Fiction

Book Beginnings: Palace of the Drowned by Christine Mangan

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading Challenge and TBR 26 in 26 Challenge on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, a few years ago I decided to finally participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. After taking last week off I’ve returned with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

                                    Rome, November 1966
Outside the Roma Termini station, she came to an abrupt halt.

Last week I featured David Bezmozgis’s 2011 historical novel The Free World. Before that it was Alexandra Richie’s 2013 Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising. This week it’s Christine Mangan’s 2021 historical novel Palace of the Drowned.

Something tells me that before the end of the year I’ll have read a half dozen or so historical novels set in Italy. Already next to my reading chair are David Bezmozgis’s above-mentioned The Free World and Virginia Baily’s Early One Morning, both set in Italy.  Keeping with this trend the other day at the public library I borrowed a copy of Palace of the Drowned since it was recommended by the staff. For some strange reason or reasons of all the countries of Western Europe Italy probably fascinates me the most. Germany might be be a close second with the United Kingdom not far behind and Spain rising fast.) Fortunately for me I’ll be able to apply all three of these towards the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about Palace of the Drowned.

It’s 1966 and Frankie Croy retreats to her friend’s vacant palazzo in Venice. Years have passed since the initial success of Frankie’s debut novel and she has spent her career trying to live up to the expectations. Now, after a particularly scathing review of her most recent work, alongside a very public breakdown, she needs to recharge and get re-inspired.

Then Gilly appears. A precocious young admirer eager to make friends, Gilly seems determined to insinuate herself into Frankie’s solitary life. But there’s something about the young woman that gives Frankie pause. How much of what Gilly tells her is the truth? As a series of lies and revelations emerge, the lives of these two women will be tragically altered as the catastrophic 1966 flooding of Venice ravages the city.

The Colony of Good Hope by Kim Leine

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Wanting something I could apply towards multiple reading challenges like the European, Historical Fiction and Books in Translation reading challenges back in 2024 I grabbed a Kindle edition of Danish-Norwegian author Kim Leine’s 2019 historical novel The Colony of Good Hope. Set in the mid-18th century it tells the story of Denmark’s largely unsuccessful attempt to colonize the remote Arctic island from the perspective of an extensive cast of individuals ranging from the colony’s Lutheran chaplain to an indigenous shaman. After finishing it late last week I’d have to say the jury is still out whether or not I truly enjoyed this novel. That aside, I thought author did an admirable job painting a detailed picture of a colonial endeavor doomed from the start thanks to the pitifully small investment in resources both human and material forced to contend with the twin ravages of disease and harsh environment.

Hoping to exploit the island’s purported bounty of natural resources Denmark’s King in 1728 decrees that a colony be established in Greenland. To settle this newly-acquired realm dozens of men are plucked from the kingdom’s jail and paired off with women recently released from a female confinement facility, many of them former prostitutes. After a mass wedding the nuptials are then put on a boat and transported to Greenland. Here this shanghaied band of benighted ex cons and former sex workers are ordered to  build a colony. Bereft of the necessary skills, motivation and helpful resources one by one they succumb to malnutrition, disease, violence and above all brutal Arctic weather.

The Colony of Good Hope is a vivid reminder colonialism throughout history inevitably lead to clashes of cultures. Commonly this is manifest in religion as  indigenous beliefs are forced to compete with the colonizers’ Christianity. In the fledgling colony Lutheran missionary Hans Egede labored for years unsuccessfully to convert native Greenlanders. Meanwhile his religious counterpart shaman Aappaluttoq is quite content in his animist beliefs and loathes his own son was taken by Egede and raised as a Christian. Not only are Egede and his fellow Lutherans entrusted with converting the indigenous Greenlanders they also dream of bringing the true faith to the fabled forgotten communities of Viking settlers whose practiced Christianity predates the Reformation. Lastly, this being waning days of pre-modernity whispers of anti-semitism and even witchcraft are heard from time to time in the colony frequently leading to injurious results.

