en-US Sun, 16 Feb 2025 19:11:43 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 25205422
Rachel, the beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation.

Over the course of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat, Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference and distance and if they've been running toward each other all along.

With honesty, wit, and clear-eyed observations about men and women, love and fate, and the truth about happy endings, Jennifer Weiner delivers two of her most memorable characters, and a love story you'll never forget.]]> 388 Jennifer Weiner 145161781X Joy 2
You can tell me it's a love story, but love knows how to make sacrifices for the beloved. This book ends right where they might actually make a real commitment and stick to it. ]]> 3.72 2015
author: Jennifer Weiner
name: Joy
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:
I was given a copy of this 8 or 9 years back and finally got around to it. This is the story of Rachel, the Jewish girl with the congenital heart defect, and Andy, the biracial boy with the absent father, neglectful mother, and love of running. It's sweet when they meet at age 8; it's cute when they meet again as teenagers. But then, for the narrative to keep its just-missed-it alternating timeskips - for there to *be* a story - something has to tug them apart, just as they are growing old enough to have autonomy. That something boils down to their own choices and preferences: Rachel is image-obsessed and shallow, Andy is single-minded and in need of therapy, and despite them saying how much they love each other, they don't *choose* each other. They don't seem to understand each other.

You can tell me it's a love story, but love knows how to make sacrifices for the beloved. This book ends right where they might actually make a real commitment and stick to it.
]]> 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 Joy 4
My high school self would have missed the point, saying that not a lot happens (besides a lot of slurs). In a sense, little does: George and Lennie find a place to work (on the run)(saving money)(working toward a place of their own, a dream Lennie keeps having George recite for him). The owner's son is spoiling for a fight, and his wife (unnamed throughout) is (so bored and neglected that she's) eager for interaction with anyone (any of these men)(Crooks tells us exactly how bad it is, when no one will interact with you, how the loneliness locks you in your head)(bitterer yet when considering the shadow of what might have been: being in the pitchers, the glory of stardom). Lennie does not know his own strength; he can crush Curley's hand, and he can break Curley's wife's neck, without even trying. In the end, George puts Lennie down like Candy's dog.

Folded in between the layers of the events, there's the pieces to extrapolate: what happened in Weed; why exactly George and Lennie stick together; how the various men ended up here and why they're unlikely to leave.

George and Lennie's vision ("to live on the fatta the land") of having their own land, where they'll sustain themselves and not ask anyone else for permission, draws Carlson and Crooks in: a terrestrial paradise of milk, honey, and rabbits. Shows or games when they want to. Labor on their own behalf, a harvest to show for their efforts.

What a tragedy it is: that all these people will act in a certain way, such that Curley's wife's death is all but inevitable, and no one will enter paradise.]]> 3.88 1937
author: John Steinbeck
name: Joy
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:
In high school, we picked books to analyze from a list, and I skipped this one because it was so short that I figured the plot would be lacking. 20 years later, I wanted to see what I'd missed.

My high school self would have missed the point, saying that not a lot happens (besides a lot of slurs). In a sense, little does: George and Lennie find a place to work (on the run)(saving money)(working toward a place of their own, a dream Lennie keeps having George recite for him). The owner's son is spoiling for a fight, and his wife (unnamed throughout) is (so bored and neglected that she's) eager for interaction with anyone (any of these men)(Crooks tells us exactly how bad it is, when no one will interact with you, how the loneliness locks you in your head)(bitterer yet when considering the shadow of what might have been: being in the pitchers, the glory of stardom). Lennie does not know his own strength; he can crush Curley's hand, and he can break Curley's wife's neck, without even trying. In the end, George puts Lennie down like Candy's dog.

Folded in between the layers of the events, there's the pieces to extrapolate: what happened in Weed; why exactly George and Lennie stick together; how the various men ended up here and why they're unlikely to leave.

George and Lennie's vision ("to live on the fatta the land") of having their own land, where they'll sustain themselves and not ask anyone else for permission, draws Carlson and Crooks in: a terrestrial paradise of milk, honey, and rabbits. Shows or games when they want to. Labor on their own behalf, a harvest to show for their efforts.

What a tragedy it is: that all these people will act in a certain way, such that Curley's wife's death is all but inevitable, and no one will enter paradise.
]]> 54110592 Anime master Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite childhood book, in English for the first time.

First published in 1937, Genzaburō Yoshino’s How Do You Live? has long been acknowledged in Japan as a crossover classic for young readers. Academy Award–winning animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle) has called it his favorite childhood book and announced plans to emerge from retirement to make it the basis of a final film.

How Do You Live? is narrated in two voices. The first belongs to Copper, fifteen, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend. In between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, his uncle writes to him in a journal, sharing knowledge and offering advice on life’s big questions as Copper begins to encounter them. Over the course of the story, Copper, like his namesake Copernicus, looks to the stars, and uses his discoveries about the heavens, earth, and human nature to answer the question of how he will live.

This first-ever English-language translation of a Japanese classic about finding one’s place in a world both infinitely large and unimaginably small is perfect for readers of philosophical fiction like The Alchemist and The Little Prince, as well as Miyazaki fans eager to understand one of his most important influences.]]> 288 Genzaburo Yoshino 1616209771 Joy 3
The translator's note afterward would have been much more helpful as a foreword: in the 1930s, Yoshino was writing an ethics textbook for children, and decided that a less-dry way to do that was to write a narrative.

As a story, it wanders a bit too much, leaving some focus to be desired; as a way to help children consider their lives, standing up for others, and thinking for themselves - taking into consideration the arts, philosophy, science, and history - it is more effective. Certainly I must concur that the story, such as it is, must be more digestible than a textbook per se.

Jun'ichi Honda, called Copper by his uncle (and subsequently, everyone else), spends some enjoyable afternoons with his friends; has many a conversation wherein his uncle shares historical information and related thoughts at some length (including a Lot about Napoleon. More Napoleon than I expected or wanted); and spends time deep in thought himself. A moment of betraying his friends, his subsequent regret, apology, and their forgiveness takes a good portion of the book.]]> 4.00 1937
author: Genzaburo Yoshino
name: Joy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:
NB: Gaiman's introduction asserts that Miyazaki based The Boy and the Heron on this book. It would be more accurate to say that the Japanese title of the film alludes to the title of this book. Do not go in expecting an abandoned tower, a Parakeet King, or warawara spirits.

The translator's note afterward would have been much more helpful as a foreword: in the 1930s, Yoshino was writing an ethics textbook for children, and decided that a less-dry way to do that was to write a narrative.

As a story, it wanders a bit too much, leaving some focus to be desired; as a way to help children consider their lives, standing up for others, and thinking for themselves - taking into consideration the arts, philosophy, science, and history - it is more effective. Certainly I must concur that the story, such as it is, must be more digestible than a textbook per se.

Jun'ichi Honda, called Copper by his uncle (and subsequently, everyone else), spends some enjoyable afternoons with his friends; has many a conversation wherein his uncle shares historical information and related thoughts at some length (including a Lot about Napoleon. More Napoleon than I expected or wanted); and spends time deep in thought himself. A moment of betraying his friends, his subsequent regret, apology, and their forgiveness takes a good portion of the book.
]]> 43352268 Discover the freedom of a beautiful home, personal purpose, and joyful inner confidence

Decluttering expert Tracy McCubbin offers revolutionary help to anyone who has repeatedly tried to break their clutter's mysterious hold. Her powerful answer lies in the 7 Emotional Clutter Blocks, unconscious obstacles that stood between thousands of her clients and financial freedom, healthy relationships, and positive outlooks.

Once a Clutter Block is revealed--and healed--true transformation of home and life is possible. Her empowering techniques and strategies help you:

-Recognize and overcome your Clutter Block(s) to liberate your home.
-Lighten and purge without the rigidity of the other methods.
-Use your home to attain life goals like health, wealth and love.

It's time to break through your Clutter Blocks and discover the lasting happiness waiting for you on the other side!]]> 288 Tracy McCubbin 1492675199 Joy 3
McCubbin's thesis, based on her experience helping others regain control of their stuff (thus, their lives), is that 7 main clutter blocks prevent people from parting with items they do not need, and that the guilt and shame of these mental blocks must be understood and addressed for progress to happen. The 7 are, broadly: trapped in the past; shopping as therapy/identity; avoidance; fantasy self; unworthiness; other people's stuff; and wasted potential. Sometimes two or more clutter blocks apply. Avoidance and Other People's Stuff are, I think, my besetting blocks; based on the past three weeks, the ultimate solution appears to be confronting items repeatedly until I perceive them losing staying power.

Because this book is from 2019, it has somewhat more up-to-date advice re: different organizations for getting stuff off one's hands than older volumes. How quickly that advice will become outdated remains to be seen.]]> 3.90 2019
author: Tracy McCubbin
name: Joy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:
Grain of salt: every decluttering book illustrates the law of diminishing returns for me, so this might be more useful to other people than it is to me.

McCubbin's thesis, based on her experience helping others regain control of their stuff (thus, their lives), is that 7 main clutter blocks prevent people from parting with items they do not need, and that the guilt and shame of these mental blocks must be understood and addressed for progress to happen. The 7 are, broadly: trapped in the past; shopping as therapy/identity; avoidance; fantasy self; unworthiness; other people's stuff; and wasted potential. Sometimes two or more clutter blocks apply. Avoidance and Other People's Stuff are, I think, my besetting blocks; based on the past three weeks, the ultimate solution appears to be confronting items repeatedly until I perceive them losing staying power.

Because this book is from 2019, it has somewhat more up-to-date advice re: different organizations for getting stuff off one's hands than older volumes. How quickly that advice will become outdated remains to be seen.
]]> 603262 470 Neal Stephenson 0553562614 Joy 4
More compelling than the sad vision of society or the large-scale gang violence is Stephenson managing to combine the concept of computer viruses with the linguistic divergence endemic since Babel. "Is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" "What's the difference?" Very intriguing! I love it and also hate it.

I remain a little surprised, after finishing the book, that Hiro and Y.T. opted to join forces in such a cooperative way, but then, the communities drawn (such as they are) did seem to be the one hope in the face of brainwashing cults and glass-spear-wielding Aleuts; witness the importance of love to a Rat Thing once known as Fido. I was even rooting for Uncle Enzo by the end. ]]> 4.09 1992
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Joy
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:
There are ways in which a cyberpunk book from 1992 can feel prophetic, and ways in which it feels generic, by virtue of inspiring other work (or widespread use of, say, "avatar" or "Metaverse").

More compelling than the sad vision of society or the large-scale gang violence is Stephenson managing to combine the concept of computer viruses with the linguistic divergence endemic since Babel. "Is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" "What's the difference?" Very intriguing! I love it and also hate it.

I remain a little surprised, after finishing the book, that Hiro and Y.T. opted to join forces in such a cooperative way, but then, the communities drawn (such as they are) did seem to be the one hope in the face of brainwashing cults and glass-spear-wielding Aleuts; witness the importance of love to a Rat Thing once known as Fido. I was even rooting for Uncle Enzo by the end.
]]> 39962497 80 Charles R. Swindoll 0785286616 Joy 0
Simplicity, silence, solitude, and surrender to God's will: always worthwhile pursuits. This was a good reminder to start out the year.]]> 4.67 1996
author: Charles R. Swindoll
name: Joy
average rating: 4.67
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:
A very quick little reread. This year I compared his quoted texts from the Amplified Bible to my ESV and NIV, and found a stark difference (ie: his analysis arises from the amplification rather than the text per se; makes a person want to read Hebrew/Greek just for a greater depth of understanding).

Simplicity, silence, solitude, and surrender to God's will: always worthwhile pursuits. This was a good reminder to start out the year.
]]> 6202568 Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.



In Elephants Cannot Dance! Piggie tries to teach Gerald some new moves. But will Gerald teach Piggie something even more important?]]> 64 Mo Willems 1423114108 Joy 0 4.32 2009
author: Mo Willems
name: Joy
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 113946 "The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason."

Dr. Seuss's small-hearted Grinch ranks right up there with Scrooge when it comes to the crankiest, scowling holiday grumps of all time.

For 53 years, the Grinch has lived in a cave on the side of a mountain, looming above the Whos in Whoville. The noisy holiday preparations and infernal singing of the happy little citizens below annoy him to no end. The Grinch decides this frivolous merriment must stop. His "wonderful, awful" idea is to don a Santa outfit, strap heavy antlers on his poor, quivering dog Max, construct a makeshift sleigh, head down to Whoville, and strip the chafingly cheerful Whos of their Yuletide glee once and for all.

Looking quite out of place and very disturbing in his makeshift Santa get-up, the Grinch slithers down chimneys with empty bags and stealing the Whos' presents, their food, even the logs from their humble Who-fires. He takes the ramshackle sleigh to Mt. Crumpit to dump it and waits to hear the sobs of the Whos when they wake up and discover the trappings of Christmas have disappeared. Imagine the Whos' dismay when they discover the evil-doings of Grinch in his anti-Santa guise. But what is that sound? It's not sobbing, but singing! Children simultaneously adore and fear this triumphant, twisted Seussian testimonial to the undaunted cheerfulness of the Whos, the transcendent nature of joy, and of course, the growth potential of a heart that's two sizes too small.

This holiday classic is perfect for reading aloud to your favorite little Whos.]]> 64 Dr. Seuss 0007173040 Joy 4 4.38 1957
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Joy
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
Charlie Brown Christmas has it beat out for The Real Meaning of Christmas, but: it was good to revisit this book anyway, and see the Whos rejoicing even without their decorations, presents, and roast beast.
]]> 50706476 A new book of poetry from internationally acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author Margaret Atwood

In���ٱ𲹰�����, Margaret Atwood’s first collection of poetry in over a decade, Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature and - zombies. Her new poetry is introspective and personal in tone, but wide-ranging in topic. In poem after poem, she casts her unique imagination and unyielding, observant eye over the landscape of a life carefully and intuitively lived.


While many are familiar with Margaret Atwood’s fiction—including her groundbreaking and bestselling novels��The Handmaid’s Tale,��The Testaments,��Oryx and Crake, among others—she has, from the beginning of her career, been one of our most significant contemporary poets. And she is one of the very few writers equally accomplished in fiction and poetry.����This collection is a stunning achievement that will be appreciated by fans of her novels and poetry readers alike.]]> 124 Margaret Atwood 006303249X Joy 4
Section V, shining lights on different facets of loss, is most worth (my) revisiting.]]> 3.75 2020
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Joy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
Some of these poems are simply fun! (The Aliens Arrive; Souvenirs) Some are gadflies; some a mirror.

Section V, shining lights on different facets of loss, is most worth (my) revisiting.
]]> 54915217
One night I held between my hands
your face. The moon fell upon it.

In 1916, Rainer Maria Rilke presented the writer Rudolf Kassner with a notebook, containing twenty-two poems, meticulously copied out in his own hand, which bore the title "Poems to Night." This cycle of poems which came about in an almost clandestine manner, are now thought to represent one of the key stages of this master poet's development.

Never before translated into English, this collection brings together all Rilke's significant night poems in one volume.]]> 96 Rainer Maria Rilke 1782275533 Joy 2
Possibly, given that these poems were written at the same time as the Duino Elegies, I need to be more familiar with those, as a different sort of facing-page understanding.

At any rate: either Stone's translation is weak, or these poems are weaker than Rilke's others.]]> 3.66 1916
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Joy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1916
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
Barrows and Macy spoiled me, I think, with Book of Hours; I approach Rilke needing that facing-page translation, just for a sense of how the original poem was shaped.

Possibly, given that these poems were written at the same time as the Duino Elegies, I need to be more familiar with those, as a different sort of facing-page understanding.

At any rate: either Stone's translation is weak, or these poems are weaker than Rilke's others.
]]> 20821239
Herons, sparrows, owls, and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry, and impermanence. Whether considering a bird’s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees, or the artworks of Franz Marc, Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.



At its heart, Blue Horses asks what it means to truly belong to this world, to live in it attuned to all its changes. Humorous, gentle, and always honest, Oliver is a visionary of the natural world.]]> 79 Mary Oliver 1594204799 Joy 4 4.28 2014
author: Mary Oliver
name: Joy
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 23492428
There are many things that Rory would like to forget about his childhood growing up in rural Arkansas. He'd like to forget his alcoholic father or absent mother. He'd like to forget about his ex-girlfriend, now married to his ex-best friend. Sometimes, he'd even like to forget about his older brother Joe. Joe saw the world differently than other people--sometimes in beautiful ways, seeing what he always called "the Pretty Things." But sometimes the Pretty Things turned ugly and bad things happened. Those are the things Rory wishes he could forget most of all.

