Bronwyn

This was such a treat. Why isn't Josephine Tey better known?! It was perfect - started out like one of the mid-century women's books I like and turned into a really well done mystery. The mystery is so late in the book I just didn't see how it would all happen and be resolved so quick! The long set up is so perfect as you really get to know the characters much better than you might in a whodunnit that happens much earlier on. I loved it. I was already interested in other Teys but now I'm really looking forward to them!

This was really beautiful. The title is appropriate as it's definitely a love story to Scotland - the descriptions really make the book and are so well done. Janet is prickly and hard to like. We never really get close to her. But her story is still interesting and her end abrupt. You really feel for her. Really beautiful.

Read December 12, 2022. Galen wanted to read this at school but they said it was for bigger kids, so we found it through the library instead. It's super cute and he really liked it.

I heard of Elsie Robinson through an interview with Allison Gilbert on the Lost Ladies of Lit podcast and thought she sounded so interesting. This biography by Gilbert and Julia Scheeres is really well done. Robinson had quite the life and it's a shame she's not better known. I highly recommend this book and the podcast.

I'm not a big fan of novelizations, but when I learned Harold and Maude was based on a play and later novelized after the film (and by the screenwriter!), well, I had to read it. It reads like a novelization, but if you're not familiar with the movie I don't think you could tell, if somehow that all makes sense. It's really beautiful and you get some motivations of Harold and Maude that you just can't get in a movie. Even knowing the ending, I teared up. It's really well done.

I think I loved this? I've only read My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Moshfegh before and didn't super like it. This is really different and bizarre but really beautiful too. I liked that it's real but sort of magical things or miracles happen. It was really good but weird but interesting and enjoyable.

Holy cow, I loved this. The characters were all so interesting and well done. The setting was perfect. The whole feel of it. I loved the inclusion of a Baby Party (see Bright Young People by D.J. Taylor). The whole obsession with The Green Hat that goes throughout most of the book (I'll have to finally read it! I first heard of it over a decade ago!). This ticked every one of my boxes. Loved it. It wrapped up a little quick and easy, but that's honestly my only issue and it's minor. So good! (I'll have to look more into the woman that Nellie is based on. She sounds fascinating too!) I think I'm definitely going to have to read more Kate Atkinson as I've loved the two I've read by her.

This was really beautiful and a really interesting story. Rósa and Jón were really well written. The issues so well presented. I feel like Lea did a really good job with the place and time. You really feel Rósa's isolation.

Part of my family is from near Stykkishólmur, and I've been there, so I loved the setting. I've also spent a lot of time in a turf house (https://www.akureyriguide.is/portfolio/laufas-heritage-site/), which, while more modernly decorated, really gives an idea of Jón's home. I could picture it, the upstairs, and the outbuildings so well.

I highly recommend the audiobook read by Heida (Heiða) Reed (Elizabeth Poldark in the recent Poldark series) and Smari Gunn - Icelandic is hard even if you kind of know it (ask my mom about trying to say eight/átta), so it helps to have Icelanders read to you.

This was a really interesting collection. It reminded me of Electric Dreams or the new Twilight Zone in some ways. As with most short story collections, some were better than others (I loved Time Cube and Do You Remember Candy in particular), but all of them were really interesting and really well done. I'll have to look for more of Fu's work in the future.

Man, this was going so well until the reveal. Then... oof, not my thing at all. I feel like parts of the book don't make sense with the reveal, but I'd have to reread and I don't care enough. Good start, didn't care for the explanation. :/

(Guessing on the start date cuz I forgot to log it...)

Man this was so dense and interesting. I feel like it's something to come back to though, so you can really get it all. Edwards did a lot of research and it shows (helps to be the current Detection Club President :) ). This is meticulous and so well done.

I know a decent amount about Christie, and some about Sayers. Otherwise what I know is mainly from the Shedunnit podcast (highly recommend!), so this was a really great way to learn about these authors. I need to get on reading some of these lesser known (to me at least) authors. (Thank goodness for the British Library reissuing so many!)

Also! I didn't know Anthony Berkeley and E. M. Delafield were so close! Or that Evelyn Waugh wrote a biography of Ronald Knox (though I may have read that years ago when I was reading a lot about Waugh, but I wouldn't've known who Knox was then). There's just so much in this!

(I used the audiobook while waiting in the school line, and overall it was good, but there were weird pauses after some sentences that were distracting.)

It's easy to kill a day with knitting and a good audiobook.

This was really enjoyable. I love a good ordinary life novel, a mid-century women's novel, etc. and this ticked all those boxes. It's charming and funny and biting. Mildred was really charming and I loved watching her grow over the course of this (about a) year. The ending was perfect (though I don't see her continuing with Julian if she's with Everard). I'll have to read more Pym; I'm glad I finally got to her.

This was so bizarre but really enjoyable. Marian is a fun narrator; I loved how everything that happens in the book just... is. It's kind of hard to sum up, but it's really great. The afterword by Tokarczuk is really good too. I think I'll need to read this a couple times to really love it, but I think I definitely could. (This time I also used the audiobook, and Sian Philips' narration is really good! I knew I loved her.)

This was really interesting! If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for anything Christie related and crime related, so - much like A is for Arsenic years ago - this was perfect for me. I really liked all the examples from Christie's books that Valentine used, as well as all the real cases that Christie references in one way or another (Crippen, Thompson-Bywaters - which you know I love -, the brides in the bath, etc.). All of the forensic stuff is just fascinating. Highly recommend!

