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
Sayers, Dorothy. Have His Carcase. Harper & Brothers, 1932.
Reason read: a murder takes place on a beach. July is beach season. Confessional: I did not read this on a beach, but I should have!
Harriet Vane, a twenty-eight year old writer of detective fiction, stumbles across the prone body of a man lying awkwardly across some rocks on a deserted beach. Upon closer inspection she discovers the young man’s throat has been cut and, with the tide coming in, his body will be soon swept out to sea. Harriet’s first order of business is to photograph the dead man. She writes detective stories, after all. She thinks she knows what to do at a crime scene. Next she faces the challenge of trying to find someone to sound the alarm about the murder; someone who will believe her and jump into action before the tide comes up and drags the man out to sea. The ridiculousness of Harriet not being able to find a single person to help her set the tone for me. So begins the adventure of Have His Carcase.
Harriet is supposed to be on vacation after being acquitted for the murder of her boyfriend. After acquiring a fair amount of wealth she decided to go on a walking tour of the southwest coast of England and plan her next mystery plot. Lord Peter Wimsey, Harriet’s friend and not-so-secret admirer arrives to help her solve the mystery at hand. He steals the story for me.
As an aside, this is the perfect case for that crime show called “Accident, Suicide, or Murder.” Did Paul Alexis kill himself or was he murdered? The coroner’s jury all voted for suicide.
Most irritating detail – Inspector Umpelty didn’t know the difference between written Chinese and Russian.
Confession: I had to look up the word carcase and figure out what a trunk call was. Also, this was the first I heard of a locked-room mystery.
Best line, “I am a mannequin by profession” (p 295). Excuse me?
Author fact: Dorothy Sayers’s full name is Dorothy Leigh Sayers Flemming. I think that is a beautifully full name.
Book trivia: Each chapter is evidence which begins on June 18th.
Music: “Blue Danube,” “God Save the King,” Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, Lieder ohne Worter by Mendelssohn, Bach’s “Air for G Strong,” Handel’s Suit, Beethoven’s Eroica, and “Moonlight.”
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ms. Mystery” (p 170).
Cheever, Susan. Treetops: a Family Memoir. Bantam Books, 1991.
Reason read: Read in honor of Cheever’s birth month in July.
Susan Cheever had already written a biography of her father called Home Before Dark so I was excited when she wrote in the introduction to Treetops that this was a book about the three generations of her mother’s family and Treetops as a place. By the end of the introduction she returns to the men: Tom Watson the inventor who assisted Alexander Graham Bell, Winter the grandfather who started the Yale School of Medicine and of course, her father, acclaimed writer John Cheever. Susan Cheever’s father dominates a great deal of the Treetops story…again. Cheever needs to share her father’s accolades and affairs with a healthy dose of name-dropping. It would have been refreshing if Treetops contained less about the man she had already written a full biography about and concentrated more on her mother’s life. Her mother is talked about as footnotes when she describes the short stories (in detail) of her father’s. Cheever would rather describe her father’s relationships with, and perception of, women as a gender. Most of the time the details of her mother as in reaction to something her father said, did, or wrote. The more Susan Cheever quoted her father’s short stories the less I enjoyed Treetops.
As an aside, when Cheever relived the invention of the telephone and detailed exactly what happened between Alexander Graham Bell and her great-grandfather Thomas Watson, I know she was setting up the historical backdrop to her family’s history, but I couldn’t help but think it was also device to subtly suggest Watson invented the telephone and Bell took all the credit.
Author fact: I have satisfied all of the Susan Cheever books I needed for the Challenge.
Book trivia: there are a smattering of photographs in Treetops.
Music: Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, and “Happy Birthday.”
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “All in the Family: Writer Dynasties” (p 5). Pearl put it perfectly when she said that when you related to someone famous there is almost an “irresistible temptation to write about the experience” (More Book Lust p 5). Cheever takes it a step further by writing about her famous great grandfather and notable grandfather as well.
Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Little, Brown, and Company, 1969.
Reason read: there is something called a Swan Upping in England every July. Read in honor of that event.
