October Books

      Hi everyone. Today I'm sharing my October books. Funny how some months I  read more actual books and some months I listen more. This month  I listened to more books, but if you look at the whole month of book choices, they're definitely all over the place once again.

     And fair warning, since I write this post so I can look back and see what I read, this is a long post. (You might also have those moments when you think oh that book sounds familiar, I wonder if I read it?)

     For my first book I had to find something both the hubby and I wouldn't mind listening to. It's not always easy to do that, but this is what we decided on.

     On our way home from Canada my husband and I started listening to this book. We've also listened to it when we've been out together, although it took us almost all month to finish it.  Have you watched this series about Oak Island, Nova Scotia on the History Channel? Supposedly, there is a treasure buried on this island, but it's not just buried. It's down well over 100 feet in a chamber that's constructed of wood and cement. Not only have people have been looking for this treasure for several hundred years, but there's lots of hypotheses who actually buried the treasure there.

     I enjoyed this book because it goes into the history of not only the supposed treasure, but also of Oak Island and the area around it. It talks about the native Mi'kmaq people, the earliest settlements, and how a lot of people from New England immigrated to that area, especially after the American Revolutionary War if they had British sympathies. O'Connor also discusses the potential treasure too. Who could have build such a complicated vault? Was it pirates? There are people who believe that Sir Francis Bacon, an  intellectual who was part of Queen Elizabeth's I court, was actually the author of all  of Shakespeare works, and they think all his original writings (including the original Shakespeare plays) are buried in this vault.  Plus there's mention of Vikings, Templars and a few other groups.

    The author discusses all the many attempts to find the treasure also. He starts in the late 1700's, when a couple of local boys found some disturbed earth, and he goes all the way up to the very in-depth dig now going on and shown on the TV show on the History channel. On the show, at least at the date I have written this post, no big treasure has been found. However I find the archaeology going on and what they have uncovered (which is a lot) tells a very interesting story and is a  treasure  in itself. 

     I thought this book was just going to repeat a lot of what you learn watching the TV show, but in fact, it doesn't. And it still has a bit of the build up that the show has too. I liked it, and if you like buried treasure or the History channel program, you might enjoy this book also.

      ***

    These next 3 books were actually short novellas that I listened to. All three stories came to just over 7 hours and were an audio collection.  I don't think I'd ever listened to or read any Catherine Coulter books before. As a whole, they were fun, peppered with some spooky tension, light reading and definitely seasonal for Halloween without being too frightening or gory.

     In this novella you meet Grayson Sherbrooke, a man who writes scary stories back in the 1840's. Not only does he write this type of book, but he lives these scary stories too.   In this story Grayson's neighbors have a ghost who visits and causes havoc. The elderly man of the house (known as the Great) feels it is unsafe for his granddaughter  to remain in the house with this ghost around, so the granddaughter asks Grayson for help because she doesn't want to leave.

       This was my least favorite of the 3 stories, mainly because of the reader's (Anne Flosnik)  voice when she was the granddaughter. PK, the granddaughter, had a lot of spoken parts in this story. I almost stopped here. But since this novella was just the right depth to listen to while I worked on some art and the story itself was pretty good, I figured I'd move onto the next one. And I'm glad I continued  because I enjoyed the next stories. Plus I like how the main characters continue forward.

    Grayson has now gone to Scotland to visit his aunt and uncle. On his way, he is waylaid by a spirit, and he realizes when he arrives at his relatives' home that he has missed a whole day of his life. When he explains this to his relatives they not only tell him about 2 different female spirits, but he then goes to a party and meets these spirits. He needs to stop them from stealing his uncle's soul, and with the help of a good ghost, he's able to do what he needs to do.

    This was my favorite story of the 3 in this collection. It had some great gothic-style details without being gory. The 2 malicious spirits were creepy and well done.  I also liked how Grayson and some other characters continued from book one in this series. Setting this tale in the past makes this story a satisfactory ghost story too. 

