Laurel’s Comments (group member since Dec 30, 2013)

Laurel’s comments from the All About Books group.

That poem has also been set to music. I've sung it with my women's choir that I'm in.

Antonio wrote: "I've just asked my AI Chat to compare Goodreads and Librarything, I got this answer:

The choice between the two ultimately comes down to personal preference and which features are most important to the user."

Why does it have to be a choice? I use both quite happily. I keep track of what I've read and what I want to read on Goodreads. I use LibraryThing to keep track of the books I own. Well, theoretically, because I've only put a small fraction of my books on LibraryThing. I enjoy the book group communities on both platforms.

I was sad when she died a few years ago. I had read a book of her essays (Upstream: Selected Essays on nature and the great romantic poets. She shines when she talks about nature, but I didn't love this as much as her poetry.

Greg wrote: "By the way, I accidentally posted the poem twice at first, and I deleted one of the two incarnations. If anyone commented on the second copy before I deleted it, please forgive my confusion. It was..."

Thanks, Greg. I love Mary Oliver! Great choice.

This sounds right up my alley - on the TBR it goes....

Kati wrote: "Maybe...

After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC"

It's May! It/s May! The Lusty Month of May...
and I am definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the book choices I'm trying to manage at one time. I seem to suddenly have a staggering number of books in progress, an equally lengthy list of books I've postponed that I still want to read, and an even lengthier list of books to be read THIS MONTH.

Currently reading:
Sparrow Tree - very short poetry book that I purchased. No rush, but I could finish it in 30 minutes probably...

As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books - essays about birds, Interlibrary loan due back in 4 days. I shall probably purchase it, as it is beautifully illustrated, and I'm an avid birdwatcher.

The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis - a March book club leftover, so no rush to finish, and I've been able to keep renewing it on Libby.

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle - an April book club leftover, so no rush to finish, and I have the book.

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse - borrowed on Libby. I've only read two chapters so far. Due in 4 days, but I should be able to renew it.

Jane Eyre - owned on Audible. About 11? chapters to go.

Next up:
The Wife Upstairs - a follow on from Jane Eyre. Audiobook available on Libby.

A Northern Light - Daytimers book club book for May. So I need to read it by the end of the month.

The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature - Perspectives book club book for May. So ditto.

Miss Eliza's English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship - for A Good Yarn (letter K - kitchen and Kent)

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (reread) and
The Book Woman's Daughter - another letter K (Kentucky)

Murder at Honeychurch Hall - this was for A Good Yarn, the letter H, which was back in Oct/Nov of 2022 and that's how long I've waited for this to become available. Due back in 11 days, so I really need to read it NOW or forget it.

Two more books I'd like to recommend one of them as a summer read for Perspectives, so I need to read at least enough of them to be able to recommend one or the other by the end of the month:
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine

The Prophets

Books already mentioned this year, but have become postponed:
Lessons in Chemistry - Perspectives book club book for April, but I think I'll wait and read this when I can get it on audio.

Ygerna: A Pendragon Chronicles Prequel Novel - started in January and paused

I Will Die in a Foreign Land - returned to library, but I'd still like to read it - perhaps over the summer in conjuction with The Gates of Europe.

Death at La Fenice - This was a group read in some online book group, and is one I've wanted to read forever. Purchased on Audible, but too much going on this month to get to it right now.

The Apothecary Rose - an old favorite and a series I want to reread, and this fits my alphabet challenge ("A" titles) - purchased on Audible (but I also found my old paperback copy, unpacking boxes of books)

The Evening Chorus - started last summer and postponed. I keep renewing it on Libby, and lo and behold I found an ARC of this in unpacking books... don't know if I'm going to get to it this month or not. Probably not.....

I could keep going, but I'll stop there...

Pride and Prejudice and Kitties: A Cat-Lover's Romp through Jane Austen's Classic - A P&P retelling from a cat's point-of-view with photos. Clever, but a bit repetitious.

Chi's Sweet Home, Volume 1 - a 12-volume graphic novel series for children, but I loved it as an adult too! Anyone who has been owned by cats will be very familiar with the cat behaviors and situations depicted.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/4127... - A long-running mystery series, featuring Mrs. Murphy, a cat, along with her cohorts, Pewter and Tee Tucker ( a corgi) who help Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen solve mysteries in the little town of Crozet, Virginia.

Breaking Cat News: Cats Reporting on the News that Matters to Cats - a comic strip featuring cats as news reporters. I adore these cartoons and there are I think 6 book collections out now.

Homer's Odyssey - a memoir about adopting a blind kitten who survived against the odds. Heartwarming!

Sounds like what I call an apple dumpling. In the 19th century a duff was a steamed pudding.

