New Books for February Reading -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Do you generally buy new or used books? The books that come my way, while "new to me," are not usually new copies. I almost always buy used books (I'm particularly fond of library shops). But the universe conspired to bring four new books to me last week.

• The King's General by Daphne du Maurier I'm reading for a buddy read with some bookstagrammer friends. We've been reading a du Maurier book each month since November and The King's General is our February book. I needed a copy to start reading this past weekend so got this one when I was at Powell's last week. 

• The Promise of a Normal Life by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson launches on February 7 and sounds so wonderful that I jumped at the offer of a review copy. It is a coming of age story about a young Jewish-American woman who encounters adventure and colorful characters as she crisscrosses the US and the ocean to Israel, eventually finding herself on her journey.

• Thirst by K.L. Barron is another new book that sounded too good to pass up. I was happy to accept a review copy of this fascinating novel about a young woman living among the nomadic Tuareg people in Niger.

• The Maid by Nita Prose seems incredibly popular right now, so I was excited that my book club picked it for our next read. But it is so popular that there is a four-month wait for the audiobook from my library and used copies are selling for the same as new ones. I hope it lives up to the hype. We've had a bad streak at book club of picking popular books no one in book club ended up liking. 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

The King's General by Daphne de Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me each week on Friday to share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading. Feel free to share instead from a book that caught your fancy or you feel like highlighting. Please hop around and visit the other participants!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

September, 1653. The last of summer. The first chill winds of autumn.

-- from The King's General by Daphne de Maurier. Each sentence was so short —  and not even a complete sentence — that I wanted to give more than one! I understand why authors like those sorts of staccato openings, using several short sentences or fragments like brushstrokes to paint a scene. But I admit my preference is for full, shaggy opening sentences full of actual story. 

In this case, I don't think I'll have to wait long to get to heart of this plot-driven historical fiction novel set on the Cornish coast during the English Revolution. I'm reading The King's General as part of an ongoing buddy read project on Instagram where a group of us are reading through several Daphne du Maurier books. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the Linky box below. Use the hashtag #bookbeginnings if you share on social media.

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The King's General:

That Richard should ill use his wife because he could not trifle with her property was an ugly fact to face, but, having some inkling of his worse self, I guessed this to be true. He had married her without love, and in much bitterness of heart, and she, suspecting his motive, had taken care to disappoint him.

Well, that doesn't sound like a happy state of affairs!

Saul Bellow Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

 

SAUL BELLOW

Saul Bellow (1915 to 2005) may have been born in Canada, but he was an American treasure. He won the Pulitzer Prize once and the National Book Award three times. In 1976, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Nobel Committee described his work:

The structure is apparently loose-jointed, but for this very reason gives the author ample opportunity for descriptions of different societies; they have a rare vigour and stringency, and a swarm of colourful, clearly-defined characters against a background of carefully observed and depicted settings, whether it is the magnificent façades of Manhattan in front of the backyards of the slums and semi-slums, Chicago’s impenetrable jungle of unscrupulous businessmen intimately intertwined with efficient criminal gangs, or the more literal jungle in the depths of Africa, where the novel, Henderson the Rain King, the writer’s most imaginative expedition takes place. In a nutshell, they are all stories on the move, and, like the first book, are about a man with no foothold. But (and it is important to add this) a man who keeps on trying to find a foothold during his wanderings in our tottering world, one who can never relinquish his faith that the value of life depends on its dignity, not on its success, and that the truth must triumph at last, simply because it demands everything except – triumphs. That is the way of thinking in which Saul Bellow’s “anti-heroes” have their foundation and acquire their lasting stature.

Bellow is a real favorite of mine. Henderson the Rain King didn't do anything for me, but I think Hertzog and Humbolt's Gift are wonderful.

Here is a list of Bellow's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read it, it is on my TBR shelf, or if it is available from my library as an audiobook. 

