I hope some of you have some newsy tidbits, weather, trips, whatever to share, because I have nothing. So, I’m just going to jump into the book I’m currently reading.
Winter’s End is the fourth Alaska Wild mystery by Paige Shelton. It doesn’t come out until December 6. I’ve had my ups and downs with this series. So far, the first book was the best, in my opinion. But, I’m a fourth of the way into Winter’s End, and this one is holding up well. It’s time for Benedict, Alaska’s annual Death Walk. Everyone is the community is to come to town now that the weather is better so they can check in that they made it through the winter. But, thriller writer Beth Rivers is concerned that her walking buddy, Kaye Miller, doesn’t show up that day, and neither does Kaye’s husband. Now, the police chief is bringing in the Miller family to talk to them about their missing relatives.
What about you? What are you doing this week? What are you reading?
I just started Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen and I’m already loving it!
Melanie, Our jobber, Baker & Taylor, has been down for almost 2 weeks, thanks to ransomware. My copy of Other Birds is somewhere in their warehouse in Momence, Illinois. I’m jealous.
That’s terrible! We’ve experienced an attack on our entire college system and it can be devastating. Hopefully this will be resolved soon and B & T can get those books out!
I hope so, too, Melanie. It’s almost 2 weeks now, and we can’t order books, and we haven’t received any. And, they have 5000 library clients affected.
This is terrible!
I just finished reading The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair. It kept me guessing and interested all the way through. I was very surprised by the ending. I’m regretting that I was too lazy to return it to the library yesterday, and get a new book.
Oh, I know how popular those Allison Montclair books are, Theresa. I’m pleased it kept your interest. Now, you probably won’t have a chance to get to the library until Saturday!
Theresa, I loved The Unkept Woman too. I am fascinated with the process of Gwen trying to get her life back.
Oh I love that series! New one this fall.
Theresa, I have the first one in this series on Kindle and just ordered the second one in paperback. I hope to start the series soon.
Thanks, that explains why books due in the past week or two are not showing up. I hope B & T gets it under control.
Well, they haven’t yet, Jeannette, and it’s Sept. 6.
We’ll see if I can post this week. (Word Press has been acting up all over the net.)
We are starting a heat wave. Over 100 over day for a week. It’s 90 as I type this, at 10:30 at night, which is usually high for us.
Today (Wednesday), I finished Murder at Keyhaven Castle by Clara McKenna. I really enjoyed it. A historical mystery with a strong romance, it was very entertaining.
Up next will be Buttercream Betrayal, the fifth Cupcake Caterer Mystery by Kim Davis.
Mark
Mark, I like the sound of Murder at Keyhaven Castle. I’ll have to look for that one.
Thanks for letting me know WordPress is having problems. If anyone complains, I’ll know that’s the problem, and not my blog.
Good morning everyone, from a sunny Aberdeenshire. Our temperatures may have dropped, but the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and this is the kind of weather I really do prefer.
Yesterday I was down by the river and it was so beautifully quiet – the children are all back at school, and hardly anyone was about. Very peaceful. And still so many blackberries on the bushes.
I had a great weekend attending two excellent exhibitions.
The first was the Gray’s School of Art Master’s Degree show. Madeleine and I had been to the Undergraduate show a few months ago, but as that was in term time the campus was extremely busy with cars everywhere. On Saturday, with no students and few staff around, it was much calmer and I was able to appreciate the site itself, which is set in acres of parkland with lots of trees, and goes down to the river on its far side.
The campus design was proposed by Norman Foster, and there is some stunning modernist architecture alongside a Victorian manor house, now the Principal’s office. The land was long ago part of a huge country estate (though it’s now very much part of the city) owned by a wealthy and powerful family, the Menzies. There are some beautiful old houses nearby, as this was very much the place for successful men to buy property. (Now they probably all belong to people who made fortunes in the 1970s oil boom.)
I enjoyed the show too! As ever, some things appealed more than others. I especially liked the work a girl called Marion Eleni Clement had done on witches, witch hunts, and the persecution and suppression of women who did not tow the line. She drew interesting parallels with what is happening today.
On Sunday I attended ‘Experimental Use of Space’ at the Bon Accord Baths. When my children were small I lived within walking distance of this iconic Art Deco building, and used to walk there (sometimes through snow) at the crack of dawn to join the 6am swimmers. The pool is huge, and in the past was immensely popular, and the building once also offered Russian baths, ‘slipper baths’ (ie for people who had no facilities at home – my grandmother used to bathe at a similar place in south London), a gym and a café.
