Happy Thursday! I have a busy morning today, so I’ll catch up with you later today. But, I am looking forward to this morning’s meeting. A small group of us are getting together to talk about science fiction, and I’ll get to talk about John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society. I love Scalzi’s humor.
I’m currently reading Jeffrey Siger’s forthcoming book, One Last Chance. The twelfth Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis mystery will be released on Tuesday, April 4. I’ve only read the first two chapters, but I enjoy Siger’s books when he brings all the familiar characters back. Kaldis’ administrative assistant, Maggie, takes time off to go to Ikaria, an island where many of the elders live to be in their nineties and even their hundreds. Maggie’s yaya, her grandmother, dies at 104, but a neighbor suggests there were too many recent deaths of some of the elders who died alone at night. Those first two chapters are an excellent introduction to the latest book.
What about you? How are you doing? What are you reading this week? Of course, we want to know.
I’m leaving my comments on Wednesday evening because I’ll be walking with the “Walkie Talkies” group again tomorrow morning at 8:00 after quite an absence. Now that my son has regained a lot of strength after his month in the hospital and doesn’t need a walker or cane, nor does he need me to make his breakfast, I can do the walk and be back in time to drive him to the dialysis clinic. Pretty soon he will probably be driving himself (once we pick up his car). But I don’t know where the time has gone this week–I only finished two books (but they were terrific ones).
What I love about the Kate Burkholder mystery series is the way Linda Castillo contrasts the Amish way of life with that of the non-Amish in an authentic and non-judgmental fashion. Most of the characters are not stereotypes, but fully-fleshed-out human beings with both strengths and flaws. Now chief of police in Painters Mill, Ohio, Kate was raised Amish but left the community as a teenager after a traumatic event and went on to a career in law enforcement. Her background makes her the perfect foil for portraying both types of culture. Throughout her career, Kate has been called upon numerous times to intercede in an investigation that has one or more Amish suspects or victims. In THE HIDDEN ONE, the 14th series entry, the elders of an Amish community in Pennsylvania ask her to assist unofficially in a case where the already-jailed prime suspect was Kate’s high school first love. The evidence points to him as the murderer of a former Amish bishop who was thought to be too strict by much of the community, but there are a variety of folks who could have benefited from the bishop’s death. I consider this book to be one of the best in a very solid series, and I have read them all. The case and the investigation are laid out in a way that is easy to follow and thoroughly engrossing. The characters are realistic, and there are twists aplenty. Kate herself is a protagonist who has her own faults, but she is easy to root for. There isn’t a lot of time spent on Kate’s romance in this book, but I continue to appreciate the way her mature relationship with Tomasetti has grown and developed in a down-to-earth, true-to-life way. Onward to #15 (I hope)! (July)
It’s been seven years since Sarah Addison Allen released her last book, but it’s been well worth the wait. The author is beloved for her unique and beautiful stories, tinged with a dose of magical realism. OTHER BIRDS is no exception. It’s all about “found family,” bringing together a small and disparate cast of characters who have struggled throughout their lives to feel loved. They all now live on Mallow Island, SC at the Dellawisp Condos, named for the tiny turquoise birds that surround them, and many of them are visited by the ghosts of those who have played meaningful roles–some positive, some negative–in their lives. Writer Roscoe, now a recluse, put the island on the map 50 years ago with his bestseller, Sweet Mallow, but has never had another literary success. Frasier manages the condos where the Lime sisters, Lizbeth and Lucy, live separately because they can’t stand the sight of each other. Charlotte is a henna artist on the run from her childhood in a cultish religious community where she lost her best friend. Mac is an executive chef who was taken in as a child by an elderly woman when his parents abandoned him. Zoey is searching for memories of her late mother, who owned the condo where Zoey will live during college breaks. And Oliver is the son of one of the Lime sisters, who is looking for his first post-graduate job and remembers how Frasier helped him when his mother made his life difficult and lonely. The details in this heartfelt story–from the evocative food Mac cooks, to the beautiful witch balls Charlotte hangs in her condo, to Lizbeth Lime’s huge paper collection, to Zoey’s invisible “Pigeon”–are original and expressive, poignantly demonstrating that “other birds” doesn’t refer just to the island’s actual bird population, but to the otherness of the inhabitants of the Dellawisp Condos. There is a lot of darkness in these characters’ lives, but hope and positive emotion shine through as the story comes to a most satisfying conclusion. And best of all, there was more than one revelation that made my jaw drop, even as it made perfect sense. I can’t recommend the book highly enough. (August)
Margie, when you mentioned magical realism I immediately thought Other Birds wouldn’t be for me, but as I read your review I became more and more interested, and now I am going to add it to my wish list. The details of the food alone were enough to draw me in. Thanks for sharing this.
