February Reading: Second Half Wrap Up

 

The Jealous One by Celia Fremlin (borrowed from the library)

I discovered this author in December and loved the first book I read by her. I read another one after that because I could get the ebook from BorrowBox. I had to wait until we were back home to request any physical books and I picked up this one in the first batch of requests I made once we were back. I really liked it--sat down and read it in an afternoon. It was a page-turner. I will say that it wasn't my favorite of the three I've read. The writing was just as good and the story was paced well. I didn't care for one of the main characters but that's fine. I don't think she was meant to be likeable. I think what dropped the book a bit in my estimation was the ending which was a bit abrupt. 

The book opens with Rosamund waking up from a frightening dream in which she is pushing her neighbor, Lindy, over a cliff. She has a headache and feels like crap. Taking her temperature, she is relieved to find that she has a fever and tells herself that the flu is the reason for such a vivid dream. She isn't able to take comfort in this thought for long though, because her husband, Geoffrey, comes bursting in wanting to know if she knows anything about where Lindy is. She has disappeared. The narrative then goes back in time to describe Lindy's arrival in the suburban neighborhood and the manipulative way she insinuated herself into people's business--especially Rosamund and Geoffrey. About halfway through the book, the story arrives back at the day of Rosamund's dream and then carries on from there. 

Fremlin is excellent at creating the oppressive atmosphere of domestic stress. That has been a feature of all three of her books that I've read so far and in each one, I was there, feeling the feelings. This book was published in 1965, I think, and it illustrates changes n gender roles happening at that time. I was too young to really observe 1965 suburbia and this book is set in the UK, but I recognize so many features of suburban housewifery and life in general from my time as a kid in US 1970s suburbia. So even though this wasn't my favorite Fremlin to date, it's still a very good book. I will continue to read this author and I expect more good things ahead.

The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox (personal copy)

I'd heard of Charlotte Lennox and knew a bit about her life before I read Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney last year, but hadn't read any of her work except for possibly a short story or two. After reading Romney's writing about Lennox and her impact on Jane Austen, I was quite intrigued. I finally got my hands on this book, which is probably her most well-known work. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I needn't have worried about that--I loved this book. 

First published in 1752, it's the story of Arabella, who was raised by her widowed father in a remote country house. She has very little interaction with the outside world or the people in it. Once her father sends the governess away, she immerses herself in the books that belonged to her late mother. These consist mostly of French romances, which Arabella reads as history. Without any experience to the contrary, she believes that this is how the world has been and still is. She dresses in ways that are outside of current fashion. She speaks in an odd way. And she is completely clueless about how people interact with one another. When she does come across a stranger, she usually misconstrues their intentions. Because she's beautiful, she thinks men are falling in love with her when they get a glimpse of her from afar. If she speaks to a man and gives him her version of a brush-off, she's quite sure he has gone off to kill himself and will often write letters or send her maid to tell the man that she commands him to live. I laughed all the way through this book--laughed out loud to the point that Bill commented on the fact that the book must be funny. I thought so. For me, the humor was mostly in the use of language and the response of people to it-- that's my kind of thing. Also people's confused responses to Arabella and her strange ideas was often very funny indeed. Although the underlying scenario was different, it did make me think of the Britcom Keeping Up Appearances. It also reminded me of someone I used to know a few decades ago. We'd be walking along having a conversation when someone would pass us gong in the opposite direction and say hi. Once they were out of earshot, the conversation turned to an analysis of the 'hi' and how it clearly didn't just mean 'hello' but meant a whole host of other things when body language, eyebrow position, tone of voice, etc were taken into account. At the time I found this exhausting but I laugh about it now. Arabella's unfortunate ideas do cause problems for herself and those around her. Her cousin, Glanville, is the choice of her father to be her husband. In spite of himself, he wants this too. Arabella has issues with the idea. Complications ensue. 

It's clear to see the influence of this book on Austen, especially with Northanger Abbey.

