Hi all. Have you sprung your clocks forward? Argh, the time change always makes me feel out of step for a while, but I usually like Daylight Savings much better. Our neighbor province — British Columbia — is moving to having permanent Daylight Savings Time, so this will be its last time change. Lucky them. Apparently Arizona stays on Standard Time to conserve energy during the hot months. So it’s all about where you live. Meanwhile, all of our snow melted away last week under warm conditions … but now we’re having a full-on blizzard today, woohoo! The birds at the feeder are taking refuge. The rest of the week looks wintry too. So winter is returning for a bit. It’s supposed to officially end by March 20. But we’ll see.
And now here (above) are the books I finished last month in February. In January I finished seven but in February just four. I’m going backwards. I think it’s because I was taking the Wharton class on The House of Mirth and we had to prepare to discuss for four Fridays. We went over passages aloud and I read the novel a couple times over. I liked all of these books pictured, so it’s hard to pick a favorite, but after all that I should go with The House of Mirth.
- Crux by Gabriel Tallent was a buddy read with Tina (novel, hardback)
- The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (classic novel, ebook)
- Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (audiobook, nonfiction)
- The Typewriter and the Guillotine by Mark Braude (audiobook and hardback, finished twice)
And now here is a photo (below) of my recent book loot I picked up from the library (and the Pip Williams novel that I recently bought at the airport, lol). I won’t get to these all in March, but I can get them back another time. Have you read any of these?
- Kin by Tayari Jones (novel)
- Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China by Jung Chang (nonfiction)
- The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (novel)
- Vigil by George Saunders (novel)
- A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter (nonfiction)
- Heart Be at Peace by Donal Ryan (novel)
- The Bookbinder by Pip Williams (novel)
- Cape Fever by Nadia Davids (novel)
Currently I’m reading Jung Chang’s memoir: Fly, Wild Swans, which is a recent follow-up to her first bestselling memoir Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China from 1991. It’s quite a life story of her family’s survival during the Cultural Revolution and the years beyond.
I also borrowed the Elaine Showalter book (pictured above) since she was a guest lecturer at my last Edith Wharton class. She’s a literary expert and a former professor emeritus at Princeton University, so it was very cool to hear her speak about Wharton.
And now I’ll leave you with a couple reviews of what I finished lately. Coincidentally both of these nonfiction books (below) feature two notable female writers who both wrote for the New Yorker magazine. Go figure. Also they count towards reads I’m doing this year for the Nonfiction Reader Challenge at Book’d Out.
Joyride: A Memoir by Susan Orlean / Avid Reader / 368 pages / 2025
4.5 stars. As you might know, Susan Orlean has been a longtime nonfiction writer at the New Yorker magazine where she’s written many articles and profiles over the years on a wide variety of subjects, large and small, funny, quirky, and informative. Some became books that turned into movies like The Orchid Thief that became the movie Adaptation in 2002 and her surfer girl article was made into the movie Blue Crush in 2002.
She also wrote about Rin Tin Tin (2011), and her 2018 nonfiction The Library Book was a big hit. I saw her then at our book festival where she came to talk about it and I became a fan. She followed that with her On Animals collection in 2021, which also hooked me. Overall I can relate to her love of libraries, animals, and reading and writing.
So when her memoir came out last October, I knew I had to get to it. I listened to the audiobook version, which Orlean candidly reads. Much of the book is about her career as a writer: how she got started and went about her writing projects, as well as the publications and editors she worked for (like Tina Brown), and her subjects. Personally, she grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, with good parents and got a job after college in Portland, Oregon, at a local publication, doing music reviews for a while. But it wasn’t long before she was writing for national magazines like Rolling Stone. And in 1992, she became a staff writer at the New Yorker where she has been ever since.
Her memoir moves chronologically and openly throughout her life and career, telling things as they happened … and describing how she went about writing, her ideas, and interviews along the way. It’s safe to say she’s been all over and written on a wide variety of topics: from life in NYC to gospel singers, basketball players, back packers in Asia, animals, and travel stories and everything in between.
