My Favorite Books of 2024

I read 60 books this year and so I had many choices when it came to compiling my list of  favorites for 2024.  These aren't necessarily the best or the most critically acclaimed books I read this year but they are the books I liked the best.  Two of the authors: Tony Horwitz and George Gissing I have read before.  The remaining seven are new to me and so in no particular order here is my list of favorites for 2024: 

Not sure if I will read 60 books in 2025.  I might go for 50 books instead.  And Libby is such a wonderful reading service. Five of my favorite books I was able to borrow through Libby.  

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year and that we read alot of great books in 2025!

Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

"There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it. On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry would’ve called herself the former, but by Wednesday she wasn’t as sure. If she was trying to live, then why would she be walking through her family’s farmhouse carrying an Atlas jar of gasoline, pouring that gasoline on the kitchen floor, the dining table, dousing the settee in the den? .. Was she planning to live, or trying to die? There were twenty-seven Black farming families in California’s Lucerne Valley in 1915. Adelaide and her parents had been one of them. After today there would only be twenty-six." - Victor Lavalle, Lone Women

I love books in which a character fleeing trouble or looking for a new start decides to pack their bags and head to hopefully greener pastures.  And when Lone Women begins 31 year old Adelaide Henry is escaping a very bad situation.  Her parents have been murdered and Adelaide is setting fire to their home.

What happened?  Did Adelaide kill her parents or was it someone or something else?  Regardless, Adelaide knows she can't stay in Lucerne Valley and so she decides to escape to Big Sandy, MT, a small rural community where the government is giving out free land to anyone willing to make a go of it.  Adelaide brings with her some books and a mysterious locked steamer trunk.  But if she is looking for safety Big Sandy may not be the place to find it.  In fact some of the town's people are as scary as what she is trying to flee from.  

Lone Women is a combination western and supernatural horror novel.  You find out early what the steamer trunk contains but learning this secret didn't spoil the book for me.  Adelaide is a sympathetic character and I became invested in her struggle to escape her past and start a new life.  But as Adelaide learns you can't leave your past or your family behind.  As much as you may want to move on, the guilt stays with you.

All of the characters we meet in Big Sandy are well drawn and they have their own secrets.  I recommend this novel and Victor LaValle is a writer worth checking out.

Christmas Books and Movies

It's the holiday season and I really enjoy Christmas novels and movies and so I decided to make a list of my favorites:

THE BOOKS

When I moved down to Florida in 2011 Burning Bright was one of the books I brought with me and I have it still (if I can locate where I placed it)  It's an anthology. Three stories set in Crescent Cove, VT.  And in each story a woman who is having trouble in her life around the holidays enters a candle shop and the candle each woman chooses has a certain magic to it which will lead to a happy ending.  Loved it.  And Magggie Shayne, Anne Stuart and Judith Arnold are very fine writers who will get you in the holiday spirit!

I keep telling myself I must read Fried Green Tomatoes and I will but in the meantime years ago I did read A Redbird Christmas which I highly recommend.  Time for a reread.

I purchased Christmas Witness Survival several weeks ago not knowing the author or what to expect.  But the plot interested me: 

Fleeing after discovering her fiancé is a murderer, Hailey Davenport thinks nowhere is safe this Christmas. Trusting another man is the last thing Hailey wants, but she reluctantly finds refuge in the back of Michael “Chap” Chapman’s truck. The security expert won’t let her face hired gunmen alone—even when danger follows them to his ranch" Goodreads

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel.  Hailey and Michael are characters with troubled pasts but they are well drawn and I really felt the chemistry between. them.  I intend to check out more books from Jane Choate and the Love Inspired Suspense series.

THE MOVIES

I saw A Town Without Christmas many years ago and what you want in a romantic film is chemistry and Patricia Heaton and Rick Roberts are wonderful together.  Also Peter Falk is very good as the angel who brings them together.  My only regret is that A Town Without Christmas doesn't get shown on TV anymore and that's a shame.

Discovered The Holly And The Ivy a few years ago when it was shown on Turner Classic Movies.  What a wonderful film with a great cast.  And the two aunts that arrive for the holidays are quite the pair!

No need to watch any other version of A Christmas Carol in my opinion.  The great actor Alistair Sim owns the role of Scrooge.  

Loved Prancer and Sam Elliot is so good as an apple farmer who is trying to raise his young daughter but he is struggling after the death of his wife.  And then over the holidays a reindeer arrives.

So those are my picks and if you want to share your favorite books and films for the holidays I would love to hear.

The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes

"Never had there been a more confiding or trusting gentleman than the lodger, and yet in some ways he was so secret, so—so peculiar. She thought of the bag—that bag which had rumbled about so queerly in the chiffonnier. Something seemed to tell her that tonight the lodger had taken that bag out with him. And then she thrust away the thought of the bag ... Of course, the lodger was eccentric, otherwise he wouldn't be their lodger at all—he would be living in quite a different sort of way with some of his relations, or with a friend in his own class"

The Lodger (1913) by Marie Belloc Lowndes has been on my TBR list for some time.  It's a short novel based on the Jack The Ripper murders.  The setting is East London, the 1880's and when the novel begins we are introduced to a middle aged couple, Mr. and Mrs Bunting. A few years back they bought a home hoping they could attract paying guests.  But business has fallen off and the couple has become so poor that Mr. Bunting has given up buying his morning paper.  

And then a mysterious gentleman by the name of Mr. Sleuth arrives. He needs a place to stay and is willing to pay the Buntings generous rent for a few of the empty upstairs rooms which he requires for his privacy. The Buntings are thrilled and Mr. Sleuth becomes their lodger. 

