What It’s About: This is a story about mothers and daughters. Nature and nurture, too, to some extent. If you fell for Chief Inspector Gamache in the first book (Still Life), this is more of that kindly intelligent sleuthing by conversation.
We meet the victim first and she is truly unlikeable. But does she deserve to die? Why did she move to Three Pines in the first place? What is she looking for in that dear town and how awful can she be to EVERYONE?! The murder is clever in its own right and unraveling the possibilities beyond the motive is part of the fun. If fun is what you call it? #sigh
Thoughts: I do not think this is standalone. In fact, I wish more time hadn’t passed between reading this and series #1 – which means that if I want to read #3, I best hurry!
Rating: Four slices of pie. I would have given it three stars because my recollection of the details in the first book escaped me and I don’t like loose threads. The extra slice of pie is gratitude for the lovely bits about lemon meringue pie. Kudos!
When I committed to my first Classics Club 50 at the start of 2015, I made a list of fifty books that seemed interesting to me; either titles were ones I needed extra motivation to read, or I thought maybe I was missing out, and/or a few were just a whim or an idea that the author or the book was impressively classic and I wanted to find out why.
I gave myself permission to substitute books and thus, I finished that Five Year Challenge having read 50+ books that were over 25 years old.
However, there were 13 of that original list I missed.
Four years now into my second commitment to read another 50 Classics and wanting to give myself an update post for motivation and preparation for the next twelve months, I am curious how many “classics” I have read so far. ___________________________________________________________________________
Question 1: Did I read many of my next set of 50 listed on 1/1/2020? Question 2: Did I manage to tackle any of the non-read titles from my original 50?
ANSWERs:
Welp, I didn’t keep a record of any second set of 50 – in fact, I’m not sure I even made a definitive list and/or didn’t keep it static. I think I only made a goodreads tag listing 25-yo books and added to it as time went by.
Q: BUT CARE! Did you read any of those 13?!
A: YES! I read THREE: Cry the Beloved Country, The Three Muskateers, and They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple. (Which was by far my favorite of those.) WHICH leaves the following ten to be considered as options for my next 12 months.
But wait! How many classics did I read in the last 4 years? Perhaps I’ve completed the challenge and didn’t even realize it. YES again. I read 46!! I now only have to read 4 more books published 25 years ago or longer and I’ll have completed Round TWO of the Classics Club 50.
Considering that I’ve committed to two Irving books for various challenges: Cider House Rules to satisfy a book with a neurodiversity #ReadICT, and Hotel New Hampshire, also for #ReadICT, I’m not sure which two off the chart above I want to read… The shortest ones? The ones not written by a white man? The ones I own? (A Confederacy of Dunces or Jude the Obscure)
>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>* Updated a few days later to say that my current read (listen), The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, has QUITE THE SCENE with pie!Sweet potato pie. Dare ya to read it and not think of me. LOL Happy New Year! (this note added on 12/28) <*<*<*<*<*<*<
Total Books read: 100+ (again, I read a few children’s books to make it to this century mark.) This year was actually quite similar to last year.
Pages read: 27,127 ………………………………2022: 27,952 Average pages per book: 268……………………………..274 Average pages per day: 76.4……………………………….77
Hours listened: ~255 compared to 240 last year. Audiobooks count: 26
My TOP 23 in the year 2023:
Top Ten: Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting, Hello Beautiful, Tom Lake, The Rachel Incident, Buried in the Suburbs, The Bandit Queens, LaRose, Lots of Candles Plenty of Cake, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, The Book of Delights
Random Stuff:
31 FIVE SLICES OF PIE
43 FOUR
22 THREE
8 TWO
0 ONE
(These are spookily similar to last year!)
Books read that were over 400 pages: 14 with only 4 of 500 pages or more. Where have my chunksters gone?
Female to Male Ratio: 68 / 34 (~12 of that 26 being US or Brit white dudes…) Total Books by New-to-Me Authors = 77 (compared to 42 last year, but 72 in 2021) Repeat Authors = 22 and some multiple time in 2022 (Wilson, Patchett, Morrison) A few were new and I read a second: McDermott, Kuang Total Books by Authors of Color/LGTBQ+ = 19 (best guess estimate – didn’t do thorough research into backgrounds; assumptions might have been made)
Oldest Book: 1919 – The Haunted Bookshop – fun!
Number of Books Pub’d in 2023: 27 (and 22 pub’d in 2022!, 57% pub’d in the last 3 years.) Books over 25 years old = 12 – These count towards my Classics Club – Round 2 which is due this time next year.
