December Books and My Annual Reading UpDate

Hi everyone.  

I'm back with my monthly book post.  Since I really write these book posts for myself as a reading diary, all of the opinions I mention are what I thought. If book posts are something you enjoy, then please feel free to read on.

 I'll also warn you, it's a rather long post today as I've also done my yearly reading wrap up, which may or may not be of any interest to you.

December BOOKS:

December was a fairly good reading month.  I didn't read quite as many books as I hoped since I still have a few on my nightstand that I wanted to get to but didn't. I started off with some new(er) books.

My first December read was the newest Louise Penny Inspector Gamache novel. If you haven't read this series, Inspector Gamache is the head of Quebec's Surete, the Province's police force. (Sorry for none of the French diacritics. I'm not sure how to access them on my computer.)

In book 18 of this mystery series, there are a few stories going on. First of all there is an old murder. A woman's body is found in a lake in Northern Quebec. This is when Inspector Gamache meets Jean-Guy Beauvoir. It was fun to get that bit of series history. 

Secondly, there is a bricked up wall  that gets opened. Behind the bricked up wall are some treasures, including a painting that references another famous painting called  The Paston Treasure. And lastly, there is someone stalking Inspector Gamache and his family. 

It is quite the start to the month of June for Gamache and Beauvoir, as well as the citizens of the village of Three Pines who are still very much a part of this story.

If this seems like a lot, Louise Penny brings it all together and connects these stories so well that you forget that they seem to start off as 3 individual stories. She's a master when it comes to  combining seemingly unrelated plots. And also, the ending is one where I couldn't put the book down for the last 100 or so pages.  I very much enjoyed this story, and this series continues to be worth reading.

My next book was this new biography of Queen Elizabeth by Andrew Morton. I was a little worried there would be a lot of rehash of things that every story of the queen includes, but surprisingly, although the events of her life might be well known, there are lots of new  (at least to me) details included. Morton also does a good job of telling the big picture and incorporating other characters that were part of the queen's life.  He also explains events that I had heard of but didn't know the full background story .

I like how Morton writes also. He gets into the Queen's life without getting  bogged down with the subject. The book moves right along.  Yet Morton does not skimp on the details. The addition of those details to Morton's story makes this a good read. Of course since I am reading a biography and not an autobiography I can't know every bit of every story, but this book gives a nice overview of different times of the Queen's long life.  

If you're interested in royal reading, then I do recommend this book. Morton isn't the fastest read, as he makes every paragraph rich with information, but the story is under 400 page so it's not a bad length either.

My other actual book for December was definitely not a newly published book, but it's an Agatha Christie that I hadn't read before. I was excited to find a "few" of her books that I'd somehow missed back in my teens, 20's and 30's when I used to read a lot of her books.

Murder in Mesopotamia is another Hercule Poirot mystery. This time Poirot's a visitor at an archeological site in the Middle East. The details of this archeological story are based on when Christie's archeologist husband, Max Mallowan, worked in Iran and from what I read, generally  describes the location where Christie actually met her husband. 

 The narrator of this 1936 mystery is Nurse Leatheran, who is hired to help because the head archaeologist's wife is convinced someone is trying to murder her. She's been getting threatening letters, but her husband thinks his wife just has a bad case of nerves. Nurse Leatheran's  job is to care for this woman. And of course, it is Nurse Leatheran who discovers when the woman has actually been murdered.

This story was definitely a very good classic Christie novel. I'm thrilled I found it. Not only was it an enjoyable and well written read, but it was really exciting to actually read an Agatha Christie that I had never read before. (And it is also exciting to know that I have a couple of more to still read.)

LISTENS:

My first listen for December was this book Ms Adventure. It is written by and my audio version was read by Jess Phoenix. 

One interesting thing was that as I listened to this book I recognized the author's voice. Since I don't have the physical book, I looked up the author online and realized she was one of the stars in an archeology/geology series that I watched on TV last winter called Hunting Atlantis.

