by D.E. Stevenson

Charlotte is the relatively new headmistress at St. Elizabeth’s, a well-regarded girls’ boarding school she attended before Oxford - she wore a dowdy hat at her interview so her male interviewers wouldn’t think she was too young. She takes pride in her work and in knowing the girls but she is lonely because befriending the staff would create jealousy. New girl Tessa MacRynne breaks through Charlotte's reserve when her parents get divorced and she tries to run away back to Scotland.  Charlotte identifies with Tessa, having gone through a