  

     This is the third and last novella in this collection, although Coulter has written a few more of these tales. This time widower Grayson, as well his young son Pip, his new girlfriend Miranda, her daughter PK, as well Barnaby,  a young formerly homeless boy who is now part of the family,  are  visiting some friends of Grayson's family. You meet all of these characters in book 1. 

    Lord Lyle has a huge collection of Egyptian artifacts, and Grayson sees the spirit of a child when he is viewing them. He also quite suddenly has the ability to read hieroglyphics, at least much better than  he realized. Should he open the sarcophagus in Lord Lyle's collection? And then there is his nightmare that takes him back to Ancient Egypt.

     This was another fun ( slightly spooky-but nothing to keep you awake at night) story in this series. If you’re looking for something really scary, these would most likely not be what you want. Although the stories don't have the same depth and build up that a novel length book would have, I thought they had just enough detail to get to the point. And reading 3 of them in a row is like reading a novel as each story continues the lives of the main and secondary characters. 

***

     I like to listen to Ann Patchett's book recommendations on Facebook, and although I'm not sure I hear them in actual chronological timeliness, I recently listened to one where she recommended this book, Bridesead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. In fact, she wanted to bake a lemon cake, so instead of reading the actual book she listened to this version narrated by Jeremy Irons. And she loved it. She also said she'd read this book in her twenties, but it was now time to get back to it again.

     I also read this book back in my 20's, (although I can't remember anything about it), and I found I already had the Jeremy Irons recording in my Audible account, so this became my next listen. 

     The book's main character and story teller is Charles Ryder. He starts (and ends) the story with his time during the Second World War, and how he comes across an estate called Brideshead. At once he knows it, as it was the home of his close university friend Sebastian. The story then focuses on  Ryder's life and especially on his relationship ship with Sebastian and the rest of Sebastian’s family. 

     Jeremy Irons did a fantastic  job reading this book.  I had a hard time turning it off.  However,(and this is a BIG however) I didn’t exactly like the story.  It’s about a dysfunctional family where there’s alcoholism. And religion plays a big part of this novel also. The story is rather sad and leaves you feeling almost helpless or even hopeless when it comes to these characters. Although not totally dark, it is not a colorful nor warm story at all. 

   This book was a really well written and composed story. The characters  and their issues are well developed, and even though they might be recommended for emotional help in our time, the stiff upper lip that was cliche of  upper economic British society  screams at you. I can see why it is said that this is Evelyn's Waugh's masterpiece. I'm glad I listened to it, and in some ways it would be a great book to discuss at a book group. I would have to preference any recommendations that you don't read this book when you're feeling dark or hopeless however. 

***

     Murder at Mallowan Hall is a well written cozy mystery, book 1 of the Phyllida Bright series. Phyllida Bright is the head housekeeper and good friend of the house's owner who is none other than Agatha Christie. You learn that the 2 women worked together back during the First World War and became friends. Later on, once the successful Agatha had married archaeologist Max Mallowan  and bought the fictional Mallowan Hall, Agatha  hired Phyllida to manage the house and all the staff.

    The book starts off with a murder, when a man who claims to be a reporter is found murdered by Phyllida. He's died from being stabbed in the neck with a fountain pen. 

      This story has a few real people characters including Agatha Christie and her husband Max. Most of it is a well contrived set of fictional characters and a setting that never really existed, but definitely could. Christie never actually had a murder in any of her homes, but it's a fun thought to wonder what it would be like if she did. 

      Although I liked the characters in this story, I was a little disappointed that Agatha and her husband were just secondary players. I would have liked them to be more important. I also hope the future books (because there are other books in this series) don't spend quite as much time with Phyllida  in the head housekeeper role. In some ways it was a little too Downtown Abby, but I get why the author did this, especially in book 1.  It would be fun to see her as just Phyllida (versus head housekeeper Phyllida). But overall, this was a fun read, and I didn’t guess who the murderer was. I'm sure you'll be seeing other books from this series in my future book posts. 