My one quibble with this book was that the ending was sudden and a bit too pat. In reading the introduction (always done after reading the book when the book is a classic, due to spoilers), I learned that Lennox felt the same way about the ending and wanted a third volume, but the publisher wanted only two so she had limited space in which to finish the story. In spite of that, this was an excellent read and one that I will probably pick up again.

Ensemble by Gail Varian (borrowed from the library)

This is a lovely collection of poetry and art, which I enjoyed quite a lot.

Grave of the Fireflies by Akiyuki Nosaka, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (BorrowBox e-book)

Seita and Setchun, older brother and younger sister, survive the WWII bombing of Kobe, Japan. Their mother does not. Their father, in the navy and fighting in the war, may or may not be alive. After the death of their mother, Seita tries to care for his sister. The book opens with Seita dying under a bridge and then tells the story of how he got there. This is a short, devastating book. The translator's note says that it is semi-biographical, written as an apology to the author's sister, who did die in the war. He apparently always felt guilty about his own shortcomings in terms of her care. 

The Priory By Dorothy Whipple (borrowed from library)

Dorothy Whipple has rapidly become one of my favorite authors. I've seen her compared to Barbara Pym and described as the twentieth century's Mrs. Gaskell. I can see both. In this book, the first character to be described is Saunby Priory itself. Then we're introduced to the inhabitants-- the widower Major Marwood, his artist sister, and his two grown, but young, daughters. Son Guy is older, has moved away, and doesn't have much to do with the family. There are also servants in the house, of course. The major inherited the Priory and surrounding farmlands, but has no head for business so has gradually lost money, selling off farms and always in debt nonetheless. His one interest in life is cricket and he hosts a big cricket gathering every year. This is expensive and puts him further into debt, but he never considers not hosting. He decides that what he needs is a wife to take care of things for him and he thinks he knows just the woman. She's younger than him, but considered a spinster (the book was published in 1939 and takes place during the years between the world wars). She is infatuated and accepts his proposal. They each have expectations about what the marriage will be like. They are both quite wrong. Meanwhile, the daughters are not educated well, nor are they trained for any sort of work so they're stuck. Once the new wife is introduced into the household, things begin to change for everyone. Life, as it does, goes off in unexpected directions and people find themselves surprised at where they find themselves. Eventually, the threat of war enters the picture. I loved this book as I have the other Whipple books I've read. It wasn't quite as funny as Greenbanks, but there were funny moments. The Persephone version I read includes an Afterword by someone who stayed at the big house that Saunby Priory was based on and who knew and interacted with the people the characters were (sometimes very loosely) based on. It was interesting to read about her inspiration in writing the book.

Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield (BorrowBox audiobook narrated by Georgina Sutton)

This was a re-read for me. I have a book with four of the Provincial Lady novels in one and read that a few years ago. I loved it. The other day I was scrolling through the new-to-library section of the BorrowBox site and saw this audiobook. I loved it just as much the second time. I was laughing at the sharp observations of the diarist all over again. As the title says, the book (published in 1930) is written in the form of a diary and is, I believe, semi-autobiographical. The diarist is the provincial lady, married to Robert and mother of son Robin, who is often away at boarding school, but comes home on holidays with friends in tow, and daughter Vicky, who is under the care of Mademoiselle. Herein lies my one quibble with the book--Mademoiselle sometimes exclaims/gushes/screams in French, which one would expect her to do. However, I am not a French speaker, thus these passages were lost to me. Thankfully, they are short. Anyway, the diarist lives in the country, has servant trouble, is heavily involved with the Women's Institute, has community commitments, and social responsibilities. Although they live in a large house and are clearly not struggling financially from a survival standpoint, the provincial lady is usually overdrawn. Her thoughts about all of these things and more are the stuff of the diary entries which make up this novel. The narrator of this audiobook is excellent and enhanced my listening experience.

