Jenny's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:24:06 -0700 60 Jenny's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Footsteps in the Dark 311123
But when a murder victim is discovered in the drafty Priory halls, the once unconcerned trio begins to fear that the ghostly rumors are true and they are not alone after all! But traditionally ghosts don't commit murder. And in this case, the things which go bump in the night are deadly. With a killer on the loose, will they find themselves the next victims or will they uncover the truth in time? Does the key to the crime lie in the realm of the supernatural? Or is the explanation much more down to earth with a more corporeal culprit of flesh and blood?]]> 352 Georgette Heyer 0099493691 Jenny 4
Update, 4/29/25:

Trying to narrow down which of Heyer's mysteries to include next year, and Footsteps in the Dark is an excellent contender: delightful mystery, interesting characters, with a dash of Heyer's signature wit and humor. ]]> 3.70 1932 Footsteps in the Dark
author: Georgette Heyer
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1932
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: location-master-shelf4, adult, mystery, audiobook
review:
I've been collecting Heyer's mystery novels, but haven't read them all. Footsteps in the Dark ended up being a delightful way to spend a few hours. The characters were given just enough depth for readers to care about them, the mystery itself was interesting, and the writing superb, as is usual with Heyer.

Update, 4/29/25:

Trying to narrow down which of Heyer's mysteries to include next year, and Footsteps in the Dark is an excellent contender: delightful mystery, interesting characters, with a dash of Heyer's signature wit and humor.
]]> Arsenic and Old Lace 178599 104 Joseph Kesselring 0856761222 Jenny 4
I'm not 100% sure I want to use it as a class read aloud for American Lit, but I very much enjoyed myself. ]]> 4.14 1939 Arsenic and Old Lace
author: Joseph Kesselring
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: adult, classics, humor, drama, teaching
review:
I've never seen the movie, so I had no idea what I was getting in to when I picked up Arsenic and Old Lace.

I'm not 100% sure I want to use it as a class read aloud for American Lit, but I very much enjoyed myself.
]]> The Old Man and the Sea 386299 128 Ernest Hemingway Jenny 3 adult, classics, teaching
Update, 4/23/25:
Prepping to teach Hemingway tomorrow. Still not my favorite, but given that I had a couple students in a raised voices argument about it last week, before the class had even read it, I anticipate a delightful class discussion. ]]> 3.56 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: adult, classics, teaching
review:
While I will acknowledge that Hemingway earned his place as one of the greats of American Modernists, I just don't like him. The Old Man and the Sea is a book that should probably be read at least once, but it's not one that I'll pick up for pleasure.

Update, 4/23/25:
Prepping to teach Hemingway tomorrow. Still not my favorite, but given that I had a couple students in a raised voices argument about it last week, before the class had even read it, I anticipate a delightful class discussion.
]]> <![CDATA[The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Mystery, #1)]]> 76633
Luckily for Abbershaw, among the guests is Albert Campion—a garrulous and affable party-crasher with a great knack for solving mysteries and interrogating suspects.

The Crime at Black Dudley, first published in 1929, is the first novel to introduce Margery Allingham's amiable and much loved sleuth � Albert Campion.]]> 208 Margery Allingham 0140007709 Jenny 3 adult, borrowed, mystery
Update, 4/22/25:
The first of the Campion mysteries isn't a perfect mystery, but it's a good place to start with readers new to Allingham. ]]> 3.63 1929 The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Mystery, #1)
author: Margery Allingham
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1929
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery
review:
Allingham deserves praise for writing a mystery novel whose twists and turns I certainly did not see coming. The revelation of the murderer was not unexpected, but almost every other thing about the book was. It isn't without its flaws, but overall, a lovely little mystery.

Update, 4/22/25:
The first of the Campion mysteries isn't a perfect mystery, but it's a good place to start with readers new to Allingham.
]]> <![CDATA[The Tiger in the Smoke (Albert Campion Mystery, #14)]]> 383221 Ěý
As Havoc stalks the smog-cloaked alleyways of the city, it falls to Albert Campion to hunt down the fugitive and put a stop to his rampage—before it’s too lateĚý.Ěý.Ěý.
Ěý
“Allingham’s work is always of the first rank.� �The New York Times]]> 224 Margery Allingham 0099477734 Jenny 3 adult, borrowed, mystery
Tiger in the Smoke is considered by some to be her masterpiece, but it's more of a psychological thriller than a detective story, so I think we'll stick with one of the earlier Campion books.]]> 3.92 1952 The Tiger in the Smoke (Albert Campion Mystery, #14)
author: Margery Allingham
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery
review:
I don't know Margery Allingham nearly as well as I do the other "Queens of Crime", so picking which of her books to read with my students next year has been challenging.

Tiger in the Smoke is considered by some to be her masterpiece, but it's more of a psychological thriller than a detective story, so I think we'll stick with one of the earlier Campion books.
]]> <![CDATA[Strong Poison (Lord Peter Wimsey, #6)]]> 246225 240 Dorothy L. Sayers 0060809086 Jenny 4 adult, classics, mystery
On the surface, it seems like Sayers' mysteries would be the perfect books to binge-read, but I've found that almost every time, at some point about halfway through, I put the book down and ignore it for about a week. But once I make myself pick it back up, I fly through to the end and wonder why on earth I set it down in the first place. It's odd, and I wonder if her books will improve upon re-reading. So few mysteries do, but I think Sayers' have the potential to be some of them.

Update, 4/21/25:
Still on the hunt for the perfect Sayers novel to read with my students next year. As much as I want to introduce them to Harriet, I don't think Strong Poison is going to be the right one. Alas. ]]> 4.13 1930 Strong Poison (Lord Peter Wimsey, #6)
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1930
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: adult, classics, mystery
review:
I have been hearing that the Lord Peter books get better once we (finally!) meet Harriet Vane, so I was looking forward to Strong Poison, where we are introduced to the character as she's on trial for the murder of her ex. We don't get to see much of her (mostly just Lord Peter mooning over her and running around trying to solve the case and get her off), but the book was quite enjoyable nonetheless.

On the surface, it seems like Sayers' mysteries would be the perfect books to binge-read, but I've found that almost every time, at some point about halfway through, I put the book down and ignore it for about a week. But once I make myself pick it back up, I fly through to the end and wonder why on earth I set it down in the first place. It's odd, and I wonder if her books will improve upon re-reading. So few mysteries do, but I think Sayers' have the potential to be some of them.

Update, 4/21/25:
Still on the hunt for the perfect Sayers novel to read with my students next year. As much as I want to introduce them to Harriet, I don't think Strong Poison is going to be the right one. Alas.
]]> <![CDATA[Early Modern Times: From Elizabeth the First to the Forty-Niners (The Story of the World, #3)]]> 775125
The Story of the World covers the sweep of human history from ancient times until the present. Africa, China, Europe, the Americas―find out what happened all around the world in long-ago times. Designed as a read-aloud project for parents and children to share together, The Story of the World includes each continent and major people group. Volume 3: Early Modern Times is the third of a four volume series and covers the major historical events in the years 1600 to 1850, as well as including maps, illustrations, and tales from each culture.

Each Story of the World volume provides a full year of history study when combined with the Activity Book, Audiobook, and Tests―each available separately to accompany each volume of The Story of the World Text Book. Volume 3 Grade Grades 3-8. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white drawings and maps]]> 400 Susan Wise Bauer 0971412995 Jenny 4 audiobook, history 4.25 2004 Early Modern Times: From Elizabeth the First to the Forty-Niners (The Story of the World, #3)
author: Susan Wise Bauer
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: audiobook, history
review:
Finished up our history for the year. I really appreciate the design of this curriculum, allowing for a more simple approach for younger years while adding in more for older students.
]]> Ernest Hemingway: A Biography 31691700 The first full biography of Ernest Hemingway in more than fifteen years; the first to draw upon a wide array of never-before-used material; the first written by a woman, from the widely acclaimed biographer of Norman Mailer, Peggy Guggenheim, Henry Miller, and Louise Bryant. A revelatory look into the life and work of Ernest Hemingway, considered in his time to be the greatest living American novelist and short-story writer, winner of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Mary Dearborn's new biography gives the richest and most nuanced portrait to date of this complex, enigmatically unique American artist, whose same uncontrollable demons that inspired and drove him throughout his life undid him at the end, and whose seven novels and six-short story collections informed--and are still informing--fiction writing generations after his death.]]> 705 Mary V. Dearborn 1101947985 Jenny 3
And yet, Dearborn managed to make reading about his life a bit of a slog. Her biography is thorough and sufficient if all you want is to supply yourself with information, but it's not one I'd necessarily recommend. ]]> 3.96 2017 Ernest Hemingway: A Biography
author: Mary V. Dearborn
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: adult, biography, borrowed, teaching
review:
Ernest Hemingway was a fascinating man--a train wreck, but a fascinating one.

And yet, Dearborn managed to make reading about his life a bit of a slog. Her biography is thorough and sufficient if all you want is to supply yourself with information, but it's not one I'd necessarily recommend.
]]> Death Comes as the End 121645 267 Agatha Christie 0312981619 Jenny 0 3.87 1944 Death Comes as the End
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1944
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read, location-master-shelf4
review:

]]> The Wintringham Mystery 56196875
Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew - who recognises Stephen from his former life - decides that an after-dinner séance would be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!

With Lady Susan reluctant to call the police about what is presumably a childish prank, Stephen and the plucky Pauline Mainwaring take it upon themselves to investigate. But then a suspicious death turns the game into an altogether more serious affair...

This classic winter mystery incorporates all the trappings of the Golden Age - a rambling country house, a séance, a murder, a room locked on the inside, with servants, suspects and alibis, a romance - and an ingenious puzzle.

First published as a 30-part newspaper serial in 1926 - the year The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published, The Wintringham Mystery was written by Anthony Berkeley, founder of the famous Detection Club. Also known as Cicely Disappears, the Daily Mirror ran the story as a competition with a prize of ÂŁ500 (equivalent to ÂŁ30,000 today) for anyone who guessed the solution correctly. Nobody did - even Agatha Christie entered and couldn't solve it. Can you?]]> 256 Anthony Berkeley 0008470081 Jenny 4 3.57 1927 The Wintringham Mystery
author: Anthony Berkeley
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1927
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery, teaching
review:
Most mystery readers know of the Detection Club, but it's founder, Anthony Berkeley, has long been eclipsed by more famous members. Still, I wanted to include at least one of his novels in next year's class, and The Wintringham Mystery is a great option. Despite kidnapping and robbery, it feels like a low stakes mystery and is peopled with delightful characters.
]]> <![CDATA[A Wreath for Rivera (Roderick Alleyn, #15)]]> 281402
When Lord Pastern Bagott takes up with the hot music of Breezy Bellair and his Boys, his disapproving wife Cecile has more than usual to be unhappy about. The band's devastatingly handsome but roguish accordionist, Carlos Rivera, has taken a rather intense and mutual interest in her precious daughter Felicite. So when a bit of strange business goes awry and actually kills him, it's lucky that Inspector Roderick Alleyn is in the audience. Now Alleyn must follow a confusing score that features a chorus of family and friends desperate to hide the truth and perhaps shelter a murderer in their midst.
]]> 336 Ngaio Marsh 0312966067 Jenny 4 adult, audiobook, mystery
Update 4/14/25:
A fun mystery, but not a good fit for next year's class. ]]> 3.73 1949 A Wreath for Rivera (Roderick Alleyn, #15)
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: adult, audiobook, mystery
review:
Marsh's mysteries continue to be delightful. That is all.

Update 4/14/25:
A fun mystery, but not a good fit for next year's class.
]]> <![CDATA[Final Curtain (Roderick Alleyn, #14)]]> 280849 265 Ngaio Marsh 0006512410 Jenny 4 adult, audiobook, mystery
Update, 4/14/25:

A solid contender for my Mystery class's Marsh pick. ]]> 4.02 1947 Final Curtain (Roderick Alleyn, #14)
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1947
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: adult, audiobook, mystery
review:
I'm running out of gushing things to say about Ngaio Marsh's mystery novels. They continue delightful, full of well-rounded characters and twisty plots (and a great many references to Shakespeare). Final Curtain was especially delightful because Inspector Alleyn is back from his work in New Zealand and reunited with his wife Troy with whose help he solves our dastardly murder.

Update, 4/14/25:

A solid contender for my Mystery class's Marsh pick.
]]> <![CDATA[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)]]> 16328
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells� before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.

Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. These are just the novels; Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ.]]> 288 Agatha Christie 1579126278 Jenny 4
Update, 5/28:

Any discussion of just what makes this particular excellent will involve heavy spoilers, so I will avoid any details and simply say that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is excellent and well worth reading.

Update, 4/12/25:

Still an excellent mystery and one that will make it onto the reading list for next year. ]]> 4.26 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1926
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: mystery, adult, location-master-shelf4
review:
Agatha Christie often surprises me, but this is the first time she has completely hoodwinked me. A very well-plotted mystery. Fans of Christie's other works will not be disappointed.

Update, 5/28:

Any discussion of just what makes this particular excellent will involve heavy spoilers, so I will avoid any details and simply say that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is excellent and well worth reading.

Update, 4/12/25:

Still an excellent mystery and one that will make it onto the reading list for next year.
]]> <![CDATA[Death of My Aunt (Malcolm Warren Mysteries, #1)]]> 240682 159 C.H.B. Kitchin 0881845493 Jenny 3 adult, mystery
This is my first time reading anything by Kitchin, and apparently he generally focused on more "highbrow" novels than mysteries. While the mystery itself was interesting, I didn't find myself particularly attached to or impressed by any of the characters. For me, it's a solid middle of the road sort of classic mystery, one that is an enjoyable read but doesn't stand out among its fellows. ]]> 3.28 1929 Death of My Aunt (Malcolm Warren Mysteries, #1)
author: C.H.B. Kitchin
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.28
book published: 1929
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: adult, mystery
review:
Death of My Aunt has been sitting on my TBR shelf for about a year, and since I'm picking books for my Mystery Bookclub class, this seemed like the right time to read it.

This is my first time reading anything by Kitchin, and apparently he generally focused on more "highbrow" novels than mysteries. While the mystery itself was interesting, I didn't find myself particularly attached to or impressed by any of the characters. For me, it's a solid middle of the road sort of classic mystery, one that is an enjoyable read but doesn't stand out among its fellows.
]]> <![CDATA[Murder Must Advertise: A BBC Full-Cast Radio Drama]]> 135951550 Dorothy L. Sayers Jenny 3
It gave me a refresher of the basic plot, but is utterly devoid of Sayers' magic. I'm going to have to leave Murder Must Advertise in the "maybe" pile until I can get a hold of my copy. ]]> 4.00 Murder Must Advertise: A BBC Full-Cast Radio Drama
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: adaptation, adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
I am currently trying to decide which Sayers mystery to read with my students next year. Murder Must Advertise is one of my favorites, but I needed to read it again with my students in mind before making a final decision. Unfortunately, my copy is packed, the library doesn't have a physical copy, and the only audio version available anywhere that I can find is this brutally abridged BBC Radio Drama.

It gave me a refresher of the basic plot, but is utterly devoid of Sayers' magic. I'm going to have to leave Murder Must Advertise in the "maybe" pile until I can get a hold of my copy.
]]> <![CDATA[Heavy Weather (Blandings Castle, #5)]]> 13707658 288 P.G. Wodehouse 0393341607 Jenny 4
Heavy Weather takes place immediately after Summer Lightning, so it's best read after that one, but a Wodehouse fan would be able to enjoy it on its own. I adore everything about it. There was much cackling while listening in the car. ]]> 4.25 1933 Heavy Weather (Blandings Castle, #5)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1933
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: adult, audiobook, classics, humor
review:
Lord Emsworth (Oh, CLARENCE) is an absolute delight, even if he does happen to look like a bereaved tapeworm.

Heavy Weather takes place immediately after Summer Lightning, so it's best read after that one, but a Wodehouse fan would be able to enjoy it on its own. I adore everything about it. There was much cackling while listening in the car.
]]> <![CDATA[The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)]]> 77661 206 Josephine Tey Jenny 3
Books that lead to more books are always my favorite.

Update, 4/6/25:

I was almost certain that I wanted to include Daughter of Time in my mystery class next year, but I realized that it had been a few years since I'd read it, so a quick re-read (or listen, in this case) was required to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything a parent might object to.

