April 2023 Wrap-Up

Books Read:

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan (2017)  4/5 stars  (my review here)

Audiobooks Completed:

During the last half of April, I haven't felt motivated for a variety of reasons; then my laptop became unusable and I had to switch everything over to another; at the same time, I did way more playing of Valheim than I did of reading or blogging.*  For those reasons, I ended up not reviewing my rereads of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King, and am instead linking to my very brief previous reviews.  I will say that I enjoyed each one at least as much as I did originally and am getting great pleasure out of reading them straight, one after the other, instead of with other books read in between.  (The audiobook narrator, Jenny Stirlin, is fantastic, by the way, and makes the books come alive.) 

*I also discovered that I inexplicably stopped getting notifications of comments here on my blog for about two weeks, causing me to seem rude or uninterested in my visitors -- so sorry!

The Game (2004)  4/5 stars  (April 2019 review can be found here.)

Locked Rooms (2005)   4/5 stars  (August 2019 review can be found here.)

The Language of Bees (2009)   4/5 stars  (November 2020 review can be found here.)

The God of the Hive (2010)   4/5 stars  (December 2020 review can be found here.)

Pirate King (2011)   4/5 stars  (January 2021 review can be found here.)

If you are interested in this series, start with low expectations, as the first two read like fan-fiction.  As the series progresses, however, they become well-written and engrossing.  Also note that they should be read in order.

Top Ten Tuesday: Audiobook Narrators

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today's Top Ten Tuesday top is "Top Ten Audiobook Narrators".  I listen to an average of 60 audiobooks a year, and believe me, I have definite preferences. I don't have ten favorites, but these six have never disappointed me. 

Hugh Frasier

My number one, hands-down favorite is Hugh Frasier.  He gives charming performances of Agatha Christie's mysteries and I simply love him. 

Timothy West, CBE

Well-known British actor Timothy West could almost oust Frasier as my favorite.  His stellar performance of Trollope's Palliser series just knocked my socks off.  (I get equally excited when I see him in a movie or British TV episode.)

Jenny Sterlin

Another firm favorite is immensely talented Jenny Sterlin.  I loved her narration of Diana Wynne Jones' Howl series, but she really shines reading the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. Kng.

Gerard Doyle

Gerard Doyle is a definite favorite.  I don't think I would have loved Mark Hodder's Burton and Swinburne series nearly as much without his distinctive voice.

Lucy Scott

Lucy Scott (most known for her portrayal of Charlotte Lucas in the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice) gives wonderful performances, both with British accents and American.

Joanne Froggatt

Joanne Froggatt of Downton Abbey fame is a fantastic narrator, and is especially good at emotional content.

Barbara Rosenblat

Barbara Rosenblat is just plain fun.  Her witty delivery of the Vicky Bliss series by Elizabeth Peters kept me laughing out loud, and I'm always glad to see her listed as narrator.

Special Mention:
Joe Mantegna gets special mention.  I've never listened to a book narrated by him, but my husband found his performance of The Godfather to be perfect.

Least Favorite:
And lastly, I have to be mean and mention the one I absolutely hate: Xe Sands. If I see that she has narrated a book, I simply do NOT get it, no matter how much I want to read it.

How about you?  If you listen to audiobooks, do you have any favorites?

Top Ten Tuesday: Non-Bookish Freebie

 Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today's Top Ten Tuesday challenge is a non-bookish freebie, to encourage book bloggers to share a bit more about themselves.  I've already got a "Ten Tens About Me" page, so I went through previously taken photos to see if I could find ten that represent me.

I am a Christian.

I love stationery supplies nearly as much as books.

The daisy is my favorite flower.

Pink and green are my favorite colors.

I'd rather eat fruit than just about anything.

I love small toys.

I have a cat, St. John, who fills my life with joy.

Cross stitching is my favorite hobby.

I absolutely love keys.

Winter is my favorite season.

So, how about you?  Do we share any favorites or have anything in common?

Word of the Week: Ratiocination

"Word of the Week" is a meme hosted by the Plain-Spoken Pen on Mondays in which we share a word that we find entertaining, enlightening, edifying, or just plain fun to say! 

Despite it being my second time reading Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King, I have found two great words used in it that I don't remember encountering previously.*  Last week's was recherché, while toward the end of the book I came across "ratiocination".  A search of several sites gives the following definition:

It was mentioned in conjunction with Sherlock Holmes, and I have to say, it's the perfect word to use side-by-side with such a man.

How about you?  Did you already know this word?  Have you run across any great words in the past week?

*I don't know whether to blame it on my sieve-like memory, or the fact that I listened to the audiobook version, and it is easy for me to forget things I don't see in print.  Either way, I got to discover a pair of new words!