In the early 2000s the city council saw fit to close it on the grounds that the pool was not ‘Olympic size’ and to build a new sports facility to the north of the city. The council is notorious for making very questionable decisions, and some feel that this one was based on the assumption that they could sell the site off to a developer (as it’s very central, just behind Union Street.) Surprise surprise nobody wanted it, and it has ever since been left to fall into disrepair. Now a group called Save Bon Accord Baths has started a campaign to save the building, restore it and return it to the community as a resource, not just for swimming but also as an event venue and meeting place.
On Sunday lots of local artists were exhibiting their work around the building, and the pool (empty!) was used for music recitals, dance, installations, etc. A film was also shown, in which people had been asked for their memories of the pool. Many had been swimming there since childhood, and remembered it with great affection. It was sad to see the state of the building – so much damage both from the elements and from vandalism – but the group is really dynamic and has already secured some funding, so fingers crossed. The police are now taking a more active role in the security of the site – and have even used the building to train sniffer dogs!
Meanwhile, my reading this week has been virtually static. I’m still on Winifred Boggs’ SALLY ON THE ROCKS, and struggling with it a bit. I don’t know if I’m just feeling impatient or what, but Sally’s hunt for a husband, and the awfulness of the man she has set her sights on (and of whose awfulness she is completely aware, but she needs his money) are starting to wear a bit thin. Boggs does, however, make some pointed observations about the inequities facing women like Sally at the start of the 20th century. She had an affair in Paris. Her ex-lover has just turned up in her guardian’s little village, having inherited a big house and money from a maiden aunt. With him is his new wife and their small children. His wife, who is nice, is fully aware of his history and accepting of it, but Sally knows that if any man discovers SHE is ‘used goods’ they will disown her.
I’m sorting out books to take with me to the Isle of Harris, where we will be on holiday next week. As I almost never read the books I pack I’m not entirely sure why I bother, but the thought of not having books around me is just too worrying.
So I am taking Alastair McIntosh’s POACHER’S PILGRIMAGE: AN ISLAND JOURNEY, in which the author, who was born on Lewis, returns to the islands to undertake a 12 day walk from the very south of Harris to the northerly Butt of Lewis. It was Alastair who first introduced me to the poetry of Sorley McLean, as translated by Seamus Heaney, when he read ‘Hallaig’ at a Fringe event some years ago.
I’ve also put out the latest Harcus & Laird detective story by Claire MacLeary, DEATH DROP, which Saraband kindly sent to me for review.
Still thinking about the rest.
On TV we have just had the fourth episode of SHETLAND. This series is, in my opinion, one of the best. Every actor is on top form – Douglas Henshall and Alison O’Donnell in particular – and the plot is gripping.
I saw that the film LICORICE PIZZA is supposed to be free to view on Prime, but every time I try to search for it the screen defaults to something else. Has anyone seen it?
On Tuesday we spent the entire day driving up and down the motorway to move furniture between here and Leith. I only realised when I got into the van we had hired that it didn’t have a CD player (my daughters have made it all too clear that I am behind the times on that one…) but I then – only by plugging my phone into the charger – discovered it had Apple Play. Needless to say I had no idea what that was, but I soon discovered that I could play music from YouTube through it. So I treated David to a playlist of all my favourite 80s stuff. Not sure how much he appreciated two hours of George Michael, Bronski Beat and The Communards…..
I did also play Barenaked Ladies, which reminded us of our time in Newfoundland, and The Proclaimers, who are brilliant, and well known for songs like Five Hundred Miles, Sunshine on Leith, etc. So I was quite considerate really 😊
I’ll need to get on now. I hope everyone is having a good week. Not sure if I will be able to contribute next Thursday, depends partly on the wifi on the islands.
Rosemary
Rosemary it is always such a treat to visit Scotland with you. I googled the Bon Accord Baths and spent a happy half hour learning about Aberdeen. And as I step out into another hot humid Virginia morning I will pretend I too am walking by the river wearing a light jacket.
Susan replied perfectly, Rosemary. She’s right. It’s always a treat to visit Scotland with you. I can’t thank you enough for giving us a chance to “walk” with you, visit exhibits, and just to see through your eyes.
Bare Naked Ladies. One of our favorites. Do you listen to Alan Thomas Doyle? He is from Newfoundland.
