Category Archives: 2025

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher Rating: ★★★★ Publication Date: August 15, 2023 Genre: fantasy Pages: 115 ReRead?: No There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story. Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right? But nothing with fairies is ever simple. Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

This is the 10th day in a row that I’ve posted here. You may recall that on August 31, I mentioned that I was dialing back my ongoing projects and that I was going to read by whim for a while. There’s a bit more to it than that, but I wanted to wait until I had gotten into a groove before posting on it further. I’m going to start by talking a book that is not Thornhedge.

A few years ago, I read this book – Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovich. I read a lot of books in this small sub-genre that I generally refer to as “books about books.” They usually rely upon some conceit or another, and often that conceit is related to a yearly project.

In Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, Nina Sankovich reads a book a day for a year. All different genres of books, without really anything to tie them together beyond the fact that she was able to read them in a single day. So, obviously, no War and Peace, no doorstoppers, nothing that exceeds around 250 pages.

I am retired and I read at a pretty good clip – about 100 pages an hour. This, I thought to myself, was something that I could do. Maybe. But did I want to? I considered it for several days and finally concluded that yeah, I think that this could be fun. So, as of September 1, I started.

The parameters are minimal: pick a book, read it, and write a post. I put out a call to a bunch of my book friends for novellas and other books that are under 300 pages and started requesting library books. I pulled a bunch of unread, shorter, books off my library shelves and put them on my book cart. I reshelved the long classics that I had been planning on reading. For the last 10 days, my morning has involved choosing a book off the book cart based on whatever it is that I feel like reading.

I bought myself a new calendar, so I have a place to track the titles.

The only other element of this is that I am trying to read mostly print books, and weaning myself off of the dreaded doomscroll. I’ve also granted that, from time to time, my life will not have time for 200 or so pages, and, on those days, a short story will suffice. I’m going to try not to repeat authors and series, but that’s not a hard and fast rule.

So far, I am enjoying myself. If it starts becoming overly burdensome – more of an albatross than a challenge – well, I reserve the right to rethink. But reading something from start to finish in what is often a single sitting has really been satisfying so far. It’s easy to get immersed in a book for an hour or two. So far, it’s been fun to sit down at the computer and bang out a post each evening.

Also, as it turns out, I can continue to read other, longer books, because as I said, I am retired and I read at a pretty good clip.

So, now to Thornhedge. This is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, with the roles of villain and victim reversed. I’ve checked out books by T. Kingfisher before (Nettle & Bone, in particular) but I’ve never actually gotten to them. I really liked this novella. It’s sweet, but with an edge. Disney is unlikely to option it for the full Disney treatment, although I think Toadling would actually be sort of great as a Disney princess.

Fall, to me, feels like the time to read fairy tales. And from that perspective, this is a perfect way to spend an hour.

The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James Rating: ★★★ Publication Date: January 1, 1896 Genre: short stories Pages: 56 ReRead?: No 'Did she know and if she knew would she speak?' The story of an unsolved literary mystery that explores what James referred to as "troubled artistic consciousness" Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Sometimes, Henry James and I don’t really get on.

In 2015, in honor of the 80th birthday of Penguin, the publisher issued a box set of (the first) 80 books in the Little Black Classics series. I saw an advertisement for the set and was immediately consumed with the overwhelming desire to own it.

I bought it, in April 2015, it was delivered and the 80 books sat on my shelf, largely untouched, for the succeeding decade. I’ve read maybe 2 of them? I definitely read The Old Nurse’s Tale by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Wife of Bath by Geoffrey Chaucer. That’s it, I think.

I was looking for something short to read tonight, before I retired to bed, after a long day of tailgating and college football and my eye fell upon the pile of tiny, black and white books. The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James is #49.

As I said at the beginning of this post, sometimes Henry James and I don’t really get on. This both was, and was not, one of those times.

The plot of the story is simple: our unnamed narrator writes a review of the newest book by celebrated author Vereker. The review is brought to Vereker’s attention and Vereker dismisses it as “the usual twaddle” within the hearing of the narrator. Upon learning that he has insulted the narrator, Vereker apologizes, and shares with our narrator that no one has ever discovered the secret that ties all of his books together – the overarching theme. The figure, as he puts it, in the carpet.

Like a Swiftie in pursuit of the meaning of a hinted at Easter egg, our unnamed narrator is consumed with trying to figure out the key and discern the figure. He shares his quest with a friend, Corvick, who becomes equally enamored of the project, along with Corvick’s fiancee, Gwendolen. Ultimately, the narrator gives it all up as a bad bet, although he remains mildly obsessed.

Eventually, Corvick wires the narrator and Gwendolen that he has figured it out. “Hurrah. Immense.” Corvick promises to reveal the secret after he has seen Vereker and confirmed the key, and married Gwendolen. Corvick dies on his honeymoon without divulging the secret. Vereker dies without divulging the secret. Gwendolen dies. Without divulging the secret.

The narrator is an old man shaking his fist at clouds. Curse you, Vereker.

As far as it goes, this is a quick little read, and isn’t quite so impenetrable as Henry James often seems. But it is a story without a resolution. As a reader, I am left wondering not what was the figure in the carpet but was there ever, actually, a figure in the carpet. Or was it all nonsense and hoohah.

I’m inclined to think the latter.

The Cat Who Saved Books
by Sosuke Natsukawa
Translated from: Japanese
Rating: ★★★★
Series: The Cat Who #1
Publication Date: February 5, 2017
Genre: magical realism
Pages: 198
ReRead?: No

The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others – and the tremendous power of books.