When his car breaks down on the side of the road just out of town, a young girl named Sylvia appears from the corn fields. Sylvia is a Valkyrie sent by the Norse god Odin to deliver Rory to Valhalla. Because today is the day he's going to die. Together, Rory and Sylvia walk back through the memories of Rory's childhood, this time seeing them the way Joe saw them. Rory must face the Pretty Things, the Ugly Things, and all the real life in between before it's time to say goodbye.]]> 96 Adam Smith 1608866920 Joy 3
The ambiguities involved in the story (what, specifically, happened to Pearl; Joe's role throughout) don't trouble me overmuch, but they don't compel me either.]]> 3.66 2015
author: Adam Smith
name: Joy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
The mix of Norse ideas, southern backdrop, and visions (sometimes 'pretty,' sometimes horrible, generally not at all Norse- or Southern-looking) makes for a more interesting mix than the southern backdrop would on its own.

The ambiguities involved in the story (what, specifically, happened to Pearl; Joe's role throughout) don't trouble me overmuch, but they don't compel me either.
]]> 42642026 But they were very different.

Before C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, he was a young boy named Jack who spent his days dreaming up stories of other worlds filled with knights, castles, and talking animals.

His brother, Warnie, spent his days imagining worlds filled with trains, boats, and technology.

One rainy day, they found a wardrobe in a little room next to the attic, and they wondered, What if the wardrobe had no end?]]> 39 Caroline McAlister 1626726582 Joy 4 4.15 2019
author: Caroline McAlister
name: Joy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
What a sweet book. The end notes show what care went into its composition and, most of all, its illustration. It's very gratifying to have visited the Wade Center and recognize how faithfully the wardrobe has been depicted.
]]> 126675 397 Dorothy L. Sayers 0151658978 Joy 4
A year with its own instances of grief means that I feel much greater empathy for Hilary (both her parents gone! at fifteen!! The poor girl) and more interest in the use of the bells to communicate the passing of people in the parish to a large countryside.

Perhaps by the time I re-read it again, I'll be better able to follow the exact effects and flooding in the wake of the Cut, and have listened to a Treble Bob Major at least once.]]> 4.02 1934
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Joy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1934
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
I'm not exactly sure how long it's been since I first read this book, but re-reading was well worth it: I have much more appreciation this time around for the way she's drawn the character of Venables, the very concept of changeringing, the confusion over the corpse in the Thorpe grave.

A year with its own instances of grief means that I feel much greater empathy for Hilary (both her parents gone! at fifteen!! The poor girl) and more interest in the use of the bells to communicate the passing of people in the parish to a large countryside.

Perhaps by the time I re-read it again, I'll be better able to follow the exact effects and flooding in the wake of the Cut, and have listened to a Treble Bob Major at least once.
]]> 36477795
In this powerful and imaginative debut poetry collection, Fatimah Asghar nakedly captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in America by braiding together personal and marginalized people's histories. After being orphaned as a young girl, Asghar grapples with coming-of-age as a woman without the guidance of a mother, questions of sexuality and race, and navigating a world that put a target on her back. Asghar's poems at once bear anguish, joy, vulnerability, and compassion, while exploring the many facets of violence: how it persists within us, how it is inherited across generations, and how it manifests in our relationships with friends and family, and in our own understanding of identity. Using experimental forms and a mix of lyrical and brash language, Asghar confronts her own understanding of identity and place and belonging.]]> 106 Fatimah Asghar 052550978X Joy 3
On the other hand: the nature of poetry being what it is, I was left wishing for more notes; did I miss the overarching history, or Asghar's personal history, or a Punjab term? Probably all three, but the heaviness and grief involved keep me from wanting to flip back and reread more deeply.]]> 4.24 2018
author: Fatimah Asghar
name: Joy
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
On one hand: this collection is valuable for learning the shape of a very different life, for appreciating overlaps of identity I wasn't aware of before, for highlighting how safe, how calm my life has been in comparison.

On the other hand: the nature of poetry being what it is, I was left wishing for more notes; did I miss the overarching history, or Asghar's personal history, or a Punjab term? Probably all three, but the heaviness and grief involved keep me from wanting to flip back and reread more deeply.
]]> 25469 249 Robert C. O'Brien 0590417088 Joy 4
It's a cozy little story: Mrs. Frisby, mouse widow, needs to move her family before a farmer's plow destroys their home; she consults such potentially-threatening characters as a crow, an owl, and rats; the rats remember her late husband with gratitude, tell her their history, and come to her aid; she, in turn, gives them warning of impending danger to their own home. A balanced and sweet story, though one could easily end in the weeds discussing whether increased intelligence necessarily begets a sense of morality.]]> 4.21 1971
author: Robert C. O'Brien
name: Joy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
This is one of those books that some children read at age 8-10, but which I read just now, because a co-worker brought it up for some reason (possibly because my name brought the NIMH doctor to mind).

It's a cozy little story: Mrs. Frisby, mouse widow, needs to move her family before a farmer's plow destroys their home; she consults such potentially-threatening characters as a crow, an owl, and rats; the rats remember her late husband with gratitude, tell her their history, and come to her aid; she, in turn, gives them warning of impending danger to their own home. A balanced and sweet story, though one could easily end in the weeds discussing whether increased intelligence necessarily begets a sense of morality.
]]> 123250777
It’s the most wonderful time of the year—for driving a sleigh! ’Tis also the season—for driving a sleigh! Oh, and joy to the—driving a sleigh! The Pigeon has made a list and checked it once. Can his holiday dream come true? Or will The Pigeon be left out in the cold?

You’ll share some HO-HO-HOs and HA-HA-HAs finding out in three-time Caldecott Honoree Mo Willems�� ninth Pigeon book, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh!]]> 40 Mo Willems 1454952776 Joy 4 4.25 2023
author: Mo Willems
name: Joy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
An excellent addition to the Pigeon canon.
]]> 499225 48 Marie Hall Ets 0140544429 Joy 4 3.72 1959
author: Marie Hall Ets
name: Joy
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
This sweet little story seems a kind of time capsule; it makes me wonder what posadas look like today, if anyone still does them. Ceci, her gabina, and her star are quite sweet.
]]> 50746359 A book of personal, ecological, and political reckoning from the internationally renowned poet named "among the modern masters" (The Washington Post).

Ledger's pages hold the most important and masterly work yet by Jane Hirshfield, one of our most celebrated contemporary poets. From the already much-quoted opening lines of despair and defiance ("Let them not say: we did not see it. / We saw"), Hirshfield's poems inscribe a registry, both personal and communal, of our present-day predicaments. They call us to deepened dimensions of thought, feeling, and action. They summon our responsibility to sustain one another and the earth while pondering, acutely and tenderly, the crises of refugees, justice, and climate. They consider "the minimum mass for a whale, for a language, an ice cap," recognize the intimacies of connection, and meditate upon doubt and contentment, a library book with previously dog-eared corners, the hunger for surprise, and the debt we owe this world's continuing beauty. Hirshfield's signature alloy of fact and imagination, clarity and mystery, inquiry, observation, and embodied emotion, has created a book of indispensable poems, tuned toward issues of consequence to all who share this world's current and future fate.]]> 128 Jane Hirshfield 0525657800 Joy 3 4.02 2020
author: Jane Hirshfield
name: Joy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 16333
When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she's looking for at Bertram's: traditional décor and impeccable service. But she senses an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer. Not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric hotel guest makes his way to the airport one day late!

Librarian's note: this entry is for the novel, "At Bertram's Hotel." Collections and other Miss Marple stories are located elsewhere on ŷ������. The series includes 12 novels and 20 short stories. Entries for the short stories can be found by searching ŷ������ for: "a Miss Marple Short Story."]]> 223 Agatha Christie Joy 3
Bess Sedgwick's unwitting bigamy is an interesting little twist, but the hotel's role outshines her and Elvira Blake's desire to understand her financial prospects.]]> 3.72 1965
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1965
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/25
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves:
review:
That felt short, and mildly confused. In this instance, I think the premise (a hotel designed to give wealthy Americans and nostalgic Britons a taste of yesteryear, covering up/funded by Illicit Goings-On, which involve an amount of acting/doppelgangers) is so well-conceived that it should have a greater payoff in terms of the unraveling done to uncover the crimes supposedly orchestrated there.

Bess Sedgwick's unwitting bigamy is an interesting little twist, but the hotel's role outshines her and Elvira Blake's desire to understand her financial prospects.
]]> 16312
From the
What reason would an amiable dentist like Dr. Morely have for committing suicide? He didn't have emotional difficulties, money problems, or love trouble. What he did have was an appointment with Hercule Poirot, who is not persuaded by the suicide story and has therefore taken it upon himself to question the good doctor's patients, partners, and friends. All he's come up with is the numbing fear that Dr. Morely wasn't an unlikely victim at all. Nor the first.]]> 0 Agatha Christie 1572703857 Joy 3 3.79 1940
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1940
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 61398927
Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. There are poems that interrogate the ways our lives are shaped by both personal lineages and historical institutions. There are poems that revel in the wonder of discovering the world anew through the eyes of your children, as they discover it for the first time. There are poems that meditate on what it means to raise a family in a world filled with constant social and political tumult.��Above Ground��wrestles with how we hold wonder and despair in the same hands, how we carry intimate moments of joy and a collective sense of mourning in the same body. Smith’s lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not only through the early years of his children’s lives, but through the changing world in which they are growing up—through the changing world of which we are all a part.

Above Ground�� is a breathtaking collection that follows Smith's first award-winning book of poetry,�� Counting Descent .]]> 128 Clint Smith 0316543039 Joy 3
His face became a lake
after an oil spill
silent empty waiting
for someone to clean up the mess
and see if anything beneath the surface
had survived

The collection as a whole, however, resonates more than any particular poem in it; Smith's juxtaposition of fatherhood observations and quotidian experiences with memories of Katrina, with news reports, with George Floyd, with estimates that his wife can never have children (obviously since proved false) heightens the joys and causes even the prose to strike a blow.]]> 4.56 2023
author: Clint Smith
name: Joy
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves:
review:
Insofar as I consider a poem to be a way to convey the otherwise unconveyable, I did not find the individual poems tremendously effective; they were prose-arranged-in-rows. The main exception was in "The First Time I Saw My Grandfather Cry":

His face became a lake
after an oil spill
silent empty waiting
for someone to clean up the mess
and see if anything beneath the surface
had survived

The collection as a whole, however, resonates more than any particular poem in it; Smith's juxtaposition of fatherhood observations and quotidian experiences with memories of Katrina, with news reports, with George Floyd, with estimates that his wife can never have children (obviously since proved false) heightens the joys and causes even the prose to strike a blow.
]]> 140360
Unfortunately, thirteen guests arrived at the actor's house, most unlucky. One of them was a vicar. It was to be a particularly unlucky evening for the mild-mannered Reverend Stephen Babbington, who choked on his cocktail, went into convulsions and died. But when his martini glass was sent for chemical analysis, there was no trace of poison -- just as Hercule Poirot, also in attendance, had predicted. Even more troubling for the great detective, there was absolutely no motive!

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 ŷ������.]]> 336 Agatha Christie 0425205975 Joy 3 3.84 1934
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1934
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
Must admit that my money was on Miss Milray rather than her employer, though having someone Too Old For The Girl surely should have been suggestive. What a weak motive for killing one's friend, though.
]]> 388018 8 Agatha Christie 1572703938 Joy 3
Geraldine Brown, the ten-year-old with a broken leg and a pair of fine opera glasses, is far and away the most delightful character here - far more than a blind teacher passing national secrets across the Iron Curtain.]]> 3.75 1963
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1963
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
Reasonably satisfying. This is another case where the nature of writing (submitting handwritten manuscripts to a typing bureau, and what may come of that for the typists) comes to the fore plotwise.

Geraldine Brown, the ten-year-old with a broken leg and a pair of fine opera glasses, is far and away the most delightful character here - far more than a blind teacher passing national secrets across the Iron Curtain.
]]> 16332 365 Agatha Christie 0007121105 Joy 3 3.68 1966
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
I am getting better at spotting the person-who-left-England-and-definitely-came-back-a-different-person, but still did not expect art fraud and psychotropic medications to play so heavily.
]]> 42818638 250 David Zahl 1506449433 Joy 4
"What to do about it" is a bit of a misnomer title-wise; insofar as the only escape from Law is Gospel, the question is not what we do about it but what God has already done about it.

Zahl notes, near the end, that any given facet of life could be examined as a potential basis for secular religion, as the pursuit of "enoughness" can follow any number of tracks; once he saw it in one sphere, he saw it all over.

I admit to being a bit disappointed with the conclusion - not because grace is a disappointment, but because I thought it could have used a bit more discussion of how a grace-full culture might look or manifest. ]]> 4.23
author: David Zahl
name: Joy
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/15
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves:
review:
An interesting little book, with a premise that an agnostic acquaintance found intriguing.

"What to do about it" is a bit of a misnomer title-wise; insofar as the only escape from Law is Gospel, the question is not what we do about it but what God has already done about it.

Zahl notes, near the end, that any given facet of life could be examined as a potential basis for secular religion, as the pursuit of "enoughness" can follow any number of tracks; once he saw it in one sphere, he saw it all over.

I admit to being a bit disappointed with the conclusion - not because grace is a disappointment, but because I thought it could have used a bit more discussion of how a grace-full culture might look or manifest.
]]> 52584411 A collection of all-new poetry from former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins

Billy Collins's thirteenth collection, and first in four years, contains more than fifty new poems that showcase the playfulness, wit, and wisdom that have made him one of our most celebrated and widely read poets. This collection covers many themes and moods, including Collins's insights on the wonders of life and thrill of mortality.]]> 111 Billy Collins 0399589759 Joy 3 4.06 2020
author: Billy Collins
name: Joy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves:
review:
"Me First," "The Symphony Orchestra of San Miguel de Allende," and "Architecture at 3:30 AM" caught me most strongly.
]]> 865957 48 Madeleine L'Engle 158717040X Joy 4 3.94 2001
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Joy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves:
review:
A sweet little narrative, charmingly illustrated, as told by Touché, the L'engle family dog.
]]> 1258256 247 Ray Bradbury 1596061367 Joy 0 to-read 3.82 1953
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Joy
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1953
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 19033611 Organizing Solutions for People with ADD, 2nd Edition��outlines new organizing strategies that will be of value to anyone who wants to improve their organizational��skills. This revised and updated version also includes tips and techniques for keeping your latest technologies in order and for staying green and recycling with ease.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)��are prevalent in society today, afflicting about 4.4% of the adult population—over 13 million Americans. Four out of every five adults do not even know they have ADD.

The chapters, organized by the type of room or task,��consist of practical organizing solutions for people living with ADD:
At work: prioritizing, time management, and organizing documents
At home: paying bills on time, decluttering your house, scheduling and keeping appointments
With kids: driving them to various activities, grocery shopping and meals, laundry, babysitters, organizing drawers and closets
And you: organizing time for your social life, gym, and various other hobbies and activities

Color photographs that capture the short attention span of the reader are featured throughout, as well as sidebars and testimonials from adults with ADD, providing numerous organizational tips, such as the importance of dividing time into minutes or moments, task completion, how to avoid procrastination, asking for help, and how not to be a pack rat.

Get your life in order with this witty and sympathetic guide to organization.��]]> 353 Susan C. Pinsky Joy 4
Like Kondo, this books assumes that most people keep paper for utility, not out of sentiment, which means that it doesn't speak to my most abiding struggle any more than Life-Changing Magic does.

This book seems most useful for those who are related to or in a relationship with someone with ADHD, as a means of illuminating what invisible difficulties might exist.]]> 3.77 2006
author: Susan C. Pinsky
name: Joy
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:
A straightforward guide, laid out efficiently as possible. Efficiency is Pinsky's watchword, such that her recommendations are for a kind of minimalism without ever labeling it as such.

Like Kondo, this books assumes that most people keep paper for utility, not out of sentiment, which means that it doesn't speak to my most abiding struggle any more than Life-Changing Magic does.