Rosemary, I absolutely loved three of Allen’s previous books–The Sugar Queen, Garden Spells, and First Frost, so I was pretty sure I’d like this one. I hope you enjoy it as well.
Oh, Margie, you summed it all up so perfectly. I adore Sarah Addison Allen. I Loved Other Birds.
SO good to read good news about your son!
Margie, I have to admit I just skimmed over your reviews. I’m looking forward to both books, and I don’t like to read much about them ahead of time. I’m glad you liked them, though! And, it all sounds like good news about your son. I’m glad.
I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Kate Burkholder book on July 5th. I’m green that you were able to read it now! Sounds like it will be an excellent entry in an excellent series that I love as well.
I am so glad to hear that your son is doing so much better and you are able to get back to walking.
Busy week with lots of spring yard clean up, a tiny bit of rain and a visit to my new dental hygienist.
I’m about halfway through A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life (2021). Very interesting!
Award winner author George Saunders discusses seven classic Russian short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol he’s been using for two decades in his graduate creative writing program. The stories are used to offer a broader understanding of how writing fiction works; what makes the reader want to continue reading.
“A work of art moves us by being honest and that honesty is apparent in its language and its form and in its resistance to concealment”
Ah, trickery. I wanted to read Janice Hallett’s debut novel, The Appeal, since I first heard of it last year. “One murder, fifteen suspects” seemed just the type I would enjoy. But community theater and epistolary style were not enough to sway the balance. Unreliable narrator(s), unlikable characters! Sadly, by the end, I really didn’t care who did what.
Also read a Ruth Rendall Inspector Wexford novel, An Unkindness of Ravens (1986). The collective noun title was well incorporated in the story although in an unexpected way. And the second Dove Pond story, A Cup of Silver Linings (2021) featuring Ava Dove and the grand-opening of her tearoom.
MM, I’m sorry The Appeal didn’t work for you. I don’t usually like unreliable narrators, either, but for some reason this one worked.
Good morning all,
I have had a very busy week and as a result my reading has again been minimal. Having finally finished WILLIAM ASHBY: ELIZABETHAN SPY I am half way through the review, but found I had to go back and read the first half again as there was just so much information to remember. So it’s taken me ages, and I’m a bit cross with myself for having taken this on – I agreed to review some smaller books from tjhe publisher, and with those they sent me this one (unsolicited) as they were needing reviews. I do think I have learned a lot from it, but it means I’ve not done half of the other things I’d hoped to achieve/read. My own fault for not saying no – I’ll try to remember that next time!
I have almost finished another of the publisher’s books ERRANT BLOOD, which I must say is starting to get a bit silly now. It’s transpiring that someone carried out a weird genetic experiment on a tribe from the Congo, but brought them to the Highlands of Scotland to do so (so far the only reason for that seems to be that their own habitat had been devastated by war – but why Scotland?) Some of them are still living on the main character’s estate (which he recently inherited from his wayward father and returned home to manage – hence he was unaware of what was going on, and his father hadn’t cared.) There are a few other threads – drug smuggling, etc – but I am finding it quite hard to keep track of the characters.
Last weekend we watched the film BROOKLYN. I imagine just about everyone has already seen it. It is based on Colm Toilbin’s book, which I have a copy of but haven’t yet read. I enjoyed this film so much – the acting was superb and the story convincing, at least to me.
I did read some reviews that said it sugar-coated what actually happened to many of the innocent Irish girls who went to New York in the late 1950s and 1960s in search of a better life. While I’m sure that is true, and that not all landladies were as nice as the Julie Walters character, I know what living conditions were like for many rural families in Ireland even in the 1980s. My own friend and two of her sisters left Ireland to find work. All these years later, two have gone back and are enjoying their retirement, the third is a doctor in Baltimore, as is her (also Irish) husband, their daughters were born there and they have made a very good life for themselves, though only through terrifically hard work. I remember the day they left, how devastated their mother was, but how, at that time, everyone knew it had to be done.