Number of books read on the list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die: 4 All Quiet on the Western Front The Once & Future King (uh,DNF! eek) Beloved – a reread, and Jazz also by Toni Morrison
Hardcovers 29 eBooks 23 Audiobooks 26 Tradeback 26 paperback 1 . . . . . . . . also spookily similar to last 2 years.
Genres Total Adult Fiction Books Read = 34 Total YA Fiction Books Read = 0 Children’s = 9 Total Memoir Books Read = 11 Total Nonfiction Books Read = 23 (22 LAST YEAR) Short Story / Essays = 6 Poetry = 6 Mystery/Thriller = 9 Translated = 2 (Japanese and German) Fantasy = 6 SciFi = 1 Historical Fiction = 2 Cookbooks = 1 – not really a cookbook but was about pie, go figure. Adventure = 0 – what IS this anyway? Maybe the 2 art books I read? Business = 1 Graphical = 0
Number of debuts: 8 (best guess) Best debut: The Bandit Queens by Parini Schrof
Interesting Coincidences – Three books with CAT in the title? I am allergic to cats, as cute and feisty as they are – I don’t own one. I seem to have read quite a few titles featuring animals: goat, dog, cat, lamb, sloth, horse, bird, snake (copperhead)
Books that mentioned pie: 50
And… the Care’s Books & Pie 2023 Pie in Literature Award goes to:
First Honorable Mention: A Gathering of Old Men had a pretty good scene about pie as a way to charm the man you love but doesn’t seem to notice you; but also, that you have your maid/cook bake that pie…
I had Lucy bake me an apple pie, because I knew how much Jack just liked his apple pie. I told Lucy when she came to work that morning if she baked me the best apple pie she ever baked in her life, I would give her half the day off.
Second Honorable Mention: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Set on a cherry farm, so a good bet cherry pie would make a mention.
Emily has made bread and pie and after a day of work, bread and pie are really all we want.
Finally, drum roll please.
And the winner goes to The Guncle for baking pie for a birthday and also the discussion of what KIND of pie to make. I then proceeded to post a recipe on Litsy for Snowman Pie!
“We could get a cake,” “Okay. But your father likes pie.” . . .
“Pie is hot.” . . .
“One of every cold pie we can find and then everybody will have a choice. Satisfied? Thnowman pie. Snowman pie? What‘s that? Grant shrugged. “It just sounded good.”
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Best Pie Quote:
“At Adrian TX, we stop at a little place called the Midpoint Cafe, located at the exact “Geo-Mathematical” midpoint of Route 66, whatever that means. I finally got my appetite back, even though I’m not sure what I can keep down. They do have homemade “Ugly Crust” pies, which intrigue me.”
I completed the What’s in a Name Challenge and also, my town’s library’s 12 Category Challenge #ReadICT. I have added a few classics to my 5-year block of 50 goal but I’ll save that for the Recap Post in a few weeks. (YIKES!! I have to the end of 2024 to get it all done. I better start paying better attention...)
I’m back to blogging, Baby! Woot.
What’s in a Name? √
Read a book from each of the following categories:
I have a *new* system that I go to the host site when I complete a book and LIKE the category post, then I write a review post and return to that post to add my comment with link to the review. I realized yesterday that I hadn’t written a review post for the Chess Piece category, so got that done. √ And now, I write this post.
I do want to say that for the last 2 years, I’ve been saying I’ll read a book on Listening that always seems to meet a challenge somewhere, and I still haven’t read it. Maybe 2024 is the year I was (am) supposed to read it.
I made a lot of pie: Mulberry Hand Pies, Quince Pie, Rhode Island Coffee Milk Pie, a lot of Apple – which is weird for me because I usually don’t like making Apple Pie (#shrug), Peach, Lemon Meringue, and probably more I don’t recall. Oh Pecan! for Thanksgiving. I’ll make Pumpkin for Christmas. I am experimenting with a Cherry Cranberry Pie per my brother’s request, and want to try making Sunny Anderson’ s Grandma Williams’s Squash Pie which has some lemon hints. What pie will you be making for the Holidays?
The #ReadICT Challenge has 12 Categories and I’ve read multiple books for almost all of them. I announced it all on Facebook, but here’s somewhat of a pictorial completionist shot:
Which brings me to the Tournament of Books. I am working through a few of the long list, but will get REALLY frenzied when the short list is announced. Sometime within the next 2 weeks.