This book seems most useful for those who are related to or in a relationship with someone with ADHD, as a means of illuminating what invisible difficulties might exist.
]]> 1949253 Vernon Deyre is a sensitive and brilliant musician, even a genius. But there is a high price to be paid for his talent, especially by his family and the two women in his life. His sheltered childhood in the home he loves has not prepared Vernon for the harsh reality of his adult years, and in order to write the great masterpiece of his life, he has to make a crucial decision with no time left to count the cost��

]]> 528 Mary Westmacott Joy 4
Briefly(ish): Vernon Dayre, in childhood, loves his childhood home; hates music; loves his cousin Jo; and befriends Sebastian, the Jewish boy next door. Growing older, he's forced by Jo to attend the symphony in her stead, which gives him to understand that he only hates parlor songs as a pale imitation of orchestral music, and sets him wondering what feats of sound might be possible.

As suddenly as music smites him, so does infatuation: he falls in love with Nell, the neighbor girl he'd once mocked/ignored, and thus tries to reconcile keeping Abbots Puissant (heavily mortgaged, in need of upkeep, impossible to afford), winning Nell (whose family has debts to pay, and who is sick of the pinch of near-poverty), and feeding his musical genius (which Sebastian, Jo, Jane, and others of Sebastian's acquaintance try to support).

Nell, overcome with love, agrees to marry him, and they live happily enough until war descends and he must leave for the continent. She works at a hospital while he's gone, exchanging letters, until news comes that Vernon's been killed. After grieving some while, she remarries, and Abbots Puissant ends up in the hands of George Chetwynd.

...okay, truncating this summary in favor of the one here:

As George Simmers points out, this book alternates wildly between lifelike detail, convincing-enough conversations, and trope-heavy melodrama. Vernon's eventual conclusions about who/what he really wants in the wake of the shipwreck was such a startling ending that I just flipped back to the start to see the reception of The Giant. ]]> 4.00 1930
author: Mary Westmacott
name: Joy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1930
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:
What a curious book. I went in expecting Christie as usual, but as it's one of her earlier books, I suppose she hadn't settled in for poisonings etc. just yet. The heights of the prose and the sketches of personalities (especially Vernon's father) impressed me, though later love triangles and characters mooning about...did not.

Briefly(ish): Vernon Dayre, in childhood, loves his childhood home; hates music; loves his cousin Jo; and befriends Sebastian, the Jewish boy next door. Growing older, he's forced by Jo to attend the symphony in her stead, which gives him to understand that he only hates parlor songs as a pale imitation of orchestral music, and sets him wondering what feats of sound might be possible.

As suddenly as music smites him, so does infatuation: he falls in love with Nell, the neighbor girl he'd once mocked/ignored, and thus tries to reconcile keeping Abbots Puissant (heavily mortgaged, in need of upkeep, impossible to afford), winning Nell (whose family has debts to pay, and who is sick of the pinch of near-poverty), and feeding his musical genius (which Sebastian, Jo, Jane, and others of Sebastian's acquaintance try to support).

Nell, overcome with love, agrees to marry him, and they live happily enough until war descends and he must leave for the continent. She works at a hospital while he's gone, exchanging letters, until news comes that Vernon's been killed. After grieving some while, she remarries, and Abbots Puissant ends up in the hands of George Chetwynd.

...okay, truncating this summary in favor of the one here:

As George Simmers points out, this book alternates wildly between lifelike detail, convincing-enough conversations, and trope-heavy melodrama. Vernon's eventual conclusions about who/what he really wants in the wake of the shipwreck was such a startling ending that I just flipped back to the start to see the reception of The Giant.
]]> 24780 190 Lloyd Alexander 0805080481 Joy 5 to-read 3.98 1964
author: Lloyd Alexander
name: Joy
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1964
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:
A most charming read, which probably would have shaped me differently had I read it in youth. None of the prose is particularly difficult, and yet there's a graceful elegance throughout - right alongside Eilonwy taking jabs at Taran and Fflewddur breaking all his strings and Gurgi longing for crunchings and munchings.
]]> 13509126 This an alternate cover for 0802812198 / 9780802812193

A battle over the most sacred object in Christendom...

In the tiny English village of Fardles, a practitioner of black magic has located the Holy Graal in the sacristy of the local Anglican church. Intent on possessing it so as to amplify his own nefarious powers, he tries to trick its guardian into donating it. When that fails, he resorts to theft.

Thus begins a tug-of-war between powers infernal and celestial, between a magician who would use the Sacred as an instrument of his own will, and an Archdeacon who seeks to protect and preserve what is sacramental and holy.

Along the way, Williams reveals the tug-of-war within us all �� the interplay of desire and Desire, the polarity of possession and sacrifice...and the significant gray areas in between.

War in Heaven is the first novel Williams published, and also the most comic. It is everything you’ve come to expect from a Williams novel �� suspense, supernatural danger, and a mysticism so real, good, and terrible that nothing can stand against it.]]> 256 Charles Williams Joy 0 to-read 3.85
author: Charles Williams
name: Joy
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35926728 The Lake Michigan Mermaid is a new tale that feels familiar. The breeze off the lake, the sand underfoot, the supreme sadness of being young and not in control-these sensations come rushing back page-by-page, bringing to life an ancient myth of coming of age in a troubled world. Freed from the minds of Linda Nemec Foster and Anne-Marie Oomen, the Lake Michigan mermaid serves as a voice of reason for when we're caught in the riptide.

This is a gripping tale in poems of a young girl's desperate search for guidance in a world turned upside down by family and economic upheaval. Raised in a ramshackle cottage on the shores of Lake Michigan, Lykretia takes refuge in her beloved lake in the face of her grandmother's illness and her mother's eager attempts to sell their home following her recent divorce. One day Lykretia spots a creature in the water, something beautiful and inexplicable. Is it the mythical Lake Michigan mermaid, or an embodiment of the stories her grandmother told as dementia ravaged her mind? Thus begins a telepathic conversation between a lost young girl and Phyliadellacia, the mermaid who saves her in more ways than one.

Accompanied by haunting illustrations The Lake Michigan Mermaid offers a tender tale of friendship, redemption, and the life-giving power of water. As it explores family relationships and generational bonds, this book is an unforgettable experience that aims to connect readers of all ages.]]> 64 Anne-Marie Oomen 0814342205 Joy 4 3.73
author: Anne-Marie Oomen
name: Joy
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves:
review:
I got this from the library thinking it would be a winsome little story for children. Not so much! Between Lyk's longing for the water, the drunken absent father, Gram's nascent dementia, and the For Sale sign posted (twice, despite Lyk's protests and interference), this winds up an antiphonal tale for teenagers at least. Beautiful watercolors set the story.
]]> 1223119
If he were ordinary elephant color, the others might stop laughing. That would make Elmer feel better, wouldn't it? David McKee's comical fable about everyone’s favorite patchwork elephant teaches readers to be themselves and celebrates the power of laughter.]]> 32 David McKee 0688091717 Joy 3 4.24 1968
author: David McKee
name: Joy
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1968
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves:
review:
I have questions about this elephant's natural coloration, but hey, at least there are elephant-colored berries for his use when desired. A charming little book.
]]> 16303 384 Agatha Christie 0007121024 Joy 4
also: feeling pretty cool about calling the Trojan Horse situation.]]> 3.80 1946
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1946
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves:
review:
Listening to this right after The Big Four highlighted how well Christie can describe places, can capture people, can call up atmosphere when she wishes.

also: feeling pretty cool about calling the Trojan Horse situation.
]]> 16316
Librarian's note #1: the concept of The Big Four first appeared as weekly short stories very loosely connected in 'The Sketch' in 1924. The 12 original stories were: 1) The Unexpected Guest, 2) The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow, 3) The Lady on the Stairs, 4) The Radium Thieves, 5) In the House of the Enemy, 6) The Yellow Jasmine Mystery, 7) The Chess Problem, 8) The Baited Trap, 9) The Adventure of the Peroxide Blond, 10) The Terrible Catastrophe, 11) The Dying Chinaman, and 12) The Crag in the Dolomites. For her 1927 novel, Christie enhanced the linkages between the stories and shuffled them somewhat.

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 ŷ������.]]> 272 Agatha Christie 0007120818 Joy 2 3.54 1927
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1927
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves:
review:
This had all the hallmarks of a Poirot story + a Reichenbach situation, with none of the soul.
]]> 16335
When the Blue Train stops, the jewel is missing, and the woman is found dead in her compartment. It's the perfect mystery, filled with passion, greed, deceit, and confusion.

Is Hercule Poirot the perfect detective to solve it?]]> 317 Agatha Christie 1579126952 Joy 3
Loved this line from the very end: "Trust the train, mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it."]]> 3.84 1928
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1928
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/29
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves:
review:
I have very nearly listened to enough of these to suspect the right people just before Poirot announces their guilt, but not enough to recall how commonplace it was for mysteries of the time to rely on everyone trusting that people are who they say they are.

Loved this line from the very end: "Trust the train, mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it."
]]> 182484307 An extraordinary, gloriously uplifting novel about the power of friendship and the puzzling ties that bind us

Clayton Stumper might be twenty-six years old, but he dresses like your grandpa and drinks sherry like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton's life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. As Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve—and it's a secret that has the potential to change everything.]]> 362 Samuel Burr 0593470095 Joy 2
Unfortunately, the characterization was flat. I got the impression that Bur imagined more nuance and tension in the various relationships (Pippa and Nancy, Nancy and Jonty, Angel and everyone, Clayton and everyone, Clayton and Neil) than his writing actually conveyed. Likewise, I got the impression that he made the puzzles easy enough so that they wouldn't really stump the readers, such that they, too, offered little tension between the hidden and the obvious.]]> 3.79 2024
author: Samuel Burr
name: Joy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves:
review:
On one hand: the concept of a group of people who create different kinds of puzzles, raising a child together, then eventually revealing his past to him via puzzle, is fascinating. The fact that the narrative alternates between Pippa's life and Clayton's allows for some balance of action and exposition. The inclusion of the puzzles was mildly intriguing.

Unfortunately, the characterization was flat. I got the impression that Bur imagined more nuance and tension in the various relationships (Pippa and Nancy, Nancy and Jonty, Angel and everyone, Clayton and everyone, Clayton and Neil) than his writing actually conveyed. Likewise, I got the impression that he made the puzzles easy enough so that they wouldn't really stump the readers, such that they, too, offered little tension between the hidden and the obvious.
]]> 35297297 A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life.

In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called ��ö����ä��Ծ��Բ�, ��ö meaning “death�� and ����ä��Ծ��Բ� meaning “cleaning.�� This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming.

Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.]]> 117 Margareta Magnusson 1501173243 Joy 2 3.39 2017
author: Margareta Magnusson
name: Joy
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/09
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves:
review:
As an alumna of Francine Jay, Dana Kay White, and Marie Kondo, and as someone who wishes her parents had death cleaned before her father passed and her mother's dementia progressed...this book is, I suppose, Square Zero: the place where you start when you've never considered getting rid of anything in your life. Go to Jay, White, or Kondo for a greater sense of urgency and encouragement, or this editorial by Ann Patchett:
]]> 38709
It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.]]> 272 Louis Sachar 0439244196 Joy 5
What a story. Mainly it's horrifying! (Poor Sam. Poor Kate. Poor children trapped in this hell.) But that makes the eucatastrophe all the more satisfying, particularly as it's so economical; each strand is woven neatly back, none left hanging: Hector's great-great-great-grandmother. The mountain. The refuge on God's thumb. Onion blood. Teaching Zero to read. Burning of the files. The shoe theft that allowed for Stanley's presence at Green Lake from the outset. Sploosh. ]]> 4.01 1998
author: Louis Sachar
name: Joy
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/21
date added: 2024/05/21
shelves:
review:
I missed getting this from the Scholastic Book Fair and reading it in ~6th grade like everyone else, so the only alternative is to read it now (so as to revel in Dulé Hill saying "I can fix that," let's all be real).

What a story. Mainly it's horrifying! (Poor Sam. Poor Kate. Poor children trapped in this hell.) But that makes the eucatastrophe all the more satisfying, particularly as it's so economical; each strand is woven neatly back, none left hanging: Hector's great-great-great-grandmother. The mountain. The refuge on God's thumb. Onion blood. Teaching Zero to read. Burning of the files. The shoe theft that allowed for Stanley's presence at Green Lake from the outset. Sploosh.
]]> 40796097
To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her closest confidant, her diary, the only outlet she has for her darkest suspicions and fears about the case. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary: "Hallo, Clare. You don’t know me."

Clare becomes more certain than ever: “The Stranger�� has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?]]> 338 Elly Griffiths 1328577856 Joy 3
These shifting narratives also alternate with extracts from "The Stranger," a short story written by RM Holland, author whose erstwhile home has become a secondary school, Clare's place of work, and the inspiration for her book-in-progress.

The gothic effect of these story extracts, coupled with Harbinder's witness of some apparition and Georgie's absolute faith in neopagan ceremony, creates a story in which the rules are not fully clear to the reader; had it been left ambiguously spooky, I suppose that would have been fair enough. However, the ghosts are swept away in the last few chapters to reveal a feverishly infatuated man with a rather dull, unconvincing motive for murder. ]]> 3.81 2018
author: Elly Griffiths
name: Joy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/05/20
shelves:
review:
Initially, an interesting conceit: Clare Cassidy, her 15-year-old daughter Georgia, and DS Harbinder Kaur provide narration in turns regarding the murder of Ella, Clare's friend and colleague, then of Rick, another colleague and would-be paramour. Clare's personal diary (and its entries) comes into play when she finds that a strange hand has written notes to her in it.

These shifting narratives also alternate with extracts from "The Stranger," a short story written by RM Holland, author whose erstwhile home has become a secondary school, Clare's place of work, and the inspiration for her book-in-progress.

The gothic effect of these story extracts, coupled with Harbinder's witness of some apparition and Georgie's absolute faith in neopagan ceremony, creates a story in which the rules are not fully clear to the reader; had it been left ambiguously spooky, I suppose that would have been fair enough. However, the ghosts are swept away in the last few chapters to reveal a feverishly infatuated man with a rather dull, unconvincing motive for murder.
]]> 23287497 Everyone knows that Colin Bridgerton is the most charming man in London . . .

Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend's brother for . . . well, it feels like forever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin Bridgerton from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret . . . and fears she doesn't know him at all.

Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought of as nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad, he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same—especially Penelope Featherington! The girl who was always simply��there��is suddenly the girl haunting his dreams. When he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide . . . is she his biggest threat�� or his promise of a happy ending?]]> 408 Julia Quinn 0062353683 Joy 3
(Okay, not really. But imagine if that were what became of Cressida Twombley...)

This is a bit odd to say, because on one hand, Penelope is demonstrating how well-named she is; on the other, Colin is going from 0 to 200, assuming marriage without quite proposing, and being Oh So Kind until he flies into a rage. It is rather unsettling and made me nervous.

That being said, this is the first time in a long while that I've stayed up a bit too late to read, so that was satisfying.]]> 3.99 2002
author: Julia Quinn
name: Joy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2024/05/19
shelves:
review:
First off: between Colin and Lady Danbury being told they could get away with murder, I really rather expected a sudden shift of genre.

(Okay, not really. But imagine if that were what became of Cressida Twombley...)

This is a bit odd to say, because on one hand, Penelope is demonstrating how well-named she is; on the other, Colin is going from 0 to 200, assuming marriage without quite proposing, and being Oh So Kind until he flies into a rage. It is rather unsettling and made me nervous.

That being said, this is the first time in a long while that I've stayed up a bit too late to read, so that was satisfying.
]]> 64216 376 Terry Pratchett 0061020648 Joy 4 to-read
Pratchett, like Dickens, had such a talent for roundly encompassing characters with their names, to say nothing of his actual descriptions. They are brilliant! Though I reckon that, in the 34 years since it was published, his style has been imitated so often that it strikes me with less force than it might have in my youth.]]> 4.33 1989
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Joy
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/17
date added: 2024/05/19
shelves: to-read
review:
What a jolly romp. This is my first time encountering Vimes or Vetinari, to say nothing of Nobby, Colon, or Carrot. Or Lady Ramkin in all her splendor, amid all her dragons.