***

      Reading Murder at Mallowan Hall made me decide it was time for another  actual Agatha Christie murder mystery. I receive a monthly email newsletter called Agatha Christie News, and in October they had a list of the spookiest Christie books. This  book, Endless Night, was on the list, and when I searched my bookshelves for one of those spookier reads, this was the first one  I came across.

    Michael Rogers is someone who has become a bit of a drifter and can't settle into a serious job or career for long. However, one day he spies an old house called The Towers that is also called Gipsey Acres by the locals. It's supposedly cursed, but he wants it. Just like he wants Ellie (Fenella Guteman), whom he meets and quickly  falls in love with when he sees her near the house.

     Mike and Ellie get married. When Mike learns that Ellie is very very rich, it means they can build their dream house. They use the architect who is Mike's friend named Rudolf Santonix, and they build on the land where the Towers/Gipsey Acre was located, even though the locals tell them the land is cursed.  When they move in Ellie wants her companion Greta to join them, but Mike  resists that idea. There's also a woman whom every one calls a gypsy who warns them not to stay there. She even tells Ellie she sees death in her future.

     This Christie novel from 1967 was indeed spooky,  not with spooky ghosts or vampires but with lots of tension and people  you wonder about. And then there's the  curse, the crazy gypsy as well as, of course, a murder. Well more than one.  And a very nice twist too. I enjoyed this book.

***

    I haven’t quite finished this next book which I started to read towards the end of the month. Then I put it down for a bit, and then I went back to it before putting it down another time. 

   Virginia Hall was an American who worked for the state department in the 1930s.  She became very frustrated when she couldn't advance beyond the secretarial area, and so she switched roles and ended up working for the British as a spy inside of France during the Second World War. In fact she became one of the most successful spies during the war, even with one partially amputated leg and being female in a man’s world. 

    I don’t know what it was about this book (or about me), but I had a hard time staying with it.   It seemed like the author just didn’t have enough depth to work with, and although the story had some extremely fascinating parts, and although I learned a lot, it never fully grabbed my attention. I wanted more character development about Hall than I was finding. I actually hope to finish it one day when it might capture my attention more, but with so many other things to read, I decided not to force myself  to continue reading it at the moment. 

  I managed to get halfway through the book (around 200 pages), and I’m mentioning it here in case you’ve read it and enjoyed it so maybe you can muster my attention back to finish it.  I hate not finishing books that I get quite a ways into, but I also hate avoiding a book because it’s not interesting me. Making the decision to put a book aside that I’ve already invested time and energy into always makes me feel  like I failed it, not that it failed me. 

  

***

      This book popped up in an Audible email because I follow Elly Griffiths. It is a collection of 19 short stories she has written, and as I read, these stories are collected together for the first time. I'm not usually a big short story reader, but I decided to listen to this collection  because some of the stories sounded a little bit spooky and mostly because  there were some stories that included characters from her mystery series that I love. These include magician Max Mephisto from her set in the past Brighton mystery series and also Ruth, Kate, Nelson, and Cathbad (as well as others) from her Ruth Galloway archaeological series.  Those of you who have read her books know that she finished the Ruth Galloway series with book 15 last year, and I was excited to get some new"stories" about those characters. (As well as a couple of older ones new to me.)

    I enjoyed this collection. Some of the stories are better than others, and some are quite short. There's a big variety of settings and characters. I really enjoyed the post book 15 story with Ruth and Nelson, and I also enjoyed the little "fact check" at the end of some of the tales. Some stories are even told through the eyes of Flint, Ruth Galloway's cat. This was a well put together collection of varied stories, and there's even a few stories I wouldn't mind going back and listening to again because they are just spooky enough for my taste around Halloween. One of those tales includes leaving the red light on for the ghosts in a theater.

   I like Elly Griffiths' writing, and if you do also, you might be interested in this collection.

