The is the second novel Stranger writes about his family history during WWII. He looks into his history and learns that his grandfather was a collaborator during the war. Mostly this is the story about his wife‘s family. She is Jewish and during the war her grandmother and great-grandparents had to the escape Norway and seek refugee in Sweden like many other Jews. This is the story about their fleeing, but also about the group that helped them,

#BookReport

I continued with my advent/ seasonal read; The Christmas Chronicles and I desember

I finished An Immense World and When We Lost Our Heads

I read Simon Stranger‘s latest and The Hidden Staircase

I‘m currently reading Paris The Memoir, The Last Devil to Die (not pictured) and listening to Tom Lake

Amazing 🤩

During the pandemic I started going on works in the forest and I got a appreciation for the trees, birds, butterflies and other animals.

That is what was so great about this book that in order to understand to world of other animals, Yong find research on animals we‘re already familiar with like dogs, birds, butterflies, octopus and whales and more.

And it‘s so interesting to learn more about the world of other animals and try

Montreal 1873, rich Marie Antoine and a less wealthier Sadie Arnett, are 12 yrs old and best friends, doing everything ting together. This leads to an incident and Sadie are sent off to boarding school in England for 9 yrs. How are those 9 yrs apart? And what will happen when they are both in the same city again? And how will that incident effect their lives?

I love O‘Neill and she had me hooked from the first paragraph.

The 5th book about Grandma and the 8 children.

This begins as the school year ends and summer starts. The children takes it in turn to look after the cow. And a new road is built through the forest and near the house in the woods.

#1980 #192025
@Librarybelle

For me the best way to describe what these short stories are about is to use Arthur Phillips‘ words from the first few pages with praise: “But she also knows things we all know: what it feels like to be in love, to want to be in love, to be alone, to want to be alone, to be disappointed in people, to try again.”

#BookSpin November @TheAromaofBooks

#WeeklyForecast

I will continue with my Advent/ seasonal reads The Christmas Chronicles and I desember

I will hopefully finish An Immense World and start Paris The Memoir

I will finish When We Lost Our Heads, hopefully read Simon Stranger‘s latest as well and get a start on The Hidden Staircase

I have some plans after work this week so I‘ll see how it goes.

My last #BookSpinBingo card of the year is ready

My #BookSpin is the second Nancy Drew that I‘m reading with #NancyDrewBR

My #DoubleSpin is a republished book that has gotten a lot of buzz on BookTube and that I just bought

Once again, an early #BookReport from me

I continued reading The Christmas Chronicles and An Immense World.

I finished The Secret of the Old Clock, Get in Trouble and on audio the tagged

I‘m about halfway into When We Lost Our Heads

My last #BookSpin, #DoubleSpin and #BookSpinBingo list is ready in time for tomorrow‘s numbers

December how fast you sneaked upon me, what happened with this year?

The illustration is by Lisa Aisato titled Nysnø (translated New Snow)

Now that‘s a first sentence, absolutely pulled me in

#FirstLineFridays

The habit of kissing under the mistletoe is curiously English. We seem to have conveniently forgotten that a berry should be picked each time a kiss is given, and once the berries are no more, then so are the kisses.

(Funnily enough, this never comes up in all the Christmas rom-coms I watch before Christmas)

To see Fornum & Main‘s Christmas windows is to step into the pages of a book of fairy tales. Each year they glisten and sparkle, like frost in a topiary garden, a scene of old-fashioned wonder and delight.

I‘ll meet you outside Fortnum‘s means you will have something more interesting to look at than your phone.
Among the most memorable were those based on illustrations by Kristjana Williams and featuring tree hundred paper birds, leaves and

The winner of this year‘s Booker Prize

I book I‘ve actually read and given the subject matter I‘m not sure enjoyed is the right word, but it‘s scary and makes you think

The book finally arrived from the library. I haven‘t read Nancy Drew since my teens so this was a trip down memory lane

Nancy gets interested in a missing will since this will stick it to two sisters from school she doesn‘t like

All the cliffhanger endings kept the story moving and I had to read on. It probably wasn‘t as scary as it would have been in my teens, but still an enjoyable read

#1930 #192025

#WeeklyForecast

I want to continue The Christmas Chronicles

I want to finish my listen of the tagged and I‘m thinking about maybe starting Septology 1, apparently the Norwegian audio is amazing and I should probably get to some Fosse.