Carrying over: The Thursday Murder Club and Cat's Eyewitness

Needed something brand new on New Year's Day though, so I started Ygerna: A Pendragon Chronicles Prequel Novel

That's a wrap for 2022. 41 books is kind of amazing considering the year I had! I could have finished Pucky, Prince of Bacon: A Breaking Cat News Adventure but decided to make it my first book of 2023. I'll also be continuing The Thursday Murder Club and Cat's Eyewitness. I shall also start a new book today, but I haven't decided what yet...

On to 2023!

#41 We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace
3 green stars.

A bit dry, but well-researched and full of surprising information about one of our nation's most beloved holidays: Thanksgiving. I grew up in the 60s, steeped in the mythology of the "first" Thanksgiving, how the Indians saved the starving colonial settlers, and then were invited to share in a feast of celebration for their survival. In truth, there was no "first" Thanksgiving, and now 60 years on from my school days, Native Americans have come to view Thanksgiving as a day of mourning. But giving thanks is as old as humankind. Sarah Josepha Hale drew on the harvest traditions of New England in her vision of having a fixed date that would be nationwide. It took decades of writing letters, before Abraham Lincoln made it a national proclamation in 1862. Each president after him continued the tradition, but it wasn't until 1941 that Congress made it a national holiday. Then add in some football traditions, and big department stores throwing parades to kick off the Christmas shopping season.... Perhaps this book can help us break through the myths and reclaim a deeper sense of what it means to come together in gratitude, especially at a time when Covid is still keeping us apart.

Description: From Ancient Rome through 21st-century America, bestselling author Denise Kiernan brings us a biography of an idea: gratitude, as a compelling human instinct and a global concept, more than just a mere holiday. Spanning centuries, We Gather Together is anchored amid the strife of the Civil War, and driven by the fascinating story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widowed mother with no formal schooling who became one of the 19th century’s most influential tastemakers and who campaigned for decades to make real an annual day of thanks. Populated by an enthralling supporting cast of characters including Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, Walt Whitman, Norman Rockwell, and others, We Gather Together is ultimately a story of tenacity and dedication, an inspiring tale of how imperfect people in challenging times can create powerful legacies. Working at the helm of one of the most widely read magazines in the nation, Hale published Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others, while introducing American readers to such newfangled concepts as “domestic science,” white wedding gowns, and the Christmas tree. A prolific writer, Hale penned novels, recipe books, essays and more, including the ubiquitous children’s poem, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” And Hale herself never stopped pushing the leaders of her time, in pursuit of her goal.

Cumulative pages: 13,390

#40 All Adults Here
4.5 blue stars. I loved it.

Quirky, hilarious, relatable, and even insightful. I had no problem with the plethora of (so-called) "progressive" issues. To me it was just about life. The choices we all make. The mistakes we all make. The regrets we all have. All told with warmth and humor. I could relate to Cecelia (13), Porter (38), and Astrid (60-something) at each of their life stages. This was the perfect light-hearted, feel-good read that I needed for the holidays. And I understand that this is being developed into a limited TV series. That sounds like fun!

Description: When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she'd been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence? Astrid's youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid's thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most.

Cumulative pages: 13,086

December update:
Thanks to a road trip I have finished two books already in December, and it is on track to be a normal 4-book month, or possibly even a 5-book month. I have some lighter holiday reads lined up and I have my lists for 2023 ("Keeping It Light") ready to go. I am so happy to have my reading mojo back, although there will be a few leftovers carried over. Those books are still in boxes somewhere....

Audiobook (and December book club book) ready to start:
READ All Adults Here

Print and ebooks in progress:
The Evening Chorus - this one might be postponed with the other books carried over. It has been long paused.
The Thursday Murder Club
READ We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace - started last year and didn't finish. I picked it up again because "Thanksgiving". It's a bit dry, but I'm determined to finish it this time. I started again from the beginning.

Waiting on Kindle (via Libby):
All About Us - December group read in another group, and a holiday book.

On hold (Libby) and these will probably be 2023 reads:
Murder at Honeychurch Hall - for A Good Yarn (H is for hall, and Honeychurch Hall)
Homer's Odyssey - on my 12 + 4 (read one from each list) challenge
The Month of Borrowed Dreams - a leftover series
A Sprinkle of Sabotage aka "The Perfect Cornish Murder" - next (#3) in the Nosy Parker series. #4 is a Christmas story but I won't get to it before Christmas...
Knit One, Kill Two - A Good Yarn leftover
The Dinner Lady Detectives - 1st in a new series for me. Set in Wales. Sounded fun. And #4 (I think?) is a Christmas story, but there's a long waiting list for this one. Maybe I'll purchase it...

