Tag: 2025

Mayor of Castro Street

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Shilts, Randy. Mayor of Castro Street: the Life and Times of Harvey Milk. St. Martin’s Griffin Press, 2008.

Reason read: the “How Weird Festival” happens in October in San Francisco.

What a different (but same) time we live in. We have moved beyond having a Director of the Coors Beer Boycott and yet, yet, yet we still persecute (and prosecute) those different from us. Haven’t we learned anything? But I digress.
Shilts portrayed Harvey Milk as ambitious to a fault. Using a plethora of sources he was able to bring Milk to life, covering extensively both his political and private life. Milk would stoop to incredible lows to create controversy and promote his agenda in the name of the homosexual lifestyle. The betrayal of Bill Sipple’s privacy being just one example. What struck me the most was how Milk knew all along he would die by a bullet to the brain. His ambition was so great that even the fear of assassination couldn’t stop him from fighting for the underdog. He knew how to connect with his Castro Street constituents and collect lovers for a lifetime. Ever the consummate reporter, Shilts turned over every rock to find the detailed story of Milk’s life. Shilts interviewed over one hundred and forty people and poured over thousands of documents for his biography of Harvey Milk. He even sought the audience of Dan White and his attorneys to offer another perspective of the Castro Street Mayor’s tragic end. It is too bad he was unsuccessful.

As an aside, I had to do a deep dive into Bob’s Burgers. In Milk’s time it was a hangout spot on Polk Street in San Francisco. I wanted to know if the cartoon of the same name had anything to do with the restaurant. It does not appear so.
An ah-ha moment: discovering the muse behind Lou Reed’s “sugar plum fairy” in the song “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.”

Author fact: Shilts also wrote And the Band Played On which was on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: Mayor of Castro Street includes a smattering of photographs. I would have liked to see the Castro Street camera shop where Milk first set up a campaign office.

Setlist: “Theme from Rocky,” Jefferson Airplane, Grace Slick, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Joan Baez, Carmen, Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Leslie Gore, Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” “Danny Boy,” “Notre Dame Fight Song,” “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” “Happy Birthday,” “Star Spangled Banner,” Moody Blues, Rolling Stones, Cher, “As Time Goes By,” Judy Garland, “Anchors Aweigh,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” Mahler, Strauss, Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Wagner, Verdi, Bidu Sayao, Mills Brothers’ “Always,” Mick Jagger, Liza Minelli, Puccini’s Tosca, Meg Christian’s “The Rock Will Wear Away,” John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, David Bowie, Mahler, “God Save the Nelly Queens,” and “We Shall Overcome.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “San Francisco” (p 196).

Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science

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Gribbin, John. Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science: the Universe, Life and Everything. Yale University Press, 1999.

Reason read: October is Science Month.

Atoms. Electrons. Energy. Hydrogen. Nucleus. Photons. Quantum. Particles. Molecules. Do you feel as though you are back in a physics or chemistry class? Gribbin will take you there. You’ll be reminded of the chemical action of covalent bonding and the spectral signature. You’ll meet geniuses of the day: Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton. You’ll read up on the supercontinent of Gondwanaland. You’ll have a good chat about the Solar System, minus Pluto. There is a mention of climate change with and without human intervention. Gribbin will tell you his favorite theories with unbridled enthusiasm. You can almost hear the excitement as he warms up to his various topics. Everything Gribbin explains is done in a folksy, casual manner so as not to scare the reader away: “But the details need not bother us” (p 69). He will simplify the science by making Disney analogies and talk to you as if you are leaning over beers in a bar. This was fun.

Author fact: Gribbin also wrote Stardust which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: the illustrations in Almost Everyone’s Guide to Science are helpful.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Boks (For the Interested But Apprehensive Layperson)” (p 211).

Wild Oz

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Clodd, Geoff. Wild Oz: Hilariously Unfiltered Backpacking Stories. Independently Published, 2025.

Reason read: this is a selection from LibraryThing’s Early Review program.

