A Life of Reading Words
DATE: 1/6/26
Challenge Titles Finished (Totals To Date):
Titles Finished: Totals for 2025:
All titles left to go for Challenge: 3,540
Next count: 1/1/27
Tyler, Anne. Searching for Caleb. Ballantine Books, 1996.
Reason read: Tyler was born in the month of October. Read in her honor.
Justine Peck’s career as a seer began when she was asked to run the fortune telling booth at the school bazaar. Once people started whispering in her ear that she had serious talent she turned it into a full-blown business. However, despite all of Justine’s talents, no matter how hard she searched, she could not find her grandfather’s long lost brother. Daniel’s brother, Caleb left home abruptly in 1912, never to be seen again. Justine and her hard of hearing grandfather patiently travel from place to place following up on leads and peering into wrinkly faces, hoping to find long lost Caleb. In the meantime, Justine’s husband (and cousin) bounces from job to job, searching for his own place in life. He moves his family in the search for his true calling. Apparently, Justine was able to see his future either.
One of the things I love about all Anne Tyler books is her imagery. For example – before moving Justine searched the house for something to stir her coffee and came up with a screwdriver because everything else was packed up. [Although my question is this, if you knew you would be saving out the coffee maker for one last cup, and you know how you take your coffee, wouldn’t you save out a spoon? Here is another point. Duncan was professionally adrift. He frequently moved his family. Wouldn’t they have this moving thing down pat?]
Another strength of Tyler’s is her ability to capture realistic dialogue. I could hear their voices in my head.
As an aside, this is the second book I am reading where cousins get married.
Lines I liked, “Was there anything worse than the feeling you were sealed in a place, to frow old and stale and finally die” (p 490) and “She was the other shoe which never dropped” (p 261-262). Last one, “She had never managed to believe that some people truly will not be seen again” (p 284).
Author fact: Tyler is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. She graduated from Duke at age 19 with a degree in Russian studies.
Book trivia: I am reading seven books of Tyler’s. Searching for Caleb is the second oldest book on the list.
Setlist: “The Pardon Came Too Late,” “Just a Lock of Hair for Mother,” “The St. James Infirmary Blues,”
Mantovani, “Goodnight, Irene,” “Wabash Cannonball,” Caruso, Arturo Tosanini, Jan Kubelik, Czerny, Buddy Bolden, “Country Gardens,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Blues in the Night,” Czerny, “Broken Yo-Yo,” “Stone Pony Blues,” “Careless Love,” “Mr. Crump,” “Stack O’Lee,” “Jogo Blues,” “Pig Meat Papa,” “Broke and Hungry Blues,” “Nobody Knows You When You are Down and Out,” “Doxology,” and “Bringing in the Sheeves.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Real Characters” (p 197) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Baltimore” (p 34). I have to admit, I didn’t really get a sense of Baltimore or even Maryland in Searching for Caleb.
Stout, Rex. Golden Spiders. Collins Fontana Books, 1954.
Reason read: the slog continues.
Golden Spiders begins in the kitchen. Nero Wolfe likes his sterling pie a very particular way and when it isn’t prepared to his liking, you guessed it, he sulks and refuses to eat Fritz’s prepared dish. Archie, ever the trickster, decides to punish Wolfe for his churlish behavior by allowing a young boy to interrupt Wolfe’s makeshift meal. Young Pete Drossos has an interesting tale about a damsel in distress. She was wearing spider earrings and Pete swore she asked him to find a cop. When the boy ends up dead as the result of a hit and run, the next day Wolfe is visited by the boy’s mother. With four dollars and twenty cents from Pete’s piggy bank, she pleads for Wolfe to solve her son’s murder. The plot thickens when the man thought to be driving the car that killed Pete is also a victim of vehicular homicide. Matthew Birch was an agent of the Immigration and Naturalization Service was killed by the same car on the same day. By taking this case, Wolfe solves more than Pete and Matthew’s murder as he is thrust into a blackmail scheme targeting poor immigrants.
Death by automobile is a favorite way to die in a Nero Wolfe mystery.
As an aside, on Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day I read the line about Columbus running into a continent he didn’t expect.
Book trivia: in the introduction, written by Linda Barnes, gave a walk-through of the house rules at 325 West 35th Street: the times in the plant room, rules during meals, and how to treat guests. Linda called Golden Spiders atypical. I would argue that Black Mountain is the most atypical Nero Wolfe story thus far.