This book is part biography and part geology. It took me from the top Mauna Loa, to Death Valley, to the Andes, and a few other places around the world. What an adventurous career the author has had so far. I not only enjoyed the geology but also her travel stories. Since I started this book right after I finished David Copperfield, it seemed very short. (This book was just under 8  hours and David Copperfield was over 36. And I must admit, I was missing David Copeprfield a bit too.) I wish this book (Ms Adventure) was actually longer because it was a fascinating story and the author's enthusiasm for geology definitely made  listening enjoyable. Plus, it wasn't a heavy duty geology text, but just enough to grab someone's interest.

My next 2 listens were shorter stories by authors I enjoy.

I have previously listened to the first two books in Karen Baugh Menuhin's mystery series that is set in England in the early 1920's. Heathcliff Lennox (who wishes his mother hadn't named him after the character from a Bronte's Wuthering Heights) is a World War I fighter pilot who finds himself at a loss after the war. He ends up with some murders happening around him, and that leads him to help the police as a "detective". 

Since I enjoyed the first 2 books,  I thought it would be worth listening to the short story prequel to the series. This prequel was only an hour long, but it was still full of great detail, bringing the reader back to Lennox's time in the First World War. One thing I love about listening to series is that you get the same narrator, and this novella was read by Sam Dewhurst-Phillips,as is the rest of the series. He's excellent. I really enjoy this series (even if I've only listened to the first 2 books and this prequel), and I hope to listen to some more of this series sooner rather than later. If only there was more time to do more reading/listening-smile.

My other short listen was A Christmas Gathering. It is set at Christmas, but the story could have been set at almost any time of year when a group of people have gathered. 

Anne Perry has written a lot of murder mysteries set in Victorian London, and even a few newer ones set in other time periods. Her first series was the Inspector Thomas Pitts and his wife Charlotte series, which I used to read on a regular basis many years back.  For some reason I haven't read as many of her newer published books, but I did listen to one of her Christmas mysteries last year that I very much enjoyed. This year I decided to listen to another one of her Christmas novellas. This one is just under 5 hours long.

A Christmas Gathering is set at an estate in the country where many people have gathered for the Christmas holiday. Lady Vespasia (a character you meet back in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series)  and her husband, Victor Narraway, are at this gathering because Narraway is working undercover. He used to be Thomas Pitts’ boss, but now he works for the British government in a sort of  Victorian version of James Bond.

Even though I haven't read far enough into the series to get all of the background  on the 2 main characters, I did not find this story difficult to follow. There's some secret information being passed on, and in the middle of this a woman is seriously injured.  Who has done this? And who is trying to interfere with the information being passed along?  It’s up to Narraway  with some help from his wife Lady Vespasia to discover that.  Of course they do discover the truth. Anne Perry definitely writes a short novella that's as good as her longer novels.

My next listen was the book I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon. I read this book because 1) I loved this author's book Code Name Helene about WW2 spy Nancy Wake and 2) because I'd read a bit about Anna Anderson back in the 1980's in a book by Peter Kurth , and that made this book sound interesting.

You might be familiar with the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia, who was the youngest daughter of the last Tsar of Russia. The family was assassinated during the communist revolution in July of  1918, but as Anastasia's body was not originally found with her sisters and parents, there had been a question (at least for many many years) if she actually escaped. There were a few women who claimed to be Grand  Duchess Anastasia, the most famous being a woman called Anna Anderson. 

This book is not only  about Anna Anderson, but is also about the actual Anastasia during some of the last days of her life. The parts about the actual Anastasia are read in chronological order going forward in time until 1918 when she was murdered. The parts about Anna Anderson go backwards in time to when she first becomes a player in this story. I liked how the author did this, especially the parts about Anna Anderson, because it developed some interesting suspense about this woman early in the novel.

I did get sucked into this book. It wasn't a heavy duty read by any means, and it is historical fiction, so even though there are some facts,  I am not certain how much is fiction versus how much is the actual history. (Although the author's notes did clear some of that up.) All through the book I was wondering 1) if the author was going to draw some conclusion about whether Anna Anderson was an imposter or if she was going to leave that up in the air. I was also wondering 2) how Anna Anderson came to call herself Anastasia. It's a pretty big task to take on someone else's life because to not be called a fraud you need to maintain that story for the rest of your life.

I liked this book, although not quite as much as I liked the other book (Code Name Helene) I read by this author. I liked that this story made me think about what was real and what was fiction. And it's a good story. I still have questions about Anna Anderson as I find that story fascinating. I either need to see if I still have the book from the 1980's that I read, or I need to find another book to find more about that woman.