Meanwhile Mr. Bunting can once again buy his morning paper and he becomes interested, like all of London, in reading about the Avenger murders.  Young women are being murdered in the East End. The police know it's the same killer because he leaves a note by their bodies: "The Avenger".  

Mrs Bunting doesn't want to hear about such gory stuff.  Instead she is delighted with Mr. Sleuth.  He is a gentleman, very generous and he gives the Buntings no trouble at all.  And so if he has a peculiar habit of walking outdoors late at night and coming back at 3:00 AM Mrs Bunting isn't concerned until things begin to add up. Mrs Bunting keeps her growing suspicion about the lodger to herself, not informing her husband.  And there is also Daisy, Mr. Buntings' daughter from his first marriage and Joe Chandler, a young police detective.  

The Lodger held my interest but when it comes to mysteries and suspense novels I have read better.  But others over at Amazon have rated The Lodger 4 and 5 stars and this book has the historical significance of being the first novel to be published based on the Jack The Ripper murders.  So you might want to give The Lodger a try.

I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

The Nether World by George Gissing

"Well, look here. Supposin' he died an' left most to her; an' then supposin' she was to go off; would Jo have all her tin?

Course he would.

Clem mused, eating her lower lip. 'But supposin' Jo was to go off first, after the old bloke? Should I have all he left?'

I think so, but I'm not sure.' '

You think so? And then should I have all hers? If she had a accident, you know."

George Gissing is one of my favorite writers and The Nether World (1889) is the third novel of his which I have now read and it did not disappoint.  But if you are new to Gissing I would begin with The Odd Women or New Grubb Street. The Nether World is a great book and it will be on my best books of 2024 list but it is depressing. Even the title gives you a clue, the setting being a very poor part of late 19th century London and the lives and the struggles of the people who live there.

And at the core of The Nether World is an inheritance.  An elderly gentleman, Michael Snowden, returns to London a wealthy man.  One of his sons passed away and left Michael a fortune in his will.  But Michael's attitude towards money is not what you would expect.  It doesn't mean much to him.  Michael is more interested in using the money to help the poor in the little time he has left in his life. 

Michael also has a granddaughter Jane who he has never met.  Jane is the daughter of his other son, Joseph Snowden, and Joseph is a disreputable character abandoning his young daughter Jane to the care of Mrs Peckover and her daughter Clem who abuse poor Jane and treat her as a servant.  Michael returning to London is able to rescue Jane and has plans to leave her the bulk of his fortune in the hope that she will use it to help the poor.

Joseph Snowden gets wind of this and promptly returns to London to reconnect with his daughter Jane but she is a young woman now and has plans to marry Sidney Kirkwood who is a good man and loves her.  Joseph cannot let this happen since Jane and Sidney are set to inherit all of his father's money.

In addition to the Snowdens we have the Hewett family. Their struggles involve a separate storyline which is no less fascinating.  And for me the most tragic character in The Nether World is Clara Hewett.  She is young, attractive and ambitious.  Raised in a very poor family she runs away at age 17 with the hope of becoming a famous actress.  

And Clara has talent and beauty.  But halfway through this novel after landing the leading role in a play a jealous rival does something so vicious to Clara that it shocked me and this does seem to be a theme that runs through The Nether World.  Poverty with no hope for the future ends up in tragedy for some of the characters in this book. Others turn to criminality and cruelty and a few like Jane Snowden and Sidney Kirkwood are able to keep their humanity and kindness.  But SPOILER ALERT no one gets a happy ending. 

And yet I still recommend The Nether World.  It's an excellent novel and George Gissing who is not as well known as he should be is such a talented and quintessential late Victorian author.  And I won't go into it here but George Gissing had a life that was a Victorian novel in itself.  The man knew his territory.

Publisher's Weekly Top 10 Books of 2024

I haven't posted in awhile because I am reading, and very much enjoying, The Nether World by George Gissing.  He's one of my favorite writers but the Nether World is a long book and so I hope to have something posted in a week.  

In the meantime I wanted to check in and Publisher's Weekly has listed their top books for 2004.  I was glad to see My Friends by Hisham Matar made the list.  I also must read James and Travelling On The Path of Joni Mitchell sounds interesting.  Here is the full Publisher's Weekly list of their top ten books for 2024:

All Fours by Miranda July

James by Percival Everett

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle

The Heart That Fed: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War by Carl Sciacchitano

Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai, trans. from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet

My Friends by Hisham Matar

Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers

When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz.

As I look at this list I am so grateful to Libby which I discovered earlier this year.  It has really changed and improved my reading life.  So many titles are available through Libby.  It's a great service.

Hope everyone is having a great Autumn!

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

The Safekeep (2024) by Yael Van Der Wouden is one of six books short-listed for this year's Booker Award.  I have been on hold for this book since July and it was worth the wait.  The Safekeep is a haunting, sensual novel, beautiful prose and the fact that this is the author's debut is remarkable 

The Safekeep is set in Overijssel, a rural community in the Netherlands, and the year is 1961.  People in Overijssell don't talk about World War II as much anymore and the country has structurally rebuilt itself since the war years. 

 

And when the novel begins we are introduced to three siblings: Louis, Isabel and Hendrik.  They are in their late 20's Their mother has recently passed away.  Louis and Hendrik no longer live at home and have moved on with their lives.  But Isabel continues to live in the house they grew up in.

Isabel lives alone.  The only person she interacts with is the maid who comes in to cook and do housework.  Isabel is a recluse and she likes it that way.  She has no friends and prefers to tend to her garden.  And lately she has been counting her dishes and silverware to make sure the maid isn't stealing from her.  