Pratchett, like Dickens, had such a talent for roundly encompassing characters with their names, to say nothing of his actual descriptions. They are brilliant! Though I reckon that, in the 34 years since it was published, his style has been imitated so often that it strikes me with less force than it might have in my youth.
]]> 280853 256 Ngaio Marsh 0006512496 Joy 3
Obviously I stepped out of order, but this is fine. Alleyn and Troy, bless them, had been on holiday before Alleyn felt the need to accompany/check in on Miss Emily, his erstwhile French tutor, as she makes some lamentable decisions about the quasi-island that she has inherited from her sister (??? what a problem to have). Id est: you can spoil the business of creating pageantry around a supposedly magical spring, but doing so when you're pushing 90 is just a tad unwise.

Feels a little uneven in terms of motive (where everyone is concerned: Miss Cost, Dr. Mayne, Wally, Mr. Trehern, the Barrimores; why on earth masquerade as a magical Green Lady to begin with?), and convenient to the Yard that the doctor cast himself into the sea. Odd of Rory to charge after him in the dark, or so it seemed to me, despite the drama of it all. Still, Jenny Williams and Patrick led me through. ]]> 3.78 1963
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1963
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:
Man, it feels good to finish a book.

Obviously I stepped out of order, but this is fine. Alleyn and Troy, bless them, had been on holiday before Alleyn felt the need to accompany/check in on Miss Emily, his erstwhile French tutor, as she makes some lamentable decisions about the quasi-island that she has inherited from her sister (??? what a problem to have). Id est: you can spoil the business of creating pageantry around a supposedly magical spring, but doing so when you're pushing 90 is just a tad unwise.

Feels a little uneven in terms of motive (where everyone is concerned: Miss Cost, Dr. Mayne, Wally, Mr. Trehern, the Barrimores; why on earth masquerade as a magical Green Lady to begin with?), and convenient to the Yard that the doctor cast himself into the sea. Odd of Rory to charge after him in the dark, or so it seemed to me, despite the drama of it all. Still, Jenny Williams and Patrick led me through.
]]> 157487250
Against the backdrop of changing seasons in Japan, we meet Spin, a kitten rescued from the recycling bin, whose playful nature and simple needs teach an anxious father how to parent his own human baby; a colony of wild cats on a popular holiday island show a young boy not to stand in nature’s way; a family is perplexed by their cat’s undying devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father; a woman curses how her cat will not stop visiting her at night; and an elderly cat hatches a plan to pass into the next world as a spirit so that he and his owner may be in each other’s lives forever.

Bursting with love and warmth, The Goodbye Cat exquisitely explores the cycle of life, from birth to death—as each of the seven stories explores how, in different ways, the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down. A huge bestseller in Japan, this magical book is a joyous celebration of the wondrousness of cats and why we choose to share our lives with them.]]> 285 Hiro Arikawa 0593815718 Joy 4
The first couple stories (Kota and Hiromi, Kaori and Keisuke) are sweetest. Sometimes it sounds a bit stilted in translation, but perhaps that's just a reflect on how Keisuke is.]]> 3.91 2021
author: Hiro Arikawa
name: Joy
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:
A sweet book, but unsurprisingly a tearjerker. I think I'll have to wait at least a year before I reread it.

The first couple stories (Kota and Hiromi, Kaori and Keisuke) are sweetest. Sometimes it sounds a bit stilted in translation, but perhaps that's just a reflect on how Keisuke is.
]]> 59849694 An entertaining and illuminating collection of weird, wonderful, and downright baffling words from the origins of English--and what they reveal about the lives of the earliest English speakers

Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer's Middle English, Old English--the language of Beowulf--defies comprehension by untrained modern readers. Used throughout much of Britain more than a thousand years ago, it is rich with words that haven't changed (like word), others that are unrecognizable (such as neorxnawang, or paradise), and some that are mystifying even in translation (gafol-fisc, or tax-fish). In this delightful book, Hana Videen gathers a glorious trove of these gems and uses them to illuminate the lives of the earliest English speakers. We discover a world where choking on a bit of bread might prove your guilt, where fiend-ship was as likely as friendship, and where you might grow up to be a laughter-smith.

The Wordhord takes readers on a journey through Old English words and customs related to practical daily activities (eating, drinking, learning, working); relationships and entertainment; health and the body, mind, and soul; the natural world (animals, plants, and weather); locations and travel (the source of some of the most evocative words in Old English); mortality, religion, and fate; and the imagination and storytelling. Each chapter ends with its own "wordhord"--a list of its Old English terms, with definitions and pronunciations.

Entertaining and enlightening, The Wordhord reveals the magical roots of the language you're reading right now: you'll never look at--or speak--English in the same way again.]]> 296 Hana Videen 0691232741 Joy 0 to-read 4.26 2021
author: Hana Videen
name: Joy
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40914164
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.

We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let's begin . . .

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . .

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.]]> 458 Stuart Turton 149267012X Joy 2
Whether that ultimately would have helped is unclear: the premise is certainly a puzzle (who has he been, who will he be? When do they meet? How will he learn the facts he needs to know? Who can he trust? How close is his hunter?), an ingenious intellectual exercise.

But is it gratifying? Not so much.

Typically, when reading a mystery, I at least appreciate or enjoy the detective, even if the murder victim was loved by few and missed by none. Failing that, I look for some kind of amusing speech or diverting descriptions or piercing commentary. This book left me hunting for someone, anyone, that provoked any good feeling, any sympathy, any virtue.

Blackheath, being a strange sort of penal institution, is empty of all of these. That underlying reality explains *why,* but we don’t learn that rationale until the end, in a too-little-too-late infodump. Likewise, Bishop’s departure feels a cheat: one expected a prison break, not a lenient warden deciding to bend the rules. His expectation of waking up in a new host devalues the life he’s in, so that the pile of bodies accruing by the end has all the weight of felled characters in a video game.

A second read would probably improve it, but ain’t nobody got time for that.]]> 3.75 2018
author: Stuart Turton
name: Joy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2022/02/07
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves:
review:
I started this book without reading any of the blurbs, and thus did not know I was following Aiden Bishop through various bodies in a time loop.

Whether that ultimately would have helped is unclear: the premise is certainly a puzzle (who has he been, who will he be? When do they meet? How will he learn the facts he needs to know? Who can he trust? How close is his hunter?), an ingenious intellectual exercise.

But is it gratifying? Not so much.

Typically, when reading a mystery, I at least appreciate or enjoy the detective, even if the murder victim was loved by few and missed by none. Failing that, I look for some kind of amusing speech or diverting descriptions or piercing commentary. This book left me hunting for someone, anyone, that provoked any good feeling, any sympathy, any virtue.

Blackheath, being a strange sort of penal institution, is empty of all of these. That underlying reality explains *why,* but we don’t learn that rationale until the end, in a too-little-too-late infodump. Likewise, Bishop’s departure feels a cheat: one expected a prison break, not a lenient warden deciding to bend the rules. His expectation of waking up in a new host devalues the life he’s in, so that the pile of bodies accruing by the end has all the weight of felled characters in a video game.

A second read would probably improve it, but ain’t nobody got time for that.
]]> 4296633
Vicky knows she should feel sorry for Maggy, but having sympathy for Maggy is no easy thing. Maggy is moody and spoiled; she breaks toys, wakes people in the middle of the night screaming, discourages homework, and generally causes chaos in the Austin household. How can one small child disrupt a family of six? Will life ever return to normal?]]> 223 Madeleine L'Engle 0312379315 Joy 4 4.01 1960
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Joy
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1960
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/13
date added: 2024/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 16344
So, on April 17th she wrote about her anxieties and suspicions in a letter to Hercule Poirot. And included a request that he consult with her as soon as possible. Mysteriously he didn’t receive the letter until June 28th �� by which time Emily was already dead.]]> 317 Agatha Christie 0007120796 Joy 3 3.88 1937
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/12
date added: 2024/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 2695473
She sends for her old friend Hercule Poirot. At first he is not inclined to take her very seriously but soon a series of events propels him to change his mind.

Then suddenly all Ariadne's worst fears are realised when the girl playing the part of the murder victim is found strangled in the boat-house. For Hercule Poirot, the Murder Hunt has become a grim reality.]]> 218 Agatha Christie 0006168035 Joy 3 3.64 1956
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1956
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/05
date added: 2024/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 16202657 306 Ngaio Marsh 1937384276 Joy 4
Full disclosure: part of the appeal was that I'd encountered the bulk of the plot in pastiche form, and was interested to see how the original played out. The main distinction was the fact of Alleyn and Troy meeting aboard ship before her studio full of students became a crime scene; their impressions of each other, and mistaken impressions of the other's regard, created about as much tension as the premeditated impaling did.

Insofar as the model's pose was meant to display impaling, and the entire class discussed how feasible such a murder could be, the means seemed rather too clear. I was grateful for the letters between Sonia Gluck and her friend Bobbie, as they offered another avenue for investigation as well as a job for Bathgate to take on.

Reading this book may necessitate a reread of Death in a White Tie sometime; we shall see. ]]> 3.70 1938
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2024/01/03
shelves:
review:
After making my way so laboriously through Colour Scheme, this book was a treat.

Full disclosure: part of the appeal was that I'd encountered the bulk of the plot in pastiche form, and was interested to see how the original played out. The main distinction was the fact of Alleyn and Troy meeting aboard ship before her studio full of students became a crime scene; their impressions of each other, and mistaken impressions of the other's regard, created about as much tension as the premeditated impaling did.

Insofar as the model's pose was meant to display impaling, and the entire class discussed how feasible such a murder could be, the means seemed rather too clear. I was grateful for the letters between Sonia Gluck and her friend Bobbie, as they offered another avenue for investigation as well as a job for Bathgate to take on.

Reading this book may necessitate a reread of Death in a White Tie sometime; we shall see.
]]> 280989 320 Ngaio Marsh 0006512380 Joy 2
Unfortunately, the mystery itself palled. Possibly holiday celebrations tired me too much to appreciate it properly, but Septimus Falls turns out to be far less compelling than the undisguised Roderick Alleyn, and no one other than Dr. Ackrington seemed worth bothering with.

The fact that Questing's death was caused by his colorblindness was clever, but the preceding 240 pages went slowly. ]]> 3.79 1943
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1943
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/26
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
On one hand, this story has a fair amount of atmosphere: the struggling Wai-ata-tapu spa, with its hot springs, mud baths, and sulfur pots; the Maori sacred sites on nearby Rangi Peak; the interactions between locals and visitors.

Unfortunately, the mystery itself palled. Possibly holiday celebrations tired me too much to appreciate it properly, but Septimus Falls turns out to be far less compelling than the undisguised Roderick Alleyn, and no one other than Dr. Ackrington seemed worth bothering with.

The fact that Questing's death was caused by his colorblindness was clever, but the preceding 240 pages went slowly.
]]> 16363
With only 24 hours available to solve the mystery, Hercule Poirot recalled a chance remark he’d overheard back in Jerusalem: ‘You see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?�� Mrs Boynton was, indeed, the most detestable woman he’d ever met.]]> 303 Agatha Christie 0007119356 Joy 3
King and Dr. Gerard made for interesting and effective witnesses; it is particularly enjoyable to see how they develop their relationships with the Boyntons afterward, and to see Ginevra flourish as an actress instead of following her mother's example.]]> 3.87 1938
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1938
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/20
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Per usual, I followed every single red herring down and did not anticipate whodunnit in the least. After all, Mrs. Boynton might have taken the foremost place among Unregretted Murder Victims, and all five members of her family (not to mention Jefferson Cope or Sarah King) have reason to desire to be free from her tyranny.

King and Dr. Gerard made for interesting and effective witnesses; it is particularly enjoyable to see how they develop their relationships with the Boyntons afterward, and to see Ginevra flourish as an actress instead of following her mother's example.
]]> 19367226 ‘I’m a dead woman, or I shall be soon…��

Hercule Poirot's quiet supper in a London coffeehouse is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. ��She is terrified �� but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer.��Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done.

Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at a fashionable London Hotel have been murdered, and a cufflink has been placed in each one’s mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim...]]> 320 Sophie Hannah Joy 2
However. The story should get one denouement, not 3+. Moreover, the whole pretext is so flimsy. A vicar committed suicide (violating church law) in the wake of his wife's suicide (violating church law) following a scandal about spiritualism (which he is Too Moral to even *fake* doing, and therefore did not commit) when he was in fact committing adultery (also immoral! also violating church law! and which raises the question of why losing his wife would cause suicide-inducing heartbreak when he was already with someone else).

On top of that, there's a cast of Folks So *Enamored* with Other Folks that they'll do all manner of absurdities on their behalf: Jennie manages to get engaged to Samuel Kidd, then breaks said engagement out of love for Ives; Kidd remains sufficiently in love with her to plan, commit, and obscure 3 murders 16+ years later; Ida apparently remained sufficiently enamored with Richard Negus to be lured to London in hopes of renewing their relationship; and Richard himself is apparently so troubled by his temporary support of rumors hounding Patrick Ives that he agrees to a murder-suicide pact. Ridiculous.

One saving grace for the whole elaborate storyline is the fact that Jennie Hobbs did not know Patrick Ives had reciprocated Nancy Ducane's affections, and treats her as co-conspirator rather than rival and target.

On the whole: the amount of twists could have been fine, but it twists the characters to breaking point, and the whole thing is far too verbose. ]]> 3.44 2014
author: Sophie Hannah
name: Joy
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves:
review:
Having listened to an amount of original Agatha Christie this year, I can say that Hannah imitated the customary beats well enough to a point: a fair sprinkling of Poirot's usual expressions, a man and woman in love being encouraged to take hands, an additional death later in the game, frustration on the part of Poirot's companion (in this case: a newly invented Inspector Edward Catchpool, whose choice of career seems oddly chosen given his reaction to death).

However. The story should get one denouement, not 3+. Moreover, the whole pretext is so flimsy. A vicar committed suicide (violating church law) in the wake of his wife's suicide (violating church law) following a scandal about spiritualism (which he is Too Moral to even *fake* doing, and therefore did not commit) when he was in fact committing adultery (also immoral! also violating church law! and which raises the question of why losing his wife would cause suicide-inducing heartbreak when he was already with someone else).

On top of that, there's a cast of Folks So *Enamored* with Other Folks that they'll do all manner of absurdities on their behalf: Jennie manages to get engaged to Samuel Kidd, then breaks said engagement out of love for Ives; Kidd remains sufficiently in love with her to plan, commit, and obscure 3 murders 16+ years later; Ida apparently remained sufficiently enamored with Richard Negus to be lured to London in hopes of renewing their relationship; and Richard himself is apparently so troubled by his temporary support of rumors hounding Patrick Ives that he agrees to a murder-suicide pact. Ridiculous.

One saving grace for the whole elaborate storyline is the fact that Jennie Hobbs did not know Patrick Ives had reciprocated Nancy Ducane's affections, and treats her as co-conspirator rather than rival and target.

On the whole: the amount of twists could have been fine, but it twists the characters to breaking point, and the whole thing is far too verbose.
]]> 58936417 Why We Can't Sleep meets Furiously Happy in this hilarious, heartfelt memoir about one woman's midlife obsession with Benedict Cumberbatch, and the liberating power of reclaiming our passions as we age, whatever they may be.

Tabitha Carvan was a new mother, at home with two young children, when she fell for the actor Benedict Cumberbatch. You know the guy: strange name, alien face, made Sherlock so sexy that it became one of the most streamed shows in the world? The force of her fixation took everyone--especially Carvan herself--by surprise. But what she slowly realized was that her preoccupation was not about Benedict Cumberbatch at all, as dashing as he might be. It was about finally feeling passionate about something, anything, again at a point in her life when she had lost touch with her own identity and sense of self.

In This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch, Carvan explores what happens to women's desires after we leave adolescence...and why the space in our lives for pure, unadulterated joy is squeezed ever smaller as we age. She shines a light onto the hidden corners of fandom, from the passion of the online communities to the profound real-world connections forged between Cumberbatch devotees. But more importantly, she asks: what happens if we simply decide to follow our interests like we used to--unabashedly, audaciously, shamelessly? After all, Carvan realizes, there's true, untapped power in finding your "thing" (even if that thing happens to be a British-born Marvel superhero) and loving it like your life depends on it.
]]> 256 Tabitha Carvan 0593421914 Joy 4
More broadly, this book goes from blog-style memoir to an analysis of why and how a woman might feel self-inflicted shame for enjoying what she enjoys: is it a hobby or an obsession? Is hiding it a product of self-respect or self-loathing? Can she join others in enjoying it, or will that transform them into a set worthy only to be dismissed? Is it justifiable if it creates no product?

