I'm no flonker

History buffs and sports enthusiasts will enjoy this little book full of information about those games that are no longer played and/or lost to obscurity (usually for a very good reason). The vast majority feature cruelty to animals which I suppose one could expect from a book titled Fox Tossing and Other Forgotten and Dangerous Sports, Pastimes, and Games but boy was it brutal. Bears, rats, dogs, cats, and even tortoises weren't exempt from the savagery of man. Besides the sports that featured the capture, suffering, and eventual death of animals there were those that were just plain idiotically dangerous. For example, would you like to participate in a rousing game of Human Fishing whereby you are the fish attached to a fishing line with another person trying to reel you in? What about Waterfall-Riding over Niagara in a barrel? Of course, you could always play it safe and indulge in everyone's favorite past-time of Dwile Flonking where a person who is blindfolded tries to hit his friends with a mop soaked in beer. Yes, this was a real thing.

While I enjoyed learning about the different past-times enjoyed by people all over the world through the ages the sheer amount that relied on the maltreatment of animals made this not exactly a fun read. Information = 10/10 Fun reading experience = 5/10

Source: Amazon

What I'm currently reading: ????

**If you're interested in buying any of these books or any books really, you can click here. This will re-direct you to AbeBooks which is a site I use all of the time to find used books at an excellent price. A lot of the time I don't even pay for shipping! Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made through this link. You will not be charged anything additional for my commission. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) ** 

A jam-packed day

Today I'd like to talk about Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. [A/N: A little over 10 years ago a film based on the book was released with Amy Adams and Frances McDormand so you may be familiar with the plot.] The story follows Miss Pettigrew who is a down-on-her-luck governess looking for work. It seems that life has only been full of disappointments and drudgery for this single lady so when she glimpses an opportunity to escape her mundane existence she grabs it. Can you blame her? While she's been a straitlaced genteel sort of person her whole life, Miss Pettigrew soon finds herself in surprisingly compromising situations when she enters the world of Delysia LaFosse. Not only is Miss LaFosse a Nightclub Singer but she's currently juggling 3 men without much success of permanent happiness. THREE MEN?! Miss Pettigrew is aghast and agog but she's also thoroughly enchanted and she soon decides that it is her duty to set Miss LaFosse on the right path and make her marry one of them. And she knows exactly which one that should be (and if you've watched the film you'll know he's played by Lee Pace so YES CORRECT CHOICE).

If you're looking for a funny story about a woman who decides to throw caution to the wind and really live for the first time in her life then this might be a great choice for you. It was a really quick and entertaining read overall but there are some questionable moments that pop up now and again re Jewish people and men abusing women. They crop up at the oddest moments without adding anything to the plot and in fact they make the reading experience somewhat jarring which knocks down the rating to a 6/10 for me.

PS I loved the formatting of this book which was broken up by the hours of the day reinforcing that all of the action of the story takes place in one day. A super quick read!

Source: Goodreads

What I'm currently reading: Fox Tossing and Other Forgotten and Dangerous Sports, Pastimes, and Games by Edward Brooke-Hitching

**If you're interested in buying any of these books or any books really, you can click here. This will re-direct you to AbeBooks which is a site I use all of the time to find used books at an excellent price. A lot of the time I don't even pay for shipping! Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made through this link. You will not be charged anything additional for my commission. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Forgotten but not gone

Not the cover I had but the one I prefer. [Source: Amazon.com]

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox centers on 3 women and spans two different time periods. Much of it is quite disjointed (purposefully so I reckon) and there's quite a bit of jumping around between points of view and time periods. And there are no chapter breaks so this flip flopping is accomplished through page breaks instead. The reader follows Iris, Esme, and Kitty in the present day as well as their remembrances of past events. Iris is a young woman running a secondhand clothing store who has a very unusual romantic life. (I thought about adding this to the trigger warning at the bottom but in the end decided not to. You'll have to read the book for yourself to see if you agree with my decision.) Kitty is Iris's grandmother who is suffering from Alzheimer's and living in a nursing home. Her POV is full of jumbled and incomplete recollections from her past. Many of those revolve around her sister Esme who is certainly billed as the primary character but is the one I feel like I didn't fully comprehend. I'm afraid of giving too much away but since this is in the blurb I feel like it's okay to tell you that when we meet Esme in the present day she has been locked away in a psychiatric hospital for SIXTY-ONE YEARS. Let that sink in for a moment. O'Farrell is clearly looking to start a discussion about the injustices women suffered not so long ago when they were shut away in these institutions by their families for infractions like crying too much, talking back to their husbands, or disobedience to their parents. (I'd be in a lot of trouble if I lived back then.) I've read other books that delve into the topic of wrongful imprisonment in mental facilities (one book was nonfiction and written by a reporter who disguised herself as a patient) but none where the patient was away for so long before being released.