Good morning all! My Thursdays are usually too busy to check in here but today, so far, is quiet. The latest Jim Bean thriller by J. D. Allen was released Tuesday. I read it that night and I loved it. Jim accepts an interim assignment to serve as a bodyguard to the teenage daughter of an Indian billionaire. Kidnappers grab her as they walk into the parking garage of a hotel, and Jim handcuffs himself to her so they have to take him with her. From there it’s escape and identifying the kidnappers, only far more complicated than that. Fast, nonstop action. The culprits were a complete surprise. For thriller fans.
Then Stark House sent me an advance copy of a reprint of books by Edna Sherry, a midcentury author. They release volumes of two books each. I read The Defense Does Not Rest, which is an inverted mystery with a long flashback sequence. I am trying to decide if the culprit would have been as well hidden if it were written in a straight chronological style.
I found #13 of the Brock and Kolla series by Barry Maitland on the library shelf and grabbed it. Published in 2019, it takes awhile for these Australian books to reach my library system. #14 was published last November and I will have to buy it if I want to read it any time soon. This one is classic Brock and Kolla, an excellent excellent series.
Good morning, Aubrey! Thank you for the reminder about the Brock and Kolla series. We have the first in the series here at our Central library, so I’m going to go down and pick it up later today. Of course, I have the new J.D. Robb and the Louise Penny I hope to get to this weekend. We’ll see.
I’m so glad you could stop by this morning!
The Marx Sisters, the first in the series, was on the shelf & it’s now checked out to me, Aubrey. I don’t know when I’ll get to it, but it looks good!
I had a new release on order from Amazon last week that I really wanted to read but it was on my old Amazon card which I’d had to cancel and there were special promo points in the order too. Their system kept saying I had to change the payment method but it wouldn’t let me. After calling Amazon support two separate days where they couldn’t change the order either and being hung up on them the second time I finally just reordered it. The system eventually deleted the original order.
So I got to read Patricia Briggs’ latest Mercy Thompson book SOUL TAKEN. The Tri-Cities werewolf pack have to take down a killer who’s possessed by a magical scythe. And figure out why the local vampires are missing. At least I really enjoyed the book after all of the trouble I had getting it.
Sandy, I see Soul Taken makes the NYTimes Bestseller list on Sunday, Sept. 11 as well, so I’m glad you had the chance to read it, and enjoy it after all your troubles!
Good to see that Rosemary has had plenty to do in Scotland, as I’m with you – nothing but books and food here. At least weather seems to finally be cooling off a little as we get into September.
Seems I keep forgetting to give you Jackie’s reading. She is almost done with Kelley Armstrong’s first Rockton book, A DARKNESS ABSOLUTE, and is reading Paula Munier’s THE WEDDING PLOT on her Kindle, mostly at night.
First, read TASTE: MY LIFE THROUGH FOOD by Stanley Tucci, as mentioned last time. Very entertaining book and I can see why people would enjoy hearing him reading the audio version. He went through a lot with his cancer over a two year period but seems to have come through it in the end.
Then was GIRL IN ICE by Erica Ferencik. This improved as it went along, for me at least. Val Chesterfield, our narrator, is not the most sympathetic character, more than a little bit of a whiner filled with self-pity as well as anxieties. Her twin brother is dead in Greenland, an apparent suicide, which she is having a hard time accepting. When she gets the chance to go to the research station where he died she can’t say no. Seems she is a linguist specializing in dead and obscure languages, and they claim to have thawed out a little girl frozen in the ice, who is alive and talking…though some language no one can understand. If that sounds like something that would interest you, give it a try. Well done.
You know how sometimes you read a first novel and are stunned that someone could hit it out of the park on their first try? That is SHUTTER by Ramona Emerson. Rita Todacheene is (like the author) a Navajo from Tohatchi, New Mexico (near the Arizona border, on the Reservation), who is working for the Albuquerque PD as a forensic photographer, taking pictures of dead bodies, some of them murder victims. But Rita has a secret – she sees (and can hear) dead people, and can interact with them, to her own detriment. A murder victim will not accept that her death was classified as a suicide and demands – stridently and insistently – that Rita do something about it. In between, we get the story of her life, from her earliest memories (the ghost thing was always there), growing up with her Grandma after her mother left, her early interest in photography, etc. Yes, Rita makes mistakes, puts herself in danger more than once, but this is a terrific first novel and I can’t wait to see what she does next. Highly recommended. (And it is under 300 pages.)