Still a unique and delightful mystery. Probably won't be a favorite of my students (because not everyone is going to be interested in a detective doing historical research into a several-hundred-years-old mystery) but still worthy of inclusion. ]]> 3.89 1951 The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)
author: Josephine Tey
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1951
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: borrowed, adult, mystery, audiobook
review:
A delightful and unusual mystery--featuring a detective laid up in a hospital with a broken leg who, plagued with boredom, starts investigating the deaths of the princes in the tower. I now want to find the rest of the Inspector Grant books, read Richard III to get Shakespeare's take on the much-despised king, and go digging into the evidence that Richard may in fact be the victim of Tudor propaganda instead of a villain.

Books that lead to more books are always my favorite.

Update, 4/6/25:

I was almost certain that I wanted to include Daughter of Time in my mystery class next year, but I realized that it had been a few years since I'd read it, so a quick re-read (or listen, in this case) was required to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything a parent might object to.

Still a unique and delightful mystery. Probably won't be a favorite of my students (because not everyone is going to be interested in a detective doing historical research into a several-hundred-years-old mystery) but still worthy of inclusion.
]]> <![CDATA[Death in a White Tie (Roderick Alleyn, #7)]]> 280991 352 Ngaio Marsh 0006512577 Jenny 4 adult, borrowed, mystery
Following Alleyn's and Troy's relationship has been marvelous (I went about it a bit backward and started with a book toward the end of the series... whoops) and I'm looking forward to reading much more of the two of them.

Update, 4/5/25:

Continuing to work on selecting books for my mystery class next year. I know I want a couple Marsh novels, but deciding which ones is going to be a challenge. Death in a White Tie is a solid maybe. Great mystery, great side characters, but there are a few "not PC" ideas expressed. Could be a great avenue for a class discussion, but could also turn students off of Marsh before giving her a fair shot. ]]> 4.03 1938 Death in a White Tie (Roderick Alleyn, #7)
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery
review:
I am having a delightful time binging on Marsh's mysteries. They're the epitome of a Golden Age Mystery, so if you're a fan of Christie or Sayers or Heyer, you'll almost certainly enjoy them. The only problem is that they aren't as popular as Christie's novels so they've been reprinted less frequently and are harder to find at used bookstores. (And some of those vintage covers are a bit horrifying.)

Following Alleyn's and Troy's relationship has been marvelous (I went about it a bit backward and started with a book toward the end of the series... whoops) and I'm looking forward to reading much more of the two of them.

Update, 4/5/25:

Continuing to work on selecting books for my mystery class next year. I know I want a couple Marsh novels, but deciding which ones is going to be a challenge. Death in a White Tie is a solid maybe. Great mystery, great side characters, but there are a few "not PC" ideas expressed. Could be a great avenue for a class discussion, but could also turn students off of Marsh before giving her a fair shot.
]]> <![CDATA[The Moving Finger (Miss Marple, #3)]]> 16341
Librarian's note: this entry is for the novel, "The Moving Finger." Collections and other Miss Marple stories are located elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ. The series includes 12 novels and 20 short stories. Entries for the short stories can be found by searching Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."]]> 299 Agatha Christie 0007120842 Jenny 3 adult, audiobook, mystery 3.85 1942 The Moving Finger (Miss Marple, #3)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1942
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: adult, audiobook, mystery
review:
Trying to find a good Marple mystery for next year's class. While I enjoyed The Moving Finger, the plot revolves around anonymous letters being sent to almost everyone in a little English village--letters accusing people of sexual impropriety. Nothing explicit, but still one I could see parents objecting to.
]]> <![CDATA[Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics]]> 51319347 A rare glimpse of a young C. S. Lewis.

Spirits in Bondage reveals the earliest published thoughts of C. S. Lewis. However, we find an unfamiliar Lewis--not the mature Christian but the young atheist cynic, who fought in the harrowing Great War. In these poems Lewis dreads the dangerous world that keeps us from living meaningful lives.

Introduced by Karen Swallow Prior, this beautiful print edition of Spirits in Bondage will nuance our understanding of C. S. Lewis.]]> 94 Clive Hamilton 1683593707 Jenny 3 adult, classics, poetry
It is not, perhaps, a book for those who like to only experience an author at his best, but for those who love Lewis, it's a fascinating insight into his thoughts and feelings as a younger man. ]]> 3.77 1919 Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics
author: Clive Hamilton
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1919
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: adult, classics, poetry
review:
This was one of Lewis's earliest projects, published under a pseudonym before his conversion. You can see hints of the writer he will become in the poems that are at turns bitter, despairing, and longing.

It is not, perhaps, a book for those who like to only experience an author at his best, but for those who love Lewis, it's a fascinating insight into his thoughts and feelings as a younger man.
]]> <![CDATA[Trent's Last Case (Philip Trent, #1)]]> 994740
Cheerful, charming, and always eager for a mystery, portrait artist and gentleman sleuth Philip Trent leaps into the Manderson affair with all the passion of the autodidact. Simply by reading the newspapers, he discovers overlooked details of the crime. Not all of his reasoning is sound, and his romantic interests are suspect, to say the least, but Trent’s dedication to the art of detection soon uncovers what no one expected him to find: the truth.

Delightfully irreverent yet ingeniously plotted, Trent’s Last Case is widely regarded as a masterwork of the mystery genre.]]> 230 E.C. Bentley 0755103270 Jenny 4 adult, classics, mystery
(Please pause for the congratulatory patting of oneself on the back.)

Also, I'm definitely including this one in the Mystery Bookclub class next year. ]]> 3.79 1913 Trent's Last Case (Philip Trent, #1)
author: E.C. Bentley
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1913
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: adult, classics, mystery
review:
I called it.

(Please pause for the congratulatory patting of oneself on the back.)

Also, I'm definitely including this one in the Mystery Bookclub class next year.
]]> Endless Night 16366
The title Endless Night was taken from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence and describes Christie’s favourite theme in the novel: a “twisted� character, who always chooses evil over good.

Christie finished Endless Night in six weeks, as opposed to the three-four months that most of her other novels took. Despite being in her seventies while writing it, she told an interviewer that being Michael, the twenty-something narrator, “wasn’t difficult. After all, you hear people like him talking all the time.�

The book is dedicated to Christie's relative "Nora Prichard from whom I first heard the legend of Gipsy's Acre." Gipsy's Acre was a field on the Welsh moors.]]> 303 Agatha Christie 0007151675 Jenny 3 adult, audiobook, mystery
Still a worthwhile mystery, but not one to include on the booklist.]]> 3.82 1967 Endless Night
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: adult, audiobook, mystery
review:
This was one of the Christie books recommended to me as a possibility for the Golden Age Mystery class. Unfortunately, it was written very late in Christie's career and is outside the scope of the class. But beyond the timeline, it doesn't feel like Christie: it's more modern, more crass, more harsh.

Still a worthwhile mystery, but not one to include on the booklist.
]]> Crooked House 16315
The Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection.

Suspicion naturally falls on the old man’s young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiancé of the late millionaire’s granddaughter.]]> 276 Agatha Christie 031298166X Jenny 4 adult, audiobook, mystery 4.07 1949 Crooked House
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: adult, audiobook, mystery
review:
A great non-Poirot mystery. It's in the running for next year's Mystery Bookclub class.
]]> <![CDATA[Striding Folly (Mystery Masters) (Audio Editions Mystery Masters)]]> 438359 2 Dorothy L. Sayers 1572702230 Jenny 4 3.87 1973 Striding Folly (Mystery Masters) (Audio Editions Mystery Masters)
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery, short-stories
review:
A short collection of three Peter Wimsey stories. A fun listen, but unfortunately, none of the stories will work for my class next year. The two best were stories of Wimsey as a father, which were absolutely delightful, but require several books of context for best appreciation.
]]> The Mousetrap: A Play 2125922
The Mousetrap is the longest-running play in the history of London's West End]]> 70 Agatha Christie 0573619239 Jenny 4 adult, drama, mystery 3.98 1952 The Mousetrap: A Play
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: adult, drama, mystery
review:
I hadn't realized that The Mousetrap was the theatrical version of Three Blind Mice, which I had read before. Still, a fun read, even if you know the ending, and a solid contender for next year's Mystery Bookclub.
]]> <![CDATA[Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey, #3)]]> 192892 264 Dorothy L. Sayers 0061043583 Jenny 4 adult, mystery, audiobook
Update, 4/13/24:

Initially, I thought this was one of my least favorite Lord Peter mysteries, but this time around, I appreciated getting to see more of Peter's character--his quirks and foibles, his sense of humor and his deep sense of caring and responsibility. Still not my favorite when it comes to the actual plot, but altogether a very enjoyable listen.

Update, 4/1/25:

A quick listen to help decide which of Sayers' books to include in next year's class. Unnatural Death doesn't make the cut. It's fine as a stand alone mystery, but does much better chronologically as part of the series. And since we don't have time to read them all (alas), it won't make the final booklist. ]]> 4.08 1927 Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey, #3)
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1927
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: adult, mystery, audiobook
review:
The third of the Lord Peter mysteries (though I was confused by an odd little biography of Lord Peter that appears at the beginning of the book, written by his uncle, that references things that I believe show up later in the series). I stalled out in the middle--not because the writing was bad or the plot uninteresting, but because I just wasn't in the mood. But after forcing myself to keep reading, I found myself highly entertained. Sayers' humorous quips are delightful, and the mystery (while quite tangled) worked itself out satisfactorily.

Update, 4/13/24:

Initially, I thought this was one of my least favorite Lord Peter mysteries, but this time around, I appreciated getting to see more of Peter's character--his quirks and foibles, his sense of humor and his deep sense of caring and responsibility. Still not my favorite when it comes to the actual plot, but altogether a very enjoyable listen.

Update, 4/1/25:

A quick listen to help decide which of Sayers' books to include in next year's class. Unnatural Death doesn't make the cut. It's fine as a stand alone mystery, but does much better chronologically as part of the series. And since we don't have time to read them all (alas), it won't make the final booklist.
]]> <![CDATA[A B C Murders (Hercule Poirot, #13)]]> 2166076 0 Agatha Christie 0671829653 Jenny 3 adult, mystery, audiobook
(Patting myself on the back for figuring out "the twist", though I picked the wrong character for the murderer.)

Update, 4/1/25:

On a spring break quest to get through as many potential books for next year's Mystery Bookclub class as possible so I can narrow down the booklist. A B C Murders doesn't quite make the cut--not because it isn't a delightful mystery (it is), but because Agatha Christie has so many great ones that it's impossible to include everything that I would like to. ]]> 3.97 1936 A B C Murders (Hercule Poirot, #13)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1936
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: adult, mystery, audiobook
review:
A solid example of a Hercule Poirot mystery--not perhaps one of Christie's very best, but a very enjoyable read. It's one I would have no problems letting my preteen read.

(Patting myself on the back for figuring out "the twist", though I picked the wrong character for the murderer.)

Update, 4/1/25:

On a spring break quest to get through as many potential books for next year's Mystery Bookclub class as possible so I can narrow down the booklist. A B C Murders doesn't quite make the cut--not because it isn't a delightful mystery (it is), but because Agatha Christie has so many great ones that it's impossible to include everything that I would like to.
]]> <![CDATA[Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)]]> 192893 212 Dorothy L. Sayers 0061043575 Jenny 4 adult, mystery, audiobook
In this, the first of Sayers' mystery novels, I didn't find a detective to fall in love with. But I saw hints of him, and given that I've heard that she takes a couple books to really hit her stride, I'm eager to keep reading. The plot is an interesting one, the solution entirely satisfactory (and I'm pleased to say I figured it out just after Lord Peter did), and the writing engaging. A solidly entertaining mystery.

Update, 4/5/24:

I am delighted to discover that Lord Peter improves on subsequent readings. (Or, in this case, listenings.) A solid mystery, a great narrator, and a first glimpse of a fabulous detective.

Update, 3/31/25:

A spring break binge-listen as I attempt to decide which Wimsy book to read with next year's Mystery Bookclub Class. What I would like to do is read the entire series, since they build on each other, and one of Sayers' strengths in these books is just how much Lord Peter grows and changes.

But alas, I can't do that because apparently my students are going to be doing more with their days than just reading for my class.

Whose Body is not the best of the series (and it's certainly not my favorite) but it may end up being the best place to start, regardless. We shall see. ]]> 3.87 1923 Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1923
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: adult, mystery, audiobook
review:
I've been looking forward to the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries ever since I decided (back in 2019) that Dorothy Sayers was going to be 2022's Author of the Year. Lord Peter comes up in almost every discussion of golden age mystery novels, and I've been itching to dive in.

In this, the first of Sayers' mystery novels, I didn't find a detective to fall in love with. But I saw hints of him, and given that I've heard that she takes a couple books to really hit her stride, I'm eager to keep reading. The plot is an interesting one, the solution entirely satisfactory (and I'm pleased to say I figured it out just after Lord Peter did), and the writing engaging. A solidly entertaining mystery.

Update, 4/5/24:

I am delighted to discover that Lord Peter improves on subsequent readings. (Or, in this case, listenings.) A solid mystery, a great narrator, and a first glimpse of a fabulous detective.

Update, 3/31/25:

A spring break binge-listen as I attempt to decide which Wimsy book to read with next year's Mystery Bookclub Class. What I would like to do is read the entire series, since they build on each other, and one of Sayers' strengths in these books is just how much Lord Peter grows and changes.

But alas, I can't do that because apparently my students are going to be doing more with their days than just reading for my class.

Whose Body is not the best of the series (and it's certainly not my favorite) but it may end up being the best place to start, regardless. We shall see.
]]> <![CDATA[Artists in Crime (Roderick Alleyn, #6)]]> 280865 The art of detection gets clouded by desire.

It was a bizarre pose for beautiful model Sonia Gluck-and her last. For in the draperies of her couch lay a fatal dagger, and behind her murder lies all the intrigue and acid-etched temperament of an artist's colony. Called in to investigate, Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn finds his own passions unexpectedly stirred by the feisty painter Agatha Troy-brilliant artist and suspected murderess.
]]> 316 Ngaio Marsh 1579125786 Jenny 4 adult, audiobook, mystery
Updating this with a (slightly spoiler-y) list of the novels Troy appears in so I can refer back when the mood strikes me and I need a re-read:

Artists in Crime--introduced
Death in a White Tie--engaged (brief)
Overture to Death--letters (brief)
Death at the Bar--brief mention that Troy and Alleyn have gotten married in the interim between Overture and this novel, does not appear

Update, 3/23/25:
I think I may go back and do a chronological read of Marsh's novels this spring. Roderick and Troy would be a lovely accompaniment to a stressful season.]]> 4.01 1938 Artists in Crime (Roderick Alleyn, #6)
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: adult, audiobook, mystery
review:
I've read a handful of Marsh's Roderick Alleyn mysteries, but completely out of order. My favorite was one that featured Alleyn's wife, so I was delighted to find that Audible had the book where they met included in it's Plus Catalog. It was delightful and I stayed up entirely too late listening. But the problem is that I'm now invested in their relationship, so I'm going to have to find out which books are going to give me more of that in addition to the solving of crimes.

Updating this with a (slightly spoiler-y) list of the novels Troy appears in so I can refer back when the mood strikes me and I need a re-read:

Artists in Crime--introduced
Death in a White Tie--engaged (brief)
Overture to Death--letters (brief)
Death at the Bar--brief mention that Troy and Alleyn have gotten married in the interim between Overture and this novel, does not appear

Update, 3/23/25:
I think I may go back and do a chronological read of Marsh's novels this spring. Roderick and Troy would be a lovely accompaniment to a stressful season.
]]> Frederica 311196
When Frederica Merriville brings her three younger siblings to London determined to secure a brilliant marriage for her beautiful sister, Charis, she seeks out their distant cousin the Marquis of Alverstoke. Lovely, competent, and refreshingly straightforward, Frederica makes such a strong impression that to his own amazement, the Marquis agrees to help launch them all into society. Lord Alverstoke can't resist wanting to help her Normally wary of his family, which includes two overbearing sisters and innumerable favor-seekers, Lord Alverstoke does his best to keep his distance but he finally finds himself far from bored.]]> 380 Georgette Heyer 0099465647 Jenny 4
Regardless, Frederica features an adorably absurd little fellow named Felix, his practical and unassuming older sister (Frederica), and a world-weary Marquis, among others. Frederica, determined to give her beautiful younger sister a season and a chance to make a good match, moves to London with her younger brothers (including Felix) in tow, and prevails upon a distant cousin (the Marquis of Alverstroke) to help gain entry into the ton. To spite his sisters, the Marquis agrees to help them, and finds himself more and more drawn to the family.