I picked this one up solely because I loved O'Farrell's writing in Hamnet and I wanted more of that delicious prose. This is one of her earlier works and so has a very different literary style (I'm now thinking this could be deliberate because of the subject matter). This hasn't put me off exploring more of her writing in the least. I honestly don't know if I can say that I either liked or disliked The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. It's one of those books that when you close the cover you say aloud, "What was that?". So because I'm on the fence I'm giving this one a 5/10. 😬

Trigger warning: sexual assault and enforced imprisonment.

Read this from O'Farrell about her experience researching this topic and the reaction to the book.

What I'm currently reading: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

**If you're interested in buying any of these books or any books really, you can click here. This will re-direct you to AbeBooks which is a site I use all of the time to find used books at an excellent price. A lot of the time I don't even pay for shipping! Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made through this link. You will not be charged anything additional for my commission. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Back in the saddle again with my first review of 2021!

I started a book at the end of 2020 and I closed the cover on it yesterday. It came highly recommended to me by my good friend, Karen. (Hey, Karen!) This book has been around since the 1930s and has been published in many languages and countries and yet it had never been on my radar before. I'm of course talking about How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This book began as an educational tool to accompany the classes that Carnegie was teaching on Human Relations and Public Speaking and was intended for the business professionals who were then enrolled in his courses. It has since been updated and revised multiple times as its appeal grew to encompass people from all walks of life around the globe. I confess to feeling a bit skeptical about this book and I think that's entirely due to its somewhat lofty promise on its cover.

At its core this is a philosophical book about self-confidence and the interconnectedness of the human race. The historical anecdotes were especially interesting as they ran the gamut from diplomats, politicians, and presidents to bank managers, sales clerks, and parents. While this book was originally intended for business professionals, ultimately it's helpful for anyone wanting to build confidence and interpersonal skills. There's a reason it's still popular 70 years later. 8/10

Source: Barnes & Noble

What I'm currently reading: Single. On Purpose. by John Kim and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

**If you're interested in buying any of these books or any books really, you can click here. This will re-direct you to AbeBooks which is a site I use all of the time to find used books at an excellent price. A lot of the time I don't even pay for shipping! Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made through this link. You will not be charged anything additional for my commission. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

2020 Book Roundup

I'm back, baby! I took a very extended leave of absence last year for reasons which I think need no real explaining. It was a stressful year for everyone and for me the added stress of trying to stay on top of all of the reviews I was meant to write became more burdensome than enjoyable so I took a break. 😊 So with that being said, I've decided that going forward I won't be trying to play catch up. I'll be reviewing in real-time which might mean more than one book per post or it might mean more than one post a week. I haven't decided if I'm going to stick with a Friday posting schedule or not because my work life is a bit chaotic at the moment and I don't want to commit too early and have to renege. You can either sign up to be notified when I post through Blogger or you can follow me on Twitter to know exactly when I've posted. 

Okay enough of this intro let's get on to the books I read in 2020! Spoiler alert: It was a LOT and all of the trackers I use had different final counts so I'm definitely missing a few titles. (They're most likely comics as I went on a bit of a spree and just enjoyed myself without noting anything down.) 😬 [A/N: I'm going to try to post separately about the books that I DNF'd (Did Not Finish) last year but that will most likely be up late this month as I like to write little paragraphs about why I didn't finish them which takes me ages to write up.]

1. Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness
2. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
3. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers & Luke Flowers
4. The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem (one of my faves of the year)
5. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
6. Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem
7. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
8. And be a Villain by Rex Stout
9. Homicide Trinity by Rex Stout
10. The Black Mountain by Rex Stout
11. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes (one of my faves of the year - I honestly can't believe I read this just last year)
12. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa & translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder
13. Book Love by Debbie Tung (one of my faves of the year - bought all of her other books)
14. And Four to Go by Rex Stout
15. Do You Mind if I Cancel by Gary Janetti
16. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (one of my faves of the year - bought the entire series)
17. Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks 
18. Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout
19. Quiet Girl in a Noisy World by Debbie Tung
20. Caging Skies by Christine Leunens
21. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (one of my faves of the year)
22. Before Midnight by Rex Stout
23. Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (loved it as much as the 1st in the series)
24. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (one of my faves of the year - read the week before NYC went into lockdown)
25. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge & illustrated by Chris Riddell
26. Dry Store Room No. 1 by Richard Fortey
27. Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads by Stephen T. Asma
28. In Real Life by Cory Doctorow & illustrated by Jen Wang
29. Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
30. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson (one of my faves of the year)
31. How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman (one of my faves of the year - ordered her other book about the Tudor period)
32. The Art of the English Murder by Lucy Worsley (one of my faves of the year)
33. Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert
34. The Complete Mapp and Lucia: Volume 1 by E.F. Benson 
35. Department of Mind-Blowing Theories by Tom Gauld
36. The Fragile Earth: Writing from The New Yorker on Climate Change edited by David Reminck & Henry Finder
37. Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth & Sara Lautman
38. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
39. The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
40. Sanctuary by V.V. James
41. The Last Stargazers by Emily M. Levesque
42. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson
43. White Kids by Margaret A. Hagerman
44. Small Doses by Amanda Seales
45. Making Sense by Sam Harris
46. Fossil Men by Kermit Pattison
47. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (one of my faves of the year)
48. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
49. Stargazing by Jen Wang
50. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
51. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
52. Vampires Never Get Old by multiple authors
53. The Shadows by Alex North (one of my faves of the year)
54. Trixie and Katya's Guide to Modern Womanhood by Trixie Mattel & Katya Zamolodchikova
55. Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library by Joyce Saricks
56. The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz
57. The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown (one of my faves of the year)
58. The Helpline by Katherine Collette
59. Operation Frog Effect by Sarah Scheerger (one of my faves of the year)
60. Go With the Flow by Lily Williams & Karen Schneermann
61. The Evolution Man: Or, How I Ate my Father by Roy Lewis
62. Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey
63. Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
64. The Class by Frances O'Roark Dowell
65. Hidden Universe Travel Guides: Vulcan by Dayton Ward (one of my faves of the year)
66. Dr. Mutter's Marvels by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz (one of my faves of the year)
67. Redshirts by John Scalzi
68. The Booktalker's Bible by Chappie Langemack
69. Watching the English by Kate Fox
70. Hidden Universe Travel Guides: The Klingon Empire by Dayton Ward (loved this one also)
71. The Power of Onlyness by Nilofer Merchant
72. Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce
73. The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
74. The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner
75. E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core by William Joyce
76. Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies by William Joyce
77. The Sandman and the War of Dreams by William Joyce
78. Jack Frost: The End Becomes the Beginning by William Joyce
79. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (one of my faves of the year)
80. The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall-Smith (one of my faves of the year)
81. The Talented Mr. Varg by Alexander McCall-Smith
82. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (one of my faves of the year)
83. Librarian Tales by William Ottens
84. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (one of my faves of the year)
85. The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson (one of my fave series of the year)
86. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
87. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall-Smith
88. The Island by Ragnar Jonasson
89. The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists by Alexander McCall-Smith
90. Bambert's Book of Missing Stories by Reinhardt Jung
91. The Mist by Ragnar Jonasson
92. Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones (one of my faves of the year)
93. Bowie's Bookshelf by John O'Connell
94. The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Volume One by Dorothy L. Sayers
95. The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
96. I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider (loved this so much I bought his other book)
97. The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
98. Daphne and Velma: The Vanishing Girl by Josephine Ruby (SO good that I ordered the other 2)
99. The Shape of Ideas by Grant Snider
100. Winter by Ali Smith
101. Daphne and Velma: The Dark Deception by Morgan Baden
102. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
103. Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom (one of my faves of the year)
104. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata & translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapely Takemori
105. Frontier Grit by Marianne Monson
106. Against Civility by Alex Zamalin
107. Fangs by Sarah Andersen (one of my faves of the year)
108. Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce (ended the year on a high with this one)
109. Archie Volumes 1-6
110. Afterlife with Archie Volume 1
111. Jughead Volumes 1-3
112. Jughead: The Hunger Volumes 1-3
113. Jughead: The Hunger vs. Vampironica Volume 1
114. Jughead's Time Police Volume 1
115. Vampironica Volume 1
116. Vampironica: New Blood Volume 1
117. Blossoms: 666 Volume 1
118. Star Trek: Year Five Volumes 1-2
119. Star Trek Volumes 1-13
120. Star Trek: TNG: Mirror Broken Issues 1-4
121. Star Trek: Boldly Go Volumes 1-3
122. Star Trek: Waypoint Volume 1
123. Star Trek: Alien Spotlight Volumes 1-2
124. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Volume 1
125. Star Trek: Countdown Issues 1-4
126. Star Trek: Manifest Destiny Volume 1
127. Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness Volume 1
128. Star Trek: Spock Reflections Volume 1
129. Castle Waiting Volume 1
130. Back to the Future Volumes 1-3

And the reread books:

1. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

That brings our total count to: 164 books. (I counted each individual issue and/or volume of the comics I read or at least the ones I can remember.) So there's the rundown of everything that I read over the course of last year. Happy New Year!!

**If you're interested in buying any of these books or any books really, you can click here. This will re-direct you to AbeBooks which is a site I use all of the time to find used books at an excellent price. A lot of the time I don't even pay for shipping! Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made through this link. You will not be charged anything additional for my commission. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **