A fairly solid list, but the real achievement is that I got four more states ticked off the list as I once again attempt to read a book from every US state. Still a few tricky ones to do, but I’m getting there. And in the real world, it’s fully Christmas now – the tree is decorated, presents are bought (some even distributed) and as well as the trip to A Midsummer Night’s Dream this week, I also went to the kids Christmas show at the local theatre – which is the Jolly Christmas Postman and was excllent.
It’s Tuesday again and as I said yesterday we are hurling towards the end of the year and I’m trying to finish the Reading challenges. Today’s pick covered me off for South Dakota…
It is well know that laws in the US can vary from state to state. And most people have probably read a book or watched a movie where someone goes to Reno for a quickie divorce, but what you might not have come across is the period in time where South Dakota was the location of choice for obtaining a divorce. April White’s The Divorce Colony looks at this time and some of the women who went to the frontier of the US to end their marriages.
This focuses on four society women who made the trip to Sioux Falls and the different challenges they faced. I found the women themselves fascinating as well as the quirks and tribulations of divorce laws. As social history it is fascinating and an illustration of how much has not changed as well as how much has.
My copy has is a hardback, and it’s probably going to be a special order and the Kindle price has dropped since I bought a hard copy!
The end of the year continues to hurtle towards me, as I desperately scramble to tick off those final states for read the USA 2024 – four more off the list this week but there are still a few to do. But a doable number if I keep myself at it! A good week in reading though all in all. So that’s good.
This is actually the final part of last month’s bumper crop of arrivals – I’ve been holding back in case I impulse bought any more festive books, but I think I’ve done the lot now, so I’m risking it. Here we have the Christmas Three Dahlias, the new Martha Waters Christmas book and the Most Wonderful Crime of the Year aka a locked room Christmas mystery, which since I bought it has gone into KU which is a tad frustrating but hey, the paperback is pretty.
Books bought: we will continue to not talk about it, although I did have a clear out of the bookshelves so that has improved things a little despite the amount incoming..
Books read in 2024: 375
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 741
Genuinely a really solid month in reading, mostly, but not entirely down to the holiday. I’m still quite a long way short of my 50 states though, and a fair few books short on the beat the to-read pile challenge in my journal, so I’m not sure I can complete both of them this year. Doesn’t mean I won’t try though…
Bonus picture: After writing about Avenue Q, this is from the night after that Q concert – with two of the stars, Jon Robyns and Simon Lipkin doing a late night show together in the West End. It was also wonderful.
*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 6 this month!
A mega list this week because we’ve been on holiday. It was warm and sunny and there were plenty of comfortable places for me to read books. And there was a plane ride there and back to read on too. Generally most satisfactory. Less satisfactory is the situation with the various reading challenges, but I’m going to give them my best shot in the month that I’ve got left. I’m back at work tomorrow and I’ve got a theatre trip planned this week and it’s starting to get a bit Christmas-y so we’ll see how the list looks this time next week…
After putting my hopes and wishes out there last Saturday, this week it’s the books that I think would make good gifts for people in my life. Although it should be noted that I actually have already bought the Christmas books for some of these people and they may or may not be books from this list, so if any of who who I buy for are reading this and are surprised because you thought you were getting something different, don’t panic!
First up, the stuff for my sister, who has been reading mommy blogs for twenty years and by extension content about Christianity in its many forms in America. First up The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon. McCammon is an NPR correspondent who grew up in an evangelical family in the Mid West and then went on to cover the Trump presidential campaign. It’s described as part memoir, part investigative journalism looking at the post-evangelical movement. In a similar/adjacent sort of area is This American Ex-Wife by Liz Lenz about the reality of marriage and divorce in America for women, written after Lenz’s own marriage broke up. Incidentally her first book, God Land about the competing forces of faith and politics after the 2016 election is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment.
I think True Story: What Reality TV says about Us by Danielle J Lindemann might be a pretty good gift for some of my friends. This is about American reality tv series, but we’re all people who have watched and dissected reality TV in its many forms over about two decades so I think an analysis of what it tells us about race, class and gender would give us plenty to talk about next time we hang out.
I know there are loads of people who love Parks and Recreation, so I think Welcome to Pawnee by Jim O’Heir aka Jerry/Garry/Larry would be a great gift. It’s a behind the scenes look at the show, with contributions from some of the other stars as well as the showrunners. And it gives me a great excuse to drop a Parks and Rec clip in this post! There’s also another book from the team behind Ghosts – this time it’s Ghosts: Brought to Life with a lot of behind the scenes details of how the show was made and stories from the show. It also means I can put this 10 Questions with Ghosts clip here and it gives me an excuse to watch it again and watch them crack each other up.
I always find fiction a bit harder for gifts, but I’ve flagged a bunch of new releases over the last few weeks that I think would make good gifts – from the new Richard Osman We Solve Murders and The Author’s Guide to Murder for mystery readers, The Bells of Westminster for the historical fiction, or the new Matt Haig or a couple of new translated fiction novels which might appeal too.
I’m pretty sure there’s a whole load of books I’ve forgotten, but if they come back to me, there’s enough time for me to write another post I’m running so early! Have a great weekend everyone.
A pretty good week in reading, partly because I was commuting back and forth and not staying in lining, partly because the weather was awful so going out seemed very unappealing. I’ve started on the Christmas-themed reading now too, so there’ll be some more on that front coming too. And as you can see, I have now read the actual book of Rivals…
I mentioned back in the Christmas series post that we have another Royal Spyness novel this winter – and I wanted to give it another mention because the series has been creeping its way towards the Abdication crisis since at least book eleven and the blurb for book eighteen suggests we’ve finally hit the height of it all. In We Three Queens we’re in late 1936 and Georgie is at the centre of it all- with Wallis Simpson staying at her house while the King figures out what he wants to do – while at the same time a film crew have been given permission to shoot a movie there by her step-father Sir Hubert. And of course Mrs Simpson needs to be kept out of sight – and Georgie still has a newborn to deal with.
And of course if you want to know more about the series, you can go back and read my other posts about it – you can find them here and here.
A steady old week in Reading and a very busy week in life. So I suppose I’ve done OK all things considered. And Kiss Me, Kate was wonderful at the cinema too yesterday afternoon so that was delightful as well.
Another preorder turned up, and one other acquired. Oopsie
Bonus picture: The British Museum as I walked past on my way back from a comedy gig one night last week. I can’t pass it without thinking about Amelia and Emerson…
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 