twogerbils reads in 2015

Books read in 2015 -

64. A Fatal Winter - Max Tudor cozy
63. Danish Folktales, Legends, and Other Stories - folklore
62. Wicked Autumn - Max Tudor cozy
61. Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas - heathenry/mythology
60. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter - biography
59. The Glass Cage Automation and Us - non fiction
58. Our Troth History and Lore - heathenry
57. Trigger Warning - Gaiman short stories
56. Kolibri - Finnish thriller
55. Murder in the Queen's Garden - Elizabethan cozy
54. Murder at Westminster Abbey - Elizabethan cozy
53. Charms and Chocolate Chips - supernatural cozy
52. India Black and the Gentleman Thief - Victorian cozy
51. Seasons of the Sacred Earth - pagan homesteading
50. Brownies and Broomsticks - supernatural cozy
49. Double Fudge Brownie Murder - culinary cozy
48. The Ring of the Löwenskölds - Swedish lit
47. The Beckoning Fair One - English ghost story
46. The Song of the Lark - American lit
45. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing - home economics
44. The Vikings: A New History - history
43. The Whispering Muse - Icelandic fiction; mythology
42. The Parson's Widow - Finnish fiction
42. Last Rituals - Icelandic thriller
41. The Year of the Hare - Finnish fiction
40. And Only To Deceive - Victorian cozy
39. Everything Was Goodbye - Canadian fiction
38. Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things - Japanese traditional legends, supernatural
37. Three Supernatural Novels of the Victorian Period
36. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
35. Cleveland A Concise History - local history
34. The Blue Fox - Icelandic fiction; folktale
33. The Turn of the Screw - classic
32. The Greenhouse - Icelandic fiction
31. Eat Move Sleep: Why Small Choices Make a Big Difference - health
30. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night - Canadian lit fiction
29. It's Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace - management
28. Perfect Phrases series - 4 management books
27. O Pioneers! - American lit
26. Vlad - horror
25. 1491 New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - history
24. Strange Stories - weird fiction by Algernon Blackwood
23. Mastermind How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes - psychology
22. Words Onscreen - non-fiction
21. Medieval Women - history
20. Fantasmas: Supernatural Stories by Mexican American Writers - modern supernatural
19. Doing the Best I Can Fatherhood in the Inner City - sociology
18. Indian Ghost Stories - Project Gutenberg, traditional stories
17. Medieval People - history
16. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded - science, history
15. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - psychology
14. The Cost of Bad Behavior - management
13. How the Irish Saved Civilization - history
12.Some Chinese Ghosts - traditional legends, folklore
11. The Ghost: A Legend by Clara Sicard - family ghost story, written in the 1860s
10. In the Shadow of the Sword The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire - history
9. Conflict Management for Libraries - management
8. Banshees Werewolves Vampires and Other Creatures of the Night - supernatural, including classic stories
7. Generation Me - nonfiction
6. A Circle of Witches - anthology of Victorian witch stories
5. A Bromfield Galaxy - American lit
4. Uncanny Tales - Victorian ghost stories
3. Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden - British cozy
2. Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House - British cozy
1. The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories - traditional ghost stories

To get caught up a bit - it's not that I haven't been reading, I just haven't written anything here about it. Since the new year, I've finished two sets of ghost stories, one started back in early December, other after the new year. Also two cozy mysteries, both by a popular British author.

And today I finished A Bromfield Galaxy, a collection of three novels by Louis Bromfield, an Ohio author who is a bit Edith Wharton and a bit Nathaniel Hawthorn. The Town, which is on and off the setting of all three novels, could have been my hometown of Johnstown, PA in the early twentieth century, with the Mills, the Italian and Eastern European immigrant workers, the poor air quality, the religious belief, and the poverty. And that sense that no matter what, you couldn't risk scandal or let your neighbors think ill of you.

Last night I finished A Circle of Witches, a collection of Victorian era witch stories, all authored by women. The first part was Fact, with accounts of witchcraft trials, and the second Fiction, with short stories, most published originally in magazines. Some of the earlier stories were really difficult for me to read because of the Scottish dialect. Some were only barely about witches, at least in the traditional sense, more ghost stories or atmospheric stories. Some had the Salem trials as their historical context. And the last story, written after the Victorian era was decidedly modern in it's horror feel and subject (a Black Mass) - things weren't just politely hinted at in the Victorian style. I like anthologies of Victorian writers because it gives me the chance to get to know new authors, whom I can later search out.

Finished Generation Me by Jean M. Twenge, a quick read. It contrasts the original Me Generation (the Boomers) with Generation Me (Gen X & the Millennials) and looks at societal and cultural influences, especially on younger people. Thought it was cool that I'm the same age as the author, so toward the beginning of what she groups together as Generation Me. I think there's a big difference between people like me whose parents were Silent Generation (and not Boomers) and younger people whose parents are Boomers. My Mom, for example, was definitely NOT from the Me Generation, and I think that's influenced me a lot. The book talks a lot about the educational and cultural doctrine of self-esteem and how that's not really serving young people well. That, and amped up unrealistic career and lifestyle expectations, increased anxiety and depression, lack of community, and higher housing and other basic living costs. Sucks to be young. I'm continually fascinated by studies of the generations, so this was right in my wheelhouse.