Grandpa used to say it all the time: 'books have tremendous power'. But what is that power really?

Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.

After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . .

Sosuke Natsukawa's international bestseller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.

Translated from the Japanese, this felt almost like a parable or a fairy tale. I also learned a new word, hikikomoro, which refers to (per wikipedia) “are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement.”

Overall, I found the book quite charming, and I enjoyed the main character, Rintaro, and his two friends who are trying mightily to pull him out of his hikikomori lifestyle and back into a community that values him more than he knows. The talking cat, Tiger the Tabby, was fun, although he didn’t have as much of a presence as I would have liked.

I am a bit puzzled by the fact that all of the books mentioned were western classics – a lot of British lit (Jane Austen, Samuel Johnson), American (John Steinbeck) and Russian (Dostoevsky). I don’t think that there was a single Japanese title identified. I am sure that Japan has it’s own supply of beloved classic literature, so I found this curious.

The bookshop at the heart of the story, Natsuki Books, Rintaro’s inheritance after the death of his grandfather, was delightful. The language used was very simplicitic, and I don’t know if this is a result of the fact that the book was translated from the Japanese, or if it was a stylistic choice on the part of the author, but either way, the book would be an easy read for a young adult reader, or for someone learning English as a second language.

Since I’ve restarted using my library, I thought that I would also restart my Monday at the Library posts. So, here we go:

Print books:

1. Frankie by Graham Norton: this was a Lucky Day random grab;
2. Crush by Ada Calhoun: this was also a random grab; I know nothing about this book;
3. One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downs: I need to get to this one before it’s due date of 9/22 because I’ve already renewed it twice and I either need to read it or return it;
4. Crimson Lake by Candice Fox: ready to return when I picked up my holds. It’s a solid mystery set in Australia and I enjoyed it;
5. A Rip Through Time by Kelley Amstrong: also ready to return. Time travel to 1850’s Edinburgh. I thought it was a lot of fun and already have the second book in the series on hold;
6. Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire: this one is also ready to go back and I’ve requested Beneath the Sugar Sky, which is book 3 in the series;
7. The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa: this one is on deck because it looks so cute;
8. We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Ishida Syou: the other Japanese cat book that also looks adorable;
9. My Death by Lisa Tuttle: from the NYRB classics series; not sure when I will get to this one, but it was intriguing. And short;
10. The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith: I’ve read a number of his Number One Ladies Detective Agency books and love them, but I’ve never read anything from this series;
11. Kindred by Octavia Butler: I cannot count the number of years that this has been on my TBR. I plan to get to it soon;
12. My House in Umbria by William Trevor: I’ve also been meaning to read some William Trevor, so I checked out this one and
13. The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor: we’ll see which one I get to, if I get to either;
14. The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright: another book by an Irish writer;
15. The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong: random grab off the shelves because I liked the cover;
16. Skeletons in the Closet by Jean-Patrick Manchette: another NYRB classic;
17. Local Girls by Alice Hoffman: I am a big fan of Alice Hoffman, reaching all the way back to Practical Magic and Turtle Moon;

Print holds awaiting pickup:

1. Tropic Moon by Georges Simenon: another NYRB classic & one of Simenon’s non-Maigret books;
2. The Child and the River by Henri Bosco: another NYRB classic that has been on my list for a while;
3. The Fire Engine that Disappeared by Maj Sowall and Per Wahloo: book 5 in the Martin Beck series; filling in a gap for me;
4. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire: book 3 in the Wayward Children series;
5. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore: this book has been everywhere since last summer. I had a digital hold for two months that was still 12 weeks away, so I decided to go with print instead;
6. When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Kelley: I was intrigued by the cover and the plot summary.

My digital check outs:

1. The End of Everything by Megan Abbott: I have only read one other book by Megan Abbott, but I thought she did a good job with characters that I loathed;
2. A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas: I’ve read the first in this series and liked it; not sure if I will actually get to this one;
3. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs: I have this in audiobook and it’s a reread; I’ve been having trouble sleeping, so I am going through my audible library at a financially unsustainable speed;
4. The Fox’s Curse by Sarah Painter: I’m still not sure about this series, but they are quick reads;
5. The Honourable Schoolboy by John LeCarre: I’m working my way through George Smiley;
6. European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss: I’m rereading the first book in this series because I remembered very little about it and I’m not sure I will be going on. This may be a catch and release;
7. Redemption Point by Candice Fox: this is the second in the Crimson Lake series. I’ll definitely get to this one before my time expires;
8. Nightmare in Pink by John MacDonald: I’ve never read anything by MacDonald but he was prolific, so I wanted to give him a try;
9. The Ward Witch by Sarah Painter: this is the first book in a different series that I think I might like better;
10. Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera: I tend not to love modern thrillers, so I’m not sure I’ll actually read this one, but the premise is interesting;
11. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss: currently reading this one; not loving it. If I don’t connect with it in another 30 pages or so, it’s going back, along with book 2 in the series;
12. The Killing Bay by Chris Ould: the second in a series set in the Faroe Islands. I love mysteries set in bleak places, so I’ll get to it eventually, just maybe not this round;
13. An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson: I only have a few days left on this checkout. Dark academia has recently taken the place of steampunk as the type of fiction I want to love more than I actually love. I’ll probably run out of time;
14. The Mapmaker’s Apprentice by C.J. Archer: not sure I’ll get to this one;
15. Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie: book 5 in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series and probably my next digital read.