Generally, the answer Carvan gives is yes, it's justifiable; yes, by all means join others; no, hiding your own delight from yourself is not a feature of self-respect.

Ironically, Carvan recognizes by book's end that she must act with intention to keep from dismissing her daughter's interests in the same way (in a way she never dismisses her son's interests). The indication is that younger generations will have different reactions to women at leisure or at play; I reckon it's too soon to say.]]> 3.80 2022
author: Tabitha Carvan
name: Joy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/30
date added: 2023/11/30
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars, rounded up. A casual book that might only be enjoyable if you're in on it. Fair warning: it's not a book about Benedict Cumberbatch, but it DOES mention him enough to slingshot me back to 2013 real quick: spending hours analyzing episodes of Sherlock, watching Amazing Grace and To the Ends of the Earth and even The Fifth Estate for his sake (she didn't mention sobbing over Third Star?? what is this), growing ever more familiar with Ao3, etc., etc.

More broadly, this book goes from blog-style memoir to an analysis of why and how a woman might feel self-inflicted shame for enjoying what she enjoys: is it a hobby or an obsession? Is hiding it a product of self-respect or self-loathing? Can she join others in enjoying it, or will that transform them into a set worthy only to be dismissed? Is it justifiable if it creates no product?

Generally, the answer Carvan gives is yes, it's justifiable; yes, by all means join others; no, hiding your own delight from yourself is not a feature of self-respect.

Ironically, Carvan recognizes by book's end that she must act with intention to keep from dismissing her daughter's interests in the same way (in a way she never dismisses her son's interests). The indication is that younger generations will have different reactions to women at leisure or at play; I reckon it's too soon to say.
]]> 33296312
Practical and inspiring, The Art of Discarding (the book that originally inspired a young Marie Kondo to start cleaning up her closets) offers hands-on advice and easy-to-follow guidelines to help readers learn how to finally let go of stuff that is holding them back -- as well as sage advice on acquiring less in the first place. Author Nagisa Tatsumi urges us to reflect on our attitude to possessing things and to have the courage and conviction to get rid of all the stuff we really don't need, offering advice on how to tackle the things that pile up at home and take back control. By learning the art of discarding you will gain space, free yourself from "accumulation syndrome," and find new joy and purpose in your clutter-free life.]]> 176 Nagisa Tatsumi 0316558923 Joy 3
If you've never considered discarding things you don't need, try this. But if you have considered it and need more guidance to figure out how, exactly, to part with items, perhaps use Marie's more focused approach (envisioning your goal from the outset) or Jay's more systematic approach (a method that can go room-by-room or throughout the home).]]> 3.27 2000
author: Nagisa Tatsumi
name: Joy
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/27
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves:
review:
Obviously this book's influence on Marie Kondo proved significant; that said, having reached it after Kondo, Jay, White, et al., it's less ground-breaking for me.

If you've never considered discarding things you don't need, try this. But if you have considered it and need more guidance to figure out how, exactly, to part with items, perhaps use Marie's more focused approach (envisioning your goal from the outset) or Jay's more systematic approach (a method that can go room-by-room or throughout the home).
]]> 994754 The New York Times.

The case begins when millionaire American financier Sigsbee Manderson is murdered while on holiday in England. A London newspaper sends Trent to investigate, and he is soon matching wits with Scotland Yard's Inspector Murth as they probe ever deeper in search of a solution to a mystery filled with odd, mysterious twists and turns. Called by Agatha Christie "one of the best detective stories ever written," Trent's Last Case delights with its flesh-and-blood characters, its naturalness and easy humor, and its style, which, as Dorothy Sayers has noted, "ranges from a vividly coloured rhetoric to a delicate and ironical literary fancy." New Introduction by Douglas G. Greene.]]> 176 E.C. Bentley 0486296873 Joy 4
All this leaves aside the false solution(s) (how like Whose Body! but again: reversed) and the bomb of the antepenultimate page. "Life is quite full, my dear Trent, of these obstinate silences and cultivated misunderstandings." It sure is, grand cultivator whodunnit! ]]> 3.49 1913
author: E.C. Bentley
name: Joy
average rating: 3.49
book published: 1913
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/27
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves:
review:
What an interesting book - partly in itself, partly in its context. Douglas Greene's excellent introduction notes how Bentley's focus was to eschew the aloof, superhuman thinking-machine template in favor of a man "whose attitude toward the case and the suspects is influenced by his emotional involvement as well as his reason." Given that he preceded Lord Peter by 10 years and Roderick Alleyn by 21, I think it fair to say that both figures owe certain lines in their characters to Philip Trent; his exultation at the case's end, his aesthetic sensibilities, his falling all over the main suspect, his proclivity to quotation (but not, I think, his choice of songs) struck me as quite Wimseyan - though surely the reverse is the case. Likewise, his career as an artist brought Alleyn and Agatha Troy to mind.

All this leaves aside the false solution(s) (how like Whose Body! but again: reversed) and the bomb of the antepenultimate page. "Life is quite full, my dear Trent, of these obstinate silences and cultivated misunderstandings." It sure is, grand cultivator whodunnit!
]]> 25387851 From the award-winning designer of the iconic Penguin Hardcover Classics comes a beautifully illustrated fable about loss, friendship, and courage

The Fox and the Star is the story of a friendship between a lonely Fox and the Star who guides him through the frightfully dark forest. Illuminated by Star’s rays, Fox forages for food, runs with the rabbits, and dances in the rain—until Star suddenly goes out and life changes, leaving Fox huddling for warmth in the unfamiliar dark. To find his missing Star, Fox must embark on a wondrous journey beyond the world he knows—a journey lit by courage, newfound friends, and just maybe, a star-filled new sky.

Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and the art of William Blake, The Fox and the Star��is a heartwarming, hopeful tale which comes alive through Bickford-Smith’s beloved illustrations, guiding readers both young and grown to “look up beyond your ears.”]]> 80 Coralie Bickford-Smith 0143108670 Joy 4
Far more engaging and delightful than the story itself is the artwork and setting of the text amid the illustrations. ]]> 4.13 2015
author: Coralie Bickford-Smith
name: Joy
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/25
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves:
review:
The story of the fox seeking out his star has the slightest tinge of The Little Prince about it.

Far more engaging and delightful than the story itself is the artwork and setting of the text amid the illustrations.
]]> 280992 The party's over when murder makes an entrance...

With the notion of bringing together the most bitter of enemies for his own amusement, a bored, mischievous millionaire throws a house party. As a brutal snowstorm strands the unhappy guests, the party receives a most unwelcome visitor: death. Now the brilliant inspector Roderick Alleyn must step in to decipher who at the party is capable of cold-blooded murder...
]]> 346 Ngaio Marsh 0006512372 Joy 4 3.94 1941
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1941
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/28
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:
Forget everyone else, forget who actually committed any murderous actions: what the HECK, Jonathan Royal? This is all your fault for having such monumentally bad ideas about what constitutes art or the creative impulse. Get a real hobby, and remind me to refuse any dinner invitations you ever issue, lest it cast me into a weekend of snowed-in paranoia, revenge, and (obvs.) murder.
]]> 42632 Thirst, a collection of forty-three new poems from the Pulitzer Prize-winner Mary Oliver, introduces two new directions in the poet's work. Grappling with grief at the death of the love of her life and partner of over forty years, the remarkable photographer Molly Malone Cook, she strives to experience sorrow as a path to spiritual progress, grief as part of loving and not its end. And within these pages she chronicles for the first time her discovery of faith, without abandoning the love of the physical world that has been a hallmark of her work for four decades. In three stunning long poems, Oliver explores the dimensions and tests the parameters of religious doctrine, asking of being good, for example, "To what purpose? / Hope of Heaven? Not that. But to enter / the other kingdom: grace, and imagination, / and the multiple sympathies: to be as a leaf, a rose,/ a dolphin."]]> 88 Mary Oliver 0807068969 Joy 3 4.31 2006
author: Mary Oliver
name: Joy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/19
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 24611522 Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, celebrates love in her new collection of poems ��

“If I have any secret stash of poems, anywhere, it might be about love, not anger,�� Mary Oliver once said in an interview. Finally, in her stunning new collection, Felicity, we can immerse ourselves in Oliver’s love poems. Here, great happiness abounds.

Our most delicate chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver has described her work as loving the world. With Felicity she examines what it means to love another person. She opens our eyes again to the territory within our own hearts; to the wild and to the quiet. In these poems, she describes—with joy—the strangeness and wonder of human connection.

As in Blue Horses, Dog Songs, and A Thousand Mornings, with Felicity Oliver honors love, life, and beauty.��]]> 85 Mary Oliver 1594206767 Joy 4 4.28 2015
author: Mary Oliver
name: Joy
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/19
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 18911185
The Lampreys had plenty of charm - but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar - and rather gloried in it. The double and triple charades, for instance, with which they would entertain their guests - like rich but awful Uncle Gabriel, who was always such a bore. The Lampreys thought if they jollied him up he would bail them out - yet again.

Instead Uncle Gabriel met a violent end. And Chief Inspector Alleyn had to work out which of them killed him....]]> 332 Ngaio Marsh Joy 3 4.13 1940
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1940
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/18
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 280990 288 Ngaio Marsh 0006512356 Joy 3 3.80 1940
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1940
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/12
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 18373 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
��
Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence �� a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]> 311 Daniel Keyes 015603008X Joy 4
Ted Chiang is more convincing than Keyes at writing from the perspective of an augmented intelligence, but his augmented dude is also more of a cynical bastard. Charlie's search for human connection is a tad reminiscent of the Creature longing for Viktor Frankenstein (or anyone else) to treat him with pity and kindness.

Merged review:

This was more involved than I expected. I knew this story followed the parabola of intelligence increasing and deteriorating, but didn't realize how many facets of life it touched on: the humanity of the developmentally delayed or disabled (and the necessity of treating them with kindness), the nature of relationships between people at different intellectual levels, what people hide or fake instead of discussing honestly, and the time required to unpack and understand abuse from one's childhood.

Ted Chiang is more convincing than Keyes at writing from the perspective of an augmented intelligence, but his augmented dude is also more of a cynical bastard. Charlie's search for human connection is a tad reminiscent of the Creature longing for Viktor Frankenstein (or anyone else) to treat him with pity and kindness.]]> 4.19 1966
author: Daniel Keyes
name: Joy
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/23
date added: 2023/09/16
shelves:
review:
This was more involved than I expected. I knew this story followed the parabola of intelligence increasing and deteriorating, but didn't realize how many facets of life it touched on: the humanity of the developmentally delayed or disabled (and the necessity of treating them with kindness), the nature of relationships between people at different intellectual levels, what people hide or fake instead of discussing honestly, and the time required to unpack and understand abuse from one's childhood.

Ted Chiang is more convincing than Keyes at writing from the perspective of an augmented intelligence, but his augmented dude is also more of a cynical bastard. Charlie's search for human connection is a tad reminiscent of the Creature longing for Viktor Frankenstein (or anyone else) to treat him with pity and kindness.

Merged review:

This was more involved than I expected. I knew this story followed the parabola of intelligence increasing and deteriorating, but didn't realize how many facets of life it touched on: the humanity of the developmentally delayed or disabled (and the necessity of treating them with kindness), the nature of relationships between people at different intellectual levels, what people hide or fake instead of discussing honestly, and the time required to unpack and understand abuse from one's childhood.

Ted Chiang is more convincing than Keyes at writing from the perspective of an augmented intelligence, but his augmented dude is also more of a cynical bastard. Charlie's search for human connection is a tad reminiscent of the Creature longing for Viktor Frankenstein (or anyone else) to treat him with pity and kindness.
]]> 279718 277 Ngaio Marsh 0006512585 Joy 3
The fact that Idris is killed by a revolver triggered by the piano's soft pedal is more ludicrous than Alfred Meyer being downed by a falling jeroboam of champagne, but given that it was adapted from a schoolboy's water pistol prank, I suppose I excuse it.

The presence of the Spanish onion was masterful.

Dinah has my sympathies for her efforts in producing the play, when her cast was so uninterested in learning their parts properly.

It turns out that Murder is Easy has me suspicious of every single sticking-plaster or poultice ever placed over a wound. Eventually this will pay off for me.]]> 3.92 1939
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/07
shelves:
review:
It takes a while for Alleyn to show up in this one, as the players must be introduced and the country house tensions between them established. This is expertly done, with Eleanor Prentice and Idris Campanula drawn as quintessential aging-but-hopeful spinsters. Each has her own affection for the local rector, her own pet piano piece, her own history that could prompt others to kill her.

The fact that Idris is killed by a revolver triggered by the piano's soft pedal is more ludicrous than Alfred Meyer being downed by a falling jeroboam of champagne, but given that it was adapted from a schoolboy's water pistol prank, I suppose I excuse it.

The presence of the Spanish onion was masterful.

Dinah has my sympathies for her efforts in producing the play, when her cast was so uninterested in learning their parts properly.

It turns out that Murder is Easy has me suspicious of every single sticking-plaster or poultice ever placed over a wound. Eventually this will pay off for me.
]]> 280991 352 Ngaio Marsh 0006512577 Joy 3
Anyway! This sure makes me wish I'd read Artists in Crime first so as to get the backstory on Troy, and also, it expands the Alleyn universe to include more friends and family. Bunchy Gospell seems a decent fellow, which is a shift from a victim everyone has reason to dislike. I especially appreciated his trick of telling stories to wallflower debutantes until they had relaxed and started conversation with other gentlemen present.

The time scale gets WILD - when Alleyn mentions how much sleep he's gotten in the course of a few days, I'm horrified on his account.

NB that Donald is no Pickled Gherkin, Troy is no Harriet, and on the whole, there's still nothing to match Gaudy Night.]]> 4.03 1938
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1938
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/30
date added: 2023/09/07
shelves:
review:
First of all: I would urge any would-be readers who want all the Roderick Alleyn books in order to take care when they Google; Artists in Crime (the 6th Alleyn book) and Death in a White Tie (the 7th) were both published in 1938, but the latter gets displayed first; ditto Death at the Bar (the 9th) and Surfeit of Lampreys (the 10th).

Anyway! This sure makes me wish I'd read Artists in Crime first so as to get the backstory on Troy, and also, it expands the Alleyn universe to include more friends and family. Bunchy Gospell seems a decent fellow, which is a shift from a victim everyone has reason to dislike. I especially appreciated his trick of telling stories to wallflower debutantes until they had relaxed and started conversation with other gentlemen present.

The time scale gets WILD - when Alleyn mentions how much sleep he's gotten in the course of a few days, I'm horrified on his account.

NB that Donald is no Pickled Gherkin, Troy is no Harriet, and on the whole, there's still nothing to match Gaudy Night.
]]> 280846
The leading lady of a theater company touring New Zealand was stunningly beautiful. No one-including her lover-understood why she married the company's pudgy producer. But did she rig a huge jeroboam of champagne to kill her husband during a cast party?

Did her sweetheart? Or was another villain waiting in the wings? On a holiday down under, Inspector Roderick Alleyn must uncork this mystery and uncover a devious killer...]]> 256 Ngaio Marsh 0312971796 Joy 4
Also, poor Alleyn. Guy can only get a busman's vacation.

I appreciated the use of Bob's witness/whistling outside dressing rooms/cigarette smoking as a means of approximating timelines.

As for whodunit: this has the Strong Poison flavor (cover up the Megatherium Trust losses), mixed with some Sherlock Holmesian disguises.]]> 3.79 1937
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 specifically because the moment a jeroboam of champagne is hoisted up above the stage, so that it may gracefully descend upon the cutting of a certain cord, you KNOW someone will mess with that counterweight and send it hurtling down upon the head of its creator! This is a terrible thing to find satisfying, but also: peak mystery story methods.

Also, poor Alleyn. Guy can only get a busman's vacation.

I appreciated the use of Bob's witness/whistling outside dressing rooms/cigarette smoking as a means of approximating timelines.

As for whodunit: this has the Strong Poison flavor (cover up the Megatherium Trust losses), mixed with some Sherlock Holmesian disguises.
]]> 16248246 ��
The sixteen stories gathered by Gaiman, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, range from the whimsical to the terrifying.��Magical creatures from the werewolf, to the sunbird,��to beings never before classified will thrill, delight, and quite possibly unnerve you in��tales by E. Nesbit, Diana Wynne Jones, Gahan Wilson, and other literary luminaries.
��
Sales of Unnatural Creatures benefit 826DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students in their creative and expository writing, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.]]> 462 Neil Gaiman 0062236296 Joy 4
If you only have time for a few of them, I'd recommend *** (the first); The Cockatoucan; Prismatica; The Compleat Werewolf; and Come Lady Death. Or All the Seas with Oysters also, in its way, asked a funny question and gave a clever answer.