There is Simply Too Much to Think About (2015) (essays and criticism) FINISHED

Saul Bellow: Letters, edited by Benjamin Taylor, (2010) (correspondence)

Collected Stories (2001) (short stories)

Ravelstein (2000) FINISHED

The Actual (1997) (novella) TBR SHELF

It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future (1994) (essays) TBR SHELF

Something to Remember Me By: Three Tales (1991) (short stories) TBR SHELF

The Bellarosa Connection (1989)

A Theft (1989) (novella) TBR SHELF

More Die of Heartbreak (1987) TBR SHELF/AUDIOBOOK

Him with His Foot in His Mouth (1984) (short stories)

The Dean's December (1982) FINISHED

To Jerusalem and Back (1976) (memoir) TBR SHELF

Humboldt's Gift (1975) (Pulitzer winner; reviewed here) FINISHED

Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) (National winner; reviewed here) FINISHED
 
Mosby's Memoirs (1968) (short stories)

The Last Analysis (1965) (play)

Herzog (1964) (National winner) FINISHED

Henderson the Rain King (1959) FINISHED

Seize the Day (1956) FINISHED

The Adventures of Augie March (1953) (National winner; reviewed here) FINISHED

The Victim (1947) FINISHED

Dangling Man (1944) FINISHED

NOTES

This is a redo of a list I first posted back in 2010.

I also have a biography of Bellow on my TBR shelf by Ruth Miller called Saul Bellow: A Biography of the Imagination. I have a lot of biographies of my favorite authors on my TBR shelves. I sledom read authors' biographies, thinking I want to read all, or more of their books before I read their biographies. This is silly. 

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What are you reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) with us here on Book Beginnings on Fridays. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy or you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"Sent down for indecent behavior, eh?" said Paul Pennyfeather's guardian.

-- From Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. This is Waugh's first novel, published in 1928, well before Brideshead Revisited. It is a satire of boarding school life in Britain between the wars. I just started it and it is very funny, more farce than satire so far, almost slapstick. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another weekly teaser event is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice where you can find details and add a link to your post. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book you are featuring. You can also find a teaser from 56% of the way through your ebook or audiobook.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Decline and Fall:

"Oh, sir," came a chorus of reproach, "you've hurt his feelings. He's very sensitive; it's his Welsh blood, you know: it makes people very emotional." 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Sent down from Oxford after a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly surprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at a boys' private school in Wales. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze. As the farce unfolds in Evelyn Waugh's dazzling debut as a novelist, the young run riot and no one is safe, least of all Paul.

Lorrie's Deal by Buck Sawyer -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

How are you doing this second week of January? I'm still wildly swinging between new year energy and a lingering post-holiday slump. I feel like a vitality/lethargy yo-yo!

But I am back again to share from a book I want to highlight this week on Book Beginnings. Please share the first sentence (or so) from the book you are reading -- or just a book that caught your fancy. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

If you wrong the Mob, if you help the Feds take down a crime family, you become dead or go Gone. Thirty-nine years ago, I'd picked Gone.

-- Lorrie's Deal by Buck Sawyer. This new novel is about a mid-level gangster who narced on his boss and got witness protection in New Mexico. Decades later, he retired to Florida. That sounds like the set up for an Elmore Leonard book, so I hope this is as lively and fun. 

A lawyer buddy of mine in Boise sent me this book, which his friend wrote. I've worked with this lawyer for years, most intensely when we litigated 30 sex abuse claims against the Boy Scouts and the Mormon Church. Those cases took ten years to finish, so I spent a lot of time in Boise with my buddy Andy Chasan. 

The author of this book, Buck Sawyer, lists Andy as one of his "test readers" with a sample of Andy's commentary: "Tears? That's a cheap out. Fine, don't listen to me but that's dumb." That makes me laugh because it sounds just like Andy. That's exactly how he talked to our clients. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Lorrie's Deal:

“The Bureau has honored your wish for us to handle your relocation—”

“That wasn't a wish, that was a demand.”

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lorenzo Mancuso is a guy with secrets. As a kid, his broken family spilled him onto the streets of Philadelphia. His childhood buddy brought him into the home of the family that ran the Family—the biggest crime Family in that city. He grew up and muscled for them on the streets, but, with his head for numbers, he ended up helping to run the business. Lorrie achieved his dream of being important, trusted and valued. Right up until he wasn’t. Lorrie worked for the Family but wasn’t actual family— and having the Family’s secrets marked him for death. Lorrie made a quick, strategic choice and stayed alive by taking his secrets to the FBI. The Mafia bosses went to prison, Lorrie got a one-way ticket to New Mexico and a new identity. The FBI kept him safe, hidden there for thirty years. Then, without their permission, he moved to an upscale retirement home in Florida. What’s a guy like Lorrie—with time on his hands and crime on his resume—do to keep himself entertained? What secret brought him to Florida? What happens when, for the very first time, other people become more important to him than himself?