Until Tuesday we had fabulous weather – warm, sunny, blue skies – and we made use of it as much as we could. On Saturday we had a drive up to the Moray coast, stopping off at the fishing communities of Portsoy, Sandend, Cullen and Findochty. We finished up at Spey Bay, which I don’t think I have ever been down to before – it is a wonderful place, a nature reserve around the estuary of the Spey river. The shingle beach is long and wide and slopes very sharply, which means that the waves come crashing in. The waves and the birds are all you can hear. Dolphins are often seen, though we were not lucky this time. There are no shops or burger vans – the only non-residential building now is the Tugnet Ice House – once used to store ice to preserve the salmon that was fished commercially until 1991, and now is a dolphin centre, which sounds grander than it is, as it’s really a classroom for school groups to find out about the wildlife when they visit. A few years ago a local school made big mosaics of things related to the area – dolphins obviously, but also birds, fish and even saints. There is also a sculpture of an osprey. There is some information about it here for anyone who is interested:
https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/speybay/speybay/index.html
Cullen is quite a big village by comparison, with many antique/junk shops,some nice cafes and a very popular ice cream shop. We walked by the harbour then found a new and quite alternative little tearoom, which served Wild Garlic scones and a whole menu of interesting teas – I enjoyed the Thyme Bomb, which was lemon & thyme.
it’s such an interesting area – I just hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate as the East Neuk of Fife, which is these days so overrun with Air B & Bs and ‘second homes’ that it is no longer a pleasure to visit in summer. Hopefully the Moray coast’s distance from the central belt will work in its favour.
Over the weekend we also had great walks at Dunecht and at the Forestry lands on Durris Hill, which have very good views of Deeside and right over to the Aberdeen shoreline.
The weather has now completely changed – absolutely freezing, and we have had snow and hail falling intermittently since yesterday morning. Charlie has spent most of the last two days under the duvet or his blanket. He did enjoy all that sun when it was pouring through the windows.
Have a good week everyone,
Rosemary
Rosemary, I enjoy reading about your walks. We watch all the walking around Britain shows with Julia Bradbury and Tony Robinson on Acorn TV.
Rosemary, I’d be right there with Charlie, under the duvet or a blanket. I’m not a fan of cold weather, snow or hail. And, I’ve been known to lay on the floor with the cats and enjoy the sunshine.
I enjoyed Brooklyn, but it sounds as if you know much more about the subject matter than I do.
Lemon & thyme. Mmmmm.
Your drive up the coast sounds lovely! It is unfortunate when quaint areas become so overrun with tourists that they are no longer enjoyable.
Oops, I forgot to mention some other books…
I paid a visit to the library yesterday and borrowed:
A TRAVELLER IN TIME by Alison Uttley (I’ve got a copy of this somewhere, but who knows where? I’d never read it but recently discovered that it is about Mary Queen of Scots, so quite relevant to the period I’ve been reading about, so I’m going to give it a go.)
COUSINS by Salley Vickers. I loved her MISS GARNET’S ANGEL, and more recenlty THE LIBRARIAN (which I heard on Sounds). This one is apparently about an accident that happens to a young member of the Tye family, and how this leads to ‘the revelation of dark secrets, long held and deeply disturbing’ for three generations of the family. It is told through the eyes of Will’s sister, grandmother and aunt. Looks interesting, and Salley Vickers is such a good writer.
DECAFFEINATED CORPSE by Cleo Coyle – I picked this up on the recommendation of someone here, was it you Margie? Thank you! I was so surprised to find that my library system actually had a copy of a book mentioned on Lesa’s site.
THE THRELKELD THEORY by Rebecca Tope – set in the Lake District, I’ve not read any of this writer’s Lake District mysteries – I find her Cotswolds books uneven, but I’ll give this one a try.
THE SCHOLAR by Dervla McTiernan – set in Dublin. Again I think this was a recommendation from one of our group – thank you!
QUALITY STREET GIRLS – Penny Thorne. This does look like a very easy read, and sometimes I need one of those.
Dervla McTiernan. I need to get to her books eventually.
Rosemary, I am planning to read A TRAVELLER IN TIME by Alison Uttley someday. Combining time travel and history sounds good to me, and it has been recommended to me. I hope you like it and that you let us know your thoughts about it.
We are leaving for home this morning so I thought I’d get a quick comment off first. We’ll be home on Sunday. Packing and unpacking the car iter three months away.