Light, entertaining, and a great deal of fun. Definitely recommended.

Update, 8/1/20:

I had forgotten just how fun Frederica is. A perfectly delightful romp of a story that was just what this week called for.

Update, 3/11/23:

Autoimmune brain fog makes reading brain-stretching books hard, but badly-written books still irritate me. Georgette Heyer to the rescue.

Update, 3/30/25:

I still love this book. That is all. ]]> 4.16 1965 Frederica
author: Georgette Heyer
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: romance, adult, location-master-shelf8
review:
This is the fifth (perhaps sixth?) Heyer book I've picked up, and I'm begining to see a pattern emerging. When small children are involved in some peripheral way to the main plot (or are somehow responsible for bringing together the hero and heroine), I am utterly absorbed in the book, highly entertained, and find myself singing its praises and foisting the book upon unsuspecting friends and relatives. If children don't have a place in the narrative, I have trouble even finishing it. Whether this is simply a result of the small sample size of my Georgette Heyer experiment, I don't know.

Regardless, Frederica features an adorably absurd little fellow named Felix, his practical and unassuming older sister (Frederica), and a world-weary Marquis, among others. Frederica, determined to give her beautiful younger sister a season and a chance to make a good match, moves to London with her younger brothers (including Felix) in tow, and prevails upon a distant cousin (the Marquis of Alverstroke) to help gain entry into the ton. To spite his sisters, the Marquis agrees to help them, and finds himself more and more drawn to the family.

Light, entertaining, and a great deal of fun. Definitely recommended.

Update, 8/1/20:

I had forgotten just how fun Frederica is. A perfectly delightful romp of a story that was just what this week called for.

Update, 3/11/23:

Autoimmune brain fog makes reading brain-stretching books hard, but badly-written books still irritate me. Georgette Heyer to the rescue.

Update, 3/30/25:

I still love this book. That is all.
]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Jenny 4 adult, classics, teaching
Gatsby was first. It's beautifully written. Fitzgerald's use of language is fabulous and makes me want to go find other books he's written. But all of the characters were utterly unlikeable and drifted about in a miserable stew of their own making. Definitely a fascinating book and a realistic--if bleak--picture of humanity when given enough money and left to their own devices, but it's not a fun or uplifting read. Worthwhile, certainly. I can see why it's considered a classic. But it's not one I'll be revisiting anytime soon, or insisting my kids read before they graduate high school.

Update, 3/26/25:
Gatsby is a book I appreciate so much more after learning about Fitzgerald's life, and understanding its place in American Literary Modernism. It's never going to be a fun book, but man is it gorgeous. ]]> 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: adult, classics, teaching
review:
I'd never read Gatsby before--it wasn't one of my mom's favorites, so we didn't cover it in high school, and by the time I hit college I was a firmly entrenched anglophile and tended to ignore American lit. So when a friend showed me her list of "12 Classics I'm Reading in 2022" list and it had a handful that I'd not read, I decided to join her.

Gatsby was first. It's beautifully written. Fitzgerald's use of language is fabulous and makes me want to go find other books he's written. But all of the characters were utterly unlikeable and drifted about in a miserable stew of their own making. Definitely a fascinating book and a realistic--if bleak--picture of humanity when given enough money and left to their own devices, but it's not a fun or uplifting read. Worthwhile, certainly. I can see why it's considered a classic. But it's not one I'll be revisiting anytime soon, or insisting my kids read before they graduate high school.

Update, 3/26/25:
Gatsby is a book I appreciate so much more after learning about Fitzgerald's life, and understanding its place in American Literary Modernism. It's never going to be a fun book, but man is it gorgeous.
]]> Enter Three Witches 601436 Macbeth from one of today's foremost YA writers. Three girls witness the action of Shakespeare's play firsthand - and their lives are forever changed because of it.

Lady Mary is a ward of Lord and Lady Macbeth whose life is forever changed when her father, Lord Cawdor, betrays the Scottish king - and is hanged as a traitor. In an instant, Mary has lost both her father and future. Now she's trapped in a castle with a power-hungry couple who will do anything to get what they want - and are willing to crush anyone in their way. Including Mary. As the murderous events of Shakespeare's play unfold around her, Mary must struggle to survive - and do what she can to prevent more deaths. But can a lone girl save lives when a legion of Scottish lords cannot?]]> 288 Caroline B. Cooney 0439711568 Jenny 2
I've seen some juvenile adaptations of Shakespeare that stray far enough from the original that it works. But those that try to keep too close always seem to end up a disappointment.

This one isn't a keeper, unfortunately.]]> 3.66 2007 Enter Three Witches
author: Caroline B. Cooney
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: adaptation, historical-fiction, juvenile, discarded
review:
I appreciate people who love Shakespeare and want to make him accessible to wider audience. But often, I think, they underestimate the ability of their audience to handle the beauty and the grandeur of Shakespeare's language.

I've seen some juvenile adaptations of Shakespeare that stray far enough from the original that it works. But those that try to keep too close always seem to end up a disappointment.

This one isn't a keeper, unfortunately.
]]> <![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61242426
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success � not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]> 296 Travis Baldree Jenny 1
I lasted maybe three chapters. It wasn't terribly written, but it wasn't good enough to keep my attention.]]> 4.04 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: adult, borrowed, fantasy, did-not-finish
review:
I saw this one recommended everywhere for a while and decided to give it a try.

I lasted maybe three chapters. It wasn't terribly written, but it wasn't good enough to keep my attention.
]]> Hamlet 1432 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN13:9780743477123, Hamlet.

Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder.

Each Folger edition includes:

- Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
- Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
- Scene-by-scene plot summaries
- A key to famous lines and phrases
- An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
- An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
- Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books]]> 342 William Shakespeare Jenny 5 adult, classics, shakespeare
Update, 4/27/23:

Finishing up a play in my Shakespeare class always feels like an event, and when it comes to Hamlet--what an ending! It's such a delight to watch the students really dig into the text and work through the play's themes. I can't imagine ever getting tired of teaching this one.

Update 4/16/24:

There are many books that I have read that still have more to say with each subsequent reading. But Hamlet may top the list for most new discoveries after most times read. I think I've taught it at least ten times now, and I'm still brought up short by gorgeous lines that I hadn't noticed, or an insight into a character that I hadn't seen.

I've always said that King Lear was my favorite Shakespearean tragedy. But Hamlet may have overtaken it.

Update, 3/25/24:

How much do I love this play?

So very much. Excited to cover it with my elementary students to finish up the year. ]]> 4.05 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1601
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: adult, classics, shakespeare
review:
Finished teaching Hamlet to my co-op students. This is the (I think) seventh time I've taught it, and the older I get, the more I appreciate it and Shakespeare's genius. I don't pretend to believe that everyone will understand and enjoy Shakespeare, but I think that if more people gave an honest try, they'd surprise themselves.

Update, 4/27/23:

Finishing up a play in my Shakespeare class always feels like an event, and when it comes to Hamlet--what an ending! It's such a delight to watch the students really dig into the text and work through the play's themes. I can't imagine ever getting tired of teaching this one.

Update 4/16/24:

There are many books that I have read that still have more to say with each subsequent reading. But Hamlet may top the list for most new discoveries after most times read. I think I've taught it at least ten times now, and I'm still brought up short by gorgeous lines that I hadn't noticed, or an insight into a character that I hadn't seen.

I've always said that King Lear was my favorite Shakespearean tragedy. But Hamlet may have overtaken it.

Update, 3/25/24:

How much do I love this play?

So very much. Excited to cover it with my elementary students to finish up the year.
]]> <![CDATA[Willa Cather: The Writer and Her World]]> 353308 381 Janis P. Stout 0813919967 Jenny 3
Stout's book is an interesting one, and I would have finished it if I wasn't already rolling into a Fitzgerald biography, but I feel, for all his research and care, I have a much clear idea of who Cather was from reading Edith Lewis's much shorter book.]]> 3.68 2000 Willa Cather: The Writer and Her World
author: Janis P. Stout
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: adult, did-not-finish, biography, teaching
review:
It's always interesting to compare two different biographies of a person, one written by someone who knew them and one written many decades after their death. While Stout's biography does try to mitigate some of the aggressive leaping to conclusions that other Cather scholars have participated in, there is still an almost obsessive focus on IDENTITY. Does Cather's teenage choice of masculinized clothing mean something about her IDENTITY? Do her female relationships say something about her IDENTITY? It's such a 21st century obsession that I hadn't realized, until I read a biography of Cather written by a contemporary, how refreshing it was to avoid all that.

Stout's book is an interesting one, and I would have finished it if I wasn't already rolling into a Fitzgerald biography, but I feel, for all his research and care, I have a much clear idea of who Cather was from reading Edith Lewis's much shorter book.
]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Jenny 4 adult, classics, teaching
I had forgotten just how rough this book is. It's dark and harsh and painful and made even more bleak by the tiny hints of hope that you know are never going to pay off.

Such a powerful short novel.]]> 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: adult, classics, teaching
review:
Ooooof.

I had forgotten just how rough this book is. It's dark and harsh and painful and made even more bleak by the tiny hints of hope that you know are never going to pay off.

Such a powerful short novel.
]]> <![CDATA[Bodies from the Library 1: Lost Tales of Mystery and Suspense from the Golden Age of Detection]]> 38734222 Bodies from the Library 2
Bodies from the Library 3
Bodies from the Library 4
_______________________________
This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16 tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922.

At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, 'Bodies from the Library' unearths lost stories from the period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public’s imagination and saw the emergence of some of the world’s cleverest and most popular storytellers.

This anthology brings together 16 forgotten tales that have either been published only once before � perhaps in a newspaper or rare magazine � or have never before appeared in print. From a previously unpublished 1917 script featuring Ernest Bramah’s blind detective Max Carrados, to early 1950s crime stories written for London’s Evening Standard by Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne, it spans five decades of writing by masters of the Golden Age.

Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her â€Grand Tourâ€� of the British Empire.

With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C. Bailey, J.J. Connington, John Rhode and Nicholas Blake, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science � when murder was a complex business.

Librarian's note #1: fifteen of the 16 stories can also be found under their own title on GR. With their own information and reviews. The only one without its own entry is Freeman Wills Crofts' 'Dark Waters.'

Librarian's note #2: the stories are: 1) Before Insulin by J.J. Connington, 2) The Inverness Cape by Leo Bruce, 3) Dark Waters by Freeman Wills Crofts, 4) Linckes' Great Case by Georgette Heyer, 5) Calling James Braithwaite by Nicholas Blake, 6) The Elusive Bullet by John Rhode, 7) The Euthanasia of Hilary's Aunt by Cyril Hare, 8) The Girdle of Dreams by Vincent Cormier, 9) The Fool and the Perfect Murder, 10) Bread Upon the Waters by A.A. Milne, 11) The Man with the Twisted Thumb by Anthony Berkeley, 12) The Rum Punch by Christianna Brand, 13) Blind Man's Bluff by Ernest Bramah, 14) Victoria Pumphrey by H.C. Bailey, 15) The Starting-Handle Murder by Roy Vickers, and 16) The Wife of the Kenite by Agatha Christie.]]> 337 Tony Medawar 0008289239 Jenny 4
This is one collection I will be returning to. ]]> 3.72 2018 Bodies from the Library 1: Lost Tales of Mystery and Suspense from the Golden Age of Detection
author: Tony Medawar
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: adult, audiobook, mystery, short-stories
review:
A great collection of short stories from the Golden Age of Mystery. (I did find myself both delighted and irritated by the brief author bio that followed each story. Sometimes I wanted that information and sometimes I just wanted to get to the next story. In a physical book it wouldn't have been a problem, but the audiobook made it more of a hassle to skip.)

This is one collection I will be returning to.
]]> The Enchanted April 24940946 The charming, slyly comic novel of romantic longing and transformation that inspired the Oscar-nominated film
Ěý
Escaping dreary London for the sunshine of Italy, four very different women take up an offer advertised in the Times for a “small medieval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April.� As each blossoms in the warmth of the Italian spring, quite unexpected changes occur.

An immediate bestseller upon its first publication, in 1922, The Enchanted April set off a craze for tourism to the Italian Riviera that continues to this day. Published here to coincide with a contemporary retelling, Enchanted August by Brenda Bowen, it’s a witty ensemble piece and the perfect romantic rediscovery for fans of Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love as well as of Downton Abbey and the hit movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500Ěýtitles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theĚýseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateĚýtranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 240 Elizabeth von Arnim 0143107739 Jenny 4 adult, classics
It is, perhaps, not one to examine too closely or take too seriously, but it's an absolutely lovely April read.

Update, 3/22/25:

This should have been picked up again in April, but I needed something that would bring spring into the house. A lovely re-read. ]]> 3.89 1922 The Enchanted April
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: adult, classics
review:
A sweet, gently funny book about beauty and second chances and the transforming power of love.

It is, perhaps, not one to examine too closely or take too seriously, but it's an absolutely lovely April read.

Update, 3/22/25:

This should have been picked up again in April, but I needed something that would bring spring into the house. A lovely re-read.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Jenny 4 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: adventure, young-adult, fantasy, location-library-shelf1
review:
The weather still continues charming and the girls are still 100% obsessed with these books.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)]]> 136251
In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited.]]> 759 J.K. Rowling Jenny 4
The girls have declared that the ending was excellent and most fitting. We'll see how long it takes them before they re-read the entire series. ]]> 4.61 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: adventure, young-adult, fantasy, location-library-shelf1, read-aloud-with-daddy
review:
We have officially reached THE END.

The girls have declared that the ending was excellent and most fitting. We'll see how long it takes them before they re-read the entire series.
]]> The Dollhouse 28504574
When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong—a notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme, a Barbizon maid, she's introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin that's used there, the startling sounds of bebop, and even the possibility of romance.

Over half a century later, the Barbizon's gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly woman's rent-controlled apartment. It's a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin, Darby's upstairs neighbor, to resist—not to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.]]> 289 Fiona Davis 1101984996 Jenny 2
I was not a fan. Would not recommend. ]]> 3.76 2016 The Dollhouse
author: Fiona Davis
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: adult, historical-fiction, kindle
review:
I read this book because I was participating in a research study and it was assigned to me. If I hadn't been, I would have abandoned it after the first couple chapters. It reads like every other mediocre historical novel: uninspired writing, flat characters, contemporary sensibilities assigned to historical settings.

I was not a fan. Would not recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness]]> 216052917 How can we "rejoice always" when the world often seems so broken? Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the darkness can point the way to living beautifully in the midst of a tragic world.

In hisĚýUSA TodayĚýbestsellingĚýThe Truth and Beauty, Andrew Klavan explored how the work of great poets helps illuminate the truth of the gospels. Now, the award-winning screenwriter and crime novelist turns his attention to the dark side of human nature to discover how we might find joy and beauty in the world while still being clear-eyed about the evil found in it.

The Kingdom of CainĚýlooks at three murders in history--including the first murder, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel--and at the art created from imaginative engagement with those horrific events by artists ranging from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Alfred Hitchcock. To make beauty out of the world as it is--shot through with evil and injustice and suffering--is the task not just of the artist but, Klavan argues, of every life rightly lived. Examining how that transformation occurs in art grants us a vision for how it can happen in our lives.

Klavan eloquently argues that itĚýisĚýpossible to be clear-eyed about the evil in the world while remaining hope-filled about God's ability to redeem it all.]]> 272 Andrew Klavan 0310368340 Jenny 0 to-read 5.00 The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness
author: Andrew Klavan
name: Jenny
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald]]> 2784658 725 Matthew J. Bruccoli 0747411522 Jenny 4 adult, biography, teaching 4.55 1981 Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald
author: Matthew J. Bruccoli
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: adult, biography, teaching
review:
A thorough, even-handed biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, by a biographer who clearly admires his work but is under no illusions about the self-created disaster that was his life.
]]> <![CDATA[Rockin' Around the Chickadee (Meg Langslow #36)]]> 203578923 Bells are ringing and alarms are sounding in Donna Andrews' latest cheery addition in the New York Times bestselling Meg Langslow series.Meg's sister-in-law, Delaney is pregnant. Since her due date is on or around Christmas Day, this is putting a bit of a damper on the usual holiday festivities. Meg and Michael are NOT hosting the usual house full of relatives and parties. Instead, Meg, along with her mother, her grandmother, her cousin Rose Noire, and her good friend Caroline, are militantly doing everything they can think of to keep Delaney quiet and healthy. All the relatives are farmed out to friends and neighbors; all the parties are being held somewhere else, and while Delaney is bored and mutinous, she's doing well, and they're managing to maintain a serene, peaceful environment for her . . . until a body is found in Meg and Michael's yard. Can Meg still keep Delaney calm in the middle of a murder investigation, all while trying to catch the killer?Full of her usual twists and turns, paired with relatable family holiday drama and Caerphilly’s traditional Christmas merriment, Donna Andrews brings readers another joyful classic.]]> 288 Donna Andrews 1250894352 Jenny 3
Looking forward to Andrews' upcoming August release. ]]> 3.99 Rockin' Around the Chickadee (Meg Langslow #36)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
I've officially made it to the end of the currently-published Meg Langslow mysteries. They were the perfect companion to the stress and chaos of the last couple months.