Finally, I read a couple of books from my NetGalley shelf in the second half of February that will be published soon. They are:

The Friend of the Family or, The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by Ignat Avsey (to be published on May 26, 2026 by Pushkin Classics)

A young man is furthering his education when he receives an urgent letter from the uncle who raised him, telling him he must return home at once to marry the governess. The young man, never having met the governess, is puzzled but sets off at once. Upon his arrival, he is dismayed to see the entire household in thrall to Foma Fomitch Opiskin, a bully and a charlatan. Mayhem, manipulation, madness, and misunderstandings ensue.

I was quite pleased to read this book as I'm becoming quite a Dostoyevsky fan and the description indicated that it was different from his other work. It was different and it was a good read. It wasn't as comical as I thought it would be based on the description. I never quite understood what it was about Foma Fomitch that made people fall under his spell, but all we have to do is look around at the world today and we can see how easily people are duped into cults of personality. In any case, I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read this book and I'd recommend it if you're interested in the author and/or Russian literature. The introduction placed the work in context in terms of where Dostoyevsky was in his life when he wrote it and what his influences were. I was quite intrigued to read that he was influenced by Pickwick Papers and other work by Chares Dickens. This information was very helpful and enhanced my reading experience.

Calling It Back to Me by Laurie D. Graham (to be published on March 24, 2026 by Penguin Random House Canada)

In this collection of beautiful and powerful poems, Laurie D. Graham is searching for what can be known and what is unknowable about the women from previous generations of her family. She also explores place and what it means to be in and from various places, whether one lives a life in the same place or multiple places. Each jewel of a poem was a little story and I particularly enjoyed, and was moved by, the poems about her great-grandmothers. I will seek out more of this gifted poet's work.

And that's another month of reading. So many excellent books! Long may it continue! Happy reading!

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For the Mystery Lovers

 Shortly before we left to care for our furry friend last month, Bill was starting a book by Elizabeth George. There's always that page where they list the author's previous work and a title caught his eye. He knew it was a book for me and went looking for it online. He found a copy but there wouldn't be enough time for it to get to us before we left, so he bookmarked it and checked again when we got home. It was still there. He ordered it and it arrived today.

I could not be more thrilled. This is definitely my kind of book. Edited by Elizabeth George, it contains stories from classic mystery authors like Dorothy L. Sayers, Christianna Brand, and Ngaio Marsh as well as more contemporary authors. I recognize some of the newer authors from BorrowBox so if I like the stories in here, I'll try out some of the audiobooks of their novels. Mysteries, women authors, short stories--love this book from so many different directions! I can't wait to read it but I have to have some willpower because I have reading with time limits to do at the moment. So many books, so little time.

I'm posting this now because I know some of you are mystery fans like I am and in case you haven't already read it, it's one you might like to look out for. If you have read it, I'd love to know what you thought of it. Whatever you're reading at the moment, hope it's excellent!

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February Mid-Month Reading Wrap Up

Well, here we are a few days past the middle of this short month. Most of my reading so far has consisted of books off my NetGalley shelf, but I did read one of my own.

 The Muse by Jessie Burton (personal copy)

I picked this up in a charity shop while we were away. I'd read a previous book of hers and enjoyed it so figured I'd give this one a try. I quite liked it. The story opens in 1967 and is told by Odelle Bastien, who immigrated to London from Trinidad with her best friend Cynth. In the five years she's been in London, she's not pursued her dream of becoming a writer. Instead, she works in a shoe shop. But her life is about to change because at the same time Cynth is getting married, Odelle is starting a new job at an art gallery. Into her life comes Marjorie Quick, one of her bosses, and a young man with a painting that disrupts lives. The story of the painting is told in a related storyline, set in 1936 in Spain. The books alternates between these two timelines, both of which are equally compelling. As the book goes on, it becomes increasingly clear what the painting's relevance is and why it causes such distress to some of the characters. This was a good read and I'm glad I picked it up.

