It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past couple of week are:

Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah
The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley
Stay with me by Ayobami Adebayo
Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe
In Vino Duplicitas by Peter Hellman
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
Book Love by Debbie Tung
A Very Coco Christmas by Robert Bryndza
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

All Manner of Things by Susie Finkbeiner

Reviews posted this week:

Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah
The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Granny’s Got a Gun by Harper Lin
White Elephant by Julie Langsdorf
At Briarwood School for Girls by Michael Knight
The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
All Ships Follow Me by Mieke Eerkens
Like This Afternoon Forever by Jaime Manrique
Gravity Well by Melanie Joosten
Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
Dear Baba by Maryam Rafiee
Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen
Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons
In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas
The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
CinderGirl by Christina Meredith
The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones
The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis
Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie
The Fragments by Toni Jordan
The Question Authority by Rachel Cline
The Plaza by Julie Satow
The Lonely Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
Haben by Haben Girma
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
State of the Union by Nick Hornby
Turbulence by David Szalay
What a Body Remembers by Karen Stefano
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers by the New York Public Library
The Honey Bus by Meredith May
The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett
The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Church of the Graveyard Saints by C. Joseph Greaves
Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery by John Gregory Brown
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Advanced Physical Chemistry by Susannah Nix
Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Lowenstein
No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
The Abolitionist's Daughter by Diane C. McPhail
A London Country Diary by Tim Bradford
Crazy Cupid Love by Amanda Heger
A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
Tiny Hot Dogs by Mary Giuliani
Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton
Retablos by Octavio Solis
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
All the Wild Hungers by Karen Babine
Vacationland by Sarah Stonich
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Smoke by Dan Vyleta
The Last Ocean by Nicci Gerrard
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
Nothing to Report by Carola Oman
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George
The Signal Flame by Andrew Krivak
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Garden of Eden by Eve Adams
Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de le Cruz
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler
Breaking the Ocean by Annahid Dashtgard
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
A Stranger at My Table by Ivo de Figueiredo
Breaking Away by Anna Gavalda
Eat Joy edited by Natalie Eve Garrett
The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
Hotbox by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhannon
Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
The Bottom of the Sky by Rodrigo Fresan
Open Mic Night in Moscow by Audrey Murray
A Beginner's Guide to Japan by Pico Iyer
The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoor
The Skeleton Stuffs a Stocking by Leigh Perry
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
Pretty Bitches edited by Lizzie Skurnick
Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe
In Vino Duplicitas by Peter Hellman
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas
Book Love by Debbie Tung
A Very Coco Christmas by Robert Bryndza
A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Monday Mailbox

Christmas is absolutely the most wonderful time of the year in terms of books and book mail, especially if you abide by a "one for you, one for me" way of present shopping like I do. LOL! This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Does It Fart? by Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti came from me for myself.

Who wouldn't want a field guide to animal flatulence? I do love these little books of fascinating (and often off-color) information.

Believe It or Snot by Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti came from me for myself.

See above reason but replace animal flatulence with slimy animals.

A Very Coco Christmas by Robert Bryndza came from me for myself.

A light, Christmas rom-com about a well to do college girl and her working class boyfriend, don't mind if I do!

Christmas at High Rising by Angela Thirkell came from me for myself.

I really like Angela Thirkell a lot so when I found out that this collection of short stories had been collected and released a few years ago, I couldn't resist.

The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins came from a friend in a Jolabokaflod Swap.

What bookworm could possibly resist a magical book about a librarian to whom books whisper and the newcomer who might just save this small community?

The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith came from a friend in a Jolabokaflod Swap.

I'm really looking forward to this highly recommended satirical biography about English suburban life.

The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey came from a friend in a Jolabokaflod Swap.

What happens when a Bright Young Thing falls in love with someone entirely unsuitable but goes on to choose a safe life? This novel is that story and I can't wait!

This Is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay came from a friend in a Jolabokaflod Swap.

I never once had any interest in a medical career (blood makes me woozy) but I sure do love to read medical memoirs and this one looks top of the trees.

Star Gazing by Linda Gillard came from me for myself.

A widow whose great solace is in music falls for a man who makes no concession for her blindness but she doesn't know if she can trust him. This sounds so incredibly intriguing, doesn't it?