Some of the more recent stories struck me as more heavy-handed and less graceful where the creatures were concerned (which is to say: if you asked me, I'd suggest skipping Moveable Beast, and possibly The Smile on the Face).]]> 3.86 2013
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Joy
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/16
date added: 2023/08/16
shelves:
review:
This is a collection of 16 short stories, by authors living and dead, about various fanciful creatures. It's a well-arranged book; ending with Peter Beagle's Come Lady Death was an excellent stroke.

If you only have time for a few of them, I'd recommend *** (the first); The Cockatoucan; Prismatica; The Compleat Werewolf; and Come Lady Death. Or All the Seas with Oysters also, in its way, asked a funny question and gave a clever answer.

Some of the more recent stories struck me as more heavy-handed and less graceful where the creatures were concerned (which is to say: if you asked me, I'd suggest skipping Moveable Beast, and possibly The Smile on the Face).
]]> 31341738
Are you happy? It may be the wrong question. Most of us think we are relatively happy, while at the same time knowing that we could be happier—maybe even a lot happier. Ordinary people and the finest philosophers have been exploring the question of happiness for thousands of years, and theories abound. But this is not a book of theory. Resisting Happiness is a deeply personal, disarmingly transparent look at why we sabotage our own happiness and what to do about it.

Are you overwhelmed? Do you procrastinate? Do you sometimes feel like you are your own worst enemy? Are you ignoring your dreams? Have you lost the courage to truly be yourself? Do you feel that your life lacks meaning and purpose? Do you find yourself avoiding the real issues in your life and focusing on the superficial?

We all experience these feelings and doubts from time to time. But do you know what to do when you experience them? In this fascinating book, Matthew Kelly, uses his signature combination of the profound and the practical, to help us understand why we feel these things and how to rise above them.

Breaking through resistance, Kelly tells us, is essential to becoming the-best-version-of-ourselves and living with passion and purpose.

What is resistance? It's that sluggish feeling of not wanting to do something that you know is good for you. It's the inclination to do something that you unabashedly know is not good for you. It's the desire and tendency to delay something you should be doing right now.

It is resistance that stands between you and happiness. In these pages you will learn not only what it is, but how to recognize and conquer it in your own life.]]> 167 Matthew Kelly 1942611935 Joy 4
There are moments wherein the author's focus on his own terrestrial accomplishments seems to cut against his argument, or where his emphasis on our efforts cuts against the reliance on God's grace and strength. The efforts of the homebound woman in chapter 33 are, I think, the most powerful example in the whole book.]]> 4.02 2016
author: Matthew Kelly
name: Joy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/13
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves:
review:
Doesn't really teach anything *new,* but does give several helpful reminders. It exhorts the reader to fresh assays in overcoming resistance; to prioritize time with God and focus on His will; to strive continually to make the best use of one's time in service to others, learning, receiving the sacraments, etc.

There are moments wherein the author's focus on his own terrestrial accomplishments seems to cut against his argument, or where his emphasis on our efforts cuts against the reliance on God's grace and strength. The efforts of the homebound woman in chapter 33 are, I think, the most powerful example in the whole book.
]]> 70535
So great are the implications of this discovery that for the first time men are sent out deep into our solar system.

But long before their destination is reached, things begin to go horribly, inexplicably wrong...

One of the greatest-selling science fiction novels of our time, this classic book will grip you to the very end.]]> 297 Arthur C. Clarke Joy 3
I will be interested to see how the movie manifests wordless portions of narrative, Bowman's perception of HAL's actions/calculations, and the gnostic dream sequence muddle of the last 60 pages.]]> 4.17 1968
author: Arthur C. Clarke
name: Joy
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1968
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves:
review:
Read in preparation for watching the movie. I was most interested in the forward, where Clarke notes that Kubrick had planned to make a movie with him; that he recommended a novel precede a screenplay (which is apparently more laborious to write); but as the months passed, the film and novel helped shape each other.

I will be interested to see how the movie manifests wordless portions of narrative, Bowman's perception of HAL's actions/calculations, and the gnostic dream sequence muddle of the last 60 pages.
]]> 835692 272 Ngaio Marsh 0312963602 Joy 3
Less compelling was the Temple of the Sacred Flame; perhaps I am just biased against cults, but it seemed an even weaker cover for a money grabbing-scheme than your usual fictitious cult. One can't really imagine Ogden being there for any other reason. ]]> 3.71 1936
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1936
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/08
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves:
review:
What extraordinary luck Bathgate has to wander into a cult's ceremony right as someone gets murdered with it! How convenient for Alleyn to have his citizen confederate in investigation; I especially enjoyed the phone call using Angela as a cover story for Alleyn's instructions.

Less compelling was the Temple of the Sacred Flame; perhaps I am just biased against cults, but it seemed an even weaker cover for a money grabbing-scheme than your usual fictitious cult. One can't really imagine Ogden being there for any other reason.
]]> 280988 192 Ngaio Marsh 0006512534 Joy 3
As for the reveal itself, I rather wonder if Alleyn/Marsh are over-reliant on Hamlet-esque reproductions of the scene? We'll see how Death in Ecstasy manages.

I continue to appreciate how Alleyn, Bathgate, Angela, Fox, et al. interact.]]> 3.60 1935
author: Ngaio Marsh
name: Joy
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1935
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/04
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves:
review:
A watershed for me: I actually identified whodunnit before the Big Reveal, despite the theatre-full of possibilities (mostly due to having read Whose Body? and thus recognizing a certain cut of jib).

As for the reveal itself, I rather wonder if Alleyn/Marsh are over-reliant on Hamlet-esque reproductions of the scene? We'll see how Death in Ecstasy manages.

I continue to appreciate how Alleyn, Bathgate, Angela, Fox, et al. interact.
]]> 28818556 This is not a book that tells you to throw everything out and live austerely. You don't need a sock drawer that brings you joy or a kitchen from a design magazine; what you do need is to be organized enough to feel in control and serene. Organized Enough offers a ground–breaking, science–driven method for maintaining organization: it addresses not just the steps of decluttering but also of developing the habits to stay clutter–free. Amanda Sullivan shares the method that has brought great success to her clients—from celebrities to hoarders. With seven concepts to help you define your goals and seven essential habits to keep chaos and clutter at bay, you will learn to reframe how you think about your space, your stuff, and your life.
]]> 256 Helen Amanda Sullivan 0738219320 Joy 3
I'd call this a midlevel organization book: it is more demanding than KC Davis; about the same level as Dana White; somewhat less dramatic than Francine Jay; certainly less revolutionary than Marie Kondo.

Would dovetail nicely with the Getting Things Done method or with Clear's Atomic Habits.]]> 3.81 2017
author: Helen Amanda Sullivan
name: Joy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/09
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves:
review:
(Why do I keep reading books like this? Procrastination, probably.)

I'd call this a midlevel organization book: it is more demanding than KC Davis; about the same level as Dana White; somewhat less dramatic than Francine Jay; certainly less revolutionary than Marie Kondo.

Would dovetail nicely with the Getting Things Done method or with Clear's Atomic Habits.
]]> 61103062 An American teenager discovers that her estranged English grandmother was once a queen in another world in the debut novel from bestselling author and speaker Sarah Arthur.

When fourteen-year-old Eva Joyce unexpectedly finds herself spending the summer at the mysterious manor house of the English grandmother she's never met, troubling questions arise. Why the estrangement? What's with the house's employees and their guarded secrets? Why must Eva never mention trains, her father, or her favorite childhood fairy tales?

After strange things start happening in the gardens at night, Eva turns to the elderly housekeeper, gardener, and the gardener's great-grandson, Frankie, for answers. Astonishingly, they all seem to believe the fairy tales are true--that portals to other worlds still exist, though hidden and steadily disappearing. They suspect that Eva's grandmother was once a queen in one of those worlds.

But Eva's grandmother denies it all. After a horrific family tragedy when she was young, her heart is closed to the beauty and pain of her past. It's up to Eva, with Frankie's help, to discover what really happened, whether family relationships can be restored, and if the portals are closed forever. As she unravels generational secrets, Eva wrestles with the grief of a vanishing childhood--and the fear that growing up means giving up fairy tales forever.]]> 384 Sarah Arthur 0593194454 Joy 0 to-read 3.67 2024
author: Sarah Arthur
name: Joy
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 100698692
Thanks to�� Dracula Daily,�� the email newsletter that delivers the classic vampire novel in bite-sized chunks, "an old story about the undead is getting a new life" ( NPR ).��Combining Stoker's original text alongside reader-generated content, this version of Dracula is a fun and immersive experience, perfect for vampire scholars, Dracula Daily�� readers, and newcomers to the story.

Inside, you'll find a rich selection of��artwork and memes from the newsletter's hundreds of thousands of subscribers. From comics celebrating Dracula's famous wall-climbing ability to armchair analysis of��the novel's complicated love triangles, the witty commentary and colorful fan art brings a unique twist to the classic tale.��]]> 304 Bram Stoker 1524884707 Joy 0 to-read 4.37 2023
author: Bram Stoker
name: Joy
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 772023
Set in the dramatic landscape of Western Australia, Dirt Music tells the story of Luther Fox, a broken man who makes his living as an illegal fisherman—a shamateur. Before everyone in his family was killed in a freak rollover, Fox grew melons and counted stars and loved playing his guitar. Now, his life has become a “project of forgetting.�� Not until he meets Georgie Jutland, the wife of White Point’s most prosperous fisherman, does Fox begin to dream again and hear the dirt music—“anything you can play on a verandah or porch,�� he tells Georgie, “without electricity.�� Like the beat of a barren heart, nature is never silent. Ambitious and perfectly calibrated, Dirt Music resonates with suspense, emotion, and timeless truths.]]> 416 Tim Winton 0743228480 Joy 3
Briefly, this is the story of (1) an ex-nurse in Australia, Georgie Jutland, who has gone from Australia to Saudi Arabia to America and back; whose family is really into appearances/shopping (she isn’t, hence near-estrangement with them all); who has lived with a widower and his two sons for about 3 years but is feeling the itch to move on;

(2) said widower, Jim Buckridge, a fisherman who sells his catch to restaurants in Japan etc.; who gets a mean streak from his father (whose wife committed suicide); whose family had rather more money and thus also more local power; whose wife (years before she died of breast cancer) gave birth to his firstborn as he was cheating on her, such that he believes he must pay some kind of penance; and

(3) the shamoteur and musician Luther Fox, whose family has always had rotten luck; who makes his living by stealing from bigger fishermen’s traps; whose father died of mesothelioma from an asbestos mine and whose mother was killed by a typhoon; whose brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece died in a rollover accident; whose dog got shot after he and Georgie have an affair (not, NB, by Jim, but by a nationalist neighbor who wants to uphold...the local legend’s reputation? apparently); who had lost his love for music after his brother’s family died, and starts to rediscover it after meeting Georgie; who hitchhikes around the country to find an island Georgie had once described to him, that he might live off the land and sea there.

I’ll give him this: Winton has a gift for description. If this were rated solely on how well he conveys Australian scenery and various forms of discomfort (the knowledge that it's all over with the three-year live-in affair; various kinds of shame for various trespasses; the tightness of sunburn at one's mother's funeral; how rollover accidents leave a body; how reconnecting to music after years of grief feels), it'd be 5s all around.

The thing is, I don’t buy it, emotionally speaking - not the parts that matter most. I can almost give credence to Lu’s rediscovery of notes when he’s surviving in the wilderness alone, I can almost see the fits and starts of Jim’s resentments and frustration, I can almost believe Georgie *ends up* infatuated with this man who lives vividly in the moment. Winton writes 400 pages so you can *nearly* believe where it ends up. But the whole thread of them having an affair to start with, the whole thing that kicks it all off? Not in the least.

Also, the Aussie slang got a bit beyond me at times. Ute = SUV, polaroids = sunglasses, chookyard = a chicken run, billabong = an oxbow lake, lairizing = showing off. Not that I resent looking things up, but I wonder how differently it reads to different people.]]> 3.73 2001
author: Tim Winton
name: Joy
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/30
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves:
review:
I finished Dirt Music this morning, having forgotten why I decided I should read it. It turns out that I looked through Kelly Macdonald’s filmography, looked into her 2019 movie Dirt Music, and learned that my library had the book, not the film. As I started reading, I thought it might be a mystery; alas, no. Toward the end, it becomes something of a My Side of the Mountain survival tale, which is much more compelling than the rest.

Briefly, this is the story of (1) an ex-nurse in Australia, Georgie Jutland, who has gone from Australia to Saudi Arabia to America and back; whose family is really into appearances/shopping (she isn’t, hence near-estrangement with them all); who has lived with a widower and his two sons for about 3 years but is feeling the itch to move on;

(2) said widower, Jim Buckridge, a fisherman who sells his catch to restaurants in Japan etc.; who gets a mean streak from his father (whose wife committed suicide); whose family had rather more money and thus also more local power; whose wife (years before she died of breast cancer) gave birth to his firstborn as he was cheating on her, such that he believes he must pay some kind of penance; and

(3) the shamoteur and musician Luther Fox, whose family has always had rotten luck; who makes his living by stealing from bigger fishermen’s traps; whose father died of mesothelioma from an asbestos mine and whose mother was killed by a typhoon; whose brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece died in a rollover accident; whose dog got shot after he and Georgie have an affair (not, NB, by Jim, but by a nationalist neighbor who wants to uphold...the local legend’s reputation? apparently); who had lost his love for music after his brother’s family died, and starts to rediscover it after meeting Georgie; who hitchhikes around the country to find an island Georgie had once described to him, that he might live off the land and sea there.

I’ll give him this: Winton has a gift for description. If this were rated solely on how well he conveys Australian scenery and various forms of discomfort (the knowledge that it's all over with the three-year live-in affair; various kinds of shame for various trespasses; the tightness of sunburn at one's mother's funeral; how rollover accidents leave a body; how reconnecting to music after years of grief feels), it'd be 5s all around.

The thing is, I don’t buy it, emotionally speaking - not the parts that matter most. I can almost give credence to Lu’s rediscovery of notes when he’s surviving in the wilderness alone, I can almost see the fits and starts of Jim’s resentments and frustration, I can almost believe Georgie *ends up* infatuated with this man who lives vividly in the moment. Winton writes 400 pages so you can *nearly* believe where it ends up. But the whole thread of them having an affair to start with, the whole thing that kicks it all off? Not in the least.

Also, the Aussie slang got a bit beyond me at times. Ute = SUV, polaroids = sunglasses, chookyard = a chicken run, billabong = an oxbow lake, lairizing = showing off. Not that I resent looking things up, but I wonder how differently it reads to different people.
]]> 57405598 Thinking of a foray to a quaint English village? You'll think twice after reading this tongue-in-cheek illustrated guide to the countless murderous possibilities lurking behind these villages' bucolic façades—from bestselling author Maureen Johnson and illustrator Jay Cooper.

A weekend roaming narrow old lanes, touring the faded glories of a country manor, and quaffing pints in the pub. How charming. That is, unless you have the misfortune of finding yourself in an English Murder Village, where danger lurks around each picturesque cobblestone corner and every sip of tea may be your last. If you insist on your travels, do yourself a favor and bring a copy of this little book. It may just keep you alive.

Brought to life with dozens of Gorey-esque drawings by illustrator Jay Cooper and peppered with allusions to classic crime series and unmistakably British murder lore, Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village gives you the tools you need to avoid the same fate, should you find yourself in a suspiciously cozy English village (or simply dream of going). Good luck, and whatever you do, avoid the vicar.]]> 128 Maureen Johnson 1984859625 Joy 5 4.02 2021
author: Maureen Johnson
name: Joy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/30
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves:
review:
What a delightful romp. What a lot of helpful reminders (including the fact that, if the vicar doesn't kill you by default, perhaps you go up the bell tower because you have no other choice: you must kill the vicar)!
]]> 31196883 272 Agatha Christie Joy 3
How intriguing to return to it and find that Agatha had gathered Battle, Poirot, Mrs. Oliver, and Colonel Race in one book; Battle sure has a way of getting involved with nonofficial investigators! This, perhaps, makes it easier to write: where Battle has no reason to go, Mrs. Oliver can follow her 'intuition,' and where Race has no particular lines of inquiry to follow, Poirot can delve into personalities.

