The Cue Card

Hi bookworms, how’s it going? It’s been another quick week here with more windy, mild conditions. Our dog Willow has been out sunning herself with the pumpkins on the front stoop. She’s apparently protecting them, lol. It’s almost Halloween (already?!) and I realize I haven’t read any ghoulish kind of fiction this month. I usually like to pick up some kind of spooky thing. Though I did read the crime novel The Death of Us this month and watched The Lost Bus movie about the fire in California, both of which have some scary elements to them. But it’s not the same as a Shirley Jackson kind of tale or a movie or book that’s got haunted houses and ghosts causing havoc in the night. Have you read any this month? What would you recommend (either book or show)?

And I know it’s late October, but it’s better late than never to talk about a recap of my Summer reading Challenge. The ones pictured above were the 15 books I picked at the end of May that I hoped to get to. And I did finish them all except for one, which was Tim Winton’s novel Juice. That novel alluded me and it’s not easy to find, but I still plan to read it sometime. The rest were all quite good and I didn’t find any duds among the bunch. It’s hard to rate which ones I liked best or that stood out to me (most were four stars), but I’ve tried to list them below in some kind of order of which I thought were strongest. I’m still tinkering with the order.

• Audition by Katie Kitamura — it’s up for the Booker
• A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst — an unreal lost at sea true tale
• Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell — an Irish women’s abusive marriage and escape
• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall — a British love triangle gone wrong
• The Death of Us by Abigail Dean — a married couple’s struggles after a home invasion
• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — the lives of four African women who are at a crossroads
• Heartwood by Amity Gaige — an all out search for a lost hiker
• Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh — a hit-and-run accident upends a women’s life in Shanghai
• The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali — a lasting female friendship set during the political upheavals of Iran
• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid — the early days of female astronauts in the space program
• So Far Gone by Jess Walter — an older reclusive man journeys to protect his grandkids from a militant group
• Tilt by Emma Pattee — a pregnant woman’s journey across her city in the aftermath of a major earthquake
• The Last Secret Agent by Pippa LaTour — a female spy’s true tale of her days in Nazi Occupied France
• The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight — a woman at the University of Edinburgh tries to find out secrets about her parents

So there you have it. All in all, it was a pretty lively summer of reading with these books. And I pretty much liked them all. Did you read any of these?

And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately.

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / Knopf / 416 pages / 2025

Synopsis: Each segment of the novel follows a different African woman during the pandemic who are all friends — Chiamaka, Zikora, Kadiatou, and Omelogor — as they come to crossroads in their lives and figure a path forward.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer who recalls her past lovers and struggles with her choices and regrets. While Zikora is a lawyer in D.C. about to experience motherhood for the first time and upset that her partner has left. Whereas the outspoken Omelogor leaves a job of fraud in Nigeria to enter an MBA program in the States, only to find herself angered by her righteous classmates. And most disturbingly, Kadiatou is assaulted by a prominent man while at her hotel cleaning job and it blows into a public scandal.

My Thoughts: This was one of my last books on my summer reading list, lol. I thought there would be more interaction between the four women and it would be about their friendship, but no, the segments for the most part are pretty separate and it’s mostly about each of their lives and what they experience separately. It almost seemed like linked stories of the women, all of which have echoes of feminist themes.

I listened to it as an audiobook and the different narrators enlivened the story, and the first half with the women Chiamaka, Zikora, and Kadiatou I was engaged with. But then the latter half with Omelogor and a final part with Chiamaka went a bit off the tracks for me. My mind wandered and it sort of exhausted me as it went on too much. So the early parts kept me interested and the later parts tired me a bit. It seems I might have liked her 2013 novel Americanah slightly more, but I was glad to have finished this one too as I liked the women generally and the book’s feminist themes.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these and what did you think? How’s your reading been?

Hi ho, it’s been a quick week. First off, thanks to those who participated in the No Kings peaceful protests yesterday, so good to express one’s first amendment right to free speech against what is happening under the current U.S. administration. It looked to be a great turnout!

We didn’t have any near us in Canada, but we do support the sentiments. It’s been a while since I flew to Denver in January 2017 to participate in the Women’s March, and if I had more notice, I’d like to have done so again. I was just in D.C. and I missed the march this time. But my brother shared some protest photos where he was in Pasadena, Calif., and my sister in San Francisco. All and all it seemed a great day. 

