I’ll be honest. I’m in Ohio visiting my Mom and other family members, and haven’t read a word since I drove here last Friday. We’ve visited with other family members and friends, gone out to eat several times, and worked on jigsaw puzzles. I walked down on the pier (Lake Erie) yesterday morning with Mom. We’ve celebrated a birthday. We’re just having a great time.
So, I’m not reading anything. And, I’ll only be checking with you this morning because my sister is coming to stay overnight. But, we’re all still curious. What are you reading?
I’m glad you’re having a great visit with your family, Lesa. Sounds idyllic. My grandson Henry turned six years old yesterday, and although he had his Minecraft party a couple of weeks back, we all took him to Dave and Buster’s for dinner and some awesome arcade games. He and his sister just got Starbucks cake pops from me–the real presents were given the weekend of the party. Here’s what I finished reading this week:
Thanks to you, Lesa, for recommending STEEPED TO DEATH, the first Witches’ Brew Mystery by debut author Gretchen Rue. It’s an altogether pleasant cozy that focuses on Phoebe Winchester, who leaves her old job and her ex-husband behind to move to Raven Creek and take over her late Aunt Eudora’s combination bookstore and teahouse. It turns out that Eudora has left her not only The Earl’s Study (great name!) but her “gingerbread” mansion, her chubby cat, her tea recipes, and much more that Phoebe won’t discover until much later. It’s a bit alarming that everyone in Raven Creek seems to know Phoebe already since she looks so much like her aunt, but she soon finds herself settling in–until, that is, she finds a dead man on her back doorstep. I enjoyed reading about Eudora’s magical teas, which can have an explosive effect when not handled correctly, as Phoebe finds out for herself. Phoebe starts to think the town’s rumors about Eudora being a witch might be true, although everyone has wonderful things to say about her, and what about Phoebe’s own special talents, which are starting to manifest themselves? I agree with Lesa that it is refreshing to have a cozy heroine who doesn’t try to investigate suspicious deaths herself. Phoebe also doesn’t seem to obsess about her broken marriage but rather tries to ground herself in her new life circumstances. A promising start to a new series.
In Kerry Rea’s LUCY ON THE WILD SIDE, Lucy has devoted her life to caring for gorillas at the Columbus (OH) Zoo. Gorillas have been her passion ever since she took solace as a child in visiting Zuri at the zoo when she couldn’t measure up to her actress’s mother expectations. Other aspects of Lucy’s life have had to take a back seat. Her ex dumped her when he suddenly decided he wanted children and she wouldn’t budge. Her mother had dumped her as well, leaving her with her grandmother, but now she’s returned with another daughter–Lucy’s half-sister. Lucy wants nothing to do with the mother who abandoned her, nor can she warm up to preteen Mia. And Lucy seems unable to do some of the things that are required to be promoted to senior zoo keeper, even though she’s her boss’s favored candidate. Then, the handsome son of her career idol, a celebrity in his own right as host of TV’s “On the Wild Side,” arrives at the zoo, and Lucy is forced to work with him on an episode of the show focusing on a newborn gorilla. What could go wrong? I initially found Lucy to be more rigid and self-centered than she had to be, refusing to take on assignments out of her comfort zone and treating her half-sister and her new colleague poorly. But as the story progressed, I came to enjoy this enemies-to-lovers romance, especially the final chapters. I also relished the inside look at gorilla culture, both at the zoo and in the wild.
