On My Nightstand January 25, 2025

last weekend’s read

I’m up early working today. It’s dark outside but at least I have my sun lamp to wake me up. January is the worst.

Quote of the Week:

“Only juvenile delinquents are still awake at eleven at night.”

— Mina's Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa

What I’m Reading This Week:

Kindle: Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson - Reading this a chapter a day with a group on Litsy. I don’t love it, but I can see why it would make a good TV show.

Audiobook: Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu - This is the one I’m looking forward to the most from the 2025 Tournament of Books. Fingers crossed.

Paper: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - This week didn’t work out for reading at night. Will try again this week.

tournament reading

This post is linked to The Sunday Post on Caffeinated Reviewer.

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Walking Wednesday January 17, 2024

Getting out for walks hasn’t exactly been convenient lately, but I am enjoying the novelty of snow. I have been listening to a bunch of shortish books since I finished the Covenant of Water. Right now it’s Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I always forget how good this one is!

Happy walking!

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Show Us Your Books May 2022

Pat Conroy’s house in Beaufort, South Carolina

I was away for last month’s Show Us Your Books so this is two months worth of reviews. I’ve been on a roll lately so there’s some good ones here that you all probably ready years ago.

Five Stars

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne - I‘ve had this book on my TBR for years and I‘m glad I finally read it. Every emotion was contained in this book, and I easily gave it five stars.

Sandworm by Andy Greenberg - Wow! If you want to know why everyone got really scared about cybersecurity about a month ago read this book. I‘m going to have to read it again just to make sure I caught everything.

Four Stars

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy - This was an impulse read because I spent some time in Beaufort, SC last month. I‘m really glad I read this sweeping, epic story of the Wingo family. It was a bit too drawn out in some places, but overall an excellent read. I might have to read it again now that I know what happens in the end.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - This was a re-read for me. I still love this book although I forgot how long it takes the ending to come. I think Kingsolver does a masterful job of developing the voices of these girls, and that really comes out in the audiobook.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - I‘m ever so slowly chipping off the books that have been on my TBR the longest. This one, added in 2016, I almost skipped because it‘s yet another WWII book. I appreciated the different spin on this one though, and liked the background about jazz on the West Coast. I‘m glad I finally got to it.

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson - I really liked this book about a Cold War federal agent who also happens to be an African American woman.

Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi - These modern Austen retellings set in different cultures than the original British versions really work for me.

Three Stars

Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky - I was blown away by this series when I first read it in the 90‘s so I thought I‘d give it a re-read this year. I still like VI and her tough as nails crime fighting ways.

Hell and Other Destinations by Madeline Albright - I enjoyed this memoir about Albright‘s career after being Secretary of State. I didn‘t/don‘t know a lot about her, but she seemed very funny and smart. I‘d like to read more of her books.

Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia - This dragged some in spots, but the time period and setting made up for it.

This post is linked to Show Us Your Books and Quick Lit.

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Jane Austen

This week I finished Persuasion by Jane Austen, and finished the project I started with a group on Litsy to read all of her works in the order they were written. It was glorious. If you’ve never started a project like this with a favorite author I highly recommend it. It was very eye opening to see how her writing changed over time even as themes and characters repeated. I’m going to miss Jane, but I have dozens of rewrites, continuations, and non fiction studies to read over the next few months.

I Feel You Emma

In Emma Mr. Knightley complains about Emma and her long, well developed reading lists created at the expense of actual reading:

“Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old. I have seen many a great lists of her drawing-up at various times of books that she meant to read regularly through- and very good lists they were- very well chosen, and very neatly arranged- sometimes alphabetically, and sometimes by some other rule.”

— Emma by Jane Austen

For me summer is a great season of drawing up lists of books I will never read. There is so much temptation with summer reading guides stuffing my mailbox every day. But what Mr. Knightley will never understand is that for some of us making these lists is almost as much fun and nearly as rewarding as doing the reading itself.

Here I sit in my office with my shelves literally overflowing with books I bought last summer that I still haven’t read wondering what’s new this summer. And you know what? Mr. Knightley probably wouldn’t like it, but it sure makes me happy.