John Fowles approaches the story of The French Lieutenant’s Woman as if he is a modern man looking into a Victorian crystal ball and sharing what he sees with his readers. His technique allows him to make lengthy comments on society, religion, science, politics and economy of the time. He can (and often does) insert himself into the story and even imagines various endings to the romantic saga. Fowles begins his tale by introducing us to Charles Smithson, a thirty-two year old independently wealthy wannabe natural scientist. Charles has impulsively become engaged to the young and beautiful Ernestina Freeman. Ernestina (Tina) also has wealth in her family, being the daughter of a savvy dry goods merchant. As the saying goes, every good romance needs some sort of tension. Enter Sarah Woodruff, an older and mysterious redhead. Rumor has it she was abandoned after a torrid affair with a French naval officer. The entire town of Lyme Regis thinks of her as a whore; utterly damaged goods. And yet Charles cannot help but be drawn to this silent and haunted woman who waits on the quay quietly staring out to sea. As much as he tries to keep his distance, there is something about the French lieutenant’s woman he cannot resist. What is redemption in the heart of an atheist? Fowles imagines three different possibilities for the love triangle’s conclusion. Everyone roots for passion, but I am not convinced there is a happy ending to satisfy all.
Confessional: for the longest time I kept calling the book The French Lieutenant’s Wife instead of Woman. I have no idea why. Here is an interesting tidbit – my husband also thought the same thing.
Another confessional: I did not care one whit about Charles. As Noah Kahan says, I kept “rooting for [his] downfall.”
As an aside, I have to wonder if Josh Ritter read The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Was he inspired by John Fowles’s description of Sarah’s eyes, “…they bubbled as the best champagne bubbles” (p 75).
Lines I Loved, “People sink out of sight, drown in the shadow of closer things” (p 337) and “Love had left the world” (p 429).
Author fact: Fowles has written a great deal but I am only reading The French Lieutenant’s Woman for the Challenge.
Book trivia: The French Lieutenant’s Woman was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. I have to put this one on my list because I love Meryl (who doesn’t?).
Music: “As Sylvia Was Walking.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Lyme Regis” (p 134).
Mandel, Emily St. John. The Singer’s Gun: a Novel. Unbridled Books, 2010.
Reason read: the first fingerprints used to solve a crime were in July of 1901. Read in honor of Crime Prevention Month.
Anton Waker comes from a long line of scammers and thieves. The desire to commit crime should naturally flow through his veins. For as long as he can remember his parents have stolen antique valuables to resell them. Anton’s beautiful and brash cousin ensnared him early into the business of creating fake documents such as passports, social security cards and birth certificates. Anton himself has faked his own academic credentials in an attempt to get a “real” job. Despite his intimacy with fraud, Anton continuously tries to make a clean start. This makes him a likeable character. New job which he is successful at. New marriage with the girl of his dreams. Every decision starts with good intentions yet deception always finds a way to fray the edges. Every time Anton thinks he has escaped, corruption sucks him back down the hole. There is always one more job to do. Like a trapped rat, he cannot escape his criminal family until his cousin offers him one last job. She promises him his freedom if he delivers this one last package on a remote island in Italy. However, it will mean the end of his carefully constructed crime-free lifestyle.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mandel’s work. I had only one cringe moment. Elena, a Russian recipient of a passport, was instructed to not carry a handbag to the meeting place yet at the end of a transaction she puts the documents in a bag.
As an aside, when I was in college a professor said to me that if you introduce a gun in an early chapter it has to go off before the book ends. His exact words were, “If you put a gun on the table in the first chapter it has to be fired by the last chapter.” Mandel must have gotten that wisdom as well, but she was far more clever with the advice. She debuts the gun in the title but withholds the singer and his or her weapon until you have all but forgotten about them.
Author fact: I am also reading Last night in Montreal for the Challenge. I am excited to be revisiting Mandel’s work in the future.
Book trivia: the audio version of Singer’s Gun is narrated by Morgan Hallet.
Music: New Order and Depeche Mode.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “O Canada O Canada” (p 51). Note: Singer’s Gun has nothing to do with Canada except Emily St. John Mandel (and one character) is from Canada.
Benson, Robert Henry. A Small Tree in a Texas Hurricane: a Memoir. Pauraque Ridge Press, 2026.
Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read moving memoirs. This is one such book.
Benson makes you feel as though the two of you are sitting on a big wraparound porch in the summertime gloaming. As darkness grows and we can no longer see each other’s face the mood turns somber; the words become quiet confessional. There is a great deal Benson wants to share in A Small Tree in Texas Hurricane. His childhood and early adolescence was not easy. Peeling back the layers of his father’s volatile personality Benson reveals a hair trigger temper followed by outbursts of violence and crime. Poverty was a constant. Benson had the potential to follow in his father’s hothead footsteps, but through gritty perseverance he chose a different path. Earning a Ph.D in Physics seems an unlikely success for a bricklayer and one-time high school dropout.
Benson’s story is remarkable, but what I appreciated more was the way with words Benson has. He may have a Ph.D. in Physics, but his real talent is writing. I inhaled this book.
As with any advance reader copy, there were a few typos here and there such as quotation marks where they did not belong and a handful misspelled words.