#39 The Forest of Vanishing Stars
4 red stars

4 stars because it is a relatively unique take on all the WWII books out there. Very well researched, but I didn't feel that research was always presented very well. This could have worked very well as a historical novel, OR as a coming of age/romance novel but it tried to be both, AND threw in a paranormal/magical realism element, which I normally enjoy, but seemed at times just odd here. The overall plot was a bit too-contrived, and some things were beyond belief. Perhaps this works best as a coming of age type story, so if you are looking for straight historical fiction you might be disappointed. And as a coming of age story, the ending really should have been fleshed out or left as a cliff-hanger for a second novel about Yona's life after the war. All the stuff at the beginning, with its magical overtones was setting her up to be some sort of saviour/heroine that just wasn't delivered. Nevertheless, I liked Yona, and found it to be a very interesting story. I would read more by this author.

Description: After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.

Cumulative pages: 12,730

#38 Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion
3 green stars

Perhaps I've been reading too many books dealing with social justice, racism, economics, and all the things that are wrong with our country. But I just didn't find anything new here, and nothing much in the way of solutions either. On the one hand, it's all true. And on the other hand it's very one-sided and negative. I'm not convinced by her argument. We ARE a nation of immigrants. I don't disagree with the whole settler colonialism concept. Nor do I disagree that we have a violent and racist history that shouldn't be allowed to be white-washed. Anyway, there is certainly much food for thought here, and topics that need to be discussed.

Cumulative pages: 12,354

#37 A Brush with Death
3 green stars

This 2nd in the series was a little disappointing, but I'll keep reading the series. The plot was good. But I hope Jodie sorts out her personal life soon. Her preoccupation with all the men in her life might get a little old in another book or two. Okay, she's still recovering from a nasty divorce, and she's not ready to commit to another relationship. Fortunately, because she comes dangerously close to getting involved with a married man. And I'd like to see her mother and her daughter developed a little more. They were pretty peripheral here.

(Republished as The Cornish Village Murder.)

Book Description: When a body turned up at her last catering gig it certainly put people off the hors d’oeuvres. With a reputation to salvage, Jodie’s determined that her next job for the village’s festival will go off without a hitch. But when chaos breaks out, Jodie Parker somehow always finds herself caught up in the picture. The body of a writer from the festival is discovered at the bottom of a cliff, and the prime suspect turns out to be the guest of honour, the esteemed painter Duncan Stovall. With her background in the Met police, Jodie has got solving cases down to a fine art so she knows things are rarely as they seem. Can she find the killer before the village faces another brush with death?

Cumulative pages: 11,954

#36 American Dirt
5 purple stars - Compelling and heart-breaking.

A harrowing story, but so beautifully told. This had me on the edge of my seat. I guarantee it will make you think about the migrant experience. No, the author isn't Mexican, nor is she a migrant. So what? This is fiction. Good fiction writers do research. Sometimes a lot of it. And the end result is a very compelling story. I loved Lydia and Luca, and the two Honduran girls, and Beto, and I could even find some empathy for Lorenzo. I did feel a tad exhausted by the end, with all that these characters go through. Be warned that the author deals with some very difficult subjects here: murder, rape, human trafficking, and more. The novel isn't perfect - there are a few situations that defy credulity, but on the whole - wow!

Cumulative pages: 11,648

November update:
Still not reading very much. Even if I wanted to, I don't know where the books I was reading are.... in a box somewhere. Anyway, having just moved to a new house, and it being recently Halloween/Celtic New Year, I want to read new things. Or be planning my reading for next year. Or not to have any goals at the moment...

On audio I'm listening to
READ American Dirt for this month's book club.
I gave up on waiting for the audio for last month's read
The Thursday Murder Club, so I have the print book to read.
I still have the ebook of
The Evening Chorus on Libby checked out, but I'm still craving something new that I have available on Kindle, so I just started
READ A Brush with Death

And that is as far ahead as I can think...

#35 The Ink Black Heart
3.75 red stars, not rounded up.

This one didn't work quite as well as an audiobook, because of all the chatroom transcripts, but it wasn't enough for me to switch formats. Other reviews have said the e-book version is difficult to read, so I guess take your pick, or go with an actual print book. Wonderfully complex as always, and as always, the people that Strike and Robin are dealing with, are very distasteful indeed. The arms-length relationship is getting tedious. But, real life is like that. These are two emotionally wounded characters who need to sort out their feelings for each other. I don't mind complex relationships, but nothing has advanced by the end of the book this time. Galbraith/Rowling has an obvious axe to grind in each of these novels - this time it is the online/social media community. The plot is engaging enough, but it needed serious editing. The online game depicted sounds hilarious. Sure it's a spoof but you'll wish it was real. I'll keep reading this series, because I care about Robin and Strike, and I'll hope that the next book has a better editor.

Cumulative pages read: 11,189

Well, my phone quit syncing to the car, and I haven't had time to reset it! So no audiobook this week.

I did finish completely moving everything as of yesterday. Having a bit of a lazy day today, except I have to get outside and finish planting the plants I brought over from the old place. It's still a big, huge disorganized mess here, and I don't know where anything is, or even what box my dishes are in. So I'm not even going to try and post a November reading plan!

Hopefully I'll get my phone reset, because I have a choir rehearsal an hour away this evening....