Despite having mixed feelings about The Colony of Good Hope after discovering it’s one part of a larger trilogy I’m tempted to explore the other two novels. If and when I do you’ll be sure to read about it on this blog.

Library Loot

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Even though still I’m working my way through Fareed Zakaria’s Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present as well as Moudhy Al-Rashid’s Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History and Alexandra Richie’s Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising that didn’t stop me from dropping by the library this week and borrowing three more books. As always I hope to be apply these towards a number of reading challenges. Looks like that towering stack of library books by my reading chair isn’t going away anytime soon and just got a bit taller.

A Bookseller in Madrid by Mario Escobar (2025) – I want to apply this historical novel towards a number of reading challenges but especially the Bookish Books Reading Challenge.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel (2020) – Another book I hope to apply towards multiple reading challenges. I’ve had my eye on it for the last couple of months and I think now’s the time to finally read it.

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista (2023) – Another book I’ve had my eye on.  I’ll be reading Evangelista’s first hand account of authoritarian rule in the Philippines for the Southeast Asia category of Book’d Out‘s Nonfiction Reader Challenge.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Sharlene’s blog.

The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

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Several months ago Deb on her blog Readerbuzz featured 10 random books from her shelf, and I liked her idea so much I did the same. Putting that post together was a lot of fun and after getting some positive feedback I did it two more times. In the mood to do another of these posts earlier today I pulled 10 random books off my shelves and here they are. Just like last time I’m hoping this will inspire me to finally crack of few of these books open and give ’em a chance.

The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand (2001) – I probably bought this one at a Friends of the Library book sale in Portland. Since I’ve been wanting to read more intellectual history I should give it a try.

To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History by Edmund Wilson (1940/2003) – One of my buddies is a retired sociology professor and after he retired he let me pillage his academic library. This one he especially encouraged me to take. Believe it or not the foreword is by the above-mentioned Luis Menand.

My European Family: The First 54,000 Years by Karin Bojs (2017) – Grabbed this one late last year at the Friends of the (Monmouth) Library book sale. I have a hankering for this deep history/ancient DNA kind of stuff. Translated from Swedish I could apply this towards both the European and Books in Translation reading challenges.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1997) – I started this one on a flight to Las Vegas and sadly never finished it. Time for me to give it another shot. If I do I should follow it up with her 2025 highly acclaimed memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (1988/1998) – One of many books I feel everyone has read but me. On Saturday afternoon I stopped at a garage sale up the street from my mom’s old house and ended up buying small pile of books. The kind woman hosting the sale threw this in for free.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (1948/1959)- Another book I think everyone has read but me. I probably bought this at yet another Friends of the Library book sale in Portland. Long overdue to be read.

Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah (1999) – Bought this one a church book sale. Thinking about reading it for Introverted Reader’s new Immigration Reading Challenge.

Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia by David Greene (2014) – Yet another book I bought at the annual yard sale put on by the Lutheran church in nearby Independence, Oregon. I’ve been thinking about doing a series featuring books about, or set in Siberia, Alaska and the Bering Sea. If and when I do this book is at the top of the list.

A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment by Philipp Blom (2010) – Used a gift certificate to buy this one from Powell’s in Portland and it’s sat unread on the self for years. Maybe 2026 is the year I finally read it.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007) – A buddy I worked with gave me this a long time ago. Considering how much I enjoyed Hosseini’s earlier novel The Kite Runner I’m surprised I still haven’t read it.

There you go, 10 random books from my personal library. Who knows, at this rate this might wind up being regular feature on my blog. Stay tuned and find out.

Book Beginnings: The Colony of Good Hope by Kim Leine

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading Challenge and TBR 26 in 26 Challenge on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, a few years ago I decided to finally participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. After taking last week off I’ve returned with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I am Aappaluttoq, the Red One. I can go anywhere, as the priest says, albeit his words are scornfully meant, and yet it is true, as he well knows, though he will never admit it.