Looking forward to Andrews' upcoming August release.
]]> <![CDATA[Between a Flock and a Hard Place (Meg Langslow, #35)]]> 195790631 Readers will flock to New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews's next installment in the award-winning Meg Langslow series.Meg's neighbors, the Smetkamps', have won a makeover for their old home from Marvelous Mansions, a flashy, yet dubious company, focused on making historic homes more "modern." The company already several days into its makeover of the Smetkamps' house, and tensions are running high--not only between the officious, demanding Mrs. Smetkamp and her neighbors, but also between her and the renovation crew. Meg, who is trying to keep the peace and prevent the makeover crew from trampling on every clause of the county's building code, arrives at the Smetkamps to find that Caerphilly's resident flock of feral turkeys has moved into their yard--or been relocated there by someone who wanted to cause them trouble. The turkeys are huge, territorial, cranky and aggressive - and impossible to move! Meg does what she can to calm down the irate neighbors and help the makeover crew make progress in spite of the turkeys. She comes up with a plan to gather a group of turkey wranglers to snatch them early in the morning. But when they arrive, they find the body of Mrs. Smetkamp in her backyard. Someone stabbed her, and then tried to make it look as if she was attacked by one of the turkeys, but Meg, the Chief, and the Sheriff are not fooled. Together, they must figure out what really happened to Mrs. Smetkamp...and what to do with all these turkeys!]]> 304 Donna Andrews 1250894085 Jenny 3
Overall a fun mystery, though this one does include some explicit approval of adultery (cheating is okay if your spouse is a jerk, apparently) which I didn't love. My oldest has been asking to listen to this series, and this is one that I won't be giving her. ]]> 4.10 2024 Between a Flock and a Hard Place (Meg Langslow, #35)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
I would like to take this moment to pat myself on the back and declare that I figured out the exact solution to the murder before there was a murder.

Overall a fun mystery, though this one does include some explicit approval of adultery (cheating is okay if your spouse is a jerk, apparently) which I didn't love. My oldest has been asking to listen to this series, and this is one that I won't be giving her.
]]> <![CDATA[Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow! (Meg Langslow, #34)]]> 65213942
Meg has been roped into participating in a weaponsmithing competition, a Forged in Fire wannabe organized by a blacksmith friend. Meg originally turned down an invitation to participate, but the night before the filming starts, someone attacks Faulk, her blacksmithing mentor, breaking his arm and eliminating him from the contest before it begins. Meg agrees to step in as his replacement to keep the project from failing. She's not thrilled that the filming will take place during December � Christmas is already a crazy time for her. Since the competition is taking place on Ragnarshjem, the picturesque estate that her friend Ragnar, the retired heavy metal drummer, is turning into a Goth castle, Meg won’t have to spend Christmas alone and gets to bring Michael and her twin sons with her.

So Meg joins the cast, to the dismay of several old-school blacksmiths who think women have no place in the profession anyway. And if the show's producers were hoping for drama, they're in luck. The blacksmithing world is a small one, and some of the contestants arrived already laden with grudges and feuds.

It's a high-stakes, cutthroat competition between people who wield large hammers and make swords and have forges full of fire at their disposal. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 304 Donna Andrews 1250893968 Jenny 3 4.11 Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow! (Meg Langslow, #34)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
Andrews' Christmas mysteries are some of my favorite of the series, and worthy of being listened to year-round.
]]> <![CDATA[Birder, She Wrote (Meg Langslow, #33)]]> 61884933
First her father recruits her to help him install a new batch of bees in the hive in her backyard. Then Mayor Shiffley recruits her to placate the NIMBYs (Not in my backyard), as she calls them � a group of newcomers to Caerphilly who have built McMansions next door to working farms and then do their best to make life miserable for the farmers. And finally Meg’s grandmother, shows up, trailed by a nosy reporter who is writing a feature on her for a genteel Southern ladies� magazine.

Cordelia drafts Meg to accompany her and Deacon Washington of the New Life Baptist Church � and the reporter, alas � in their search for a long-lost African-American cemetery. Unfortunately what they discover is not an ancient cemetery but a fresh corpse. Can Meg protect her grandmother � and Caerphilly � from the reporter who seems to see the worst in everything . . . and help crack the case before the killer finds another victim?]]> 304 Donna Andrews 1250760240 Jenny 3 4.06 Birder, She Wrote (Meg Langslow, #33)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
This one wasn't my favorite of Andrews' mysteries, but it was still a fun (slightly murderous) romp.
]]> O Pioneers! 3160160
O Pioneers! tells the story of the Bergsons, a family of Swedish immigrants in the farm country near the fictional town of Hanover, Nebraska, at the turn of the 20th century. The main character, Alexandra Bergson, inherits the family farmland when her father dies, and she devotes her life to making the farm a viable enterprise at a time when other immigrant families are giving up and leaving the prairie. The novel is also concerned with two romantic relationships, one between Alexandra and family friend Carl Linstrum and another between Alexandra's brother Emil and the married Marie Shabata. - from Wikipedia]]> 206 Willa Cather 0895773546 Jenny 4 adult, classics, teaching 3.77 1913 O Pioneers!
author: Willa Cather
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1913
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: adult, classics, teaching
review:
A gorgeous story of the land and the people who love it.
]]> <![CDATA[Round Up the Usual Peacocks (Meg Langslow, #31)]]> 58819700 New York Times, bestselling author Donna Andrews first introduced us to Meg Langslow as a crime-solving bridesmaid. In her 31st mystery, Round Up the Usual Peacocks, Meg returns to her roots, juggling cold cases and wedding guests.

Kevin, Meg's cyber-savvy nephew who lives in the basement, comes to her with a problem. He's become involved as the techie for a true-crime podcast, one that focuses on Virginia cold cases and unsolved crimes. And he thinks their podcast has hit a nerve with someone . . . one of the podcast team has had a brush with death that Kevin thinks was an attempted murder, not an accident.

Kevin rather sheepishly asks for Meg's help in checking out the people involved in a couple of the cases. "Given your ability to find out stuff online, why do you need MY help?" she asks. "Um . . . because I've already done everything I can online. This'll take going around and TALKING to people," he exclaims, with visible horror. "In person!" Not his thing. And no, it can't wait until after the wedding, because he's afraid whoever's after them might take advantage of the chaos of the wedding at Trinity or the reception at Meg and Michael's house to strike again.

So on top of everything she's doing to round up vendors and supplies and take care of demanding out-of-town guests, Meg must hunt down the surviving suspects from three relatively local cold cases so she can figure out if they have it in for the podcasters. Could there be a connection to a musician on the brink of stardom who disappeared two decades ago and hasn't been seen since?]]> 304 Donna Andrews 1250760216 Jenny 3 4.25 2022 Round Up the Usual Peacocks (Meg Langslow, #31)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: adult, borrowed, audiobook, mystery
review:
More Donna Andrews fun! This time around, Meg is tasked with solving three cold cases so she can figure out who tried to kill her nephew's true crime podcasting partner.
]]> <![CDATA[Murder Most Fowl (Meg Lanslow, #29)]]> 54860358 A Shakespearean twist on the long-running Meg Langslow mystery series in the latest installment from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Falcon Always Wings Twice.



Meg Langslow's in for a busy summer. Her husband is directing a production of Macbeth, and most of the cast and crew are occupying spare bedrooms in their house. She also has to keep an eye on Camp Birnam, where a group of medieval reenactors are commemorating the real-life Macbeth by setting up what they fondly believe is an authentic medieval Scottish military camp.

And then there's Damien Goodwin, a filmmaker who has been hanging around, trying to document the production. When Goodwin hosts a showing of some of the footage he's taken, he manages to embarrass or offend just about everyone. The next morning Meg isn't exactly surprised to find that someone has murdered him.

But who? Some people's motives were obvious from the footage: the couple whose affair was revealed . . . the bombastic leader of the reenactors, who could be facing years in prison if the evidence from the video helps convict him of sheep stealing . . . the actress who's desperately trying to downplay a health issue that could cost her the role of her life. Other motives are only hinted at--did the filmmaker have other footage that would reveal why one of the actors is behaving so furtively?

Unfortunately, whoever murdered Goodwin also destroyed all the electronic devices on which his video was stored. So Caerphilly's chief of police--and Meg--must rediscover the same secrets the filmmaker did if they want to catch a killer.]]> 320 Donna Andrews 125076016X Jenny 3 4.04 2021 Murder Most Fowl (Meg Lanslow, #29)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
Meg Langslow and Shakespeare, with a dash of murder. A delightful listen.
]]> As You Like It 42607 As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon after Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love, the princesses and Touchstone go into exile in the Forest of Arden, where they find new conversational partners. Duke Frederick, younger brother to Duke Senior, has overthrown his brother and forced him to live homeless in the forest with his courtiers, including the cynical Jaques. Orlando, whose older brother Oliver plotted his death, has fled there, too.

Recent scholars have also grounded the play in the issues of its time. These include primogeniture, passing property from a father to his oldest son. As You Like It depicts intense conflict between brothers, exposing the human suffering that primogeniture entails. Another perspective concerns cross-dressing. Most of Orlando’s courtship of Rosalind takes place while Rosalind is disguised as a man, “Ganymede.� At her urging, Orlando pretends that Ganymede is his beloved Rosalind. But as the epilogue reveals, the sixteenth-century actor playing Rosalind was male, following the practice of the time. In other words, a boy played a girl playing a boy pretending to be a girl.]]> 263 William Shakespeare 074348486X Jenny 4
While it won't top my list of favorite comedies, it was a whole lot of fun to read, and the girls enjoyed it too. K was disappointed that it didn't end up being a tragedy, but E's favorite scene was quadruple wedding. They will periodically wander through the house, putting a hand to their forehead and gushing dramatically about, "Heavenly Rosalind," because in their minds, the best part of Shakespeare is mocking the ridiculous characters.

3/2/25:
Rereading for class prep. Still not my favorite comedy, especially when trying to adapt it into something appropriate for 3rd graders, but man, it has some of the best lines of all Shakespeare's plays. ]]> 3.81 1599 As You Like It
author: William Shakespeare
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1599
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: classics, drama, humor, read-aloud-morning-time, shakespeare
review:
Confession: I hadn't read As You Like It before. At a certain point (ie: after having kids), I figured I might as well just catch up with all the Shakespeare plays I had missed as I read them with the girls instead of trying to fit them into my personal reading.

While it won't top my list of favorite comedies, it was a whole lot of fun to read, and the girls enjoyed it too. K was disappointed that it didn't end up being a tragedy, but E's favorite scene was quadruple wedding. They will periodically wander through the house, putting a hand to their forehead and gushing dramatically about, "Heavenly Rosalind," because in their minds, the best part of Shakespeare is mocking the ridiculous characters.

3/2/25:
Rereading for class prep. Still not my favorite comedy, especially when trying to adapt it into something appropriate for 3rd graders, but man, it has some of the best lines of all Shakespeare's plays.
]]> The Making of a Marchioness 345560 The Making of a Marchioness follows thirty-something Emily who lives alone, humbly and happily, in a tiny apartment and on a meager income. She is the one that everyone counts on but no one goes out of their way to accommodate. This Cinderella-like story remains a much-loved favorite among many.

This book is followed by a sequel, The Methods of Lady Walderhurst. Later, the two novels were combined into Emily Fox-Seton.]]> 198 Frances Hodgson Burnett 1402169140 Jenny 3 adult, classics, borrowed
Most modern readers would likely scorn Emily's naivete and her constant choice to put others before herself, as well as her devotion to a husband who is merely fond of her (and of the comfort she brings him). But there is a gentle sort of sweetness about the book, and while I wouldn't necessarily want my daughters to follow Emily's example to the letter, there is a lot to be said for choosing to be the sort of person who looks for the good, always finds reasons to be thankful, and chooses selflessness.

But then there's a sharp turn in Act 2, with intrigue and murderous plots, leaving the first and second parts of the book feeling terribly disconnected. (It looks like they were originally two separate books, which makes a bit more sense, but I don't know that it would have worked much better as a sequel.)

I'm still not entirely certain how I feel about the book. It's one that I would buy if I ran into it in the wild at a used bookstore someday, but not one that I feel the need to hunt down to ensure its place on my bookshelves. ]]> 3.59 1901 The Making of a Marchioness
author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1901
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/29
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: adult, classics, borrowed
review:
The Making of a Marchioness is a hard book to describe, and even harder to review. It reads like a Victorian version of Cinderella, with an impoverished, but well-borne lady who is more strikingly defined by her goodness, utter lack of self-interest, and inability to see harm in anyone else as Cinderella; and an aging, indifferent (but wealthy) widower who needs an heir as her Prince.

Most modern readers would likely scorn Emily's naivete and her constant choice to put others before herself, as well as her devotion to a husband who is merely fond of her (and of the comfort she brings him). But there is a gentle sort of sweetness about the book, and while I wouldn't necessarily want my daughters to follow Emily's example to the letter, there is a lot to be said for choosing to be the sort of person who looks for the good, always finds reasons to be thankful, and chooses selflessness.

But then there's a sharp turn in Act 2, with intrigue and murderous plots, leaving the first and second parts of the book feeling terribly disconnected. (It looks like they were originally two separate books, which makes a bit more sense, but I don't know that it would have worked much better as a sequel.)

I'm still not entirely certain how I feel about the book. It's one that I would buy if I ran into it in the wild at a used bookstore someday, but not one that I feel the need to hunt down to ensure its place on my bookshelves.
]]> <![CDATA[Summer Lightning (Everyman's Library P G WODEHOUSE) by P.G. Wodehouse (2000-11-24)]]> 128754712 P.G. Wodehouse Jenny 4
Update, 2/21/25:

Listened to this one again, this time with the girls. Numbers one and four loved it. Numbers 2 and 3 had a whole lot to say about the idiocy about the various characters. Overall, a delightful family listen.]]> 4.60 1929 Summer Lightning (Everyman's Library P G WODEHOUSE) by P.G. Wodehouse (2000-11-24)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: adult, audiobook, classics, humor, read-aloud-morning-time
review:
Wodehouse is everything that is hilarious and delightful, and Summer Lightning does not disappoint. I have a soft spot for the hapless and pig-obsessed Lord Emsworth and his absurd family. A delightful summer listen.

Update, 2/21/25:

Listened to this one again, this time with the girls. Numbers one and four loved it. Numbers 2 and 3 had a whole lot to say about the idiocy about the various characters. Overall, a delightful family listen.
]]> <![CDATA[Willa Cather Living: A Personal Record]]> 48218 248 Edith Lewis 0803279965 Jenny 4 adult, biography, teaching 3.96 1953 Willa Cather Living: A Personal Record
author: Edith Lewis
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: adult, biography, teaching
review:
When I picked up this biography, I didn't realize it was written by Cather's long-term companion and editor. It's affectionate and straightforward, sometimes focusing in on little details that feel unimportant and (I would imagine) leaving out significant pieces that would give us a deeper insight into Cather's life and character. Lewis's focus is Cather-as-author, and while I think it's incredibly valuable to hear from someone who lived with Cather for decades, I am looking forward to reading a contemporary biography to help fill in the gaps.
]]> The Age of Innocence 53835 The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people “dreaded scandal more than disease.�

This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.]]> 293 Edith Wharton 159308143X Jenny 5
I can already predict which of my students are going to love it and which are going to object on the grounds that, "people just talk about their feelings and nothing happens!"