St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets by Annie England Noblin came from TLC Book Tours and William Morrow for a blog tour.

Put a cute dog on the cover and I can't resist but the plot--a woman inherits a house, car, and cat from her birth mother and goes off to claim them and find out the truth about her past--is enticing too.

Writers and Lovers by Lily King came from Ingram and Grove Atlantic in a contest win.

Lily King is a magnificent author so I am very excited about her latest novel about a woman, leaving her youth behind, still striving to live a creative life.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

The American Fiancée by Eric Dupont.

The book is being released by HarperVia on February 11, 2020.

The book's jacket copy says: In this extraordinary breakout novel—a rich, devastatingly humorous epic of one unforgettable family—award-winning author Eric Dupont illuminates the magic of stories, the bonds of family, and the twists of fate and fortune to transform our lives.

Over the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the Lamontagnes will weather love, passion, jealousy, revenge, and death. Their complicated family dynamic—as dramatic as Puccini’s legendary opera, Tosca—will propel their rise, and fall, and take them around the world . . . until they finally confront the secrets of their complicated pasts.

Born on Christmas, Louis Lamontagne, the family’s patriarch, is a larger-than-life lothario and raconteur who inherits his mother’s teal eyes and his father’s brutish good looks and whose charms travel beyond Quebec, across the state of New York where he wins at county fairs as a larger-than-life strongman, and even in Europe, where he is deployed for the US Army during World War II. We meet his daughter, Madeleine, who opens a successful chain of diners using the recipes from her grandmother, the original American Fiancée, and vows never to return to her hometown. And we end with her son Gabriel, another ladies’ man in the family, who falls in love with a woman he follows to Berlin and discovers unexpected connections there to the Lamontagne family that re-frame the entire course of the events in the book.

An unholy marriage of John Irving and Gary Shteyngart with the irresistible whimsy of Elizabeth McCracken, The American Fiancée is a big, bold, wildly ambitious novel that introduces a dynamic new voice to contemporary literature.

Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine

Can you believe this is the 25th year of the K. Christmas letter? Yes, 25 years of oversharing. How did you get so lucky? As the last of the kids flies the nest, this may be the end of an era in many ways since we old folks aren’t nearly entertaining enough to sustain an entire letter. It’ll be like your very own Christmas mystery: will there still be a letter next year? Who knows? What there likely will still be, annual letter or not, is cracked kitchen tiles. Yes, two years in and there’s still cracked tile. Cracked tiles? Perpetual. Annual letter? Still here this year at least, so for your reading pleasure maybe one last time, the K. 2019 year in review:

January: We really stink at the fostering animals game. Ozzie, the craziest, zoomiest of cats arrived in our house to be fostered. Three days later when the rescue coordinator called to say there had been an application for him, we voted to deny that person and keep him ourselves. The vote was unanimous amongst humans, the lone dissenter being Gatsby.

February: Unlike in previous years, where “indoor” track resulted in a lot of freezing cold polar bear meets, T. actually got to go to the indoor meets this year. He even qualified for states and didn’t finish last. We were happy to be warm and he was happy to be one of the top 18 boys pole vaulters in the state.

March: K. got the worst birthday present ever this year. Cancer. A small, raised mole turned out to be melanoma. Brooding and eating her feelings ensued for the rest of the month.

April: K. took T. on several college visits during spring break this month. It was a complete success (if by success you mean figuring out where he didn’t want to go to school). After they got home, K. had surgery to remove more skin and check to see if the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. They got clean margins and the lymph nodes were negative so barring stepping off a curb and being hit by a bus, she should be around for a long time to irritate the whole family. This month, T. won The Dick. Yes, this is what the boys call the all-boys Dick Williams Track Invitational. God bless seventeen year old boys! Prom was also this month and K. had the genius idea to host T.’s friends for a post-prom breakfast and sleepover so she’d know they were all safe (and so she could eavesdrop on them). D. slept soundly through the whole thing.

May: W. graduated from college this month and started his job search. As we all already knew, being a bona fide grown up isn’t nearly as liberating as he thought. Also this month, we took in another foster cat named Snow. Did I mention that we’re bad at fostering? She’s now a K. too (although she lives with W. in Greensboro as she’s happier being an only cat).