The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home
Denise Kiernan

2017

4/5 stars

The Biltmore House

The title of this nonfiction account implies that the book will be taken up entirely with George Vanderbilt, his grand North Carolina estate, the Biltmore House, and his marriage. That is, however, misleading.  Instead, Kiernan uses George Vanderbilt's experience building the house, the life of his future wife Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, their life together, and hers after his death as the jumping-off points for short discussions of other famous contemporaries, as well as local and world events.  There is a large amount of information on George and Edith, as well as their daughter Cornelia, but one needs to also be interested in America's Gilded Age, the Jazz Age, and the Great Depression to appreciate much of the book.  As I fall into that category, I enjoyed it tremendously.

I grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, home of the Biltmore House, and spent many hours visiting the house and enjoying the gardens.  As I've been interested in history most of my life, I had already done a good deal of research on the building of the house and the lives of the family.  Despite that, I learned new things about them and the history of Asheville.  I also gleaned many illuminating nuggets about the people and events that were also mentioned.

Kiernan's prose leans to flowery side, but the book was engaging, the facts presented well, and notwithstanding the broad span of data, it was informative and interesting.

Overall, I certainly recommend The Last Castle, with the understanding that the focus is not entirely on Biltmore and the family. but is much more wide-ranging.

Shelf Control: To the Letter

Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Literary Potpourri to discuss unread books sitting in our to-be-read piles.

 

To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing 

Simon Garfield

2013

I found this one at the Dollar Tree a few years ago, before they (or at least our region) stopped carrying adult books.  I was immediately caught by the subtitle, as I am both a lover of social history and a letter writer, myself.  Apparently, the author gives a history of the art, discusses epistolary novels, and introduces famous letter writers, among other things.  It has mostly good reviews on Goodreads, and though rather lengthy, appears to be easy to read and entertaining.  I'm thinking I need to bump this up one up on the to-be-read pile.

Top Ten Tuesday: Animals

 Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

 

Today's Top Ten Tuesday challenge is to post ten books with animals on the cover or in the titles.  I narrowed this down to books in my personal library, so that I could post my own photos, and came up with five on the cover and five in the title.

Aesop's Fables by Aesop (6th Century BC)

This was a obvious choice, especially since I have such a gorgeous edition!  

Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (published between 1827 and 1849)

How could a collected edition of Poe's stories NOT have a raven on the cover? 

The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948) by Evelyn Waugh

Waugh is a master of the satire, and this short novel about pet morticians is a prime example.  His black humor won't be for everyone, but I find him fantastic. (It's hard to see from this photo, but there are statues of both a cat and dog on the cover.)

Unexpected Magic (2004) by Diana Wynne Jones

Jones wrote delightful fantasy for children and adults.  I prefer her novel-length tales, but her short stories are still well worth reading.

The Water of the Wonderous Isles (1897) by William Morris

More famous for his textile designs, Morris was also an author of poetry, novels, and essays, whose fantasy influenced the modern genre.  I've not read this one, though I have read and enjoyed The Well at the World's End (1896).

The Tiger in the Smoke (1952) and Cargo of Eagles (1968) by Margery Allingham

The Tiger in the Smoke is my favorite of Allingham's mystery/adventure novels.  It was moving, tense, and well-written.  I can't remember anything about Cargo of Eagles, and though I thought I'd read all her Campion stories, I'm not certain that I did read this one.  (Don't you just love these Penguin editions?!)

Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (1950), The Under Dog and Other Stories (1951), and Cat Among the Pigeons (1959) by Agatha Christie

Dame Christie wraps up the list with three of her later mysteries.  I don't remember much about the two collections, but found Cat Among the Pigeons to be a five-star read.

Word of the Week: Recherché

"Word of the Week" is a meme hosted by the Plain-Spoken Pen on Mondays in which we share a word that we find entertaining, enlightening, edifying, or just plain fun to say! 

I've been rereading Locked Rooms (Laurie R. King) this past week, and ran across the adjective "recherché".  I was able to figure it out from context, but wanted to get a specific definition.  One problem, though. . .  I was listening to the audiobook, not reading, and I could not figure out how to spell "rare-char-shay"!  It took a lot of Googling, and an equal amount of laughter, before I finally came across it.

The audiobook reader is British, so I'm going to have to listen to an American speaker say it before I use it, but it's such a snazzy word that I hope I can remember it!

What about you?  Where you familiar with this one?  Did you find any good words this week?