She’s often funny and entertaining … even if her books at times can be meandering and sprawling. I didn’t miss a beat of her memoir. If you’re interested in journalism, you’d probably like it … as most of it is about her career in the business and her ideas on writing. She mixes in her personal life as well. She’s been married twice and has one son. She once enjoyed living in N.Y.’s Hudson Valley with chickens and other animals before moving to a historical house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. And there she continues on at age 70, giving readers bits of wisdom and amusement with her written words … on things both large and small.
The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII by Mark Braude / 427 pages / 2026
3.75 stars. This nonfiction true story features an interesting brisk look into the life of Janet Flanner who was a correspondent for the New Yorker — writing the magazine’s Letter to Paris column — starting in 1925. It focuses on her years in Paris in the run-up to WWII in the 1930s … and thereafter during the war. I had not known about Flanner before, so I enjoyed finding out what she wrote and her gay personal life story.
Flanner seemed a smart trailblazer of sorts in her work as a correspondent in Paris … along with her friend Ernest Hemingway. In addition to her Letter to Paris columns, which she signed Genet, she profiled Edith Wharton for the magazine in 1929, did a two-part profile on the Queen Mary in 1935, and then wrote a three-part profile on Adolph Hitler in 1936.
Flanner was born in Indianapolis but wound up living in Paris, as a prominent member of America’s ex-patriate bohemian community. She lived with her longtime partner Solita Solano at the Hotel Napoleon Bonaparte, and later had another love interest, Noel Murphy, in the French countryside. (Her partners didn’t seem to mind about one another.) Flanner eventually left France in October 1939, out of Bordeaux and went by ship back to the U.S. She later returned once Paris was liberated in 1944 to write about the end of the war, including traveling to a couple of the concentration camps.
An alternating part of the book, which introduces the reader to a serial killer — Eugen Weidmann and his story — is a bit bamboozling … but it seems to have coincided around the same time in Paris and apparently Janet Flanner wrote about his case. Eugen Weidmann was a petty criminal from Germany who crossed over the border into France after a time in prison. His crimes there started in 1937 when he kidnapped (and later killed) a 22-year-old American tourist girl who’d come to Paris. Along with a few accomplices he then went on a crime spree of murder that eventually ended when he got caught and later went on trial. Weidmann seemed an unremorseful killer, whose crimes — apparently for money — were brutal and disturbing.
The combined narratives about Flanner and Weidmann make for a pretty revelatory account of pre-WWII Europe, providing plenty of atmosphere overseas between WWI and WWII. You get a sense of the run up to war in the 1930s — with Flanner’s exposes on the 1936 Olympics, the 1937 World’s Fair, and her frequent travels to Germany — and the rise of fascism, and what people were thinking and dreading. There are some parallels with today that I couldn’t help but notice. Flanner had quite the life and career. Apparently she didn’t retire until 1975, after nearly a half-century chronicling European life.
That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these pictured and what did you think?
I love the time change and longer light in my days but I think it confused me big time. It was about five minutes ago (and it’s 8:06 as I type this!) that I realized that today is Sunday, not Monday. My brain is scrambled.
I think I must add “The Typewriter…” to my list. That’s a period that fascinates me and while I don’t know a lot about Flanner, I know enough to know that she was in Paris during a fascinating time in history. Thanks for all the recommendations but that in particular.
Hi Jeanie, I can relate, I’m still getting used to the time change too. Once I finally get used to it … I know I’ll like DST better. I like it light after dinner time.
The Typewriter book was quite interesting about the time period and being in France pre-WWII. I think you might like it. It gave me a glimpse into the atmosphere then. Have a great week.
I enjoyed Janet Flanner’s memoir “Paris was Yesterday” which is a collection of her writings originally published in The New Yorker.
Hi Mae, thanks for letting me know about Flanner’s memoir. I was impressed by her career and life in Braude’s book … so I think I would like her memoir. She had such an interesting perspective being in France & from her travels during those days. What a life & career! Cheers. Have a great week.
Ha! It’s a New Yorker’s writers theme. Both books sound great. Nice reviews too. I read The Hounding (still haven’t written my review), and I’m starting Vigil—I already did but it felt a little complicated at the beginning so I wanted to try again. Good luck with your reading!