From the NetGalley shelf and soon to be published here--dates and publishers may vary in different parts of the world.

When the Good Life Goes Bad: The US and Its Seven Deadly Sins by Stacie M. Floyd Thomas (to be published on February 24, 2026 by University of Illinois Press)

When I saw the description of this book, I thought it looked like one I had to read. When I started it, I knew it was. The author begins by describing how she, as a child, could see the differences between societal norms and individual behavior. She wanted to understand these norms and why people behaved as they did. She started to ask why things were the way they were. This was also me as a child. I never got satisfactory answers when I would ask an adult, but I kept watching and thinking, as did Stacie M. Floyd-Thomas. Our curiosity led us along different paths--she became a social ethicist and I an anthropologist, but we're interested in the same questions. Therefore, it was with great interest that I read this book. Not being a Christian, I am familiar with the 7 deadly sins--lust, pride, greed, sloth, envy, gluttony, and wrath--but only from a secular perspective. In this book, Floyd-Thomas shows readers clearly and with examples, how these deadly sins put into practice actually define what it means to live 'the good life' in the USA today. There is a disconnect between what people say is good and how they strive for 'the good life.' While I don't think this behavior is limited to the US, that is perhaps the most blatant example and it is the focus of this book. I found this book to be highly readable and quite fascinating. She does a fine job of explaining her arguments and giving excellent examples to illustrate what she's writing about. This is an important book, especially now. I have known many people in the US who have been reeling from what has been happening. It took them by surprise because they didn't see beyond the myths of what the country is and always has been. They are now dealing with that knowledge. This book can help people do that. It can bring awareness. It can give people new frameworks with which to understand what is going on. It's a book that is timely and much needed. I highly recommend it.

Into the Hush by Arthur Sze (to be published on February 26, 2026 by Penguin Press UK)

I read this collection because I heard the poet in an interview and was intrigued. I was not disappointed. With various poetic forms included, these powerful poems bring to mind our place in the natural world as well as what we and other creatures are losing--languages, habitat, and more. Much wildlife is included in these poems, particularly birds. My favorite poem in the collection was Jaguar Song, but I also quite liked Eraser Song. The poems are set in many locations, from India to the Arctic and many places in between. This is a wonderful assortment of poems and this book would be great to have nearby, opened at random, and a poem enjoyed when there are a few free minutes available. Highly recommend.

Murder Like Clockwork by Nicola Whyte (to be published on March 12, 2026 by Bloomsbury Publishing LLC)

Audrey Brooks lives in a community of people who were down on their luck bit who caught a break when they came to live there, being able to rent flats at well below market value. Each of the residents has a skill set and the 'matriarch' of the community and owner of the square is Celeste. Audrey is a professional cleaner who takes her job very seriously indeed. One of her clients lives abroad but has a house full of antiques. He's particularly into his clocks. Audrey's job is to enter the house at precisely noon on a particular day each week to clean, but more importantly to wind the clocks. One cold winter day, she arrives at the property early. She's freezing and decides that it'll be fine if she goes in half an hour ahead of schedule instead of waiting outside on the pavement, so she goes in, disarms the alarm, gets some feeling back in her fingers and toes, and gets to work. Suddenly all the clocks but one start to chime. She goes to investigate the outlier and discovers a blood spattered room with a dead body in a chair. She runs back outside and calls the police, who take a while to arrive. When they do, they find nothing amiss. The room is clean. Nothing to see here. But Audrey knows what she saw and with the help of her friends--in particular Lewis--she's going to find out what's going on.

This was a good read. I liked the characters and their individual quirks. I would have liked to know more about a few of them who made short appearances in this book, only to provide helpful information to the sleuths. This is the second book in a series, I think, and I didn't even know about the first one, so while I suspect I would know more about Celeste in particular and probably some of the others as well had I read the first book, it was in no way necessary to enjoy this one. The setting was interesting and the plot was unique in my experience. I quite like Audrey and her zeal for cleaning. Lewis grows a bit in the book and learns some things about himself, which I also found interesting. All in all, I really enjoyed my time with this book and I would read more by this author in future. Recommend.