I in no way recalled who stabbed Shaitana, accurately deduced who must have done it (the one whose bridge play involves a lot of bluffing), then got waylaid by further false confessions/murderous goings-on (dear Anne Meredith: just calm down before this turns into one of those situations where you have to keep murdering to cover your tracks)/Major Despard coming to Rhoda's rescue. ]]> 3.91 1936
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1936
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/20
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves:
review:
Having decided to read all the Superintendent Battle books, I found myself rereading Cards on the Table, which I'd read in years past and remembered vaguely as being very concerned with bridge (which I have played approximately once).

How intriguing to return to it and find that Agatha had gathered Battle, Poirot, Mrs. Oliver, and Colonel Race in one book; Battle sure has a way of getting involved with nonofficial investigators! This, perhaps, makes it easier to write: where Battle has no reason to go, Mrs. Oliver can follow her 'intuition,' and where Race has no particular lines of inquiry to follow, Poirot can delve into personalities.

I in no way recalled who stabbed Shaitana, accurately deduced who must have done it (the one whose bridge play involves a lot of bluffing), then got waylaid by further false confessions/murderous goings-on (dear Anne Meredith: just calm down before this turns into one of those situations where you have to keep murdering to cover your tracks)/Major Despard coming to Rhoda's rescue.
]]> 483103
Gerry Wade had proved himself to be a champion sleeper, so the other houseguests decided to play a practical joke on him. Eight alarm clocks were set to go off, one after the other, starting at 6:30 a.m. But when morning arrived, one clock was missing and the prank then backfired, with tragic consequences.

For Jimmy Thesiger in particular, the words "Seven Dials" were to take on a new and chilling significance...]]> 375 Agatha Christie 0007122594 Joy 3
You'd think Who Murdered Roger Ackroyd? would put me right sometimes.

Meanwhile: I'm enjoying the continuity of seeing Bundle, Battle, Bill, Lord Caterham, and Chimneys again. ]]> 3.81 1929
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1929
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/28
date added: 2023/06/28
shelves:
review:
Well. I may truthfully say that I did not see that coming, both on the count of Whodunnit and also Who Number 7 Might Be. I had come around to thinking Bill Eversleigh might be involved in the Dials, but had only gotten so far as suspecting Pongo or George Lomax of heading it up.

You'd think Who Murdered Roger Ackroyd? would put me right sometimes.

Meanwhile: I'm enjoying the continuity of seeing Bundle, Battle, Bill, Lord Caterham, and Chimneys again.
]]> 131374
Luke Fitzwilliam does not believe Miss Pinkerton’s wild allegation that a multiple murderer is at work in the quiet English village of Wychwood and that her local doctor is next in line.

But within hours, Miss Pinkerton has been killed in a hit-and-run car accident. Mere coincidence? Luke is inclined to think so—until he reads in the Times of the unexpected demise of Wychwood’s Dr. Humbleby.…]]> 277 Agatha Christie 0312979827 Joy 3 have you ever wondered why, why the crime rate in Wychwood under Ashe is so low, yet the accident rate is so high?

This meant that I kept waiting for Luke Fitzwilliam to discover the town's Neighborhood Watch Alliance, not an angry jilted woman looking to pin a lot of things on her ex-fiance. The contaminated dressing on the doctor's hand was a nice touch.

Feels unfair to call it Superintendent Battle #4 when he just comes in at the end, but ah well. Luke did a fair enough job on his own.]]> 3.79 1939
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/29
date added: 2023/05/30
shelves:
review:
The first 2/3rds of this book felt surprisingly like Hot Fuzz: have you ever wondered why, why the crime rate in Wychwood under Ashe is so low, yet the accident rate is so high?

This meant that I kept waiting for Luke Fitzwilliam to discover the town's Neighborhood Watch Alliance, not an angry jilted woman looking to pin a lot of things on her ex-fiance. The contaminated dressing on the doctor's hand was a nice touch.

Feels unfair to call it Superintendent Battle #4 when he just comes in at the end, but ah well. Luke did a fair enough job on his own.
]]> 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n�� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 Joy 3
Writing it from these different perspectives allows for a bit of telling-not-showing: the reader cannot actually hear the music (or see the photographs, or experience the recording booth's intimacy) but does get the artists'/producer's/photographer's take on how the lyrics hit, what they were meant to express, what everyone took away from it. I'll be interested to see how this translates into a show.

Personally, though the different periods were labeled accordingly, I struggled to get a sense of timing/scale. The action felt compressed, like they went from obscurity to fame to breaking apart in days or weeks, not years. Likewise, the fact that Camilla gives any contribution to the retrospective indicated that ultimately, Daisy does not drive her away (ergo: any relationship troubles on Daisy's account don't last forever). This made it hard to view Daisy/Billy/the tension between them with a sense that it mattered - despite the fact that it's a piece of what ends the band.]]> 4.20 2019
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Joy
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/16
date added: 2023/05/30
shelves:
review:
A fun read that, per Reid's usual, plays with different perspectives, public vs private perception, and fame. It examines Daisy's life (her songwriting drive, her drug addiction, her brief marriage, her interest in Billy), and that of the members of The Six (their different approaches to the work, their relationships, Billy's stint in rehab), from youth to their first gigs to stardom to breakup.

Writing it from these different perspectives allows for a bit of telling-not-showing: the reader cannot actually hear the music (or see the photographs, or experience the recording booth's intimacy) but does get the artists'/producer's/photographer's take on how the lyrics hit, what they were meant to express, what everyone took away from it. I'll be interested to see how this translates into a show.

Personally, though the different periods were labeled accordingly, I struggled to get a sense of timing/scale. The action felt compressed, like they went from obscurity to fame to breaking apart in days or weeks, not years. Likewise, the fact that Camilla gives any contribution to the retrospective indicated that ultimately, Daisy does not drive her away (ergo: any relationship troubles on Daisy's account don't last forever). This made it hard to view Daisy/Billy/the tension between them with a sense that it mattered - despite the fact that it's a piece of what ends the band.
]]> 60139504 How to Keep House While Drowning will introduce you to six life-changing principles that will revolutionize the way you approach home care—without endless to-do lists. Presented in 31 daily thoughts, this compassionate guide will help you begin to get free of the shame and anxiety you feel over home care.

Inside you will learn:
· How to shift your perspective of care tasks from moral to functional;
· How to stop negative self-talk and shame around care tasks;
· How to give yourself permission to rest, even when things aren’t finished;
· How to motivate yourself to care for your space.]]> 151 K.C. Davis 166800285X Joy 4
(Because GoodReads has changed for the worse, I can no longer easily find quotations from it that I wanted to highlight! Which sucks. Dagnabbit, GoodReads.)]]> 4.22 2022
author: K.C. Davis
name: Joy
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/27
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves:
review:
A valuable book, especially for folks whose childhood makes them associate cleaning with yelling; for new parents; or for those with depression, ADHD, or chronic fatigue.

(Because GoodReads has changed for the worse, I can no longer easily find quotations from it that I wanted to highlight! Which sucks. Dagnabbit, GoodReads.)
]]> 16361 400 Agatha Christie 0007122586 Joy 3
Anthony and Virginia make for a fun little subplot; Superintendent Battle is formidable; and I love a treasure hunt in the middle of things. Hopefully Battle has reason to consult the code-breaker at some later point.]]> 3.85 1925
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1925
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/17
date added: 2023/04/19
shelves:
review:
Christie's gradually making me better at going "Mmm, I don't think that prince died in Africa" and also "Mmm, if that thief queen was disfigured beyond recognition at death, possibly she's kicking about somewhere." I still need to get better and recognizing where the switches might come in and out.

Anthony and Virginia make for a fun little subplot; Superintendent Battle is formidable; and I love a treasure hunt in the middle of things. Hopefully Battle has reason to consult the code-breaker at some later point.
]]> 11275
In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon.]]> 607 Haruki Murakami 0965341984 Joy 2
If I think of it as a frame tale, I care a little (but only a little) less about the drab cardboard figure Toru Okada cuts. He apparently attracts (women? trouble? phenomena generally?) but damned if I can tell how, since he’s the most passive piece of wet rag I’ve met in fiction for some while. Whatever attraction, love, or affection exists between him and Kumiko is so thinly drawn that I can’t make it out; the action of getting her back from whatever metaphysical prison Noboru Wataya has trapped her in does not, IMO, carry greater narrative weight than whatever the heck was up with, say, Malta Kano, Creta Kano, May Kasahara (all those letters! The dreams that prompted her to undress in the moonlight! Why), or Nutmeg.

Perhaps something is lost in translation. Perhaps there was background I had and since forgot; “works consulted�� does, at least, suggest that the descriptions of Nomonhan were drawn from history. I do not suspect Murakami of exaggerating the nature of war crimes, but wondered what purpose his descriptions of killing animals, bayoneting prisoners, or skinning a man alive served.

There are moments when the prose shines. There were moments when I thought “I can almost see where he’s going with this.�� I want to call the time reading this book well-spent. I want to say it all came together in the end, that the architecture of the book was quite deliberate, that the amount of times spent in dreams lends the whole story a delicate watercolor quality.

Instead, I can say that it picked up around page 555. This is the second of Murakami’s books I’ve tried and found bizarre, jarring, or horrifying by turns, and I do not expect to try another.]]> 4.16 1994
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Joy
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1994
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/29
date added: 2023/03/30
shelves:
review:
A friend lent me this 10+(?) years ago; finally got to it. Possibly I would have enjoyed it more at that point in time, but also, perhaps not.

If I think of it as a frame tale, I care a little (but only a little) less about the drab cardboard figure Toru Okada cuts. He apparently attracts (women? trouble? phenomena generally?) but damned if I can tell how, since he’s the most passive piece of wet rag I’ve met in fiction for some while. Whatever attraction, love, or affection exists between him and Kumiko is so thinly drawn that I can’t make it out; the action of getting her back from whatever metaphysical prison Noboru Wataya has trapped her in does not, IMO, carry greater narrative weight than whatever the heck was up with, say, Malta Kano, Creta Kano, May Kasahara (all those letters! The dreams that prompted her to undress in the moonlight! Why), or Nutmeg.

Perhaps something is lost in translation. Perhaps there was background I had and since forgot; “works consulted�� does, at least, suggest that the descriptions of Nomonhan were drawn from history. I do not suspect Murakami of exaggerating the nature of war crimes, but wondered what purpose his descriptions of killing animals, bayoneting prisoners, or skinning a man alive served.

There are moments when the prose shines. There were moments when I thought “I can almost see where he’s going with this.�� I want to call the time reading this book well-spent. I want to say it all came together in the end, that the architecture of the book was quite deliberate, that the amount of times spent in dreams lends the whole story a delicate watercolor quality.

Instead, I can say that it picked up around page 555. This is the second of Murakami’s books I’ve tried and found bizarre, jarring, or horrifying by turns, and I do not expect to try another.
]]> 108593 319 Edward M. Hallowell 0684801280 Joy 4
Hallowell originally published in 1994 and this revision is from 2011. As such, it seemed to me to be laying very basic groundwork (establishing ADD/ADHD as a biological reality, rather than a moral failing; comparing treatment thereof to corrective lenses, with the same neutrality; noting different ways it can manifest; attempting to dispel various fears about using medication) more than anything else.

Many a case study is shared to give a picture of children, teenagers, and adults struggling with it; often, the diagnosis itself is treated as the most important piece. The ability to say "Oh, I'm not just lazy/stupid/a flake/etc." apparently helps tremendously. It is not the only piece, especially given the potential toll of years of negative feedback, but it featured in many of the anecdotes given.

It wasn't clear to me whether ADHD can develop in adults who did not experience symptoms prior (or if, perhaps, a tipping point might exist where no difficulty is observed, until it is).

I have to imagine that newer literature has been published in the past 12 years, perhaps with some indication of how quarantimes may have exacerbated it in both children and adults. I will be interested to see whether newer books have more to say about the varieties of stimulants/antidepressants used of late (+ the cost of access), whether there's more understanding of the biological underpinnings, and whether there's more information about protections for employees who divulge such medical history to their employers. Hallowell surmises that any such condition is protected under the ADA, but says little else about it.]]> 4.09 1992
author: Edward M. Hallowell
name: Joy
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/21
date added: 2023/03/21
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars, rounded up.

Hallowell originally published in 1994 and this revision is from 2011. As such, it seemed to me to be laying very basic groundwork (establishing ADD/ADHD as a biological reality, rather than a moral failing; comparing treatment thereof to corrective lenses, with the same neutrality; noting different ways it can manifest; attempting to dispel various fears about using medication) more than anything else.

Many a case study is shared to give a picture of children, teenagers, and adults struggling with it; often, the diagnosis itself is treated as the most important piece. The ability to say "Oh, I'm not just lazy/stupid/a flake/etc." apparently helps tremendously. It is not the only piece, especially given the potential toll of years of negative feedback, but it featured in many of the anecdotes given.

It wasn't clear to me whether ADHD can develop in adults who did not experience symptoms prior (or if, perhaps, a tipping point might exist where no difficulty is observed, until it is).

I have to imagine that newer literature has been published in the past 12 years, perhaps with some indication of how quarantimes may have exacerbated it in both children and adults. I will be interested to see whether newer books have more to say about the varieties of stimulants/antidepressants used of late (+ the cost of access), whether there's more understanding of the biological underpinnings, and whether there's more information about protections for employees who divulge such medical history to their employers. Hallowell surmises that any such condition is protected under the ADA, but says little else about it.
]]> 527744 306 Agatha Christie 0425173909 Joy 3
Guthrie's appearance seemed so suspicious to me that I only feared for Gilchrist's safety. The idea of Cora not being Cora did not so much occur, although the fact of Gilchrist fearing to stay at Stansfield Grange might have pointed me right. One rather wonders: if the Vermeer hadn't been so enraging, might she have successfully kept her temper and gotten away with it?]]> 3.89 1953
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/20
date added: 2023/03/20
shelves:
review:
Eventually I'm going to suss one of these out sooner than the last chapter.

Guthrie's appearance seemed so suspicious to me that I only feared for Gilchrist's safety. The idea of Cora not being Cora did not so much occur, although the fact of Gilchrist fearing to stay at Stansfield Grange might have pointed me right. One rather wonders: if the Vermeer hadn't been so enraging, might she have successfully kept her temper and gotten away with it?
]]> 121622 Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, one of Agatha Christie’s most ingenious mysteries, the intrepid Hercule Poirot must look into the case of a brutally murdered landlady.

Mrs. McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion falls immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes reveal traces of the victim’s blood and hair. Yet something is amiss: Bentley just doesn’t seem like a murderer.

Could the answer lie in an article clipped from a newspaper two days before the death? With a desperate killer still free, Hercule Poirot will have to stay alive long enough to find out. . . .]]> 244 Agatha Christie 1572707313 Joy 3
I attempted to re-read the bulk of the book by listening to sections of it twice - from the point that Poirot finds the newspaper (with its four ladies known from Past Historic Crimes) in Mrs. McGinty's niece's items, to the point when he and Inspector Spence are attempting to suss out who might have killed Mrs. Upward - but again, listening to the book left me with less clarity about the dramatis personae, who was and wasn't adopted, who might have been a murderess or victim thereof, etc.

As someone who enjoys Evelyn Waugh so much, I feel like Evelyn Hope might have misled me a bit less. Alas! Taken in once again.]]> 3.85 1952
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/12
date added: 2023/03/13
shelves:
review:
This was another case of listening to Hugh Fraser read Poirot, which, as ever, is a delight.

I attempted to re-read the bulk of the book by listening to sections of it twice - from the point that Poirot finds the newspaper (with its four ladies known from Past Historic Crimes) in Mrs. McGinty's niece's items, to the point when he and Inspector Spence are attempting to suss out who might have killed Mrs. Upward - but again, listening to the book left me with less clarity about the dramatis personae, who was and wasn't adopted, who might have been a murderess or victim thereof, etc.

