Let's chat books!

Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 03:46:41 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune: How Younger Sons Made Their Way in Jane Austen's England by Rory Muir

How would the Bennet brothers have fared if they had been five boys instead of five girls?

Discusses the financial realities of Regency Britain, and the downward mobility of the children not the oldest son. One of Jane Austen's brothers married the granddaughter of a duke.

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Cloak of Summoning

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:51:25 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Cloak of Summoning by Jonathan Moeller

The 26th book of Nadia.

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Faithful Ruslan

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 15:19:59 GMT

Posted by: calzephyr

Faithful Ruslan was published in samizdat format by Soviet dissident Georgi Vladimov in the 1960s. It was "officially" published in 1975. You can read it on the Internet Archive for free--https://archive.org/details/faithfulruslanst0000vlad

Faithful Ruslan fits into the category of traumatizing animal stories and societal metaphor. It was inspired by stories of starving and abandoned guard dogs at labour camps. After Ruslan's labour camp is dismantled, his handler shoos him away because he doesn't have the heart to shoot him. Ruslan's sense of duty comes to mirror that of Soviet citizens. He's hardworking, honest, disciplined and loyalty--but can't change his ways with the passage of time.

This is a tough book to read--you absolutely have to be in the right mindset for it! Thank goodness they never made a children's cartoon version although it has been adapted into a stage play and live-action movie.

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The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 22:17:36 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama

This is not a novel. It is a short-story cycle. It revolves about an apartment building where various people have various problems, and their visits to the hippo figure that children can ride in Hinode Park, and the story people tell of its being able to heal things. Each of them resolves issues, and delicate threads go from one story to the next.

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The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 23:42:05 GMT

Posted by: archersangel

subtitle; The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

from amazon;

If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States's nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war.
Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets.

a very interesting read. goes into the motivation of gordievsky vs. philby (who will probable haunt MI5 & MI6 as long as those organizations exist) & ames. as well as some of the work gordievsky did for MI6 & what happened to him when the KGB got word of what he was up too.
if you like real life spy stories/thrillers, i recommend this book. i also recommend similar books that macintyer wrote; Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies & Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal.

macintyre also wrote a book about philby, a spy among friends, that's now a tv series. i tried to read it, but it felt very british & i could not make it very far.

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Review: Taste of Home Grand Prize Winners

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 04:21:48 GMT

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith

Taste of Home Grand Prize Winners
by Catherine Cassidy (Editor)

Today we finished our tenth cookbook of the year. The front matter includes a table of contents and information about contests. The recipe chapters are Appetizers; Salads, Sides & Such; Soups & Stews; Main Dishes (Beef, Poultry, Pork, Seafood & Meatless); Casseroles; Breads & Rolls; Breakfast & Brunch; Cookies, Bars & Candies; Cakes & Pies; and Just Desserts. There is also an index, divided into an ingredient section and an alphabetical list of titles.

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Cloak of Worlds

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:55:58 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Cloak of Worlds by Jonathan Moeller

The adventures of Nadia continue.

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Sinister Syndicate of Space

Sat, 30 May 2026 16:01:53 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Sinister Syndicate of Space by John C. Wright

Book 8 of Starquest.

Plots thicken -- and converge. Spoilers ahead for the earlier works.

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Kill the Villainess

Wed, 27 May 2026 15:47:08 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Kill the Villainess, Vol. 6 by Haegi and Your Your April

Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes.

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Pirate King of Star Patrol

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:09:31 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Pirate King of Star Patrol by John C. Wright

Starquest book seven. Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes

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Spaceman In The Iron Mask

Fri, 22 May 2026 23:54:25 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Spaceman In The Iron Mask by John C. Wright

Starquest Book 6. Spoilers ahead for the earlier books

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What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

Tue, 19 May 2026 17:16:52 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

A short-story cycle, with delicate threads weaving it together past the main connection, which is that, in every story, someone comes to the library while troubled at heart.

The librarian gives recommendations for books, one of which is off-the-wall, and also a felted object such as a plane. In each story, the character finds this cryptic, but reads the book.

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Right of Vengeance

Sat, 16 May 2026 16:12:08 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Right of Vengeance by Thomas Doscher

Book 7 of The Vixen War Bride Series. Spoilers for the earlier ones ahead.

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Witch's Daughter

Fri, 15 May 2026 16:15:39 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Witch's Daughter by Sarah A. Hoyt

Book 2 of Magical Empires, but it does shift to new characters and fill you in the relevant first book knowledge. (Spoilers for the first book, though.)

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The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 7

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:14:19 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 7 by Grrr and Irinbi

The tale continues. Mid-cliffhanger, so spoiler warning for the earlier volumes

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Alchemist of the Wilds

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:16:28 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Alchemist of the Wilds: An Ex-Assassin's Guide to Cozy Romantic Brews by A. T. Valentine

A slightly misleading subtitle -- but only slightly. The first volume

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The Great Panjandrum Himself

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:59:05 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

The Great Panjandrum Himself by Samuel Foote In nonsense perhaps matched only by Lewis Carroll's The Mad Gardener's Song. An actor said he could memorize anything in one reading, and this was the attempt to defeat him.

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The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:15:00 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy by Ronald Hutton

A long topic

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Puritanism and the Wilderness

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 20:56:46 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Puritanism and the Wilderness: 1629-1700, The Intellectual Significance of the New England Frontier by Peter N. Carroll

What the Puritans thought about wilderness as they came to New England. . .

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The Apothecary Diaries 15

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:16:27 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

The Apothecary Diaries 15 by Nekokurage

Spoiler warnings ahead for the earlier books.

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Assignment in Brittany

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:22:21 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes

A thriller about an British undercover agent in Brittany, in 1940. The work was published in 1942.

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Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 14

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 03:49:13 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 14 by Kamome Shirahama

The tale continues! Serious spoilers ahead for the earlier works.

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The Secrets of Story

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:27:34 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

The Secrets of Story: Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers by Matt Bird

A how-to-write book. Despite the title, mostly for TV and movie writers, down to and including explaining that a prose writer has it easier.

Nevertheless, some useful ideas, particularly about irony, such as the character's flaw should be a flip-side of a strength to add reason to not want to fix it. None of the jargon was impenetrable.

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The Snake Prince and Other Stories

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:53:54 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

The Snake Prince and Other Stories: Burmese Folk Tales by Edna Ledgard

A varied collection. I think a little overwritten, but the tales are a new slice, fitting a new culture. Fairy tales, including a kind and unkind girls featuring a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and a unique take on burning the skin of the shape-shifted: the Naga prince is not killed but he is rendered mortal to live and grow old and die with his bride.

Also tales of fools and clever men, and animal tales.

Most are recognizable types, but not close to other variants.

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Temples, Tombs & Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 22:54:50 GMT

Posted by: marycatelli

Temples, Tombs & Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz

A light discussion of Egypt. Admittedly covering a long period of history and so necessarily cursory in place. Discusses what records we have and what archeological evidence we have found, and various Pharaohs and changes.

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