I do not know exactly what I was expecting from Wild Oz but this turned out to be a much different adventure. I think the subtitle about backpacking made me think he would be roughing it a little more than he did in his Oz adventures. I also thought there would be more variation to his escapades, especially through Thailand. Australia was just a string of towns where Clodd got this drunk and banged that chick. His stories start and stop without fanfare. Like a giggling kid farting for attention Clodd will tell you about crashing his moped in Thailand or trying to eat a dozen ice cream cones. The year is 2008 and he has decided to travel with a friend to Australia and Thailand for a year or more.
As an aside, Clodd interrupts himself from time to time to tell Vegas stories. That makes sense because he sustained his meager financial existence on internet gambling. I have to admit the prostitute stealing a plate was pretty funny.
Sometimes I thought Wild Oz was written by a horny fourteen year old left alone in the house without his parents for the very first time. His command of slang was pretty extensive (“suck on that!”). Chasing temporary employment and bedding various women while juggling excessive drinking and drugging, Clodd was finicky about dirty hands and paranoid about skin cancer and going bald. I think I just summed up the entire book in this last paragraph.

Fun fact: my husband and I have this game during horror movie season where we try to count the dead bodies. Exactly how many people were murdered during Nightmare on Elm Street? Sometimes we turn it into a drinking game – a swig for every time someone dies. We should take turns reading Wild Oz aloud and take a glug every time Clodd has sex with a different woman. That could be fun.

As an aside, I want to know how often Geoff has had to say “two fs and two ds” when telling someone how to spell his name.

Book trivia: Clodd makes pop references that some people may or may not get. For example, I didn’t know who Screech and Zack were.

Author fact: Wild Oz is Clodd’s first and only book on LibraryThing.

Playlist: “Let’s Get It Started” by Black Eyed Peas, Creed, Outkast, “Rape Me” by Nirvana, Janet Jackson, and Wolfmother (which I have on my run playlist).

And Be a Villain

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Stout, Rex. And Be a Villain. Bantam, 1994.

Reason read: to continue the series started a year ago!

Nero Wolfe is crafty. The way he finds clients is to insert himself into a dilemma (pretty much always a murder) with the promise of a solution (usually by proving someone’s innocence)…for a price (usually pretty steep). However it is up to Archie Goodwin to sell that service and bring the client onboard. When on-air guest Cyril Orchard is murdered by cyanide poisoning during Madeline Fraser’s radio program, Archie’s spin is that the heat will be off Madeline as a suspect if she hires the great Nero Wolfe to find the real killer. Logic prevails and Madeline agrees to Wolfe’s demands; except now it looks like the poison was meant for her. Is someone out there is trying to kill her? At the same time Beula Poole is found shot to death and a seemingly unrelated gynecologist is being blackmailed. Then a third person is poisoned. Are all of these events related? The case so stumps Wolfe that he begrudgingly involves his on again-off again nemesis, Inspector Cramer. As usual, Goodwin is the star of the show.

Line I liked, “No doctor should assume responsibility for the health of one he loves or one he hates” (p 168).

Author fact: according to one biography, Rex Stout devised and implemented a school banking system.

Book trivia: As with most Stout books the publishers lets the reader peek behind this curtain. This time And Be A Villain shared Viking’s lawyers’ attempt to find any detail that resembled real people or situations.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Catapult

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Paul, Jim. Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon. Avon, 1991.

Reason read: In October there is a festival where people fling pumpkins. Read in honor of gourds flying.

Jim Paul first got the idea to build a siege weapon when he was traveling back from Utah a decade or so before 9/11. He had been in the desert writing a piece about Dinosaur National Monument when he found a sizable piece of quartz. Toting this quartz through security at the airport he said, “It’s not a weapon. It’s just a rock” but the more he thought about it the more he envisioned the quartz flying through the air like some kind of Monty Python gag. Recruiting his first-name-only friend, Harry, Paul goes about finding funding to build a catapult as an art installment. What transpires is a humorous look at history, science, physics and friendship.
As an aside, Jim Paul was not the only person to be fascinated with flinging things. Ozzy Osbourne wanted to fling chicken livers into the audience during his early shows.

Jim Paul was also very funny. Here are two quotes that made me laugh, “Her scream made my eardrums rattle like bad speakers” and he confessed to a “therapeutic measure of irresponsibility” (p 10).