Hi Carmen, I guess I’m giving free PR to the New Yorker mag with these reviews, lol. It seemed a bit coincidental that both subjects wrote there. Now I’m curious what you thought of The Hounding. Is it any good? Not sure if I will get to it this time but I might. I will look to see what you think of Vigil. Saunders books can be a bit complicated it seems. I’ve only read Lincoln in the Bardo but quite a bit was going on in that book. I need to be reading more (sort of got distracted) … trying to finish Jung Chang’s book. Good luck to your reading as well.
The Hounding was a mixed bag, but others have liked it more than I did. You might as well. It had its good moments but it was much too vague to work for me. Vigil is proving complicated. It is set in the bardo too, but it feels clunky, as opposed to Lincoln’s. Or maybe I’m more tired than usual and it’s reflecting on my reading. Hard to say. This is my third book by him; I also read Liberation Day, which was a short stories collection. And I requested as an ARC A Swim in a Pond in the Rain but I have never gotten to it. I also own Pastoralia and Tenth of December. Have a nice reading week!
Hi Carmen, good to hear the report on these books. I think The Hounding can wait and not sure when I’ll read Vigil either. Perhaps Lincoln in the Bardo is better. I’ve been slow reading nonfiction lately … but plan to start Buckeye at the end of the month. Yea. I know you liked that novel. Keep up the reading!
I liked Vigil a lot. It’s clever and wise and short. But I will admit I loved Lincoln in the Bardo more, and Lincoln and Vigil have similar themes. Just my two cents.
I thought all of Canada had dropped daylight savings time. It would be wonderful if it was something we did not do here.
Hi Deb, I think Canada pretty much follows the time zones of the U.S. but now British Columbia is sticking with Daylight Savings Time (which I wouldn’t mind doing). But Alberta is with Denver in the Mountain time zone and so far will continue to switch twice a year. hmm.
I’m glad to hear your thoughts on Vigil. I was surprised that Saunders went with such similar themes & plot points with his new one. I read Lincoln & the Bardo – which was sort of unique. I’m not sure when I will get to Vigil but sometime this year. Have a great week.
I also wish we would just pick either Standard or Daylight and stick with it. I enjoy the upcoming light evenings, but dislike the (again) dark mornings.
Have a great week!
Hi Helen, yes, I think it’s hard to change time twice a year. I’m a fan of Daylight Savings Time … but then I’m pretty much retired so I don’t need to drive in a car early in the mornings when it’s dark. I like it light later. I hope you have a great week as well.
I’ve read The Bookbinder, and Jung Chang’s first memoir.
I really enjoyed reading your reviews of Joyride and the Typewriter and the Guillotine, the latter interests me slightly more.
wishing you a warmer week ahead!
Hi Shelleyrae, I think I might have heard of The Bookbinder novel from your review. I still want to read Pip Williams but not sure when I will get to it just yet. Interesting to hear too that you read Jung Chang’s first memoir … apparently it was a big success in the 1990s … but I hadn’t know of it until her 2nd memoir. It’s wonderful all her knowledge … and learning of her family’s experiences, whoa. I’m midway into it. And the Guillotine book mixed the serial killer part in pretty well … I had no idea about this person, yikes.
Enjoy your week & I will send you a snowball, lol.
Lovely photo. I like watching the birds here, I bet you get many winged visitors stopping by for a meal.
Very much enjoyed our book Crux, once I got past their teen banter. The characters were well fleshed out and complicated, not a couple of air head teens. Couldn’t put it down. I’d love to see a sequel showing them 10 years later.
On my holds/wishlist at the library is Raising Hare, The Houndling, Joyride and Heart Be at Peace. I am juggling a holds list with my personal goals this month.
The time change – That’s another promise the orange POS didn’t come through with – to eliminate the DST so we don’t change the clocks anymore.
I had trouble getting motivated to post anything this past week. Please let me know if that font change via Gmail worked. Thanks for alerting me that was an option at all!
Hi Tina, the birds seem to go crazy on snow days so I tried to capture a little of that in the photo. We had two grouse come the other day, which is a bit rare to see. I hope they come back.
I agree with you about Crux and think it would be good if the author continued the characters story. I hope he gets your letter. I wonder what he will do next.
