If you know a little French, there’s Mots d’Heures. English translation and commentary is provided, so you don’t need to understand much French, just how to pronounce the words.

A young niece is about to be gifted a copy of Who’s Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Jean Fritz with illustrations by Sally Wern Comport. I was invited to quickly read it before mother mails it off as it pertains to all of our family history. It reads like a biography, but is rightly classified as fiction as the author confesses to a lot of interpolating between sparse historical records to make a child-friendly story. It’s probably a little too advanced for a 1st grader, but in a few more years she might read it.

Finished up Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass. It’s more fun for people familiar enough with Oak Ridge to recognize some of the landmarks. I do know Oak Ridge, but not as well as the person who recommended this book to me.

I think up next is going to be Purity by Jonathan Franzen who is a new author for me. The title character and most of the people she meets in the first 50 pages are, if not complete basket cases, deeply flawed humans, so it might get interesting.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo. It’s an interesting look into Manchurian folklore, with Snow’s explanations about how fox-girls like her see the human world, navigating potentially dangerous interactions with superstitious humans. The lady who sold it to me said it was excellent, but I’ll have to see how it ends before saying if I agree.

It’s a match for the ‘Supplementary’ bingo square, even though the author’s note unfortunately includes "However, I realized readers might not be fond of footnotes so I cut back on them." There’s plenty of room left in the margins, and she’d have heard no complaints from me if she’d done as she originally proposed. I like marginalia.

About 1/3 through Still Life With Crows by Preston and Child. In a deviation from my usual pattern, I’m reading the AXL Pendergast novels in order, at least through the first four ( I don’t have #5 and might skip to #13 next.)

I usually like Niven and Pournelle’s stuff, and particularly recommend The Mote in God’s Eye for a great first contact encounter. There’s a sequel The Gripping Hand which is not as great, but still worth the read.

Started on Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. A lot of people say they like this one. Not far enough into it yet to say if I agree with them, but it looks like there’s some detailed worldbuilding which is a good sign.

I’ll go with The Magician’s Tale by the author whose nom de plume is David Hunt. It has 20 reviews on storygraph. Kay Farrow is a colorblind art photographer working on a ‘streets of San Francisco’ series when one of her subjects misses an appointment due to being dead and dismembered – in a manner reminiscent of the serial killer her cop dad caught years earlier, shortly before he took early retirement from the force. Dad doesn’t want to talk about that, so Kay investigates other leads, talks to other prostitutes, a helpful homeless guy, the titular Magician, the victim’s mysterious sister, and works out his background and why he got murdered.

I’m sure I’ve read more obscure stuff, but this is one I’d recommend. Not to everyone since the subject matter is quite dark and sexual, but I thought it was well written.

The Suicide Murders by Howard Engel, the first book of his Benny Cooperman series. It’s almost a parody of the private detective genre which may or may not have been the author’s intent. The cover art isn’t much, but I’ve concluded it’s an African tribal sculpture, normally posing as office artwork, but also sturdy enough to bash in the skull of a crooked psychiatrist on page 60, so I’ve scored it in the weapon on the cover category hard mode.

Finished Southern Man by Greg Iles. This is the final book in the Penn Cage series. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone new to this author, and if you have read other Penn Cage novels, you already know what you’re in for. It features the usual levels of racism, violence, and arson. The author had some things to say about politics, and did. It wasn’t quite a hit piece on Republicans generally, but more about the political environment that made a candidate like Trump electable, and how that could be exploited by a smarter and more competent independent candidate.

Up next is The Eagle has Landed by Jack Higgins. Someone said I should read this even though I’d already seen the movie and lent me a copy. Since I mostly know what happens, it should go more quickly.

Southern Man by Greg Iles, a late addendum to the Penn Cage series.

It’s risky to infer an author’s political leanings from their fiction, but there are exceptions. This was written and set in the 2024 election season, and is bluntly critical of Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters. No, I don’t think Iles got invited to Trump’s inauguration party.

I’ll claim 18 titles for 3 bingos: Row 1, Column B, and the main diagonal.

(This should duplicate what I submitted through the form and should be final. I cracked open a long one that I don’t expect to finish this month.)

I have two in progress.

• Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way. Some of it more dated than I expected (The opening page mentions a sign in Yugoslavia.) Some of it I already knew (or at least had already been told, even if I’d forgotten the details). But linguistical trivia can be interesting and informative, so it’s worth the read.

• Louis Sachar’s The Cardturner. This is a blatant propaganda novel. The author is a bridge player and hopes to popularize the game among younger audiences (perhaps inspired by the million weaboos who took up Go inspired by Hikaru no Go.) At least it’s a nobler cause than some of the propaganda I’ve been exposed to. The old, rich, blind bridge expert hires a kid to escort him to tournaments, look at his cards, tell him his hand and play it as he directs. The previous kid fucked up and got fired for learning enough bridge to question his decisions, but this new cardturner knows nothing. The book is intended for YA audiences and has the usual scenes of teenagers acting like teenagers, often while their parents act like toddlers, neither of which appeal to me, but they can be skimmed to get back to bridge scenes more comprehensive than I’d expected.

The Cardturner would be a great fit for the 4E (Game, Gamble, Contest) bingo square. This would also break a beautiful symmetry on my card. Not counting the central square, all 12 of my my scoring lines have an odd number of books completed. (2 lines are 1/5 completed, 8 are 3/5, and 2 are 5/5.) I don’t think that specifies a unique arrangement (even up to rotational and reflectional symmetry), but it was surprising.

The Middleman by Olen Steinhauer. This is a new author to me. It’s about a group of left-wing activists who suddenly disappear and go off-grid. A lady FBI agent has been monitoring them for a while, even though there’s no evidence they intend violence. Well, things happen, people die, and the surviving members are officially labeled terrorists. Anyway, I have about 100 pages left and some very suspicious characters haven’t yet had their involvement adequately explained. If it finishes strong, I’ll add Mr. Steinhauer to my list of authors I would read another book by.