Even if you haven’t read Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, you can read the third book in the series, MAUREEN, as a standalone, and it is sure to resonate with you. Maureen is Harold Fry’s wife, and although she and Harold have had a steadfast, loving relationship, especially since Harold’s 3-month walk to meet up with his friend Queenie before her death, she still feels that she is a failure at life. When she hears that Queenie created a monument to Maureen and Harold’s late son, David, Harold encourages her to go see it for herself. It’s been 30 years since David’s suicide, and Maureen still torments herself about how she could possibly have prevented it. Maureen’s brief road trip has many bumps in the road, but it slowly becomes something more than she could have ever foreseen, or hoped for. Although the story is quite downbeat for most of this short (less than 200 pages) novel, it is a beautiful in-depth study of a woman who struggles to make sense of humankind and keeps almost everyone but her husband at arm’s length, until she has a series of eye-opening experiences. I appreciated the author’s insights about grief and forgiveness and was particularly fascinated by her description of Queenie’s Garden, which is nothing like I expected but somehow just right. Don’t miss the interview with Rachel Joyce at the end of the book, as well as her “email correspondence” with Maureen Fry. I highly recommend the author’s other novels as well, especially my favorite, The Music Shop. (February)
Right now I’m reading the perfect Christmas romance novel, which I will talk about next week. Sitting in bed with my legs and feet under the covers (it’s suddenly cold–lows in the thirties!), with my cat lying close by on top of the cushy winter blanket she loves so much, what could be more cozy and comforting?
You’re right, Margie. What could be cozier or more comforting than sitting in bed with a good book or a laptop to talk about books, along with your cat? I’m so glad you liked Steeped to Death! It was just different enough from most others, wasn’t it?
I should say, there is something just as cozy – time with family. I am enjoying it.
Margie, I have read and enjoyed The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but I had no idea there was a follow-up book and now another one. I’ll be adding them to my reading list, but not for this year. This year is, how shall I say it, all booked up. Hehehe!
I just finished “Santa’s Little Yelpers” by David Rosenfelt. A nice Christmas mystery. I love his books I guess because he loves dogs too.
I love the covers of his books, Lynn. No one has better covers!
Glad you are having such a wonderful visit!
I’m in that in between book stage yet again. (I seem to be here quite a bit on Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings.) I just finished LOVER COME HACK by Diane Vallere. It was tons of fun as her books usually are.
I’ll be moving on to CRY WOLF by Annette Dashofy next. Very different ton from Diane’s books, but also always good, so I’m looking forward to it.
Thank you, Mark. I know. That in-between stage – I understand that. I’m sort of there right now, not reading anything. Enjoy Cry Wolf!
Mark, I love Annette’s Zoe Chambers series. I caught up in it that first year of the pandemic, and I credit it with helping to save my sanity. Annette is in Lexington, Kentucky right now and will attend a reception tonight to see if her stand-alone book, Death by Equine, has won the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award. The winner gets $10,000. The other two get $1,000. There are three finalists.
Hi everyone,
Lesa, I absolutely hear you. Every time I’m away from home I take lots of books and get almost none read. But it doesn’t matter, the books will still be there. Have a wonderful time with your family.
I’m wrote the rest of this on Wednesday from Edinburgh:
The rain has been pouring down all day here. I had a brief excursion up Leith Walk to a charity shop that accepts curtains (more of my friend’s house move surplus) and it was so wet that when I got back my shopping trolley was full of water (luckily I delivered the goods before the really heavy rain started.)
Anna and I were supposed to be going out tonight but I think we may change our minds ☔️☔️ (We did…)
I’ve been down here since the weekend, when we picked up my new car from Falkirk and continued across the Forth. It’s a Subaru XV – never had one before, and I’m terrible at changing cars, but this is an automatic – the first one I’ve had in 30 years – so it’s got to be easier to drive than my ancient, manual, Suzuki. I did feel quite sad leaving the poor old thing there though, she’s served me well.
On Monday I visited my mother in north berwick. It’s a seaside village very popular with affluent retirees from Edinburgh and young families wanting to avoid paying school fees in the city. (It has very good state schools.) Out of season now it is much quieter. I walked along the main street and noticed how, since I’d been there last, so many more retail units have turned into expensive gift shops or cafes. I really don’t know why people still buy ‘stuff’ – ornaments, candles, etc. Our homes are stuffed with stuff! I think quite a few of these shops are really hobby projects for the partners of edinburgh bankers and other financial services people, as I can’t believe they make much money.
Yesterday I wet into the City Art Gallery to see their exhibition of recent acquisitions. These ranged from modern paintings to pieces created many years ago and donated by the artists’ families. At the last committee meeting I was at at the art gallery in Aberdeen the manager told us how one of her priorities at the moment is not attracting donations but actually trying to slim down the immense collections currently in storage. In the past galleries would accept just about anything from anyone, with the result that they now have far too many items, often duplicates (as she said, ‘do we really need 26 flat irons?)