And then Louis introduces Isabel and Hendrik to his latest girlfriend, Eva.  Louis tells them he is serious about Eva.  But Hendrick and Isabel have been here before wiith Louis who gets bored quickly with the women in his life.  But they agree to join Louis and Eva at a restaurant.  Isabel takes an immediate dislike to Eva and does not disguise that fact.  Eva is perky, cheerful, the exact opposite of Isabel. 

The dinner ends and Isabel goes back to her house where she is safe.  But then Louis meets with Isabel a few days later.  His job will require him to spend the summer travelling.  Can Eva, who Louis lives with, stay with Isabel?  Eva can' t stay at Louis' place because there is a third roommate who lIves with them, a man, and it wouldn't be appropriate.  Isabel's response is no:  

"It’s my house,” she said, and it was out and she knew she had misspoken, and Louis knew it as well, barely letting her finish the phrase to cut in with an “Is it, Isabel?” He took a step forward. “Yours?” Isabel’s heart gave a dull thud. She looked away. Uncle Karel had promised the house to Louis, should he ever want it. The unspoken caveat was: should he ever want it for a family of his own. Isabel never had reason to worry: ... They would allow her to stay here, her brothers. Her uncle. They had to, where else could she go?" 

Isabel has really no choice but to let Eva stay with her and when Eva moves in Isabel is rude and silent.  Despite this Eva is cheerful and friendly.  Isabel in comparison is keeping close tabs on her silverware and the other objects around the house sure that first the maid and now Eva are stealing her things.  And that is as far as I can go with this novel without giving too much away.  

After I finished The Safekeep I watched an interview with the author Yael Van Der Wouden.  She was partly inspired to write The Safekeep because of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.  And I think the connection is that in both novels a house plays a major role in the story.  Both homes, Manderley in Rebecca and Isabel's home in The Safekeep are haunted, haunted by the past. There are two significant plot twists in this novel.  One I anticipated but the second twist which comes later in the book I did not see coming and it is powerful.

I will be pleased if the Booker comittee chooses The Safekeep for this year's prize.  But regardless Yael van Der Wouden is an excellent writer to watch

Some Shorter Reviews

My plan this year is to read 60 books and I am getting there.  I have read 49 so far!  But I didn't get around to reviewing all 49 books and so I wanted to mention three which I read earlier in the year and really enjoyed.  I read these books months ago and so I can't give the detailed review I would like but here are a few of my thoughts:

The Civil War continues to be such a relevant historical event in American history.  And earlier this year I decided to check out Tony Horwitz's Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (2011).  I was curious about the 19th century abolitionist John Brown. Who was he and what led him and 21 other men to the disastrous raid on the armory at Harper's Ferry, WV in 1859?  His fellow abolitionist Frederick Douglass warned Brown against the raid.  

But John Brown was a strict Calvinist who felt passionately that slavery was a sin against God.  He was right but the way he went about it was the problem.  It's a fascinating book and Tony Horwitz goes into John Brown's life, his family and the lives of the 21 men who joined him on the raid.  It's one of the best books I have read this year and I wish there were more books coming from Tony Horwitz but sadly he passed away in 2019.  But his books will live on and are so worth reading.

If you are interested in learning about The Florida Everglades and about South Florida, it's history and the eccentric characters who have lived here you need to check out: Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and The Politics of Paradise (2006) by Michael Grunwald. 

I found Swamp to be an interesting read that did not drag for me.  I would say though that it's a long book and needs to be listened to in audio.  That's how I read it and Michael Grunwald's writing and Adam Verner's narration are the perfect combination

"Ramona despaired. Nobody understood. She wanted to behave herself. Except when banging her heels on the bedroom wall, she had always wanted to behave herself. Why couldn’t people understand how she felt? She had only touched Susan’s hair in the first place because it was so beautiful, and the last time—well, Susan had been so bossy she deserved to have her hair pulled"

And for a change of pace I also read Ramona The Pest (1968) by Beverly Cleary this year. It's the second book in Cleary's Ramona series.  Last year I read the first book Beezus and Ramona. I liked it well enough but I finished it wondering why the Ramona series has attained such classic status.  And then this year it all became clear when I read Ramona The Pest which is excellent.

Ramona is now in kindergarten and she is learning that she can't have everything her own way.  But this is not a book where Ramona gets her comeuppance.  Instead she is learning how to interact with her teacher, her fellow students and she is still maintaining her curiosity and spunky spirit.  If you have never read Ramona you must and I advise beginning with Ramona The Pest.

Hope everyone is doing well and Happy Reading!

The Mapmaker's Daughter by Laurel Corona

"It’s a mapmaker’s job to leave people unsatisfied.” Papa’s spirit whispers as I feel him take his place next to Judah and Simona. “Look at what is not there. Don’t be distracted by what is.” Bartolomeu Dias has rounded the bottom of Africa now. If my father were alive, he would no longer have to draw a vague line to the south, nor guess at legends like islands of gold, but I don’t think that is what he means. “Look at the interiors, look at the faraway places. See how little we know?” - Laurel Corona, The Mapmaker's Daughter

The Mapmaker's Daughter by Laurel Corona is the sixth book I have read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader and Baker.  It's a very well written and researched novel about a dark time in history, the Spanish Inquistion led by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain.  These two brutal leaders are determined that Spain will be an entirely Catholic country and they issue a decree that all Jews are to be expelled from Spain unless they convert.  