Six for Sunday: Delicious

This week's  Six for Sunday * topic is "delicious books" in honor of Easter treats.  Isn't that a fun topic?!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1964)
This was the first that came to mind.  I read it many times as a child, fascinated by all the candy descriptions.  I reread it in 2005, prior to watching the Johnny Depp version (which, while good, was no match for Gene Wilder's).  I remember that I enjoyed the book, but didn't find it as magical as I had as a kid.  Regardless, when thinking of delicious books, this is a must! 

Charlie, by Joseph Schindelman, from the first U.S. edition.

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (2002)

Kurlansky's premise, according to the blurb, is to show the ways that salt has shaped civilization.  This has been on my to-be-read shelf for a few years now, so I can't say if it's a good read or not, but to me, it sounds fascinating. 

The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice by Michael Krondl (2007)

In this book, Krondl focuses on Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam and their place in the exotic spice trade.  I've not read this one either, but have some background knowledge of the importance of Eastern spices to the Western world, so I'm looking forward to reading it.

Stalking the Wild Asparagus (1962) and Stalking the Healthful Herbs (1966) by Euell Gibbons

Gibbons, a favorite of my Mom, was an outdoorsman who promoted foraging for wild foods, with recipes and how-to information.  Most of what I know about these books was learned second-hand in childhood as tidbits from Mom.  When I saw these two at the used bookstore, I got super excited to be able to have my own copies!  

The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (published 1954 and 1955) by J.R.R. Tolkien 

How can I one discuss food in books without thinking of all the yummy meals eaten by Hobbits?

*Six for Sunday is a feature by Steph at A Little But A Lot

Shelf Control: Two by MacDonald

  Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Literary Potpourri to discuss unread books sitting in our to-be-read piles.

  

Mom discovered George MacDonald (1824-1905) when I was in high school, through reading C.S. Lewis, who was greatly influenced by MacDonald's writing and Christianity.  At that time, the 1980s, MacDonald's romantic fiction was being republished in an abridged form for the modern reader by Michael Phillips.*  I devoured all that she could get her hands on, and they sparked my love of Victorian melodrama, though I didn't know that at the time.

While MacDonald is quite talented at that genre, his true genius lies in fantasy.  Lilith (my review) and Phantastes (my review) are phenomenal, and his fairy tales are justly praised.  These works influenced Tolkien and Madeline L'Engle as well as Lewis.  Chesterton and Mark Twain were fans, as well. Furthermore, MacDonald's example, encouragement, and mentorship caused Lewis Carroll to publish Alice's Adventures.

I have read a good deal of MacDonald's novels and sermons, own many of his books in print (some of which are the stunning volumes from Johannesen Printing and Publishing, see below) and all of his works in e-book format.  Despite that, I've never read his popular fantasy duology for children: The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie! There they sit, on my shelf, waiting to be read.

Have you read any of MacDonald's books, fantasy or otherwise?  And how about these two in particular -- am I missing a real treat?

*The reasons for the abridgement were that MacDonald, a Scotsman, often had his characters speak in Scots dialect which can be difficult to figure out, as well as the fact that, in typical Victorian manner, these novels were quite lengthy, which could be off-putting for late twentieth-century readers.

One of Johannesen's gorgeous editions.

Top Five Wednesdays: Friendship

This week's Top Five Wednesday challenge is to celebrate some great literary friendships!  Here are the ones that first sprang to my mind.

The Bob-Whites of the Glen
The Trixie Belden series: originally authored by Julie Campbell, later by the Western Publishing in-house writers under the pseudonym of Kathryn Kenny.  (published between 1948 and 1986)

I didn't have a large circle of friends when I was young, so I was always so jealous of Trixie and hers.  I still think it would have been incredibly fun to belong to a "club" and do things as a group.

Holmes and Watson

The Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle (published between 1887 and 1927)

If you've visited this blog much, you'll know my love of Holmes.  This friendship is important for the misanthropic Holmes, as he doesn't exactly make friends easily.  While he often dismisses Watson's intelligence and input, he needs Watson's companionship.  

Anne and Diana

Anne of Green Gables (1908) and Anne of Avonlea (1909), by Lucy Maude Montgomery 

This is such a sweet friendship, and though they realistically grow apart as they mature, they always have a special place in the other's heart.  I love the entire series, but especially the first books.

Bilbo and Gandalf 

The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (published 1954 and 1955) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Gandalf is an excellent friend to Bilbo.  He knows what the Hobbit needs, be it an adventure or saving from the power of the One Ring.  In return, he has a true and devoted friend in Bilbo.

Lorelei and Dorothy

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925) by Anita Loos

I don't know that either lady is particularly good for the other, but my, don't they have quite the adventures?!  If you've seen the movie, you really should read the book; if you haven't, but like the 1920s, it's a definite must-read. I laughed out-loud just reading my review.