Easley Library Bookworms discussion

Although I appreciate fiction written from a Christian viewpoint, I don't read much "Christian fiction" in the book trade sense, because most of it is formulaic light romance, which isn't my preferred genre. So when the library where I work got a donated copy of Oklahoma-born writer and teacher Cliff Schimmels' novel Rites of Autumn, and I immediately saw that it was an exception to that generalization, it piqued my interest. (I'm also interested in reading more modern general fiction, which I've also neglected.) So, since it's short and I expect to finish it before Jan. 1, I started on it this morning. (It'll also add a state to my Literary Road Trip Across the U.S.A. challenge in another group. :-) )

For January, several members of another group I'm in are going to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's historical novel of the Hundred Years War, The White Company together, and I'm joining in. Since Jan. 1 is tomorrow (and it usually takes me longer than most people to finish a book), I've started it already. I count Doyle as a favorite author, so I'm excited about this one! For me, it will also finish up some "unfinished business" --I started reading it from the school library near the end of my last year of junior high school. But after I graduated, my plans to get another copy and continue the read fell through; as I recall, the public library didn't have it, and in those days I don't think I'd even ever heard of interlibrary loans (and would have been too timid to request one even if I had). So this will tie up a long-neglected "loose end." :-)

Last night, I started reading a self-published Kindle freebie, Gears of a Mad God: A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure by Goodreads author Brent Nichols (which got a good review from one of my Goodreads friends). It kicks off a series of Cthulhu Mythos spin-of novellas (which is available, from Smashwords and Amazon, in a paper-format omnibus volume).

Yesterday, I started on two new (to me) books. I'm taking part this month in a common read of The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively in another group. Also, I started reading The Husband Tree, the second novel in Mary Connealy's Montana Marriages trilogy, to my wife. (Connealy's become a favorite author for both of us!)

This year, I'm hoping to read all of the remaining fiction by one of my favorite authors, H. P. Lovecraft, that I haven't read yet. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is his only book-length writing by that I haven't read so far, so I started on it today. I'm not actually reading this edition; since it's quite short (141 p.), it's not easy to find a printing of it by itself, so I'm reading the 1970 Ballantine printing, edited by Lin Carter, that bundles it with several other fantasy works by HPL.

Since I was looking for a fairly quick read between now and March 1-19, when I'll be mostly offline and not devoting time to reading, I recently started The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. It's been on my radar ever since I saw and liked the movie adaptation years ago; and it will add another state to my Literary Road Trip Across the U.S.A. challenge in another group. More importantly, I'm woefully poorly read in books by black authors, and this will be a small step towards redressing that neglect.

Ever since late last year, I've had a review copy of my friend Andrew Seddon's new SF novel Farhope in hand (I beta read it in 2017 --and would have given it five stars then if it had a Goodreads record!-- but the published version is longer and incorporates some changes, so it needs a fresh read). I've been champing at the bit to get to it, but have just been waiting until I knew I'd have a long enough bloc of reading time to finish it before having to start another book. That time has arrived, so I started reading it yesterday! :-)

Although I've actually read most of the material it contains already, I'm reading all of the previously-unread selections in The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. I discovered HPL relatively late, when I was nearly 40; but he quickly became a favorite writer of mine, so finally finishing reading his entire fictional corpus will be a significant milestone in my reading.

Today, I've started my third read of Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition by Wendell Berry. I've never reviewed the book, but I've wanted to for some time, because I'm very impressed with Berry as a serious thinker. But though I've already read it twice before, years ago, I felt that I need a fresh read to really do it justice. This seemed like a good time to do that, since I wanted a relatively short book that I can finish before starting a buddy read in another group.

Since C. S. Lewis is a favorite author of mine, and since I was wanting another short read to help fill in the time before a May common read in another group, I've started on The Abolition of Man. It's only 115 pages (and they have wide margins and relatively large type), so I might actually finish it today.

In one of my other groups, a common read of The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson starts today, and I'm joining in that. (Some editions use the shortened title Carnacki, the Ghost Finder, but it's the same book.) Since I've long considered this one to be a must-read, I'm excited to have finally started it! (Although, as a long-ago appetizer for the main course, I read one of the stories, "The Whistling Room," in an anthology back when I was a kid.)

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, of course, is a landmark novel of 20th-century American literature. I've long regretted not having read it earlier (back in the 60s and 70s, I'd been put off by the title, mistakenly thinking the plot involved bird-killing!), and had made up my mind that 2020 would be the year in which I finally remedied that. So, I'm glad to say that I started reading it this afternoon!