My Jane Austen Year

Virginia State Arboretum

Sometime last year I joined a group that reads a chapter of Jane Austen a day. We started with Sense and Sensibility and kept going. Now we’re all the way to Emma, my favorite. But even the books I didn’t love I loved reading because isn’t the Jane Austen life the quarantine life we all wished we were living? Having tea with our bubble, taking walks in the shrubbery, and everything turns out okay in the end?

It has impacted my life too. Now every time Zoom tells me I have a poor connection I don’t rage about my WiFi, I hear it in a Jane Austen voice. “Poor connection.” And I think yes, all of these people on Zoom are poor connections. I should be doing something better.

When I walk with my kids in a beautiful location like the one pictured above I have been know to walk ahead of them while they talk about Minecraft so I can think about Mr. Darcy or whatever. I imagine getting dressed up in my petticoats and muslin and walking through the paths, and the worst thing that can happen to me is that it rains and I need to spend a week at Netherfield recovering.

Thank you Jane Austen for writing those books all those years ago that have kept me company this year. You made a bleak year seem a little less bleak.

Show Us Your Books September 2020

Shamelessly stolen from Litsy

August wasn’t a stellar reading month for me. The best part has been reading a chapter a day from Pride and Prejudice with the #PemberLittens group on Litsy. But, we won’t finish that until this month.

Until then know that my reviews below may sound grumpy and halfhearted and it is all me, not them.

PS I’m hosting a giveaway in honor of the National Parks if you’re interested.

Best of the Month

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid — This short book covers so much territory about race and class in America. I’m still thinking about it. The part that struck me the most was how everyone was talking, but no one accurately heard what the other person was trying to say. Really, I think about that once a day at least. Despite my August mood this will probably be one of my top books from 2020.

Three From The Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide

Beach Read by Emily Henry - This would normally be right up my alley, but because of my August mood all I could think was, “You two better learn to communicate soon because when you’re in quarantine together you’re gonna have some real problems.”

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner - This was a ridiculous yet fun look at the world of influencers, and when the twist happens it gets even more entertaining. Just if something sounds familiar in this book don’t google it because you will get spoiled.

The Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler - This was my favorite of the three. A solitary man who lives by his rigid routines gets his life tossed around when a teenager shows up claiming to be his son. I’m not sure how I’ve never read a book by Anne Tyler before, and I’m excited for all that I have to catch up on.

And Three More Worth Reading

Universe of Two by Stephen P. Kiernan- I enjoyed this WWII novel, and how he tied organ music in to the making of the atomic bomb. (It works; you’ll see.) A little bit repetitive at certain points, but worth the read. (ARC from LibraryThing.)

A Torch Against The Night by Sabaa Tahir - Sometimes the second book in a series suffers a bit, but not so with this one. Tahir kept up the pace, and I can’t wait to read more.

The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay - An extended Bengali family and all of the politics and ghosts that come into that sort of thing. I enjoyed the audiobook.

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Books To Read In March

March to me means gardening, new beginnings, travel, and a little bit of romance. If you’re also thinking along those lines here are some books I can recommend for March.

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August Show Us Your Books

I spent hours reading The Stand on the beach last month. Life is good. (Still not finished though…)

Summer reading is the best! I read sixteen books this month, and many of them were read on the beach, listened to in the car with my kids, or in my ears when I was taking a nice long twilight walk after dinner. Below are short descriptions of ten of the best.

Favorite

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton - This was probably my fifth time reading this, but my first time on audio. It was a really good book to listen to. I got so into it one night when I was walking that when a squirrel ran out in front of me I jumped a mile thinking is was a t-rex or something.

Lived Up To The Hype

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff - Even though the love story felt forced to me, I still liked this book a lot. The truth is it would be hard to make me hate a WWII spy novel.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid - I had heard rave reviews of this one, so I was feeling the pressure to like this futuristic book about refugees traveling through mysterious doors. A totally weird story that resonates with stories you read in the news.

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict -I was fascinated by this novelization of the early life of Hedy Lamarr, the early Hollywood star/torpedo designer/Nazi escapee.