Started reading In the Shadow of the Sword about the history of late antiquity and Islam.

With today's university closing because of sub-zero temperatures, I stayed in bed and finished up Banshees Werewolves Vampires and Other Creatures of the Night, a fun little blog-like romp through the supernatural. Not very substantial overall, but it did incorporate some great classic stories, including one from Bram Stoker. By far the best was Clarimonde (La Morte Amoureuse) written by Theophile Gautier in the 1830s and later translated by Lafcadio Hearn in 1908. It's a magnificent story about a village priest plagued by a beautiful female vampire. A quotation from Ralph Hodgson starts off the whole book -- "Some things have to be believed to be seen." How perceptive. I'll be looking out for a pooka.

As part of trying to keep up with professional reading, I finished Conflict Management for Libraries. I'm a middle manager in an academic library, so there was a lot in it for me. I try to hone whatever skills I might have or can develop in terms of people supervision and conflict management. I always chuckle to myself when people claim that there isn't conflict in their workplace - they're just deluding themselves.

>2 twogerbils: hi! I'm intrigued by your description of part-Wharton, part-Hawthorne. I haven't read anything by Louis Bromfield before, but will look into him now. Thanks!

Read In the Shadow of the Sword pretty quickly, considering it's a history of late antiquity, not exactly something readily familiar to most people, including myself. Despite the title being about Islam, about a good two thirds of the book was not directly about Islam, but about the history of other empires and peoples, like the Roman empire, the Persians, and any number of other ancient peoples I've never heard of. And there were details about the sexual exploits of Theodora (wife of Justinian I of the Byzantine Empire) that you just don't get on the History Channel.

I've discovered a series called "Supernatural and Occult Fiction" and have two books from it - a collection of Algernon Blackwood stories, and The Ghost: a Legend by Clara Sicard which was originally published in 1866 or thereabouts. Ghost is a charming little book, if somewhat clumsily written. It's the legend of a benevolent family ghost who appears when the family is in danger of losing honor (or money or land or respect, etc.). The legend starts during the time of the Crusades when the original ancestor rescues a monk carrying a bit of the True Cross and is then granted his final wish, which is to able to appear to his descendents when they're about to do something stupid. The next part of the story takes place during the English Civil War, when the ghost appears and rescues the family from certain downfall. The final part takes place in the 1740s when either the ghost appears (or a clever lawyer takes advantage of the legend) and prevents a stubborn family member from marrying the wrong woman (by switching out the bride at the foot of the altar right under the very nose of the groom) and losing the family forture. It's an entertaining story, like any good story should be.

The Last Book is a collection of photographs by Reiner Gerritsen, who spent time photographing people reading print books on the New York subway. It's a commentary on the demise or not of print. The photographs are either color or black and white. They're arranged by book author and title. They show all sorts of people reading all sorts of books, and it's fun to see who's reading what. The people are as fascinating as the books - all ages, races, walks of life.

Here's a link to a gallery of a number of the photos - http://www.reiniergerritsen.nl/preview/LASTBOOK/

Best part about getting the book itself - I got it interlibrary loan, and it came all the way from a library in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Love those photos.

>10 twogerbils: I always have to look to see if I recognize anyone. Surely in a city of millions at least one of the dozens of readers I know will have been photographed, no?

That would be so cool. Reminds me of when I used to commute in DC to work, and even in a city that size, you could recognize a couple regulars with you on the Metro.

Finished Some Chinese Ghosts, stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn and originally published in 1887. Not ghost stories in the Western sense much at all, but rather traditional legends. The first story, The Soul of the Great Bell, is an incredibly poignant tale of filial piety. And the best is the retelling of the legend of the tea plant - a legend with a gruesome twist - a devout monk tears off his eyelids and throws them on the ground after having fallen asleep while meditating. Where the eyelids fall grows the first tea plant, a gift of the gods. Incidentally, the leaves of the tea plant do resemble eyelids.

Started reading How the Irish Saved Civilization, a book I've always wanted to read.

>10 twogerbils: It's a commentary on the demise or not of print.

This collection seems to support "or not." What a fascinating collection of photographs. Thanks for posting that link!

On the eve of St. Patrick's Day, I finished up How the Irish Saved Civilization, which came out as a best seller in the 90s, and I've always wanted to read it, but never did. Short and fun, a little cursory. Learned that Catholics have the Irish to thank for private confessions - apparently telling your sins was at one time a public affair. Um, no thanks. Then there's that whole part about saving books and classical learning - my Irish eyes are smiling. And sadly, the thing about St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland is just made up.

A reference in something I was reading led me to The Cost of Bad Behavior, a book about incivility in the workplace. Ultimately, I wish it had been a little more psychology and individual people oriented and less business oriented, but well, many good ideas only get their due once they start impacting the bottom line. It ended with a reference to the book In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore, which is a book I based a conference presentation on once, and had the fun and good fortune of contacting the author through Twitter.

Best part about the book -- it's a library book from another university in the state. And I lost it at a bus stop, only to have someone call me the next day having found it and delivered it to a nearby convenience store for pickup. There really are good and civil people in the world!

I kept on reading references to Carol Dweck, so I read her popular book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. It's about the psychology of the fixed-mindset and the growth-mindset and what the ramifications of either are for things like raising kids, participating in sports, being in a relationship, or careers. The bottom line is basically that the brain's a muscle and that you can learn something about essentially anything. You aren't just who you are - smart, dumb, talented, bad at math, good at sports, the perfect parent. It's more about the effort you put in and the love of learning that you get from it. For me, swimming is what epitomizes this - I love to swim for the sake of swimming, and I love being coached at swimming and learning new things and I love how ridiculously hard it is. I'd like to transfer that type of thinking about swimming to other areas of my life. I'm a work in progress, and it's fun.
Dweck most often comes up in the education context - she pioneered the idea that it's harmful to praise kids for their traits ("you're smart"), but it's beneficial to praise kids for their effort ("you tried a lot of different strategies to solve this problem.")

>17 twogerbils: Nice story about the return of your book.

Competition = Bad behaviour.

Apparently 2015 will be the year of facts for me - already read 7 non-fiction books. Just finished Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, which is a book I've always wanted to read. It's about the giant volcano that erupted on a small island in what's now Indonesia in 1883. Get this - the sound of Krakatoa was heard on another small island called Rodriguez Island, some 2,900 miles away. That's the equivalent of someone in Philadelphia hearing a naturally occurring and not amplified sound that happens in San Fransisco. And only by the 1960s with plate tectonics did scientists understand how the volcano happened. The writing was great - a real page-turner. Only questionable chapter was the author's attempting to distantly connect a fundamentalist Islamic uprising to Krakatoa - seems a little fishy.

Medieval People by Eileen Power first came out in 1924, and is one of the earliest studies in social history. So it's not the history of kings and battles, but of ordinary people, or at least it tries to be. It must have been a wildly popular book, because I read something like the 10th printing, which came out in 1963 (it's also available on Project Gutenberg). There's a chapter about a peasant on a large estate, an abbess, a clothier, a wool merchant, a Paris housewife, and then there's one on Marco Polo and his travels. I loved the book and it reads like a charm, but in all honesty, I couldn't buy the line about "ordinary people." Marco Polo ordinary? A wealthy wool merchant? The head of an abbey? True, these people are more ordinary than say Charlemagne himself, but still.

I've decided that from now on, I'm only going to enter a book into my Library Thing if I've actually read the book. For the most part, I was already doing this, but I did have some books in here that are on my shelf or were on my shelf at some point. So I went in and deleted those titles. My stats went from 703 books to 665, so a difference of 38 titles.

I know some people are really into listing TBR books in their accounts. I'm deciding this isn't for me. So although I'd like to claim Library Thing ownership of the complete works of Nathaniel Hawthorne that I have on my shelf, I'm not, because I haven't read it yet.

I think this move is more true to who I am as a reader. First off, I'm a librarian, which means I really like to use libraries as the source of something like 99% of my books now. Before I was a librarian I used to buy books. And I used to fall into that mindset that owning a lot of books was a badge of some sort - a badge of cultivation or intellect maybe. Now, even though I'm a pretty voracious reader, my book shelf at home is pretty empty, and a good handful of the books on it are library books.

Maybe this will encourage me to read even more - if I really want to "count" the complete works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, then I guess I'll have to actually read them.

>22 twogerbils: I take the same approach.

Thanks for the heads up on Medieval People I did not know of this book. I will download it from Project Gutenberg.

>22 twogerbils: I'm reminded of what my son's best friend likes to tell his mom when she's making something new for dinner; "that looks very good for you and Dad." I'm impressed when readers manage to be all minimalist about their book ownership, but it's a theoretical thing that really doesn't apply to me. : )

>22 twogerbils: I can relate. I still have some books that I haven't read in my library here on LT, but they are pretty much all books I own that I haven't read yet (and it might be a while for some of them, since they are in storage). Either way, not a big deal though since that's currently 36 books.

I used to work in bookstores and collected lots of books and felt the same way about them, or really, came to the realization eventually that I felt that way about them. One day I'd like to have a small collection of nice editions of books I really loved, because I feel like that would say something about me in a way that the old shelves full of a mix of books I'd read and loved, read and not loved, and meant to get around to one day really didn't.

Project Gutenberg saved me a pretty dull day at work, with Indian Ghost Stories (I'm not bothering with the touchstones here because Library Thing brings up the wrong title). The one I read was a second edition from 1917 that was published in Allahabad, with S. Mukerji listed as the author.

Very pleasant, enjoyable, traditional-style stories. Common themes, like seeing the vision of a beloved relation only to find out that the person has died, or a ghost wanting to resolve something about a circumstance, and needing the help of a living person to do so. Many of the stories were quite touching, one or two were about vengeance. The writing style was light and engaging, bringing in details about Indian culture during the colonial period, and gently making fun of both Indian and European belief in the supernatural. Makes me want to sit on a verandah and drink darjeeling.