I want to continue An Immense World, this is taking longer than planned but is so full of information that I don‘t want to rush it

I want to finish both The Secret of the Old Clock and Get in Trouble

With foreboding, Nancy stopped and got out to make an inspection. As she had suspected, a rear tire was flat.
“Oh dear!” she murmured in disgust. “Such luck!”
Through Nancy was able to change a tire, she never relished the task. Quickly she took out the spare tire from the rear compartment, found the jack and lug wrench, and went to work.

(This must have been quite progressive in 1930. I also love these illustrations that show up occasionally)

From the story “Origin Story”

I never noticed this, maybe it‘s time for another rewatch?

#BookReport

I finished A Glass of Blessings, and read both Shame and Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew‘d

I continued with the seasonal read The Christmas Chronicles, An Immense World and my audio of the tagged

And I have started Get in Trouble

The 8th Flavia book and she is back at beloved Buckshaw, only to learn that her father is sick. She hasn‘t been long home either when she stumbles across a dead man, hanging upside down in his own home. Who killed him? Is the man who he has said he is? And what is the connection to the famous author Oliver Inchbald? Flavia has her hands full in this one.

The first Pym I read was with #PemberLittens so when this was a #HashtagBrigade read, I knew I had to join in. I love Pym‘s writing and her ability to see the interesting in the everyday

Wilmet is a 30-something, married woman with no children. She is trying to fill her days with things to do, and in 50s that‘s not always easy

And the cover, at first glimpse I thought the women was holding a Christmas three ornament, but I now I know better

Generally I don‘t like short books, and then there‘s Ernaux. It‘s hard to explain, but she has a way with words that just pulls you in. In this one she explores the shame after her father tried to kill her mother. The day was 15th June 1952. A day that forever changed her and she is trying to look at that through the society she lived in at home, at school and its aftermaths.

In Ireland, a new law has been passed giving the new government more power. Larry is a trade unionist who goes missing after a demonstration, leaving his wife to keep the family together and take care of the kids. This might prove harder than imagined as the situation spins out of control and war breaks out.

With everything happening in the world this book shows how it is to live in a war zone and the choices people make.

Nora works as an agent for authors. Her most famous author had placed the setting of one of her most famous books in Sunshine Falls. One day Nora‘s sister decides that they should go on a sister trip there for 4 weeks. Once there, Nora meets an editor she has meet before and didn‘t like. Maybe things will change this time? And will Nora manage to relax for 4 weeks?

#WeeklyForecast

I want to finish the buddy read A Glass of Blessings and continue the seasonal read The Christmas Chronicles

I want to continue An Immense World and my listen of the tagged

I want to read Shame and Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew‘d and hopefully get a start on Get in Trouble

#BookReport

I kept up with the buddy read A Glass of Blessings and the seasonal read The Christmas Chronicles

I finished How to Protect Bookstores and Why and Book Lovers

I finished the audio of En liten takk fra Anton and started the next book in the series, tagged

I‘m currently reading An Immense World and Prophet Song

‘Will your colleague be at home this afternoon?‘ I asked, as we stood on an island amid a swirl of trolley buses.
‘My colleague?‘
‘The person you share the flat with.‘

[…]

‘You always said you that I lived with a colleague. But aren‘t we all colleagues, in a sense, in the this grim business log getting through life as best we can?‘

(Are we finally getting our suspicions confirmed?)

Looking at 11 different bookstores, mostly in the Midwest due to budget, Caine looks at different steps to take to protect bookstores. It‘s from things any book lover can do like follow stores on social media, get newsletters and show up for free events. But also structural things like making it easier to get loans and start a bookstore. This is where Shakespeare and Co. comes in. France has a fixed price on books that helps protect the books.

After reading chapter 15, this cover‘s meaning is beginning to be a little bit clearer to me.

The 4th book about Grandma and her eight grandchildren

This one is set in the days before Christmas, Christmas and New Year‘s. So I probably read this a little too soon

Just before Christmas, a taxi arrives to the house in the woods. The family isn‘t expecting anyone. It turns out that it‘s the son of the couple the family switched houses with. So they all try to give Anton the best Christmas they can.

When the bookstores you visited in NYC are mentioned in your current read 😍😍😍

On her way to meet a friend, a 9 month or woman is hit by a car. She leaves behind a grieving husband and the miraculous baby that survived. Her widower tries to move in when he notices a mysterious man following him.

At the same time we also meet several of their friends and family.