Next, I finally got to the recommended THE KILLING HILLS by Chris Offutt, first in his Mick Hardin series. Mick is home in the hills of Kentucky after 14 years in the Army in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, when his sister, the newly appointed Sheriff, asks him for help on a case. Mick (and the author as well) proves he knows the hills and hollers, as well as the people. I’ve read 30% so far but I don’t doubt I will finish this in short order, and probably go on to the second in the series, Brilliant writing, excellent use of an unusual setting, highly recommended. Just sorry it took me this long to get to it.
Still reading three short story collections:
ANOTHER ROUND AT THE SPACEPORT BAR
I SEE YOU by Charlotte Armstrong
DEATH COMES LAST: THE REST OF THE 1950s by Gil Brewer
Yes! I’m so glad, Jeff, that you finally read The Killing Hills. Yes That is such brilliant writing. I read and liked the second book, but I didn’t love it as I did The Killing Hills.
I have a copy of Shutter sitting beside the couch, and I need to get to it. Southwest, a debut. Sounds right up my alley. I just haven’t taken the time to read it.
Thank you!
I know. You were one of a few people telling me to read it.
SHUTTER is quite dark in parts (lie when she is photographing body parts on the highway) but very well done.
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen.
I knew i would love it.
It was worth the long wait.
But i hate that it’s now being delayed even longer for some of you! Boo!!!!!
It’s peaceful and magical – just as we’ve grown to expect from this wonderful author.
From Amazon:
“From the acclaimed author of Garden Spells comes a tale of lost souls, secrets that shape us, and how the right flock can guide you home.
Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments. It’s called The Dellawisp and it’s named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy.
When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors including a girl on the run, a grieving chef whose comfort food does not comfort him, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t yet written.
When one of her new neighbors dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she’s thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there. She soon discovers that many unfinished stories permeate the place, and the people around her are in as much need of healing from wrongs of the past as she is. To find their way they have to learn how to trust each other, confront their deepest fears, and let go of what haunts them.
Delightful and atmospheric, Other Birds is filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that won’t let you go. Sarah Addison Allen shows us that between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.”
Yes, Donna and I are both waiting for Other Birds. Boo is right, Kaye. And, after reviews from both you and Melanie. Boo!
Good morning! In sunny NorCal we’re expecting temps in the three digits between now and Tuesday. Not that we had anything planned for Labor Day weekend, but for sure we’ll be staying home in the A/C. I’m hoping for no power outages and no fires!
As always, Chet the dog is the star of the 13th in Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie Mystery series, BARK TO THE FUTURE. He’s the narrator, after all, and it’s fun to read his musings on just about everything he experiences. In Chet’s mind, Bernie (a PI and his human) is perfect in every way–well, maybe the Hawaiian pants he purchased in bulk to make a quick buck might not have been the best idea. And although Chet is clearly intelligent and tells the reader frequently that he is “a pro,” he tends to interpret most things literally and misses the more subtle verbal and visual cues, to hilarious effect. The team’s latest case, however, is dead serious, and it hearkens back to Bernie’s high school days. When he comes across a member of his old baseball team who is obviously down on his luck, Bernie tries to help him out but ends up searching for him when he disappears. A suspicious death or two and an especially decorative switchblade figure prominently in the convoluted plot. It’s always a treat to see each case resolved by this intrepid pair, and to gain a dog’s perspective of the events at the same time.
In Jessica George’s debut novel, MAAME, 25-year-old Maddie has put aside her dreams to take care of her disabled father, while working in a thankless job as personal assistant to an impossible boss. Her mother spends a year at a time in her homeland of Ghana, working in a family business, and provides little financial or emotional support to her daughter. And her older brother begs off when asked to help out. Maddie has a couple of supportive friends, but her dating life and her personal life have taken a huge hit for eight years. I was interested in the story at first, and it’s an easy book to read, but Maddie’s never-ending complaints and failure to take action to improve her life soon wore me down. The problem for me was with Maddie’s first-person narration. The way she expresses herself seems flat and didn’t allow me to form any kind of bond with her. It’s true that Maddie’s life is often frustrating and disappointing, but she never seems to demonstrate much personal warmth or engaging personality. In addition, there is not as much about Ghanaian customs and culture I had hoped for. Maddie lives and works in London, doesn’t speak the Twi language, and feels out of place and unwelcome when she visits Ghana, so it’s up to her relatives to remind her of her heritage. There are also infrequent details about the characters that are fun but never followed up. The story does lighten up in the latter part of the book, which I appreciated. I believe that the author is quite talented, and I am confident that her style will mature as she continues to write. (February)
Kaye, I think it was you who recommended Holly James’ NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH–if so, THANK YOU! I loved the story of junior celebrity publicist Lucy, who expects a perfect day on her 30th birthday. She even wishes for it the evening before in the presence of a sexy bartender who replaces a cocktail he notices she isn’t enjoying. But her birthday certainly isn’t what she expected. Lucy discovers early on that she can’t help being perfectly honest with everyone she encounters (yes, like the Jim Carrey movie Liar, Liar but not played for over-the-top humor). Needless to say, this compulsion wreaks havoc with both her personal and career plans in explosive ways. In the process, she finds herself questioning her own tolerance of inappropriate behavior and figuring out what she really wants from her life. There are so many memorable scenes in the book that kept me dashing through the pages. Supporting characters are just as vivid as Lucy, and there is a bit of romance thrown in. For readers who expected a rom-com and got what some called “a feminist diatribe,” there may be some disappointment. But I, for one, have nothing but praise for this book and can’t wait to see what Holly James is up to next.