Music: “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the never-ending chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 289). Just kidding.
Matera, Lia. Face Value. Pocket Star Books, 1995.
Reason read: October is to honor William Penn who was a pioneer of criminal justice reform/corrections. He was born in October.
Lia Matera’s Face Value opens with Laura Di Palma describing how an ex-colleague happened to show up at her office-warming party. Of all the nerve for Steve Sayers to show his face at her new law practice when he was the one to turned her mentor against her and worse, got her fired by exposing Di Palma’s pro bono work without the firm’s consent. I was expecting Sayers to be a pain in Laura’s butt for the duration of Face Value, but he quickly disappears from the scene when Laura takes on an unusual case in her new practice. An old friend comes to her for advice about a compromising situation. Quantum physicist turned spiritual guru “Brother Mike” has convinced this friend to explore her spiritually through (you guessed it) group sex with other devotees. While Brother Mike’s followers knew their sessions would be filmed, no one expected their wildest escapades to end up for rent at the local adult video store. Di Palma agrees to look into the case and finds herself involved in a mass murder of six strippers. As the case becomes more complicated Di Palma decides to represent Brother Mike and recruits her old boyfriend for help.
Whenever I meet a new character who is part of a series (which means I will be spending some time with them), I always take note of their personality. Right away I learned that Laura was not good with emotion. She was ab avid hiker and had complicated relationships with ex-lovers.
Music: Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Give Me a Licking.”
Author fact: Lia Matera has a website here.
Book trivia: Face Value was a very quick read but I took my time with it because every character holds a clue to the mystery.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117).
Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. Harper & Row Publishers, 1936.
Reason read: after many false starts I am finally getting around to reading the next book in the Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Wimsey series.
From the very beginning of Gaudy Night, Sayers makes sure the reader is connected to Harriet’s past. This is important for the story to be successful. In Gaudy Night Harriet returns to her alma mater, Shrewsbury College, for a reunion of sorts. Called a ‘Gaudy Night Dinner’ Harriet attends the feast during the college’s reunion weekend and has a wonderful time reconnecting with people and the place. However, afterwards Harriet receives a nasty message tucked inside the sleeve of her college gown, calling her a “dirty murderess.” Someone knows of her past: years earlier she had been on trial for the death of her lover, but ultimately acquitted, thanks to Lord Peter Whimsey coming to her rescue and proving her innocence. Despite all that, there are people out there who still think of her as guilty beyond a shadow of doubt. The messages don’t stop there. Harriet and others continue to receive threatening missives. Someone has a bone to pick with the women of Shrewsbury College. Shrewsbury administration is adamant that Harriet solve the mystery…with the help of Peter, of course. What better way to avoid public scandal than to have alum Harriet Vane investigate the nasty letters? Never mind that Harriet is not a trained investigator. The fact that she writes compelling mystery fiction is clout enough. When the investigate stalls, of course Lord Peter must come to Harriet’s rescue and uses this latest mystery as an excuse to yet again propose to Miss Vane. I found the scene when Peter gives Harriet a lesson in self defense while flirting silly. Peter even outfits Harriet with a dog collar to protect her precious neck while sleeping.
Marriage and romantic relationships are a prominent theme in Gaudy Night. [As an aside, Wimsey is so persistent and Vane is continuously so reluctant that I wished more than a few times that Peter would give up. I wanted him to break the news to Harriet that he has found someone else; a bombshell of a girl who he considers his true love.] All in all I found Gaudy Night to be a long and winding story that moved away from the mystery for long periods of time.
Line I liked. When Peter is talking to Harriet he utters, “The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo” (p 404). Phrase I also liked, “…distorting-glass of suspicion…” (p 462).
Confessional: there is talk of suicide throughout Gaudy Night that was difficult to read. I had a friend who took her life earlier this year.
Author fact: After reading Have His Carcase the author fact was Dorothy Sayers full name. The fact for this blog is that she died at 64 years of age.
Book trivia: I am always annoyed when someone like a hairdresser always gets caught up in murders. Their involvement never seems clever enough. There is no murder in Gaudy Night.
Audio trivia: my version of Gaudy Night was read by Ian Carmichael.
