May 2022 Celebration

June 1, 2022Audio, Challenge, Childrens, Graphic Novel, Historical Lit, Library, Life, Lists, Pie, Quotes, What's in a Name 2022hashtag #CaresPieShow, I hate wordpress blocks, LItsy Bingo, monthly stats, on a path to 100 books for the year!, Pecan Pie, pie crust, pie-in-the-sky, Sweet Potato Pie, tracking my books this year, where did I travelCare

and June Plans

Monthly Recap Time!

7 books; 49 for the year
2331 pages, ~23.2 hours | 11478 total pages, 137.5 hours for the year so far

My favorite was … difficult to choose. I’m going with Margaret Atwood’s Burning Questions. Followed by The Candy House, A View of the Harbour, Devil House, All Boys Aren’t Blue, and The Other Einstein. Bonk was least favorite but I still gave it 4 stars.

“I was in the initial or “mud pie“ phase of exploring the possibilities, although I had sent a one-pager to my publishers in February.“
-88% in Burning questions

Locations and travels:

A small harbourside village in England post WW2
All over the world in The Candy House, as in Bonk
New Jersey and Virginia in All Boys Aren’t Blue
Devil House was California
Burning Questions was mostly Canada, but also New England USA, Berlin, and England

Forking up shepherd’s pie with an expression of contempt.
-A View of the Harbour

For challenges, I finished my Wichita KS Library Annual #ReadICT with 12 categories; Devil House completed for an author, John Darnielle, visiting our town. I missed that event, however.

I read both of the Litsy Spin Books and completed one *BINGO*. I’ve readied by 20 books for June’s Book Spin Bingo but have yet to write a blog post here about it. Maybe I can do that now?

Yes! I will be reading I Was Anastasia with Melissa of Avid Reader and am reading Sea of Tranquility with Nancy the BookFool. I’m reading Either/Or now to get ready for TOB Summer Camp and the numbers 5 & 6 above will be discussed during Litsy’s version of Summer Camp.

Pie was mentioned in four of this month’s reads.

I only made pie once this May. I’m eliminating Instagram from my social addiction but will continue to use the #CaresPieShow hashtag at Litsy.

Thank you to Laila of Big Reading Life for doing a buddy read of The View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor. I even posted about it.

What was YOUR favorite book of May?

June 9 is Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. I hope to make a Mulberry Pie sometime later today.

Copyright © 2007-2022. 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.

Burning Questions and The Candy House

May 29, 2022Author Recommendation, Book Picked Me, Book Sharing, NonFiction, Pie, Read in Published Year, Rooster!, Sort of Review, Story Collection#CampTOB, apple pie, book cover links to goodreads, Five Slicers, I love pie, kapwing is my new goto to find book cover color hex codes, linked short stories, mud pie, NonFiction, Pecan Pie, pie crust, pie in the sky, pies sitting on window sills, trying to get back into blogging, Two Reviews in One!, US Memorial Day WeekendCare

Thoughts by Margaret Atwood, Doubleday 2022, 496 pages

Challenge: n/a

Genre/Theme: Essays

Type/Source: Hardcover / Gift from a friend

What It’s About: Wonderful essays on the climate, politics, book reviews and author tributes, bits about poems; reminisces on her childhood, her marriage, and husband, lectures she has given, etc and more.

“However, this does not make The Handmaid’s Tale a “feminist dystopia” except insofar as giving a woman a voice and an inner life will always be considered “feminist” by those who think women ought not to have these things.”

Thoughts: She’s Margaret Atwood!

“She came by her perky Mom voice and her “Howdy Stranger“ tropes honestly. She was a refugee, not to America but from within America: a mom and Apple Pie America, and America of the past that was being rapidly transformed by material inventions, …”

Rating: Five slices of pie.

“My own mother was of the non-interference school unless it was a matter of life and death. ___ She later said that she had to leave the kitchen when I was making my first pie crust, the sight was so painful to her.”
-Polonia (2005)

Thoughts by Jennifer Egan, Scribner 2022, 334 pages

Challenge: TOB Summer Camp

Genre/Theme: Linked Short Stories, 2nd in the Goon Series

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

What It’s About: These stories continue the looks into the lives of characters touched on in The Visit From the Goon Squad. I can’t even pick a favorite. Actually, some seem abrupt or bring up people I would have hoped to explore more or really taxed my brain power! That said, I loved it. It felt SO GOOD to just read and relax and get lost in a story.