And when The Mapmaker's Daughter begins it is 1492 and we are introduced to Amalia Cresques.  She is 66 and has lived in Spain most of her life.  Jehuda Cresques her father was a talented mapmaker as was his father before him.  The family converted from Judiasm to Christianity before Amalia was born to avoid persecution..  But Amalia's mother always felt guilt about that and kept her faith behind closed doors.  This was dangerous because the authorities and the neighbors kept a watch on converts to Christianity and if you were caught observing the Sabbath or practicing any of the tenets of Judiasm you would be killed

And then in 1492 under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella and the barbaric Torquemada they issue a decree all Jews living in Spain are to be expelled from the country leaving all of their possessions behind.  Amalia Cresques sits in her room waiting to leave Spain with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  She wants to take her father's atlas with her which is a beautiful document and has so much meaning.  As Amalia ponders what to do she reflects on her life and we follow her journey.  Amalia is strong and very bright.  She is a translator and has seen alot in her 66 years and she shares what she has been through and learned with the reader.  

It was a terrible time and tragically the evil of antisemitism and a world divided by religion is still with us.  But Amalia is a character worth knowing, a courageous woman who like her mother is able to draw strength from her family and her Jewish faith.  It's a lesson for all of us.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. has an interesting topic this week: BOOKS ON MY FALL 2024 TO READ LIST.  And so I have chosen 10 books I hope to have read before the arrival of winter:

I hope everyone has a great Autumn and Happy Reading!

My Friends by Hisham Matar

"And yet I had imagined the others, the many more who attended the demonstration and then resumed their lives, able to walk away on their own two feet. I feel underwater when I think of them, because to think of them is to imagine that other, unharmed version of myself, who got back on the bus to Edinburgh, and could fly home for the summer, to sleep in his own house and swim in his childhood sea. The line that now separates me from my former self is the chasm that I remain unable to bridge". - Hisham Matar, My Fruends

In thinking about My Friends by Hisham Matar (lomglisted for this year's Booker Prize) I would describe it as a novel in which the narrator, Khaled Abd al Hady, reflects on his past and how one decision he made when first arriving in the UK as an 18 year old student dramatically altered the course of his life. 

My Friends begins in London.  It is 2016 and Khaled is now in his late 50's and seeing off his friend of many years, Hosam Zowa, who is moving to the US.  Hosam will not be returning to England and so this is a final goodbye.  Hosam leaves and Khaled spends the day walking around London visiting places with special meaning for him and reflecting on his life, his family, his friendship with Hosam and his friendship with Mustafa al Touny who eventally returned to Libya.

We learn that Khaled first arrived in the UK from Libya in 1983.  He had a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh where his plan was to earn a degree in literature.  Colonel Qaddafi ruled Libya at the time and you did not criticize the Qadaffi regime or your life would be in danger.  And though no fan of Qaddafi, Khaled wanted to stay in school, earn his degree, return to Libya and get on with his life.

But then in 1984, Mustafa, a fellow student, tells Khaled that there is going to be a demonstration in London in front of the Libyian Embassy and that they should go. Mustafa is a rebellious and impulsive young man.  Khaled in comparison doesn't want to go but he doesn't want to seem cowardly.  And since everyone at the demonstration will be masked what is the danger?  They can protest for awhile, show their support, and leave.

This demonstration at the center of the novel was a real event that occured on April 17, 1984.  We know of it because on that day Libyian officers stationed at a window inside the embassy opened fire on the demonstrators.  Eleven of the protestors were wounded and a young British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher was tragically killed.  Britain broke off all diplomatic relations with Libya after that.

And in the novel Khalid and Mustafa are among the eleven wounded.  They recover but because they had to spend weeks in a London hospital the Libyian government knows who they are and they cannot return to Libya.  They are granted asylum in Britain.  The novel progresses from there and in 1994 Khaled while visiting Paris meets his boyhood hero, the writer Hosam Zowa, who is also living in exile due to his opposition to Qadaffi. 

The three men, Khaled, Hosam and Mustafa form a bond and as the years go by their lives take different routes which Khaled shares with the reader as he walks through London reflecting on his life, his family, his friendships and what it means to live in exile.

I would say that My Friends is a political novel and a very good one.  The writing is first rate and thought-provoking.  And the author Hisham Matar has first hand experience with the subject matter. His father, Jaballa Matar, a vocal critic of Qaddafi was living in Cairo and abducted in 1990 by the Libyian secret police.  Hisham Matar never saw his father again and his memoir The Return about his search for what happened to his father was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2017.  A previous novel by Hisham Matar, In The Company of Men, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006.  

So having never heard of Hisham Matar I am glad I paid attention to this year's Booker Prize nominees.  I strongly recommend My Friends and now on to The Safekeep and Enlightenment which I have high hopes for as well.  

Rules Of Civility by Amor Towles

"In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.” - Amor Towles, Rules of Civility

Amor Towles is a critically acclaimed internationally best selling author and so I have been meaning to read him.  I thought I would begin with A Gentleman In Moscow but Rules Of Civilty is a shorter read.  And Olive from ABookOlive has raved about Rules of Civility on YouTube.  She has read this book nine times and always finds something new.  And so I was curious.

Rules of Civility is set in NYC.  And when the novel begins it is the 1960's and Katey Kontent and her husband are at the Museum of Modern Art viewing a photography exhibit by Walker Evans that he took of people riding the subways during the late 1930's.  

As Katey (who is the narrator of Rules Of Civility) looks at these photos she spots a photo  of someone she once knew, Tinker Grey. The first photograph of Tinker is from 1938.  He is handsome, young and wealthy.  But then she spots a second photo of Tinker from 1939 and it's clear that in the space of a year Tinker has come down in the world financially. He's poor but paradoxically he also looks younger and more at peace with himself.  