Update, 2/26/25:

Reading this book twice in one month was a delight. My students struggled to appreciate it, but it made them think and they certainly had alllll sorts of opinions about it. ]]> 3.96 1920 The Age of Innocence
author: Edith Wharton
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1920
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: adult, audiobook, classics, teaching
review:
An absolutely gorgeous book, full of beautiful prose and subtle, biting moments of humor. It's an amazing example of a Gilded Age novel and a fascinating glimpse into a world that feels so far removed from our own, but somehow real enough to touch.

I can already predict which of my students are going to love it and which are going to object on the grounds that, "people just talk about their feelings and nothing happens!"

Update, 2/26/25:

Reading this book twice in one month was a delight. My students struggled to appreciate it, but it made them think and they certainly had alllll sorts of opinions about it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Gift of the Magpie (Meg Lanslow, #28)]]> 49127483
The 28th book and the seventh Christmas mystery in the Meg Langslow series, The Gift of the Magpie is yet another wonderfully merry and funny book from New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews.

Meg’s running Caerphilly’s Helping Hands for the Holidays project, in which neighbors help each other with things they can’t do and can’t afford to have done. Her hopes for a relatively peaceful (if busy) Christmas vanish when someone murders Harvey the Hoarder, whose house the Helping Hands were decluttering. Was there any truth to the rumor that he had something valuable hidden beneath all his junk? Was one of his friends, neighbors, or relatives greedy enough to murder him for the rumored treasure? And what about the magpie that has been bringing her family bits of tinsel and costume jewelry―does the bird’s latest gift hold a clue to solving the crime?

Full of intrigue, this Christmas mystery will take readers home to Caerphilly, where the suspense falls as thick as the snow.]]> 304 Donna Andrews 1250760127 Jenny 3
Update, 2/26/25:

Apparently I didn't like this one too much on my first read through. I found it a whole lot of fun this time. ]]> 3.97 2020 The Gift of the Magpie (Meg Lanslow, #28)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: adult, borrowed, christmas, mystery, audiobook
review:
Not the best of Andrews' mystery series, but not the worst either. Unfortunately, I read it closely on the heels of Ngaio Marsh's Christmas Mystery (Tied Up in Tinsel), and The Gift of the Magpie doesn't come out well in the comparison.

Update, 2/26/25:

Apparently I didn't like this one too much on my first read through. I found it a whole lot of fun this time.
]]> <![CDATA[The Falcon Always Wings Twice (Meg Langslow, #27)]]> 51169311 A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Terns of Endearment.

When Meg's grandmother Cordelia hosts a Renaissance Faire at her craft center, the whole family is put to work: Meg handles the blacksmithing, Michael and the boys will be performing, and no one misses the opportunity to dress up in full regalia.

More exciting to Grandfather is the pair of rare falcons he discovers breeding at the fairgrounds. Concerned for their well-being amid all the activity, he appoints himself their protector.

When one of the actors performing at the fair is found dead--an actor suspected of mistreating one of the falcons, among other sins--Grandfather is a prime suspect.

Donna Andrews's long-running Meg Langslow series continues to be beloved by its fans, who loyally read every new installment. The Falcon Always Wings Twice is a perfect new addition, full of laughter, adventure, and Andrews's wonderful cast of wacky characters.]]> 304 Donna Andrews 1250193001 Jenny 3 4.07 2020 The Falcon Always Wings Twice (Meg Langslow, #27)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
This time, it's a murder at a Ren Faire. With hints that maaaybe next time will be a murder during a production of Hamlet, which I highly approve of.
]]> <![CDATA[Lark! The Herald Angels Sing (Meg Langslow, #24)]]> 37638003
For four previous Christmases, New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews has delighted readers with holiday mysteries, full of Christmas cheer and starring her quirky characters. Now she gives us another hilarious new adventure in her award-winning Meg Langslow series with Lark! The Herald Angels Sing.

±őłŮ’s Christmastime in Caerphilly and Meg, full of holiday spirit, is helping out with the town's festivities. While directing a nativity pageant and herding the children participating in it, she finds a surprise in the manger: a live baby.

A note from the mother, attached to the baby girl’s clothes, says that it’s time for her father to take care of her―and implicates Meg’s brother, Rob, as the father. And while a DNA test can reveal whether there's any truth to the accusation, Rob's afraid the mere suspicion could derail his plan to propose to the woman he loves. Meg quickly realizes it's up to her to find the baby's real identity.

She soon discovers that the baby―named Lark according to the fateful note―may be connected to something much bigger. Something that eventually puts a growing number of Meg’s friends and family in danger. And before long, Meg realizes she can’t fix things single-handedly. Meanwhile, a war is brewing between Caerphilly and its arch-rival Clay County―and it's not a snowball fight. Can Meg bring everyone together in time for the holidays?]]> 279 Donna Andrews 1250192943 Jenny 3
I have officially run out of anything new and interesting to say. They're light and absurd and fun and the narrator does a great job. ]]> 3.99 2018 Lark! The Herald Angels Sing (Meg Langslow, #24)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: adult, borrowed, audiobook, christmas, mystery
review:
Another fun Christmas mystery from Andrews.

I have officially run out of anything new and interesting to say. They're light and absurd and fun and the narrator does a great job.
]]> <![CDATA[Owl Be Home for Christmas (Meg Lanslow, #26)]]> 43263473 Owl Be Home for Christmas is yet another wonderfully merry and funny book from New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews.

It's a few days before Christmas, and Meg's grandfather is hosting a scientific conference on owls at the Caerphilly Inn. Most of the family are there, helping out in one capacity or another. An unexpectedly severe snow storm traps the conference-goers in the hotel, and one of the visiting ornithologists is murdered. Even if Caerphilly is able to clear the roads in time, Chief Burke doesn't want the various suspects to scatter to half a dozen continents before he identifies the killer, so there's a very real possibility that none of them will make it home for Christmas . . . at least not unless Meg comes to the rescue.

Full of intrigue and snow, this Christmas mystery will take readers home to Caerphilly for Christmas.]]> 292 Donna Andrews 1250305314 Jenny 3 3.93 2019 Owl Be Home for Christmas (Meg Lanslow, #26)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, christmas, mystery
review:
I'm going to be pretty sad when I run out of Meg Langslow books to listen to. She is just what my 2025 needs: absurd, quirky, fun, with a little homicide thrown in.
]]> <![CDATA[The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems]]> 243389 268 William Stafford 1555972845 Jenny 2
Stafford's poems aren't terrible. They are perfectly readable, but they didn't capture my attention or emotions. ]]> 4.48 1998 The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems
author: William Stafford
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: did-not-finish, adult, discarded, poetry
review:
Contemporary poetry doesn't tend to impress me, but I like to try new poets every so often, to see what's out there and try to find someone new I might fall in love with.

Stafford's poems aren't terrible. They are perfectly readable, but they didn't capture my attention or emotions.
]]> <![CDATA[Terns of Endearment (Meg Langslow, #25)]]> 41150387 A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Toucan Keep a Secret

Meg's grandfather has been booked to give lectures on a cruise as part of the education/entertainment itinerary, and he's arranged for a passel of family members to join him.

The passengers' vacation quickly becomes a nightmare when they wake up to find themselves broken down and in need of repairs. Things get even worse when a crew member announces to all that a woman has jumped overboard, leaving behind her shoes, shawl, and a note. The note reveals she's a disliked member of a writers' group onboard for a retreat, and the group is split on whether this is in-character for her.

The captain decides not to investigate, saying he'll notify American authorities when they reach their destination. But Meg's father decides they need to look into whether there was possible foul play while the prime suspects are all stuck on board. It'll be a race against the clock to solve this mystery before they make the necessary repairs and return to shore.

Donna Andrews' long-running Meg Langslow series continues to be beloved by its fans, who loyally buy every new installment. Terns of Endearment is a perfect new addition, full of laughter, adventure, and Andrews' wonderful cast of wacky characters.]]> 336 Donna Andrews 1250192978 Jenny 3 4.00 2019 Terns of Endearment (Meg Langslow, #25)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
A murder mystery at sea, for a change of pace. Still absurd, still fun, still a great way to while away a couple hours on a rainy winter week.
]]> <![CDATA[Toucan Keep a Secret (Meg Langslow, #23)]]> 36187734 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Gull.

Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal locking up after an event and checking on the toucan Meg's friend Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering in her office. After hearing a hammering in the columbarium (the small building where cremated remains are held), Meg finds an elderly parishioner lying dead on the floor of the crypt. Several niches have been chiseled open; several urns knocked out; and amid the spilled ashes is a gold ring with a huge red stone.

The curmudgeonly victim had become disgruntled with the church and ranted all over town about taking back his wife's ashes. Did someone who had it in for him follow him to the columbarium? Or was the motive grave robbery? Or did he see someone breaking in and investigate? Why was the ruby left behind?

While the Chief Burke investigates the murder, Robyn recruits Meg to contact the families of the people whose ashes were disturbed. During this task, Meg learns many secrets about Caerphilly's history--and finds that the toucan may play a role in unmasking the killer. Clues and events indicate that a thief broke into the church to steal the toucan the night of the murder, so Meg decides to set a trap for the would-be toucan thief--who might also be the killer.

Toucan Keep a Secret is the twenty-third book in New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews' hilarious Mag Langslow mystery series.]]> 294 Donna Andrews 1250115477 Jenny 3 3.92 2018 Toucan Keep a Secret (Meg Langslow, #23)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
Sick days are improved by Meg Langslow. That is all.
]]> A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1622 298 William Shakespeare 0743477545 Jenny 4
We started with a couple different children's versions of the play, and then advanced to the real thing. (We read the actual text, and not the translation--it's important to me that the girls get the feel for Shakespeare's actual language.)

By the time we reached the last scene, they had memorized three passages from the play, decided Bottom was utterly ridiculous, and thought that Robin had made an utter mess of things (of COURSE they would have done a better job) but made it all right in the end.

I'm delighted with their response to the play, and am looking forward to exploring more of Shakespeare's plays with them. I think Twelfth Night might be next...

Update, 8/13/23:

Midsummer Night's Dream has never been my favorite of the comedies, so I tend to avoid it and re-read my favorites over and over. But as I sat down with it to prepare to teach it to my elementary Shakespeare class for the fall, I realized I had forgotten just how funny it is. I think the kids will have a great time with it, and it will be a good first play to study.

Update, 2/16/25:

A quick read through to update my class materials before studying it with my elementary students. It's a short, funny, very accessible play, and if you are considering introducing Shakespeare to young people, this is a good one to start with. ]]> 3.95 1595 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
author: William Shakespeare
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1595
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: classics, location-library-shelf6, drama, read-aloud-morning-time, shakespeare, teaching
review:
The girls' first Shakespeare play! While they obviously didn't understand a lot of the language and nuance, they were able to understand the main plot, and enjoyed the humor.

We started with a couple different children's versions of the play, and then advanced to the real thing. (We read the actual text, and not the translation--it's important to me that the girls get the feel for Shakespeare's actual language.)

By the time we reached the last scene, they had memorized three passages from the play, decided Bottom was utterly ridiculous, and thought that Robin had made an utter mess of things (of COURSE they would have done a better job) but made it all right in the end.

I'm delighted with their response to the play, and am looking forward to exploring more of Shakespeare's plays with them. I think Twelfth Night might be next...

Update, 8/13/23:

Midsummer Night's Dream has never been my favorite of the comedies, so I tend to avoid it and re-read my favorites over and over. But as I sat down with it to prepare to teach it to my elementary Shakespeare class for the fall, I realized I had forgotten just how funny it is. I think the kids will have a great time with it, and it will be a good first play to study.

Update, 2/16/25:

A quick read through to update my class materials before studying it with my elementary students. It's a short, funny, very accessible play, and if you are considering introducing Shakespeare to young people, this is a good one to start with.
]]> <![CDATA[Die Like an Eagle (Meg Langslow, #20)]]> 26247004
With Die Like an Eagle, readers can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery--this one filled with the spirit of America's pastime and Donna's eagle eye.

Like Meg Langslow, the blacksmith heroine of her series, Donna Andrews was born and raised in Yorktown, Virginia. She introduced Meg to readers in her Malice Domestic Contest-winning first mystery, Murder with Peacocks, and readers are still laughing. This novel swept up the Agatha, Anthony, Barry, and a Romantic Times award for best first novel, and a Lefty for funniest mystery.]]> 293 Donna Andrews 1250078555 Jenny 3 4.01 2016 Die Like an Eagle (Meg Langslow, #20)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
After growing up in a baseball-obsessed house, I find that I tend to avoid fictional representations of the sport. But Andrews makes a Little League-centric mystery just as entertaining as her previous books.
]]> Gone Gull (Meg Langslow #21) 31450618 Andrews soars into summer with a crafty new Meg Langslow mystery.

Gone Gull brings readers yet another knee-slapping adventure filled with New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews� cast of wacky characters.

Meg is spending the summer at the Biscuit Mountain Craft Center, helping her grandmother Cordelia run the studios. But someone is committing acts of vandalism, threatening to ruin the newly-opened center’s reputation. Is it the work of a rival center? Have the developers who want to build a resort atop Biscuit Mountain found a new tactic to pressure Cordelia into selling? Or is the real target Meg’s grandfather, who points out that any number of environmentally irresponsible people and organizations could have it in for him?

While Meg is trying to track down the vandal, her grandfather is more interested in locating a rare gull. Their missions collide when a body is found in one of the classrooms. Can Meg identify the vandal and the murderer in time to save the center’s name—while helping her grandfather track down and rescue his beloved gulls?]]> 304 Donna Andrews 1250078563 Jenny 3 3.92 2017 Gone Gull (Meg Langslow #21)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
Life is still stressful. Meg Langslow mysteries are still a delightful reprieve.
]]> <![CDATA[Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith]]> 29532931 People rarely slow down to experience their days, and so they feel rushed through life even as they begin to suspect that life lacks significance. By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and festivals of the Bible, as well as the special celebrations of the Christian calendar, Moments and Days restores a sacred sense of time throughout our year, enriching our experience of each “holy day� and enlivening our experience of even the most “ordinary time.”]]> 240 Michelle Van Loon 1631464639 Jenny 3 4.07 Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith
author: Michelle Van Loon
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: did-not-finish, adult, christianity, discarded
review:
I love the idea of this book, and I think many of my reading friends would as well. It just didn't quite work for me, though I can't quite put my finger on why. But as my shelves are full, I don't feel the need to keep "this should have been a great read for me" sorts of books and can pass them on to someone for whom it actually is a great read.
]]> <![CDATA[Lord of the Wings (Meg Langslow, #19)]]> 23014654 New York Times bestselling author of The Good, The Bad, and The Emus.

The brilliantly funny Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the acclaimed avian-themed series that mystery readers have come to love. The nineteenth book in her New York Times best-selling series continues to surprise and delight in this next knee-slapping adventure featuring Meg Langslow and all the eccentric characters that make up her world.

It's another holiday and Mayor Randall Shiffley has turned Caerphilly, Virginia into Spooky City, USA. The residents are covering every window with cobwebs and roaming the streets in costume to entertain the tourists, and Meg's grandfather is opening a new "Creatures of the Night" exhibit in the zoo.

When a suspicious fire burns the Haunted House and a body is found, Meg Langslow surrenders her home as a safer party venue. But all too soon a real body mars the town's creepy fun, and it's up to Meg to save Halloween.

Like Meg Langslow, the blacksmith heroine of her series, Donna Andrews was born and raised in Yorktown, Virginia. She introduced Meg to readers in her Malice Domestic Contest-winning first mystery, Murder with Peacocks, and readers are still laughing. This novel swept up the Agatha, Anthony, Barry, and a Romantic Times award for best first novel, and a Lefty for funniest mystery.

With Lord of the Wings, readers can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery � this one filled with Halloween spirit and suspense.]]> 307 Donna Andrews 125004958X Jenny 3 adult, borrowed, mystery 3.93 2015 Lord of the Wings (Meg Langslow, #19)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery
review:
I'm not a Halloween person, so the general premise of this book is a bit of a nightmare (a town-wide Halloween festival where tourist is mysteriously found dead) but like always, Andrews gives readers a fun, cozy mystery
]]> <![CDATA[When I Was a Child I Read Books]]> 12095063
Since the 1981 publication of Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Housekeeping—a stunning debut that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize—she has built a sterling reputation not only as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. Her compelling and demanding collection The Death of Adam—in which she reflected on her Presbyterian upbringing, investigated the roots of Midwestern abolitionism, and mounted a memorable defense of Calvinism—is respected as a classic of the genre, praised by Doris Lessing as “a useful antidote to the increasingly crude and slogan-loving culture we inhabit.�

In this new collection she returns to the themes which have preoccupied her work: the role of faith in modern life, the inadequacy of fact, the contradictions inherent in human nature. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as a modern rhetorical master.
]]> 224 Marilynne Robinson 0374298785 Jenny 2
Given that the author is Marilynne Robinson, the problem is probably me. Regardless, this book is going to go need to find a new home where it can be better appreciated. ]]> 3.88 2012 When I Was a Child I Read Books
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: did-not-finish, adult, discarded, essays
review:
Normally, I love essays. But for some reason, this collection didn't work for me. I tried each of the essays in turn, but none of them was the least bit interesting. The language and tone felt off and I couldn't make myself finish.