“The fact that so many thoughts could have gone through my head in 3.36 seconds is testament to the infinitude of an individual consciousness. There is no end to it, no way to measure it. Consciousness is like the cosmos multiplied by the number of people alive in the world (assuming that consciousness dies when we do, and it may not) because each of our minds is a cosmos of its own: unknowable, even to ourselves.”

Thoughts: I must link in my review of Goon Squad – because I don’t remember it nor was I able to capture its charms exactly – only entertained myself in the attempt. Others have noted that it is a wise plan to keep notes of characters at the start of BOTH these books, something I did not do but recognize it might be valuable advice. Me, I only hope to reread both of these, back to back. Put it on my ‘Retire-to-a-Deserted-{Desserted?!)-Island-Reading-List’.

My kind of story-telling. Five slices of pecan pie.

“… tweezing forkfuls of turkey or pecan pie through a rectangular mouth slot.”
ARthur p.26

A View of the Harbour

May 22, 2022Audio, Author Recommendation, Challenge, Classics, Classics Club, Family, Pie, Sort of Review#BookSpin on Litsy, book cover links to goodreads, Buddy Read, Buddy Read with Laila, definitely captured a slice of time in history, family drama, I do love these ET covers by Virago, I just planted giant elephant ear plants and am calling them "Bertram and Tory" LOL, I love pie, lady novelist!! lady publisher?!, Prudence was an interesting character that I am not so sure of, shepherds pie, tourist town with no touristsCare

Thoughts by Elizabeth Taylor, Virago Modern Classics 2006 (orig 1947), 304 pages

Introduction by Sarah Waters

Challenge: Buddy Read with Laila of Big Reading Life; Set At or By the Sea Category of #ReadICT

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; quiet small British seaside village post-WW2

Type/Source: Tradeback / Purchased at Watermarks Indie bookstore

What It’s About: This story focuses on the inter-relationships of the neighbors living directly on the harbour; from the doctor’s family, the pub workers, the widowed proprietor of a tourist wax museum, the librarian, the vicar, etc. The pivot view to all begins with Bertram, a painter who has moved to the area for the season: to catch the right light off the sea, to capture the perfect seascape, to be “an artist”. He fancies himself a man-of-the-people as he rudely? comically? insinuates himself into the neighborhood. A lot of life happens in this book.

“Always intelligent, often subversive, and never dull, Elizabeth Taylor is the thinking person’s dangerous housewife. Her sophisticated prose combines elegance, ice wit and freshness in a stimulating cocktail – the perfect toast to the quiet horror of domestic life.”
—Valerie martin

Thoughts: I love this author. True, her stories do not have a lot of action exactly, but they have drama! and depth and comedy, beautiful sentences and interesting glimpses into every character – the good and the bad, the endearing, the appalling. Ah, not really! not that much appalling exactly. Well, maybe. (One more reason I love classics – humans have always been dastardly and behaved badly, amiright?)

“I know who to,” Beth said, shocked to find herself ending with a preposition. But she was much thrown out by the surprise of it all.”

Rating: Four slices of pie. LOTS of whipped cream. Shepherd’s Pie mentioned

“Forking up shepherd’s pie with an expression of contempt.”

All Boys Aren’t Blue

May 17, 2022Audio, Author Recommendation, Challenge, Family, NonFiction, Pie, What's in a Name 2022#WiaN2022, "vibrate higher in love", a TV series has been optioned, Audiobook cover links to Audible, Banned Book, beautiful cover, essays, LGBTQ+, May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia Lesbophobia Transphobia, Memoir, R E S P E C T, Sweet Potato Pie, What's In a Name Challenge, WiaN: ColorCare

Thoughts by George M Johnson, Macmillan Audio 2020, 5 hours 12 minutes

Narrated by the author.