Books for Christmas, Finally! MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Yes, the picture above is the stack of books I got for Christmas. I meant to do a Mailbox Monday post earlier, but I didn't get around to it until now. Holidays, work, and a sick cat intervened. Now the holidays are behind us, work is quiet this month, and Ella Cat is feeling a little better, so I have some time to catch up on the blog. 

• War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy in a fancy Easton Press edition. I asked for this one so I would be well kitted out for the W&P readalong I'm doing on Bookstagram that started New Year’s Day.

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. This is the one new book I’ve had my eye on so I am very excited about getting a copy.

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky because Santa figured as long as he was dipping from that Easton Press well, it was easy enough to dip in twice. 

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham in a fancy Folio Society edition. I got one of these for my law partner for her baby gift and might have mentioned to Santa how much I would like one for myself. 

• Churchill in Punch, edited by Gary L. Stiles, was a complete surprise and is super cool. It is a compilation of all of the more than 600 cartoons of Winston Churchill in Punch magazine from 1899 to 1988, with captions, attribution, and contextual commentary.

Do any of these catch your fancy?  What good books did you get or give for gifts this year? 

Other books have drifted into my house in the last few weeks. I haven't even processed them, but when I do, I will do another Mailbox Monday post. 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

My Top Ten Books of 2022 -- BOOK LIST

 

MY TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022

I don’t usually choose my Top 10 reads of the year. That feels like asking me to chose my favorite cat. Or favorite grandchild. (Well, actually, I could do that. But don’t tell anyone!)

But I thought I'd try something new this year and give a go at making a list of my ten favorite books of the past year. I did not have all ten handy, having read a few with my ears and loaned a couple out. So instead, here you have a picture of my newly tidied up reading corner, now that I put away the Christmas decorations.

Here’s the list of my favorite ten books I read in 2022, in the order I read them. I don't think I could put them in order of preference -- that would be asking too much! See any of your own favorites here?

• Katherine by Anya Seton, a classic of historical fiction. It was the first (full) book I read in 2022 and it stuck with me. 

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, which I gave a couple people for gifts because I loved it so much. It is a charming novel about grown up siblings dealing with the fallout of the ne'er-do-well brother blowing their inheritance. 

• The Word is Murder, the first in Anthony Horowitz’s Hawthorne Investigates series. I quickly gobbled up the other two and have the new, fourth book on hold at the library. 

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci, which I listened to twice because he reads the audiobook himself and it is fantastic.

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth was very clever and made me think.

• Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler was a reread for me but so good it sparked a Chandler binge.

• The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger was a surprise I found hidden on my TBR shelf, a gift from a bookstagram buddy.

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater was my first Slater book and now I’m hooked!

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith was excellent, simply excellent. I can't believe it took me so long to get to this clever, intricately-plotted story. 

• Call it Sleep by Henry Roth is a forgotten classic I put off reading because I thought it would be boring. On the contrary! It is so, so good and will become a book I proselytize for.

The complete list of the 111 books I read in 2022 is here. You can find links to the my annual book lists under the tab at the top of the page called Reading by Year. 

What were your favorite books of 2022?

Kate Atkinson Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

KATE ATKINSON

I came to love Kate Atkinson (b. 1951) because of her Jackson Brodie mystery series, which I gobbled up and hope she continues writing. But I enjoy all of her books. She is a wide-ranging and talented English author, who has won many awards and honors for her work. For instance, she was awarded an MBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. I look forward to reading all of her books and rereading the Brodie books.

Here is a list of Kate Atkinson's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read the book, it is on my TBR shelf, or it is available as an audiobook from my library.

Are you a Kate Atkinson fan? What are your favorites?

2022 Shrines of Gaiety AUDIOBOOK

2019 Big Sky (Jackson Brodie) FINISHED

2018 Transcription TBR SHELF

2015 A God in Ruins (Todd Family) FINISHED

2013 Life After Life (Todd Family) FINISHED

2010 Started Early, Took My Dog (Brodie) (reviewed here) FINISHED

2008 When Will There Be Good News? (Brodie) FINISHED

2006 One Good Turn (Brodie) FINISHED

2004 Case Histories (Brodie) FINISHED

2002 Not the End of the World (short stories) TBR SHELF

2000 Emotionally Weird TBR SHELF

2000 Abandonment (play) TBR SHELF

1997 Human Croquet TBR SHELF

1995 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Costa Book of the Year Award) (reviewed here) FINISHED

NOTES

I hope to read Transcription this year (2023). It sounds like a terrific yarn about a former WWII espionage agent whose wartime spy work is coming back to haunt her in the Cold War years. 