Music: “Love in Bloom,” Bach, “Greensleeves,” Morley: Canzonets for Two Voices, “Sweet Cupid, Ripen Her Desire,” Tobias Hume’s “True House of Joy and Bliss,” and Bach Concerto.
BookLust Twist: You can always tell just how much Pearl loves a book by how many times it gets mentioned in various chapters. Gaudy Night appears in all three Book Lust books. There is a double mention in the original Book Lust: first, in the chapter called “Academic Mysteries” (p 4), and again in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117). In More Book Lust, Gaudy Night shows up in the chapter called “Ms. Mystery” (p 169). Finally, there is a fourth mention of Gaudy Night in Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Oxford” (p 170).
Deighton, Len. Mexico Set. Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Reason read: to continue the series started last month in recognition of the National Security Act.
In Mexico Set readers rejoin M1-6 agent Bernard Samson as he trails his Soviet counterpart, Erich Stinnes, a KGB major whom London Central salivates to recruit to their side. This is a strategic dance that takes considerable time. Samson travels between Mexico, London, Paris and Berlin delicately trying to seal the deal while avoiding traitors and blackmailers. Samson’s ex-wife has made it personal by threatening to take their children if he interferes with her KGB man. Remember, back in Berlin Game Mrs. Samson flipped and works for the enemy now. Like any good thriller worth its weight, Mexico Set has an abduction, a suicide, and a murder. Suspicions abound and loyalties become murkier by the day. As Samson goes deeper into his mission the net tightens incrementally around him. Pieces of his old watch are found at the murder scene of one of his own men. He is the one to bring the poisoned meal that kills another of his agents. Samson has no idea of his enemies except the obvious one, his ex-wife. Could it be that Fiona is trying to make the Department think she got her ex-husband to change sides with her? Then there is the Russian passport with his name and picture…
I appreciated that Deighton gave a two sentence recap of Berlin Game, artfully setting the stage for Mexico Set without spoiling either book. Another bonus was Deighton’s explanation of the difference between recruiting and enrolling someone to their side. For those interested, recruiting is a civilian term for swaying ordinary people. Enrolling is when an enemy can be flipped into joining the other side.
What makes Berlin Game and Mexico Set so riveting to read is that Len Deighton was a master of realistic dialogue. His characters are believable in emotion and speech. I was kept on the edge of my seat for the entire book.
Lines that mentioned coffee which I loved, “It was a heavy Mexican coffee that Biedermann had turned into a devil’s brew that made my teeth tingle” (p 40). Sounds like my kind of cup. Here is another coffee reference, “She stared at me with enough calm dispassionate interest to make me worry whether my coffee was poisoned” (p 69).
A non-coffee quote, “For fear is so unwelcome that it comes only in disguise and guilt as its favorite one” (p 189).
Author fact: Deighton went to art school.
Book trivia: cover art is by Arnold Schwartzmann. This is the first time I have ever seen an artist explain their cover art.
Music: Mozart’s Magic Flute, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Duke Ellington, Elvis, the Beatles, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Ingrid Haebler, “Bye Bye Blackbird,” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Cold War Spy Fiction” (p 61).
Downham, Kate. Sourdough Without Fail: 100% Whole Grain Bread, Pizza and Pastries for Any Kitchen.
Reason read: as a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review program I get to read interesting books. I often learn something along the way. This is one such time.
Pros: I appreciated the option to chose your own adventure according to your skill level or experience baking. The photography is beautiful. The attention to detail is impeccable and the amount of information, impressive. I appreciate the thorough indexing and plethora of information.
Cons: the organization was a little wonky. I expected a primer on sourdough starter right up front, before anything else: where to obtain it, what you need to feed it, how to know when to feed before diving into a recipe, and so forth. Maybe there could be a more thorough glossary of terms upfront so I’m not asking what an oven spring is right out of the gate. However, the answer does come later in the book.
All in all I learned a great deal about sourdough baking. Since I am inexperienced, I was not expecting there to be so much math (figuring out the percentages of ingredients around flour, for instance), but I have heard said that baking is a science. My only experience is with pizza dough. I would like to rewrite this review once I have made something with a sourdough starter.
Author fact: Downham has written other books about food. Her cheese book looks interesting.
Book trivia: the book was funded through Kickstarter.
Johnson, Nora. The World of Henry Orient. Little, Brown and Company, 1958.