It was a bit quieter here. Our snow from last week melted and we’re back to fall again. I’ve been walking our younger dog Willow down our road. Stella is too old now to go too far. 

And I’m gearing up for a knee replacement surgery I’m having the second week of November. Sigh. I’ve been through this before — two years ago I did the first knee, now I’m doing the other. It’s quite an ordeal … but after three months I hope to be back walking okay and feeling fairly normal. And the good news might be: I’ll be ready for activities come spring and summer next year. Yay.

In book news, I don’t think I ever pictured the Booker Prize shortlist so here it is above. The prize will be announced on Nov. 10 and I would be a bit of a fool to pick which one will win since the judges seem to like to trick us at the last minute. I have only read Katie Kitamura’s novel Audition so far but I’d particularly like to read Flesh and Sonia and Sunny when my copy at the library comes in. I think the winner will be likely one of those three. Though then The Land in Winter or Flashlight will get it right? I’m slightly leaning towards Kiran Desai’s novel Sonia and Sunny for the win, but I haven’t read it yet, so what do I know. Katie Kitamura is certainly a beguiling kind of writer with her odd/lone protagonists and I’ve read and liked all three of her books. So your guess is as good as mine.

And now I’ll leave you with a couple reviews of what I finished lately. 

The Death of Us by Abigail Dean / Viking / 336 pages / 2025

Synopsis: This novel follows the lives of a young married couple in their 30s in London (Isabel and Edward) who struggle in the aftermath of a violent home invasion that changes their lives. Twenty-five years later, divorced and in their 50s, they find themselves (along with the other victims) gearing for the upcoming trial of the arrested perpetrator. Told in alternating chapters by Isabel and Edward you get their differing views on the case, their faults, and struggles, but also their connection to one another and love. 

My Thoughts: 4.0 stars. I don’t often read crime novels but this one was hailed very highly when it came out in April and I added it to my summer list. It’s a pretty potent crime story … of a serial killer/rapist on a spree, so trigger warnings abound. But it also unfolds quite convincingly and effectively and you come to know and root for the married couple Isabel and Edward. What happens to them impacts their lives and marriage in ways that catch you up and propel you through the story. 

The story swirls around quite long with small developments in their case and in their marriage as it crumbles a bit. They get to know a few of the other victims as well as the detective Etta Eliogu closely and Isabel makes a fateful decision when the case goes cold that she hopes might lure the perpetrator out in some way. 

It’s a different kind of crime story — not really a whodunit since you come to know that — but more of a victims’ story. The novel has a couple ebbs and flows in it and maybe a couple confusing transitions — since it jumps non-chronologically between the timelines — that I had to go back for in the audiobook. Still it’s easy enough to follow and you really get a sense of the characters of Isabel and Edward as real people … and root for their marriage and an arrest of the South London home invader. It’s a crime novel that was well worth my while.

The Fact Checker by Austin Kelley / Atlantic Monthly / 256 pages / 2025

Synopsis: This novel follows an unnamed protagonist who’s an obsessive fact checker at the New Yorker magazine circa 2004 in NYC. His job is to check every little detail on articles to make sure they’re the truth. He’s handled various serious pieces on terrorists, but then later he gets tripped up on an easier article he doesn’t expect to have any problems with …. about an organic farm that brings produce to the farmer’s market in the city.

He spends time (and a night) with a woman named Sylvia who works there who says something “nefarious” is going on but then she disappears the day after. He becomes worried and goes on a quest to find out what happened to her and if allegations about the place are true.

My Thoughts: 3.7 stars. I’m bucking the trend of the book’s low ratings on Goodreads (it did receive critical praise elsewhere). Austen Kelley deserves more love for this quirky, amusing novel. I too dabbled as a newspaper copy editor for years and I had to laugh particularly at the start of this debut. Then parts of it get a bit weird, other parts are amusing as he eventually makes a trip to the farm (a cult like place) to find out what’s going on. 

Along the way the protagonist comes off as a pretty endearing bar-going, baseball-loving, factoid-loving mess of a nerd who can’t let things go. He must get to the bottom of it and his search for truth and the facts and to help Sylvia. And he will … probably by mistake one day into the future. I think I could have a drink with him, but I don’t know where his friend Sylvia is. You’ll find out a little at the end. Note: the novel has one trigger warning for an odd scene of a sheep being killed, which I didn’t care for, so that was my quibble. Otherwise thumbs up.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read either of these and what did you think? How’s your reading going?