Girl Power

the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace - I always think poetry will be hard to read, and then am surprised when it isn’t. This collection was sitting on my shelf for months, and I found the strong and emotional poems to be just the right thing for carrying in my purse and dipping into when I had a few minutes.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire - Another book I finally got to. I obviously knew the ending, but was very interested to see how Maguire would make it come out.

The Lady and the Panda by Vicki Constantine Croke - The story behind the first giant panda captured for a zoo. Fascinating. I’ll never think the same way when I go.

Audiobooks That Took My Mind Off Walking and Driving

Things A Little Bird Told Me by Biz Stone - I found this audiobook to be interesting and relatable. Even kajillionaire Twitter inventors have bad days at work, and I appreciated Stone’s take on them.

The Runaway Jury by John Grisham - vintage Grisham at his best. I hope to get to more of these over the summer.

Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid - The books from The Austen Project aren’t very good on their own, but I do enjoy reading them to see how contemporary authors will spin some of my favorite classics. I bought this when it first came out, and it sat in my audiobooks.com account for years. I’m glad I finally got to it.

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My Back To School Reading List

I used to love going back to school as a kid. Even now when I only get to put my own kids on the bus I get a big sense of anticipation. I just feel like conquering the world, you know? Even my reading changes. No more breezy summer reads - I'm ready for something deeper. Hence my back to school reading list.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

Richard Nixon: The Life by John A. Farrell

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery

Austen in August

I am excited to take part in this year's Austen in August on the Roof Beam Reader blog. This is my first time taking part in this event, and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in all things Austen.

If you have a blog you have until July 31 to sign up. If you'd rather follow along on Twitter the hashtag is #AusteninAugustRBR.

This is a great way to wrap up summer reading, isn't it?

May 2017 Quick Lit

Making my way through The Winds of War on my hammock last weekend. A long book read outdoors=Heaven.

Each month I link with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit as a way to talk about the books I liked, but didn't review.

This is my busy season - things are crazy at work, and my kids are both playing sports while trying to complete their year end commitments for Scouts and Religious Education. Each year I say I'm not going to let them leave everything until the end, but each year we have the same situation. I am practically living out of my car at this point. Hence I need to fill my library bag with cozy, fluffy reading material.

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick - I never watched the web series it was based on, but still enjoyed this cute modern Pride and Prejudice. In this retelling Lizzie and co live in California and work in tech.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter - This book about a Hollywood starlet in a backwater Italian town was funny in a subtle way. I enjoyed it a lot. Perfect summer reading.

Leave the Grave Green by Deborah Crombie - I'm slowly making my way through this series. These are always reliable, good, short books I can read over a weekend.

What have you been reading lately?

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May 2016 Quick Lit

Each month I link with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit as a way to talk about the books I liked, but didn't review.

I finally got around to reading Northanger Abbey, and liked it a lot. The ending was kind of meh, but the character of Catherine was crazy in an awesome way. I loved all of her wacky scenarios.

I'm still on my travel writing kick, hence, my impulsive use of an audiobook credit on Albert Podell's Around the World In 50 Years. This one grew on me. I didn't agree with all of "Big Al's" opinions, but I was fascinated by the logistics of traveling to every country in the world. I also appreciated that he seemed to spend a fair bit of time in every country. He wasn't just traveling to check things off his list; he really seemed to take time with each country.

Ever wondered what it's like to be Mormon in New York City? The New York Regional Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker was an interesting account of what seems to be a pretty big struggle. It was sometimes shallow, but also very sincere, and seemed very honest. I recommend it, but don't expect to find any life altering truths here.

I finally finished The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, and now I finally know what everyone was talking about last year. This method is not really for me, but it did make me think about all the stuff we have. Some spring cleaning may be in order.

I listened The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury in my car. It was perfect for that. I found it entertaining enough to listen to, but didn't feel that I had to shut it off the second I picked up my kids. In fact my 8 year old even enjoyed a few of the stories while we waited for his bus. These are all short stories that are about the same things. It's kind of hard to explain, but very enjoyable, light science fiction. The only depressing thing was the astronauts from the future were born in 1986 - a full 9 years after me. I don't know when I got so old.

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