***

    I think I was hit with a bit of reading funk in late October. It might have been because I wanted to watch (or re-watch) some very old monster movies with Halloween on the calendar. Or maybe it was feeling stuck in the spy book,  but I looked at the books in my waiting to read list and nothing excited me. If you're a reader, does that ever happen to you? It's like I needed a shut down and then a reboot to want to read.

   I looked at my bookshelves for some inspiration, and I noticed a pile of used books that I hadn't read but put there. I spied this book, My Life From Scratch, a sort of autobiography/baking story published in 2010. I decided this was my reboot book. Why? It was different from most of what I'd been reading. It was short, with short chapters, and it was about baking, which is something I think a lot about in the fall and winter.

   The author, Gesine Bullock-Prado, finished law school and went to Hollywood to work for her sister's production company. I'm not a Hollywood watcher, so the name didn't even click in my head ( I actually had to look it up 😏), but her sister is Sandra Bullock. Big star, big production company, a lot of Hollywood stuff. But Gesine wasn't 100% happy, and her way of dealing with all the rigmarole was to bake.

    Eventually Gesine leaves, moves to Vermont and opens a bakery. That is a huge change of scenery and life style too.  I wouldn't want to be a professional baker, but I would rather work in a bakery than in Hollywood. And I'd rather live in Vermont than Hollywood too. She had me with her first recipe, actually her first story about being in Germany where her famous German opera singer mother was performing. 

    Having lived in New England all my life, it's interesting to read how people who move here from away see it. It was also interesting to read about choices people make and where that takes them. This book takes you through the start of the bakery and many other topics. Not exactly in chronological order, but each chapter is short story with a recipe included at the end.  And just in case this book sounds familiar, this book was also published under the title Confections of a Closet Master Baker.

***

   My next and final listen was a long one, over 30 hours, and is book 2 in Ken Follett's Century Trilogy. I listened to book one, The Fall of Giants, back in August.  This book picks up a few years after book 1 ends, so we've gone from the 1920's into the early 1930's. You get to meet up with the characters from book 1 again, and  you meet their children too. Those children become the main characters of this next volume.

     In this book the fascists under Hitler and his brown shirts are taking over Germany. The Spanish Civil War is happening. England and the United States are watching world events, with their own political events happening.  This book is long enough that it continues into World War 2 starting with the German invasion of Poland. I like how Follett doesn't just focus on the war, but on people's lives around the war. Once again we have the same families in Germany, England, Wales, the US and Russia as we did in the first book with a few new characters added. 

     Follett does an excellent job of connecting these people to each other as he did in book 1. He also does a good job of not just focusing on the big political picture, but on individual lives and events that are either related to the war or in some cases, have nothing to do with the war. 

    And although I have not quite finished this book (under 4 hours to go), it's only because this book was so long. Unlike the spy book I mentioned earlier in this post, this one was hard to turn off. It did take me just a bit to get into the main characters (because I was still thinking of the main characters in book 1), but once I did, this story kept me riveted to it. It will be interesting to listen to the last book to see what happens to these families at the end of the 20th century, but first I have a few other books I want to get through or maybe I'll go straight to book 3 once this book is done. We'll see how I feel when I get through the last few chapters of this book whether I'm up for another long listen right off  or not.

***

     My final read for the month was some of the short stories from this collection. It was right around Halloween at this point, and even though Poe wasn't writing just for the spooky season, some of his stories are pretty scary.  Like The Black Cat where a murdered woman and her living cat are bricked up into a wall.  He's also got some great detective style stories; if I remember correctly from back in college, he was the first  American writer to write detective style stories like The Purloin Letter. 

  For those of you who don't know the name, Poe was an early American writer. He lived between 1809-1849, and I believe he had a bit of a substance issue. His stories were quite unique for the time, and of the ones I read, still are scary today.   I actually enjoyed his stories more than I did back in my younger days. I love how there are lots of short stories here, so even though I didn't read them all, I have many to go back to in the future.

    That's it for me this month. As I always say, if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them. My to-read list is long, but as you can tell, I do enjoy a variety of reads.