Nowadays they are much more selective about what they accept, but it was fascinating to hear of the hoops they have to jump through to offload anything – offering it back to the artist’s family (who can be very difficult to track down), then offering it to other museums, then various other steps before finally – if nothing else works – actually destroying it.
There are parallels with the National Trust, who used to take on so many of the huge old country houses when their owners couldn’t afford the upkeep, but are now extremely wary of doing so unless the bequest comes with a big trust fund attached. There’s a lot about this in James Lees Milne’s very interesting diaries, as he was one of the first people employed by the NT to drive round the country visiting these ancient piles and deciding whether or not the NT should take them on.
Books!
I finished THE CALL OF THE CORMORANT by Douglas Murray (whose other books include AS THE WOMEN LAY DREAMING, which is about the sinking of the Iolaire as it approached land, bringing home servicemen from the war. Over 200 of them drowned on the very last leg of their journey.)
It took me quite a while to get into The Call of the Cormorant, but once I did I did enjoy it. It’s about a boy born on the Faroe Islands (Danish territory) to Icelandic parents in the late 1800s. His father puts all kinds of dreams into his head, especially about the real location of the ‘lost city’ of Atlantis. Karl longs to leave the islands, find Atlantis, and live an exciting life. Eventually he does so, but it becomes a life of more and more duplicity and pretence. In the 1930s he rocks up in Berlin, and finds himself having to collude with the Nazis to save his own skin.
Meanwhile back in the Faroes one of his sisters has married and is happy with her lot, but the other, Christianna, is more of a dreamer, dissatisfied in her marriage to a taciturn fisherman, and longing for the excitement of her brother’s life. She also yearns for another man she met briefly many years before. And in one of her own daughters she sees the restless defiance she once saw in her brother.
The story is based on a real person about whom only little is known, but who passed himself off variously as Cormorant XII, Emperor of Atlantis, also the Count or Duke of St Kilda, Professor Valentinus and Carolus Africanus Dunganon. Donald Murray has woven a story around this, and in the end it’s a compelling one that leaves the reader thinking about all sorts of things – whether it’s better to have taken chances or stayed safe, how different the world was then for girls and boys, and the blurring of lines between truth and fantasy. It also examines the ways in which extremist movements grow, and how myths and legends can be twisted to add weight to a group’s claim to superiority.
So now I’m reading something quite different, WHY DID YOU STAY? by Rebecca Humphries. Humphries was the partner of one of the celebrities who appeared on the immensely popular tv show, STRICTLY COME DANCING. She had been swept off her feet by this man, Sean Walsh, a well known comedian. They had been together for three years and had even bought a flat in joint names when The Sun newspaper published photos of Hughes kissing his (married) dance partner Katya Jones.
Humphries decided that she would not be a victim. She tweeted to this effect and received a vast number of replies from women who had been in similar situations. Because although she had wanted the relationship to appear perfect, and had persuaded herself that it was, she realised in retrospect, that Walsh had been gaslighting her for years, calling her ‘mental’ or ‘psycho’ whenever she questioned his appalling behaviour. Later she found out that he’d been multiply unfaithful.
The book is part memoir and part dissection of toxic relationships and coercive control. Since writing it Humphries has spoken on these subjects in Parliament, and has also developed her career as a journalist and actor. In an interview with The Guardian she referred to Nora Ephron’s book HEARTBURN, in which Ephron said she didn’t want to be the victim of her story, she wanted to be the heroine. ‘That’s exactly how I felt.’
She cites Ephron, Marian Keyes and the journalist Marina Hyde as her writing influences, also the actor Miranda Richardson (who plays the queen in Blackadder, and has of course had a stellar career on stage and screen.)
And needless to say I’ve got a stack of library books waiting patiently at home for me to get to them. Time! Where does it go?
On television I’ve been rewatching the first series of STRIKE, as Anna hadn’t seen it. Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger (or ‘on holiday grainger’ as my husband insists on calling her. Which is unfair as she’s very good.). I still haven’t read the books, though I’d like to.