I'm just about done with a funny classic that I'm enjoying very much--The Female Quixote, first published in 1752. More about that at the end of the month after I've finished it. I've got a comic Dostoyevsky novel (who knew?) on my NetGalley shelf that I need to read next because it's going to be archived in a couple of weeks. And when I got to the library on Thursday, I should have at least a few books to pick up besides the one that's already waiting. Plenty of good reading coming up! Hope it's the same for you!

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Snicker-ish Dates Again

 Last month, I posted about the snicker-ish stuffed dates I made with some medjool dates given to me by a friend. I loved them and wanted more, but had no medjool dates in the house. I have lots of dates, but not the big ones that can be stuffed. I get my dates at Aldi in 500 gram bags. These bags contain dates of various sizes and are already pitted. The friend who gave me the medjool dates orders hers online since there's nowhere around here to buy them. I like the Aldi ones just fine so don't feel the need to order online, but they're not really suitable for stuffing. So it was time to work with what I had to get the snickery dates that I wanted!

I poured a bunch of the dates (probably around 20 or so of varying sizes) into a bowl, covered with boiling water and let them sit for 15 minutes. Then drained them and placed them side by side on some baking paper on a cookie sheet. I opened them up and flattened them out a bit.

I melted 150 grams of dark chocolate and stirred in 1/2 cup of peanut butter (1/3 to 1/2 cup works well for this amount of chocolate, depending on how much you want). I removed the dates from the baking paper and spread out a thin layer of the chocolate peanut butter mixture. I didn't cover the entire surface, just made a rectangle.

I placed the soaked, flattened dates side by side over the thin layer of chocolate. I put some small dollops of peanut butter fairly evenly placed across the surface of the dates, then sprinkled chopped walnuts over the top. Finally, I spread the rest of the chocolate peanut butter mixture over the top. I let it sit for a few hours in a cool place to firm up then cut into pieces. 

just after spreading chocolate on top

the inside after cutting

Yum, yum, yum! I love these and so much less fussy than trying to stuff the dates. I'll definitely be making these on a regular basis--at least as long as Aldi keeps selling dates!

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Slow Stitched Cloth Journals

 In December, one of the women from the art gallery next to the library asked me about the possibility of teaching a series of workshops this year. She said to have a think about what I'd like to teach, so I let it simmer over the holidays. When we left for Killybegs, the gallery was still closed so when they opened, I emailed her and suggested a series of workshops on slow stitched cloth journals. 

I wrote:

These could be created in various formats, depending on what the stitcher wants--scroll, bell pull, book, individual piece, or whatever else they could think of. It would all be done by hand--slow stitching--and would incorporate whatever cloth has meaning to the stitcher, scraps, upcycled cloth of various kinds, perhaps some pieces of embroidery or lace created by a person of a previous generation, etc. Embellishments could be anything, including bits of deconstructed jewelry. Photos and other meaningful paper (or other material) objects could be incorporated in various ways. Pockets could be included to stick things in, for example. Or individual pieces could be made and then mounted into an artist sketchbook, leaving some blank pages/areas to write down memories or stories.

I see this as being a project that could be made for a specific event, such as weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, or as just a sort of memory journal. I was describing the idea to a friend and she immediately thought of doing one for her granddaughter's birthday, making each page structured around one letter of the girl's name and including pockets to tuck in photos of the child's father (my friend's son) in the pages and possibly stories about his childhood. 

I think there would be a fun social aspect to this as well, as participants could share ideas, stories, and even swap fabric scraps while they stitch. That's one facet of such a project, but it would also include upcycling, slow stitching, life story writing (if desired), sharing of memories and stories, and time to slow down and play with colors and textures in the cloth. There is no need for perfection and precise sewing--it's all about the process of the stitching and all skill levels would be welcome. If someone wanted to do all simple running stitch, something lovely could be created. If someone is really into embroidery, they could do that and something lovely could be created.