Like what often happens, I end up reading a reference to a book in some article and then I request the book through OhioLINK or Search Ohio. I was reading an article about poverty in America when I found a reference to Doing the Best I Can Fatherhood in the Inner City. One of the authors lived for three years with her family in an inner city Philadelphia neighborhood in order to rather data. Basically, the thesis is that inner city men are not necessarily deadbeat dads, but that they desire to have contact with their children (at least some of their children, often the youngest) and that they do the best they can financially by them, with whenever is left over from their meager wages after taking care of their own necessities. The book looks at about equally black and white men, over a wide age range. The traditional model of the family unit is turned on its head. Many of the men practice serial fatherhood, having children by several women. The connection is to the child, not to the mother, with whom they might have only a weak or no relationship. The stories of the individual men were engaging - some of these men really are trying despite incredibly bad odds, yet most often come up short in significant ways. Low- or un-employment, addictions, and prison time hamper many of these men in their fatherhood roles. On the white side of the story - the working class ethic Irish neighborhoods of Philadelphia or NJ, I feel like my family is about one generation removed, so those men's stories weren't that inconceivable to me from my middle class vantage.

>27 twogerbils: that sounds like an interesting read. It's great when you accidentally stumble upon books like that.

Fantasmas: Supernatural Stories by Mexican American Writers is one of those books that probably never gets read. It has a few stories by 'established' writers no one's ever heard of and the rest by masters degree writing students, so not exactly headline material. But it's a great book of stories. There's a little of everything - a romance, some predictably gratuitous violence, a Dia de los Muertos story, and a Mexican American version of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. And lots of the stories are fun to read with their Spanglish.

Recently read Medieval People by Eileen Power and enjoyed it so much I read Medieval Women by her, too. It's a short volume of her lectures on the topic, and it includes some brilliant illustrations (sadly black and white). Chapters on the aristocracy, women in towns and country, education for women, and nunneries. The chapter about nunneries was basically the same thing from Medieval People.

Another fun part about reading the actual book was that some prior reader had marked up the text - underlining, making little comments, circling, putting things in parens. I'm currently reading Words Onscreen about reading online vs. in print, and one of the things it discusses is marginalia, and the fact that with ebooks it's just not the same, even if you can electronically annotate the text. I have to say, the marginalia in the copy of this book made it extra fun to read, something that I would have missed from the experience if I had read it as an ebook.

>30 twogerbils: I get a lot of second hand books and I am always fascinated by the marginalia.

Project Gutenberg is a wonderful thing, but there is no marginalia

Interested in your review of Medieval People by Eileen Power. I might be tempted with that one.

I like books about books or reading, and with the prevalence of online reading and ebooks, there's a lot to say about reading these days, especially from the neuroscience and cognitive science side of things. Words Onscreen is written by linguist and looks at people's habits with regard to print and onscreen reading. The author, being an academic, tries to be neutral, but her preference for print in terms of comprehension and culture is there. I had a very early version of a Sony ereader (horrible), and then I read on the Kindle app on the iphone5 (tiny screen = lots of flicking). Now I've ditched personal electronic devices as a matter of course (no cell phone, no ereader, etc.) and I just read in print. Love it, always have, won't be further led astray by e.

I'm catching up here with all the reading you have been doing. Very interesting conclusion on ebooks. I've thought about doing this, but actually I've enjoyed reading on my phone and iPad, so i'm not about to give them up.

I used to hate marginalia and highlights. I just found them too distracting. But now I enjoy them and they become part of the book.

Words Onscreen sounds worth a look.

I added Some Chinese Ghosts to my wishlist. As for How the Irish Saved Civilization, I can't say I regret reading it, but I think you liked it more than me.

>31 baswood:
>33 dchaikin: I've become quite pro marginalia. It seems like a social reading experience, just stretched out over time. Although highlighting, as in highlighting of textbooks or casebooks, is simply distracting.

Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes simplifies Thinking Fast and Slow and couches it in terms of everyone's favorite consulting detective. Admittedly, the system one and system two of Thinking Fast and Slow was fascinating, but a little tricky for someone like me with a humanities background. So Mastermind puts it in literary terms. Sadly, though, although it was a fun book, it probably just didn't quite do the science of it justice. But I love it when one book draws on another book that I've recently read, and the last chapter of Mastermind did that with Mindset by Carol Dweck which I finished probably a month and a half ago. Reading's one big amazing web, like the internet of your mind.

I don't know that I would have given that title a second look before reading your comments. Now I'll keep it in mind.

Dracula in modern day Mexico City? Sounds like the makings of a vomit worthy YA book. But it's not! Vlad by Carlos Fuentes is brilliant, and darkly hilarious, erotic, weird, and really darn scary. And you're not quite sure who's in the car at the very end - my vote's for the undead son. Reading random reviews online cracked me up - NYT praised it (no surprise), but an author of self published YA vampire novels was totally put off by it, as were many other readers. I think it was the tension between funny and scary that got me. Dracula wears a paste on mustache and a toupee. Squirrels down girls' pants. Organ meats for dinner. Ten million blood sausages. Call me Vlad. Since I've never read any else by Carlos Fuentes, I don't know if this is his writing normally, or if this is some outlier (did he write it as a vampire genre joke on serious literature maybe?). but I think I'll be adding Terra Nostra to my reading list soon.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather reminded me of some of the Scandinavian classics I read last year, but not nearly as bleak as say Frans Sillanpaa. And of course, the main character came from Swedish stock from Norway, so an even stronger connection. I loved the book, while many others apparently didn't. I'm pretty easily caught up in the romance of farmland lit and hardy folks making a living off the land. Will definitely be reading Song of the Lark and My Antonia.

