This House of Sky: Landscape of a Western Mind" by Ivan Doig *****

• Audiobook 
• US author 
• Autobiography 
• Originally published in 1980

Review:  My maternal grandmother grew up on a Montana ranch.  Her best friend was the daughter of Judge Rankin, whose name was apparently a curse word amongst other ranchers and ranch hands. Jeannette Rankin became my mother's godmother, and the first woman elected to the US House of Representatives, so I felt a special kinship.

My, oh my!  Ivan Doig, always a master of lovely prose, applies his gift to his autobiography.  The reader is immersed in the landscape of Montana and it's reflection in the Doig family's life.  It is noble, human, gritty, grueling, and full of deep love.  A treasure!

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"The Silkworm" by Robert Galbraith. ****

●  Audiobook
●  English author,  aka J.K. Rowling
●  Originally published in 2014
●  Review:  Cormoran Strike is now firmly established as one of my favorite P.I.s in literature.   Something about his combination of strength, intellect,  sensitivity and humility is quite engaging.   The plot is engrossing, the characters are engaging,  and, of course, there is the ongoing development of Strike's relationship with his assistant, Robin.  Excellent read!

"Dreaming Spies" by Laurie R. King. ****

●  #13 in the Mary Russell series
●  Originally published in 2015
●  Early Reviewer book for.   LibraryThing.com
●  US author
●  Review:  This installment of the Mary Russell series was very satisfying.  The humor, engaging plot, and intriguing narrative of the earlier installments were all present again.  Very good story with world travels, international intrigue, and even female ninjas!

"The Blind Owl" by Sadegh Hedayat *****

• Summer Sub Club with Beth
• Iranian author, born 1903, committed suicide in 1951
• Originally published in 1932
• Introduction by Porochista Khakpour:  fascinating story of her childhood with this novella being a forbidden book
• Hedayat was 33 when it was published
• 50 handwritten copies comprised the initial publication
• Censored and banned, yet no "circulation hiatus" amongst the people
• "Given the usefulness of his (her father's) tactics with respect to that, I'll then pass on what got me to these pages:  refrain, reader, from reading this book, whatever you do. ....You've been warned."
• Vocabulary:
• mandrake:  a narcotic, short stemmed European plant, Mandragora officinarum,of the nightshade family, having a fleshy, often forked root somewhat resembling a human form.
• Quotes:
• p.17..."There are sores which slowly erode the mind in solitude like a kind of canker."...opening line
• p.18..."My one fear is that tomorrow I may die without having come to know myself."
• p.19..."I am writing only for my shadow, which is now stretched across the wall in the light of the lamp.  I must make myself known to him."......Jung anyone?
• p.67...."Within the four walls that form my room, this fortress which I have erected around my life and thoughts, my life has been slowly wasting away like a candle.  No, I am wrong.  It is like a green log which has rolled to one side of the fireplace and which has been scorched and charred by  the flames from the other logs; it has neither burnt away nor remained fresh and green; it has been choked by the smoke and steam from others."
• p.84..."Is not life from beginning to end a ludicrous story, an improbable, stupid yarn?  Am I not now writing my own personal piece of fiction?   A story is only an outlet for frustrated aspirations, for aspiration which the storyteller conceives an accordance with a limited stock of spiritual resources inherited from previous generations."
• p.140..."I had become like a screech owl, but my cries caught in my throat and I spat them out in the form of clots of blood.  Perhaps screech owls are subject to a disease which makes them think as I think.  My shadow on the wall had become exactly like an owl and, leaning forward, read intently every word I wrote.  Without doubt he understood perfectly.  Only he was capable of understanding.  When I looked out o the corner of my eye at my shadow on the wall I felt afraid."...of understanding?
• Notes: 
• recurrent image....old man with scarf by stream with young girl in black, along with blue morning glories
• recurrent....biting nail of index finger of left hand, the old man and his wife
• narrative of killing a woman, chopping the body, putting it in a suitcase, hiring the hearse with the old man
• significant symbols:
• old man
• girl in black
• stream
• blue morning glories
• wife/bitch/unborn child
• nanny
• trip to bury dead woman
• Review:  Enter, if you dare, into the landscape of madness, the delirium of opium, the fever dream of a genius.  This novella is exquisitely painful to read, and I would not have missed the experience for anything.  The author, Iranian born Sadegh Hedayat, who committed suicide upon finishing this novel, offers this oh so generous and passionately painful glimpse into the existential madness of his mind.  Determined to know himself fully, the narrator shares a  nightmare compilation of childhood and adult fantasies, passions, and despair. To top the experience off of reading this masterpiece, the introduction is magnificent in and of itself.  Not for the fainthearted, this mesmerizing work of art!

"Appointment in Samarra" by John O'Hara. ****

• Summer read with Beth
• Originally published in 1934
• US author
• Review: This is a fairly depressing tale of the dissolute upper middle class in the United States in the late 1920s.  Alcoholism, social hypocrisy,  and dishonesty seem to be the predominant traits of the country club set of characters.  Not a pretty picture!  Well written, but depressing. 

"Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich ****

●  8th in Stephanie Plum series
●  Mystery /Suspense
●  Originally published in 2003
●  Review:  I laughed out loud all the way through this installment of the Stephanie Plum series.  New characters like a lawyer named Kloughn (pronounced clown) and others are a delight.  As always Stephanie has a couple of cars blow up, continues sexual jousting with Ranger, and debates the pros and cons of her love for Morelli.  Great fun!

"Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham ***

• Stewart Place Book Club 
• Originally published in 2001
• US author
• Review: A sweet, simple story about the meaning of Christmas, with a sidenote theme of what happens when someone decides not to follow the herd.  That's about it.