The rest of the novel transports us back to 1938 when Katey was 25, living in Manhattan and rooming with her friend Eve Ross.  Both girls decide on New Year's Eve, as 1938 approaches, to go to a jazz club which is where they first meet Tinker (Theodore) Grey.  As Katey tells us:

"He was terrific looking.  An upright five foot ten, dressed in black tie with a coat draped over his arm, he had brown hair and royal blue eyes and a small star-shaped blush at the center of each cheek. You could just picture his forebear at the helm of the Mayflower—with a gaze trained brightly on the horizon and hair a little curly from the salt sea air. —Dibs, said Eve" 

It will be through meeting Tinker that Katey and Eve enter NYC's high society.  Wealthy young people who live on Central Park West, drive expensive cars, wear the latest fashions and dine at The El Morocco, The Rainbow Room, 21, The Explorer Club.  Amor Towles through his narrator Katey Kontent goes into great detail describing this world.  Katey is both critical of it but also hooked.  

And to be frank the book by going into so much detail about the expensive restaurants, the clothes, the beautiful apartments, the parties etc was dragging for me.  I wasn't sensing a plot.  But its around page 240 that a truth is revealed about Tinker which for me was worth waiting for and the rest of the novel was a very fast read.  

Tinker Grey went from a character I liked and felt bad for at times to a fascinating character that I ended up being smitten with.  I finished the novel wanting to know what happened to him and how his life turned out.  I hope Amor Towles will one day tell us and because of Tinker I am giving Rules of Civility 4 stars.

Jane Austen At Home by Lucy Worsley

"The Austens ‘were not rich’, yet they lived among rich people, landed squires and well-educated clergymen.  They belonged to what’s been called the ‘pseudo-gentry’, aspiring to a genteel lifestyle without having quite enough cash to pay for it. Members of the ‘pseudo-gentry’ did not own land, but were still ‘gentry of a sort, primarily because they sought strenuously to be taken for gentry’.They thought of themselves as being above ‘the middling sort’, who were connected with trade and enterprise, and, ironically, often richer than the Austens" - Lucy Worsley, Jane Austen At Home

I am a little late for Jane Austen July but I am so glad I have  gotten around to reading Jane Austen at Home (2017) by Lucy Worsley.  And thank you Cath at Read-warbler for recommending this Austen biography which I found excellent and please check out Read-warbler linked under Blogs I Follow.

Jane Austen At Home is not a very long book but I agree with Cath it's densely written and so it's not a book to be read in a day or two.  But it's a fascinating read.  Lucy Worsley is a historian and she has done her research on the Austen family and what life was like in Georgian, England and the political events that were happening during Jane's life: The French Revolution and The Napoleanic Wars.  Jane's brothers were officers in the British Navy and so they set sail for distant lands.

Jane Austen in comparison never travelled very far from where she was born in Steventon, Hampshire.  But Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother Cassandra Leigh lived in quite a number of different homes during their lives particularly after their father passed away.  Jane's brothers helped out financially but they had families of their own to look after.  And so the three Austen women were living in increasingly diminished circumstances.  Not in poverty but money was definitely tight and a cause for worry.  

There is so much of interest in this book, so much I didn't know and I won't go into too much detail.  But I would like to mention Jane Austen's father, George Austen.  He did not have an easy childhood but George Austen worked hard and became a parson.  He also enjoyed reading novels and he bought Jane her first writing desk and as Lucy Worsley tells us:

"It was Mr Austen who took practical action to get his daughter’s work published ... He wrote, on 1 November 1797, to offer First Impressions (Pride and Prejudice) to a publisher named Thomas Cadell, asking him what sum his firm might advance for it, and indeed asking what the price would be for it to be published ... This was generous. Mr Austen was proposing an arrangement where he himself would pay for the printing of his daughter’s novel. If it didn’t sell, he would bear the loss. Just as Mr Austen had written endlessly to admirals on behalf of his naval sons, he also did his best by his younger girl". 

I really enjoyed Jane Austen At Home.  Lucy Worsley writes very well.  And with the new information I now have about Jane Austen and the times in which she lived I am inspired to reread a few of Austen's classics with a new perspective. 

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

"She had chosen to flee, and in so choosing, she had left behind her everything she had, her roof, her home, her country, her language, the only family she had ever known, the child Bess, who had been born into her care when she was herself a small child of four years or so, her innocence, her understanding of who she was, her dreams of who she might one day be if only she could survive this starving time. Think not of it, girl, she told herself, think not of it, else you shall die of grief". - Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

I was wondering what to read next and so I went to Libby clicked audiobooks and began to scroll through the choices.  I came upon Lauren Groff, a writer I have been meaning to read for some time.  Her latest novel The Vaster Wilds (2023) was available right away.  I clicked borrow and I am so glad I did.

The Vaster Wilds is a beautifully written haunting and atmospheric novel that includes powerful scenes of nature and the elements.  And Lauren Groff has a fascinating story to tell about a teenage servant girl (we never learn her name) who arrives in Colonial America with her mistress, her mistress' husband, and their four year old daughter.

The time is the 1600's and the servant girl and the family she works for are living in a  settlement in Jamestown, VA and the situation there is grim.  The settlers are starving and then something happens which requires the servant girl to flee.  We learn at the end of the book why she needed to run away and the reason is shocking.

As to where the young girl is headed she doesn't really know.  But she has heard about another settlement run by the French.  Maybe she could meet a young man there and they could eventually move to France where their lives would be much easier and happier.  That is her dream at the beginning of the book.

But the deeper into the wilderness she goes the more The Vaster Wilds becomes a story about survival, finding shelter, searching for food and hiding from dangerous animals and people.  And as the girl makes her way through the wilderness she reflects on her short life which has not been easy.  She has a deep puritan faith when her journey begins but she starts to question what she has been taught as she experiences the terror but also the wonder of the natural world.  