Vlad sounds interesting

It's Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace was *sigh* written by a journalist slash TV exec and not by a psychologist. So again, I get this feeling that I've been short changed on the psychology and neuroscience of emotion. But still, books like these can be useful, I guess that's why I read them. I was going through some emotion issues with people I supervise at work, so I was looking for some more insight into emotions, and this book does give that, although in a less-than-stellar-yet-still-mildly-helfpful way. Plus I just like to learn about people and their emotions and what makes them tick.

Someone in this group wrote about The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Canadian author Heather O'Neill and something about it caught my eye, so I got it to read. At first I was put off by the two nineteen year old twins who are the main characters. But I realized that as I went along that the author writes some pretty intriguing lines, like "Death pulled the tablecloth out without upsetting any of the dishes that were on the it." or "I went into a store called Babas. There were these miniature jars of feelings on the shelves at the back. They bought them off of poor kids in foreign countries. They had to sell them so that their families could eat." So I kept on reading, and in the end I even liked the twins. Themes of the book are motherless children, the referendum in Quebec in the 1990s, coming of age, and random cats showing up "like caramel seeping out of a Caramilk bar."

Another recommendation from someone (again, I forget who) in this group - Eat Move Sleep is a quick to read review of little habits that can make or break good health. What struck me most was the chapters about the deleterious effects of sitting. Like many people, I sit for long periods of time at work. Since reading this book, I've made a conscious effort to get up and walk around at least every thirty minutes at work. And when I'm at home on the weekends watching sports on TV, I also try to do something active, even if it looks silly -- like dance around, march in place, shuffle a bit or wiggle. What caught my attention was the idea that even if you work out regularly, if you sit for long periods during the day, then you're really not getting enough activity for good health. It's the 10,000 steps idea (which apparently is an arbitrary number, but you get the point).

>37 twogerbils: Fuentes is great, and this is an intriguing review. Vlad sounds fun.

The Greenhouse was a pleasant book, good for summer, not too deep. About a man who's a gardener and begins taking care of his young daughter. It kind of bothered me that it was never clear where the monastery is located - Italy? Greece? -- and the name of the monastery is never given. And is film loving monk an alcoholic? And the translation of the book probably should have been called The Monastery and not The Greenhouse. Pleasant bits about plants and cooking though, two topics I like quite a lot.

Tick one item off the reading bucket list: finished The Turn of the Screw today. Is the governess mad? Are the ghosts real? Are the kids little budding axe murderers? Is it all about sex? I remember having this book in my parents house when I was a kid. And although I was a reasonably precocious reader, I'm sure glad I didn't attempt that one. Not that it probably makes too much more sense in my forties. But it's pretty scary nonetheless.

The Blue Fox by Icelandic author Sjon is a beautiful story that's sadly just over a hundred pages long, but the brief length is fitting for its folktale-like nature. It's the story of a parish priest who's hunting a blue fox in the middle of a blizzard in winter (in Iceland) and the story of a girl with Down's Syndrome who's rescued from a shipwreck. It takes place in the 1880s. It's a fairytale-like story that tells itself in circles. It's such a beautiful tale it makes my heart ache.

Cleveland's home to me now. I like it because it reminds me of the small town in Western PA where I grew up, it's just bigger, with even more problems. Gotta love Cleveland - it has poverty, race problems, manufacturing loss, unemployment, crime, housing crises, failing schools, default, and losing sports teams. But I like places (and people) that are gritty and resilient, and I think that's what Cleveland is. So I read Cleveland A Concise History. I've been meaning to start reading more local history, and it is a start. I enjoyed the book and learned a lot. The United Way started here. In the 1860s, railroad workers got 2 minutes for lunch. The city's first black superintendent of schools shot himself in the chest in the stairwell of one of his schools. The Mall, envisioned along with the Group Plan, started way back when and they're still trying to build it. Severance Hall is a tribute to a wealthy man's beloved wife. The city was settled by New Englanders. They didn't riot, except when they did in Hough. And maybe next year the Cavs will pull it off and the Indians will stop losing to Detroit.

The best thing I did when I moved to Houston was read a history of the city. It didn't really help me in any way, it just made it feel more like home.

Sorry about your Cavs and Indians. During spring training the Indians were a serious pick to win the WS.

I was delighted to find out that Agatha Christie is now represented on Project Gutenberg. Reread The Mysterious Affair at Styles online. Such a clever mystery.

Three Supernatural Novels of the Victorian Period - The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins, The Haunted House at Latchford by Mrs. J.H. Riddell, and The Lost Stradivarius by J. Meade Falkner. Excellent stories, perfect for a very rainy and cool June in Cleveland. A good month for reading - I finished ten books!

Starting to reread The Secret Adversary by the queen of mysteries, Agatha Christie. Love the dedication! -
"To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second hand the delights and dangers of adventure." I think that says a lot about the human condition, and about reading.

Finished Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn - it is the Japanese equivalent of Some Chinese Ghosts, so traditional stories all somehow dealing with the supernatural that Hearn collected either through translation or orally. I think some of the stories are the basis of the manga comics. And one of the stories was very short but truly terrifying. All in all, the Japanese stories are a lot more creepy, violent, and assertive than the Chinese ones, and the Chinese ones are a lot more beautiful, sentimental and bittersweet. Hearn must have been a fascinating figure with his travels through Europe, the US, and the Far East in the 19th century - I'd like to read more of his stories and collections.