Hi Bookworms, how goes it? What are you up to this fine weekend? We have fall colors happening here! It’s been very dry with no rain for over a month but clear, cool mornings and warm days.

Which was perfect for my birthday yesterday. I’m starting a new decade now and it’s a bit hard to believe. Let’s keep with the adage that you’re only as old as you feel. Perhaps that’s the best way to go about it. I’m not sure how I feel, but I don’t think it’s as old as the number suggests.

This Thursday I’ll be going on a trip to the Washington D.C. area as well as to Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, lol. I’m just there to visit old friends and maybe see a museum exhibit or two. I once lived in Virginia pre-2008 before coming out here, so it’s a return of sorts.

I have not been back since 2016, and I think it might be very different in this current political climate. My D.C./Va. era dates from 1993-2010-ish. And I was there during 9/11 and man was that a somber day to be there and see the Pentagon.

And now in book news, I see that the National Book Awards for Fiction put out its longlist, which is above. I have not read any of these, but I’m looking to read Angela Flournoy’s novel The Wilderness (due out Sept. 16) that follows five black women through decades of friendship, and Megha Majumdar’s novel A Guardian and a Thief (due out Oct. 14) that looks to be a dystopian tale set in Kolkata, India. I have my radar on both of these, but also what about Joy Williams’ collection of stories The Pelican Child, which comes out Nov. 18? The list of Finalists will be announced Oct. 7 and the winner on Nov. 19. So keep your eyes out. Do you know any of these above?

Also don’t forget that the Booker Prize shortlist comes out this Tuesday. I have only read Katie Kitamura’s novel Audition so far from the longlist, and I’m not sure if it will make the shortlist, but I heard two BookTubers say their favorite book on the longlist is Benjamin Wood’s novel Seascraper about a man in England who earns a meager living trawling for shrimp on the beach until one day he meets a filmmaker who changes his outlook on life. Hmm. It comes out here Sept. 23. I will try to get a library copy.

And now I’ll leave you with a couple reviews of what I finished lately.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans / Crown / 304 pages / 2025

Synopsis: This epistolary novel follows the life of a divorced, retired woman, Sybil Van Antwerp, as she corresponds from 2012 to 2021 with her family, friends, acquaintances, and literary idols.

Sybil, is 73, when it starts in 2012, and is pretty set in her ways. She’s a bit gruff and prefers to communicate through letters. She has two grown kids — Fiona and Bruce, and a child who died as an adolescent — and a brother and a couple close friends.

Through a series of circumstances she comes to have quite a bit weighing on her shoulders, which includes: an anonymous harasser; an eyesight condition; a couple suitors; a DNA test; hosting a friend’s kid at her house; and fixing things with her daughter. Through her correspondence over several years, she tries to resolve things and in the process comes to learn more about herself and grows as time goes on.

My Thoughts: 4.4 stars. This novel has been one of the most popular hits this past summer. I read it as a buddy read with Tina at the blog Turn the Page. We both seemed to really like it. Overall I found it engaging and touching. The protagonist Sybil is a character, particular in her ways, whose story comes around through her correspondence and you come to understand what writing means to her and why she values it so much. I don’t want to say too much to give anything away, but she goes through some personal growth that helps her and is someone you feel you know by the end. I don’t think I’ll forget Sybil anytime soon. Thanks to Tina for reading and discussing the novel with me.

Early Sobrieties by Michael Deagler / Astra House / 272 pages / 2024

3.5 stars. A recovering alcoholic, Dennis Monk, age 26, is about six or seven months sober after he gets kicked out of his parents’ house in the burbs and sets off for south Philadelphia bumming stays on old classmates’ or friends’ couches and washing dishes at times at restaurants to make ends meet. He also tries to do apartment fix-ups for friends or help with odds and ends, so he can crash at their place.

His is a meek existence trying to navigate his early sobriety with getting by amid the gentrifying neighborhoods. Each chapter is like a different episode of whose place he’s at and what crazy thing is going on. The wily cast of characters he meets up with for a stay is colorful and not always safe. Monk was an English major and is trying through it all to observe and write something about the street life around him.