Challenge: What’s in a Name: Color category

Genre/Theme: Nonfiction, essays, LGBTQ+

Type/Source: Audiobook / eLibby

What It’s About: This is a collection of essays detailing the author’s growing up in a loving family and also identifying with interests more socially conditioned to be typically girl things – like double-dutch jump rope at recess. They talk about trauma of bullying, wanting and fearing being different, identifying as queer, how much their Nanny provided in love and support, their education from a black perspective, and their sexuality.

The memoir is a firsthand account of trials, tribulations, and triumphs that have made George M. Johnson into the person they are today.
—Coryandre Wright (IMDB link)

Thoughts: I learned a few things! Important work – they’re willing to share and I am willing to know more and do more about how to promote respect for all humanity and be a good human.

This book was requested via my library because school districts near me have banned it. I wanted to know why and I wanted to show community support for books and marginalized people. I believe a couple of things when the topic of books and age appropriateness is discussed; 1) if a kid reads something they don’t understand, they look it up and/or ask a trusted adult to explain more, or 2) they just skip over it because they don’t understand it or it’s just not relevant to them to relate to. They aren’t groomed or seduced or corrupted. If a kid is seeking out this book, they just might need it and it would be best for all to be able to discuss and pour love not judgement onto the situation. Education, education, education. I respect the parents that take the tough questions and build trust rather than promote fear and shame. Love and respect. Stand up to hate. Have the tough conversations.

Rating: Four slices of pie.

The Slow March of Light

May 4, 2022Audio, Challenge, Historical Lit, No Pie Mentioned, What's in a Name 2022#WiaN2022, attempting to be consistent with hashtags is a complete challenge, Based on a true story. Inspired by real events., Berlin, Cold War, What's In a Name Challenge, WiaN:SpeedCare

Thoughts by Heather B Moore, 2021, 10 hours 54 minutes

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill and Christa Lewis

Challenge: What’s in a Name: Speed category

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction, Berlin/Cold War, Based on a true story. Inspired by real events.

Type/Source: Audiobook, Audible

What It’s About: Bob was a senior in college, majoring in economics with dreams of moving on to law school, when he was drafted into the US Army. The year was 1959. After basics in Oklahoma and proving more than competent in shooting, he is sent to a US base in Germany. He is voluntold into the spy game and is eventually captured, enduring 4-5 months in a GDR communist prison camp.

Before impersonating a US economics student studying post-war economics with a German professor who regularly travels into East Germany, he meets a German nurse named Luisa who through circumstance, personal moral courage, and her determination to get her grandmother out of East Berlin, becomes a resistance fighter.

We get his side of the tale and hers. This is a historical post-WW2 story documenting the building of the Berlin Wall. If communism doesn’t scare you, read this.

Thoughts: Despite the note on my gr progress that I found it to started with few emotional hooks and that it felt rather fact-based more than emotional-story, I ended up liking this very much. I cannot but admire the faith and convictions of Bob and also Luisa; I loved their friendship, I was very touched by the ending. A really lovely story that hit hard in a good way and at the right time.

Rating: Five slices of pie.

From April into May 2022

May 2, 2022Audio, Challenge, Childrens, Graphic Novel, Historical Lit, Library, Life, Lists, Pie, Quotes, What's in a Name 2022"Asking no further questions is the song of my people.", apple pie with cheese!, Cream pie, cutie-pie, fanouropita - a kind of pie/cake, hashtag #CaresPieShow, Huckleberry Pie, I hate wordpress blocks, LItsy Bingo, Manage to read both the Litsy Book SPIN and the DOUBLE spin, mince pie, monthly stats, on a path to 100 books for the year!, pie pie pie and more pie, Pie-faced, pumpkin pie, spicy apple pie, Things Are Against Us wins for most pie mentions, three-chicken pie, tracking my books this year, where did I travelCare

Monthly Recap Time! and plans for current merry month of May:

10 books; 42 for the year
2881 pages, ~21.8 hours | 11478 total pages, 114.3 hours for the year so far
- By Type:
  Hardcover – 2
  Tradeback 2
  eBooks 4
  Audiobooks 2

My favorite was … The City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, followed very VERY closely by The Slow March of Light by Heather B Morris. Chouette was the most artsy (and musical) and creative and just wild! If you like unsettling books, I recommend.