>51 twogerbils: love that dedication.

You have me curious about Lafcadio Hearn.

By about page 30 I was about ready to give up on Everything Was Goodbye by Gurjinder Basran, but I stuck with it. It's the story of a Indian-Canadian woman, the youngest of six daughters, who ends up breaking with tradition and an arranged marriage, and having an affair with an Anglo. The cultural references were interesting, and were sometimes cryptic to me. The ending was a tear-jerker, but at some level, I felt like something was missing.

Round about August each year I start reading cozy mysteries. I think I try to start out each year with more "serious" reads, but always end up degenerating. So I'm about three weeks early. And Only To Deceive is a nice cozy, set in Victorian times, with a theme of ancient Greek art and forgeries. It's a bit more a respectable cozy than what I sometimes read - no murder solving cats, talking dogs, witches' potions or Halloween parties. But enjoyable regardless.

Catching up -

The Parson's Widow - Published in Finland in 1967, translated into English in 2008. Seemed a bit like a French art film that's over my head. Low on plot, high on dialogue. From what I can tell happened - a woman and her maid bicker a lot, two suicide attempts, a fire at a parsonage, a lot of drinking, two sexual assaults, prescription drug abuse, and a whole lot of stuffed birds. If I hadn't been away on a trip and a little short on books, I might not have finished this one.

Last Rituals - Nordic noir, but probably not quite as brutal as they come. I'm definitely more in the cozy camp. But it moved quickly, and was a bit more humane than I expected. Initially picked up for the witchcraft angle.

The Whispering Muse - Another short novel by Sjon, the Icelandic author who also wrote songs for Bjork. Definitely enjoyable, but didn't blow me away quite like The Blue Fox. Praises fish eating, something recently dear to my heart.

The Year of the Hare - Last summer's book of the summer for me was (ironically enough) The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. This year it's very likely to be The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna. Another Finnish book written earlier -- this one in the 70s - but not translated until the 90s. Absolutely delightfully humorous tale of a man who rescues an injured hare and decides to leave it all behind (but not the hare) and start off on an adventure through Finland. It's warm, funny, and makes you feel good about being human, or a hare.

Just catching up on your thread. Sometimes diaspora fiction can be terrible: I find a lot of it is badly written deliberately-tearjerking stuff (although Jhumpa Lahiri is good). So I think I'll avoid Everything Was Goodbye especially after your comments.

I'm noting carefully all the cozy mysteries you're reading, because I too read them at the end of the year, usually around Christmas. Last Rituals sounds interesting.

It's rare that I buy books anymore instead of borrowing them through libraries, but here are two recent ones I did buy. One because I was away on a trip and short on reading material, and the other because all the public library copies through SearchOhio were checked out and I was that desperate to read it.

The Vikings: A New History- I've been having a Nordic bent to my fiction and literature reading for the past two years, so I wanted to start into some history. A nice introduction, not scholarly, fun and interesting to read. Particularly wanted to read up on Viking history because I'm starting The Sagas of Icelanders, a very thick collection of most, but apparently not all sagas. And I learned that the Bluetooth technology and its symbol are named after Harald Bluetooth, the Danish king responsible for converting the country to Christianity.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing - Truly a book and an author after my own heart. I felt like I've found my Japanese soul-sister. If you asked, I wouldn't say that I consider myself a neat freak. But I really dislike clutter and too much stuff in general. I feel very uncomfortable when I go into people's homes that are jam packed with things (the house of an uncle-in-law comes to mind). I'm a firm believer that you just can't have Gemütlichkeit when you can't see the floors. So this book about decluttering -- as in getting rid of things that don't "spark joy" in the author's words -- was right up my alley. The author's very thoughtful and insightful about the art of tidying. And probably most people would write her off as sappy, kooky, or naive, but she struck a cord with me. I think part of it has to do with belief systems. The author is Shinto and believes that even things have souls, so she believes in animism. I'm pagan and believe the same thing. You don't see that concept really discussed much at all in Western books about paganism. Most all-purpose books on Western-style paganism focus on rituals or magic or gods - kind of the highest beliefs or practices (and ones that aren't at all common to all pagans). There's maybe one line if that about the concept of animism - lowly household objects aren't afforded much effort when you could be conjuring up powerful spells to ensure wealth and a zippy love life. But in this innocuous little book about tidying up, I found a really moving expression of pagan belief about the spiritual essence in all things that surround us, and that made me very happy.

The Song of the Lark - my second Willa Cather novel this year. Like another reader mentioned, I also didn't quite like it as much as O Pioneers!, but it's still a pretty darn good book. It's the story of a girl from small town Colorado who becomes an opera singer. Willa Cather is definitely a writer for me. Very solid, very real, lots of insight into human nature.

Keep meaning to get to Willa Cather some of these days. The list of must reads is too long...!

I'm slowly making my way through the canon of classic ghost stories, and The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions (really the guy's name) is definitely on the list. It's a classic yet quirky haunted house story, wonderful prose.