And if course we wait with bated breath for the return of THE CROWN on 9th November.
Tomorrow I’m heading back to Deeside. At the weekend I’m taking part in an art walk around Old Aberdeen and the university, and on Sunday we’re hoping to meet up with our son and daughter in law, somewhere between Culter and Aviemore. Let’s hope the weather improves….
Have a good week all,
Rosemary
Sent from my iPad
Hi Rosemary! I hope you do have better weather for your weekend with your son and daughter-in-law.
I always enjoy your adventures and stories of museums and charity shops. Thank you.
Why Did You Stay? sounds fascinating, even though I hadn’t heard of the people involved.
Whoops! Breakfast is ready. off to eat!
Congratulations, Rosemary! We’re on our third Subaru (second Forester) and I would never buy anything else.
I’m curious – have you watched KAREN PIRIE, the new Val McDermid series? As mentioned here before, I am a big fan of the books, but I must admit I’ve had mixed feelings about the television adaptation, which is 3 parts of 90 minutes each ( I think it was 2 hours with commercials in Britain.) For those who don’t know, it sets up the series about a Cold Case Squad. The first book is told from a different POV and Pirie is a peripheral character, but of course the series is different. My problem is, the actress playing her – Lauren Lyle – is way too young for the role. She’s 29 but looks much younger, and it doesn’t help that she dresses more like a pre-school assistant teacher than a detective. Also, the boyfriend is horribly miscast. They get around casting a black guy as the older Polish character by him claiming “I’m half Polish”?
But if you haven’t read the books, maybe this won’t bother you. They do use the basic storyline of the first book (A DISTANT ECHO) and we’ll see how part 3 wraps it up.
Jeff, I’m glad to hear you and Rosemary are happy with Subaru. I’m thinking of getting one for my next vehicle. My daughter has the Ascent and loves it, but I don’t think I need that big of one. I’m looking at the Outback and the Forester.
Good choice! I agree, the Ascent is too big. We love the Forester but I’m sure any choice you make, you will be happy with.
Lesa, I’m glad you’re enjoying your vacation. I haven’t read anything this week either . My boyfriend bought us both new iPhones last week for my birthday through Tracfone and we’ve been back and forth with their customer support since Sunday. They got my phone working on Monday but every time his phone starts working they seem to find an open ticket that’s still in their system and mess it up. We’ve had phones through them for years with no problem, but never again.
Phones do take up so much time. I’m sorry, Sandy.
It sounds like a wonderful visit. I’m reading Execution in E by Alexia Gordon, the fifth Gethsemane Brown mystery set in Ireland. Lots of fun.
Lesa, glad you are having a good week with the family. It is absolutely gorgeous here for early November – sunny and around 70!
As usual I’m reading short stories. I read another 75 in October and have passed 700 read for the year. I read the two collections mentioned last time, by John Weir and Jean Rhys, and I am currently reading QUEENS NOIR, which I thought I had read but hadn’t. Stories by Megan Abbott, Denis Hamill, Jill Eisenstadt, Stephen Solomita, K.J.A. Wishnia and others make for good reading.
I really enjoyed David Milch’s Memoir, LIFE’S WORK, which spends plenty of time discussing his writing on shows including HILL STREET BLUES, NYPD BLUE, and DEADWOOD, as well as his sad diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Obviously, his wife and others have helped him with this book together.
FALL GUY was the latest Joe Gunther book by Archer Mayor and I thought it was really good.
Besides the stories I am currently reading Hayley Scrivenor’s very good first novel, DIRT CREEK, set some 200 miles west of Sydney in a small town where 12 year old Esther went missing on her way home from school. The story is told from various points of view, including her friends, her mother, and the lead detective on the case. You know from the beginning that it is not going to have a happy endoing.
I also started Chris Offutt’s memoir NO HEROES: A Memooir of Coming Home. (I’ve already read two of his other memoirs.) In this one, he returns to eastern Kentucky at 40 to teach at his alma mater, Morehead State University, but it is also the story of his in laws, who are Holocaust survivors.