Reason read: Supposedly, October 6th – 14th is Teen Reads Week. Confessional: some library had that information on a sign in their window.
Nora Johnson split her time between California and New York, thanks to divorced parents. Looking back on childhood memories, she wanted to write a book about what it was like to grow up in the Big Apple. This is an old New York; back when they had wicker seats on the subway and you could buy an ice cream for a quarter. [As an aside, I wonder what she would think of today’s New York.] The World of Henry Orient tells the tale of two twelve year old friends, Marian Gilbert and Valerie Boyd with New York as their backdrop. Marian lives a sheltered life on the Upper East Side while Val is a whirlwind of creativity, culture and crazy. Because of their quirkiness and refusal to join the cliques, they are each other’s only friend…until they discover classically trained musician, Henry Orient. Henry, decades older than Val becomes her obsession. Soon Marian is using Henry as a way to get closer to Val, encouraging her to stalk the older man to learn his habits and eventually, his every move. This behavior sends the already fragile Val into a breakdown of sorts. World of Henry Orient ends with a surprising yet realistic twist. I rather liked the ending. Confessional: there is a scene when Marian and Valerie eat lunch at the Melton Arms. It reminded me of the scene in Beaches when Hilary took C.C. to dine in her hotel.
One mention of Bonwit’s brought me back to when my grandmother gave me a fur coat from the department store.
Quotes to quote, “She traded in gossip the way grownups play the stock market” (p 20), “Just when I am starting to compensate for my lack of home life, it arrives in town” (p 82), “Perhaps it is good to be lonely sometimes, to be able to stand here and feel everything, all at once” (p 87).
Author fact: Nora Johnson was born in Hollywood, California. Her photograph for The World of Henry Orient makes her look like she was destined for the silver screen.
Book trivia: this should be a movie. Oh wait. It sort of is.
Music: Mozart’s “Turkish March,” Bartok, Khatchaturian, Bach, “We Three Kings,” Good King Wenceslas,” “Deck the Halls,”
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Teenage Times” (p 215).
Steinbach, Alice. Without Reservations: the Travels of an Independent Woman. Random House, 2000.
Reason read: According to the web, Steinbach celebrates a birthday in October. Read in her honor.
In January of 1993 Alice Steinbach decided to take a leave of absence from her job as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Her two sons had grown up, no longer dependent on her. Influenced by a “journalistic idol” who wrote about Paris for fifty years in The New Yorker, Steinbach headed to France first.
Admittedly, Alice has become a sort of hero for me. I loved how she easily met people by joining them at a cafe table or sharing a seat on a train. Striking up random conversations affording her a travel companion everywhere she went. I loved how she wrote postcards to herself as a shorthand journal and a keepsake for the future. I loved Steinbach’s fond memories of her mother and grandmother. They served as virtual travel companions.
What would have put Without Reservations in a completely different class is if Steinbach has taken a nod from Nick Bantock and made the postcard pages feel real. Instead of back and white photographs, Steinbach could have printed them on different paper and in color. On the reverse page, (think just like flipping over a postcard), Steinbach could have included her message.
A question: when is travel really travel? Is it when you are on the move, physically going from one place to another? Or are you traveling simply by being away from your own hometown and cozy bed?
Steinbach blurs the lines between solitaire and independence. As I mentioned earlier, no matter where she goes in what country, she always ends up sightseeing with someone else. Not much of her travel is truly alone.
As an aside, I was going to say imagine going to a cafe that was once a favorite spot for artists like Picasso or F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, but I do know what it’s like. I listen to music in a venue that was once haunted by the likes of Bob Dylan, James Taylor, and Carly Simon. The cushions are as old as the hills so maybe Dylan sat on them before I ever did.
Confessional: I want to adopt Albert’s Theorem: mishap equals excellent adventure.
Author fact: Alice Steinbach won a Pulitzer for feature writing in 1985.
Book trivia: my copy of Without Reservations includes a reader’s guide, questions for discussion, and a list of books for suggested reading.
Music: “Who-o Goes the Wind,” “How High the Moon,” Charlie Parker, Frank Sinatra, Edith Pilaf, Oklahoma, Mozart, Chopin, “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again,” Ella Fitzgerald, Cole Porter’s “My Funny Valentine,” Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’ Armore,” Fred Astaire’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” Verdi, Caberet, and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Explaining Europe: the Grand Tour” (p 82).