Anyway, I did read STATE OF TERROR by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny. It is a very fast-moving political thriller, the kind that keeps you turning pages to find out what happens next, so you don’t have time to slow down and think, would that really happen? Is that plausible? As such, it was pretty good, though I certainly didn;t buy all the twists and turns. In fact, there was one major double twist later on where I shook my head and thought, no, uh uh. You can’t fool me. And I was right. But, pretty good job. And a devastating portrait of a former President. There is even a Gamache cameo towards the end.
I finished Robert Aickman’s odd short story collection, COMPULSORY GAMES, which I kept reading despite not knowing where he was going half the time. I’m getting closer to finishing John Lutz’s collection of stories, UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD, which I do like quite a bit. For fans of his Alo Nudger, that character has one story.
Funny that you mentioned Jeffrey Siger, as I am halfway though his book 11, A DEADLY TWIST, this one set mostly on Naxos, the largest of the Cyclades. An investigative reporter disappears after doing a big story, and Andreas Kaldis sends Yianni, his right hand man, to find out what happened to her and whether she is really kid kidnapped or not. Then there is a suspicious “accident” putting Yianni in the hospital, and Andreas shows up himself, along with wife Lila, assistant Maggie, etc. Good as always and, of course, I will be reading book twelve.
That’s about it. We still have a few things left to pack (don’t forget the chargers!). See you all next week.
Have a safe trip Jeff. The chargers are always the things i forgot (or at least some of the things…)
I know you won’t read this, Jeff, but wishing you a safe trip home! (Love Jeff Siger’s books!)
I had a good reading week – read two books I really liked and recommend. The first was Mirror Man by Lars Kepler (husband and wife writing team). When COVID first hit and the library was closed I bought The Sandman -same authors – and I liked it. I was so excited when I found Mirror Man on the shelf at the library as I had completely forgotten about this author. I find Scandinavian mysteries to be very scary and good and you will not want to put this one down. I also read Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett -first book she’s written and also quite good. Have a good week everyone.
A good reading week, Donna! I always enjoy those weeks.
Good morning!
It is good to be back home and back to routines after traveling. We had a great trip! We spent a few days in Phoenix with my mom before driving north to Utah. What a beautiful drive that is – the Sonoran Desert, Flagstaff, The Painted Desert. We then spent several days in Ogden, Utah visiting our son. Then the long drive to Wisconsin. We have been taking the route through Nebraska rather than the more northern route through South Dakota. While Nebraska can seem boring, we have come to enjoy it. One of the things we have noticed is giant flocks of birds. I think our timing has just been right and they are migrating. It is quite a sight to behold.
While traveling is wonderful, it never helps my reading life. I often don’t read much and that was true this time.
The Highland Fling Murders (Murder, She Wrote #8) by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain – Jessica and eleven friends from Cabot Cove take a trip to Great Britain. Inspector George Sutherland, a friend of Jessica’s, invites the group to spend several days at his home in Scotland. George’s home is a castle that is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a witch who was executed long ago. Jessica doesn’t believe in ghosts, but on her first night there she catches a glimpse of the spectre. She is not sure how to explain what she saw, but she is still not convinced it was a ghost. Within a few days a local young lady is executed in the same manner as the legendary witch. There is definitely something evil going on in the village of Wick and Jessica is determined to discover its source. I always enjoy this series, but this was not one of my favorites.
Dearest Dorothy, Are We There Yet? by Charlene Ann Baumbich – Dorothy Jean Wetstra has lived all of her eighty-seven years in a farmhouse near the town of Partonville. She has recently begun to think about the fact that she won’t be around forever. Maybe it is time to sell the property on Crooked Creek. Dorothy is just not sure she is ready to leave yet.
Meanwhile, life goes on in Partonville. The biggest news is the death of Tess Walker, a member of the community who had kept to herself for many years. Dorothy had been good friends with her when they were young, but life had taken its toll and Tess had retreated to her home where she rarely welcomed visitors. Her only living relative is a niece who lives in Chicago.
Katie and her son, Josh, are making the trip to Partonville to take care of Tess’s arrangements. Katie hasn’t been to Partonville since she left for college. She views the town as slow, backward and annoying. Josh can’t wait to see this town he has heard so much about. Katie plans to spend as little time there as possible. However, Dorothy’s kindness and love begin to melt Katie’s rough exterior. A satisfying story from beginning to end with an unique main character.
