Nonfiction November: Choosing What to Read (week 2)

 

I am really enjoying Nonfiction November--reading other bloggers' posts is opening new possibilities for adventures in nonfiction. Thanks to the hosts for putting this together!

Week 2 (11/4-11/8) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking. 

I generally read around specific nonfiction areas--history, archeology, literary biography and lit crit, gardening, birding, and travel. And within these basic areas, I have favorite subjects--English history, Roman history, American Civil War, Shakespeare/Austen/Dickens as well as other favorite authors. I like to read up on places I like to visit (Maine, Italy, California) and places I hope to visit (Everglades, the Dordogne, Canadian Rockies, etc). 

I rarely if ever read self-help books, although I will read and collect cookbooks that are connected to favorite authors, locations, or cuisines. I rarely read celebrity memoirs, although I loved Yes, Please by Amy Poehler and Bossy Pants by Tina Fey. I sometimes read things like Educated by Tara Westover if the subject captures my interest, the writing is reputed to be good, and people I trust really like it.

I think I am immune to titles and covers because I mostly pick nonfiction based on liking the author (Erik Larson, for example), hearing about a book that is in my zone, or trusting a positive review from a fellow blogger. However, I do appreciate wonderful covers and titles, and they may push a book up on the TBR stack. I get frustrated by derivative titles and covers that seem to be clinging to the coattails of a successful book.

I absolutely love the cover of Around the World in 80 Plants, by Jonathan Drori. This book was a feast for the eyes, heart, and soul, and I think the cover invites a reader like me into the beautiful and exotic world revealed in the book.

NonFiction November - Week 1

I am excited to be participating in Nonfiction November this year (see what happens when you retire!). 

This week's prompt is hosted by Heather at Based on a True Story, and it is: Your Year in Nonfiction

Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? 

I do like nonfiction and tend to read around particular topics (birding, gardening, archeology, literary biography) as well as picking a pet topic for the year and diving into it (aka "going down a rabbit hole").  This year's pet topic was the American Civil War, and believe me, there are thousands on nonfiction titles on this topic!

So far this year, I've read 12 nonfiction books out of 63, which is 19%. I am happy with that ratio. Here are my titles with links to the ones I've posted about. They're also so grouped by general topic.

• Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, by Judi Dench - absolutely loved this book. As a fan of Dame Judi and a long-time devotee of Shakespeare, it ticked all the boxes for me. I would say this was my favorite nonfiction--fun, interesting, insightful, thoughtful.

• The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan - a slow listen, literally, I had to speed up the pace on the audio version as Tan is a slow reader, but I loved it.
• Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World, by Christian Cooper - an excellent memoir of a birder I admire on so many levels.

• The Elegant and Edible Garden: Design a Dream Kitchen Garden to Fit Your Personality, Desires, and Lifestyle, by Linda Vater - an Xmas present and a feast for the eyes, with lots of good tips for garden design and maintenance.
• Seeds: One Man's Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton, by Richard Horan - interesting and glad I read it but a few issues, so only 3 stars.

• Bruno's Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from a French Country Kitchen, by Martin Walker and Julia Watson - I love Martin Walker's Bruno mysteries, mostly for the cooking, eating, gardening, imbibing, and location, but the mysteries are also good! This was another Xmas gift, and I loved reading it cover to cover.

• The Civil War, by Bruce Catton - I did a major deep dive on the American Civil War this year, reading a host of fiction (Jeff Shaara) and nonfiction as well as a Great Courses Lecture series. Bruce Catton is one of the most prolific writers on the topic, and this book was an excellent overview of the war.
• The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, by Erik Larson - I love Erik Larson and have read most of his books. This was very focused and extremely well-written. A good addition to the vast amount of stuff written on the topic.
• Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, by James M. McPherson - this had been on my TBR shelf for literally years, and I finally took the time to read it. Exhaustive and excellent.

• Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics, by Tom Keymer - I read all three bios with my JASNA Denver/Boulder book club. I'm a lifetime member of JASNA and always try to read something by or about her every year. This was a fairly good book--not a lot of new insight but well-presented.
• Jane Austen, by Margaret Kennedy - an outstanding bio of Austen from the mid-20th century. Read it if you can find it! I needed to interlibrary loan it to get it.
• Obstinate Heart: Jane Austen, A Biography, by Valerie Grosvenor Myer - 3 stars at best. There are other, better bios of Austen out there.

I'm looking forward to finding other bloggers with similar tastes and interests and to discover new books to put on my TBR and wish lists!