Given that the author is Marilynne Robinson, the problem is probably me. Regardless, this book is going to go need to find a new home where it can be better appreciated.
]]> Edith Wharton 152469 Virginia Woolf.

Delving into heretofore untapped sources, Hermione Lee does away with the image of the snobbish bluestocking and gives us a new Edith Wharton—tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as her fiction.

Born in 1862, Wharton escaped the suffocating fate of the well-born female, traveled adventurously in Europe and eventually settled in France. After tentative beginnings, she developed a forceful literary professionalism and thrived in a luminous society that included Bernard Berenson, Aldous Huxley and most famously Henry James, who here emerges more as peer than as master. Wharton’s life was fed by nonliterary enthusiasms as well: her fabled houses and gardens, her heroic relief efforts during the Great War, the culture of the Old World, which she never tired of absorbing. Yet intimacy eluded her: unhappily married and childless, her one brush with passion came and went in midlife, an affair vividly, intimately recounted here.

With profound empathy and insight, Lee brilliantly interweaves Wharton’s life with the evolution of her writing, the full scope of which shows her far to be more daring than her stereotype as lapidarian chronicler of the Gilded Age. In its revelation of both the woman and the writer, Edith Wharton is a landmark biography.]]> 869 Hermione Lee 0375400044 Jenny 3 adult, biography, teaching
Lee would get lost in the details on a fairly frequent basis (the perils of being too interested in your subject!) and I think the flow of the book could have been improved by making chronology more clear instead of the constant moving backward and forward in time without clarity.

But overall, a worthwhile book to pick up for anyone who wants to devote almost 900 pages of their literary life to Wharton.]]> 3.92 2007 Edith Wharton
author: Hermione Lee
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: adult, biography, teaching
review:
A very solid, very thorough biography of Wharton's life. It includes detailed description and some analysis of her major works, which some readers will find particularly helpful (and other readers likely will skip).

Lee would get lost in the details on a fairly frequent basis (the perils of being too interested in your subject!) and I think the flow of the book could have been improved by making chronology more clear instead of the constant moving backward and forward in time without clarity.

But overall, a worthwhile book to pick up for anyone who wants to devote almost 900 pages of their literary life to Wharton.
]]> <![CDATA[The Good, the Bad, and the Emus (Meg Langslow, #17)]]> 18404327 Stanley and Meg agree to help track down the killer and get justice for Cordelia. Grandfather even has perfect cover--he will come to stage a rescue of the feral emus and ostriches (escaped from an abandoned farm) that infest this town. He dashes off to organize the rescue—which will, of course, involve most of Meg's family and friends in Caerphilly. But then, the evil neighbor is murdered, and not only Cordelia’s cousin but also the entire contingent of emu-rescuers, who have had conflict with the neighbor, are suspects. Only Meg and the cousin—who seems to share a lot of telling traits with Meg—can find the real killer and clear the air in The Good, the Bad, and the Emus, the newest beverage-spittingly funny installment in this uproarious series from the one-and-only Donna Andrews.]]> 312 Donna Andrews 1250009502 Jenny 3 4.03 2014 The Good, the Bad, and the Emus (Meg Langslow, #17)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: adult, borrowed, audiobook, mythology
review:
Another fun, cozy mystery from Andrews.
]]> Greetings from Nowhere 22718776
From an author long recognized for her true Southern voice and heartfelt characters, Greetings from Nowhere , with its four intertwining stories, brings Barbara O'Connor's work to a new level of sophistication.

Aggie isn't expecting visitors at the Sleepy Time Motel in the Great Smoky Mountains. Since her husband died, she is all alone with her cat, Ugly, and keeping up with the bills and repairs has become next to impossible. The pool is empty, the garden is overgrown, and not a soul has come to stay in nearly three months. When she reluctantly places a For Sale ad in the newspaper, Aggie doesn't know that Kirby and his mom will need a room when their car breaks down on the way to Kirby's new reform school. Or that Loretta and her parents will arrive in her dad's plumbing company van on a trip meant to honor the memory of Loretta's birth mother. Or that Clyde Dover will answer the For Sale ad in such a hurry and move in with his daughter, Willow, looking for a brand-new life to replace the one that was fractured when Willow's mom left. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that Aggie and her guests find just the friends they need at the shabby motel in the middle of nowhere.

This title has Common Core connections.]]> 224 Barbara O'Connor 1250062802 Jenny 2 4.11 2008 Greetings from Nowhere
author: Barbara O'Connor
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: discarded, juvenile, realistic-fiction, did-not-finish
review:
Sometimes, a simple, very spare style of writing can be gorgeous and meaningful. Sometimes, it just feels insulting to its readers. This book, unfortunately, leans toward the latter. It's one of those books where you meet a whole cast of characters who each have A Problem (death of a spouse, divorced parents, death of a bio mom, being sent away to reform school, etc), and they all get thrown together in one place where they can, if not exactly solve all their problems, at least process them together in a heartwarming(ish) way. It's not a formula I hate, but it's also one that really needs to be done well. This one wasn't.
]]> Caliban's Hour 28693 194 Tad Williams 0061054135 Jenny 1
But this book didn't work for me. Despite Williams' skill with words, he was not able to humanize this particular monster. Sometimes a villain is just a villain. We don't need a tragic backstory hour to justify their awfulness and turn them into the victim of the story. It's okay to rejoice in Miranda's happy ending when you walk away from this particular play. ]]> 3.50 1994 Caliban's Hour
author: Tad Williams
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1994
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: adaptation, adult, discarded, shakespeare
review:
I picked Caliban's Hour off a shelf because of the title's connection to Shakespeare. While The Tempest isn't my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, and Caliban isn't the character I would particularly care to center a sequel around, I have liked some of Williams' other books, so I was willing to give it a try.

But this book didn't work for me. Despite Williams' skill with words, he was not able to humanize this particular monster. Sometimes a villain is just a villain. We don't need a tragic backstory hour to justify their awfulness and turn them into the victim of the story. It's okay to rejoice in Miranda's happy ending when you walk away from this particular play.
]]> <![CDATA[WonderFull: Ancient Psalms Ever New]]> 56043921
Oliver and his grandfather spend days sitting in front of an old Oak tree, reading through the book of Psalms together. As Oliver’s curiosity about God evolves into a deep and abiding faith, his grandfather continues to read to him and pray with him, discovering together the beauty of the Psalms.

Even when Oliver’s grandpa is no longer able to read with him, Oliver continues to cherish the Psalms—especially in times of trial—and he imagines what it will be like to see God face to face and his grandfather again in heaven.

Ancient psalms are made ever new in this beautifully designed children’s book, and kids will grow to love and appreciate this book of the Bible.

As a best-selling author to numerous books and curricula for kids, Marty Machowski draws on over thirty years of experience as a pastor to provide Scripture-based truth and hope for young readers.

Machowski doesn’t just help kids become familiar with the psalms. He helps them apply what they are learning to their own lives, which is a gift that will continue to deepen their walk with Christ as they grow older.]]> 109 Marty Machowski 164507174X Jenny 4 4.08 WonderFull: Ancient Psalms Ever New
author: Marty Machowski
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/30
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: borrowed, christianity, juvenile, did-not-finish
review:
When I found that Machowski had written a companion to The Ology about the Psalms, I was pretty sure I'd be adding it to our library, but wanted to get a chance to look over it first. Inter-library Loan to the rescue! A quick read-through confirmed that it will be the next Morning Time Bible Study book.
]]> <![CDATA[Pigs Have Wings (Blandings Castle, #8)]]> 60521
Can the Empress of Blandings win the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Show for the third year running? Galahad Threepwood, Beach the butler and others have put their shirt on this, and for Lord Emsworth it will be paradise on earth. But a substantial obstacle lurks in the way: Queen of Matchingham, the new sow of Sir Gregory Parsloe Bart. Galahad knows this pretender to the crown must be pignapped. But can the Empress in turn avoid a similar fate?

In this classic Blandings novel, pigs rise above their bulk to vanish and reappear in the most unlikely places, while young lovers are crossed and recrossed in every room in Blandings Castle.]]> 240 P.G. Wodehouse 014028463X Jenny 4
Update, 4/13/21:

I made a discovery this year: a book being hilarious and brilliant does not necessarily mean it's an ideal book to teach in a classroom setting. Turns out, Wodehouse's particular brand of humor is fabulous to read, but doesn't have a whole lot for a class to really dig in to. Whoops?

My students still loved it, and I was delighted to have an excuse to return to one of my favorite Wodehouse novels.

Update, 2/4/25:

We listened to Pigs Have Wings for our January Morning Time audiobook because 2025 is my Year of Wodehouse. It is hilarious and delightful and absurd in the best possible way. My younger three are on the young side to truly appreciate Wodehouse, but they enjoyed it, so I'm calling it a win.

]]> 4.27 1952 Pigs Have Wings (Blandings Castle, #8)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: adult, audiobook, classics, humor, teaching, read-aloud-morning-time
review:
Wodehouse is the master of the sort of humor that manages to be both dryly understated and yet absurdly, delightfully over-the-top. An absolutely lovely listen.

Update, 4/13/21:

I made a discovery this year: a book being hilarious and brilliant does not necessarily mean it's an ideal book to teach in a classroom setting. Turns out, Wodehouse's particular brand of humor is fabulous to read, but doesn't have a whole lot for a class to really dig in to. Whoops?

My students still loved it, and I was delighted to have an excuse to return to one of my favorite Wodehouse novels.

Update, 2/4/25:

We listened to Pigs Have Wings for our January Morning Time audiobook because 2025 is my Year of Wodehouse. It is hilarious and delightful and absurd in the best possible way. My younger three are on the young side to truly appreciate Wodehouse, but they enjoyed it, so I'm calling it a win.


]]> <![CDATA[A Feast Of Words: The Triumph Of Edith Wharton (Radcliffe Biography Series)]]> 105975 512 Cynthia Griffin Wolff 0201409186 Jenny 1 3.52 1977 A Feast Of Words: The Triumph Of Edith Wharton (Radcliffe Biography Series)
author: Cynthia Griffin Wolff
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1977
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: did-not-finish, adult, biography, borrowed, teaching, audiobook
review:
Did not finish. A Feast of Words reads like the author just took a Psychology 101 class and desperately needed to prove her worth by applying everything she learned to Wharton's life. Unhelpful and definitely not worth the 20 hours it would have taken to listen to the whole thing.
]]> <![CDATA[A Hopeful Heart: Louisa May Alcott Before Little Women]]> 51457159 How did Little Women-- the beloved literary classic and inspiration for Greta Gerwig's acclaimed feature film adaptation--come to be? This stunning biography explores the unique family and unusual circumstances of literary icon Louisa May Alcott.

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. How did these cherished characters come to be? Louisa May Alcott, the author of one of the most famous girl books of all time, was anything but a well-mannered young lady. A tomboy as well as a ravenous reader, Louisa took comfort in fictional characters that were as passionate and willful as she was--and whose wild imaginations were a match for her own. She was often found roaming the woods near her home in Concord, Massachusetts, or exploring the natural world in the company of the great Transcendentalist thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Here is a beautiful portrait of Louisa May Alcott, a woman influenced by her father, a penniless philosopher, her mother, with whom she shared a great connection, and, of course, her three sisters. Featuring unique indigo illustrations, Deborah Noyes unveils how Louisa's natural spirit, loving family, and unconventional circumstances inspired the timeless masterpiece that is Little Women.]]> 304 Deborah Noyes 0525646248 Jenny 3
But, for the young Little Women lover who wants to know more about Miss Alcott, this one will do nicely. ]]> 4.06 2020 A Hopeful Heart: Louisa May Alcott Before Little Women
author: Deborah Noyes
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: biography, borrowed, juvenile, teaching
review:
A reasonably solid juvenile biography of Louisa May Alcott. I think, perhaps, I would have appreciated it more if I didn't read it immediately following Eden's Exiles, a much more thorough and thoughtful biography of Louisa and her father.

But, for the young Little Women lover who wants to know more about Miss Alcott, this one will do nicely.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]> 912 J.K. Rowling Jenny 4 4.50 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: adventure, young-adult, fantasy, location-library-shelf1, read-aloud-with-daddy
review:
We finally made it through Order of the Phoenix. The girls continue to be utterly enthralled.
]]> <![CDATA[Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father]]> 5501194 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Louisa May Alcott is known universally. Yet during Louisa's youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson―an eminent teacher and a friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He desired perfection, for the world and from his family. Louisa challenged him with her mercurial moods and yearnings for money and fame. The other prize she deeply coveted―her father's understanding―seemed hardest to win. This story of Bronson and Louisa's tense yet loving relationship adds dimensions to Louisa's life, her work, and the relationships of fathers and daughters. 26 illustrations]]> 512 John Matteson 0393333590 Jenny 3 4.12 2007 Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
author: John Matteson
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: adult, biography, borrowed, teaching
review:
A really solid biography of Bronson and Louisa May Alcott. Absolutely worth picking up for anyone who enjoys Alcott and wants to dive deeper into her life.
]]> <![CDATA[Duck the Halls (Meg Langslow, #16)]]> 17286833
The brilliantly funny and talented Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the acclaimed avian-themed series that mystery readers have come to love. A few nights before Christmas, Meg is awakened when Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, where Mother insists the show must go on, despite the budget-related protests of Mr. Otis, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen—only to turn up later during the concert slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens.

±őłŮ’s clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Otis is discovered dead. Could this be a bit of nasty revenge from the now deposed Pruitt family? Or harassment from the Evil Lender? As Meg searches for answers she also races to finish all of her Christmas shopping, wrapping, cooking, caroling, and decorating in time to make the season jolly for Michael and the twins.

Guaranteed to put the "ho ho hos" into the holidays of cozy lovers everywhere, Duck the Halls is a gut-bustingly funny mystery, the latest from the award-winning Donna Andrews.]]> 310 Donna Andrews 1250028779 Jenny 3
It was a whole lot of fun, and I figured out the murderer (and motive) about an hour or two before our intrepid heroine, so I'm officially patting myself on the back and celebrating my genius. ]]> 3.96 2013 Duck the Halls (Meg Langslow, #16)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, christmas, mystery
review:
I hadn't planned to read any more Christmas books this month, but since I've been working my way through the Meg Langslow series in order, I figured another Christmas mystery wouldn't hurt.

It was a whole lot of fun, and I figured out the murderer (and motive) about an hour or two before our intrepid heroine, so I'm officially patting myself on the back and celebrating my genius.
]]> <![CDATA[King Lear (Oxford School Shakespeare Series)]]> 4655234 208 William Shakespeare 0198319770 Jenny 5
Update, 2/11/22:

Reading Shakespeare with the girls continues to be an absolute delight. E is old enough to take on parts of her own, so we can have a dialogue instead of me reading it all. Shakespeare isn't easy to read aloud (even for an adult), and I'm incredibly impressed by how fearlessly she tackles the vocabulary she doesn't know, and how she's able to understand the mood of the character and convey it in her voice. (And I love that when I call an end to the day's reading, she tries to hang on to her copy of the play and read ahead.)

H got lost a bit in the intricacies of the plot (which is entirely fair--adults do too), but at the end she was running around the school room with the puppets, yelling, "This one is dead! And THIS ONE is dead! And THIS ONE IS DEAD TOO!" So she got the big idea, at least. I'm calling King Lear a win all around.

Update, 1/28/25:

A read through to write a script for my elementary Shakespeare class. This is one of my favorite tragedies, but ooof is it heavy. ]]> 3.97 1605 King Lear (Oxford School Shakespeare Series)
author: William Shakespeare
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1605
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: classics, adult, read-aloud-morning-time, shakespeare, teaching
review:
No matter how many times I read it, Lear continues to be my favorite of Shakespeare's tragedies.