His narration is funny at times and though he seems a bit hopeless (whether it’s tugging out old carpet at a girlfriend’s, or watching out for a person’s parrot that escapes out a window) you root for him to resist the bottle and make it through this stage in life. Along the way, there’s amusing and astute writing here and there and some of the quirkiness, humor, and trouble of staying sober reminded me of a cross between John O’Toole’s novel A Confederacy of Dunces and Frederick Exley’s novel A Fan’s Notes. So that’s pretty high praise from me. It’s just that some of Monk’s journey grabbed me more than other parts that lagged a bit. It also turned out to be more episodic or like linked stories than I was hoping for …. from a coming-of-age sobriety novel. Still Deagler is a writer to watch.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of the books pictured above and if so, what did you think?

Hello. How was everyone’s week? We’ve had some nice warm September days here and I was out biking into the countryside and stopped at the village of Longview, population around 297 (give-or-take a few, lol). It’s a nice little place and is known for the oil they found there in 1937, which gave the unemployed something amid the Great Depression. Also apparently Clint Eastwood filmed some of the movie The Unforgiven there in 1991. What I like about it is the hay bales and large ranches and livestock that I see along the way and its views of the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The route there offers a rural road for cycling. 

Meanwhile in book news, Tina at the blog Turn the Page and I are doing a buddy read of the epistolary novel The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which is about an avid letter writer in her 70s who has some spunk and is going through some stuff. So far so good. The novel came out April 29 and might have been the sleeper hit of the summer with a 4.60 rating on Goodreads and 4,756 reviews. It seems like a lot of people liked it.

In comparison, a novel like Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, another summer bestseller that came out June 3, has a 4.37 Goodreads rating, with 60,774 reviews, whoa. TJR has a bit of a bigger market … with her books and following over the years. But still The Correspondent has done well.

And now just a recap of what I finished in July (top row above) and August (bottom row). Some I read in print, others were audios. Several were quite short novels (Audition, Tilt, Hunch Back, Wreck). Not sure I picked them for that but most here were on my summer list. I liked most of them so it’s a bit hard to pick which one was my top favorite of these though the one nonfiction book A Marriage at Sea made a lasting impression since it’s a pretty wild true tale and captured the imagination of being lost at sea. So there you have it and I will be doing a recap next time of how I did on my summer reading challenge. How did yours go?

And now I will leave you with a couple reviews of what I finished lately. 

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali / Gallery / 336 pages / 2024

Synopsis: It’s the story of a decades-long friendship between two Iranian women (Ellie and Homa) starting in the 1950s whose lives are upended by their country’s political upheaval. The two meet at school at a young age and become fast friends. Ellie seems more traditional and concerned with what others think, while Homa is adventurous and spirited and throws caution to the wind. 

They fall out of touch when Ellie’s mother, a widower, moves them to another area of town to remarry, but later the two reunite in high school and go on to attend Tehran University. While Ellie gets caught up in plans to marry her boyfriend, Homa, who dreams of becoming a judge, is out protesting for students’ and women’s rights. Things turn dicey when Homa starts protesting the shah and regime change looms. The two friends undergo a harsh reckoning amid dangerous times that will haunt them into the future. A married Ellie is able to leave for New York, while Homa is captured behind. 

My Thoughts:  4 stars. I don’t want to say too much in detail about what happens in this novel as a couple dramatic events turn the tide for these two friends. Ellie narrates the story, which starts slowly about their school years, then it ratchets up once the Iranian Revolution begins. Kamali is a dynamic storyteller and I knew after her last novel The Stationery Shop, which captivated me, that I would need to get to this one as well. Historical novels set in Tehran are often fascinating — especially how the strong women there fight and form bonds to rise above harsh realities of the country’s oppressive regime. While this one might get a little drippy with everything it tries to tackle, it still makes you root and hope that the human condition and strong bonds can rise above such terrible circumstances and upheaval.

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio / One World / 224 pages / 2024

Synopsis: This is a novel about the senior year of a Harvard University student in 2010 who’s an undocumented immigrant as she navigates uncertain times ahead. 

My Thoughts: 3.7 stars. I enjoyed listening to the audio and hearing about the protagonist Catalina Ituralde who was born in Ecuador and has lived in the U.S. since she was five when she was sent to her grandparents in NYC’s Queens after her parents were killed in a car crash. 