And I will look to see what you read next … Raising Hare touched my heart a bit. See what you think of it. I’m a sap for animal stories.
Changing the time always throws me off for a week or two. But I hope to keep DST. The orange tyrant is a nut job.
You’ll have to update us on your reads for your next post & what’s coming in from the library. I have been as slow as molasses with my reading. Sigh. Have a great week.
We changed our clocks as well and an hour really shouldn’t do much but I feel jetlagged. I too prefer daylight savings time and am all for this being our permanent.
Hi Hena, hear hear. I agree we should all stick with DST time and be done with it. I do feel tired switching. What havoc. Have a great week.
Yay! You got a blizzard! Always nice to get a good storm at the end of the season, knowing that spring is right around the corner. The sun has returned here today, and I saw a deer in our backyard for the first time in a few years. He hung out for quite a while. We’ll see if he comes back tomorrow. I’ll get Rod to make sure the bird bath has fresh water for it.
My reading numbers are similar to yours. I blame it on the short month. And life’s distractions… Of the books you read, I’m most interested in Crux and Raising Hare. I’m also interested in Kin and Vigil. I haven’t read those authors, but both books are getting pretty high praise. I read Chang’s Wild Swans many, many years ago. Not sure what prompted me. I think it was sometime around 1998 or so. Maybe a book club pick. I don’t remember too much about it other than I was ready to be finished after that halfway point.
I enjoyed Susan Orelean’s The Library Book, so maybe I’ll give Joyride a try. I’ll bet my husband would enjoy it, too, since he’s a writer (and taught journalism at a high school in Oregon). I typically enjoy listening to audiobooks, but this one sounds like one I may prefer in print (for quoting passages in my review).
Enjoy your week, Susan!
Hi Lesley, good to hear. & nice to see a deer in the yard. We plan to get a bird bath once it gets warm here. I think the birds will go bonkers for it in the summer.
I look forward to seeing which books you get to. I’d like to get to Kin but not sure it will be this time. I’m still working on Chang’s new memoir. It quite interests me … as her family are survivors of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. I missed her first memoir, but I will go back for it sometime. I’m learning a bit.
And I agree. I liked Orleans’ Library Book … I had the print & audio of that. For some reason, I like hearing her read her memoir Joyride … shows her personality a little. She has a sly humor. The book is a bit long but still I enjoyed it quite a bit. See what you think. Have a good week too.
I’m feeling the time change today! Losing an hour of sleep is always hard…especially when I don’t sleep well anyway. All the kids at the school where I work were very tired and subdued today. I wish they’d pick a time and stick with it. Or maybe what I really need to do is move to Hawaii…they stay on standard time all year long, too. ;D
Hi Lark, ha. Moving to Hawaii would be good. You could surf after school. The time change has tired me out too. Let’s hope we can get used to it soon. I could switch to DST permanently (hopefully someday). Have a great week.
I’m not much of a time-change fan, but it’s mostly the “change” part that bothers me. I would be perfectly happy either way, I think, if we would just choose one or the other and stick with it.
You had an interesting reading month. Raising Hare was one of my favorite books last year, and I still think about it every once in a while when something animal-related comes up. And I have Crux all queued up for sometime the next few weeks. I didn’t know about Joyride, but since I’m a huge fan of memoirs and have enjoyed Orlean’s work before, I’ll be looking for that one too.
Hi Sam, I agree with your plan to stop changing the time twice a year. It’s hard on us folks!
And I’m really impressed that you liked Raising Hare so much. I didn’t realize you were a big animal fan but I loved that book too. I’m a sap for animals and the connection she makes with the hare was touching. It’s just a good book!
I think you’d like Joyride … since it talks quite a bit about writing in general. And I’ll be curious what you think of Crux. It’s gritty but good. See what you think.
Enjoy your week.
Yes, this time change is a little jarring and it came so early this year. Love the picture! The birds go crazy on our feeders when it snows here, too. They provide a lot of entertainment for our cats when they’re bored out of their minds being cooped up in the house. We’re having some nice spring-ish weather here, but I’m always nervous we’ll get a late snow. Hope you get some nicer weather. The Typewriter and the Guillotine sounds interesting but all over the place.