Update, 2/11/22:

Reading Shakespeare with the girls continues to be an absolute delight. E is old enough to take on parts of her own, so we can have a dialogue instead of me reading it all. Shakespeare isn't easy to read aloud (even for an adult), and I'm incredibly impressed by how fearlessly she tackles the vocabulary she doesn't know, and how she's able to understand the mood of the character and convey it in her voice. (And I love that when I call an end to the day's reading, she tries to hang on to her copy of the play and read ahead.)

H got lost a bit in the intricacies of the plot (which is entirely fair--adults do too), but at the end she was running around the school room with the puppets, yelling, "This one is dead! And THIS ONE is dead! And THIS ONE IS DEAD TOO!" So she got the big idea, at least. I'm calling King Lear a win all around.

Update, 1/28/25:

A read through to write a script for my elementary Shakespeare class. This is one of my favorite tragedies, but ooof is it heavy.
]]> <![CDATA[Hallelujah: A Journey through Advent with Handel's Messiah]]> 36578564
Celebrate Advent like never before, using these weekly and daily tools, all built around Handel's famous "Messiah" - one of the most lovely and important pieces of music ever composed.

Included in this

� Daily Guide to Listening to Handel’s Messiah
� Daily Scripture Readings
� Poems & Passages to Memorize Each Week
� Christmas Recipes
� Advent Hymns to Sing Together
� And Much More!]]> 125 Cindy Rollins 0999146610 Jenny 5
Perhaps my children are a bit too young to really understand or appreciate this particular advent reading/listening, but it's one I plan to repeat every year for the foreseeable future. I loved listening to Handel's Messiah bit by bit, focusing on the scripture that inspired the music. The weekly hymn and poetry selections and the notes on feast days and suggestions for further celebration were a great resource--one I intend to use in much greater depth in future years.

Overall, a fabulous addition to our advent traditions. Highly recommended.]]> 4.48 Hallelujah: A Journey through Advent with Handel's Messiah
author: Cindy Rollins
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/25
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: christmas, read-aloud-morning-time
review:
I first heard about Hallelujah last year, but too late to get a copy for that advent season. So this year, I made sure to order a copy as soon as they became available.

Perhaps my children are a bit too young to really understand or appreciate this particular advent reading/listening, but it's one I plan to repeat every year for the foreseeable future. I loved listening to Handel's Messiah bit by bit, focusing on the scripture that inspired the music. The weekly hymn and poetry selections and the notes on feast days and suggestions for further celebration were a great resource--one I intend to use in much greater depth in future years.

Overall, a fabulous addition to our advent traditions. Highly recommended.
]]> Up from Slavery 827685
"Up From Slavery" is an autobiography of Booker T. Washington's life and work, which has been the source of inspiration for all Americans. Washington reveals his inner most thoughts as he transitions from ex-slave to teacher and founder of one of the most important schools for African Americans in the south, The Tuskegee Industrial Institute.]]> 224 Booker T. Washington 0451527542 Jenny 4
Booker T. Washington was an amazing man, and being able to read about his life in his own words is both humbling and inspiring. I'm glad to be able to introduce the book to my students.

Update, 1/22/25:

It's always gratifying to be able to re-read a classic after having read an author biography or having done some more research. It adds context and depth to the work and (in this case) left me even more impressed with the Washington, despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy he courted. ]]> 4.08 1900 Up from Slavery
author: Booker T. Washington
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1900
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: adult, audiobook, classics, memoir, teaching
review:
An American Lit class pre-read.

Booker T. Washington was an amazing man, and being able to read about his life in his own words is both humbling and inspiring. I'm glad to be able to introduce the book to my students.

Update, 1/22/25:

It's always gratifying to be able to re-read a classic after having read an author biography or having done some more research. It adds context and depth to the work and (in this case) left me even more impressed with the Washington, despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy he courted.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hen of the Baskervilles (Meg Langslow, #15)]]> 16045033 A dastardly murder and the kidnapping of a prize chicken threaten to ruin Caerphilly's state fair—fortunately, Meg Langslow is on the case of The Hen of the Baskervilles

The newest mystery in Donna Andrews's gut-bustingly funny, award-winning, New York Times bestselling series is anything but elementary. Meg Langslow is helping Mayor Randall Shiffley organize the Virginia Un-Fair, Caerphilly's entry in the race to replace the old state fair (which has gone bankrupt). Before a line can even form outside the ticket booth, however, a pair of Bantam Russian Orloff chickens are stolen from their coop in the chicken tent. Soon, a rash of vandalism crops up at the fair, showing no heritage farm animal, prize vegetable, or artisanal craft to be safe.

While patrolling the fairgrounds, determined to catch the perp, Meg runs into her friend Molly, who has been building a successful business making goat cheeses. Molly is terrified that she may lose her farm because her idle husband Brett has left her for Genette Sedgewick, a rich hobby winemaker, and is demanding his half of the land. Meg enlists Mother's help to find Molly a divorce lawyer, but later that night, Brett is found murdered and Molly is swiftly accused as his killer.

Meg is convinced that her friend wouldn't so much as harm a fly, but can she find the real killer before it's too late? Will she track down the vandal who has been terrorizing—however creatively—the fair's participants? And will Michael be able to convince her to add members of his new favorite heritage breed to their growing menagerie? Meg's most hilarious caper yet, the curious incident of the hen in the nighttime will have readers rolling on the floor with laughter.]]> 320 Donna Andrews 1250007518 Jenny 3 4.00 2013 The Hen of the Baskervilles (Meg Langslow, #15)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
Another fun cozy mystery, peopled with absurd characters put into ridiculous situations.
]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied â€droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.â€� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Jenny 4 adult, borrowed, sci-fi
Because, the thing is, I don't like sci-fi. There are a couple novels I've enjoyed in the past, but as a whole, I could happily do without the genre. I assumed this would be a DNF and I'd write a snarky review about how much I detested it.

But I didn't. I actually really enjoyed it. Enjoyed it enough that I was willing to risk being late to something so I could finish it, and enough to immediately go and put the next one on hold at the library. I don't know if All Systems Red is an aberration or not, but I'm hopeful that all of Wells' Murderbot Diaries are this delightful.

Update, 7/6/24:
Did I finish the series and then go back and read the first book again? Yes, yes I did.
Am I using these books to avoid class prep for next year? Yes, yes I am.

Update, 1/21/25:
Pulled out All Systems Red to lend to a friend. She finished it, so it seemed the perfect time for to pick it up again. I don't have the time to read through the whole series again, which is a bummer, because I really enjoyed Murderbot's character arc. ]]> 4.11 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: adult, borrowed, sci-fi
review:
Someone recommended this book to me ages ago and I dutifully put it on hold at the library, but it lived in suspended-hold limbo for ages before I finally allowed it to work its way to the top of the list, and then it was buried in the library book basket for weeks. I only dug it out because it looked short enough to easily finish before the end of the month and make it into May's bookstack.

Because, the thing is, I don't like sci-fi. There are a couple novels I've enjoyed in the past, but as a whole, I could happily do without the genre. I assumed this would be a DNF and I'd write a snarky review about how much I detested it.

But I didn't. I actually really enjoyed it. Enjoyed it enough that I was willing to risk being late to something so I could finish it, and enough to immediately go and put the next one on hold at the library. I don't know if All Systems Red is an aberration or not, but I'm hopeful that all of Wells' Murderbot Diaries are this delightful.

Update, 7/6/24:
Did I finish the series and then go back and read the first book again? Yes, yes I did.
Am I using these books to avoid class prep for next year? Yes, yes I am.

Update, 1/21/25:
Pulled out All Systems Red to lend to a friend. She finished it, so it seemed the perfect time for to pick it up again. I don't have the time to read through the whole series again, which is a bummer, because I really enjoyed Murderbot's character arc.
]]> Od Magic 19823 320 Patricia A. McKillip 0441013341 Jenny 4
This time around, I was reading to see if it was appropriate for my middle schooler. (For any other parents who are considering it for their students who are on the younger side, there is one throwaway comment that hints at a couple cohabitating, and a princess whose father does not listen, so she takes matters into her own hands.) I think it's a book she'll fall in love with. ]]> 3.97 2005 Od Magic
author: Patricia A. McKillip
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: fantasy, adult, location-master-shelf7
review:
This was one of my favorites of McKillip's fantasies, when I first started working my way through her books. It's lovely and lyrical, peopled with interesting characters.

This time around, I was reading to see if it was appropriate for my middle schooler. (For any other parents who are considering it for their students who are on the younger side, there is one throwaway comment that hints at a couple cohabitating, and a princess whose father does not listen, so she takes matters into her own hands.) I think it's a book she'll fall in love with.
]]> <![CDATA[Some Like It Hawk (Meg Langslow, #14)]]> 13142993 The hilariously funny Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the award-winning New York Times bestselling series that has captured human and avian hearts alike. Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at “Caerphilly Days,� a festival inspired by her town’s sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail." The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated —except one. Phineas Throckmorton, the town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year.
Mr. Throckmorton's long siege has only been possible because of a pre-Civil War tunnel leading from the courthouse basement to a crawl space beneath the bandstand. The real reason for Caerphilly Days is to conceal the existence of the tunnel: the tourist crowds camouflage supply deliveries, and the ghastly screeching of the tunnel's rusty trap door is drowned out by as many noisy activities as the locals can arrange. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict Mr. Throckmorton—and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement. Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Unless the real killer can be found quickly, the town will have to reveal the secret of the tunnel—and the fact that they've been aiding and abetting the basement’s inhabitant. Meg soon deduces that the killer isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that would help the town reclaim its buildings--if the townspeople can find it before the lender destroys it in a gut-busting caper that will have giggles and guffaws coming as fast as a four-alarm fire.]]> 344 Donna Andrews 125000750X Jenny 3 3.99 2012 Some Like It Hawk (Meg Langslow, #14)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
This wasn't my favorite of Andrew's mysteries, but I still enjoyed listening to it, and totally called an important plot point, so I am patting myself on the back for my excellent deductive skills.
]]> <![CDATA[The Real Macaw (Meg Langslow, #13)]]> 9965550
Turns out that a financially-strapped local animal shelter has repealed its no-kill policy and, in an act of protest led in part by Meg’s own zoologist grandfather, the animals have been stolen and resettled around town. But now the volunteer who helped transport the shelter animals has turned up dead. The animal-rights activist’s untimely death seems very, very wrong� Was it the result of a lover’s quarrel? Or is something—or someone—more sinister at play? And, arguably as important, will Meg ever rid her home of these pesky houseguests and get back to the business of nesting with her newborns? Squawk.]]> 309 Donna Andrews 0312621205 Jenny 3 4.02 2011 The Real Macaw (Meg Langslow, #13)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, mystery
review:
I am running out of things to say about the Meg Langslow mysteries. They continue to be fun, humorous mysteries just perfect for the cold and gloom of January.
]]> <![CDATA[Stork Raving Mad (Meg Langslow, #12)]]> 7281525 New York Times bestselling series!

Meg is eight and a half months pregnant with twins when Michael asks if she wouldn’t mind another houseguest. One of his doctoral students is directing his new translation of a play by a minor Spanish playwright, and the playwright has agreed to come to town for the production.

SenorĚýMendoza turns out to be a drinker, a smoker, and an inveterate partygoer. Before long, Meg's kitchen is filled with the smells of Spanish food and the voices of all the wilder souls in both the drama and Spanish departments. Into this chaos arrive two prune-faced administrators, the dean of the English department and a man from the college president’s office, who say that the play must be canceled.

When the dean is found murdered, Meg's house becomes a crime scene, and the only way to restore peace is to help Chief Burke solve the murders---while rescuing the student's dissertation and Michael’s tenure---all before dashing off to the hospital to give birth to her twins!

The one and only Donna Andrews continues to surprise and delight in this next knee-slapping adventure featuring Meg Langslow and all the eccentric characters that make up her world.

Ěý]]> 309 Donna Andrews 0312621191 Jenny 3 4.04 2010 Stork Raving Mad (Meg Langslow, #12)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: adult, borrowed, audiobook, mystery
review:
Another delightful murder mystery. This time, Meg is 8.5 months pregnant with twins and a particularly difficult member of her husband's tenure committee ends up dead. The reoccurring members of the supporting cast (in particular Chief Burke) are becoming some of my favorites.
]]> <![CDATA[The Throme of the Erril of Sherill]]> 1035751
Damsen longs for the warm light beyond the castle walls. Brave Cnite Caerles seeks her hand, but her father the King has set a price: You want Damsen. I want the Throme of Sherill. Find it for me and I will give you anything you want. And so begins a quest that will wind from the Mirk Well of Morg to the borebel pits to the Floral Wold to the Dolorous House of a dead Dolerman and, finally, to the Western Wellsprings, where the answer to the Everything lies.]]> 165 Patricia A. McKillip 0441808395 Jenny 4
If you were to mix Jabberwocky with George MacDonald, you might get The Throme of the Erril of Sherill. It's a gorgeous little fairy tale, brimming with wonder and faithfulness and the determination to do the impossible.

McKillip is one of my must-buy authors anytime I stumble across her in the wild, and I'm so glad I found this one.

Update, 1/16/25:

A quick pre-read to check for any content considerations before giving this to my daughter, who has just discovered Patricia McKillip and is now desperate to devour all her books. I still absolutely adore The Throme of the Erril of Sherill. I'm not as enamored with The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath, the second story in the book, but that's okay, because the first one more than makes up for it. ]]> 3.75 1973 The Throme of the Erril of Sherill
author: Patricia A. McKillip
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: fantasy, location-master-shelf7
review:
This is the sort of book that would never be published today, and we're all the lesser for it.

If you were to mix Jabberwocky with George MacDonald, you might get The Throme of the Erril of Sherill. It's a gorgeous little fairy tale, brimming with wonder and faithfulness and the determination to do the impossible.

McKillip is one of my must-buy authors anytime I stumble across her in the wild, and I'm so glad I found this one.

Update, 1/16/25:

A quick pre-read to check for any content considerations before giving this to my daughter, who has just discovered Patricia McKillip and is now desperate to devour all her books. I still absolutely adore The Throme of the Erril of Sherill. I'm not as enamored with The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath, the second story in the book, but that's okay, because the first one more than makes up for it.
]]> <![CDATA[Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham, #3)]]> 206005312
My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

THE MAGICIAN

THE ASSISTANT

THE EXECUTIVE

THE HYPNOTIST

THE IDENTICAL TWIN

THE COUNSELLOR

THE TECH

My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?]]> 175 Benjamin Stevenson 0063412861 Jenny 2
I made it about 10% of the way through the audiobook before giving it up. It's a bit grittier than I'm currently in the mood for. Literary murder can be fun (and even funny!), but this one definitely falls outsize the "cozy" realm, which is what I need right now. It's a book I might try again in a future December. ]]> 3.70 2024 Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham, #3)
author: Benjamin Stevenson
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: did-not-finish, adult, audiobook, borrowed, christmas, mystery
review:
I heard good things about this one and it was popular enough that I didn't work my way to the top of the holds list at the library until January. I haven't read the previous two books in the series, but December always finds me in the mood for a good Christmas murder mystery, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I made it about 10% of the way through the audiobook before giving it up. It's a bit grittier than I'm currently in the mood for. Literary murder can be fun (and even funny!), but this one definitely falls outsize the "cozy" realm, which is what I need right now. It's a book I might try again in a future December.
]]> <![CDATA[Swan for the Money (Meg Langslow, #11)]]> 6090428
Meg Langslow’s eccentric parents have a new hobby: growing roses and entering them in highly competitive shows. Dad’s gardening skill and Mother’s gift for selecting and arranging the blossoms should make them an unbeatable team---and Meg is relieved they’ve taken up such a safe, gentle hobby. She even volunteers to help when the Caerphilly Garden Club sponsors its first annual rose show. But after a few hours of dealing with her parents� competitors, Meg is worried. Rose growers are so eccentric that they make Meg’s family seem almost normal, and so competitive that they will do nearly anything to take home the show’s grand prize---making them prime suspects when Meg discovers that someone is attempting to kill the wealthy woman on whose estate the competition is being held. Of course, the intended victim had other enemies---her treatment of her farm animals had aroused the interest of several animal welfare activists, including Meg’s zoologist grandfather. Meg tries to leave the detecting to the local police and focus on protecting her parents� chances to win the coveted Black Swan trophy, but she soon finds herself compelled to solve the crime before any more rose growers die.