Catalina is smart and witty and feisty at times. She cares about her grandparents (also undocumented) who raised her and hopes the Dream Act bill (before Congress then), which would offer her permanent protection from deportation, will pass. She interns at a museum and starts dating another student. Then the Dream Act fails, and she finds deportation letters her grandfather hid in a drawer and tries to find a lawyer to help them. 

At first I found the book seemed more like a monologue of Catalina’s thoughts rather than a narrative of her life. But then as it goes on it branches out more into a story, which I was glad for. It’s not always easy to follow, but I liked Catalina and her perspective into the Dream Act and being an undocumented immigrant while being a student at Harvard. She has much personality and her struggles are eye-opening. 

I think I first heard about this novel when it was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2024. It seems to follow the author’s own life story as an undocumented immigrant going to Harvard. Apparently she was one of the first to graduate in 2011. She is very bright and a good advocate for the undocumented. I will be watching for whatever she puts out next. I believe she is still in the U.S. and is pursuing a PhD in American Studies at Yale.

I have another review to share, but it can wait till next time. That’s all for now.

What about you — have you read any of these books pictured above and what did you think?

Hi bookworms. I made it to the beach and I’ve been enjoying some peaceful days bike riding and beach-going. I have not been in the ocean yet as it’s been a bit overcast and cool, but yesterday my things got wet anyways after a wave suddenly sent water over the sand incline bank and into the area where I was sitting quite a ways from the shore, argh. My library book got a little wet, which is not good, and my backpack and towel were drenched and sandy. Grrr, what are the chances. Today I’ll be back and prepared, lol, and the day should be nice and sunny and good for a swim. On my evening stroll, I saw this sailboat heading out of the harbor. I’ll be leaving in a few days, so I need to enjoy everything while I can. I’ve visited with my brother, niece, and four-month-old grandniece … who was a thrill to see and I’m hoping they return for a beach day. 

And now I’ll leave you with a few reviews of what I finished lately. These three books were #8, #9, and #10 on my summer reading list. 

Audition by Katie Kitamura / Riverhead / 208 pages / 2025

4 stars. Synopsis: This is about a married middle-aged accomplished actress who’s in play rehearsals for an upcoming premiere in New York. At the beginning she meets a young attractive man in his twenties at a restaurant and you don’t know who they are at first to one another, whether a lover, co-worker, or something else. But later the stranger tells her that he might be her son … which sets things off on an odd, disorienting path.

My Thoughts: The novel (about a family) is split into two parts … which are not completely congruent or linear to one another, so it’s a bit like a puzzle, or a play with the characters playing various roles and you come to see how they fit or not together. Part 1 has the accomplished actress and the young stranger who comes to work as an assistant to the play’s director; while Part II has the actress, her husband and an estranged son moving back into their apartment. I think there are various interpretations of what unfolds and some might see Part 1 or 2 as an unreal fantasy, or maybe just on another different timeline.

Katie Kitamura, whose writing is alluring, keeps your footing a bit on uneven ground with the family of three. But if you like novels more concrete, you might think twice about this novel. I’ve read Kitamura’s other novels A Separation and Intimacies and will continue to read her mysterious and provoking books because for one thing, she writes like a dream. Audition has been longlisted for the Booker Prize … whether it will make the shortlist we need to stay tuned on Sept. 23 when it will be announced.

Tilt by Emma Pattee / Simon & Schuster / 240 pages / 2025

4.2 stars. Synopsis: Annie, a 35-year-old very pregnant woman is shopping for a crib in IKEA when a major earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. She’s gets out from being trapped and sets out on a mission to walk to her husband’s job site to find him. They don’t have much money as he’s a struggling, auditioning actor and works at a cafe, and she gave up being a playwright to earn money as a manager at a start-up company. As Annie ambles through the wreaked city, she has various experiences as she comes upon various people and situations, and remembers earlier days with her husband and when they met 17 years ago. 

My Thoughts: I wasn’t sure about this protagonist Annie at first as she seems sort of harsh or bad-mouthed at the book’s beginnings, but also a bit funny too, sarcastic in how she looks at things. When the quake hits early at the onset, she becomes a survivor and turns quite determined and strong to make it through for her unborn baby “bean” and to find her husband Dom. As she makes her trek across the city, many thoughts run through her head from the past (the loss of her mother) and regrets she’s had when she last saw her husband. She told him not to take an understudy part in King Lear but to continue his job at the cafe for the money.