Heinlein, Robert A. The Door Into Summer. Doubleday & Company, 1957.
Reason read: October is Star Man Month. Okay, so I admit I had to look this one up. I had no idea what I meant by “Star Man Month.” Guess what! I still do not know what I was talking about. To Google Star Man brings up…me. Meh.
In the 1950s Daniel Boone Davis is a brilliant yet naive engineer with a knack for inventing futuristic household chore helpers. While ideas and designs come easily to him, the business side is murky so he enlists the help of a business partner and Daniel’s fiancé. What could possibly go wrong? Of course the pair double cross Daniel and steal his company. Heinlein introduces his readers to the idea of cold sleep, a form of suspended animation for humans wanting to preserve themselves for the future. This is the perfect way to get Daniel out of the way, making the company takeover complete.
There is a scene in The Door Into Summer that made me think of the movie, “The Lake House” starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. In Door into Summer Daniel is trying to explain to Ricky how he will meet her in thirty years into the future. She has to trust that he will be there when he tells her where to go. Totally like the Lake House except for the fact Ricky is only eleven years old.
As an aside, I loved the nine year old Tomcat named Petronius the Arbiter (Pete for short) and I loved that he understood human speech and drank ginger ale.
Quotes I liked, “Cats have no sense of humor, they have terribly inflated egos, and they are very touchy” (p 42). Yes, yes there are. Here is another, “I am smart enough to appreciate real genius when I meet it” (p 141).
Music: “Time On My Hands.”
Author fact: Heinlein died in 1988 at the age of 81. To read the small bio on the back flap of Door Into Summer, it sounds like an unbelievable fiction. Did he really own a silver mine and when he tried to sell it was the buyer murdered the night before? Did he really know chess before he could read? Was he really friends with eight murderers?
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Time Travel” (p 220). In the beginning, I had to question if Door Into Summer was really a time travel book. D.B. Davis simply took the deep sleep and “waited” for time to march by. Thirty years later he “woke” the same age as he was when he entered the long sleep. It’s not like he jumped thirty years into the future. Later in the book there is an authentic time jump. Phew!
Stewart, Mary. Airs Above the Ground. William Morrow & Company, Inc. 1965.
Reason read: Vienna’s National Day is in October.
It all begins when an old school chum asks Vanessa March to travel to Vienna as a chaperone for her seventeen year old son. Tim Lacy won’t stop nagging his mother to see his father in Austria. Coincidentally, Vanessa has just spotted her husband of two years on a news broadcast about a circus fire in Vienna. Lewis was supposed to be in Stockholm, Sweden. Curious about the young woman Lewis had his arm around in the newsclip, Vanessa agrees to travel with Tim. Together they make a wonderful pair of liars. Tim told his mother that his father was meeting him in Vienna and Vanessa said she was going to Austria for a planned meet up with her husband. Nothing could have been further from the truth for either of them. Tim and his father fell out of touch some time ago. Vanessa suspects her husband of lying to her, but doesn’t understand why. Neither father nor husband know of Tim and Vanessa’s arrival.
Vienna proves to be an adventure for Tim and Vanessa. Upon finding the circus Vanessa learns of an elderly horse in desperate need of surgery. She happens to be a surgical veterinarian who had given up her career to get married. While befriending several members of the troupe, Vanessa and Tim find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Turns out, the lame horse is a prized Lipizzaner disguised as an old piebald. By the way, readers will get a history of the Lipizzaner Stallions, but not in a didactic way that is dry and boring. Tim’s knowledge of the Lipizzaner culture is beautiful for someone so young. Confessional: I searched for videos demonstrating the Schulen uber der Erde.
Second confessional: I was wary of Sandor Balog from the beginning and I was convinced the muttering parrot would hold the key to solving the case.
As an aside, I had to giggle when Tim mentioned Archie Goodwin being his favorite amateur detective. Since I am hip deep in the Rex Stout canon, it was like having a new friend tell you about their favorite hairdresser who happens to be your best friend.
Those crazy Europeans! I can’t imagine having supper at 11pm.
Favorite lines or moments, “She dimpled at him” (p 57). Charming!
Author fact: Mary Stewart’s photograph makes her look like she is just about ready to hail a waiter for a second cup of coffee.