She loved the idea and was going to work on a grant to fund materials and things. I understood that we were waiting to see if the funding came through to know whether or not the class would happen. One day I saw that the class was scheduled to start next month. I didn't have any photos to send her so she could use them in advertising and since I was away from home, my supplies were limited. Fortunately, we had gone to a charity shop where I found some good cloth for slow stitching--fleece scarves, flannel sheets, cloth napkins, and a bag that was labelled 'material' but when I opened it, it was pillowcases. Fine with me. I went rummaging around one of the project pouches I had with me, grabbed a couple scraps of ribbon yarn left from a kumihimo braid I'd made, and started thinking about how to at least make a cover so I could at least create a cover. I'm quite happy with the results!

front cover

back cover

I'm calling this journal 'She Makes Things' and it's honoring the work of women from previous generations, especially their handwork. While I'm including things from and a tribute to several women, some who I knew and some who I didn't, it's primarily an homage to my Nana. When I was little, and at school or somewhere, I was asked who I admired most or some such question. While I don't remember the exact question, I do remember my answer, 'My Nana. She's so cool. She makes things.' I still think Nana was cool. Now I make things. And I'm making this slow stitched cloth journal for myself both as a tribute to all those women like Nana and as a reminder of where I come from and who I am today. 

I'm just about done with this journal and I'll post more about it when it's complete.

Update: Sorry about that white box above. I can't seem to get rid of it. 

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January Reading 2

Here is the second half of my January reading wrap-up.

The Silkie by Gill Edmonds (borrowed from a friend)

In December, a friend handed me this book and said she thought I'd like it. She said that she was in no great rush to get it back so I brought it with me and read it with a dog on my lap. It was fascinating. It's a layered novel based on folklore and with more folklore embedded in the story. I found the structure quite interesting. It's not the kind of thing I usually read so I did have to pay attention to what was going on. I was reminded of the time Bill and I were doing an independent study class in Inupiaq Eskimo language and one of our assignments was to translate some stories from Inupiaq to English. This was somewhat tricky at times because of the folkloric nature of the stories and we would be wondering, for example, whether the rug really was turning into a polar bear or whether we were way off in our translation. But back to the book, which starts out with a disturbing rape by a water person against a woman who lives on land. When a pregnancy results from intercourse between sea males and land women, eventually the sea male comes to claim 'his' child. In this case, there are twins and one is claimed and the other hidden. Neither knows their origin story and neither fit into the cultures and societies in which they're brought up. The sea hominids have their own cultures and ways of being. They interact and befriend other sea creatures. At times they attempt to befriend land humans, but mostly they hang around with each other and other sea creatures observing and trying to come to grips with the devastation of the sea and her creatures by the land people. I found this book very engaging and I'm glad I read it.

The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace (my e-book)

An episode of the Shedunnit podcast dropped with this as the subject, so before I listened to that, I read the book. I loved it. It's the only novel that Sayers collaborated on and the only one of her novels that doesn't involve Lord Peter Wimsey. It's an epistolary novel, written in the form of letters between various people. We first meet the Harrisons--an older gent and his much younger second wife. Also present in the household is her live-in companion, Miss Milsom. In the downstairs flat, an artist, Lathom, and a poet, Munting, move in. Munting is engaged and many of the letters are from him to his fiancee. The Harrison's marriage is not in great shape. In addition to being much older than his wife, Harrison is quite controlling and doesn't want her to have friends outside of those that are mutual, nor does he want her to have a job outside the home. She's bored and stifled and reads voraciously. The Harrisons do not have any interests in common, but he will defend her and shows affection for her when speaking of her to others and when writing to his grown son (from his late wife) who is abroad. It is this son who, after his father's death, believes there is foul play at work. He collects the documents and talks to people and eventually gets the police involved. Published in 1930, this is an excellent Golden Age mystery, which includes newfangled (at the time) discoveries in science and thoughts about psychotherapy.