Spell the Month in Books: October

Reviews From the Stacks

This is my first time playing along with Spell the Month, hosted by Reviews from the Stacks. This month's twist is to pick books from your favorite genre. Since I am a long-time classics reader, I had lots on my Read shelf to choose from.

O is for Of Mice and Men by one of my favorite authors, the incomparable John Steinbeck. I first read it in high school, but I've read it a few times since and cried every time.

C is for Cannery Row, also by Steinbeck and a truly lovely story that I have read many times.

T is for A Town Like Alice, by Neville Shute. I've read this three times and loved it each time.

O is for Oliver Twist by Mr. Charles Dickens -- my first Dickens and one I have reread many times.

B is for The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton -- unfinished but a wonderful story about American heiresses marrying English lords.

E is for Emma by the one and only Jane Austen. How could I not have an Austen on this list, and Emma is definitely in contention for Austen at her peak.

R is for Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, the grand dame of psychological thrillers. I first read this as a young teenager and have read it countless times since then.

Carrie Soto is Back...and Magpie Murders

I just finished listening to Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid and was blown away by how good it was. I cannot remember which of my book blogger friends raved about it, but thanks to whomever it was!

Carrie is a 37-year-old former tennis star--the best in the world when she retired--and she comes out of retirement in order to try to win one or more tennis slam tournaments (i.e., Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, or US Open) in order to keep her record of most wins intact

The first part of the book recounts her rise as a tennis star--coached by her dapper Argentian father--which is the usual story of a supremely gifted athlete who sacrifices a normal life in pursuit of a professional sports career. The second part details Carrie's training, both physical and mental, as she prepares for her comeback. I loved hearing about the intricacies of tennis strategy--being able to have the physical capabilities and muscle memory to literally think on your feet in the split second you have to return a shot was just fascinating. And the training involved to compete at this level was truly inspiring.

The story itself is great, with tennis and sport providing the vehicle for Reid to explore ego, self-doubt, family, ambition, resilience, and fear of failure, not to mention the inequalities between men's and women's sports, how they covered, sponsored, and reported on. But the writing is awesome--most of it is first-person narrative, with some sportscaster copy thrown, and Carrie's voice is so authentic, believable, and compelling. She is often not nice--she is nicknamed "The Battleaxe" by the press--but she is definitely a heroine. 

And the ending is superb. Immensely satisfying, both thematically and in terms of plot. I highly recommend the audio version. Five stars!

I also recently finished Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz and followed it up by watching season one of the TV series on PBS. Basically, it is a mystery story within a story, which is very clever. 

Susan Ryeland is an editor for a small UK publishing firm whose best-sellers are a detective-based 1950's-era mystery series by a very disagreeable author. The book starts with Susan sitting down to read the latest in the series, and so we get to read it along with her. I liked it--good setting (very Agatha Christie-esque), good characters, good whodunit...but we and Susan don't get to discover whodunit because the final chapter is missing. Cut to the frame story and Susan turns detective to track down not only the missing chapter, but also the nasty author commits suicide, and Susan suspects murder. Great plot--so much fun to read.

The 6-part TV series was okay--they ended up trying to tell the two stories simultaneously with the same cast playing characters in both worlds, and the worlds overlapped in that Atticus Pünd (the 1950's detective) visits Susan and they compare notes regarding the two mysteries. Very meta. And, very confusing. I'm not sure this treatment worked all that well, but I understand why it was done this way. Also, Horowitz wrote the screenplay for the mini-series. 

I think the book was clever, but the TV series was too clever, and that got in the way of it being as good as it could have been.

Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pünd join forces to solve both mysteries.

The sequel to Magpie Murders is Moonflower Murders, and I believe that is the focus of season two of the TV series. Has anybody read it? Should I?

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Brags or Confessions

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a while, but I loved the idea of this one, so here goes.

BTW, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Bookish Brags (or Confessions!) (what are you proud of or… not-so proud of in your bookish life?) 

I always say that reading is not a competitive sport, but there are a few things that are braggable...

1. I have read/watched all of Shakespeare's plays at least once.
2. I have read all of Dickens's novels at least once.
3. I read all of Austen by age 21, the novels multiple times.
4. I started my blog in 2008, and while I haven't been super consistent with my posts, I haven't gone on hiatus since then. I love the book blogging world.

And then there are those things that I must confess...