±őłŮ’s Swan for the Money, two for the show, three to get ready... now go, Meg, go!]]> 306 Donna Andrews 0312377177 Jenny 3 adult, borrowed, mystery
While some of the other books in the series have been genuinely fun, I was less than impressed with Swan for the Money. The plot felt absurdly far-fetched, and Meg was lacking her charm and vivacity--eleven books in, and perhaps she's getting tired. That's a lot of absurd murders to solve while wrangling an extended family that would give even the most patient person a migraine.

Update, 1/16/25:

I don't remember reading Swan for the Money before, but apparently I did, and was less than impressed. I enjoyed it this go around, even if it isn't the strongest of the series. ]]> 4.00 2009 Swan for the Money (Meg Langslow, #11)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery
review:
I've been trying a variety of different books this week, hoping to find the one that breaks me out of my reading slump. I can now confirm that Andrews' Meg Langslow mysteries aren't going to do it. Alas.

While some of the other books in the series have been genuinely fun, I was less than impressed with Swan for the Money. The plot felt absurdly far-fetched, and Meg was lacking her charm and vivacity--eleven books in, and perhaps she's getting tired. That's a lot of absurd murders to solve while wrangling an extended family that would give even the most patient person a migraine.

Update, 1/16/25:

I don't remember reading Swan for the Money before, but apparently I did, and was less than impressed. I enjoyed it this go around, even if it isn't the strongest of the series.
]]> <![CDATA[Six Geese A-Slaying (Meg Langslow, #10)]]> 3222778
Meg has been volunteered to organize the parade, which is to proceed from her house to the local campus, where Santa will take up residence to hear the Christmas wishes of the town’s children. Of course, getting all the camels, pipers, leapers, and drummers in order is proving every bit as difficult as Meg feared it would be. Then her nephew Eric, wide-eyed and ashen-faced, whispers, “Meg, something’s wrong with Santa.�

The local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role, has been murdered. Now Meg and Chief Burke, who is playing one of the wise men, are faced with the two-fold mission of solving the murder and saving Christmas!

Readers can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery---this one filled with outrageous Christmas spirit…and mayhem.]]> 288 Donna Andrews 0312536100 Jenny 3
Update, 1/14/25:

I've decided to fully embrace the absurdity of this series and am declaring it delightful. ]]> 3.99 2008 Six Geese A-Slaying (Meg Langslow, #10)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: adult, borrowed, christmas, mystery, audiobook
review:
The books in this series often irritate me with their over-the-top absurdity, but this one was fun.

Update, 1/14/25:

I've decided to fully embrace the absurdity of this series and am declaring it delightful.
]]> <![CDATA[Cockatiels at Seven (Meg Langslow, #9)]]> 2379178

±őłŮ’s time for more outrageous and feathered funĚýin the award-winning, laugh-out-loud Meg Langslow series.

When her old friend Karen drops by with two-year-old son Timmy, Meg Langslow reluctantly agrees to babysit “just for a little while.� But when nightfall comes, the toddler is still in residence and Karen isn’t answering any phone calls. Meg decides she must find out what’s happening, so the next morning, with Timmy in tow, she retraces her friend’s footsteps---and begins to suspect that Karen’s disappearance is tied to at least one serious crime. Has Karen been killed or kidnapped? Is she on the run from the bad guys? Or is she one of the bad guys? The police don’t seem to care, so Meg once again plays sleuth---this time with a toddler as her sidekick.

As usual, Meg’s extended family adds to the complications in her life. What covert animal welfare project are Dad and the curmudgeonly zoologist Dr. Montgomery Blake working on---and will Meg have to make another late-night trip to bail them out of jail? Why does Meg’s brother keep disappearing---is he merely trying to avoid babysitting, or is he involved in something more mysterious? Will taking care of Timmy dampen newly married Meg and Michael’s enthusiasm for starting a family of their own? And are any of Meg’s relatives reliable enough to be trusted with a two-year-old---especially a two-year-old whose whereabouts might be of interest to some very dangerous people?

Donna Andrews once again proves her skill as one of the funniest, most entertaining mystery authors around.

]]> 304 Donna Andrews 0312377150 Jenny 3
A fun read, one I found more enjoyable than the last couple in the series.

Update, 1/13/25:

A delightful listen for a January sick day. ]]> 3.97 2008 Cockatiels at Seven (Meg Langslow, #9)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery, audiobook
review:
Andrews takes a few tiny steps away from her modus operandi in this book--Meg's quirky relatives might actually be more helpful than annoying, and we don't get to the dead body until halfway through the book. I think, overall, I liked the change of pace, though the mandated reporter in me was slightly freaking out over the lack of official involvement when there's an abandoned toddler.

A fun read, one I found more enjoyable than the last couple in the series.

Update, 1/13/25:

A delightful listen for a January sick day.
]]> <![CDATA[Maybe This Christmas (O'Neil Brothers, #3)]]> 20821528
This winter, ex-skiing champion, reformed heartbreaker and single dad Tyler O'Neil has only one mission—making sure his daughter, Jess, has the best Christmas ever. The fact that his best friend, Brenna, is also temporarily moving into his chalet at the overbooked Snow Crystal resort is a delicious distraction he's simply going to have to ignore. Theirs is the one relationship he's never ruined, and he's not about to start now.

Ski pro Brenna Daniels knows all about the perils of unrequited love—she's been in love with Tyler for years. But living with him is absolute torture…how can she concentrate on being his friend when he's sleeping in the room next door? Then when Tyler kisses Brenna, suddenly the relationship she's always dreamed of feels so close she could almost touch it. Could this be the Christmas her dreams of a happy-ever-after finally come true?]]> 384 Sarah Morgan 0373778988 Jenny 2 4.09 2014 Maybe This Christmas (O'Neil Brothers, #3)
author: Sarah Morgan
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: adult, borrowed, christmas, kindle, romance
review:
I wasn't impressed with this one. It borrows too many of the more obnoxious romance novel tropes.
]]> <![CDATA[Daindreth's Outlaw (Daindreth's Assassin, #2)]]> 60713918 She broke her curse, but can they break his?

Amira Brindonu has done the impossible—she broke her own curse and rescued the imperial archduke from Empress Vesha’s witchcraft. Saving the man she loves should have been a good thing, but by doing so, Amira has upset the delicate pact between the cythraul demons of the Dread Marches and the Erymayan Empire, with far-reaching consequences she and Daindreth can only begin to understand.

Now Amira and Daindreth are outlaws on the run. Their list of allies grows slim and their chances of outrunning Vesha’s agents even slimmer. They soon have no choice but to seek help from those who first cursed Daindreth’s father—the banished Istovari sorceresses.

Amira is willing to do anything to free Daindreth from his curse—even bargain with the women who once offered her as a human sacrifice—but it soon becomes clear that she will not be the only one to face the cost.

Every curse can be broken, but the price of breaking this one might be too high. Countless innocent lives across the empire are at stake, forcing Amira and Daindreth to decide just what—and who—they are willing to risk for a chance at freedom.

Daindreth’s Outlaw is the sequel to Daindreth’s Assassin, continuing the story of the assassin who falls for the archduke she was sent to kill. Beauty and the Beast meets The Witcher in this fantasy romance that is sure to delight fans of Sarah J. Maas, Kristin Cashore, and Leigh Bardugo.]]> 289 Elisabeth Wheatley Jenny 2 3.95 2022 Daindreth's Outlaw (Daindreth's Assassin, #2)
author: Elisabeth Wheatley
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: adult, audiobook, borrowed, fantasy, romance, did-not-finish
review:
I enjoyed the first of this series, enough to put the next one on hold at the library, at least. But I discovered a couple chapters into Daindreth's Outlaw that while I was vaguely interested in how the story ended, I didn't care enough to devote 10 hours to it. So I listened to the first four and last two chapters and called it good.
]]> The Christmas Sisters 37539037
In the snowy Highlands of Scotland, Suzanne McBride is dreaming of the perfect cozy Christmas. Her three adopted daughters are coming home for the holidays and she can’t wait to see them. But tensions are running high�

Workaholic Hannah knows she can’t avoid spending the holidays with her family two years in a row. But it’s not the weight of their expectations that’s panicking her—it’s the life-changing secret she’s hiding. Stay-at-home mom Beth is having a personal crisis. All she wants for Christmas is time to decide if she’s ready to return to work—seeing everyone was supposed to help her stress levels, not increase them! Posy isn’t sure she’s living her best life, but with her parents depending on her, making a change seems risky. But not as risky as falling for gorgeous new neighbor Luke�

As Suzanne’s dreams of the perfect McBride Christmas unravel, she must rely on the magic of the season to bring her daughters together. But will this new togetherness teach the sisters that their close-knit bond is strong enough to withstand anything—including a family Christmas?

Don't miss Sarah Morgan's next book, The Summer Seekers !]]> 407 Sarah Morgan 1488096481 Jenny 2
It's not a bad read. I appreciate Morgan's newer books for their more mature look at relationships and for her emphasis on relationships between sisters and friends as well as romance. But this one didn't quite work for me. ]]> 4.01 2018 The Christmas Sisters
author: Sarah Morgan
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: adult, borrowed, christmas, kindle, romance
review:
The Christmas Sisters is one of those frustratingly in-between books. It's the story of three sisters who are in very different places in life and are not quite estranged, coming together for Christmas. There's not enough romance to satisfy someone looking for a Christmas romance, but a spicy scene means I can't recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet bit of sisterly chick lit. There's enough family trauma to make it just too heavy for someone who needs a fluffy read, but not nearly heavy enough for someone who wants to read something serious and challenging.

It's not a bad read. I appreciate Morgan's newer books for their more mature look at relationships and for her emphasis on relationships between sisters and friends as well as romance. But this one didn't quite work for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Teddy and Booker T.: How Two American Icons Blazed a Path for Racial Equality]]> 112974903 The New York Times bestselling author of George Washington's Secret Six and Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates turns to two other heroes of the Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington.

When President Theodore Roosevelt welcomed the country’s most visible Black man, Booker T. Washington, into his circle of counselors in 1901, the two confronted a shocking and violent wave of racist outrage. In the previous decade, Jim Crow laws had legalized discrimination in the South, eroding social and economic gains for former slaves. Lynching was on the rise, and Black Americans faced new barriers to voting. Slavery had been abolished, but if newly freed citizens were condemned to lives as share croppers, how much improvement would their lives really see? In Teddy and Booker T., Brian Kilmeade tells the story of how two wildly different Americans faced the challenge of keeping America moving toward the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Theodore Roosevelt was white, born into incredible wealth and privilege in New York City. Booker T. Washington was Black, born on a plantation without even a last name. But both men embodied the rugged, pioneering spirit of America. Kilmeade takes us to San Juan Hill, where Roosevelt led his Rough Riders to a thrilling victory that set the stage for a legendary presidency, and to a small town in Alabama, where Washington founded the first university for African Americans, paving the way for the Civil Rights Movement. Both men abhorred the decadence and moral rot the nation had fallen into, believed that improvement through careful collaboration was possible, and trusted that the American ideals of individual liberty and hard work could propel the neediest toward success, if only those holding them back would step aside.

As he did in George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade has transformed this nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out how these two heroes, through their principles and courage, not only changed each other, but helped lay the groundwork for true equality.]]> 366 Brian Kilmeade 0593543823 Jenny 3 4.21 2023 Teddy and Booker T.: How Two American Icons Blazed a Path for Racial Equality
author: Brian Kilmeade
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: adult, biography, borrowed, teaching
review:
A solid biography of two fascinating and influential men, focusing on the arenas in which their lives overlapped.
]]> <![CDATA[Murder With Puffins (Meg Langslow, #2)]]> 615410 Winner of the St. Martin's Malice Domestic Award in 1997 for her first work Murder With Peacocks, Donna Andrews brings back her zany characters and disastrous events.

In an attempt to get away from her family, Meg and her boyfriend go to a tiny island off the coast of Maine. What could have been a romantic getaway slowly turns into disaster.

Once there, they are marooned by a hurricane and that is only the beginning of their problems. Meg and her boyfriend arrive at the house only to discover that Meg's parents and siblings, along with their spouses are all there. When a murder takes place, Meg realizes that she and her boyfriend can no longer sit by a cozy fireplace, but must instead tramp around the muddy island to keep try and clear her father who is the chief suspect. ]]> 308 Donna Andrews 0312978863 Jenny 3
It isn't terrible. But after such a strong start, I felt Andrews' didn't manage to live up to the standard she set. That said, I'll still be checking out the third book in the series to see if she recaptures any of the magic of the first book.

Update, 1/9/25:

While this is not my favorite of the Meg Langslow books, it was a great accompaniment to a sick day. ]]> 3.81 2000 Murder With Puffins (Meg Langslow, #2)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery, audiobook
review:
I found the first Meg Langslow mystery (Murder with Peacocks) absolutely delightful--funny and interesting and peopled with characters I was interested in. Unfortunately, Murder with Puffins doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. The characters felt flat and the mystery itself felt very anticlimactic.

It isn't terrible. But after such a strong start, I felt Andrews' didn't manage to live up to the standard she set. That said, I'll still be checking out the third book in the series to see if she recaptures any of the magic of the first book.

Update, 1/9/25:

While this is not my favorite of the Meg Langslow books, it was a great accompaniment to a sick day.
]]> <![CDATA[The Penguin Who Knew Too Much (Meg Langslow, #8)]]> 564125
Okay, maybe there are people in Antarctica with penguins in their basements, but in Virginia?Ěý Only Meg's dad could manage that one. A body down there---well, that's somewhat more likely.

It turns out that explaining the penguins' presence is easy---Meg's dad volunteered to take care of the birds until the future of the bankrupt local zoo could be determined. But identifying the body in the basement proves a harder task---could it be, as Meg fears, that of the vanished zoo owner?

In the small southern town of Caerphilly, rumors fly quickly, and all the other well-meaning citizens who have agreed to take in zoo animals are now worried that they might be stuck with their guests indefinitely. So when Meg's dad generously offers to help out anyone who can no longer care for their four-legged charges, a parade of wild creatures begins to make Meg and Michael's newly renovated house look more like Noah's ark.

Meg and Michael have been planning to elope in order to avoid the elaborate wedding their mothers have begun to organize---a plan that's threatened by both the murder investigation and the carnival of animals. The only way to set things right, Meg decides, is to identify both their uninvited visitor and the killer who put him in their basement.

The award-winning Donna Andrews has demonstrated her immense talent by creating and nurturing a series that continues to delight and surprise with each new book.]]> 262 Donna Andrews 0312329423 Jenny 3
But I have the next two books in the series checked out, so I'll at least get through them before deciding whether or not I'm giving up on her again.

Update, 1/8/24:

Working on another read (well, listen) through of this series. I'm much less critical this time around and am embracing the whimsy and absurdity. I don't know if this is because the audiobook experience is genuinely superior, or if being older, wiser, and more in need of humor has impacted how I'm interpreting them. Either way, they're just what this January needs. ]]> 3.98 2007 The Penguin Who Knew Too Much (Meg Langslow, #8)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/14
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: adult, borrowed, mystery, audiobook
review:
I can't decide how I feel about this book (and this series, in general). Andrews walks the line between delightfully funny and annoyingly over-the-top, and which side she comes down on seems to depend on the book, and it feels like overall, the series is trending more annoying than funny.

But I have the next two books in the series checked out, so I'll at least get through them before deciding whether or not I'm giving up on her again.

Update, 1/8/24:

Working on another read (well, listen) through of this series. I'm much less critical this time around and am embracing the whimsy and absurdity. I don't know if this is because the audiobook experience is genuinely superior, or if being older, wiser, and more in need of humor has impacted how I'm interpreting them. Either way, they're just what this January needs.
]]> <![CDATA[No Nest for the Wicket (Meg Langslow, #7)]]> 270848 272 Donna Andrews 0312329407 Jenny 3
Update, 1/8/25:

I ended up being much more entertained by this one my second time through the book. It's still absurd, but delightfully so. ]]> 4.00 2006 No Nest for the Wicket (Meg Langslow, #7)
author: Donna Andrews
name: Jenny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: mystery, borrowed, adult, audiobook
review:
While all of the plots in the Meg Langslow series strain credulity, this one seemed a bit more of a stretch than most. Not my favorite, but not enough to turn me off the series.

Update, 1/8/25:

I ended up being much more entertained by this one my second time through the book. It's still absurd, but delightfully so.
]]>