She thinks over her life quite a bit and talks to her baby while dealing with thirst and rubble, and so you’re stuck in Annie’s head or narration for the whole novel, but it’s a journey you want to see her through. Annie seems to soften a bit as time goes on and tries to help a few others along the way. But the story is sort of darker towards the end than I had imagined it’d turn out, but it also grabs you. So beware: earthquake disasters aren’t for the light of heart. For a debut novel, I was impressed by Emma Pattee’s writing and the many details she imparts. It’s quite a potent short-ish novel that the author seems to pour much heart into. I will look for what she puts out next. 

Heartwood by Amity Gaige / Simon & Schuster / 320 pages / 2025

4.0 stars. Synopsis: After 42-year-old Valerie Gillis, a nurse, goes missing from the Appalachian Trail in Maine, a massive search begins. The novel alternates chapters among various people who know or are searching for Valerie as well as chapters of Valerie herself and her journal. She went on the hike to find herself after dealing with the Covid pandemic and all the deaths while working at the hospital.

The chapters include those with: Bev Miller, the Maine official who’s leading the search; and a big guy from the Bronx named Santo who befriended Valerie on the trail; and Lena, a nursing home resident who’s trying to piece together tips she finds online of where Valerie might be. It’s a race against time as most people who disappear in the woods are found alive only in the first couple days. 

My Thoughts: I listened to this on audio and the various narrators do a good job bringing the characters to life. And there’s a heartwarming quality between missing Valerie and her mother, who are close. It also has a pandemic angle to the story — as Valerie, a nurse, is in search of a break to find herself after the covid pandemic and goes to hike the AT — that seemed interesting and relatable after recent hard years. Some of the alternating cast of characters get a bit uneven as the story goes on. I came to like Bev, who’s leading the search quite a bit, but I sort of tired with much focus on Lena, the elderly lady who is following it online. Though it is Lena who finds a key contact online who might know something.

Still, despite some unevenness, the vivid descriptions of the trail and woods and the overall cacophony of people trying to help Valerie — made me want to tramp through the wilderness to help find her too. This novel will make you want to: put on the boots, get the moleskin and the insect repellent and get out there on the trail and search. There’s only a few hours left to find her. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these and what did you think?

Hi all, how has your week been? Last week was quite busy here with sports and yard mowing. I had a tennis inter-club match, 18 holes of golf league, epic field mowing, and a cycling bike ride event a couple hours south of us all in one week, and now I’m resting. I must be crazy, lol. I’m no spring chicken. I should’ve taken a photo at the bike event yesterday, but I was full on — trying to go 50km (31 miles) quickly. It went better than expected and I finished third woman in my 50+ age group. My husband did well biking the 100km (62 mile) longer route. And now we’re taking a breather and it’s good that it’s a bit rainy this morning and we’re catching up on things. I’m adding this happy cow picture to ward off any crazy bad news. 

I’m reminded at times that when I was working full-time in my 20s, 30s, and 40s I didn’t have time for blogging. It was only in my later 40s when I went part-time did I really have or make any time for it. So I’m impressed by bloggers today who somehow find time when they work full-time and/or are moms to young kids. That’s a lot! I think being mostly retired helps (my husband still works), though retirees are pretty busy too. What about you — did you ever blog while you were working full-time? Or did you start afterwards?

In book news, I see that author Margaret Atwood is coming out with a memoir of sorts on Nov. 4 called Book of Lives. Oh yeah, it’s going to be big in Canada. People who are Atwood fans are already aflutter with the news. I learned about the memoir from the Wordfest book festival here, which plans to host Atwood to come speak about it on Dec. 10. So I’ll gear up for it. I have seen Atwood speak before (she appeared like an ant on the stage as I was in a faraway seat in the balcony), but I heard her quite clearly. The two-time Booker Prize winner is always worth seeing and reading. 

Next weekend I plan to post my August preview. Can you believe July is almost over? Ugh. And did you see the New York Time’s article about the man who read 3,599 books and his list?  It’s sort of an entertaining read. He’s way more manic than I am about it, yay.

And now for a couple reviews of what I finished lately.