As someone who enjoys Evelyn Waugh so much, I feel like Evelyn Hope might have misled me a bit less. Alas! Taken in once again.
]]> 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 ŷ������.]]> 288 Agatha Christie 1579126278 Joy 4
Methinks the first time around was not the time to listen to Hugh Fraser read it, delightful though he is - which is to say: I didn't quite figure out who the guilty party was until "a receptacle" was mentioned, and am Quite Certain I could have anticipated better if reading by eye (particularly given the instruments I've used, even this past year, at my law office).]]> 4.26 1926
author: Agatha Christie
name: Joy
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1926
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/22
date added: 2023/02/22
shelves:
review:
Well! That was novel.

Methinks the first time around was not the time to listen to Hugh Fraser read it, delightful though he is - which is to say: I didn't quite figure out who the guilty party was until "a receptacle" was mentioned, and am Quite Certain I could have anticipated better if reading by eye (particularly given the instruments I've used, even this past year, at my law office).
]]> 57468188 224 Dana K. White 1400231434 Joy 4
The layers of decluttering / daily stuff / actual cleaning are also a useful distinction. Somehow no one else that I've encountered has phrased it in quite that way. All in all, her 100 strategies are succinct, digestible, and indicate a simple path forward. ]]> 4.04 2022
author: Dana K. White
name: Joy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/15
date added: 2023/02/16
shelves:
review:
Not life-changing for me, exactly, but very solid. White's self-awareness keeps her more realistic and more reassuring than other housekeeping gurus; she explicitly notes the *ongoing* nature of household chores and evaluation, and thus also explicitly notes that the payoff comes when the schedule is maintained.

The layers of decluttering / daily stuff / actual cleaning are also a useful distinction. Somehow no one else that I've encountered has phrased it in quite that way. All in all, her 100 strategies are succinct, digestible, and indicate a simple path forward.
]]> 18921036 108 Malcolm Guite 184825296X Joy 5 to-read
I don't know if I would read these sonnets in a church service but I love the thought of setting them to music. I've half a mind to buy a few copies for folks I know.

Even a single read-through was rewarding, but I'm eager to revisit these many times. Makes me want to revisit Herbert and Donne while I'm at it, along with the Gospels.]]> 4.55 2012
author: Malcolm Guite
name: Joy
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/13
date added: 2023/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:
Refreshing. The form of a sonnet is itself ever ancient, ever new, or feels that way: feels classic but also modern.

I don't know if I would read these sonnets in a church service but I love the thought of setting them to music. I've half a mind to buy a few copies for folks I know.

Even a single read-through was rewarding, but I'm eager to revisit these many times. Makes me want to revisit Herbert and Donne while I'm at it, along with the Gospels.
]]> 21060 Battle on and off the field, with sword and fan, with might and manners...

It begins in a cold and shabby tower room, where young Countess Meliara swears to her dying father that she and her brother will defend their people from the growing greed of the king. That promise leads them into a war for which they are ill prepared, a war that threatens the homes and lives of the very people they are trying to protect.

But war is simple compared to what follows, when the bloody fighting is done and a fragile peace is at hand. Although she wants to turn her back on politics and the crown, Meliara is summoned to the royal palace. There, she soon discovers, friends and enemies look alike, and intrigue fills the dance halls and the drawing rooms. If she is to survive, Meliara must learn a whole new way of fighting--with wit and words and secret alliances. In war, at least, she knew whom she could trust. Now she can trust no one.

The Firebird edition of Crown Duel combines the hardcover editions of Crown Duel and Court Duel-and features a never-before-published story by Sherwood Smith!]]> 471 Sherwood Smith 0142301515 Joy 4
A two-part fun time; not what I expected. Part 1: The leader of this region (Tlanth in Remalna) has died, leaving his son Branaric (who would have loved to be a bard or something) and daughter Meliara (who has just learned to read and generally loves playing barefoot on the hills outside, among the Hill Folk) in charge. Enemy lands are threatening the trees of the Hill Folk/Tlanth in general; Bran, Mel, et al. attempt to raise an army for the defense of the Covenant with the Hill Folk. Mel specializes in mapmaking, tricks, misdirection, and attempted spying. First she gets caught by the (seeming) enemy Marquis of Shevraeth, escapes, gets caught again, escapes again with, unwittingly, the Marquis's help, etc. Lots of running about, hiding in bushes, getting very tired and dirty. Unsurprisingly, if you have the trees on your side, you shan't fail.

The second part: Once the running around/hiding in the hungry rain is done, the countess has to learn lots of other things: how to befriend her brother's fiancee, how to channel her bluntness a bit more, how to use Fan Code, and generally How To Do Politics - culminating in recognizing when someone is gearing up to go on the attack, and meeting them/warning the Hill Folk about it.

Very predictable, but no less fun for it. Reminded me of Bridgerton at some moments, except that it's lemon-free.]]> 4.19 2002
author: Sherwood Smith
name: Joy
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/10
date added: 2023/02/16
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars rounded up.

A two-part fun time; not what I expected. Part 1: The leader of this region (Tlanth in Remalna) has died, leaving his son Branaric (who would have loved to be a bard or something) and daughter Meliara (who has just learned to read and generally loves playing barefoot on the hills outside, among the Hill Folk) in charge. Enemy lands are threatening the trees of the Hill Folk/Tlanth in general; Bran, Mel, et al. attempt to raise an army for the defense of the Covenant with the Hill Folk. Mel specializes in mapmaking, tricks, misdirection, and attempted spying. First she gets caught by the (seeming) enemy Marquis of Shevraeth, escapes, gets caught again, escapes again with, unwittingly, the Marquis's help, etc. Lots of running about, hiding in bushes, getting very tired and dirty. Unsurprisingly, if you have the trees on your side, you shan't fail.

The second part: Once the running around/hiding in the hungry rain is done, the countess has to learn lots of other things: how to befriend her brother's fiancee, how to channel her bluntness a bit more, how to use Fan Code, and generally How To Do Politics - culminating in recognizing when someone is gearing up to go on the attack, and meeting them/warning the Hill Folk about it.

Very predictable, but no less fun for it. Reminded me of Bridgerton at some moments, except that it's lemon-free.
]]> 60855576 From the #1 bestselling sensation and Netflix star comes her inspirational visual guide to elevating the joy in every aspect of your life, with more than 100 photographs of the Marie Kondo lifestyle.

Inspired by the Japanese concept of kurashi, or “way of life,�� Kurashi at Home invites you to visualize your ideal life from the moment you wake up until the end of each day. By applying the time-tested query from Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up—“Does it spark joy?”—to your mindset and behaviors, you are invited to imagine what your life could look like free from any limitations. This vision then becomes a touchpoint that helps you make conscious, mindful choices—from how you use every corner of your living space to how you take advantage of every moment.

At its core, the KonMari philosophy focuses not on what to get rid of, but on what to keep. In this inspirational visual guide, beautiful photographs and Kondo’s unique suggestions empower you to embrace what you love about your life and then reflect it in your home, activities, and relationships, like creating a calm nook for writing, taking time each morning to review a to-do list, or having relaxing nighttime rituals that promote a restful sleep.

Your newfound clarity will inspire you to clear out the unneeded clutter so you can appreciate the inviting spaces, treasured belongings, and joy-sparking moments that remain.]]> 224 Marie Kondō 198486078X Joy 3 3.61 2022
author: Marie Kondō
name: Joy
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/31
date added: 2023/02/16
shelves:
review:
A pleasant and calm sort of book, following in the tradition of her first 3 books. I get the sense that it was written for people who go "Okay, I finished The Method. But now things feel so...open and empty and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself??" Or else those who are like "I don't even know, man, my life is so chaotic that I don't even know how to envision something else." Some aesthetic suggestions, a few recipes, generalized advice about generally good ideas.
]]> 9547888 Is there a science to love?

In this groundbreaking book, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Amir Levine and psychologist Rachel S. F. Heller reveal how an understanding of attachment theory-the most advanced relationship science in existence today-can help us find and sustain love. Attachment theory forms the basis for many bestselling books on the parent/child relationship, but there has yet to be an accessible guide to what this fascinating science has to tell us about adult romantic relationships-until now.

Attachment theory owes its inception to British psychologist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby, who in the 1950s examined the tremendous impact that our early relationships with our parents or caregivers has on the people we become. Also central to attachment theory is the discovery that our need to be in a close relationship with one or more individuals is embedded in our genes.

In Attached, Levine and Heller trace how these evolutionary influences continue to shape who we are in our relationships today. According to attachment theory, every person behaves in relationships in one of three distinct ways:

*ANXIOUS people are often preoccupied with their relationships and tend to worry about their partner's ability to love them back.
*AVOIDANT people equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness.
*SECURE people feel comfortable with intimacy and are usually warm and loving.

Attached guides readers in determining what attachment style they and their mate (or potential mates) follow. It also offers readers a wealth of advice on how to navigate their relationships more wisely given their attachment style and that of their partner. An insightful look at the science behind love, Attached offers readers a road map for building stronger, more fulfilling connections.]]> 304 Amir Levine 1585428485 Joy 3
Not sure how useful this is to someone seeking a romantic relationship to *find* one, although I suppose it could help people (especially anxious attachment people) *avoid* certain (avoidant-style) pitfalls (namely: by an act of will, they just say "No, I have already determined that Behavior X is a Problem and I must leave"). It's vexing to learn that mathematically, avoidant types are most likely to be in the dating pool.

Methinks it would have been more useful, by virtue of being more generally applicable, to examine attachment styles in non-romantic relationships; protest behavior, eg, can appear in all sorts of contexts. But that was not, alas, the scope of the book. ]]> 4.11 2010
author: Amir Levine
name: Joy
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/31
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Levine explores the concept of people having secure, anxious, or avoidant attachment styles; how said attachment styles might manifest in romantic relationships; and how to either avoid forming relationships of potentially conflicting styles, or how to address conflicts more constructively in existing relationships.

Not sure how useful this is to someone seeking a romantic relationship to *find* one, although I suppose it could help people (especially anxious attachment people) *avoid* certain (avoidant-style) pitfalls (namely: by an act of will, they just say "No, I have already determined that Behavior X is a Problem and I must leave"). It's vexing to learn that mathematically, avoidant types are most likely to be in the dating pool.

Methinks it would have been more useful, by virtue of being more generally applicable, to examine attachment styles in non-romantic relationships; protest behavior, eg, can appear in all sorts of contexts. But that was not, alas, the scope of the book.
]]> 29502332
This paperback edition of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol ��recaptures the charm of the first edition �� a perfect stocking stuffer.

A lovely gift book for anyone who doesn't yet own the timeless classic. Who can resist the story of the bad-tempered Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation into a kinder and more loving version of himself? The visiting ghosts of past, present, and future? The deeply good Bob Cratchit and his son Tiny Tim? Create or revive a tradition and gather to read this classic tale each and every year.

The original engravings by John Leech make this a gift that all will treasure!
��]]> 125 Charles Dickens 1612618391 Joy 5
Reading a bit each day really lets you chew on the prose, and be convicted yourself.]]> 4.30 1843
author: Charles Dickens
name: Joy
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1843
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/28
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:
Reread this with the Dickens December substack; what an excellent little book. There were so many little details I'd forgotten: the way Scrooge answered to Marley's name just as well as his own, all the sass (on Fred's part, on Scrooge's part, on the narrator's part), the rich cornucopia of Christmas Present, the number of people they visit (far more than Fred and Bob! in a variety of situations!), the Christmas games and the extent to which Scrooge wants to participate in them, the grim scratching of rats at the heartstone.

Reading a bit each day really lets you chew on the prose, and be convicted yourself.
]]> 5537656 128 Leni Levenson Wiener 0896898040 Joy 4
Wiener, like Loveless, approaches art quilts with layers of fabric arranged on fusible interfacing (alternatively, with small amounts of fabric glue). This book outlines some of the basics of composition, arranging elements, the usual content on colors, thread painting, and uses examples to show how to wield this knowledge effectively.

I was intrigued by her insistence that sclera be depicted with white fabric, as my college art professor insisted that sclera were not purely white; that said, I'm not sure how soon I'll be up to attempting to depict human faces, so this might be moot.

Wiener also notes that she uses clear or smoky monofilament thread; I am curious about how distinct the difference is between that and a more typical cotton or dual duty thread.

NB that I was not able to use the included DVD, but perhaps next time.]]> 4.34 2009
author: Leni Levenson Wiener
name: Joy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/19
date added: 2022/12/19
shelves:
review:
[The silver lining of car maintenance: having time to read this book in a sitting.]

Wiener, like Loveless, approaches art quilts with layers of fabric arranged on fusible interfacing (alternatively, with small amounts of fabric glue). This book outlines some of the basics of composition, arranging elements, the usual content on colors, thread painting, and uses examples to show how to wield this knowledge effectively.

I was intrigued by her insistence that sclera be depicted with white fabric, as my college art professor insisted that sclera were not purely white; that said, I'm not sure how soon I'll be up to attempting to depict human faces, so this might be moot.

Wiener also notes that she uses clear or smoky monofilament thread; I am curious about how distinct the difference is between that and a more typical cotton or dual duty thread.

NB that I was not able to use the included DVD, but perhaps next time.
]]> 34030484 The award-winning art quilter shares her free-form technique for capturing the beauty of nature using collage and fusible web in this step-by-step guide.Two-time ArtPrize-winner Ann Loveless is known for creating stunning landscape quilts depicting the beautiful natural landscapes of her Lake Michigan home. In Landscape Art Quilts, Step-by-Step, she reveals the creative and technical processes behind some of her best-known designs.With step-by-step instructions, Ann demonstrates her free-form method of cutting and placing fabrics on fusible web and finishing with free-motion machine quilting. By learning Ann’s original techniques, you will be able to create your own art quilts based on your favorite landscape photographs.]]> 175 Ann Loveless Joy 4 4.58 2015
author: Ann Loveless
name: Joy
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/11
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 6440 Ivanhoe with his concerns about contemporary events.
Scott drew together the apparently opposing themes of historical reality and chivalric romance, social realism and high adventure, past and present.]]> 496 Walter Scott Joy 4
(an aside: part of why I hadn't read it sooner is that "Ivanhoe" as a title conveyed nothing whatsoever to me. Having now finished it, I will concede that Wilfrid of Ivanhoe is, perhaps, what the other English romances set in such a time and place don't have. But he's most interesting with his mask up, and the book's shifts in focus make the title seem ill-suited.)

Once again I combined visual reading (Project Gutenberg) with audiobook; Simon Prebble is EXCELLENT, doing distinct voices for every character and helping me through all those Norman names.

May write more thoughts later. ]]> 3.76 1819
author: Walter Scott
name: Joy
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1819
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/29
date added: 2022/11/30
shelves:
review:
What a fun, romantic read; I'm surprised I hadn't read it sooner. I'd managed to avoid it so thoroughly that several items (the true identities of both Desdichado and the Black Knight, Athelstane's fate, Bois-Guilbert's fate, where exactly Rebecca ends up) were surprising to me.

(an aside: part of why I hadn't read it sooner is that "Ivanhoe" as a title conveyed nothing whatsoever to me. Having now finished it, I will concede that Wilfrid of Ivanhoe is, perhaps, what the other English romances set in such a time and place don't have. But he's most interesting with his mask up, and the book's shifts in focus make the title seem ill-suited.)

Once again I combined visual reading (Project Gutenberg) with audiobook; Simon Prebble is EXCELLENT, doing distinct voices for every character and helping me through all those Norman names.

May write more thoughts later.
]]> 240815 96 Ruth Stiles Gannett 0440421365 Joy 4
A second cute episode, which sets us up nicely for Elmer to seek out Blueland.]]> 4.08 1950
author: Ruth Stiles Gannett
name: Joy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1950
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/07
date added: 2022/11/07
shelves:
review:
Having freed the dragon from the ropes and crank of the ruthless, domineering animals of Wild Island, Elmer must figure out how to cross the sea, where the dragon can rest and eat, and what has the King Canary sick with curiosity.

A second cute episode, which sets us up nicely for Elmer to seek out Blueland.
]]> 34898 96 Ruth Stiles Gannett 0440421217 Joy 4
I mostly read this to see how the Netflix show/movie/whatever might compare; alas, my expectations are not high.]]> 4.09 1948
author: Ruth Stiles Gannett
name: Joy
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1948
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/07
date added: 2022/11/07
shelves:
review:
A sweet and fun little book. Intriguing by virtue of the narrator sharing everything his father did, rather than some generic omniscient narrator, and by virtue of his father's bag's contents being unfailingly useful.

I mostly read this to see how the Netflix show/movie/whatever might compare; alas, my expectations are not high.
]]>