1. When I was a teenager--probably 14 or 15 and reading Pride and Prejudice yet again in late June in the skating rink locker room between sessions, a fellow figure skater asked what I was reading. I showed her and she asked why, since school was out of session. I lied and said it was required reading for the Fall semester. In fact, I was reading it because I loved Jane Austen and P&P.
2. I have sworn off ever trying to read Henry James and Virginia Woolf. I have tried on many occasions, and they are just so much work! And for me, the payoff just isn't there.
3. I love most of Philippa Gregory's books, even though she plays fast and loose with historical fact, and I always say that historical fiction should not alter facts to suit the story line. But, she just tells such good stories!
4. I don't like The Princess Bride by William Goldman--I love the movie, but the book left me cold.

So there you have it, true confessions and a couple of self-congratulations!

What are you proud of, and what do you have to confess?

Murder and Mayhem - Fall Reading, Watching, Learning, and Playing

I didn't do the R.I.P. challenge this year. Not from not wanting to, or not trying. I simply couldn't figure out the logistics based on Instagram posts. I tried searching for a hosting blog, but that seems to be old school. I guess I am feeling my age, but I couldn't figure out how to sign up. post, etc. So, I punted and just read a bunch of mysteries sans challenge.

The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman - 4th in the fantastic Thursday Murder Club series, I gave this 5 stars on GoodReads as there is some seriously beautiful, heartbreaking, breathtaking writing that isn't part of the overall whodunit but puts this book outside the realm of a simple mystery novel. And the mystery part of the book is really good--we dive into the world of antiques, antiquities, fraud, and heroin smuggling, and there are some wonderful characters in this world, some of whom end up dead and some don't. And the fab four are as wonderful as ever. I am so looking forward to the Netflix movie that just finished production.

The Zig-Zag Girl, by Elly Griffiths - I have been hearing good things about Griffiths's Ruth Galloway series but decided (mainly because my library had a copy) to start with book 1 of her Stephens and Mephisto series. Set in Brighton in the 1950s, not long after WWII has ended, the book features a police detective and a famous (on the UK vaudeville circuit) magician who have to figure out who is murdering people using magician's acts horribly gone wrong. Good writing, good setting, good characters--I will definitely be reading more by this author.

Vanishing Edge, by Claire Kells - I've gotten burnt out on the Nevada Barr series, so when Lark from Lark Writes blogged about a mystery series based in National Parks, I knew I had to check it out. This is the first book in the series--set in Sequoia NP in CA. The main character, Felicity Harland, is a former FBI agent now working as a detective with the NPS and her sidekick in this novel (and hopefully into the future) is the brawny, sweet park ranger known as Hux. They are a wonderful pair, with some chemistry, but lots of smarts and wilderness skills. I enjoyed the mystery, setting, and characters and already have the next book in the series on my nightstand.

The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware - I picked up this book on vacation in WA state and devoured it while traveling. I had heard lots of buzz about it earlier in the year, and it was a "can't put it down" thriller. Lo, the main character, works for a travel magazine in the UK and is lucky enough to get chosen for a major perk--a berth on a luxury cruise in the North Atlantic. She stumbles into a mystery and finds herself in grave danger in her attempt to figure out who she saw in the supposedly empty cabin next to hers, and what happened to her.

Murder in Chianti, by Camilla Trinchieri - book 1 of yet another mystery series, and this one was also recommended by Lark. Again, I have found a new series to love, as I really enjoy reading books set in Italy, and in this case, we have a former NYPD cop who has relocated to Tuscany and gets roped into helping solve a murder. Again, great setting, interesting set of villagers and side characters, and lots of discussion of great food and drink.

Fatal Pursuit, by Martin Walker - finally, not a new series! This is book 9 in the fabulous Bruno series set in the Dordogne valley in France. One of my absolute favorites in the entire series so far -- we have another WWII mystery, this time involving a gorgeous racing car (only 1 of 4 made) that went missing with a French resistance driver on his way from Alsace to the Dordogne. We also have a rally car event with Bruno as a reluctant participant, as well as the usual horses, dogs, friends, baguettes, fabulous food and drink, and cultural history.

I'm halfway through Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz, which I am loving and will wax poetic about in a later blog post.

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Still reading up on the Civil War--1/3 of the way through another Bruce Catton, this time The Coming Fury, which covers a lot of the same ground as The Demon of Unrest, but terrific nonetheless. I also watch Manhunt on Apple TV about the search for John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators involved in the Lincoln assassination. Tobias Menzies was excellent as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, sometime political rival, and friend and champion. Definitely worth watching.

Also, just started watching The New Look on Apple TV about Christian Dior and Coco Chanel during WWII in Paris and afterwards. Absolutely riveting. Honestly, I am glad I no longer use Chanel No. 5. Coco should have been prosecuted as a Nazi spy.