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst / Riverhead / 256 pages / 2025

4+ stars. This is an old-fashioned survival tale, based on a true story about a British married couple, who in 1972 set sail from England in hopes of making it all the way to New Zealand. They were a bit of a different couple, Maurice Bailey was an awkward loner type who had a miserable childhood with his family and didn’t know women particularly well. He was 8 years older than Maralyn, whom he met at age 29 through a mutual acquaintance. She, on the other hand, was an outgoing adventurous type who took to his hobbies of long hikes and boating well and surprisingly said yes to his marriage proposal a year later in 1963. They weren’t traditional in the sense of wanting to settle down with jobs and kids in England but wanted to chuck it all to leave and not come back. They wanted a different kind of life. 

So the Baileys had a 31-foot yacht — the Auralyn — built. But for their journey Maurice decided not to have a radio transmitter onboard … he wanted to travel by the stars and be on their own. Maralyn, for her part, couldn’t even swim. Still they didn’t seem too concerned. They were eager to set sail in 1972, making it to Spain and Portugal and the Canary Islands before eventually crossing the Atlantic Ocean and appeared to be having quite a time, but it was later while trying to cross the Pacific that things took a fateful turn. And what an epic ordeal it turns out to be. 

I don’t want to say too much of the particulars to give it away, but how had I not heard of this couple and their predicament before?! As a kid of the 1970s in California, I recall Patty Hearst and the Manson murders all too well (but not the British Baileys) and later I became well-acquainted with survival tales of the most direst of circumstances from Sir Ernest Shackleton’s and the other polar explorers’ to the 1972 airplane crash in the Andes (Alive), to Chris McCandless going Into the Wild in Alaska. But in particular, the Baileys’ ordeal reminded me slightly of Lauren Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken about the true tale of Louis Zamperini whose plane crashed into the Pacific in 1943 during WWII leaving him stranded on a raft for a long time. Poor Louis, I felt his agony in the open ocean on every page that I turned. And now I’ve added the Baileys’ story to my collection. 

I think because of the book’s title I had thought it would be a survival tale that disintegrated their marriage while at sea. But I assumed wrong. In fact, their marriage is something uplifting in their ordeal that helps and binds them together. Maralyn turns out to be mentally strong and optimistic, whereas Maurice has spells of throwing in the towel and despair. Their yin-and yang combination helps their will to fight. And their tactics are a bit illuminating should you ever become in trouble. 

The author, journalist Sophie Elmhirst is interested in this marriage angle of the Baileys’ story: how they fit and worked together — two sort of oddball people and what they manage to do. It kept me engaged with it. And for squeamish folks, it’s not for the light of heart, since raw seafood is fair game when you’re all alone with dwindling supplies in the vast Pacific Ocean. My only quibble with the book … is that the writing style is short and simple and somehow made it feel a bit muted at times. Still I consumed the book quickly, lapping up every detail and committing it to memory — the odd history of the Baileys. Some of it is sort of sad, even later, or kooky, and other parts inspiring. See what you think. It was on my summer reading list as Book #6. 

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight / 304 pages / 2025

3.75 stars. This is a coming-of-age novel — a genre I often like — about a Canadian girl (Penelope known as Pen) who goes to her first year at university in Edinburgh, Scotland. There she falls in with a group of friends as they navigate young age, school, independence, and their love lives.

She also gets in touch with a friend of her fathers’ — aristocrat Elliot Lennox, a mystery writer — in hopes that he might know something about her divorced parents’ past — what happened with them and what they seem to be not telling her. The Lennox family lives in an old mansion on a rural estate, where Pen is soon visiting as she befriends the entire family, including the swoon-worthy son, Sasha, whom she begins to dream about. 

This is a promising debut by a 36-year-old Canadian author … and there was much to like. The author has a lively style with a good vocabulary, and Pen is an empathetic, young protagonist whom you feel for as she’s learning the ropes around school, going out with friends, but not being fully sure of herself, or confident in the love department. Then she meets Sasha who seems dashing and worth it, but is he available or not? She’s curious too about finding out a secret about her parents’ past, which by the end she figures out from her visits with the Lennoxes. And it’s a doozie of a secret. 

So I liked much of it, though it’s a novel perhaps a bit too chock full of its varied cast and their particulars. Pen’s best friend Alice comes to narrate some chapters about her affair with a rogue professor, which I didn’t think was really necessary. And Sasha’s mother Christina is delved into quite a bit. To me, it was Pen’s journey and so, I would’ve streamlined these other distractions and plotlines and expanded hers a bit more. Still I think it was promising enough to want to see what Emma Knight will write next. This was Book #7 on my summer list of 15. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these and if so, what did you think?