The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield (Serial Reader app)

This novella was apparently autobiographical. Set in New Zealand, it follows the Burnell family as they move house and settle in. It's a quiet book about the daily lives of the different people in the family--mother, father, three daughters, grandmother and sister/sister-in-law. There's no great plot or intrigue--just ordinary lives and in that way, quite an interesting read.

Taking Chances by Molly Keane (published under the name MJ Farrell) (personal copy)

This one one of Kean's earlier novels, published in 1929. The story revolves around the aptly named Sorrier siblings (and it'd be hard to find a sorrier trio). They live in the big house called Sorristown, their parents having died. They're all adults--Roguey is the oldest, Maeve the only woman, and Jer is the youngest. Maeve worships Roguey, and Jer worships Maeve. The dynamics of the relationships change when Maeve becomes engaged to Rowley. With the wedding fast approaching, Maeve's bridesmaid, Mary arrives. It's clear that her arrival will be the cause of much upheaval, the ripples of which will impact several people. At first I wasn't sure that I'd like this book all that much because it seemed pretty predictable. In a superficial way, it was. Deeper into the layers though, it became a page-turner and one that I quite enjoyed. This is, I think, the third Molly Kean novel I've read and I'm keen to read more. 😉😏

A Dangerous Train of Thought by Faith Martin (BorrowBox audiobook)

This is the latest in the Arbie and Val mystery series. I'd read the first two and enjoyed them well enough, so when I saw this had been added to BorrowBox and was available, I checked it out to listen to whilst stitching at night. It was a fun book. Arbie is a young man who doesn't really need a job but on a lark wrote a book called The Gentlemen's Guide to Ghost Hunting, which was about ghost hunting tourism, basically. We're talking 1920s. This was the foundation in the first book. By the second book, Arbie was a bestselling author working on book two. In this book, he's working on book three and he and his childhood friend/literary assistant and vicar's daughter Val, are off to a big house party. In the nearby village, there are stories about a ghost train and they're going to investigate. It's quite a coup for the hostess to have the bestselling author as a guest at her weekend party of people who probably shouldn't be together at all. But together they are until one of them doesn't make it to the second day. It looks like suicide but there are things that bother Arbie and Val about the situation, so their sleuthing skills will be needed once again. These are fun books, but this one was also a bit sad as far as one of the characters went. The ghost hunting aspect seems to take less of a role as the series goes on, other than being a reason for the pair to be in various places. That said, there is a storyline associated with the ghost train. 

And this concludes my January reading wrap-up. Three weeks left in February, which I hope are filled with many excellent books! Happy reading.

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January Reading 1

 Here we are already a week into February, so it's time to post my January reading wrap-up. Here we go--in the order in which I read them.

Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska (NetGalley book--to be published on February 26, 2026 by Penguin Press UK)

In this book, Jane Rogoyska is exploring the experience of exile in various forms. She does this describing the lives of people who fall within three different groups, all having interacted in some way with the Hotel Lutetia on Paris' Left Bank. She states that, "This is not the story of a famous Paris hotel. It is about three groups of people who are connected to a particular city, to that particular hotel, to one another, and to the grim ideology which dictates the course of their lives. These groups are linked--willingly or not--by race, nationality, language, and their status as outsiders. They all live in exile, in profoundly different ways. They are displaced, dislocated, their lives disrupted. They are temporary beings who live out of suitcases. Their drama plays out in many hotel rooms. The Hotel Lutetia is the prism through which we view their lives." (p 3) The three groups she focuses on in this book are people in the resistance movement in France, Nazi occupiers, and finally, people who have been liberated from concentration camps at the end of the war. Within each group, there are particular people the author writes about and through them readers get a sense of the larger environment in which events occurred. She writes in present tense for most of the book, with occasional paragraphs of objective historical fact written in past tense. She does speculate at times about how someone might have felt in a particular situation, but it's very clear to the reader when this is happening. I found this to be a fascinating, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and very readable book. At times it read like a novel in that I cared about what was happening to some of the people she highlighted and wanted to know what happened to them. This is an important book both for the historical information provided but also because of the idea of different kinds of exile. More and more people are finding themselves in one kind of exile or another, whether through war, invasion, climate crisis, hunger, political oppression, etc. It is important for all of us to understand better what this means. Of course, exiled people today will have different circumstances in some ways than people described in this book. But there will be similarities as well. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. I highly recommend it.