Music: “A Boy Named Sue,” Paul Anka’s “And They Call It Puppy Love,” and “Away in a Manager.”
Frayn, Michael. Copenhagen. Anchor Books, 2000.
Reason read: July is the birth month of the atomic bomb.
Michael Frayn took real historical events and wrote a play about what he thinks happened next. It is true Danish physicist Niels Bohr really did take a walk with his German counterpart, Werner Heisenberg, but no one knows what was really discussed away from spying microphones. In Copenhagen Frayn imagines the private conversation between Bohr and Heisenberg, now spirits of the past; their words heating up to an argument. As scientists and physicists once working together on atomic physics and quantum theory, they both have competitive spirits and neither likes to be wrong. Complicating their relationship is the fact Bohr and his wife, Margrethe, are Danes under German occupation. Heisenberg is, of course, German. Frayn imagines Heisenberg struggling to make small talk with Bohr, a once trusted friend and mentor, but every time he opens his mouth it is to blunder around some insensitive topic. As former partners prior to 1941, the exchange is awkward. They want to stick to paradox and contradiction; the foundations of science through an objective universe; classical mechanics and the particle theory, but they cannot. Along for the garden stroll is Bohr’s wife, Margrethe. She offers a different perspective on Bohr and Heisenberg’s relationship, one that is grounded in human nature rather than scientific discovery.
Author fact: Frayn is a prolific writer of plays and novels, in additional to being a documentary filmmaker and a translator of Chekhov.
Music: Beethoven in G Major, and Bach.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Bomb Makers” (p 42).
Gardam, Jane. Hollow Land. Walker Books, 2001.
Reason read: Jane Gardam’s birth month is in July. Read in her honor.
Jane Gardam introduces her readers to Bell Teasdale and Harry Bateman and we are witness to their childhood adventures through various linked short stories. When we first meet the boys Bell is eight years old. He befriends Harry, one of the Bateman children renting Grandpa Teasdale’s farm for a summer holiday. Every summer Bell and Harry celebrate boyhood and survive life changing events: becoming trapped in a mining cave, witnessing a horrific flood, recovering a table stolen by gypsies. Over the course of twenty years their lives change but their friendship remains constant. My only word for Hollow Land is pleasant.
Confessional: the friendship between Bell and Harry reminded me of my childhood. Like Harry’s family renting Light Trees, my friends from “away” would rent a cottage every summer in Maine. Each summer if we were lucky our friendship would pick up right where we left off the summer before. More often than not, the parents would chose not to rent consecutive years and the friends would become pen pals until we either saw each other again or fell out of touch.
Line I loved, “He can inherit this weather” (p 134).
Author fact: Sadly, Jane Gardam passed away last year at the age of 96.
Book trivia: Hollow Land was promoted as a book for young adults.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Jane Gardam: Too Good To Miss” (p 96).
Graves, Robert. I, Claudius. Random House, 1961.
Reason read: July is the month of the restoration of democracy in Greece.
Tiberus Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus paints himself to be a pitiful creature: deaf yet affectionate, stuttering and stammering, sickly with nervous tics and a queasy digestion; always shaking with weakness. Claudius plays the fool. And yet, this sad creature from a royal family becomes the Emperor of Rome by 41 A.D.. I Claudius is Claudius’s effort to set the record straight about his murdered father by embarking on a biography which turns autobiographical. Claudius has much to tell. Throughout his life he manages to escape murderous plots from all sides of his family, including his nephew, Caligula (need I say more?). You cannot help but root for poor (brilliant) Claudius
As an aside, if you think the story of Claudius is a steady stream of eye gouging, knife stabbing, and limb breaking, you would not be wrong. The list of methods of violence is long. But don’t forget, the gentle art of poison was a very fashionable method for murder as well, especially with women.
The list of Claudius is impressive. You have Claudius the Proud, the Fair, the Tree trunk, Claudius Nero (the Strong), Claudius Drusus…there is even a Claudius Audiena set a hundred generations into the future when Graves was writing for a 1934 audience.
Line I laughed out loud at, “As was the custom in such cases, the pear tree was charged with murder and sentenced to be uprooted and burned” (p 249).
Author fact: I first encountered Robert Graves through the genius of Natalie Merchant. She put a Graves poem to music.
Music: The Three Griefs of Lord Augustus.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Classical World” (p 60).
Cheek, Mavis. The Sex Life of My Aunt. St, Martin’s Press, 2002.
Reason read: Aunt Day is on the 26th of July.