The Vaster Wilds is one of the best books I have read this year and Lauren Groff is an excellent writer.  She has expertly woven a young girl surviving the elements into a marvelous coming of age story.  And in terms of a lone character confronting nature this novel reminded me a bit of Jack London's The Call of The Wild or To Build A Fire.  I highly recommend The Vaster Wilds and please check out the audio version narrated wonderfully by January LaVoy which definitely adds to this brilliant book.

A Ticket To The Boneyard by Lawrence Block

A Ticket To The Boneyard by Lawrence Block is book eight in his Matthew Scudder series of crime novels.  I have been reading this series somewhat in order and for me A Ticket To The Boneyard is the best Scudder novel I've read so far.  

But it's also the darkest.  A sadistic serial killer that Matthew Scudder sent to prison twelve years ago is back on the streets and is determined to kill the women in Matthew Scudder's life.  And in this book Scudder's sobriety is tested like never before.  The violence and to be blunt sexual violence in this novel is intense.  It didn't bother me that much because I knew Matthew Scudder would do everything in his power to bring the bad guy to justice.  But the violence might bother others and so that's something to  consider.

And I would say that if you are new to Lawrence Block's Scudder series it's best to begin with the first book Sins Of The Father (1976).  All seventeen novels are set in NYC and as Scudder's life changes through the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's up to A Time To Scatter Stones (2019) we see NYC changing as well which is an added bonus.  I was born and raised in NYC and lived there until 2011.  The detailed way Lawrence Block describes NYC rings so true.  I am rating A Ticket To The Boneyard four stars and will be going on to book nine.  It's a great series.

The Lady And The Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

The Lady And The Unicorn (2004) by Tracy  Chevalier is the fifth book I have read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader And Baker.  Thank you Marg for hosting this challenge and thank you JaneGS for recommending Tracy Chevalier.  I plan to read more from this novelist going forward.  And please check out Jane's excellent book blog Reading, Writing, Working, Playing linked under blogs I follow.

The Lady And The Unicorn is a novel dealing with a real historical event, the creation in the late 15th century of six beautiful tapestries titled The Lady And The Unicorn.  But to this day these tapestries remain a mystery as to who created them.  Art historians believe it was a collaborative effort involving a team of artists and weavers.  But who were the ladies depicted and what does the unicorn symbolize?  In her novel The Lady And The Unicorn Tracy Chevalier does a fine job of imagining how and why these six tapestries came into being

It is 1490 in Paris when The Lady And The Unicorn begins and Jean LeViste a French nobleman commissions the handsome and very talented artist Nicholas des Innocents to create a series of paintings involving battle scenes and his famiy's coat of arms.  These paintings will be turned into tapestries that Jean Le Viste will be able to hang on his walls and impress his fellow noblemen and the King.  

Nicholas is unsure.  He is an expert painter of miniature portraits of ladies but he has never depicted battle scenes.  Fortunately Jean Le Vistes' wife Genevieve wants the tapestries to depict unicorns and she convines her husband that their guests are not going to want to dine in a room where they are surrounded by war and blood. 

 

Meanwhile Nicholas while he is visiting Jean Le Viste's home is doing what he always does, trying to seduce another young woman who he believes is one of the ladies in waiting at the Le Viste home.  Instead he discovers she is Claude Le Vista:  

Nicholas has a way of causing trouble wherever he goes and later when he meets the De La Chapelle family in Brussells who will be weaving his paintings into tapestries the father of the family Georges De La Chapelle does not like what he sees in Nicholas:

"I had never heard an artist so keen on his own work. He should know better—first designs always change when cartoonists make them into the large paintings on cloth or papers that weavers follow as they make the tapestries. It is the nature of the thing that what looks fine small doesn’t when made large. There are gaps to be filled—figures must be added, or trees or animals or flowers ... I did not address him as Monsieur. He might be a Parisian artist, but I ran a good workshop in Brussels. I had no reason to grovel".

And true to form Nicholas while at the De La Chapelle home supervising the weaving is also making advances on Georges De La  Chapelle's daugter Alienor.  

To my knowledge Nicholas and all of the characters in The Lady And The Unicorn are fictional but they are well drawn and Tracy Chevalier has done her research about this time period and also the process of turning a painting into a tapestry.  And here are three of the actual Lady of the Unicorn masterpieces which are now hanging at the Cluny Museum in Paris:

I am probably not going to be able to read 15 medieval historical books by the end of this year but I might be able to squeeze in five more and Tracy Chevalier has helped me achieve this goal.  The Lady And The Unicorn is an enjoyable and informative novel that taught me about a 15th century masterpiece I never knew existed.

The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes

The Library of America chose five books for their 1961- 1964 volume of classic crime novels and the Expendable Man (1963) by Dorothy B. Hughes made the list.  I am not surprised.  Having read In A Lonely Place many years ago I know what a talented writer Dorothy Hughes is and The Expendable Man is every bit as good if not better.  

The setting for this novel is the early 1960's and Dr. Hugh Densmore a young intern at UCLA Medical Center is driving from California to Phoenix to attend a family wedding. His niece is getting married.  But on the way to Phoenix Dr. Densmore spots a teenage hitchhiker out in the middle of nowhere.  He is unsure about whether to stop and give her a ride:  

"Even as he slowed his car, he was against doing it. But her possible peril if left here alone forced his hand. He simply could not in conscience go on, leaving her abandoned, with twilight fallen and night quick to come. He had sisters as young as this. It chilled him to think what might happen if one of them were abandoned on the lonesome highway, the type of man with whom, in desperation, she might accept a lift. The car was stopped. He shifted to reverse and began backing up".