As an aside, when Paul mentioned a woman named Veronica worked on the movie Star Wars I had to wonder if she was in the series ILM. I think Harry worked at ILM, too. Can you tell I am watching the ILM series right now?

Author fact: In addition to being a writer for the Washing Post Jim Paul was also a poet.

Book trivia: The illustrations are pretty cool.

Music: Frank Sinatra’s “Young at Heart” and Guns ‘n Roses.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living Your Dream” (p 156).

Bee Season

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Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season. Doubleday, 2000.

Reason read: I have a category called “Special Child Month” and this book falls in it.

Poor eleven year old Eliza Naumann just wants to be noticed by her family. Every member of her family has their own preoccupation. Older brother Aaron, once destined to becomes a rabbi, is on a quest to discover the right religion for him. Slowly he becomes absorbed into the Harre Krishna culture and dreams of becoming a pujari speaking Sanskrit. Mother Miriam has a fixation on stealing things. She stole a random shoe from a mall department store sale rack. She didn’t even want the shoe, useless without its mate, after all. She ended up throwing it away. Each theft begs the question why Each family member slips further into the background while Eliza becomes obsessed with words. When she discovers she is good at spelling her father becomes her champion and urges her to “remove herself entirely from daily life, to brush against the limitless” (p 98). There is an open-ended conclusion to this fractured family.

Lines I liked, “Besides, he can always masturbate to his memories” (p 48) and “It is late enough that the grass is filled with tomorrow’s dew” (p 196).

Author fact: Bee Season was Goldberg’s first book and the only one I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: the front and back covers of Bee Season mimic a dictionary. The novel was made into a movie in 2005.

Music: Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Flock of Seagulls, Pachelbel canon, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” the Eagles, and “Oh Susanna.”

BookLust Twist: first, in Book Lust in the chapter called “Jewish American Experience” (p 132), and then again in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Child Prodigies” (p 43).

Piano Tuner

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Mason Daniel. The Piano Tuner. Vintage Books, 2002.

Reason read: In November Aung San Suu Kyi was released from a Burmese prison.

Edgar Drake, a reserved piano tuner from London, has been given a curious assignment by the British government. He has been hand picked to repair an ancient grand piano belonging to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. Carroll, stationed in the jungles of Burma, refuses to work without the ancient piano in working order. As Edgar journeys to the Surgeon-Major he learns the man is polarizing. In some circles Carroll is a legend and is toasted as a hero; almost a god. While in other places Edgar Drake has been warned not to talk about the Surgeon-Major at all. Not one word. Everywhere Drake goes everyone knows Anthony Carroll for better or worse. [As an aside, there is a such a build-up in The Piano Tuner to meeting the man himself; it is 165 pages before Drake even arrives in Carroll’s Mae Lwin village.]
The jungles of Burma are a far cry from the damp and stodgy London Drake is used to. Before he arrives in Mae Lwin to meet Carrol, he is taken on a tiger hunt. He sees the cruelty of the culture first hand. It was interesting to witness the personal transformation of this quiet Londoner. By the time he reaches Mae Lwin he has fallen in love. His quest doesn’t seem to be about a piano anymore.
[As another aside, I loved the character of Khin Myo, especially when she said “One learns a lot if others assume you are deaf to their tongue” (p 123).]

Author fact: while Mason has written other books The Piano Tuner is the only book I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: The Piano Tuner is Daniel Mason’s first novel and was adapted for an opera in 2004. The audio version is read by Richard Matthews.

Music: Vivaldi, “God Save the Queen,” “God Bless the Queen,” “The Woodcutter’s Daughter,” Liszt, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Sharp, and Chopin.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Burmese Days” (p 45).

Snow Fleas and Chickadees

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Quesnel, Eve. Snow Fleas and Chickadees: Everyday Observations in the Sierras. Illustrated by Anne Chadwick. University of Nevada Press, 2025.

Call it a small nature guide or a short literary companion. Either way Quesnel is motivated to share her observations about nature while living in the Sierra Nevada. What started as a column in a local paper has turned into a cute little book. Quesnel can tell you where to go to find a stand of Quaking Aspen to witness their splendor when the leaves turn golden. She solved a long standing curiosity I had (but was too lazy to research) about the “eyes” of birch trees. I am a fan of foraging for food so pulling fir needles of the trees for a snack made me hungry. But you won’t learn just about trees. Animals and birds and insects each have a chapter. How different spiders make their webs was pretty fascinating. Swallow tail butterflies can lose their tails and live. Who knew?
Much like other (short) ebooks, Snow Fleas does not start until page 30 of the 192 page book. I wished it was longer!

I won’t find a sooty grouse or a pica in my neck of the woods.

author fact: I liked how humble Quesnel is, saying “I am not an “ist” of any kind (preface, page 8).

Book trivia: Snow Fleas started as a newspaper column. I said that already. the illustrations by Anne Chadwick are fantastic.

Stroke of Luck

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Aithal. A Stroke of Luck: My Journey Through a Traumatic Brain Injury. 2025.

Although Stroke of Luck meanders sometimes I truly enjoyed Aithal’s courageous memoir. Aithal is coming up on the 23rd anniversary of his stroke so it is fitting for him to look back at his long road to recovery. I appreciated his honesty, vulnerability, and determination. Every chapter of Aithal’s story was eye opening for me. Before reading Stroke of Luck I did not think about every element of life that has to be rebuilt beyond speech and other motor skills after a traumatic brain injury. Appropriate emotional reactions or driving a car, for example. As an aside, I practically cheered when Aithal got his license back. Stroke of Luck is proof positive that you can regain a full life after a traumatic brain injury with the right supports around you. My father did not survive his stroke at fifty-five years of age.
I wish my friend could have read this book. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and his biggest downfall was something Aithal cautioned against doing. He said do not compare your current abilities to what you could do before the stroke. As a drummer with decreased ability my friend sunk into a depression he could not fight. I wish Aithal could have convinced him it does not matter what you used to be able to do. Instead, concentrate on how far you have come since the stroke changed your life. Your life matters.

Author fact: Aithal has a blog here.

Book trivia: Aithal included sources if you want to learn more about the treatments he described. He also shared culturally detailed from his homeland in India.

Anything for a Quiet Life

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Hawkins, Jack and Andrew Hawkins. Anything For a Quiet Life.

Reason read: as part of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to review really interesting books. This is one such book.

Anything for a Quiet Life was first published posthumously fifty-two years ago. Famed British actor Jack Hawkins had died of a complication with an artificial voice box implanted after throat cancer. Anything for a Quiet Life was Jack’s memoir about being an actor and going through cancer. From reading about his life one can tell he was a humble family man with four children who loved his second wife, Dee. It was one of his sons, Andrew, who wanted to bring his dad’s autobiography to the electronic age. If the purpose of republishing the book was to bring Jack’s legacy back, it worked. An unexpected interest in Jack’s career grew after I read Anything for a Quiet Life. I was four years old when he passed and until recently, had no interest in military movies as an adult. Now I plan to find Jack’s catalog and watch them all. My partner will be thrilled.

As an aside, I thought it was interesting that Jack thought he used his voice more strenuously than most people “except perhaps school teachers.” What about professional singers?

As an aside, did you know that the Thames River is a great place to find discarded furniture? You could outfit a whole flat on unwanted treasures.

Book trivia: the afterword was written by Jack’s wife, Dee.

Music: Chopin, and “Thora.”

Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Beginners

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Eden Nora. Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Beginners: a 21-Day Reset with Easy 5-iIngredient Recipes, 20 Minute Meals, Weekly Plans, and Grocery Lists to Soothe Inflammation, Restore Health and Boost Energy. KnowHowLeaf Publishing, 2025.

Reason read: this is a pick from the Early Review Program by LibraryThing.