In another group I belong to, a common read of one of Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries, Death on the Nile, is to start on June 1. I'm a slow reader (or rather, I read quickly enough as such, but have limited time for it each day, so it takes me more time than most to finish a book) and may not get a chance to read on Monday, since we're expecting company. So, since I was ready to start a new book anyway, I went ahead and began my read of this today.

I finished Death on the Nile late this afternoon (review will hopefully follow this weekend!), so naturally needed another read to take its place. But sometime in the next few days, I'm expecting a review book in the mail, which I want to prioritize; so I don't want to get tied up in another novel or nonfiction monograph. These are the kinds of times when I often resort to a story collection, in which some items can be read but the rest put by for later on short notice. This time, my choice is the anthology Favorite Ghost Stories, edited by Aidan Chambers.

Liane Zane (that's a pen name) is a Goodreads friend of mine, and I'm currently reading a review copy of her brand new self-published novel, The Harlequin & The Drangùe. It's a paranormal romance (she's written other books under her real name, but not in that genre), and the opener for a projected series. PNR isn't normally my thing, but I'm expanding my horizons a bit for a friend. :-)

Although I haven't reviewed it yet, yesterday afternoon I read a newly-published short e-story by my Goodreads friend Paula Cappa, Beyond Castle Frankenstein, A Short Story. Like many of her writings, it's a ghost story; I'd beta read it some years ago and really liked it. I really liked it on this second go-around, as well!

Earlier this year, a lady in another group I belong to posted a favorable review of The Vampire Sword by T.L. Cerepaka, the first book in his Vampire Sorceress series. She piqued my interest on several counts; so when I learned that the e-book edition is free for Kindle, I took the opportunity to download it. I started on it last night (and read seven chapters --it flows pretty quickly! :-) ).

My Goodreads friend Steve Haywood and I had been planning on doing a buddy read of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story collections, His Last Bow, so I've finally started on it today. I'm reading it in the print format Summit Classic Press edition, His Last Bow: 8 Stories, a faithful reproduction (edited by human beings, not a computer program!) of the 1917 American edition by Doran. It'll be a quick read on my part, since I've already read most of the stories.

This month, another group I'm in is doing a common read of Beowulf; I'm starting it late, but finally began on it this morning. The edition I'm reading is Beowulf: A New Verse Translation For Fireside And Class Room, a 1927 translation by Univ. of Wisconsin English professor William Ellery Leonard, which preserves the meter of the Anglo-Saxon, Old English original. There are newer translations, including the one by Seamus Heaney which is the most popular on Goodreads; but I thought this one might rest on solider scholarship.

Not wanting to start a new novel or nonfiction monograph in the short time before I join in a common read in another group starting on Aug. 1, I've begun dipping into Great Horror Stories: 101 Chilling Tales. It's a sort of companion volume to Great Ghost Stories: 101 Terrifying Tales, an anthology I finished earlier this year (both are published by Barnes and Noble's Fall River Press imprint, and Stefan Dziemianowicz edited both collections).

Mary Connealy is a writer who's become a favorite for both Barb and I in the past couple of years. We've been reading her Montana Marriages trilogy, set in the 1870s, together for some time; but in reverse order, due to the odd sequence in which the books were obtained (mostly through thrift store purchases). Having started with the third book, we've just finished the second; and now we've started immediately on the first one, Montana Rose. :-)

This month, I'm joining in a common read of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James, in another group. (I was fortunate enough to be able to get a paper copy by interlibrary loan.) So I started on it today. Although I've never actually read any whole collections of his stories before, I've read quite a number of them in other anthologies over the years (starting when I was a kid); of the eight stories here, I've already read four of them, so I expect this to be a pretty quick read.

Though I was born and raised in the Midwest, I've lived in Appalachia continuously for 28 years, and my wife is Appalachian-born and bred. So I have a built-in interest in Appalachian authors like Jesse Stuart (1907-1984). While I've read some of his short stories, up to now I haven't read any of his long fiction, though I've wanted to for a long time. I've finally seized on a window of opportunity to start on his novel Daughter of the Legend, published in 1965 but set in the mountains of eastern Tennessee around 1940.

Although I probably won't be able to work it in this year, I'm really hoping to finally read The Scarlet Pimpernel early next year. Though I'm a history major, and have a certain amount of knowledge of the French Revolution, and an opinion about its significance, based on general reading, I've never read a nonfiction book focused entirely on giving a complete account of the subject; and I think my understanding would benefit from that. So I've started on The French Revolution: A Concise History by Norman Hampson.