A chance encounter with a sexy stranger with beautiful blue eyes sets off a ravenous desire in Dilys like never before. Even her husband has never ignited such a flame. And so begins a complicated life for middle aged Dilys. Juggling a jealous lover and an overly trusting husband does not prove to be easy. Confessional: I did not really care for Dilys. Her sister hated her for having the perfect life: married to a successful (rich) lawyer who gave her everything she wanted, two grown kids, adorable grandkids, and a sexy young lover. She seemed to have it all. Her biggest dilemma appeared to be how she was going to keep her lover from pressuring her to leave her husband. Never mind that she had a sister who despised her and an aunt with a boatload of secrets of her own.
Lines I liked, “Shame made her wary of people” (p 20), “Is there any surer way of the hook of attraction than looking up the object of the attraction in a telephone directory?” (p 33), and “If there is one thing passion does to you, it is to reduce your brain to childlike proportions” (p 92).
Author fact: while Mavis Cheek wrote a bunch of books I am only reading The Sex Life of My Aunt for the Challenge.
Book trivia: Sex Life of My Aunt has a little story-within-a-story element to it when the aunt tells her story.
Music: “She Loves You,” Puccini, Mozart, Bryan Ferry’s “Let’s Stick Together,” Charlie Parker, and the Eagles’ “Desperado.”
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Wayward Wives” (p 231).
Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? Volume Three. BiblioLife, 2008.
Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Anthony Trollope’s birthday.
Mercifully, Trollope brings the relationships of Alice Vavasor, Lady Glencora Palliser, and Arabella Greenow to somewhat satisfying conclusions. To be sure, Alice waffled through the entire third volume until the very end. No surprise there. Lady Glencora’s husband, Plantagenet Palliser, showed remarkable grace concerning his wife’s indecisions. He knew she was stuck in the marriage for parliamentary duty yet made the best of it. Arabella Greenow was my favorite character throughout Can You Forgive Her? Greenow just didn’t give a damn and continued having relationships with two men. She just couldn’t chose between the two of them. Trollope used these women to poke fun at Victorian society and it worked.
Author fact: Trollope was also a civil servant.
Book trivia: Volume three of Can You Forgive Her? is the final installment.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).
Asanuma, Ichiro. Walking Along the Ancient Tokaido Road: a Pilgrim’s Path: Adventures and Transformations (Volume 1: Departures). 2026.
Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I requested a copy of Walking Along the Ancient Tokaido Road.
Asanuma began his journey in 2006 after surviving a life-changing traffic accident. Walking was prescribed as part of his physical therapy. To feel truly healed he resolved to stand on the Sanjo-Ohashi in Kyoto. Walking along the ancient Tokaido Road became a sixteen year long adventure. Using money from an insurance claim he was able to afford the trip, but he admits that he didn’t really pay much attention to the landscape he traveled through.
Walking Along the Ancient Tokaido Road (volume one) documents the beginning of Asanuma’s journey across Japan’s historical and cultural landscape. Told in three sections, Asanuma begins with “Departure (2006: from Tokyo to Shizuoka).” Part Two is “Insight and Memory (2009) from Shizuoka to Nagoya.” After the first trip, Asanuma started to pay more attention to the people around him. Part Three is called “New Beginnings (2022: from Kuwana to Kyoto).” This section is the final leg of the journey that was previously unfulfilled.
Like many other reviewers I could not identify a genre for this book. It could be seen as a personal memoir. Asanuma shared intimate details about his life such as the fact that he lacked the personality and social skills to mingle with strangers. Walking Along the Ancient Tokaido Road is confessional in that he shares deep feelings.
Walking Along the Ancient Tokaido Road could also be called a photo-journal. Asanuma included and explained in more detail the many different photographs he took; more so than he did of the actual journey. The gorgeous photography sets this book apart. The images are candid, raw and sometimes, moving.
Walking Along the Ancient Tokaido Road could be seen as an historical essay. For example, Asanuma describes the Edo period and the significance of the fifty-three stations of the Tokaido.
I enjoyed the color illustrations as well as the photographs. As an aside, the map of the hedgehogs is cute.
Djukicin, Aleksandar. Illustrated by Dorde Balmazovic. Everyone Kept Quiet So I Did Too: Tales of a Reluctant Soldier: a Graphic Novel. do-dju, 2025.
Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read interesting books. I think this is my first graphic novel in nonfiction.
Three friends, three very different paths. Each sharing their experiences in the Balkans War between Serbia and Croatia in 1990. It was interesting how each side spun the same events to fit their personal narrative: the main theme being coward versus hero. In reality there are more than two sides of the coin to being a coward. You can be afraid of facing prison for not accepting the draft or you can be afraid to face the war for fear of death. Fear of inflicting violence on another human without understanding why. Such is the senselessness of war. As a graphic novel, it goes without saying that the visual images need to match the intensity of the words. The storyline was made more powerful by the illustrations of Dorde Balmazovic. Most striking was the line of soldiers waiting to go home fading to black.