The first Kate Atkinson book I read was Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which I read because I'm working my way through the winners of the Costa Book of the Year Award. But after that, I dove into the Jackson Brodie books, have tried to keep up with her new releases, and have never gone back to her earlier books. They all look very good, so I want to make an effort. Of course, I say that about so many of the authors whose books are languishing on my TBR shelves! 

Parliament of Whores by P. J. O'Rourke -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Every election cycle, I have the urge to reread P.J. O'Rourke's masterpiece of political satire, Parliament of Whores. Watching the news this week is no different! We lost a funny man, and equal-opportunity satirist, when O'Rourke died last year. R.I.P.

Thank you for joining me here for the first Book Beginnings on Fridays of 2023. Happy new year! Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book you feel like highlighting. 

Do you have any reading plans or goals for the new year? If you feel like clearing some space on your TBR shelves, join me in the TBR 23 in '23 challenge! The idea is to read 23 books off your TBR shelves. You can choose the books ahead of time or as you go, or mix it up. Click here for the main challenge page to find more details or to sign up. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

What is this oozing behemoth, this fibrous tumor, this monster of power and expense hatched from the simple human desire for civic order?

-- from Chapter 1, "The Mystery of Government," in Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P. J. O'Rourke. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below and use the #bookbeginnings hashtag if you share on social media. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Parliament of Whores:

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.

That quote isn't actually on page 56, at least not in my copy. But it's the most famous quote from the book, so I had to share it. 

Kingsley Amis Bibliography -- BOOK LIST

KINGLSEY AMIS

Kingsley Amis (1922 - 1995) was an English novelist, poet, and critic, known off the page for his hard drinking and philandering. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social and literary criticism. His son is the author Martin Amis. 

Amis is a favorite of mine because his novel, Lucky Jim, taught me (and thousands of others) that literature can be funny. Because of Amis, I learned to read "good books" for pleasure, not just because I should. He was fortunate to live in a time when the publishing industry tolerated popular authors writing anything they wanted, as long as they turned out a new book on a regular basis. Along with the comic novels of which he was the master, he turned his hand to mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, alternate history, poetry, biography, and essays.

Here is a list of Kingsley Amis's books, from most recent to oldest, with notes about whether I've read the book or it is on my TBR shelf. Some I can't find links to because they are so out of print. You can bet I'd like to get my hands on those! 

• 2001 The Letters of Kingsley Amis, Edited by Zachary Leader TBR SHELF

• 1997 The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage FINISHED

• 1995 The Biographer's Moustache FINISHED

• 1994 You Can't Do Both TBR SHELF

• 1992 The Russian Girl TBR SHELF

• 1991 We Are All Guilty TBR SHELF

• 1991 Mr. Barrett's Secret and Other Stories

• 1991 Memoirs TBR SHELF

• 1990 The Amis Collection TBR SHELF

• 1990 The Folks That Live on the Hill FINISHED

• 1988 Difficulties With Girls FINISHED

• 1986 The Great British Songbook (songs; with James Cochrane)

• 1986 The Old Devils FINISHED

• 1984 Stanley and the Women TBR SHELF

• 1984 How's Your Glass? (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1983 Every Day Drinking (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1980 Dear Illusion: Collected Short Stories TBR SHELF

• 1980 Russian Hide-and-Seek TBR SHELF

• 1979 An Arts Policy (essay)

• 1979 Collected Poems 1944-78 FINISHED

• 1978 Jake's Thing FINISHED

• 1977 Harold's Years: Impressions of the Harold Wilson Era (nonfiction)

• 1976 The Alteration FINISHED

• 1975 The Crime of the Century FINISHED

• 1974 Rudyard Kipling and his World TBR SHELF

• 1974 Ending Up TBR SHELF

• 1973 The Riverside Villas Murders TBR SHELF

• 1972 On Drink (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1971 Girl, 20 FINISHED

• 1970 What Became of Jane Austen? and Other Questions

• 1969 The Green Man FINISHED 

• 1968 Lucky Jim's Politics (essay)

• 1968 A Look Round the Estate: Poems, 1957-1967 FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1968 I Want It Now TBR SHELF

• 1968 Colonel Sun: A James Bond Adventure (as Robert Markham)