Once in the car the hitchhiker tells Dr. Densmore that her name is Iris Croom and she is 18.  But the doctor begins to suspect that nothing Iris tells him about herself is true.  He. becomes increasingly anxious to get this young woman to the bus stop so that she can be on her way.   They reach the next town and Iris and the doctor part company.  But later when Dr. Densmore is in his hotel room in Phoenix resting before the wedding festivities there is a knock on the door and it's Iris.  

Dr. Densmore is stunned and shaken.  What is she doing here? Iris explains that she is in trouble and needs help.  Dr. Densmore wisely suggests other places she can go for help and does not let her into his hotel room and Iris leaves.  But a day later Dr. Densmore picks up the local newspaper and there is a story about a 15 year old teenager named Bonnie Lee Crumb found dead in a canal and the accompanying photo shows that this girl is Iris and Dr. Densmore becomes a prime suspect.

What makes The Expendable Man so riveting is first and foremost the writing.  Dorothy B Hughes was one of the few women who wrote crime novels in the noir style during the 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's and she really knew her craft.   And the Expendable Man is not only a crime novel.  This book touches on important issues involving race. 

We are not told for example at the beginning of the novel that Dr. Hugh Densmore is black.  But once we know it explains the tension we feel from the very first page when Dr. Densmore wants to leave the drive-in where he is eating lunch when a rowdy bunch of teens pull up next to him in their car.  Why the police later on ask Dr. Densmore to pull over so they can search his car for no reason.  And why he was hesitant to give Iris, a young white girl, a ride.

Other characters appear in this novel.  Dr. Densmore's family, his attorney, the detectives investigating the murder. And there is Ellen Hamilton a beautiful and supportive young woman who stands by him.  But make no mistake this is Dr. Densmore's story.  We see everything through his perspective.  He is afraid but he is also determined as he tries to find the real killer and end this nightmare which began when he tried to be a good samaritan.

Dorothy B Hughes needs to be better known and now with The Library of America including her in their list of classic crime novelists I hope she will be. And if you are interested in very well written noir crime fiction with alot to say about America in the early 1960's I heartily recommend The Expendable Man.

Thicker Than Water by Maggie Shayne

In the prologue to Thicker Than Water (2003) by Maggie Shayne it is 1982 and 17 year old Jewel is running away from a Branch Davidian type compound: The Young Believers.  The cult leader is Mordecai Young and most of the members within the compound are teenage girls, runaways, fleeing troubled homes.  But Mordecai is no savior and the armed guards he has stationed around the compound prevent any of the young believers from leaving.

But Jewel and her friend Lizzie decide to make a break for it taking with them Lizzie's baby daughter Sunshine, fathered by Mordecai.  But before they can escape there is an FBI raid.  Gunfire is exchanged and then an explosion causing the compound to go up in flames.  Lizzie is shot during the raid and her dying wish is that her friend Jewel take care of her daughter.

Chapter one fast forwards us to 2003 and Jewel is now Julie Jones, a successful TV news anchor in Syracuse raising her 16 year old daughter Dawn (Sunshine).  Life should be good but Julie is being blackmailed by someone who has found out about her past. Julie goes to the hotel room to pay the blackmailer because she has never told her daughter the truth about her life at the compound or that she is not Dawn's biological mother and that Dawn's father is the infamous Mordecai Young.  But when Julie arrives at the hotel she discovers that her blackmailer has been murdered and she is now a suspect.  

I decided to give Thicker Than Water 3.5 stars.  Initially I was going to go with 4 stars because Maggie Shayne is an author I have read in the past and I really enjoy her writing.  And two thirds of the way through Thicker Than Water I was finding this novel a page turner.  But the last third of the book involved twists that to me didn't seem plausible.  But the novel ends on a cliffhanger and there are 5 more books in this series and so I see myself eventually going on to book 2, Colder Than Ice

Writers And Their Notebooks by Diana Raab (Editor), Philip Lopate (Forward)

Philip Lopate is a very fine writer and essayist and so when I saw that he had written the forward to Writers And Their Notebooks edited by Diana M Raab (2010) I decided this was a book worth checking out.  I am also someone who loves journals and notebooks.

Writers and Their Notebooks is divided into five parts:  The Journal As Tool,  The Journal As Survival, The Journal For Travel, The Journal As Muse and The Journal For Life.  And with the exception of Sue Grafton most of the writers in this volume are not well known.  Here are passages by some of the essayists I recommend:

Kathleen Gerard in her essay Clearing The Deck writes about going through cancer treatments and not feeling like continuing with her daily journal:  

"So I made a bargain with myself: Do your twenty minutes, then the rest of the day is yours. At least you’ll keep your writing muscles from atrophy. With that in mind, I decided that because I was so emotional and unsettled, I’d use my journal simply to document factual events as they were happening—whether medical consultations or where I met friends for lunch. Deep down, I trusted the process, believing that the sense of disciplined constancy—however modified—could anchor me through the arising challenges"  

And my favorite essay Forgetting to Remember—Why I Keep a Journal by  Kyoko Mori.  She had a very difficult childhood and journaling got her through the hard times.  But at the beginning of her essay is this very nice passage about her grandfather who also kept a diary:

"My grandfather, Takeo Nagai, was the first person I knew who was serious about writing. In the summers when my mother, brother, and I visited his house in the Japanese countryside, every afternoon Takeo sat down at his desk with his diary—a small notebook with a cover, a different color for every year—and composed his entries with a fountain pen... He described the flowers blooming and the tomatoes ripening in the garden, the walks he took with my brother and me, the books he was reading and the neighbors who came to visit. Each day—no matter how eventful or quiet—was made to fit precisely in the allotted space. For my grandfather, writing was about discipline".