There are three phases to the three week anti-inflammatory journey: calming the fire, heal the gut, and boost energy.
Things to know:

  • There are twenty-four pages of what I call revving the engine before you actually get to put the book in gear.
  • There are another forty-one pages of coasting before the reset plan is really explained.
  • The pages are padded with a great deal of repetition which I find to be typical in books that are shorter than two hundred and fifty pages. For example, kale is mentioned thirty-nine times: what belongs on your plate, what can go in a smoothie, menu swaps, fridge essentials, freezer essentials, what to prioritize, shopping list for week one, listed in the menus, shopping list for week two, hero food, week three shopping list, the recipes, and the shopping lists for all three weeks. A mention about the shopping list: there is no big list for all three weeks. If you wanted to get all of your shopping done for the entire program you are going to have to combine the week one, two and three lists.
  • You are encouraged to keep a diary while going through the process.
  • The e-book comes with free video bonuses which I did not bother with because, admittedly, I was confused by the promise of inspiration and monetization.

Book trivia: while the author thanks healthcare professionals and nutrition experts, it is hard to tell how much they were consulted during the writing of this book.

As an aside, I was not a fan of having to give my email address in order to download the book. Full confessional: I gave them a fake.

One last confessional – I am going to try this three-week diet to see if it makes a difference. Hopefully, I will remember to update this review with the results.
UPDATE: I have decided NOT to do this diet because even the shopping lists are too complicated. For starters, there are two versions of the week 1 shopping list (The shopping list on page 52 does not have the same ingredients as the one on page 167 and vice versa, for example). There are twenty differences between the two lists. Then I couldn’t find the recipe for the very first meal (Cinnamon Chia Pudding). There is a chia seed with coconut recipe and one for chia seeds with blueberries. Neither recipe calls for cinnamon as a main ingredient.

Kansal Clunker

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Kansal, Neil and Ruchin Kansal. Kansal Clunker: the Car That Rebuilt Us. Koehler Books, 2025.

Reason read: Being a member of the Early Review Program with LibraryThing I get to review cool books. This is one such book.

Prepare to be thoroughly entertained by Neil Kansal and his father, Ruchin. Sharing perspectives on a singular adventure, they have written a charming book about driving across the country in what they call the Kansal Clunker, a rebuilt 1998 Acura Integra with 159,068 miles. What started as a desire to learn how to drive a car with a manual transmission in 2020 turned into an epic road trip. Stopping at interesting sights along the way filled out an adventure of a lifetime. From Connecticut to Colorado, this was a chance for sixteen year old Neil to get to know his father as a person and vise versa.
I thought the maps, memories, photographs, and family comments were a nice touch.

Natalie connection: the family relocated to Newtown, Connecticut. Natalie has performed in support of Ben’s Lighthouse a few times now. I will be attending the benefit this November.

Playlist: “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Happy Birthday,” Garth Brooks, Blake Shelton, Kane Brown, and “Itsy-bitsy Spider.”

Author facts: Ruchin design Cinemark theaters and Neil was a principal cellist of the University Orchestra.

Book trivia: you can learn more about the Kansal adventure via their website and Instagram site.

Feast of Snakes

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Crews, Harry. Feast of Snakes. Atheneum, 1976.

Reason read: October is scary month and this one takes the cake.

Feast of Snakes is not for the fainthearted. There is every kind of excessive abuse one can think of within its pages. Rape, domestic violence, corruption, animal cruelty, racism, adultery, elder abuse, alcoholism, gambling, murder, and even castration.
Joe Lon Mackey exists as your typical down and out alcoholic twenty-something year old. His high school glory days as a football star have long faded, “Then one day football was gone and it took everything with it” (p 102). Saddled with a mealy wife and two small squalling kids, trapped in a small town with no future, Joe Lon forever lives in the past. His sister is mentally unstable after coming home to find mom murdered by dad. Dad spends his time getting dogs to fight to the death. Old flame Bernadette is still as beautiful as ever, but committed to someone else. It pains Joe Lon that she has moved on and doesn’t seem to remember the good old days, but he’ll force her to think of them one way or another. The memories of what Joe Lon Mackey had but lost have made him brutally mean to everyone around him. His innermost thoughts lead one to believe that deep down inside he has a tiny smidgen of good that is trying to find a way out. Like mean Mr. Grinch, one had to have faith Joe Lon would crawl out of the anger that ensnares his soul. Unfortunately, the entire town seems to be full of brutally mean men and deeply sad women. It’s only a matter of time before the community explodes with rage.