And my last listen for 2023 was this memoir.

Ann Hood was a flight attendant back in the late 1970s into the 1980s. This book is about her fascination with flight while she was growing up and also about her career with the airlines. She wrote it because, as she says in preference, people are very interested and ask her lots of questions when she says she used to be a flight attendant. 

I enjoyed this book. It was a light fast paced story, and who knew how difficult it was to become a flight attendant. I'm not sure about how difficult it is now,  back in the time Ann Hood applied it meant 6 weeks at an intense flight attendant school and daily tests on what you were learning. It might be similar now, but I'm just not familiar with present day training.

 Hood's post flight attendant career is that of an author (I looked it up and she's written many books), so she expertly details what she went through  getting the job, and then what the job was like. She does a great job bringing the reader back in time, when being a "stewardess" was not considered a choice job by her college friends. They couldn't understand why a college graduate would want to be an airplane hostess and glorified waitress. Of course as you find out, being a flight attendant is more than just being an air hostess. Hood also writes about more negative sides to the job like  sexism that was part of the airline  business in the late 1970's,  the exhaustion, the annoyances with passengers and other flight attendants, but she also doesn't leave out the  fun parts. She even includes  a bit of the history of flight attendants. 

This book could have been just a tad bit shorter for my interests, yet I was never bored.  After listening to this book however,  I certainly won't look at  or think of flight attendants the same way. 

And since a year has ended, I thought I would do a brief analysis of what my books said about my reading habits in 2022.  Last year I went through my reading list and did a brief book analysis, and since it was an interesting and fun task  I thought I'd do it again. 

I was also curious to see how my books/reading/listening in 2022 compared to that in 2021. Here's my breakdown by genre count  for 2022. If you're interested, feel free to continue reading, but if not, that's OK.

nonfiction-31 (including  11 biographies, 6 traveled themed books, 5 science/nature books, and 5 art/cooking/home books)

 fiction books-24 (including 5 classics and 2 sci fi/fantasy books)

mysteries -33 (including 11 classic mysteries)

In 2021, I read 96 books, and in 2022 my count is 88. (And for those who mentioned it, no I didn't make it to the 100 books I had hoped to read. Oh well, maybe in 2023.)

 In 2021 I overwhelmingly read mysteries (44) as well as more nature/gardening books (11) and science themed books (4). But in 2021,  I only read 1 biography compared to 11 this past  year (2022).  This past year it was much more of a fairly balanced mix, except in the sci fi/fantasy genre.

 I did notice I had some reading themes/trends  going on  in 2022.  My trends are in bold and then I added the books that fit each topic afterwards. Of course some books are listed in more than 1 topic.

-historical fiction: The Air You Breath, Lessons in Chemistry, The Lioness, Miss Elia's English Kitchen, The Lincoln Highway, Her Hidden Genius, The Christie Affair, The Four Winds,  The Muralist, Cooking for Picasso, The Rose Code, Giant, The Drifters, The Kitchen Front, So Big, David Copperfield, I Was Anastasia

-books about food and/or cooking: Lessons in Chemistry, Miss Eliza's English Kitchen, Cooking for Picasso, The Kitchen Front, Untangling My Chopsticks, Long Ago in France, Taste, and even a bit of  If Walls Could Talk

-books about or being set in Japan: 3 of the Keigo Higoshino (Detective Galileo series), The Decagon House Murders, as well as 2 books by Americans studying and living in Japan-The Road through Miyama and Untangling My Chopsticks

-books having to do with Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley's biography, a collection of 4 short stories, Curtain, The Sleeping Murder, The Pale Horse, Hallow'een Party, Murder in Mesopotania

-roadtrip/travel inspired books: The Road Through Miyama, Leave Only Footprints, I Married a Dinosaur, Untangling my Chopsticks, The Vagabonds, Leaping Lena, Ms Adventure,The Lincoln Highway (in a broad sense), The Drifters

book I was able to hear the author speak about: The Lincoln Highway

-books about the British royal family: Elizabeth and Margaret, Queen Victoria's Match Making, The Queen