Hope you all have a great week!
I like the sound of Dearest Dorothy, Gretchen, I will see if we can get it here.
And I love the sound of those migrating birds, and of all those interesting-sounding places. What is the Painted Desert? I’m glad you had such a great trip, and I know exactly what you mean about not getting much reading done when travelling.
Rosemary, I’m quoting here, although I have been to the Painted Desert. “The Painted Desert encompasses over 93,500 acres and stretches over 160 miles. It begins about 30 miles north of Cameron, Arizona near the southeastern rim of the Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest about 26 miles east of Holbrook, AZ. Along the way, it grazes the backyard of the Wupatki National Monument Indian Ruins. The Painted Desert derives its name for the multitude of colors ranging from lavenders to shades of gray with vibrant colors of red, orange and pink. It is a long expanse of badland hills and buttes and although barren and austere, it is a beautiful landscape of a rainbow of colors.” The Sonoran Desert in Arizona is beautiful, too. I miss Arizona and all of it’s beauty. It’s so different.
Thank you, Lesa. That was a much better description than I would have given. Arizona and Utah are so beautiful in such a different way than where I live in Wisconsin.
Rosemary, I hope you are able to get a copy of Dearest Dorothy. It was a refreshing read.
The migrating birds are such an awesome sight to see. I am so glad we were able to be there at the right time.
Gretchen – Did you happen upon the Sandhill Crane migration? Rather large bird. Every March, over a million Sandhill Cranes converge on the Platte River Valley in central Nebraska before continuing north to their nesting grounds. Nebraska has successfully combined tourism with protecting migrating grounds.
MM – I don’t think we saw Sandhill Cranes. I think they were European Starlings in giant clusters. We also saw Canadian Geese. It was mesmerizing. We also see Sandhill Cranes in Wisconsin for a short time during the migration. They are such amazing birds.
Gretchen, As much as I love to travel, it’s always good to be back home. But, your trip sounds as if you were in some gorgeous locations!
It was cold here so I got some reading time in this week.
The first book I read was a children’s book by Stuart Gibbs, ONCE UPON A TIM. A peasant boy who aspires to being a knight volunteers to help save a princess. I’ve enjoyed some of the author’s middle grade books but this one wasn’t for me.
EMBRACE TTHE SUCK by Kristen Painter is the final book in her series about a NJ Mafia wife turned vampire. I’m sad to see the series end.
An ARC of TIL DEATH by Carol J Perry, the latest in her WICH-TV series has Lee and Pete going to Maine on their honeymoon to visit an island owned by an aunt and uncle that Lee has never met. Of course there will be a mystery to solve.
TOTALLY PAWSTRUCK by Sofia Ryan. I always enjoy the senior sleuths in this series.
Like you, Sandy, I enjoy Sofia Ryan’s books. I think I was a little disappointed in that latest one, though.
Good morning. I have not done much reading in the past few weeks. I had another death in the family (2nd in 3 months) which required my traveling to Florida again. I thought I would get plenty of reading done at the airport and on my flight. Since I had to be out of the house by 4:30 a.m. for a 7:00 a.m. flight, I was not quite awake to do any reading.
What reading/listening I did do, I kept it light. I read Black Hills, an older Nora Roberts book and I listened to It Has to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. They were both enjoyable. My library hold for The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn has come in and I am looking forward to starting that. She is one of my favorite authors.
I wish you all a wonderful week. Margie…I absolutely love the name of your walking group “Walkie Talkies”. Rosemary…I enjoy your descriptions of your area in Scotland.
I’m not good at reading in airports, Kathleen. I’m a people watcher, and spend too much time watching others.
I don’t blame you for selecting light reading when you had to travel for a funeral.
Good morning!
This week I finished The Truth and Other Hidden Things by Lea Geller. It was from Kindle Unlimited. The day Bells Walker’s husband found out he didn’t get tenure at a Manhattan University, she also found out her IUD failed. She is 42 with a 17-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. Her husband gets another position in Dutchess County in the Hudson Valley. Bells feels like she’s moved to another planet. She starts writing a blog called the County Dutchess. When it goes viral because her posts change from humorous observations about the farm to table hipster lifestyle to dishing the dirt about the community, things go from bad to worse. While it seemed to drag a little in the middle, I found this funny with some truthful insights about having teenagers and enjoyable.