Book trivia: I have to admit Airs Above the Ground served as a wealth of knowledge for me. I didn’t know what “airs above the ground” meant (it is a move the L stallions perform); I didn’t know you could not walk by a horse that is lying down without it getting to its feet; the use of a car horn is forbidden in Austria unless it is an absolute emergency; there is always one bay in the Lipizzaner show.
Music: Offenbach, Suppe, Strauss, Schubert, the Rosenkavalier, Mendelssohn’s “Hear My Prayer,” and Boccherini.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple chapter called “Vienna” (p). Incidentally, this is the first book I am reading for this chapter!
Stout, Rex. Black Mountain. Bantam, 1983.
Reason read: I am still sloggin through Rex Stout’s canon of Nero Wolfe mysteries.
In the Rex Stout series, Nero Wolfe is known for being a recluse. He does not like leaving his brownstone apartment for anyone or anything. In Black Mountain Wolfe not only leaves his residence and his beloved New York City, Nero leaves country. There are a whole bunch of firsts in this book. Nero at the morgue. Nero on a train. Nero on a boat. Nero making dinner. Nero hiking in the dark through a “jungle of rock” in Montenegro, as Archie called it. Hiking so long and so far that Nero’s feet bleed. Nero taking care of Archie. Nero taking on a case where he is his own client. I should back up a little.
Marko Vakcic, a reoccurring character in the Nero Wolfe series is found murdered. This is a personal blow to Wolfe as he and Marko were childhood friends in Montenegro. His death brings back a memory of climbing Black Mountain, a peak he first summited when he was nine years old. Of course, Nero and Archie must travel back to the Balkans to find Vakcic’s killer and bring them to justice. Along the way readers learn more about Nero’s past and political views.
Line to make me laugh, “the day that Wolfe would like to climb steps to look at children will be the day I would like to climb Mount Everest” (p 119).
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the never ending chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 289).
Renault, Mary. Last of the Wine. Vintage Book, 1984.
Reason read: Mary Renault was born in September. Read in her honor.
Enter life in 5th century B.C. The sweeping backdrop to Last of the Wine is the ancient world of Greece during the final battles of the Peloponnesian War. The focus is on a young man from a well to do family named Alexias from Athens. From a young age he has been a curious learner and is soon captivated by the teachings of Sokrates. It is at one of these lectures that Alexias meets Lysis and together the two young men become athletes and warriors and lifelong best friends and lovers. They attend the Olympic Games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and survive famine, siege, and societal betrayals. Despite marrying women and starting families, their passion for one another is one of loyalty and respect. What I appreciated the most about Last of the Wine was the clever mix of fictional and potentially factual characters. Renault’s imagination breathes life into the ancient world.
As an aside, Renault includes an abbreviated glossary. I say abbreviated because words like hetaira were not included.
Personal connection to Mary Renault’s work – I read The King Must Die in high school. It was one of the first books in my freshman English class.
Quote to quote, “But serious matters broke in on us and, blew such follies way” (p 239). Her is another, “They met and wrestled with me love and envy of an excellence beyond my reach” (p 252). One more, “Everything is change; and you cannot step twice into the same river” (p 288).
Author fact: Mary Renault trained as a nurse.
Book trivia: Last of the Wine has been compared to I, Claudius by Robert Graves (which, incidentally, I finished last month).
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Alpha Beta Gamma of Greece” (p 10).
Miller, Ron K. Resonance: Why Music Moves Us. Open Channel Press, 2026.
Reason read: LibraryThing has this Early Review Program for members. I chose Resonance for its musical theme (obviously).
Music is powerful. We have all heard it before. Music has the ability to change someone’s emotion, their perspective on life, or even their entire future. Music can bring people together with a commonality or introduce new (and sometimes lasting) relationships. Music can be a bodily experience with synethesia or frisson. How people absorb, process and release music can be a physiological response. Music as medicine for patients with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Miller delves into all of this and much, much more in Resonance: Why Music Moves Us. He starts with recognition; how music can evoke an emotion or recall a memory. Later, Miller discusses reverence – how culture, science and technology is shaped by music. Even though I enjoyed Resonance a great deal, some chapters went deep enough into the science to become didactic and dry. A smaller complaint is the repetition (word for word) of some sentences which leads me to believe AI had a hand in the writing.