The Ring of the Löwenskölds by Selma Lagerlöf - In 1909, Lagerlöf was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. She was also a suffragist and lesbian, and due to a devoted American translator, she was at one point quite popular in the U.S. The Ring of the Löwenskölds combines three of her novels into one book - The General's Ring, Charlotte Löwenskölds, and Anna Svärd. It's the story of a family and its curse, and the supernatural element came as a pleasant surprise to me. The first book - The General's Ring - tells the story of the original vengeful ancestor and his quest to get back his ring, even from beyond the grave. The second two books really downplay the supernatural, but do continue the family curse idea, ending tragically. The second two books really are the stories of two strong women who navigate a course to marriage and family, making the men in their lives look somewhat hapless along the way. There was something almost 18th century about the books in their delightful playfulness. I would definitely read more by Selma Lagerlöf.

>62 twogerbils: I read The Saga of Gosta Berling by Lagerlof eariler this year, and while I didn't have the best initial reaction to it, I find myself still thinking about it a lot. It also has an element of the supernatural/superstitions to it. I may have to try The Ring of the Lowensdkolds.

>63 japaul22: I'll have to check out The Saga of Gosta Berling - I wasn't sure what I might try next from Lagerlof, but that might be good.

About this time of the year I start back up reading cozy mysteries. It feels like the right time to do it - the weather will be getting cooler, Halloween and the rest of the holidays are around the corner. Work's busy, so I also like reading something lighter and more entertaining. So although I did read one cozy in early June, Double Fudge Brownie Murder officially kicks off my later part of the year cozy reading. It's a murder mystery that incorporates recipes and a little romance. It pays not to be too critical of this one, and just enjoy it for what it's worth. Keeping with the brownie theme (my husband keeps on asking me if the brownie did it), just started Brownies and Broomsticks on the train.

Doing a bit of loitering on your thread... You've read some very interesting books so far this year. I need to take more time to take a good look at them - loads of really interesting sounding Nordic books in particular.

Continuing into the cozy mystery season and the brownie theme, Brownies and Broomsticks was a thoroughly enjoyable traditional cozy with a witchcraft theme. The main character moves from Akron, OH to Savannah to start a bakery along side her aunt, who's a witch. A prissy local business woman gets murdered outside their doorstep and the local witch scene steps in to clear the innocent uncle's name.

Just found your thread, Amy. I'll be watching to see which cozy mysteries you'll be reading for the rest of the year.

>68 NanaCC: Am heading this rainy afternoon to the public library downtown to pick up a stack of them! It's officially cozy season.

Seasons of the Sacred Earth - Following the Wheel of the Year, an account of a pagan family who lives on a homestead in Nova Scotia. I can't quite put my finger on why this book didn't do it for me. Writing was perfectly adequate. Accounts of gardening, hunting, outdoor woodsing were sincere. The pagan aspect wasn't hooey - mostly fairies, the Green Man, and respect for nature. The kids were sympathetic enough. But I guess homesteaders have to make money somehow, and writing this book was part of the plan.

India Black and the Gentleman Thief - Spent a lovely afternoon yesterday at the Cleveland Public Library, on the 4th floor in the foreign collection, and on the main floor in the genre display, picking out a bag full of cozy mysteries. Finished this one in a day in a half. It's set in Victorian London, and the heroine is a madam who runs and up-scale brothel and is also employed by Benjamin Disraeli ("Dizzy") as a spy. Together with her sidekick and would-be lover, solves a gruesome murder and thwarts an international arms deal. Absolutely delightful example of a historical cozy. It's book number something in a series, so I'll have to backtrack and pick up the series from the start. I'll have the phrase "poncy bastard" stuck in my head for weeks to come.

This is going way back to The Last Book, but I'm so glad you posted about it. I love the photos and recognized two friends!

>71 janemarieprice: That is so cool that you actually recognized two friends!! Pretty amazing in such a large city.

Cozy season is really underway now that it's actually fall. Charms and Chocolate Chips is an out-of-order read in the Magical Bakery Mystery series by Bailey Cates. Really fun, enjoyable book, just what I look for in a cozy. The mystery surrounds an old swamp in Georgia, some extinct bats, a menacing cypress tree, ley lines, and a local covey of witches and druids. Will probably look for more books in this series, I think I'm hooked. Although I've also been reading a non-cozy mystery (aka thriller) that's drawing me in, and it's set in Finland.

A small vent or a loud sigh - just realized that Neil Gaiman will be speaking to an already sold out audience at the other university down the street here in town. Might have to put out feelers for tickets. Consolation prize - successfully requested Trigger Warning through OhioLink when most copies are already spoken for.

Murder at Westminster Abbey - continuing on in the cozy season with another delightful historical mystery, this one set in Elizabethan England, with a heroine who is a personal musician to the Virgin Queen. Ends up it is very a propos - decided today that I'll be traveling with my Mom and oldest sister on a 14-day cruise to Great Britain and Ireland next summer, with a couple extra days in London. So I may actually get to see Westminster Abbey! Or have tea with the Queen. Or shop at Harrods. Or see Benedict Cumberbatch at Madame Tussauds. Not to mention Nessy! I have the feeling that this trip will definitely influence my reading in the coming months. I'm already planning on rereading The Isles: A History by Norman Davies, and I can't imagine how many Irish ghost stories I'll have to read.