I am a longtime reader of Jonathan Kellerman’s Dr. Alex Delaware Novels (38 books in the series to date!) and continue to enjoy the chronicles of psychologist Alex and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis. As usual, Alex is the narrator, but Milo bears most of the burden of responsibility as the team faces another impossible challenge. After the shooting death of a wealthy young man, they must determine whether someone in his widely dispersed family is responsible. His billionaire father has been married five times (working on the sixth) and fathered one child with each wife, but he has purposely estranged himself from each of his children’s lives. Or could the murder be related to the victim’s recent photography project, highly praised by the media? After soliciting eight street people with the help of a “capper,” he juxtaposed their “before” photos with makeover photos supposedly reflecting the person they say they wish to be, but now they are back on the streets and their unhappy lives. I love the differences between the two protagonists–one a dapper, prosperous, and, highly respected psychologist with a long-time live-in girlfriend and the other a sloppily dressed gay detective who is largely disrespected by upper management but whose crack analytical skills and success record cannot be denied. It’s also fascinating to see how they work together, along with other detectives on the team, to investigate the case step by step and put the pieces together to find the solution while dodging personal danger. Kudos to the author for maintaining the quality of the series for so many years. (February)
It was a treat to read RULES AT THE SCHOOL BY THE SEA, the second in the prolific Jenny Colgan’s boarding school series, so soon after the first (but after all, they were both written a few years back, under a pseudonym, and released successively in 2022 under Jenny’s real name). I readily immersed myself in the continuation of the story about the teachers, administrators, and students at a girls’ boarding school in England. Maggie is in her second year there as a teacher, having previously taught at a Scottish school that was much less posh than this one. She’s planning a wedding to her long-term boyfriend soon after the end of the term, but still can’t seem to resist a strong attraction to a teacher at the nearby boys’ school. The head teacher’s son, whom she gave up as a baby for adoption and with whom she was secretly reunited in the first book, is now working at the boys’ school, and she wrestles with whether to publicly admit their blood kinship and whether to hope for a friendly relationship with his family. And teenage second-year students Simone, Fliss, and Alice, along with new American student Zelda, meet new challenges related to body image, adolescent attraction, belonging, and more. I don’t know what it is about a boarding school tale, but it sucks me in every time. This one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, which didn’t bother me at all. It only made me that much more eager to read the next in this promised six-book series, scheduled for March..
Good morning, Margie. It’s so good to know someone besides me enjoys Chet’s voice in Spencer Quinn’s mysteries. I’m a cat person, but Chet just seems so purely dog that it’s fun to read those books.
And, I love that we all appreciate suggestions from each other. It just makes my day when someone comments about a book that another reader recommended here.
Stay cool, Margie!
Hey., I love Chet and Bernie! I just sent some bookplates to him to sign. He signed for me last year as well.
I am so happy to hear you enjoyed Nothing But the Truth! We do share similar likes and dislikes in our reading.
Hi Lesa! This week I’m reading Sara Driscoll’s Before It’s Too Late. This is a fast-paced, high tension thriller with lots of well-researched history to add to the complicated plot. Very well written.
Good morning, Patricia! I think I read one or two in that series, but not in any order. I’m happy to learn you’re enjoying it.
Patricia, I love the Sara Driscoll F.B.I. K-9 series. Before It’s Too Late is really a nail biter, one of my favorites in the series. I just received Still Waters, #7, that comes out the end of November from Jen Danna, one of the two authors who make up the team of Sara Driscoll. I’ve reviewed all the books on my reading blog, The Reading Room. I hope you keep reading the series. You’re in for some excellent thrills.