Some highlights for me were: Miller’s relationship to music on every level; exploring the psychology of a walk-up song in baseball, learning that there is a thing called musical anhedonia, and there are people out there who become archaeoacoustics researchers. A startling concept was the idea that music is an art form that dies as soon as a piece is over. It’s true. It drifts away like campfire smoke. It saddens me that some songs I loved as a teenager might never hit my ear again because I cannot recall the name, melody or performer. That piece of music is lost to me forever, especially if it wasn’t a radio hit at the time of its release. Maybe it was a B-side on a mixed tape someone made for me…now long lost?
Confessional: Miller once burned cds of themed music. I wish he shared the playlist of both the funeral and songs that “pulled [him] toward something better.” I am always on the hunt for new music. Further confessing: a friend of mine committed suicide recently. Before she left this world she and I shared dozens of songs that meant something to us. It is too painful to listen to any of them, but someday I hope they soothe my broken heart.
Author fact: Further proof I was paying attention. Miller is a father to a son with Down syndrome and he has a cat. When I read about his interaction with Jack White I cringed. I too had a similar experience with Natalie Merchant. Eye contact. Her turning away as disappointed; as if I missed my cue to have a greater connection.
Book trivia: I could see this being a textbook for music theory courses.
Music (and if you know what Resonance is about then you know the list is long): AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” Andrew WK’s “Party Hard” and “She is Beautiful,” Angine de Poitrine, “As Tears Go By,” Bach’s D Minor Chaconne, “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” Barney Theme Song, Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Get Back,” Beethoven’s Ninth and Pastoral Symphonies, Bob Weir, Bobby McFerrin, Brahms, Brian Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Charlie Puth, Chopin, Chris Thile’s Not All Who Wander Are Lost, the Cure, Dave Matthews, David Gray’s “Babylon,” Depeche Mode, Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” Don Henley, Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Duran Duran’s “Rio,” Ed Sheeran, Eddie Vedder’s “Guaranteed,” Elvis, Emmylou Harris, Europa Singers, Five Foot Two, George Jones’s “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “Go Rest high On That Mountain,” Grateful Dead, Howard Jones’s “Things Can Only Get Better,” Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” Jack White, Jackson Browne, Jeff Buckley, Jerry Garcia, Jewel’s “You Were Meant for Me,” (cowritten by Steve Poltz), Jimmy Buffett, John Cage’s 4’33”, John Cale, Jonh Lennon’s “Across the Universe,” John Mayer’s “3×5,” “Heavier Things,” “Clarity,” and “Room for Squares,” Joni Mitchell, Jorge Calderon, Karen Carpenter, Keith Richards, Korn’s “Blind,” Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene,” Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” Liebestraum, M83’s “Reunion,” Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and “Master of Puppets,” Miles Davis, Moody Blues’ “Your Wildest Dreams,” Mount Eerie’s A Crow Looked at Me, Neil Peart, Nick Drake, Niel Gow, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” Nine Inch Nails, Pat Metheny, Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday,” “Pete Yorn’s musicforthemorningafter, Pink Floyd, Prince, R.E.M.’s “Everbody Hurts,” Rolling Stones’ “(Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Rush, Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” Steve Winwood, Sting, Sturgill Simpson’s “Turtles All the Way Down,” and “Mutiny After Midnight,” Stravinsky, Sufjan Stevens’ “Casimer Pulaski Day” and “Should Have Known Better,” Supergrass, Syd Barrett, Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life,” Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Toto’s “Rosanna,” Townes Van Zandt, Trent Reznor, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart,” Whitney Houston, “Wild Thing,” and Yoko Ono.
As an aside, here are the songs and/or musicians I was hoping Miller would mention. These are some of my favorites. “Paper Moon” by sirsy, “Vincent” by Don McLean, “Boston” by Dermot Kennedy, “”King of May” by Natalie Merchant, “Verdi Cries” by 10,000 Maniacs, “Willing and Able” by Noah Kahan, and “Henrietta, Indiana” by Josh Ritter.
McGoogan, Ken. Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero That Time Forgot. Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2001.
Reason read: the hero of the story, John Rae, was born in September.