I'm taking part in another group's common read this month of Hope Leslie: or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (1827), by Catharine Maria Sedgwick. (Although so far I'm still reading the lengthy Introduction to the Penguin edition.) This novel has been on my radar for quite awhile (I was the one who nominated it for the read).

On my Kindle app, I'm reading Payday: A Short Story, a free e-story by Joe Vasicek. Electronic reading doesn't always fit into my schedule well, so it's sort of a slow read in bits and pieces. :-(

In another group, I'm joining in a September common read of an Agatha Christie mystery story collection, The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories. I know, I'm coming very late to the party (long story!), but it's a short book and I'm expecting it to be quite a quick read. This is a reread for me; but my first read of it was back sometime in the 90s and I hardly recall anything about the stories, so it's essentially like a new read so far.

Some reading buddies in another group I'm in are doing an ongoing read of Agatha Christie's entire Poirot canon. I don't join in all of the reads, but I'm taking part in the one this month, of Sad Cypress. This is a reread for me; but my previous read was as a kid of perhaps 11 or 12, and I don't really recall anything about it except that it was set in England, had Poirot in it, and took its title from a Shakespeare quotation that considered cypress as wood for a coffin. So for me it's essentially like an entirely new read!

I've just started a historical fiction novella by one of my favorite authors, Heather Day Gilbert: The Distant Tide, set in Ireland in 1170. (This was originally published in 2017 as part of an omnibus volume of five novellas by as many authors, The Message in a Bottle Romance Collection, but has recently been re-published as a stand-alone.) Although Heather and I are Goodreads friends, this isn't a free review copy; I purchased it, because I've greatly liked several of her other books.

As a kid, I read and liked quite a few of American "Golden Age" mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner's novels featuring his iconic criminal-defense lawyer, Perry Mason; but I've never listed any of them on my shelves because I don't remember the titles. To give a more accurate picture of my reading, it occurred to me that he ought to at least be represented there; and since I've been on a bit of a mystery kick this year anyway, I'm now reading The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1936). It's the 9th novel in the Mason series, but they don't have to read in series order.

Earlier this week, I finally got started on Oscar Wilde's novella The Canterville Ghost, which is a common read this month in another group. This is a re-read for me (it's included in the anthology Classic Ghost Stories), and I'm reading it this time in electronic format, though at the Project Gutenberg site rather than in the e-book edition that Goodreads treats as its primary link.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy is a book I've long regarded as a must-read. When an unexpected window of opportunity to work in a read of it recently materialized (long story!), I took advantage of it to start reading the novel this morning. (I'm actually reading the Airmont Classics edition; but I'm not going to hunt through the 1,293 editions to link to the correct one! :-) )

A review copy of the newest novel by my Goodreads friend Lance Charnes, Zrada, arrived in the mail today, and the timing was perfect for me to start reading it immediately. This is the opener for a projected series, DeWitt Agency Adventures, which is a spin-off from the author's De Witt Agency Files series (and has as its protagonist Carson, the leading female character introduced in The Collection, the opener of the latter, though the protagonist there is male). I have high expectations for this one!

This morning, I got a start (barely!) on the newly-published second edition of my friend Andrew Seddon's science-fiction novel Iron Scepter. I read the original edition, published in 2000, back in 2006, before joining Goodreads, and reviewed it after I joined; so to avoid confusion (and since Goodreads combines reviews of all editions of a book into the same book entry in its database), that's the edition I'm listing as "currently reading" on my shelves. When I'm finished, I plan to update the review.

In another group, I'm taking part in a common read of The Werewolf (1896), by Clemence Housman. (I'm actually reading it in an online version, here: https://www.owleyes.org/text/the-were... , rather than the e-book edition that Goodreads shows as its default entry.) This is a reread for me, but the first time I've read it free-standing. (It's included in A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture, which is where I read it back in the early 90s.)

Earlier today, I started reading Perfect Victim by Kelley Armstrong, the second of two novellas she wrote as a follow-up to her original Nadia Stafford trilogy (which I hope to read next year). I'd read the first one, Double Play, last year. Although I'm actually reading it in a paper omnibus edition of both novellas together, not the e-book, this is the only way I'm able to shelve it; there's no free-standing paper edition.