Now I am reading Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson. It is a very predictable rom com about an associate editor at a high brow publishing house in Nashville. She has a shot at publishing her first romance novel with another publisher. After dropping her manuscript all over the floor at a meeting, she hides it in a secret turret room in the Victorian mansion where she works. When she goes to retrieve it, a mysterious editor has become leaving comments in the margins-sorry but there is not mysterious as to who it could possibly be 🙂 Despite that, it is cute with some fun moments but probably not memorable at all.
Margie, I am even more excited to read Other Birds after your review. I love all of SAA’s books.
Happy Reading!
Sharon, I skipped Meet Me in the Margins. As much as I enjoy books set in the book world, this one just didn’t seem as if it was going to be that much fun. Sounds as if I was right.
Margie said all the things about Sarah Addison Allen’s Other Birds. I am one of Ms. Allen’s biggest fans and this one was worth the wait.
I also read:
It All Comes Down to This by Therese Anne Fowler (ARC)
The Family Compound by Liz Parker (ARC)
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young (ARC)
The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand (ARC)
Where Wild Peaches Grow by Cade Bentley (ARC)
And can recommend them all, but Other Birds is the jewel.
Happy Reading, all!
Oh, that’s so good to know Other Birds was worth the wait! It seems as if we’ve been waiting forever.
Morning….. Thanks to NETGALLEY, I am reading SOULESS by Rozlan Mohd Noor. This is the latest in the Inspector Mizlan series.
Tonight, at the WILD DETECTIVES BOOKSTORE AND BAR, I and several other folks will be doing a reading. If you are in the Dallas area, come hear me read my short story, “Bars Of The Heart.”
Kevin! I hope you have fun tonight at noir at the bar. Enjoy!
Thank you!
Good morning! I’ve been pretty busy, but still got a lot of reading done!
Marshall’s Gold by KR HIll; A PI finds the usual artifact that will change history as we know it. Corrupt billionaires want the artifact, and we end up in Chiapas, uniting The Mayans. It seems like everyone wants the Mayans to unite except the Mayans themselves. Could be a lesson there for somebody.
The Czech Book by Lauren B. Grossman; Rainee Allen is the maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding when a bomb goes off, putting her best friend in a coma. The really strange things start to happen. There’s a code, but we never actually see a sample of it, which seems a bit of a cheat to me.
Cassia by DC Mallery; Somewhere between a psychological thriller and a horror story, a psychiatrist is obsess with a new wonder drug. There’s a creepy sanitarium, a serial killer, and girl who whispers. Creepy, like an old poverty row horror movie.
Uncle Greg’s Treasure by Cedric H. Roserens; A banker turns the big 4-0 and receives a letter from his uncle, presently missing in the Amazon jungle. He travels the world, solving riddles and finding pieces of a puzzle that will reveal the whereabouts of a treasure. Told in a series of emails, which removes any sense of immediacy, but lends it a breezy, conversational style. I never liked the letter device in Victorian era books, but it seems to work here.
Stiff Don’t Vote by Geoffrey Homes; A woman hires a PI to find a concert pianist just before WWII. There’s an election in the offing, and the pianist’s mother in law is ax murdered. Our detectives get on the case. Doesn’t quite seem to know whether it wants to be a screwball mystery or not.
Broken Arrow by Manfred Leuthard; A helicopter pilot discovers a plot to steal a nuke. There was almost no action. I’m still not sure how that’s possible with this premise.
Sky Dives by Mark C. Hull; An over-educated bartender at the airport bars in Atlanta deals with a lot of entitled people,and not just the customers. Considering how de-humanizing airline travel can be, I think he got off lucky.
Lying to Children by Alex Shahla; A suburbanite father writes a letter to his children telling them how sheltered they are. Like watching Everybody Loves Raymond without Brad Garrett.
Orphanage by Robert Beuhner; A young man orphaned when aliens bomb the cities of the world joins the army, and see Ganymede while killing squid-like ETs. Nothing new here, but readable.
Children of the Furnace by Brin Murray; something of a contrarian cli-fi novel, but everyone talks in a patois, the decoding which took me right out of the novel.
History is history. It’s already happened, can’t be changed (though the GOP would like to).
Well, I’ll say you got a lot of reading done! Nothing that jumped out at me today, and I didn’t get the feeling anything really impressed you either, Glen.