Thoughts by Parini Shroff, Ballantine Books 2023, 342 pages
(I read this in June but need to review it for the WiaN Challenge!)
Challenge: What’s in a Name: Chess Piece category
Genre/Theme: Female Friendships
Type/Source:Hardcover / Indie bookstore
What It’s About: from official blurb:
Filled with clever criminals, second chances, and wry and witty women, Parini Shroff’s The Bandit Queens is a razor-sharp debut of humor and heart that readers won’t soon forget.
Thoughts: I loved it. Geeta is a character to root for. Set in India, Geeta’s husband has disappeared but town gossip claims she killed him. When other wives decide it could be advantageous for them to have disappeared-husbands, Geeta becomes sought after for advice and devious deeds.
Rating: I gave it 5 slices of pie. High in comedy and snark, female friendships, and a look into small town India, this was an enjoyable read.
I also attempted to read The Once and Future King for this but ended up DNFing because I had too much going on…
Challenge: Read NONFICTION in the month of NOVEMBER #NonfictionNovember #NonFicNov2023 #NonFicNov
Week THREE: Book Pairings
I have two pairings to suggest: the first, I read both – kind of by accident! and the second, is a pairing recently brought to my attention that looks quite intriguing. Come to think of it, both of these suggestions could bring in the film to make a triptych – or nevermind. ANY book pairing probably has a documentary telling more, do you think?
The FIRST Book Pairing:
The classic All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque was my choice to satisfy the What’s in a Name Challenge 2023 category of a Title with Q or X or Z. But I had accidently requested the Modern Critical Interpretations book from the library instead. Which I read it anyway, of course. I also fell down a rabbit hole reading about Remarque – interesting guy.
The Interpretations was a collection of history and literary scholars discussing why the book was important, its major themes, its reception by the world, etc. VERY good stuff. A few were dry, some quite fascinating.
When I heard that Scorsese was making a film of David Grann’s The Killers of the Flower Moon, I figured it was time to finally read this book club darling. It seems like many people I know had read it. What struck me the most and shouldn’t be a surprise, especially in light of so much hate, terror and war on our globe right now, but still! Mankind has a scary appetite for greed and violence.
AND THEN, someone posted a comment on Facebook about an author and one of her books, Linda Hogan: “a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories.” (Copied and pasted from the goodreads page) and how sad it is that Grann has all the attention/fame/fortune this story of these crimes against the Osage AND that he likely read this book: (Which, according to the recommendation I saw, is better written.)
Now, I haven’t read this yet; I do think more people should know of her work and give it a try, maybe a terrific way to celebrate during Native American Heritage Month (November). I’m ordering my own copy — and will be stopping by our Mid-America Indian Center to check if they have it on their giftstore book shelf.
Image links to BookShop.org
What has been YOUR favorite FICTION read this year so far that has inspired you to look for a NONFICTION book for further study? Do you enjoy book pairings? I do.
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Click on this image to find the Official blog for this third week’s festivities:
Challenge: Read NONFICTION in the month of NOVEMBER #NonfictionNovember #NonFicNov2023 #NonFicNov
Week ONE: What NONFICTION have you read so far this year?
Type/Source:Doesn’t matter where you get it or in what format you enjoy
I’ve read 18-19 so far, depending on whether or not you count the 1-2 hour Audible Musician “Words + Music” nuggets as “books” which goodreads only does sometimes.
This image is missing the Pete Townsend and the Alice Cooper. I have a thing for musicians, I guess. Also, I have no good time record of when I listened to some of those, so . . . In other words: “whatever”.
Interesting mix, doncha think? I do love nonfiction.
Which brings us to the prompt for Week 2:
Week Two: Choosing Nonfiction?
I have no idea what motivates me to pick up what when. Most can be attributed to spur of the moment and availability. The Dern and Ladd book was super quick: I saw them being interviewed on the Today Show and was already planning on visiting a bookstore that day so I bought it. The Many Lives of Mama Love? I have no idea how that hit my radar but I had requested the eBook from Libby and when it was ready to borrow, I read it. SO GOOD. The Roz Chast Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? was a gift from the Library kicking off the “Wichita (KS) Reads” program to spark community discussion and resource exploration on death care. VERY GOOD. Killers of Flower Moon because the movie… Walking With Sam was for an author event.
What has been YOUR favorite NONFICTION read this year so far? Mine is this one:
Because I just finished it and I can’t pick a favorite. Recency Bias for the win!