Murder the in the Queen's Garden - following on Murder at Westminster Abbey, another cozy set in Elizabethan England. This one revolving around horoscopes, alchemy, Nonsuch Palace, and English gardens with mazes. Love the combination of lovely historical setting and a heroine with modern-day pluck.

Kolibri - All I can say is, I'm never going jogging in Finland. A Finnish thriller that I read in German for practice, got it from the public library. Although I'm more of a cozy fan, I did enjoy reading this. The plot incorporates immigrant stories, the Aztecs, and a policewoman from the Balkans of Hungarian descent, and all along I thought it would be about human trafficking, and it ended up not to be. Funniest part about reading it in German is the title, Kolibri. I got the book, and thought, huh, wonder what this Kolibri business is all about - maybe a character or some reference in the book, or maybe something Finnish. Because, so I thought, there aren't any German words that end in i and are spelled anything like Kolibiri. Then about half way through this 460 page book, they get to the Kolibri part, and I learn that Kolibri is hummingbird in English.

Oh hey, I know someone on another site who goes by Kolibri, I bet that's why! Haha, the things we learn. ;)

>77 twogerbils: Bird names are oddly better in German. My favorite is Papagei, for parrot.

>79 RidgewayGirl: Now Papagei is one that I know, probably from Mozart! And it ends in i, as do loads of German words, now that I think of it -- Kartofelbrei, Polizei, Ei, Hai. Okay, so my ending in i theory is totally blown.

Trigger Warning - Another collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, similar to Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors. Plenty in there to make you wonder. A series of stories for each month of the year that was inspired by tweets, a continuation story from American Gods, a couple spins on classic fairy tales, a Dr. Who story, a handful of poems, a story that's told in series of answers to questions without the questions, a jab at the iphone, and a really scary monster story that still disturbs me. Gaiman's an incredibly creative writer, and has the knack of writing stories that live just beyond the consciousness. Sorry I missed him here in town.

Finished two books this week -

The Glass Cage: Automation and Us - by Nicholas Carr who wrote The Shallows on how basically the internet is making us dumber. This one is about automation generally and how technology insinuates itself seamlessly into our lives. Airplane pilots, doctors, lawyers, architects, and other less professional jobs and activities, we're probably allowing technology to make our lives too easy. I can't help but think of my own profession (law librarian) and the impact of automation on legal research. In my own small rebellion, I remain smartphone/cell phone-less and I read books printed on dead trees.

Our Troth: History and Lore - a thorough compendium of heathenry (Germanic paganism), covering the god/desses, the nine worlds, the landvaettir, the disir and alfar, orlog and wyrd, the jotun, the creation story, Valhalla and Hel and a ton more. All the important stuff. I'm now reading the second lengthy volume, which is about practice and traditions. And getting excited for Yule, I have to admit. Scoping out our Julbock and a stollen recipe.

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter - When I heard about this book I immediately wanted to read it. First, I know little about the Kennedys, and didn't know at all the John Kennedy had a mentally retarded sister. But I really wanted to read it because of Billy, my brother, who died in 2007 at age 37. He was severely mentally and physically disabled, what seems like light years worse than Rosemary, yet Rosemary was institutionalized by her family and her father authorized that a prefrontal lobotomy be performed on her, a surgery that failed. Rosemary seemed downright high functioning compared to Billy, yet seemed to have a much worse fate. Billy lived at home, was cared for by my family and home health care nurses, and seemed to live a good life, we all loved him. Seems that a combination of the times and public life kept the Kennedys from being able to accept their daughter for who she was.

your brother's story is touching. And how sad about Rosemary.

I have a copy of the Shallows but never got around to reading it. Hope it's still timely when I get there.

Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas - a nice overview of the lore, originally published in 1908, I read a 1948 reprint. Great plates illustrating the stories. Last chapter's a short comparison with Greek mythology. Long chapters covering the Sigurd and Frithiof sagas.

Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet - Loved, loved, loved this delightful cozy set in the (made up?) English village of Nether Monkslip during the time of the Harvest Fayre. Dashing former MI5 agent turned Anglican priest solves the murder of a village busy-body. And as usual, the village is inhabited by any number of colorful residents, including a local New Age witch. I've already requested A Fatal Winter and The Haunted Season and there are two others in the series.

Danish Folktales, Legends, and Other Stories - this book is part of the New Directions in Scandinavian Studies series, and it's a scholarly folklore study. The first part is a lengthy essay explaining the different types of stories - legends, fairy tales, ballads, etc., and explaining the history of folklore collection in Denmark. The remainder of the book is the stories from four nineteenth century "informants" (what folklore scholars apparently call the folks telling the actual stories). The stories themselves are a hoot - not at all the well edited fairy tales that we might be used to reading. More a collection of very rambling, sometimes horrifically violent, bawdy, or hilarious musings of someone's kooky aunt or uncle. Lots of supernatural in the stories - revenants, nissen (house spirits), witches, mound dwellers, werewolves (which I've come to learn are quite the Scandinavian tradition), lindorn (dragons), elves, dwarves, changelings, you name it. Also very much enjoyed seeing how some of the traditions from the heathenry books that I've been reading recently are clearly reflected in these folkstories - proof to me that our pagan past is quite still with us.

>86 twogerbils: You have added this series to my wishlist.