Good Morning!
Two books this week. The Heart of the Summer by Felicity Hayes McCoy. I have been up and down with the Finfarran Peninsula books, but I enjoyed this one. Mostly I love her descriptions of Ireland. She spent lots of time recapping the backstory of the characters so it wouldn’t be hard to read this one without reading the previous five books. Aideen and Conor are adjusting to married life and living on the farm with his parents. Brian’s son Tom is visiting with no plans to leave soon. Hannah is feeling hemmed in, so she goes on a visit to London with an old friend and wonders if her life really is in the small Irish community. The real star of the book as usual was Fury and his dog.
Next I finished Lucy Check In by Dee Ernst. I liked this one a lot too. Lucy Giannetti is a disgraced hotel manager living with her parents. An opportunity comes up for her to help start a boutique hotel in Rennes, France. I liked the more mature main character and the setting very much. Another happy easy read for these trying times.
I must admit I am little green eyed with those of you who’ve read Other Birds. I am on the list for the library, but I might just splurge and buy it.
Happy Reading!
I’m jealous, too, Sharon. Just knowing that book will be in a box, but Baker & Taylor can’t send it out. That drives me nuts.
I am listening to Black Nerd Problems by William Evans. I did not realize that it was taken from a blog and not nerds in general but black ones devoted to pop culture, The language is something to get used but the most shocking is always at the beginning of each essay and I agree with the opinions 90 % of the time. Now I am playing much more attention on how black people and other races are depicted or not depicted in graphic novels, broadway shows, TV etc. Often the roles are very small and some are stereotyped. Into detail about Marvel, Disney etc. But also unclude racial profiling, gun violence, Black Lives Matter and other themes. As a white, I think of it as a “think piece”. It makes you think a lot, which is good.
Also reading another book from my TBR collection, Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent. It is a historical fiction book about a woman who learned to be an undertaker from her husband. Not wanting to stay home and manage the househsold, she is intelligent and caring and knows and confronts her husband about possuble nefarious dealing with the Confederacy. They live in London and Violet Morgan has accidently met Prince Albert. He is now dying of gastric fever or typhoid fever. It is a page turner whem Violet, the female undertaker is in the spotlight but lags when it comes to the very unlikeable husband.
Lady of Ashes sounds fascinating, Carolee. Like you, though, I’m not into unlikeable characters.
Mostly I’ve been reading and sweltering in the heat. I’t getting even hotter, and they’re talking about rolling brownouts. Here I thought I lived in the 21 century.
This week I read:
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peucliar Children by Ransom Riggs; A young man finds out the stories his grandfather told him about mutant children are true. M. Scott Momaday strikes again!
Black Friday by William W. Johnstone; It’s Black Friday at the biggest mall in the country, and terrorits strike. More like a disaster movie than an action movie. The fight on the mall train is hilarious.
Perish Twice by Robert B Parker; I’m a bit of a heretic in that I don’t like Parker, but people are insistent that I d shall. This is the first book in the Sunny Randall series. She’s in Boston, with her useless dog, and talks smugly the whole time. It’s hard for me to believe any of Parker’s creations actually have friends. Maybe that’s why Spenser is always buying people beer.
Headwound by Michael McGarrity; It’s billed as a Kevin Kerney novel, even though Kerney is barely in it, and doesn’t do much when he is. Bait and switch. Tiresome cartel novel kicked up a notch, as the assassin is a Kickapoo Indian, the ancestral enemy of the Apache .cop. Gives it a bit of a twist at least.
The Sports is On! by Coach Craig; Dr. Seuss does the sports. The illustrations simply aren’t up to par. Even Seuss’s minor works at least have some good illustrations.
No Strings: Poetry 2021 by Cliff Sowers; Book claims to poetry, but it really seems to be a collection of essays. Another bait and switch!
Shadow Tier by Steve Stratton; Another cartel novel by a guy trying to be the next Brad Taylor, but lacking a good enough editor.
There are a couple additional books in the Miss Peregrine’s series, but I thought this was the best. So unusual!
You have one subject there, Glen, that I refuse to read – cartels! I’m just not interested. But, don’t you hate bait and switch, when it’s not what it was supposed to be?
Oh, and the 21st century has been the worst for rolling brownouts. And, look at poor Jackson, Mississippi. No water! You need to write a novel about it, Glen.
