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for me), I had a GREAT reading month of November. What I read...

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams - Yet another story set before/during a world war (in this case WWI) and dwelling on some social issue; this time, it's the story of a young woman whose father works for the press printing the Oxford English Dictionary. He and his colleagues choose the words that are included, and as she grows up, Esme realizes that "women's" words and vulgar words are often excluded. She begins collecting the abandoned words for her own pleasure and eventually becomes involved in the women's suffrage movement in London. Although this is Ms. Williams' debut novel, it was sounding very familiar to me...turns out that she also wrote The Bookbinder, which I'd read, and loved, earlier this year. Unfortunately, there's a LOT of overlap (which is partly why the story sounded so familiar), and Esme just didn't really grab me as a main character. Apparently The Dictionary of Lost Words was up for (and maybe won?) several literary prizes but I would give it a B at best.

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland -Based on an event in the author's family, this is the story of...no, not Florence Adler. Not exactly. A champion swimmer, Florence goes for a swim in the Atlantic Ocean one day and drowns. The book is about the people she left behind, with each character getting a chapter or two to tell their story. There's her young niece who witnessed the attempt to save Florence. There's the older sister who's nearing the end of a difficult pregnancy after losing a child a couple years earlier. There's Florence's mother and father who decide not to tell their oldest daughter what happened to her sister because of her losing the previous baby. There's a young woman who's staying with the Adlers, having fled Germany right before Hitler begins his persecution of the Jews. And there's the young man who loved Florence. It's a very well-written book, and I enjoyed all the different perspectives; I give it a solid A.

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman - I freakin' LOVED this book! It begins in the 1700s, with a sailor building a house for his wife and two sons. Their story is told in a single chapter; each chapter then tells the story of the house's residents throughout the years, some descendants, some not. It's basically a bunch of short stories but with a common theme: the house and its surroundings. My only complaint about this book was it was too short! A, maybe even an A+.

Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey by AJ Jacobs - Many years ago, I read Jacobs' A Year of Living Biblically and really enjoyed it both for the subject matter and the author's writing style (and sense of humor). Here Jacobs decides to cultivate gratitude in his life and he decides to do it by thanking everyone involved in producing the cup of coffee he gets most mornings at a local coffeeshop. And by everyone, I mean everyone. The barista; the store owner; the coffee buyer; the warehouse manager where the beans are stored; the folks who made the cup, lid and coffee sleeve (or "zarf"); the folks who provide NYC with water and make it safe to drink; the family in South America who grow the beans the coffeeshop uses, etc. Throughout the book, Jacobs disperses interesting facts (such as the official name of a coffee cup sleeve being a zarf) intermingled with musings on gratitude brought about by discussions with people who study the very emotion. It was a very apt book to read before Thanksgiving...and it's only around 150 pages, with about 10 of those pages listing over 1000 people to be thankful for, including such folks as the scientist in mid 1800s London who discovered what NOT to put in coffee (burnt rags, coal dust, etc.), the folks who made the wood pallet the bags of coffee beans rested on, the people who made the cleaning products the coffeehouse uses, etc. One important thing Jacobs discovered while writing the book: gratitude begets gratitude. The more you're thankful for the little things, the more thankful you are in general and the happier you'll be. I'm working on increasing my own gratitude (I'm thankful for my SZ fam! And I'm thankful for this post every month!). Apparently there's a TED talk by Jacobs on this very subject...I need to watch it some time. Meanwhile this book is a solid A; thanks, Mr. Jacobs, for writing it!

The Full Moon Coffeeshop by Mai Mochizuki - I swear it wasn't intentional that the book I picked up after reading a book about coffee was a book about a coffeeshop. Anyways...what is the Japanese people's fascination with mixing fantasy and talking cats? This is the third book I've read, translated from Japanese, that involves fantasy and talking cats (wait...what's MY fascination with Japanese fantasy literature and talking cats <g>?). The Full Moon Coffeeshop appears and disappears at will. The employees are talking cats who read their customers' star charts and give them life advice. Oh, and you don't place an order; they bring you the food and drink they think you need. The book leaned a little too much into astrology for my taste, and the translation was a bit rough at times, with words being used incorrectly, but it was still rather charming. A-.