(Also, learned that Crippen was probably innocent, or at least that the body they thought was his wife, wasn't!)

Back in (apparently) 1994 the CBC ran Million Dollar Babies (with Beau Bridges and everything!) about the Dionnes, and my sister and I were obsessed (perks of living in a state that got Canadian tv!). We went to the little house museum sometime after that on vacation as a family; my sister collected a bunch of Dionne stuff; I read the book that the miniseries was based on; I bought the DVD of the miniseries about a decade ago even. All that to say, I had to read this (even if I feel a little conflicted about it all...).

Holy cow, is it incredible.

This story man... It's all so interesting and horrible. Miller does a great job of telling the Dionnes' story. You really feel for Elzire and Oliva, and then later you really don't understand them... Ultimately, I really just felt so badly for the girls, under scrutiny and not allowed to just be kids. I found the girls' later years particularly interesting just because I haven't heard as much about those times. I can't imagine what their lives were like, and I hope they've found peace where they can.

(I listened to this and used the kindle version. I made soooo many highlights. Overall the narrator was good, but said Corbeil wrong throughout, which was a bit annoying.)

When both All About Agatha and Shedunnit rank this Christie so highly, you have to finally read it. It definitely lived up to the praise. It's really tightly done, nothing is wasted. I loved that the crime was so long in the past. Poirot was so good here, doing what he does best. The ending was a bit underwhelming, but that's it.

I'm not quite sure when I first heard about Edith Thompson. Given how much Christie, etc., I've read, it was probably a while ago though (this book even uses quotes from Christie and others that reference the case). I've watched Another Life, I have A Pin to See the Peepshow and Messalina of the Suburbs to read. There's just something fascinating about this case, so when I heard about this book I knew had to read it.

This was really well done. I wish it was a bit more linear of a recounting, but the information is so well presented and the sources are used really well. (I can see why Laura Thompson's new book is an edited compilation of the letters!) There's so much detail here. You really get a feel for Edith and Freddy (though he less so). Highly recommend this if you like true crime and/or history.

Another I heard of in Monster, She Wrote and... Oh man, this was so good and awful. The Gardner was almost too fucked up for me, but I loved the narrator. The way it all came together at the end was really well done. And even the fucked-up-edness was really well done and vivid, just a bit much at times. I'm not sure I'll read more of the series, but if I do, they're sure to be well done.

I read Fair Play last year and adored it so wanted to read more Jansson. This wasn't quite as good for me, but was still really charming. Sophia was a bit obnoxious, but she is a kid, and I loved Grandmother. The little vignettes were sweet and made me want to live on an island off Finland. The one where Sophia is dictating her book was so relatable - my son has been dictating poems to me recently. I'm glad I read this and will continue to read more Jansson.

I heard of this in Monster, She Wrote and was intrigued. It was only $1 on kindle so here we are.

I think the tagline comparing this to The Hunger Games and The Man in the High Castle does it a disservice. There're only vague similarities between this and either of those two. There is an alternate dimension or time travel; there is a sort of competition that the upper classes run, but it's only briefly shown and is nothing like THG.

This is a really interesting earlyish fantasy/scifi. It's a bit dated in places, but the concept is really interesting. I wanted more of Ulithia than we got, but the structure of 2118's Philadelphia was pretty well done.

(I don't usually picture characters as anyone specific, but I pictured Trenmore as Cleary from The Knick.)

I'm glad I read this. It is definitely worth the dollar.

Wasn't sure what to expect, but I love Amor Towles's stuff so... This was interesting. I wish it was a little longer, but otherwise it was good. The afterward about the collection of short stories makes me interested in reading the others.

(I'm counting this cuz I've also read some big books, so I figure it averages out a bit.)

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ebook in exchange for a review.

This book was so good! I don't know when I first heard of Harold Gillies, sometime after I watched Boardwalk Empire and liked Jack Huston's character - the character has a mask to cover his facial damage and I wanted to know more, which led me to the work that Harold Gillies did.

Gillies pioneered modern plastic surgery and realized the importance of working with other sorts of people. His teams included surgeons, dentists, artists, and whoever else had a needed skill. This book focuses on the men and women who worked with Gillies - the medical techniques they created or perfected, the artistic records of procedures, the prosthetics that were created - and the patients who needed his help.

This was fascinating and read easily. There were times it felt a little repetitive as most chapters followed the same format, but the information was all really interesting and presented well.

I've been meaning to read Lindsey Fitzharris's other book, The Butchering Art, so when this came up on NetGalley I was interested. I'm so glad I read this and will need to bump her other book up my tbr list.

(I do wish the ebook included the pictures that Fitzharris mentions, as I think seeing the work and people and places mentioned would be helpful.)

This was really sweet. I hope as G starts school, books like this will help some.

Galen read: August 13, 2022.

My husband spotted this for $1 on kindle so picked it up. This was really cute and funny.

Galen read: August 11, 2022

I've been lacking in tracking what Galen's been reading since it's so far all been books we own and have read a lot. We had a program at the library the past two weeks and he's checked out a few books. This is one of them. It was really too easy for him, but it's fun and he enjoyed it.

Galen Read: August 10, 2022