Happy September. The West Coast is having a heat wave but it should not be so bad along the coast in the Santa Barbara / Goleta area. There are worries all over the area about losing power due to rolling blackouts.
In the last week I finished two books I had been working on for a while: WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR? by Lev Parikian, plus DEATH AROUND THE BEND by T.E. Kinsey. Both were good reads.
DEATH AROUND THE BEND took me a while because I was reading it on my Kindle and I can’t use that later in the evening and sometimes don’t have time in the day. This is the third book in the Lady Hardcastle series and I have enjoyed all the books so far. Humorous, fun, and set in the early 1900s which is a very interesting periods. In this one, Lady Hardcastle and Flo, her maid, are invited to a country estate for a week of motor racing and parties. My favorite character is Flo.
WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR? is a non-fiction book about a man who decides to return to an old love, birding. He has a goal to find 200 different species of birds in the UK in one year. I love to read about birds and I would have liked to get more about birds and less about his personal journey and the process. But all of it was good, and visiting different parts of the UK was interesting. The author is a orchestra conductor and there were also tidbits about that and the challenges of continuing his work and working towards his birding goal. His wife and 11-year-old son went along with him sometimes.
Hi, Tracy! I hope you and Glen and Margie, and anyone else dealing with the heat and electricity concerns are okay. You’ll have to let us know next Thursday. Take care of yourself!
I’m going to have to try the Lady Hardcastle mysteries sometime.
I haven’t been able to post for a few weeks, but I’m at the library today’s I’ll try from here.
Success! Looks like the problem is with my internet provider.
We’re starting a heat wave today, triple-digit Temps through the Labor Day Weekend. My accomplishments for the week are new tires and a new windshield before heading into winter.
A few of my recent readings:
Robert Thorogood, the creator of the BBC TV series Death in Paradise, lives in Marlow in Buckinghamshire. He uses a town of almost the same name in THE MARLOWE MURDER CLUB, the first in a new series. It features a motley trio of local investigators, a serial murderer and an acting DI possibly in over her head. Darn funny while still being a decent murder mystery. (reviewed here in May)
Another book I read thanks to this blog was the short but powerful SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE (7/24 review). Set in a small Irish city where people believe that following the rules and staying busy will protect them from adversity. Story set in 1985.
Next up was a very interesting historical novel, THE COLOR OF AIR, set in 1935 in the close-knit Japanese-American community of the Hawaiian sugar plantations with an erupting volcano providing the backdrop.
“The very color of the air in the place where I was born was different, the smell of the earth was special, redolent with memories of my parents”
Gail Tsukiyama
MISSING PRESUMED and PERSONS UNKNOWN are the first two books in Susie Steiner’s DI Maron Bradshaw police procedural trilogy set in Cambridgeshire, England. Unfortunately I came across the series from the author’s obituary earlier this year. Death from a brain tumor at age 51. Six months after her first novel was published and before she started this series, she became legally blind from retinitis pigmentosa. She said it concentrated her attention on writing.
Hope everyone has a good weekend
MM, Now I know why so many people like Gail Tsukiyama. Her writing is beautiful.
Oh, how sad to discover and author knowing she died so young.
I’m back to recuperating with my leg elevated. I walked into the front license plate on the car outside a restaurant and tore a huge hunk of skin almost off. There was blood everywhere. So much so that manager came outside and called 911. A waitress brought out a bag of ice and a towel since the paper towels Bill had gone inside for were soaked. After a ride to the hospital in the ambulance, the ER doctor was happy to see the skin still attached. She steri stripped it, gave me a tetanus shot, and sent me home. Saw my internist on Tuesday who removed the strips because they reeked of infection. He scrubbed the wound which looked loads better and bandaged me up. Amazingly it doesn’t hurt too badly but will probably take a while to heal.
So I began reading Shutter by Ramona Emerson. It follows a Navajo woman who is a forensic photographer who sees ghosts. They try to latch on to her just after death. In alternating chapters we follow her as she grows up and leans to deal with ghosts as well as learn her trade. I’ve enjoyed it so far. Definitely something different to read!
Sandie, I hope your leg gets better soon!
You’re the second person today to mention, Shutter. I think that’s a sign I should read it soon. Thank you!
Take care of yourself!
I can see myself travelling back in time and meeting my 8 year old stuff, and describing how we don’t have flying belts, or car, or hoverboard, but we do have neat- telephones, but can’t charge them because we don’t have the electricity. He’d say I got rooked…And he’d be more right than wrong!
You’re right. I would agree with that eight-year-old Glen. We were cheated.