• 1966 The Anti-Death League (Burgess favorite) FINISHED 

• 1965 The Book of Bond, or Every Man His Own 007 (as Lt. Col. William "Bill" Tanner)

• 1965 The James Bond Dossier

• 1965 The Egyptologists (with Robert Conquest) FINISHED 

• 1963 One Fat Englishman (reviewed here) FINISHED

• 1962 The Evans County (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1962 My Enemy's Enemy (short stories) TBR SHELF

• 1960 New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction

• 1960 Take A Girl Like You TBR SHELF

• 1958 I Like it Here TBR SHELF

• 1957 Socialism and the Intellectuals (a Fabian Society pamphlet)

• 1956 A Case of Samples: Poems 1946-1956 FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1955 That Uncertain Feeling TBR SHELF

• 1954 Lucky Jim FINISHED (twice)

• 1954 Fantasy Portraits (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1953 A Frame of Mind (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

• 1947 Bright November (poems) FINISHED (in omnibus)

The TBR 22 in '22 Challenge -- My Wrap Up Post

 

TBR 22 IN '22 CHALLENGE

My Wrap Up Post

COMPLETED

Sign up for the TBR 23 in '23 Challenge here!

The TBR 22 in '22 Challenge was simple -- read 22 books off your TBR shelf in 2022. You could pick them ahead of time, like I did, pick them as you went, or any combination you like. Or pick ahead of time and then switch! The only "rule" is that the 22 books had to be books you owned before January 1, 2022.

Here is the list of the 22 book I read for the challenge, in alphabetical order by author, not the order in which I read them:

• These Ruins are Inhabited by Margaret Beadle, a memoir by an American living in England in the 1950s

• Dangling Man by Saul Bellow, on my Classics Club list

• Atlantic High by William F. Buckley, Jr., the second of his four sailing memoirs. I read the first one last year and planned to read them all but didn't get to them. 2022 will be the year I finally do. 

• Racing through Paradise by William F. Buckley, Jr., the third of the four

• Windfall by William F. Buckley, Jr., the last one

• The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakow, on my Classics Club list

• The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble, on my Classics Club list

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award

• Rat Race by Dick Francis, on my Classics Club list

• Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon

• French Women Don't get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

• The Wall by John Hersey, on my Classics Club list

• The Bostonians by Henry James, on my Classics Club list

• A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin

• When She was Good by Philip Roth, on my Classics Club list

• Zuckerman Unbound by Philip RothThe Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth

• The Masters by C. P. Snow is the fourth book in his Strangers and Brothers series, which I started years ago and want to finish. This one is on my Classics Club list because it won the James Tait Black Prize in 1954.

• If Morning Ever Comes by Anne Tyler, on my Classics Club list

• God Save the Mark by Donald Westlake, which won the Edgar Award and is on my Classics Club list

• Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson, a campus novel on my Classics Club list

 

Book List: Books Read in 2021

 

BOOKS READ IN 2021

Every January, I try to remember to post a list of the books I read the prior year. Somehow, I completely forgot to post my list of 2021 books. I was really busy at work in early 2022, getting ready for a big trial that started in March. A lot of non-work stuff fell out of my brain. I didn't realize that my 2021 list was missing until I went to post my 2022 list. Oh well. Life happens. 

Here now, a year late, is the lit of the 134 books I read in 2021, in the order I read them. I usually read 100 - 110 books a year and have no idea how I read so many in 2021. You can find an explanation of my rating system below the list. 

• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Red and the Black by Stendhal 🌹🌹🌹

• Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctrow 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Not Now, But Now by M. F. K. Fisher 🌹🌹🌹

• Ship of Fools by Katherine Ann Porter 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed (reviewed here)🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall 🌹🌹

• On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist by Clarissa Ward 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder in the Bastille by Cara Black 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Reflex by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries by Estelle Ellis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir by Erica Jong 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Shugie Bain by Stuart Douglas 🌹🌹🌹

• Whip Hand by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Lighthouse by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Anglophile's Notebook by Sunday Taylor 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Midnight Line by Lee Child 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Library Book by Susan Orlean 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Charlotte Moss: A Visual Life: Scrapbooks, Collages, and Inspirations by Charlotte Moss 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Missing Joseph by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Old Filth by Jane Gardam 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• On The Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed the World by P. J. O'Rourke 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters 🌹🌹🌹