No, I’m glad you commented today, Rick. I think a lot of us are disgusted at national politics, no matter which side of the political spectrum we’re on. I am glad you liked The Kaiju Preservation Society and Frederick Weisel’s books, though. I liked both of the Weisel books, but for some reason I liked the second one even more.
We’re here for you to gripe to as well as to listen when you just want to talk books. We all need an outlet when we want to gripe.
Trent, Thanks for letting us know. I have the feeling Rick wouldn’t tell us, but we’re all in this together with all our aches, pains, and problems. Thank you for sharing that.
I’m reading a book that seems to be getting some buzz, deservedly so – Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian. It’s the first in the secret staircase mystery series. Very different and engrossing. A stage magician has returned to her childhood home following a near fatal accident on stage. Her magical family has been followed by a curse killing the eldest child, of which Tempest is one. Helping her dad in his business, the Secret Staircase Construction Company, leads to the discovery of a body inside a wall over a hundred years old. Everyone is shocked when the victim turns out to be Tempest’s body double dead only two weeks. But how did she get in the wall? I’ll never tell!
Oh, good, Sandie. I hate spoilers. (smile)
I am also tired and grumpy and I assume a lot of that is caused by unhappy events in the world but also by some issues we are having with our water bill. On a happy note, my husband drove us to the grocery store for the first time since his retina surgery. The bubble in his eye is completely gone and he felt like his vision was good enough. He also has been reading more, both print books and on the kindle.
This week I finished two books, ONCE A CROOKED MAN by David McCallum and THE GAZEBO by Patricia Wentworth.
ONCE A CROOKED MAN by McCallum was published in 2016 and is a thriller. A crime family decides to go straight but first they have a few people they want to silence so they won’t be going to jail for past crimes. An actor who survives on small parts in TV episodes and movies and stage plays happens to overhear what they are plotting and get mixed up in all the mayhem, mainly because he wanted to do a good deed and warn one of the victims. This was the perfect read for me at this time, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Patricia Wentworth’s books are my go to comfort read (along with Agatha Christie’s but some of her books are not so cozy). She wrote mysteries between 1928 and 1961. I have only read her Miss Silver books, but she also wrote quite a few standalone books and a couple of other short series. THE GAZEBO was published in 1955 and is a complicated story about a woman who has been caring for her mother for five years and had to drop her plans to marry her fiancé, but now he is back and they are going to find a way to get around her controlling mother. Then the mother dies and the fiancé seems to be the obvious culprit. The plot is complex, there was more romance in the story than usual, and I enjoyed it.
Tracy, I’m sorry you’re tired and grumpy, too. But, at least you had good news – your husband’s eye, and two books you liked. Sending hugs. Probably won’t help, but you never know.
How did this happen? I completely forgot about commenting until now.
Almost finished with reading Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons. I love, love, love it.
I started A Plain Death by Amanda Flower. I felt like reading a mystery, and found the second book in this four book series right beside it on my shelf. Bought the third used for a good price, that leaves the last one. The first of the Amish is going quickly and I am really enjoying it.
Then this afternoon, the book that I accidenttly entered for on the GoodReads sight showed up!. The Last Mile by Kat Martin. It is not my kind of book.
Did too much today. Will have to talk more next time!
At least you finally remembered us, Carolee! I’m glad you’re enjoying Amanda Flower’s books. I never review by whether or not an author is nice, but Amanda is such a nice person.
I’m listening to Nine Lives by Peter Swanson and reading in print The Harbor by Katrine Engberg and By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate
I have Nine Lives in a stack someplace, Katherine, so I’ll look forward to your comments about it.
We have had Spring One, a few days of summer and now Spring Two here in Arizona!! Another plus are the clouds and Spring Training baseball is finally underway! Because it’s still March I have been caught up with reading middle grade books for MiddleGradeMarch delight and professional development, but I did squish in one fantastic audiobook that is definitely worth mentioning. The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb is narrated by J D Jackson and was a fantastic audio experience. Add in orchestral clips and this was a true standout. Mr. Slocumb is a professional violinist so knows his subject matter as well. This is his debut novel and I am impressed with the depth of story and character development. The mystery is not as strong as the story but the story was rich and made this audio experience 5 star for me!! Happy April, Lesa.
Oh, I can see that The Violin Conspiracy would be even better as an audio! I read it quite a long time ago when he was on a panel. But, the music would make a difference!