My October books

Can you believe that October is already over now? Ready for a new list?
However, I'd like to say first that I'm not trying to show off here: "Oh look, how many books I read."
I have more time on my hands because of not being able to constantly craft anymore. I happen to be a fast reader. I don't get out of the house much. I have the real world - as in working and housework - and I have the book world which sometimes takes priority over the housework.
I don't think people who have other things to do and other places to be are slacking. It's not important how much we read, but how much joy we get from reading what we have the time for. After all, this isn't a competition.
To me personally it's just interesting to have an overview of what I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and what I have read to the cats (marked with 😸)
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm not going to add real reviews or ratings (the cats also refuse to give ratings 😉). Should you want a personal rating for a book you are interested in, though, just let me know.


1. "Lady Living Alone" by Norah Lofts (originally under the pen name Peter Curtis), first published in 1945 😸

After writing a bestseller, shy Penelope Shadow is able to buy her own house. Unfortunately, she can't stay in it by herself because of a phobia. When this forces her to check into a hotel one night because her housekeeper has left without warning, she meets a man 15 years younger than her who seems to be the perfect solution.
Terry becomes her housekeeper and after a while they get married. A good idea or maybe not so much?

Liz from Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home has introduced me to the "British Library Women Writers" series. I read "The Woman in the Hall" in August and now this book (only afterwards I found she had also reviewed it).

2. "Polizei am Grab" = "Police at the Funeral" by Margery Allingham, first published in 1931
(Albert Campion 4)

Will Campion be able to help the bizarre Faraday family living together in an old estate in Cambridge? He's called in after one uncle has been killed mysteriously, but he won't remain the only one.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.

3. "Small Spaces" by Katherine Arden, first published in 2018
(Small Spaces Quartet 1) 

It's just a school trip to a farm, right?
Not if the owner of the farm has made a bargain with the supernatural.
Will Ollie be able to save the day together with her friends Brian and Coco?

The middle grade novel was a random find at OverDrive and a good start into spooky October. It was a quick read. I just wish I had liked the protagonist more, so the jury is still out about reading the next two books (the fourth one is not available on OverDrive).

4. "Ein Leben für Barbie" = "Let's Call Her Barbie" by Renée Rosen, first published in 2025

The history of Ruth Handler and the Barbie doll, not in a biography, but in a novel without a claim to telling the 100 % true and complete story which has been told in different versions by people involved.

Someone mentioned the book in a Barbie group on Facebook I'm a member of and my library happened to have it.

5. "An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good" by Helene Tursten, first published in 2018
(Elderly Lady series 1)

Maud may be 88, but if anyone inconveniences her in any way, she still takes matters in her own hands.
I wouldn't want to be her neighbor.

I read several of Tursten's novels about Inspector Irene Huss years ago and stumbled upon this book with six short stories about a murderous old lady on OverDrive.

6. "The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Screaming Clock" by Robert Arthur, Jr. (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1968 😸
(The Three Investigators 9)

Uncle Titus has bought a box of stuff for the salvage yard, among it an electric clock. When Jupiter turns it on, the alarm sounds like a screaming woman.
Who would want a screaming clock and why? Is their a bigger mystery behind this?

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the ninth in the series.

7. "Crampton Hodnet" by Barbara Pym, first published in 1985

North Oxford in the 30s - a small community connected by afternoon teas, the church, gossip, and relationships of all kinds.
Pym wrote the book in 1940, but it was published posthumously after having been revised by her literary executor.

This is another book that has been published in the "British Library Women Writers" series (see 1.)

8. "The Bookshop on the Shore" by Jenny Colgan, first published in 2019
(Happy Ever After series 2)

Nina, the librarian turned bookseller, is pregnant and needs someone to help her with her mobile bookshop. Ramsay from the same village needs a nanny for his children. Zoe needs the money. Will she be the right person to help both of them and find a new life for herself and her son?

This is the second book in the Happy Ever After series following "The Bookshop on the Corner" which I read last month. Another quick and light read.

9. "Überstunden für den Totengräber" = "More Work for the Undertaker" by Margery Allingham, first published in 1948
(Albert Campion 13)

An old friend who rents out rooms to the members of the eccentric Palinode family is asking Campion for help after two of the Palinodes have died under mysterious circumstances.
Things get only more mysterious and puzzling from here on.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.

10. "The Kingdom of Carbonel" by Barbara Sleigh, first published in 1959 😸
(Carbonel 2)

Carbonel, King of the Fallowhithe cats, and his royal brothers have been summoned to appear before the Great Cat. Queen Blandamour will rule during his absence, but as they don't trust some of the other Queens, especially the ambitious Grisana from the nearest town, Carbonel asks Rosemary and her friend John to take care of his kittens, Calidor and Pergamond.
Promptly, the kittens get abducted by the witch Mrs. Cantrip and that's just one of the adventures that awaits the friends!