Many more library books on hand and on the way, so no shortage of reading material here, ever.
It has been a good week, Jeff, with a few days left to go. Thank you.
I wondered about Dirt Creek. I have a copy someplace. Now, it sounds even more intriguing.
Isn’t it great that we’ll have no shortage of reading material?
Glad you are having a wonderful time, Lesa.
Three books this week. Closely Harbored Secrets by Bree Baker. The Halloween themed installment involving ghosts. I am closing in on the end of the series. These are fun and quick and I always enjoy my visits to Charm.
The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman. Like everyone else who discussed it here, this may be my favorite of the Thursday Murder Club books. I love the quirky characters and this one was so funny. I hope there are many more.
Finally, I finished Dinosaurs by Lydia Miller. It was up for the Pulitzer Prize. The story of Gil who after a break up decides to walk from New York to Arizona to restart his life. There he meets Aldis, Ted, Tom and Clem-his new next door neighbors that live in the glass house which has one wall of windows.It was a short book (only 230 pages) and a quick read and I loved it.
Safe travels home, Lesa.
Happy Reading!
Thank you, Sharon! And, I’ll be reading again on Sunday.
I do enjoy the cast of the Thursday Murder Club books. He’s doing a great job with those books.
It’s funny, because I was just thinking this morning about Alan, and how he made the dog such a fun character.
Wow! I have really missed you! Felt like every Thursday had a big hole in it. We finaslly got to return to apartment after 41 days in three different motels. Ate out more but so expensive. We have been reinbursed for 1/2 of hotel expenses, all the third floor called the aparment manager and asked for their hotel money!!! We were allowed to enter our apartment to get some things three time. Each time, I took books over clothes! I read a whole bookcase of books. We won’t get reimbursed for the money for meals, and food that we stored in the motel’s minifridge that did not work half the time, will not be paid back for the worry and stress and most of all, our bird, a 27 year old cockateal stopped eating for three days out of shock over the sudden evacuation! We stayed up all night talking and singing to him because his head hung over and could barely move. Finally, we got him to eat a little bit and after a week he recovered! Whew!
I listened to The Last Bookshop in London and loved it with all my heart. Now listening to Thrity Umrigar’s The Secrets Between Us, about two impoverished women in India!
And Beside Still Waters By Tricia Goyer. Marianna’s hope for marriage for the one she loves gets kibosh by her father’ s sudden and firm plans to move the whole family to Montana from her home in Indiana.
Great to hear your vacation is going well. I read the new Ann Cleeves Vera Stanhope The Rising Tide – OK but not one of her best and I waited a long time to get it from the Library. Now I just started a book by Carol Goodman -I’ve read others by her – and am immediately hooked! We are expecting great weather all weekend so hope everyone has a nice one too! – Note to Rosemary – you must read all of the Cormoran Strike books – they are great.
Hope you’re having a fun time, Lesa. This week I’m reading a cozy mystery called Police Navidad by Becky Clark. This one is for one of the Sisters-in-Crime-Colorado book clubs. It’s a fun read so far with a main character who’s a writer who was drafted to create a Christmas play for kids and seniors. A nice change from my usual reading fare.
Your visit with your family sounds perfect, Lesa – as always!
I was able to read an ARC of the next J.D. Robb, Encore in Death. I am happy to say I loved it! After the last one i was a little concerned since I was so disappointed in that particular entry in the Eve and Roarke series.
Now I’m reading Did you Hear About Kitty Karr? By Crystal Smith Paul, “a multigenerational saga that traverses the Jim Crow South, the glamour of old Hollywood, and the seductive draw of present-day showbiz as secrets split a family tree into Black, white, and something in between.” Excellent!
I’m snuggled up this morning reading The Codebreaker’s Secret by Sara Ackerman. It has 3 timelines ( a little too many for me) but one of the settings is in Hawaii and I am all for that!
Cold weather is here in the Phoenix area – it will only be 58 degrees for the high today and tomorrow! The perfect cloudy day weather for reading. (Don’t worry. It will be back to 80 degrees by Monday🥴)
I finished Friday Night Lights by H G Bissinger this week. I know I’m late to this one as I read the 25th anniversary edition and it is old!! I grew up mostly in East Texas where football is a religion so this was an interesting read. The systemic racism that was still so prevalent during the late 80s just crushed me. It was a surprising moment when my uncle was quoted in the book!