A book about grief and moving on, and a book about love and jealousy.

Books:

“There‘s always something too good to read”

Don‘t we all know it?

#WeeklyForecast

I want to continue with the buddy read of A Glass of Blessings and the seasonal read The Christmas Chronicles

I want to finish How to Protect Bookstores and Why, and hopefully get a start on An Immense World

I want to finish the tagged on audio and start a new audiobook, hopefully the next in the series

I want to finish Book Lovers and start The Prophet Song

#BookReport

I kept up with the buddy reading of A Glass of Blessings and the seasonal read The Christmas Chronicles

I continued with my reading of How to Protect Bookstores and Why and my listening of the tagged book

I finished Kallmyren, read The Haunting of Henry Twist and I‘m currently reading Book Lovers

And now I‘m at the hairdresser get my hair done.

As we came up to the clergy house I saw the notice about not ringing unless on urgent business. But there was hardly time to consider whether we should ring or not, for the moment we set foot on the doorstep I noticed a curtain at a ground floor window being flicked aside and heard footsteps within. Evidently Mr Bason had been watching for our arrival in a rather Cranfordian way.

But in the meantime there was the excitement, which I still felt, of the Christmas post arriving two or three times a day in the week before Christmas Day.

[Those were the days. We get post every other day. Picture is found online]

I‘m just wondering, how boring is your life when giving blood is exciting?

These numbers are insane and I had no idea that the differences were this big. It only goes to show that where you shop matters

This is the 2nd crime book in Marklund‘s series set in Northern Sweden.

In this village, there‘s a military test center that is rented out to other nations. This draws a lot of foreigners, keeping the village alive. When the police chef‘s son get a promotion on the center, he gets a warning not to take it. The problem is that this is signed in his mum‘s special way, a mom that has been presumed dead for 30yrs.

This seems oddly familiar, deciding on the next reads before the current is finished

A woman is walking down a hotel corridor. How did she end up there? As we learn that, we also have Babysitter lurking in the background. A serial killer operating in Detroit in 1976/ 77 who killed children. Are these things connected?

I‘m easily scared, but it‘s been a long time since I‘ve been this scared while reading. The mixture of not wanting to find out what happens but at the same time you need to keep on reading.

#WeeklyForecast

I want to continue with the buddy reading of A Glass of Blessings and my seasonal read The Christmas Chronicles

I want to finish Kallmyren

I want to continue listening to the tagged

I want to start How to Protect Bookstores and Why, and The Haunting of Henry Twist

#BookReport

I‘ve started the buddy read of A Glass of Blessings, and I‘ve started the seasonal read of The Christmas Chronicles

I finished My Men, Appointed with Death and Babysitter

I‘m currently reading Kallmyren and I‘ve started a new audio, the tagged

The perfect book to ease myself into nonfiction November, this fictional story of American‘s first female serial killer. Following her from her childhood in Norway and her immigrant experience. Born this way or made this way? To me she seems extremely religious, but that‘s probably the times. She‘s also a woman in a man‘s world.

I love it when a character in a previous book is mentioned and you get a little glimpse into their life now.

On his first night in Jerusalem, Poirot overhears a man telling someone that she has to be killed. Then Poirot travels to Petra along with several others, among them the Boynton family. While there, Mrs Boynton is found dead and Poirot decides to find out if it was murder and if so, who did it?

Once again, Christie had me fooled, because I didn‘t see that ending coming. Even if I have seen the TV dramatization

Hugh Fraser is an amazing narrator

The 11th book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series.

Set in March 2020 as Norway is closing down. A woman has been found in a car, dead and face missing. The owner of the car has an heart attack when he discovers it, so clearly he is, so who is she and who killed her?

At the same time Hanne has submitted a crime novel to a publishing house and is getting to know her editor.

November‘s #BookSpinBingo card is ready

#BookSpin is a short story collection that seems fitting for the season

#DoubleSpin is the 2nd book in Marklund‘s newest crime series. The book is out on a speedy, non renewable loan, due back on Monday and I haven‘t even started it jet. There‘s nothing wrong with my current read, but the Hallmark Christmas movies are finally on the TV, and have been watching some movies and my reading has slowed down

‘Today, during the service,‘ I said, ‘the telephone rang in the vestry, and that apparently was the answer to our prayers. We had been praying for a suitable assistant priest,‘ I explained.

(I love Pym‘s dryness. The picture is found online)