• Mystery Man by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Dead Cert by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 60 (Winter 2018) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Last Friends by Jane Gardam 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Obasan by Joy Kogawa 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Wisdom of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Florence King Reader by Florence King 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• How They Decorated: Inspiration from Great Women of the Twentieth Century by Gaye P. Tapp 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Faithful Place by Tana French 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Consequences by Penelope Lively 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Day of the Jack Russell by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Orchids & Salami: A Gay and Impudent Memoir by Eva Gabor 🌹🌹🌹

• The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Jeeves in the Offing by P. G. Woodhouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Dead Bell by Reid Winslow (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Private Patient by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mark Hampton: An American Decorator by Duane Hampton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹

• Skios by Michael Frayn 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by Maarten J. Troost 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them, edited by Roxanne J. Coady 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Conservative Sensibility by George F. Will 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Eat Cake for Breakfast: And 99 Other Small Acts of Happiness by Viola Stanto 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Place in the World by Amy Maroney 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Twice Shy by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Little Book of Japanese Contentments: Ikigai, Forest Bathing, Wabi-sabi, and More by Erin Niimi Longhurst 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bruno: Chief of Police by Martin Walker 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater by Alan Richman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• What French Women Know: About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Ollivier 🌹🌹🌹

• Mysteries of Pittsburg by Michael Chabon 🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 69 (Spring 2021) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Shape of the Journey: New & Collected Poems by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Wry Martinis by Christopher Buckley 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Labyrinth by Kate Mosse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend 🌹🌹🌹

• The Darlings by Cristina Alger 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Choir by Joanna Trollope 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Uncommon Clay by Margaret Maron 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• An Alphabet for Gourmets by M. F. K. Fisher 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹

• Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Changed Man by Francine Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Split Images by Leonard Elmore 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• May We be Forgiven by A. M. Holmes 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• BUtterfield 8 by John O'Hara 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Building Beauty: The Alchemy of Design by Michael S. Smith 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Incredulity of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Funerals are Fatal (aka After the Funeral) by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 71 (Autumn 2021) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• French Lessons by Ellen Sussman 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Rizzio: A Novella by Denise Mina 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• House Made of Dawn by Scott N. Momaday 🌹🌹🌹

• Peril at End House by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Past Tense by Lee Child 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act by Alex Prud'homme 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• March Violets by Philip Kerr 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Dr. Yes by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Plum Sauce: A Wodehouse Companion by Richard Usborne 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• LaBrava by Elmore Leonard 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Gertie: The Fabulous Life of Gertrude Sanford Legendre, Heiress, Explorer, Socialite, Spy by Kathryn Smith 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Scandal of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Maison: French Country Style by Elizabeth Hilliard 🌹🌹🌹

• Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? by Marion Meade 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

In 2020, I switched to using roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My rating system is idiosyncratic and ever-changing. It is a mix of how a book subjectively appeals to me when I read it, its technical merits, and whether I would recommend it to other people. For example, I might rate a book highly if it's a social comedy set in a British country house because that kind of story checks all my boxes. On the other hand, I will probably rate a book on the low end if it lacks any humor, takes itself too seriously, or intolerantly espouses a point of view I disagree with ("intolerantly" is key in that sentence). 

With those general guidelines in mind:

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Five roses for books I loved, or would recommend to anyone, or I think are worthy of classic "must read" status." Examples would be Lucky Jim (personal favorite), A Gentleman in Moscow (universal recommendation), and Great Expectations (must read).

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Four roses for books I really enjoyed and/or would recommend to people who enjoy that type of book. So I give a lot of four roses because I might really like a book, but it isn't an all-time favorite. And while I'd recommend it to someone who likes that genre -- mystery, historical fiction, food writing, whatever -- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who asked me for a "good book."

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe was glad I read but wouldn't recommend. This is where my subjectivity really shows because I will often give a book three roses simply because it isn't a genre I like. I will read sci-fi books, for example, because they are on some Must read list I'm working on, then not enjoy them because I don't like sci-fi. So when I give a sci-fi book three roses, take it with a big grain of salt.  

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. I like most of the book I read because I chose to read them and I read what I like. But I occasionally pick a clunker. And I often dislike the book my Book Club picks. 😉

🌹 One rose if I really didn't like it. I don't know if I've ever rated a book this low. The Magus might be my only example and I read it before I started keeping my lists.

I use half roses if a book falls between categories. I can't explain what that half rose might mean, it's just a feeling.