Maggie O’Farrell is a HOT author right now, coming off the success of Hamnet and her latest doing quite well, too. Someone recommended this and it was available. Had just finished an eBook so was ready for another.
In this memoir from 2017, she discusses all the near-misses and brushes with death she has experienced in her life and ends with a chapter on how parenthood challenges skew all of that perspective considerably. Fascinating and written SO WELL; I just might have to add her to my authors-to-read-EVERYTHING-written list. (IS there a good way to title this list? I never know quite how to phrase it…)
Thoughts by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, Grand Central Publishing 2023, 256 pages
Challenge: What’s in a Name: Punctuation category
Genre/Theme: Nonfiction / Mothers & Daughters, Life Stories, Overcoming
Type/Source:Hardcover / Indie bookstore
What It’s About: Diane Ladd was diagnosed with a health challenge and one innovative, daring doctor prescribed walking as a remedy for her limited-capacity lung functionality. Laura took it on as a mission to get her mother walking by telling stories — a big ask because walking and talking when walking hurts is a freaking BIG ask!
They walk til they can’t and they talk. They ask the big questions. They celebrate their history and they celebrate their love.
Thoughts: I loved it. I have a soft gooey spongey spot in my heart for these two because of one of the WEIRDEST movies ever and truthfully, a movie that didn’t show well the 2nd or 3rd time I watched it (ah, youth) but … what can I say? Certain culture touch-points are tagged in memory for a place and time and the movie they made together, Wild at Heart, as batshit-crazy a movie you may never watch, is one of those for my mid-20s. (How’s THAT for an endorsement – hey! I warned you, it’s nutty!!!)
I was watching the Today Show when these ladies were interviewed about this book and I immediately ordered it. Artists, they are. This book has love and just good stuff. Or, at least that is what I remember – I read this back in April/May and just now reviewing it as my entry for Punctuation.
Rating: I gave it 4 slices of pie. I probably wanted more. I don’t recall any flaws – it is perfect for what it wants to be. Photos, a bit of gossip, evolving and changing love between a mom & dot, history, overcoming challenges by actively moving bodies to cure and help a situation, all good stuff.
… “You (Diane Ladd) love to go on cleansing fasts and then break them with a piece of pecan pie and a scotch and soda.”.
Thoughts by Lucy Cooke, Margaret K. McElderry Books 2013, 144 pages
Challenge: What’s in a Name: Seven Deadly Sins category
Genre/Theme: Nonfiction / Animals
Type/Source:Hardcover / Library
What It’s About: Lots and lots of photos of adorable sloths. Some cutesy descriptions of adorable sloths, and a few interesting facts about sloths.
Thoughts: Yes, yes, just another book to fit the What’s in a Name Challenge. This time for category of 7 Deadly Sins. I still have another book I hope to get to yet this year that will meet the challenge; we’ll see.
Thoughts by Vanessa Whiteside, Reedy Press 2022, 144 pages
Challenge: What’s in a Name: You or Me category
Genre/Theme: Nonfiction, Travel
Type/Source: Tradeback / (I don’t remember if I got this at the Indie bookstore? probably)
What It’s About: I grew up in Wichita and am back after alllllll those years after college; most of that time enjoying the East Coast. Now I need to re-acquaint myself with my new old home town.
The bad news first: the pie shop is already gone. Or moved farther away and became more of a general dessert shop. I am sad. I did manage to visit before they embarked on that change (and I visited after but wasn’t impressed by their offerings.)
Good news is that Husband and I have visited quite a few of the other food delights and tourist attractions and other sundry odd & ends of places with a few more yet to do. So I’m glad I purchased this book to have it handy for guests and overall angst of “WE NEED TO GET OUT MORE” feelings that I often have when succumbing to hiding at home reading a book. (Not that there is anything wrong with that… ahem.)
Wichita, KS named 4th best US city for summer travel!
Wallet Hub 2023
Thoughts: To be honest, I bought this and read it cover to cover to count for the What’s in a Name Challenge category of YOU in the title! Yay me! LOL
Rating: Five slices of pie because WHY NOT? Everyone should read books about their home town.
by Louise Penny, 2006, 313 pages
Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.
by Parini Shroff, Ballantine Books 2023, 342 pages
by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, Grand Central Publishing 2023, 256 pages
by Lucy Cooke, Margaret K. McElderry Books 2013, 144 pages
by Vanessa Whiteside, Reedy Press 2022, 144 pages
Care's Books and Pie 