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Still harvesting tomatoes--what a bumper crop. My freezer is full of tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes,  and we've been eating a lot of tomato soup, salsa, bruschetta, and tomato sandwiches. And I have given away so many bags to friends, neighbors, and the food share.

I just started piano lessons--I haven't played in >30 years and I was mostly self-taught, so this is great fun and challenging.

Gearing up for quilting season. I have a king-size quilt that I am almost done quilting, and then there is a Civil War era quilt that I would love to make this winter.

And that's a wrap. Hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy and reading lots!

Travelogue: Wooden Boats, Port Townsend, Olympic NP, Mt Rainier

 

100s of beautiful wooden boats on display in Port Townsend

Got back last Saturday from a wonderful trip to Washington state, where we lunched in Gig Harbor, spent two wonderful days at the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, visited Cape Flattery (the most northwestern point in the lower US 48), hiked in Olympic National Park (Lake Quinault), enjoyed the waterfalls of Mt Rainier National Park, and revisited Tacoma.

This was our second time attending the Wooden Boat Festival, and I hope not our last. My husband has been gearing up to build a wooden sailboat for a few years and hopefully he'll be able to get underway this fall. We also spent a morning on the beautiful Adventuress, sailing around the harbor. The Adventuress is a 133-foot schooner, originally launched in 1913.

Sister ship of the Adventuress, which was sailing at the same time we were.

Port Townsend is a lovely town, filled with historic buildings--we stayed at the Palace Hotel, which is just blocks from the festival--on the third floor, no elevator, but full of Victorian charm.

Obligatory selfie at Cape Flattery.

The rugged coast of Cape Flattery, where the wind never ceases.

There are several temperate rainforests in Olympic National Park. We visited a couple near beautiful Lake Quinault, which were surreal. Seemed like we were walking through Middle Earth--mossy, misshapen, ghostly, wonderful. Made me want to reread The Overstory.

On to Mt Rainier NP, which we had not visited before. It was cool and misty and socked in for almost the whole visit, and we never actually saw the mountain in all its glory. We did enjoy hiking--very cool vegetation that is so different from what I'm used to in CO--and there were lots of waterfalls. We ate both nights at a Ukranian restaurant next to our hotel in Ashford, which is just outside the park, and I discovered the joy that is a chicken piroshki.

Tractor carved out of wood, near the Ukrainian restaurant.

Last night in Tacoma. Tacoma gets a bad rap as a poor cousin to Seattle, but one of our daughters went to University of Puget Sound and we really fell in love with the town visiting her over the four years she was there. We did get a view of Mt Rainier at dinner in Tacoma at a waterfront restaurant. Figures!

Tacoma waterfront along Ruston Way--what's not to love!!!

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to go to the local bookshops and buy something. So here's what I got on this trip:

Gig Harbor - The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware (which I devoured during the trip)

Port Townsend - Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon, by Melissa L. Sevigny (hoping to start shortly)

Big Book Summer Challenge 2024 - Wrap Up

I love this challenge, hosted by Sue at Book by Book and have been doing it for years now. This was a particularly good summer for big books for me, and I am proud of having read seven of these chunksters between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Table for Two, by Amor Towles

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, Judi Dench

Mythos, by Stephen Fry

Chain of Thunder: Siege of Vicksburg, by Jeff Shaara

The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson

The Civil War, by Bruce Catton

Gods and Generals, by Jeff Shaara

I do like reading big books. I like spending a significant amount of time with a family, or in a place, or diving into a subject or theme. Sometimes starting a new book is lots of work--you have to figure out who's who, etc., but a big book provides a place to wallow for a while. Maybe this is why I like series so much--they are really like one ginormous book.

Hope everyone had a great summer (or winter if you are down under), with or without big books. I personally am ready for the seasonal change--crisp mornings, cool evenings, harvesting and preparing for the winter, and celebrating. My birthday as well as my husband's and all three kids' are between October 1 and November 26, and then we have the holidays. This year my birthday lands on Election Day in the US (and Guy Fawkes Day in the UK), so it will be an interesting birthday, to say the least.

Civil War - Chain of Thunder: Siege of Vicksburg, Battle for the Mississippi

 

Another chunkster from Jeff Shaara as part of the great American Civil War deep dive, A Chain of Thunder details the siege of Vicksburg and the overall U.S. Grant campaign to gain full access of the Mississippi River for the Union.