June: Just like last year, on the way up north, K. and D. stopped off in Wooster for his 25th college reunion. D. was far better behaved at the reunion than he ever was in college. Does that make him (us) mature or just old? W. and his girlfriend T. joined us in Wooster and then followed K. up to Michigan while D. flew off to San Francisco again. Mean things you can do to a southern girl up north? Why, convince her to jump in the freezing cold water, of course. Despite the fact that she probably thinks we were trying to drown her (google “cold water gasp reflex”), we actually do like her a lot and she was a good sport once she warmed back up. W. got a job with Ruger this month although his start date wasn’t until September.

July: R. had an internship in Tampa this summer so she got to experience life in K.’s sister’s family and confirm the genetic basis of the craziness. For much of this month, her boss went on vacation, so R. did too. Her boss went to Spain; Reid did not. It was wonderful that all three kids got to be up north again together one last time.

August: T. crewed on an ensign sailboat again throughout the summer. He’s almost 60 years younger than the captain and the rest of the crew. He had a blast with his (old) guys and the combination of youth and experience came in 1st for the season and 2nd in the Regatta. Not too bad for three septuagenarians and a teenager. We had to head home this month as both R. (college) and T. (high school) started their respective senior years.

September: W. and Snow moved to Greensboro so he could start his job this month. K. and D. drove a U-Haul with his bedroom furniture up to him. W. was less concerned with the fact that this was the only furniture he owned than he was by the stress of dealing with getting internet. R. turned 21 this month. That’s two kids who are offered the beer and wine menu at restaurants now. (Well, three given T.’s beard, but two that could actually order from it legally.)

October: K. took T. to Wisconsin on a college visit this month. She might have enjoyed seeing old friends and visiting the Farmer’s Market for fresh cheese curds more than T. liked the school though. Just an FYI: even in Wisconsin, TSA makes you unpack your carry-on to show them the cheese curds aren’t dangerous. D. then took T. to Ohio for college visits and we think we now know where T. will be next year as long as the school(s) agree. While they were gone, K. went to Winston-Salem to be on a panel about books and book clubs. Given how she feels about public speaking, it’s a pretty good bet she went only because the bookstore gave her a special visitor discount for the day. D. was traveling a lot, even before the college visits, and he managed to pick up the flu somewhere and bring it home. Luckily neither T. nor K. got sick but it reminded K. that bedroom furniture in W.’s former room would not be a bad idea so she doesn’t get coughed or breathed on when D. has the plague.

November: This is the month that T. hit apply on the college applications. K. headed to New Orleans to speak on another panel. Yes, it was about books. Yes, half her suitcase was full of books when she headed home. Yes, these panels seem to be surprisingly expensive. ::shrug:: Thanksgiving morning we woke up to a yard full of flamingos again. That’s three times in four years and a flock that now numbers more than 30 flamingos, if you’re keeping score. We have no idea who keeps flocking us but it’s quickly becoming a tradition. We’re considering wrapping scarves around their necks or putting Santa hats on them and calling them Christmas decorations. Maybe next year the flocker who keeps doing this could make this happen?

As 2019 comes to a close, as always, we hope that you are surrounded by family, peace, love, and happiness now and throughout the coming year.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

Heart of Junk by Luke Geddes.

The book is being released by Simon and Schuster on January 21, 2020.

The book's jacket copy says: A hilarious debut novel about an eclectic group of merchants at a Kansas antique mall who become implicated in the kidnapping of a local beauty pageant star.

The city of Wichita, Kansas, is wracked with panic over the abduction of toddler pageant princess Lindy Bobo. However, the dealers at The Heart of America Antique Mall are too preoccupied by their own neurotic compulsions to take much notice. Postcards, perfume bottles, Barbies, vinyl records, kitschy neon beer signs—they collect and sell it all.