Hi Rachel, yes the birds go crazy on snow days. I always put out more food for them on those days … and I like to watch them fly around so actively.
You seem to have had a pretty mild winter this year. I think it’ll fluctuate a lot here this month. We have both mild weather and then snow. Ha.
Enjoy your week. Keep cautious about planting but I think it seems mild there.
I have read Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter and it’s a resource I go back to. Showalter lists so many American woman writers from the 19th century who wrote very successful nd popular novels in their day and yet they are forgotten.
Its kind of shocking when you think about it because ask someone to name American women writers from 1800-1899 and I know for me before I read Jury of Her Peers I could only name Louisa May Alcott, Kate Chopin and Harriet Beecher Stowe. I think you will really like Jury of Her Peers.
Hi Kathy, I’m impressed you have read Jury of Her Peers by Showalter & keep it as a resource. It’s something I need to have a permanent copy of — not just from the library. I have perused it and want to buy a copy for my shelves. It seems an amazing resource on the history of American Women Writers. Showalter also has a book on British Women Writers. I probably only know the more well known writers in the books … but would like to know of others. I was excited to get to hear Showalter (now around 85 years old) speak on Wharton. She is still sharp. It’s cool you know this book! I might wait to get to it later. Have a great week.
I really dislike the time changes, no matter which way it goes. I only heard that it was coming a few days before. Ick. The blizzard looks nice though.
I read more in February and I am not sure why. But I just recently finished my first book for March and a third of the month is gone. It was a mystery by a Canadian author, Susan Juby, and it was set on a small island off of Vancouver Island. What a nice setting.
Hi Tracy, yeah the time change has confused me this week and made me tired. I hope we can all get a handle on it soon. I enjoyed seeing the snowflakes on Sunday, lol. Winter I guess is still around.
I look forward to hearing about the Susan Juby mystery you read. I have not heard of that author before but I’m curious which island it’s set. I have been to Hornby and Denman Islands off of Vancouver Island. They’re a bit remote and nice. Beautiful at times. I hope you enjoyed it. My March is slow in the reading department too. Somehow time flying by faster than I know. Have a good week.
These look interesting! I haven’t read any of the books you mentioned except The House of Mirth.
The weather here has been gorgeous the past couple days–70-80 degrees–but today it’s snowing!! I will never understand the weather in the state where I live lol.
Hi Karis, the weather is so up & down lately eh? We have snow this week but could be in the 60s next week. What state are you in? Michigan? or Wisconsin?
It’s cool you’ve also read The House of Mirth. It took me a while to read & leave it and we’ve just started watching The Gilded Age TV series which reminds me of Lily Bart, lol. Enjoy your weekend. & hope you see the sun soon!
The Typewriter and the Guillotine sounds so interesting. I might put that on the list. The cover reminds me of The Devil and the White City, and the tone seems similar as well.
I gave up on Susan Orleans a few years ago–The Orchid Thief was interesting, but I ended up not finishing The Library Book. Tedious and self-indulgent, imo.
Congrats on your blizzard. If only we had more moisture! I’m actually maybe the only person happy with the two time changes we get each year. In the spring, I love having more light at the end of the day. In the fall, I love having more light in the morning. So, I can deal with the minor hassle twice a year.
How cool that Showalter was a guest speaker for your Wharton class. That’s awesome. I tried to read one of her books once–too dense for me at the time, but listening to her lecture would be a different experience and so valuable.
Hi Jane, yeah now that you mention it: I wonder if the author of The Typewriter book took the style of The Devil and the White City. It is similar how it alternates between a journalist and a mad person.
I guess this Orlean memoir tended to be on the more interesting side. But I know some of her writings can be sprawling things.
It’s good you are in favor of the time changes. I love Daily Savings so much. ha.
And Elaine Showalter was impressive. She’s 85 and still knows a ton. I didn’t know of her books before but now I do. I’d like to read Jury of Her Peers sometime … actually I should buy my own copy. It seems a great resource. But I haven’t had time to start it yet. Showalter knew Wharton & Lily Bart inside and out. lol.
Cheers.