As with his other war novels, Shaara's narrative shifts among various players on both sides, generals and other officers (of course) Grant and Sherman for the North and Pemberton for the South, as well as a Union soldier from Wisconsin (Fritz aka Dutchie Bauer) whom I met in the previous novel, A Blaze of Glory, about Shiloh, and several civilians from Vicksburg who remained until the final surrender of the fort by the Confederates. 

The main civilian given voice in this novel is Lucy Spence, a young woman, only 18 years old, who is on her own after her mother dies (her father had already abandoned the family). She is taken in by neighbors when the town's residents move into caves to shelter from the constant shelling by the Union Army, but she volunteers as a nurse and so through her eyes we see first-hand the horror and pain of the battlefield survivors.

All of the military personnel featured in the novel as well as Dutchie and Lucy and her neighbors were real people, and at the end of the book, as always, the author provides a glimpse into their lives post-war.

These novels are really such an excellent way to learn about not only the details of the campaigns and the military strategy, which I do find fascinating, but also how the people actually lived through the experience, including the politics, the rumors, and the hopes and fears that are not tempered by hindsight. For example, I have read several non-fiction accounts of the Vicksburg campaign, and they all rather glibly mention how the town's residents lived in caves, but reading a fictional account of how the residents actually had to live (i.e., digging out the caves, putting up supporting timbers, figuring out how cook and what to cook as food stores ran out and starvation set in, how to clean themselves, etc.) brings home so much more powerfully what was endured and what was sacrificed.

I also really enjoyed reading about the role that the engineers played on both sides in devising ingenious solutions to tough military problems. In particular, the "Coonskins Tower," constructed by a lieutenant out of discarded railroad ties and that enabled Union sharpshooters to have a clear shot at the Confederate ramparts is a great example. Another is the second earthen wall constructed overnight by the Confederate soldiers under the direction of their chief engineer after the Union artillery blasted through one of the outer walls late one afternoon in preparation for a massive assault the next morning.

As you can tell, I'm not nearly through with my deep dive, and this book was another exceptional piece of balanced writing by a wonderful historical fiction author who respects his source material.

And yes, at 562 pages, this book most definitely is part of the #BigBookSummer of 2024.

Table for Two: Fictions - Amor Towles

Table for Two: Fictions, the latest book from the wonderful Amor Towles, is divided into two parts, New York and Los Angeles. The New York section consists of six short stories, five of which are definitely NYC stories. The sixth, which also happens to be the first in the book, is mostly set in Russia in 1917 as the country convulses into a communist state. The Los Angeles section is actually a novella, featuring Eve Ross from The Rules of Civility, which I haven't yet read. That fact didn't stand in the way of my enjoying the LA story immensely.

In fact, I enjoyed every single one of the fictions. Towles is just such a remarkable writer--not only is his prose elegant, but he writes such interesting stories. How he can know so much about the music world, the art world, the inner workings of Hollywood in 1939, and all the other arcane stuff that give such meat to his stories never fails to amaze me.

The first story, "The Line," is the one mostly set in Russia, and the premise actually made me laugh out loud. I loved how Towles was able to use the setting to tell a wonderful story about what motivates people, regardless of the political ideology under which they are living.

All of the short stories do a fine job of providing a wonderful ironic twist to complete the story, which is a hallmark of great short stories.

The weakest story was "The Bootlegger" because the main character was unbelievably clueless and the resolution was fairly predictable. Not bad, but not up to the standard of the rest of the stories.

After reading "The Didomenico Fragment," which is the last of the New York stories, I want to return to NYC and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art and see the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio. In the story, the protagonist, a former art dealer with Sotheby's, takes a young relative to the Met and I fell in love with his description of this studiolo.

The walls of the studiolo are inlaid wood, which creates an illusion of 3D objects.

The "Eve in Hollywood" novella that comprises the Los Angeles section of the book was so good, and I got completely caught up in the setting (1930s Hollywood), and the characters, from a fading matinee idol, to a retired cop, to a plucky bellboy who is an aspiring stunt man, to Eve's best friend, Olivia de Havilland, who happens to be starring in Gone With the Wind at the time. Eve is a larger-than-life character, the type that myths are built around. Beautiful but scarred, self-assured and fierce. I can see why Towles wanted to write more of her story. I can see a whole series of books based on Eve.

I also loved Eve's list of 20 things to do in Los Angeles. Now, I want to go to LA and do them! Although that was a list from 1939. I wonder how many things on the list are still a thing?

And this is yet one more chunkster for the Big Book Summer Challenge 2024, clocking in at 464 pages. It is turning out to be a great summer for big books. That's what retiring will do for your reading life!