Rather than focus on Lindy, this colorful cast of characters is consumed by another drama: the impending arrival of Mark and Grant from the famed antiques television show Pickin’ Fortunes, who are planning to film an episode at The Heart of America and secretly may be the last best hope of saving the mall from bankruptcy. Yet the mall and the missing beauty queen have more to do with each other than these vendors might think, and before long, the group sets in motion a series of events that lead to surprising revelations about Lindy’s whereabouts. As the mall becomes implicated in her disappearance, will Mark and Grant be scared away from all of the drama or will they arrive in time to save The Heart of America from going under?

Equally comical and suspenseful, Heart of Junk is also a biting commentary on our current Marie Kondo era. It examines why certain objects resonate with us so deeply, rebukes Kondo’s philosophy of wholesale purging, and argues that “junk” can have great value—connecting us not only to our personal pasts but to our shared human history. As author Luke Geddes writes: “A collection was a record of a life lived, maybe not well or happily but at least with attention and passion. It was autobiography made whole.”

Monday Mailbox

Just one this time. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall came from me for myself.

Clearly I am a sucker for gorgeous covers! The story of a girl whose parents separate one summer and the summers she spends with her mother afterwards, until she uncovers a secret that brings those summers to an end sounds really good.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Review: The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley

I don't remember how old I was when I first read Pride and Prejudice. It seems as if it has always been a part of my reading history, claiming a piece of my young, voracious reader's romantic heart forever ago. It is one of the few books I've read multiple times and just claiming a passing resemblance to it will have me eagerly reading any book. A book that delves deeper into any of the characters from this beloved book will automatically hit my must read pile. The Bennet sisters are usually the focus of these stories because Austen gives us very little about their lives after the events of her novel. Greeley doesn't give us a Bennet sister though, concentrating on Charlotte Lucas and the life she lives as Mrs. Collins, the life she chose, a life in direct contrast to the life that Lizzie Bennet would have, and she gives it to us beautifully.

"Sensible [and] intelligent" Charlotte famously opted for security and a conviction that happiness in marriage is not simply a result of love but of "chance" when she accepted Mr. Collins' proposal. She knew that her options were limited, from an age and beauty perspective as well as a class perspective, and she judged that Mr. Collins was a decent man with whom she could build a life. And she has done just that. Three years into their marriage, Charlotte's life is not a bad one but it is a lonely one. She spends much of her time with her tiny daughter, never having gotten too involved in the village near Rosings Park. Lady Catherine would disapprove heartily of too much involvement and Charlotte herself has no confidence in herself as the wife of the vicar, to offer friendship and caring to those under her husband's purview. Only when Lady Catherine determines that there should be roses planted in front of the parsonage and compels a local farmer, Mr. Travis, the son of her former gardener, to plant them, does Charlotte venture into a cautious friendship with anyone in the area. As she comes to know Mr. Travis, she contrasts him with her own husband and finds that her choice three years ago might well have been the pragmatic one but it also means that she might have missed out on something quite special and indefinable indeed.

Greeley's Charlotte is quiet, accepting the life she chose with her eyes wide open. If she experiences any rebellions, they happen silently and she often reflects on the ungenerosity of wishing Mr. Collins was different, reminding herself that he is, in fact, a good man. As so much of the novel is internal, Charlotte is a first person narrator, heightening the feeling of wistfulness and melancholy throughout the pages. The story, and Charlotte's slow dawning realization of what her life will always look like, what she has missed out on, is a sensitive and light handed look at the options available to women of the time. It is heartbreaking to hear Charlotte wishing that her baby daughter Louisa will be beautiful as she herself is not. And it is hard not to sympathize with Charlotte and the stultifying daily existence she lives, her only company a husband she doesn't love, a daughter too young to talk, and a young mother's helper. It is both hard and beautiful to see her opening her heart to the people of the parish, a poor, older widow, the elderly former gardener at Rosings, and Mr. Travis. This is a gentle tale that stays true to the characters that Austen created but that adds to the original story in Pride and Prejudice, offering a contrast to the exultant happily ever after of that novel, not of a grand tragedy but of a quiet and a little bit sad acceptance of a regular life. Well done, Molly Greeley.

For more information about Molly Greeley and the book, check our her author website, like her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or Instagram, look at the book's Goodreads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book. #theclergymanswife, @williammorrowbooks, @tlcbooktours, @mollyjgreeley

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and publisher William Morrow for sending me a copy of the book to read and review.