“My tiny important job of the day is to crimp pie crusts.”
-Chouette

Locations and travels:

A few of these were based in the US or England and then traveled around the world
Slow March was set in cold war Berlin
The Last Thing He Told Me started and ended in Sausalito CA with much of the action in Austin TX
City of Girls was NYC
Chouette was CA but also forest fantasyland somewhat.

She was a bright, energetic, pie-faced fourteen-year-old, who always dressed in the most outlandish costumes.
-City of Girls

For challenges, I added one more category for the What’s in a Name 2022 “Speed” with the SLOW in the title, The Slow March of Light by Heather B. Moore – and still hope to add a single post review of this soon. It was a scary book with a hopeful “Wow, good humans DO exist” ending that really touched me.

I’m excited to have completed the personal to me challenge of reading Truth & Beauty with The Autobiography of a Face. Interesting story of friendship, of writing, of memoir and who owns the telling.

As a refrain offered in Chouette, “It’s time to tell.” Ellman’s essays would certainly agree with that.

Pie was mentioned in five of this month’s reads: Things Are Against Us had many pie mentions! Which is not at all surprising if you had read Ellman’s prior book Ducks, Newburyport about a pie baker. And of course, the only reason I have a kids book read was because PIE is in the title. Chouette, City of Girls, and The Last Thing He Told Me round out the pie offerings.

I made a bunch of pie in April – for Easter. Go search #CaresPieShow hashtag in IG or Litsy to see a picture. (or my post prior)

Now it is May and I’m doing a buddy read with Laila of Big Reading Life of The View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor. It is going to be GOOD, I just know. Looking forward to it! This was also a SPIN book for Litsy in May – yay me for having more reasons to read it (besides it being a classic for my Club 50.)

What was YOUR favorite book of April?

May 3 is Raspberry Tart Day, May 8 is Coconut Cream Pie Day, May 13 is Apple Pie Day, and May 20 is Quiche Lorraine Day – which is in a pie crust, so I call it pie.

“Just go sit inside and get yourself a piece of pie, okay?”
“I literally couldn’t want a piece of pie less,” she says.
LOL! -The last thing he told me

“… make mock apple pie out of green pumpkins”
Things are against us (many many pies in this!)

Because I am out of practice

April 28, 2022Author Recommendation, Book to Movie, Celebration, Life, RandomCare

Hello Dear Reader WhereEverYouMightBe!

I am out of practice.

And BECAUSE, I am out of practice. (see? My first self-doubt question is to wonder if I need that comma after my all-caps “BECAUSE”. I don’t, do I. Not a question, but now I have to leave it or you wouldn’t have much of a clue what I was talking about. )

Because I am out of practice, I need to just open a blank post and start free-associating.

So this is what I am doing!

First (since the above is epilogue) I will shout out a big WOO HOO to Amy for being a super dooper book friend by text.

We just texted and had a lovely conversation about books and doing-what-makes-you-happy and somehow after that, the convo devolved to Twitter and capitalism.

How do you spell SAY-Lah-VEE. ?

How old were you when you discovered that french words were very much not what they looked like spelled?!

I still recall the day when I found out what “hors d’oeuvres” were/was/WHAT?!

I knew then that I would NEVER learn French.

Ok, where were we? Trying to get the CARE back to putting words into the internet! I miss it! Yet everytime I sit to write a post, I just can’t. I can’t remember the steps, I can’t recall the process, I don’t desire the whateveritwas. The ooomph, motivation and the want to… THERE. but not the mechanics, and the overcoming of the hump of just-doing.

I really can’t quite figure it out.

I loved LOVED City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I have loved her authoringabilities since that book that everyone hated that I can’t at this exact moment recall. WHAT IS THAT?! Peace Love Pie? no…. Love Pray Eat? EAT PRAY LOVE! ok, whew

I thought that was total wonderfulness.