Here is a link to the star rating system I used for years. I include it because the stars I used in years past meant something different than these roses, so if you look at my lists from past years, the ratings won't mean quite the same thing.

Book List: Books Read in 2022

BOOKS READ IN 2022

Every January, when I remember, I post a list here on the blog of the books I read the prior year. I keep track of the books I read on LibraryThing. 

Here's the list of the 111 books I read in 2022, in the order I read them.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

• Murder at the Castle by M. B. Shaw (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Katherine by Anya Seton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano 🌹🌹🌹

• The Bostonians by Henry James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lolly Willowes: Or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder at the Mill by M. B. Shaw 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Atlantic High: A Celebration by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Dangling Man by Saul Bellow 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Island of Gold by Amy Maroney 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 🌹🌹🌹

• The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris (reviewed here)🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Hope of Heaven by John O'Hara 🌹🌹🌹

• The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The House in Good Taste by Elsie De Wolfe 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Champagne Widows: First Woman of Champagne, Veuve Clicquot by Rebecca Rosenberg (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• If Morning Ever Comes by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹

• The Falls by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol 72 (Winter 2021) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Family Business by S. J. Rozan (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• These Ruins are Inhabited by Muriel Beadle 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Essentially French: Homes With Classic French Style by Josephine Ryan 🌹🌹🌹

• Little Big Man by Thomas Berger 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble 🌹🌹🌹

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Rat Race by Dick Francis 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• When She was Good by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Hell of a Book by Jason Mott 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Trio by William Boyd 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lucky by Marissa Staples 🌹🌹🌹

• The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Galileo's Daughter - A Historical Memoir Of Science, Faith, And Love by Dava Sobel 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Love is Blind by William Boyd 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Only in Naples: Lessons in Food and Famiglia from My Italian Mother-in-Law by Katherine Wilson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Racing Through Paradise: A Pacific Passage by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Holy Orders by Benjamin Black 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Blue Moon by Lee Child 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Long Way Home by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Broken Harbor by Tana French 🌹🌹🌹

• The Counterlife by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Annotated Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham 🌹🌹🌹🌹 (5 for the book, 3 for the annotations) 

• Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mr. Majestyk by Elmore Leonard 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Masters by C. P. Snow 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 73 (Spring 2022) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Reservoir by David Duchovny (reviewed here) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Woke Racism: How a New Religion has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 74 (Summer 2022) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 🌹🌹

• Windfall: The End of the Affair by William F. Buckley, Jr.  🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Beautiful Cassandra by Jane Austen 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder at Hazelmoor (aka The Sittaford Mystery) by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• God Save the Mark by Donald E. Westlake 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor 🌹🌹🌹

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Under Dog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City by David Lebovitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Literary Life by Larry McMurtry 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• What to Read and Why by Francine Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The High Window by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Black Cat by Martha Grimes 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Airframe by Michael Chrichton 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Death in a Tenured Position by Amanda Cross 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died by Séamas O'Reilly  🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Mistletoe Murder: And Other Stories by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Call it Sleep by Henry Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Intrusion of Jimmy by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Lists of Note: An Eclectic Collection Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

I switched to using roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My rating system is my own and evolving. Whatever five stars might mean on amazon, goodreads, or Netflix, a five-rose rating probably doesn't mean that here. My system is a mix of how a book subjectively appeals to me, its technical merits, and whether I would recommend it to other people.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Five roses for books I loved, or would recommend to anyone, or I think are worthy of classic "must read" status." Examples would be Lucky Jim (personal favorite), A Gentleman in Moscow (universal recommendation), and Great Expectations (must read).

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Four roses for books I really enjoyed and/or would recommend to people who enjoy that type of book. So I give a lot of four roses because I might really like a book, but it didn't knock my socks off. And while I'd recommend it to someone who likes that genre -- mystery, historical fiction, food writing, whatever -- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who asked me for a "good book.".

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe was glad I read but wouldn't recommend.

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. Lessons in Chemistry is an example, which proves how subjective my system is because lots of people loved that book. I found it cartoonish and intolerant. 

🌹 One rose if I really didn't like it. I don't know if I've ever rated a book this low. The Magus might be my only example and I read it before I started keeping my lists.

I use half roses if a book falls between categories. I can't explain what that half rose might mean, it's just a feeling.

Here is a link to the star rating system I used for years. I include it because the stars I used in years past meant something different than these roses, so if you look at my lists from past years, the ratings won't mean quite the same thing.