Last week I featured Gordon Corera’s 2019 Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies. Before that it was Elyse Graham’s 2024 New York Times best-seller Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II. This week it’s Danish author Kim Leine’s 2022 work of historical fiction The Colony of Good Hope.

With Trump and his minions threatening to go to war with NATO over Greenland perhaps it’s only appropriate this week’s selection is an historical novel set against the frozen landscape of that arctic island. Last year, wanting something I could apply towards not only the European and Historical Fiction, but also the Books in Translation reading challenges I grabbed a Kindle edition of The Colony of Good Hope . Told from the perspective of a dozen or so different characters you have to pay close attention to what’s going on. But for the most part it’s been a satisfying read, and as soon I’m finished I’ll be posting my impressions for all to read.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about The Colony of Good Hope.  

1728: The Danish King Fredrik IV sends a governor to Greenland to establish a colony, in the hopes of exploiting the country’s allegedly vast natural resources. A few merchants, a barber-surgeon, two trainee priests, a blacksmith, some carpenters and soldiers and a dozen hastily married couples go with him.

The missionary priest Hans Egede has already been in Greenland for several years when the new colonists arrive. He has established a mission there, but the converts are few. Among those most hostile to Egede is the shaman Aappaluttoq, whose own son was taken by the priest and raised in the Christian faith as his own. Thus the great rift between two men, and two ways of life, is born.

The newly arrived couples – men and women plucked from prison – quickly sink into a life of almost complete dissolution, and soon unsanitary conditions, illness and death bring the colony to its knees. Through the starvation and the epidemics that beset the colony, Egede remains steadfast in his determination – willing to sacrifice even those he loves for the sake of his mission.

Library Loot

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Even though I’m working my way through Fareed Zakaria’s Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, Kim Leine’s The Colony of Good Hope and Gordon Corera’s Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies that didn’t stop me from dropping by the library the other day and borrowing a couple more books. As always I hope to be apply these towards several reading challenges. Looks like that towering stack of library books by my reading chair isn’t going away anytime soon and just got a bit taller.

Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising by Alexandra Richie (2013) – One of my many reading goals of 2026 is to read a book or two about the Warsaw Uprising. Looking to apply this one towards both the European Reading and Nonfiction Reader challenges.

Early One Morning by Virginia Baily (2015) – For whatever reason or reasons this one caught me eye. Set in Italy during World War II and a few decades after looks like something for both the European and Historical Fiction reading challenges.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Claire’s blog.

Library Loot

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Even though I’m working my way through Elyse Graham’s Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II as well as Kim Leine’s The Colony of Good Hope, and about to start Fareed Zakaria’s Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present didn’t stop me from dropping by the library the other day and borrowing more books. As always I hope to apply these towards a number of reading challenges. So add four more to that towering stack of library books by my reading chair.

A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman’s Harrowing Escape from the Nazis by Françoise Frenkel (2019) – I’m looking to apply this one towards multiple reading challenges including the Bookish Books and Immigration reading challenges.

Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History by Moudhy Al-Rashid (2025) – Years ago I used to get a lot of ancient history. I think I’d like to start doing that again.

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs by Marc David Baer (2021) – One of several books about the Ottoman Empire and Turkey I’m hoping to read in 2026.

An Honorable German by Charles McCain (2009) – Another piece of historical fiction for The Intrepid Reader‘s Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Something about this book just made me wanna grab it.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Claire’s blog.

2025 In Review: My Favorite Fiction

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With the year just about over here’s my list of my favorite novels I read in 2025. Like always almost all of these I borrowed from my small town library or through Overdrive/Libby. As you can see there’s a ton of historical fiction as well as a little cloak and dagger stuff.