SO I especially, vocally veraciously loudly follow Elizabeth Gilbert because she is T.A.L.E.N.T-ed in the kinds of books I like to read. I don’t know how else to describe them but I’m gathering a list of authors that fit my MUST-READS: Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, Rachel Joyce, Kate Atkinson, Liz Moore, Kate DiCamillo, … oh, I’m SURE there are MORE. (Tell me who I’m missing.)

Just heard that Elizabeth McCracken has a movie rights optioned on her book The Giant’s House which I have yet to read. Might have to put that on my May —- no! June list.

Here is my May list:

OK then myFriends, let’s encourage each other to contribute when we can and validate our thoughts and opinions of beauty and art cuz, GOLLY, it can be a struggle with the evil Putin being evil, and other mind-boggling disregard for humanity.

ok, then. I’m working on finishing 2 more books this month and then writing an April recap. Be kind!

Update March 2022 in Review with Note on #TOB2022

April 1, 2022Audio, Celebration, Challenge, Classics, Classics Club, Coconut Book, Debut Novel, Historical Lit, Library, Life, Lists, Pie, Rooster!, Science Fictiondata overload data overlord, hashtag #CaresPieShow, hoping spring with spring me back into blogging, I hate wordpress blocks, Manage to read both the Litsy Book SPIN and the DOUBLE spin, monthly stats, NonFiction, not-ins-PIE-erd, on a path to 100 books for the year!, Only one Litsy Bingo, pie pie pie and more pie, piroshkis, pyrex pie dish, squash pie, techie things that used to be fun are losing their shimmers, tracking my books this year, where did I travel, why are images blurry anymoreCare

Monthly Recap Time!

10 books; 32 for the year
2759 pages, ~31.5 hours | 8 597 total pages, 92.5 hours for the year so far
- By Type:
  Hardcover – 0
  Tradeback 3
  eBooks 3
  Audiobooks 4

My favorite was … Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore, followed by the delightful Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley, a classic novella from 1917.

Locations and travels:

Odessa TX in the 70s (Valentine)
San Francisco, also in the 70s (We Run the Tides, for #readICT)
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks links to WRtT because both were set in exclusive high schools, this one in Massachusetts (#readICT)
Parnassus on Wheels traveled New England in the early 1900s
London both now and 1700s in The Lost Apothecary (book club)
Puerto Rico and Brooklyn NY in Olga Dies Dreaming
The Stand-In took me to Toronto
Wintering took place in England (WiaN)
The Alchemy of Us covered history across many maps

UPDATE on #TOB2022

My least favorite Klara and the Sun took the Rooster in March’s Tournament of Books
I can confidently state the The Trees captured the hearts for favorite of the Commentariat so that is the book I’m most recommending as “THE BEST”; my personal favorite is The Sentence
I read ALL THE BOOKS! and you can see my rankings in my February recap.
Am inspired to read a new translation of Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley, one of the judges this year. MANY if not most of the judgments were excellent.

Pie was mentioned in four of this month’s reads. A history of PYREX mentions pie, all kinds of pie and multiple paragraphs cover a summer expedition to eat pie across the country, squash pie in Parnassus on Wheels and this from WRtT:

April 3 is Chocolate Mousse Pie Day, April 5 is Empanada Day, April 28 is Blueberry Pie Day! I don’t think I made any pie in March. I just wasn’t feelin’ it.

What was YOUR favorite book of March?

Poetry 2022 Edition 1

March 11, 2022Poetryfinally a poetry project that is working, Poetry 2020 GoalCare

Poetry Goal 2022: to read a poem* every day.

Collection #1 by Elisabeth Barrett Browning, Bard Books Avon Hearst ~1950, 96 pages

XX

Beloved, my Beloved, when I think
That thou wast in the world a year ago,
What time I sate alone here in the snow
And saw no footprint, heard the silence sink
No moment at thy voice, . . but, link by link,
Went counting all my chains, as if that so
They never could fall off at any blow
Struck by thy possible hand . . . why, thus I drink
Of life’s great cup of wonder! Wonderful,
Never to feel thee thrill the day or night
With personal act or speech,—nor ever cull
Some prescience of thee with the blossoms white
Thou sawest growing! Atheists are as dull,
Who cannot guess God’s presence out of sight.