As an aside, the illustration of the soldiers urinating after liberation made me chuckle.
Music: Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue,” and Toma Zdravkovic.
Dominguez, Kenitra W. Because I Deserve It: What Chronic Illness Taught Me About Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System. Avocet Books, 2026.
Reason read: at first glance this might seem like an odd choice for me to request from LibraryThing. I am not Black nor do I suffer from a chronic illness. The only thing I have in common with Kenitra is that I am a woman. I requested Because I Deserve It from LibraryThing because of the subtitle “…Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System.” I am not confident when it comes to speaking up and being my own healthcare advocate. I chose this book because I wanted Kenitra to teach me how to stand up for myself when it comes to my own wellbeing. I knew there would be so much to learn. For example, why is it that women become apologetic or mute when dealing with a medical professional?
The best part of Because I Deserve It is the clear recommendations at the end of each chapter. I appreciated the section about navigating the myriad of questions a patient should ask and when. I also loved the idea of an audio journal to document how you are feeling every single day, whether you have an appointment with a provider or not. Finally, the advice to research your medications! Just because a white-coated professional prescribed a medication does not mean it is the right one for you. You are not Alice! You don’t not have to swallow what they put in front of you.
Kenitra also advocates for self-described introverts. She was spot on when describing an introvert’s characteristics which gave credence to her information.
The only criticism I found with Because I Deserve It was the repetition in some areas. Saying the same thing too many times gives the impression the author has run out of worthwhile things to say. Stressing a point is one thing, but echoing information over and over is quite another.
All in all I am glad I requested Because I Deserve It because I learned a great deal.
As an aside, as a librarian I practically applauded Kenitra when she said do not accept Google’s top results. I do not know how many times I have said that to students.
Confessional: I had never heard of idiopathic intracranial hypertension. It sounds like a nightmare.
Short, Gary. Star That Fell: Poems. University of Nevada Press, 2026.
Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I am starting to read more poetry.
Childhood memories and adult laments weave vivid snapshots in time. The poems of Stars That Fell are autobiographical and fragile in nature. Honest emotion is slowly revealed through sparse words and economical phrases. The pain of losing a mother to cancer. The pain of an abusive father. The pain caused by the death of a brother. Different pains caused by different family members, yet all deep rooted grief all the same. I hope there is catharsis in the telling. I practically wept for the sheer beauty and innocence of the narrator’s voice. There is a raw honesty to Short’s writing so much so that I will be seeking out his previous works.
The a mention of some of the poems:
Line I loved the most (please keep it in the final publication), “never mind these footprints in front of me…”
Music: “Night Train,” “Herida De Amor,” and Willie Nelson.
Author fact: Gary Short has written other poetry books.
Keegan, John E. Clearwater Summer. Backinprint, 2000.
Reason read: June 21 marks the first day of summer.
We begin Clearwater Summer with college-aged Will Bradford needing proof of an accident; did a train really hit a car stalled on the tracks? Did someone really die in that wreckage? Was it an accident? The reader is left in suspense asking what happened next as Keegan catapults us several years into the past.
Using Will Keegan’s fourteen year old voice, Keegan unravels a beautiful coming of age story about Will and his two closest friends, Taylor and Wellesley. This is a Washington summer of first crushes, first dates, first heartbreak, first funerals. It is a summer of getting into trouble, saving the day, and learning life’s hard lessons. Like a cold river undercurrent, Keegan’s Clearwater Summer also unveils dark prejudices between the haves and the have nots, pride and shame that keep victims too silent, and the dangers of a community staying too complacent under the guise of “I see it, but it’s none of my business.” With all of it’s drama, sex, violence, and romance, Clearwater Summer could have been a movie.
Author fact: I have to wonder how many times John Keegan had to say he wasn’t the same author who wrote military nonfiction. This John Keegan wrote four books, but I am only reading Clearwater Summer.
Book trivia: Clearwater Summer was really difficult to find. My local consortium didn’t have it in print. The state-wide consortium didn’t have it available for lending. I contemplated interlibrary loan from across the country, but the wait time was too long. I ended up using Internet Archive. Phew!
Setlist: Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Love Me Tender,” Long Tall Sally,” “Poison Ivy,” Beethoven, Buddy Holly, “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Red Sails in the Sunset,” and Sal Mineo.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Teenage Times” (p 217).
~*LunaSea*~ 