I can’t wait to uncover what everyone is reading – have a wonderful time with your family, Lesa!
Have a great time, Lesa! Not reading much myself, Heading to Las Vegas, Saturday. I am currently switching between print and audio for Triple Cross by James Patterson.
I finished A VERY MERRY BROMANCE and enjoyed it so much. Lyssa Kay Adams has a way of mixing together a poignant story that includes a few mental health issues into a contemporary romantic comedy with just the right amounts of friends and family and sex!
Now I’m reading the new Cleo Coyle Haunted Bookshop The Ghost and the Stolen Tears. We have the banter between Pen McClure, the bookstore owner, and Jack Shephert, the PI from the 1940s that haunts the bookshop. This entry takes place around town more than in the bookstore, although there are many subplots that twist around each other. We’ll see how it ends up.
Sandie, I have A Very Merry Bromance waiting for me at the library. I can’t wait. Thanks for your comments.
Lesa, I am glad you are having a good time with your family. Here in Santa Barbara we are having cooler weather, which is welcome. We are still walking three days a week.
This week we have concentrated on the Santa Barbara Mission, and it has worked out better than expected. Monday was the Rose Garden (on a plot of land directly across from the Mission) and my husband took a good number of photos of the roses, but also other parts of the grounds. There was some good walking. The area is not large but there is enough uphill walking to give me a better challenge. Wednesday was the Mission grounds, and we got more nice photos and more slightly hilly walking.
Last week I finished THE GRAY MAN by Mark Greaney. I will definitely try the next in the series. I finished NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty last night, staying up much too late, and I am very surprised at how much I liked it. I am confused as to how to categorize it. I had initially considered it a mystery, and there definitely is a mystery, but not in the same way as most crime fiction I read. I have seen it classified as a suspense thriller or as contemporary fiction or as chick lit. Does anyone here have an opinion on that?
Lesa, I love following your pics on FB of you and your mom and your sisters, and it looks like you’re having another great time with them. I am being caretaker this week, as Covid finally got us, well it got Philip. He was diagnosed Tuesday and felt really bad yesterday, but he seems to be feeling pretty good today. I’ve been waiting on him, taking him food and drink to the family room where he is staying until Saturday or Sunday. I’m crossing my fingers I don’t get it.
I am finishing up two reviews for two amazing books, Forbidden Country by Allen Eskens and A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. I loved both of these books so much. It’s hard to do justice to books that I love so much in reviews, but I’m plodding along. I’m now reading The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, and I can see why everyone is raving about it. I adore these books and was desperately trying to get to this one. Next up will be Still Waters (F.B.I. K-9 series) by Sara Driscoll and Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal and Blackstone Fell (Rachel Savernake series) by Martin Edwards.
James Patterson by James Patterson. Excellent, funny and well written
Checking in late as Thursday was a wipe out for me. I have a new ENT because, since August, I have had an ear wax blockage in my left ear. Completely deaf. Did the primary and multiple rounds of two different ear drops to no avail. Saw he new guy who spent ten minutes flushing the ear and then started escalating. Long story short, we ended up in another room where he has a microscope thingy and where he started sawing chunks of the stuff free and pulling it out. All because I went too deep with a q-tip apparently.
After sawing and removing various chunks, he discovered that I have a pocket of fluid sitting in my inner ear. So, now I am on an antibiotic for that and get to go back to him on the 17th to see how I am.
Then Scott and I went off to the relatively nearby Garland Health Department and got boosted. After always doing the J&J deal, we now had to choose and Got Pfizer. There was nobody there waiting and the receptionist helpfully told us that we were the 5th and 6th persons to be vaccinated since they opened that day at 7:30 am.
We missed the severe weather that struck yesterday. We had some win, a lot of rain, but no hail or twisters.
As to reading, the current read is A HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER by Darynda Jones. Due out next month, I have it via NetGalley.
KRT in the Big D