(Annoyed and afraid. Afraid to utilize my Goodreads Librarian status to update this edition and I’m not sure why… I probably should. Please feel free to shoot me a vote of confidence to update the publisher/date/add illustrator/estimate of date published blahblahblah…)

Anyway, I didn’t find many of these sonnets romantic. Mostly confusing or boring. I just don’t have an appreciation for this “story”. What I really want to know is what exactly did EBB suffer from and what exactly did she and her love enjoy once they escaped Papa’s overbearing captivity! Did she thrive in Italy? I am missing some key details and am probably just nosy for juicy gossip. Oooops.

I enjoyed the first few lines of her most famous one, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” but mostly these bits were obscure and non-impressive. Sorry not sorry. Probably makes me a heathen or something.

Still. I’m glad to have read these. No pie, three stars.

Collection #2 by Rachel Long, Tin House 2021, 79 pages

Black Princess! Black Princess!

…
We’re keen to avoid any awkward questions,
should they arise, about how a yogi single mother
could afford to send her daughter to a good school.
But, all verified, she’s through!
Now, we must comb through your hair.
Just joking! We’ve attended training on that issue.
.
.
.

I found many of these poems confounding? if that isn’t too strong a word. But I appreciate the sense that she really owns these poems. I sense a delight, no hesitancy, some attitude and spark.

*Or more. I’m not tracking, I’m just reading. I’m not limiting this experience to one poem a day – that is only the minimum.

Olga Dies Dreaming

March 7, 2022Author Recommendation, Book Picked Me, Book Sharing, Family, Library, No Pie MentionedHurricane Maria, set in Brooklyn, They’ve figured out how to commit genocide without getting their hands dirty, Xochitl pronounced 'so-cheel'Care

Thoughts by Xóchitl González, Flatiron Books 2022, 349 pages

Challenge: Recommended by a friend.

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction, Puerto Rico Independence, American Dream Pursuit

Type/Source: eBook/Libby Library – 14 day loan

Rather than be irritated, she thought, she should focus on the infallible hilarity of the ultra-wealthy to be penny-wise when it came to compensating human sweat, and dollar-foolish when it came to everything else. She shouldn’t be irritated at all, she counseled herself, and instead laugh her way to the bank.

What It’s About: Olga is a high-achieving owner of a wedding planning business to the wealthy of NYC. Her every move is calculated to take advantage of opportunities to make money and gain status. Her brother is a US Representative from and for Brooklyn. Their father is dead from HIV drug-use and their mom is a fugitive revolutionary-mercenary.

New York had a shocking way of spiraling into chaos whenever met with precipitation, as though the entirety of its infrastructure was actually made of sugar and the water triggered dissolution.

Thoughts: I won’t lie, this was hard to get into. The first third had me pushing myself to keep reading and I wouldn’t give myself permission to DNF because a friend recommended it to me. A friend that I greatly admire. Then I began to wonder, ‘What *IS* this? a love story? A whodunnit tale of treachery? (I was worried that the romantic interest was going to be a bad guy — spoiler: he is a good guy.) A family drama child abandonment story? or an incitation to Revolution, on the part of Puerto Rico?

Yes, and I support PR being granted statehood. The status of this island and these citizens is unjust; to be dependent and taxed, without representation.

She was less uncomfortable than she thought she would be, the realization of which made her uncomfortable.

However, all the stories do come together and I admire this as an author’s strong debut, in mostly– for me– what it accomplishes and addresses, a passionate statement in support of Puerto Rico. I learned a lot more about Puerto Rico.

If your rights are less because you’re born in one place, not another, how meaningful are those rights in the first place?

Rating: Four slices of pie.

Care's Books and Pie

"I like my literature with a slice of pie."

May 2022 Celebration

A View of the Harbour

All Boys Aren’t Blue

The Slow March of Light

From April into May 2022

Because I am out of practice

Update March 2022 in Review with Note on #TOB2022

Poetry 2022 Edition 1

Poetry Goal 2022: to read a poem* every day.

XX

Black Princess! Black Princess!