What I found interesting is that not every essayist in Writer's And Their Notebooks felt that keeping a notebook was such a great idea.  Peter Selgin in his humorous essay Keeping Up With The Days writes about how his journaling became an addiction where he was writing all the time.  He was even taking his notebook out on dates and at dinner with friends so he could jot a few things down.  And in Journaling Without The Journal Michelle Wildgen eventually gave up keeping a notebook because she felt it was interfering with the novels and stories she wanted to write.

For me, Writers And Their Notebooks is a 3 star read.  Some of the essays in this book really spoke to me but quite a few others I didn't connect with but other readers might feel differently.   I  closed the book wanting to read more from Kyoko Mori and Philip Lopate's essays are always worth reading.

The Road To Dalton by Shannon Bowring

"Neither of them ever looks forward to the Fraziers’ New Year’s Eve party. Trudy resents leaving the house after dark, especially in winter, and Richard hates the pretentious food Annette serves each year—salmon puffs, pâté. The woman can’t seem to take a hint that most of her partygoers would rather eat pigs-in-a-blanket or chips and dip. It’s not as if the people of Dalton need another reminder of the divide between them and the Fraziers, whose family has owned the lumber mill for three generations" - Shannon Bowring, The Road To Dalton

Thank you to Susan at Cue Card for recommending The Road To Dalton by Shannon Bowring.  And please check out Susan's website under blogs I follow for her excellent review of this novel.  And I agree with Susan.  The Road To Dalton (2023) is definitely 4.2 stars, if not more.  And this is Shannon Bowring's debut novel with a sequel coming in September which I plan to read.  

The book cover is deceptive though.  Dalton is not a sunny tranquil place but rather a small depressed town in Northern Maine.  It's the 1990's and the major industry is the lumber mill.  And when the book begins Richard the town doctor and his wife Trudy who runs the library are getting ready for a party they don't want to attend.  Their marriage is not going well either. 

And it will be at this party that we meet some of the major characters in the book.  Each of the subsequent chapters will focus on a different character letting us know who they are and where they are at in their lives.  There is Richard and Trudy, Trudy's best friend Bev, Bev's son Nate who works as a police officer.  Nate's wife Bridget suffering from postpartum depression.  There is Rose a waitress at the diner and her abusive husband Tommy.  And we meet three teenagers Greg, Henry and Angela involved in a separate storyline of their own.  

And then a tragic event happens halfway through The Road To Dalton that affects to a different degree all of the characters in this novel.  And the book ends one year later at another party around the Christmas season and we see how everyone has faired during the course of a tough year. 

The characters in The Road To Dalton are so well drawn.  Some I liked, particularly Richard Haskell, and others not so much.   But even the characters I didn't care for kept my interest.  The Road To Dalton is not a very long book and I read it straight through.  It never dragged for me.  And so I think if you liked Beartown and the novels of Richard Russo (who has praised this book), the Road To Dalton is worth checking, out.

The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne

Griffin Dunne was a favorite actor of mine in the 1980’s. If he was starring in a movie I would have to go see it and I particularly liked him in Almost You and After Hours. And so when I heard he had written a book The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir (2024) I immediately placed my order through Libby. The book is a NYT bestseller and so I have been on hold for weeks but the book finally arrived a few days ago and it was worth the wait.

The Friday Afternoon Club is really two books and to be honest part one which deals with Griffin Dunne’s early years growing up in Hollywood I wasn’t too interested in. Griffin’s father Dominick Dunne was a successful TV executive at the time who threw fabulous parties.  Griffin’s aunt is the brilliant writer Joan Didion and so Griffin and his siblings Alex and Dominique got to meet these famous movie stars, musicians and writers at an age too young to really appreciate who they were. Although Griffin retains fond memories of Sean Connery who rescued him from drowning at one of his family’s pool parties.

There are alot of stories like that in the first part of the Friday Afternoon Club. Griffin is not name dropping to impress the reader this was simply his childhood and he wanted to get these stories down on paper. Still, I am not that interested in the world of celebrities, parties, drugs, the children of celebrities etc and so I didn’t connect with part one.

But part two the second half of the book deals with the murder in 1982 of Griffin Dunne's sister Dominique Dunne and it is gripping.  As Griffin says it changed his family forever. Dominique was a talented actress, a caring person, and she was only 22 when she was strangled to death by her former boyfriend. The murder trial was a travesty. The killer only served two and a half years in prison.

Griffin goes into detail about the trial and its aftermath and how his family coped. His family became closer which is so admirable because this isn’t always the case with families who experience tragedy or illness.  In an interview for the book Griffin said that his family went through a dark season but that they pulled through “not by chance but by aggressively trying to pull through”

Griffin’s father, Dominick Dunne, became a bestselling author covering criminal trials for Vanity Fair and always standing up for the victims in his books.  Griffin’s mother Ellen Dunne who suffered from MS, went on and founded Justice For Homicide Victims in California, an organization that has helped people fight for justice and deal with grief. Griffin Dunne’s parents are gone now but he remains close with his brother Alex and the book is dedicated to his brother.

Finally I liked the fact that with the exception of the defense attorney and the judge at Dominique’s trial, who Griffin is understandably still angry with, he deals kindly with the people in his life. And that is particularly true of his parents, his sister Dominique and his brother Alex. The Friday Afternoon Club is a loving tribute to his family and a book that will help others deal with grief and how to pull through.