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky (personal copy)

This book opens with Price Myshkin on his way home to Russia from a hospital in Switzerland. On the train he meets Rogozhin who will remain an important figure in his life. Upon arrival, Myshkin goes to meet a woman who may be a distant relative--and his only living relative. He becomes attached to the family (her, her husband, her three daughters) and their circle. Myshkin is known as an idiot because he doesn't play the kinds of games that are expected in this kind of society. He also suffers from epilepsy. He's very open and honest with his thoughts and feelings, which is unusual. He is popular, but also set apart and seen as odd. He's been described as a Christ-like figure. The story follows Myshkin as he tried to acclimate to Russian life after being away. There is much running through this book as we follow Myshkin and those he encounters--philosophy, religion, class structures and expectations, gender roles, and more. I loved this book. Having read a couple of Dostoevsky's novels on Serial Reader before this one, I can say that this is an author I love and I will definitely be reading more of his work.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (personal copy)

I picked this book up at a charity shop in December and decided to bring it with me when we were away. The story begins in Alaska in 1920, where Jack and Mabel have settled to try and make a go of farming there. They'd come from Pennsylvania where they made an unlikely pair--she the daughter of a professor and he a farmer. They married and had a stillborn baby which drove a wedge between them due to lack of communication about their grief. Alaska was a chance to start over, but it wasn't what they thought it would be. Hardship can drive people apart or bring them together and as they struggled at the beginning of winter, they had a momentary thaw in their relationship at the first snowfall. They built a snow child. Shortly thereafter, a girl entered their lives. Are these two experiences connected? Based on a Russian folk tale, the story goes on from there. I enjoyed this book for many reasons--the characters were well drawn, the cultural aspects were interesting, the relationships were true to life, whether the marriage between Jack and Mabel, the friendships that developed, and the parent-child relationships. I will say that the book is set in rural Alaska in the 1920s. There is hunting and lots of it. This would be true of life in rural Alaska today, but even more so a century ago. So if that's something that would be disturbing to you, this might not be a book you want to pick up.

A Danger to the Mind of Young Girls by Adam Morgan (BorrowBox book)

This is a biography of Margaret C. Anderson who was a lesbian publisher--the first to publish James Joyce's Ulysses in the US. She was arrested for this. Her trial would change literary history, but she's largely forgotten today. At the time, it was thought that reading modern literature would turn young women into "disease-ridden lesbians and prostitutes." I suppose this was a step down from the ideas of the Victorian era that too much reading and education for women would cause wombs to shrivel. 

The book opens in winter 1921 in New York City with this sentence, " On a cold afternoon in the heart of Greenwich Village, Margaret C. Anderson bumped into the man who wanted to put her in prison." From there readers are taken back to Margaret's childhood through her teenage years and into young adulthood and independence from her family of origin. The author writes about her passion for literature and art throughout her life and how this put her at odds with her family and the larger society. This book is all too relevant today as the Comstock Act and its successor are being used--again--as threats against citizens of the States. Now as then, misogyny plays a role. Margaret C. Anderson lived a fascinating life and this is an excellent book. 

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen (personal copy)

I reviewed this book here

I think I'll end this post here at the halfway point and post the second half of my January reading tomorrow. I hope February is a great reading month for everyone.

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