- books relating to or connected to World War 2: The Rose Code, The Muralist, The Kitchen Front, The Betrayal of Anne Frank, The Churchill Sisters, parts of the Queen as well as Elizabeth and Margaret and Agatha Christie biographies

-new to me authors that I really enjoyed: Donald R. Prothero (science writer), Keigo Higoshino (Japanese mystery writer), Lucy Worsley (history/biography writer), Spencer Quinn (mystery writer), Andrew Morton (biographer), Bonnie Garus (fiction writer), Edna Ferber (fiction writer), Kate Quinn (fiction writer)

-authors I read more than 1 of their books in 2022: Donald R. Prothero, Keigo Higoshino, Lucy Worsley, Spencer Quinn, Andrew Morton, Edna Ferber, Agatha Christie, Richard Osman, Lucy Foley, Ariana Franklin

-classics I read: Giant and So Big by Edna Ferber, The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather  (And I loved them all)

-series I started: The Chet and Bernie mysteries by Spencer Quinn, The Detective Galileo mysteries by Keigo Higoshino, a reread of Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series,  Aimme Leduc Paris mysteries, Elspeth Huxley African mysteries, Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries by Charles Todd

 -series I continued: Tony Hillerman's/Anne Hillerman's Leaphorn, Chee and Manualito Navajo series, Elly's Griffith's Dr. Ruth Galloway, Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody, Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club, Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache, Karen Menuhin Heathcliff Lennox books, Carol J. Penny's Witch City Mysteries, Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Miss Marple books

-books/series I want to read or get back to in 2023 : The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, the rest of Arianna Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series/including the concluding book written by her daughter, finish a reread of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books, the last Detective Galileo book to date (which is on my nightstand), More of Donna Leon's Venice mysteries, Elly Griffiths Magic Men series, Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler books, Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mysteries, as well as some Anne Perry mysteries. I also want to continue reading/rereading more Agatha Christie books. Although not a series, I want to read more of Kate Quinn's WW2 novels as well as Hawaii by James Michener. Also I've got a few more travel-biography style books I want to read, and I also want to read Demon Copperhead, Donna Tartt's Secret History, plus I received Jodi Piccoult's Mad Honey for Christmas. Plus several more on my book list. This topic could be a post on its own.

-book I was most surprised to really enjoy: Old In Art School (Nell Painter's story about attending art school after retiring was a really interesting take on what makes an artist, what going to art school teaches you, and lots of other questions. Plus I give her kudos for going back to school full time at 62, as well as handling other parts of life too.) This book was a limited time free listen on Audible and I took a chance on it-and I am very glad I did.

-longest book I read: David Copperfield (a 36+  hour listen-but worth it)

-shortest book I read/listened to: this post's  Heathcliff Lennox: France 1918

-books that were over 500 pages: David Copperfield (Charles Dickens), The Drifters (James Michener), Passage (Connie Willis)

-books I had read or listened to in the past and reread this past year:  The Mistress of the Art of Death series by Arianna Franklin,  Most of the Agatha Christie mysteries I read, Murder at Government House, David Copperfield, The Complete Birder, The Drifters, The Hobbit, The People of Darkness

-my least favorite books of the year: There's 2, although both were NOT bad books by any means as if they were, I wouldn't have continued to read them: The Christie Affair  (This book was about when Agatha Christie disappeared in 1926 for several days. I just wish the author had made all of the characters actual people who were in Christie's life at that time, even if she fictionalized what those people were up to. Instead she made a few of the main characters  totally fictional. I liked what she did with the characters and the overall story, but I didn't really like mixing the real with the imaginary. I think if you weren't familiar with the story you could easily mistake it all for having some truth.) The other book was The Air You Breath (Again, still a good  book, but it was a bit longer than I thought it needed to be and also some of it was very predictable.)

-my favorite science read: The Story of Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries

classic mysteries:  all of the Agatha Christie mysteries, Strangers on a Train, The Wall, The Woman in the Wardrobe, The Velvet Claws, Murder at Government House

-month I read the most books: April/10 and March/9

-month I read the least books: November/4

 2022 was a very good reading year. I'm hoping 2023 will be also. 

If you've made it this far, thank you for your perseverance. Any recommendations are always appreciated. I always add them to my list. 

Happy reading to you in 2023.