My Favorites 

  1. One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (2025)
  2. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (2013)
  3. Small Wars by Sadie Jones (2010)
  4. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (2022)
  5. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (2021)
  6. The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin ( 2021)
  7. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (1991)
  8. Oromay by Baalu Girma (1983/2025)
  9. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict (2016)
  10. The Wages of Sin by Harry Turtledove (2023)

Honorable Mentions

  1. Metropolis by Philip Kerr (2019)
  2. Basil’s War by Stephen Hunter (2021)
  3. Shanghai by Joseph Kanon (2024)
  4. An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam by Michael Grant (2020)
  5. Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake (2022)
  6. Winter Blood by Allan Martin (2022)

2025 European Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

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Another year of Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge has come to a close. Throughout the year I try to read as many books as possible set in, or about different European countries, or by different European authors. With one country per book and each book by a different author I found myself moving from book to book across Europe, like some modern day armchair traveler’s version of a Bella Époque grand tour of the European continent. I’ve been participating in this reading challenge for years and it’s still one of my all time favorites.

Last year I read and reviewed a personal best of 30 books. This year I’m afraid it was just 18. Just like in past years, there’s a variety of countries represented, ranging from large counties like Russia and Germany to smaller ones like Estonia and Switzerland. For the first time ever it’s all fiction with much of it historical fiction. Tossed in for good measure there’s a little Nordic Noir, a work of alternate history and even one piece of Christian historical fiction.

  1. An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell (2014) – Sweden
  2. Winter Blood by Allan Martin (2022) – Estonia
  3. Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell (2014) – Austria
  4. One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (2025) – Portugal
  5. Metropolis by Philip Kerr (2019) – Germany
  6. Small Wars by Sadie Jones (2010) – Cyprus
  7. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (2022) – Romania
  8. The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue (2025) – France
  9. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (1991) – Norway
  10. Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith (2010) – Russia
  11. The Rest Is Memory by Lily Tuck (2025) – Poland
  12. The Devils of Cardona by Matthew Carr (2016) – Spain
  13. Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason (2013 – Iceland
  14. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict (2016) – Switzerland
  15. The Wages of Sin by Harry Turtledove (2023) -United Kingdom
  16. An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam by Michael Grant (2020) – The Netherlands
  17. Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake (2022) – Hungary
  18. The Begotten: A Novel of the Gifted by Lisa T. Bergren (2006) – Italy

For next year my goal is at least 21 books. Hopefully with a bit more self-discipline and a little luck I’ll pull it off.

2025 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

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The Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge has become one of my favorite reading challenges. I enjoy a good spy novel now and then as well as the occasional piece of Nordic Noir. Plus, in recent years I’ve developed a taste for historical whodunnits set in a various eras and exotic locations. But perhaps above all the challenge synchs well with the European Reading, Books in Translation and Historical Fiction reading challenges. As 2025 draws to a close it’s time to look back on what I read for Carol’s lovely little reading challenge.

  1. An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell (2014)
  2. Winter Blood by Allan Martin (2022)
  3. Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake (2022)
  4. Metropolis by Philip Kerr (2019)
  5. One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (2025)
  6. Basil’s War by Stephen Hunter (2021)
  7. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (2013)
  8. The Second Sun by P. T. Deutermann (2025)
  9. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (2022)
  10. One Man’s Flag by David Downing (2015)
  11. Shanghai by Joseph Kanon (2024)
  12. The Devils of Cardona by Matthew Carr (2016)
  13. Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason (2013)
  14. An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam by Michael Grant (2020)
  15. Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith (2010)
  16. Jack of Spies by David Downing (2014)
  17. Oromay by Baalu Girma (1983/2025)

This year I read 17 books set in a variety of places ranging from Iceland to Ethiopian-occupied Eritrea. For my efforts I earned the “Detective” level of participation which sounds kinda cool. The Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge has been lots of fun and I fully intend to do it again in 2026. Who knows, I might even read 26 books and make it to “Inspector.”  Tune in next year and find out.