This is the second book in the Carbonel series whose first one was recommended by book blogger Nicole from Momlit.
Unfortunately, I think the book gave dem Dekan ideas as he considers himself to be quite royal, too. Also I have to admit that I teared up a little at one point.

11. "Stranded" by Sarah Goodwin, first published in 2021

A social experiment ... eight strangers living on a Scottish island for one year as if the world has ended.

This was a random find at OverDrive.
I don't deal well with the idea of strange people in a confined place (in the sense of "we can't get out of here") and it looks to me as if Goodwin's other books have the same theme. One was enough for me.

12. "Privatdetektiv Tiegelmann im Warenhaus" = "Tam Sventon and Discovery P3X" by Åke Holmberg, first published in 1968 😸

Stockholm based private detective Teffan Tiegelmann has to solve two cases this time, but maybe they are connected?
The victims are brothers, one the director of a department store which gets burgled three times, the other a Nobel Prize winning professor whose groundbreaking invention P3X has been stolen.

I got the book to complete my "Privatdetektiv Tiegelmann" children's book series about which I wrote here.

13. "Douglas Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer" by Ralph Hancock and Letitia Fairbanks, first published in 1953

This biography about Douglas Fairbanks, the "King of Hollywood", was co-written by his niece Letitia. It's full of anecdotes which made it very easy and often amusing to read, but of course you can tell it was written in the 50s. I will probably read another one eventually, this was just the first one I saw.

You could say this is part of my personal silent movie project.

14. "Privatdetektiv Tiegelmann in Venedig" by Åke Holmberg, first published in 1973

Teffan Tiegelmann is called to Venice where a gang steals artwork from palaces, among them that of Marchese Pronto. The Marchese is afraid that his niece's fiancé is the "spider" creeping up walls to break into palaces because he saw the burglar wearing the same colorful pants as Floriano.

I got the book to complete my "Privatdetektiv Tiegelmann" children's book series about which I wrote here.

15. "The bookshop, the draper, the candlestick maker" by Annie Gray, first published in 2024

Food historian Dr. Annie Gray tells the history of the British high street - "the main street of a town, especially as the traditional site for most shops, banks, and other businesses" (according to "Oxford Languages").
Gray takes us along from the markets in the late Middle Ages to 1965, in stories, anecdotes, citations from old newspapers and travel reports, with a lot of details and never boring.

I first learned about Annie Gray through the videos of "The Victorian Way" with Kathy Hipperson as the cook Mrs Crocombe and Annie Gray as Mary-Ann, her helper.  This is the third of her books I read - I also attended an online presentation of the book - and a fourth has just arrived.

16. "So Late in the Day" by Claire Keegan, first published in 2023

On the way home from work, Cathal is reminded of Sabine and is thinking about their relationship and why it ended the way it did.

A short story collection by Keegan has been the latest entry on OverDrive and while I'm on the waitlist, I'm checking out her other short stories on there. This is the first one.

17. "Foster" by Claire Keegan, first published in 2010

During a hot Irish summer in the 1980s, a little girl is taken to the farm of relatives. In the home of the childless couple - we later learn they have lost their son - the girl experiences the affection that she hasn't known in her big family yet. Then the moment comes when she has to go back.

A short story collection by Keegan has been the latest entry on OverDrive and while I'm on the waitlist, I'm checking out her other short stories on there. This is the second one.

18. "Ein unverhofftes Geständnis" = "Unnatural Causes" by P.D. James, first published in 1967
(Adam Dalgliesh 3)

Detective Superintendent Dalgliesh is glad to spend a few days off work on the coast as his aunt's guest, but a dinghy with the handless body of crime writer Maurice Seton in it disturbs the peace of the little rural community.

My neighbor was shocked to hear that I never read a book by P.D. James (as far as I can remember) and lent me two of hers.


DNF:

1. "Sometimes I Lie" by Alice Feeney, first published in 2017

"1. I'm in a coma.
2. My husband doesn't love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie."
Amber, a radio presenter, is treated badly by everyone. Her co-presenter wants to get her fired. To her parents she became invisible after her sister was born. Also, does her husband have an affair with her sister and did he have to do with her accident?

Honestly? After a third of the book, I didn't care anymore about any of it. I didn't like Amber, her colleague, her parents, her sister or her husband. I didn't care for the time jumps back and forth. I'm no fan of an unreliable narrator if it gets too much, even less after I peeked at the ending (after deciding to DNF).

Silent movies - Skinner's Dress Suit

The notion that "clothes make the man" has been around for much longer than you might think and many famous people have talked about it.
It's also what today's movie, "Skinner's Dress Suit" from 1926, is about.

Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons

Here's the plot (spoiler alert): 

Mr. and Mrs. (Honey) Skinner, a perfectly ordinary couple living in the suburbs of New York.
Honey thinks there's nothing her husband can't do and she also thinks he deserves a raise and should ask for one.
The boss refuses. Skinner, however, doesn't have the heart to tell Honey who has already prepared a feast with a cake saying "success". She starts spending the money right away, on a dress suit for her husband and a dress for herself, so they can attend an important party.
Not knowing anyone, they feel very awkward at the party at first, but Skinner has been taught the "Savannah Shuffle" at work and passed it on to Honey by phone, so the Skinners quickly have everyone's attention by teaching them the dance.

Encouraged by his gain in social status, Skinner asks for a raise again. Unfortunately, a renewal for the firm's biggest contract with a Samuel Jackson has just fallen through. Not only is the raise denied, no, this time Skinner even gets fired by the senior and junior partner.
Just then he gets notified about his overdraft, the tailor comes to his house to take the dress suit back, and the furniture shop wants to pick up the furniture the Skinners bought.
Nevertheless, Honey and he go to the Ames affair at the Hotel Ritz, but Skinner can't forget about his problem.
Also at the Ritz but not invited are Jackson and his wife who wants nothing more than join in. Seeing Skinner, she thinks he must have a high social status and urges her husband to go and meet him.

After they enter the ballroom again, Jackson dances with Honey and Skinner with Mrs. Jackson. Jackson is so impressed that he offers Skinner a half million dollar contract which leads to the partners turning up at his house the next day and offering him a partnership in the firm.

This isn't a slapstick thigh-slapper. The most physical comedy are the dancing scenes and they are really very funny, especially the one in which Skinner teaches Honey over the phone and then gets caught by his boss, but also the part when he's dancing with Jackson's wife after hearing about the contract. I feel with her, that could be me hanging in his arms like a sack of flour. Unfortunately that particular scene was much blurrier than most of the others, but I think you get the idea.

Reginald Denny and Laura La Plante had a wonderful chemistry as the Skinners.
Skinner loves his wife and wants to do everything to make her happy and she idolizes him, so she honestly thinks he's such an asset to the firm that the bosses can't do anything but give him a raise.
Denny liked to be involved in the movies he made, in fact he was credited for several storylines and he had recommended La Plante for this movie after working with her before.
He was also responsible for the steps of the "Savannah Shuffle", a mix of "Charleston, the Gaby Glide (named after the famous dancer Gaby Deslys), and a duck waddle".

It wasn't just them who made this such a sweet and fun film.
My favorite of the supporting cast was Lucille Ward as Mrs. Jackson for the way she looked at her husband, but also the subtle flirting with Skinner.

There were not that many intertitles except a few ones that were absolutely needed or witty, yet it was not a problem at all to follow thanks to the visual quality of the scenes and the acting.
I really had fun with this one and I'm glad I found it on the same channel as "The Patsy", also with a score of jazz tunes from the time.

The film is an adaptation of the 1916 novel by Henry Irving Dodge (there is also a movie from 1917, but I couldn't find that one). "Skinner" was such a successful figure that there were several stories around him and also several films which I couldn't find, however.
I read the book and there are some differences.
Skinner doesn't get a raise, but he never gets fired. His bosses absolutely recognize the value of his work, but keep quiet about that for different reasons.
For example, Perkins, the junior partner, doesn't like his clothes. Unlike others in their neighborhood, the Skinners save as much money as they can and skimp on expenses like clothing. Honey can make over her own clothes, but Skinner's are downright shabby and it just doesn't make a good impression.
When McLaughlin and Perkins first see him in the dress suit and shortly after in a new business suit, they are afraid that the "worm will turn", and if they give Skinner a raise, won't everyone else want one, too?
They also wonder how Skinner suddenly can afford all that and why would he want to? They think it's a sign that he's speculating thanks to tips from his new friends (who might even want to lure him away from the firm!) - he's even paying more for the Pullman wagon now on his commute - and we all know where that leads ... first losses and next embezzlement!
So they come up with a cunning plan. They send Skinner to the Midwest, so they can have his accounts checked without him being around. Although they know it's hopeless because everyone else has already tried, they tell him to do his best to get Willard Jackson's account back for them.
What they don't anticipate is that Skinner actually doesn't just have new clothes now, he also has a very sharp mind and a cunning plan of his own which gets him the account and the partnership in the firm.
There's also no Jewish tailor in the book (who - not unusual for the time - is portrayed as a bit of a caricature, but we have seen worse), no note from the bank, no furniture people.
So the book is not that funny, but it allows Skinner more to grow beyond clothes and social status on his own merit's. It was a good read and I already put the other three Skinner books on my reading list.


Sources:

1. Jeffrey Vance: Skinner's Dress Suit. Essay. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2022
2. Skinner's Dress Suit (1926). On: Silentfilmcalendar.org
3. Fritzi Kramer: Skinner's Dress Suit (1926) - A silent film review. On: Movies Silently, November 5, 2017
4. Laura ?: Tonight's Movie: Skinner's Dress Suit (1926) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review, On: Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, October 18, 2020