This week I read Shy, by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green. This book is the autobiography of Mary Rodgers, daughter of composer Richard Rodgers and an accomplished composer and author herself. This book was really wonderful. Rodgers is outspoken and unapologetic. She knew anyone that matters in the Broadway arena-her closest friend and in many ways self confessed love of her life was Stephen Sondheim! So engaging and fun if you are a fan of this genre, as I am. Highly Recommended.
I’m going to have to try it again, Eileen. I read the first chapter, and couldn’t get into it, but maybe it was just my mood. I love memoirs set in world of theater, so I’m going to try again.
Eileen, I’ve read quite a bit about Shy and have been wanting to read it, as I am a Broadway musical lover. Hopefully the library catalog will have it soon!
Hi Lesa and Margie,
I can understand why it might be hard to get into but so honest and what a life she lived. The footnotes are mostly by Jesse Green and I found them helpful and well written too. Reading your blog has shown me how many of you are Broadway fans and I love to be able to share this. None of my close friends are Broadway geeks like me 😁,
Once again, Thursday slipped by and I didn’t get to this wonderful conversation about what everyone is reading. So, I just decided to post today (and I commented on some of the other posts, too). Let’s see, I finally got to the new Jennifer Hillier, Things We Do in the Dark, and I thought it was in keeping with the excellence of Hillier’s previous three books I’ve read. It’s very dark though, and there are some abuse triggers that might prevent some from reading it. There’s nothing graphic, but someone might not want to be reminded of that suffering. Jar of Hearts is still my favorite Jennifer Hillier book. Her stories and characters do show the darkness in people, and she makes you wonder about extenuating circumstances a lot.
Lesa, I also got to The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt. I know you and Aubrey loved it, and I really liked it, but I wouldn’t say I loved it. I’m glad I read it. I liked the setting of eastern Kentucky in the Appalachian Hills, and I enjoyed Offutt’s description of the land. I think all the revenge killing got to me. I know that this happens there, but when I read a book about this area, I like for their to be more of the good parts of being family and being there for one another, not just the Wild West shoot-em-up. I prefer the stories like Silas House tells of Appalachia, full of heartache but with moments of tenderness and hope, too. I highly recommend Clay’s Quilt, The Coal Tattoo, and A Parchment of Leaves. They tell the story of a family, and you get to see into their hearts as well as the rough lives they live.
I just finished The Case of the Disgraced Duke by Cathy Ace. It’s the fifth book in her WISE Enquiries Agency series. I had been waiting for another book in this series, and this one was worth the wait. I love the group of ladies who make up the WISE Enquiries Agency. There are four women–one Scottish, one Welsh, one English, and one Irish. The Dowager Duchess also worms her way into the investigations they do. And, the Duke and Duchess of Chellingworth are great characters, too. There’s more than one investigation going on in this book, but the main focus is on trying to find out if the thirteenth duke was a murderer or not. The story is full of likeable characters and witty dialogue. It was an especially nice read after two dark books.
I just started J.D. Allen’s Sin City Investigations book #6, No Deal. I would rather call the series Jim Bean Investigations, as Jim is such a great character and should get the billing. I’m a big fan of this series. J.D. is one of those writers who delivers every time. She is just so good at all the elements that make a good story. I’m only about 40 pages into No Deal, but I know it’s going to be another winner.
I have books in queue, but they may go flying aside because Elly Griffiths sent me an ARC of Bleeding Heart Yard, which comes out here on November 15th. It’s the third book featuring DI Harbinder Kaur (freshly promoted), and people, including me, have fallen in love with Harbinder. And in spite of the nipping at my heels by those books so steadfastly in the queue, I might veer off and also read The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian. This one is Aubrey Hamilton’s fault, as when she was telling me about it, I immediately wanted to read it and ordered it and, well, it keeps looking at me, ready for me to read it.
Here’s to hoping I remember to post on Thursday next week. I enjoyed reading through everyone’s posts.
Kathy, I think it’s the writing in Chris Offutt’s books. I don’t normally read for the writing itself. I read for character and plot. But, his writing and descriptions were so beautiful that I loved The Killing Hills.
Actually, I love that everyone reads different books and has different likes. I read Elly Griffiths’ first book with DI Harbinder Kaur, but that was enough for me. And, I haven’t read any of the other books on your list. I love to discover how others view books.
Here’s hoping you remember next Thursday, too!
Lesa, I agree about Offutt’s writing. He does have a knack for it.