McGoogle writes with a vivid imagination about what John Rae’s world must have been like. To orientate the reader to the times, McGoogan rattles off the Who’s Who of the day: Gottschalk, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Charles Dickens (more on him later). John Rae’s story reads like an action thriller as if he is side by side with Rae the entire time. Chosen to look for the lost Franklin on March 25th, 1848, Rae sounds a bit like Superman: impervious to the cold (temperatures sometimes falling to below negative sixty degrees Fahrenheit), legendary snowshoer and hiker, skilled doctor (qualified to be a surgeon at aged sixteen), successful hunter, fastest of the long-distance canoe-and-boat pilots, able to display impeccable timing when it came to deciding when to turn back or push onward. The list goes on. The one attribute Rae did not possess was the ability to communicate with tact. How he chose to describe Franklin’s demise was his downfall. Researchers questioned Rae’s reports; accusing him of leaving out key details or saying too much (like announcing the probability of cannibalism among Franklin’s men). Lady Jane Franklin never forgave Rae for the latter and successfully sought to ruin him and his reputation.
Despite Rae’s downfall it cannot be disputed that he was the first explorer to rightly surmise that Victoria Land was actually an island. Rae was the first to discover relics from the Franklin expedition. Rae also discovered the hidden gateway to the Northwest Passage. Unfortunately, it was Amundsen some fifty years later who would positively confirm it.
Later in life, John Rae was hired to survey the proposed route for telegraph lines over 2,000 miles from the East Coast and over the Rockies. Sadly, the Hudson Bay Company never did build the telegraph route that Rae proposed.
As an aside, clearly, McGoogle wants justice for John Rae. By default he was not kind to Lady Jane Franklin in his descriptions of her or Charles Dickens. I had an on odd sense of vindication for Rae when McGoogan was able to travel to the very spot of Rae’s cairn and place a plaque in his honor.
Quote that had me giggling, “In 1843, Sir John Franklin, derided as a victim of petticoat domination…” (p 222).
Author fact: McGoogan has a website here (the coolest thing I learned is that McGoogan is also a musician).
Book trivia: Fatal Passage was a best seller in Canada.
Music: “Jenny Lind,” and Gottschalk.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “To the Ends of the Earth: North and South” (p 230). This is obviously to the North.
Fuller, Alexandria. Don’t Let’s Go To the Dogs Tonight: an African Childhood. Random House, 2001.
Reason read: Recognizing Levy Mwanawasa Day.
There is no question that Alexandria Fuller led a particularly unique childhood growing up on a farm in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in the 1970s. How many can say their mother habitually slung an Uzi over her shoulder whenever trouble arose? Even Alexandria was photographed with an Uzi in her hands like it was a bouquet of flowers. Fuller and her family seemingly moved with ease through the violence of war, hatred, and death whether it be blowing the head off a venomous snake or fighting off squatters on their land during the Rhodesian Bush War (more of the tamer encounters for the Fullers). They stayed not because they enjoyed the turmoil. It was just what they were accustomed to as a matter of survival because they loved the land. What is so striking about Fuller’s memoir is how candid she is about life in Africa and her family’s daily existence in survival mode. She does not sugarcoat her mother’s alcoholism and subsequent decline into mental illness after losing three children. She does not make light of the droughts and extreme poverty they caused. By the end of the of the Rhodesian Bush War in 1980 the Fuller family moved to Malawi and Zambia. From here Alexandria’s memoir accelerates. She and her older sister, Vanessa, grow up, marry and have kids. Life goes on.
Favorite line, “The world looks better when your belly is full, brighter and more hopeful” (p 184).
Author fact: Fuller is my age.
Book trivia: There are a smattering of black and white photographs of Fuller and her family in Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight and a film of the same name was released in 2024.
Personal connection: when Alexandria mentioned the Cat Stevens song “Morning Has Broken” I was immediately transported to my childhood. My piano teacher loved that song and would play it often.
Setlist: “Flower of Scotland,” “Ole, I am a Bandit,” Beatles’ “Yesterday,” “Ipi Tombi,” Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Chopin, Roger Whittaker’s “I’m Gonna Leave Ole London Town,” “Morning Has Broken,” “D’ya Think I’m Sexy?” Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” “Hallelujah,” “Jingle Bells,” Bizet, Puccini, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff.
BookLust Twist: First, from Book Lust in the chapter called “Dreaming of Africa” (p 76). Then, twice in Book Lust To Go in the chapters “Africa: the Greenest Continent” (p 7) and “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).