For the last several years, in order to have something to contribute to a discussion thread in another group, I've usually tried to read a classic Christmas book during the month of December. This year, I've started The Birds' Christmas Carol (1886) by American author Kate Douglas Wiggin (who's best known for her novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm). "Bird" in this book is a family name, so the titular characters are not feathered avians. :-)

In order to kick off two different annual challenge threads in two of the Goodreads groups I help moderate as early as possible, I wanted to start my reading year in 2021 with a book that: a.) consists of content old enough to be deemed a classic; b.) is in the Bluefield College library's collection; and c,) is likely to be a quick read. The Diamond Lens and Other Strange Tales by Fitz-James O'Brien meets all three criteria, so I've started on it this afternoon.

Although I've read the two novellas Canadian author Kelley Armstrong wrote as sequels to her Nadia Stafford trilogy, I've yet to read any of the original three books. So, in keeping with my plan of trying to finish, or at least make progress in, the many series I've started without completing or catching up with, I've begun reading the trilogy opener, Exit Strategy.

Dwight Burkholder, whose debut novel is The Preacher's Dear (2011) is from the central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where my wife Barb was born and raised, and where we lived in our first married years. She's slightly acquainted with him, and we're both friendly with some members of his extended family. That connection is how we got a free copy of the book when it came out. Barb read and liked it back then, but I hadn't; so she was willing to re-read it as our next "car book," and we started on it today.

Last year, Goodreads author Kana Wu kindly donated a copy of her debut novel, No Romance Allowed, to the BC library. I'm not a big reader of "romances;" but this one did pique my curiosity. Then too, Kana and I have become Goodreads friends; and I do try, at times, to read books by my author friends, in order to support their creative efforts. So I started reading this one yesterday, and I'm liking it so far.

This month, I'm taking part in a common read, in another group, of Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha, and just started it yesterday. (Actually, I'm reading it in the 1898 Thomas Y. Crowell and Co. printing, but the edition Goodreads uses as a default has a much cooler cover. :-) ) I've wanted for a long time to read more of Longfellow's work, having only experienced it from short selections in American Literature textbooks. (So far, though, I have to admit that I'm not as impressed as I'd hoped to be.)

Another group I'm in is doing a common read of Dickens' classic novel Dombey and Son, starting tomorrow, and I'm joining in. Since I don't expect to get to read tomorrow, I started it today, and am just a few pages in. This is a reread for me; but my previous read was perhaps as much as 50 years ago or more, or certainly close to 50, so my memories of most of it are hazy at best. But I did vividly recall the opening scene of Dombey after the birth of his son and heir, and the satirical humor with which Dickens depicts it!

This month, I'm taking part in another group's common read of The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley (I started a bit late). It's my first introduction to his work --surprisingly, I'd never heard of him before I joined Goodreads.

Barb and I started on a new "car book" today: the alternate-world fantasy novel Operation Luna by Poul Anderson. It's the sequel to his Operation Chaos, which we read together a few years ago and both liked (and some years before that, we also read and liked his stand-alone SF novel The High Crusade), so I have good hopes for this one. Since it's a pretty thick book for a trade paperback, I'm expecting it will take us awhile to read it.

Recently, I received a copy of my friend Andrew M. Seddon's latest story collection, The Deadliest Sins: Seven Supernatural Stories, each story focusing on one of the traditional "seven deadly sins." It's not really a review copy --Andrew would gift me with one whether I reviewed it or not-- but I'm prioritizing it as if it were, so started on it this weekend. I'm expecting it to be quite a quick read.

Although Barb and I recently began reading Poul Anderson's Operation Luna, the sequel to his Operation Chaos which we read and liked back in 2015, Barb remarked that she wasn't connecting as well with the characters as she would if she could actually remember the earlier read. So I suggested rereading it, so we could read the two back-to-back. That works for her, so we started our reread of the first book today.

Back when I was a teen, in the mid-to-late 60s, I was quite fascinated with an 1899 history of Norway, Norway by a Sigvart Sorensen. But it's one of a number of books that I didn't have author/title information for (in this case. because the copy I read was missing its front cover and title page), and I only ran it down this year. I realized I couldn't do it justice in a review without a reread, so I started reading it again this week.

My first read of George Eliot's great novel Middlemarch was more than 20 years ago. Since I'd never reviewed it here, watching the wonderful 1994 BBC miniseries adaptation (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108858/ ) on DVD last summer inspired me to do a reread, so I finally started on it again yesterday.

Having finished our reread of Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson (which we originally read in 2015), Barb and I immediately started on the sequel, Operation Luna. Though Barb was the one who suggested the reread, reading the books back-to-back will give us both a fresher recollection of the characters, and make the visit with old friends in the second one more rewarding. :-)