As an aside, there is a rattlesnake round up that happens every year in Claxton, Georgia.

Line that summed up the entire book, “He always got mean when he got nervous” (p 141).

Author fact: Crews has written a bunch of stuff but I am only reading Feast of Snakes for the Challenge.

Book trivia: the dedication is pretty cool, “I have never raised a glass with a better friend.”

Music: Merle Haggard

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Grit Lit” (p 106).

Love at Second Sight

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Leverson, Ada. The Little Ottleys: Love at Second Sight.

Reason read: to finish the series started in August.

When we catch up to the lovely Edith she is now the mother of a ten year old and still married to the horrible Bruce. It has been three solid years since Bruce was so taken with Mavis Argles that he tried to run away and elope in France. It didn’t work out and Edith, faithful to a fault took him back. Home again, Bruce continues to point out Edith’s shortcomings like they are earth-shattering catastrophes, “…as a matter of fact, a curl by the right ear was only one-tenth of an inch further on the cheek than it was intended to be” (p 348), but Edith just shrugs him off more than ever. Despite her steadfast loyalty to Bruce, Edith hasn’t completely forgotten Aylmer Ross. Alymer, home with a war injury, is still madly in love with Edith, but she stubbornly is determined to make her marriage work.
The new element of Love at Second Sight is that Edith and Bruce are housing a widow who shows no signs of leaving. We have no idea where she came from or why she is there but, Madam Frabelle charms her way into every person’s heart and influences every mind. She determines the outcome of Love at Second Sight.

As an aside, Bruce and Madame Frabelle’s little journey confused me a little. First they are on a train, then a boat, then they frequent a hotel for lunch. Then they pop over to Hampton Court and then back to the river where Bruce shows off his rowing skills and then back to the Belle of the Rover and to the train. What a day!

Music: Mozart, Handel, Debussy, Ravel, Faure, “Drink To Me Only with Thine Eyes,” and “I’ll Sing Thee Songs of Araby.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Viragos” (p 227).

Absolute Truths

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Howatch, Susan. Absolute Truths. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Good Friday and Easter (the theme being religion).

Even though Absolute Truths is part of the Starbridge series, each story is self-contained and can be read on its own. It should be noted that each book is connected to the others through characters and plots. This has been said before, but never is it more true than in Absolute Truths. We come back to the character of Charles Ashworth. If you remember from the very first Starbridge novel, Glittering Images, Charles was sent to make sure there was nothing sinister happening in the Jardine household where a young woman (Lyle Christie) was serving as companion to Mrs. Jardine. Charles became obsessed with Lyle and eventually married her. When we catch up to Charles in Absolute Truths, Lyle running the perfect household. When Charles loses Lyle he has to figure out his absolute truth. I have to admit, I was disappointed to return to a character who already had the spotlight in 1937. It would have been more fun to explore the life of a younger character and move beyond the 1960s.
As with every other installment in the Starbridge series, the main character is plagued by sexual impulses and the threat of excessive alcoholic stupors. Charles Ashworth is no different. He is wracked by guilt over things he barely understands. As always, ghosts circle and demons threaten. Jon Darrow leads the charge back to sanity, asking the question: is love the absolute truth?

Quote to quote, “No degree of impatience can excuse vulgarity” (p 43).

Author fact: Wheel of Fortune is Howatch’s most notable novel.

Book trivia: Absolute Truths is the sixth and final book in the Starbridge series. Book Lust To Go only lists three of the books while More Book Lust mentions seven. Pearl is in error when she lists Wonder Worker as part of the Starbridge series.

Music: Jack Buchanan, “Tennessee Waltz,” David Rose’s “The Stripper,” “Zadok the Priest,” and “Thine Be the Glory.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: the Family of the Clergy” (p 86) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Entering England” (p 76). As an aside, Pearl mentions Wonder Worker as the last Starbridge book in the series. Even though Wonder Worker does have some of the same Starbridge characters Howatch does not consider it part of the series.