This Thursday, I have nothing to report about weather or what’s happening. If you read yesterday’s post, you know I’m just trying to keep afloat. But, I always have time to check with you on Thursdays to see what’s happening, and ask “What Are You Reading?”
I’m currently reading Some of Us Are Looking by Carlene O’Connor, her second County Kerry mystery. This series is darker than her Irish Village mysteries and her Home to Ireland ones. I’ve been to the Dingle Peninsula, which is one reason I like this series. Release date is October 24. I’m reading this for a journal review, but you’ll see the review here close to pub date.
In late summer, the Dingle peninsula is thronged with tourists drawn to County Kerry’s dark mountains and deep, lush valleys. For Irish vet Dimpna Wilde, who has returned to run her family’s practice after years away, home is a beautiful but complicated place—especially when it becomes the setting for a brutal murder . . .
In Dimpna Wilde’s veterinary practice, an imminent meteor shower has elevated the usual gossip to include talk of shooting stars and the watch parties that are planned all over Dingle. But there are also matters nearer at hand to discuss—including the ragtag caravan of young people selling wares by the roadside, and the shocking death of Chris Henderson, an elderly local, in a hit-and-run.
Just hours before his death, Henderson had stormed into the Garda Station, complaining loudly about the caravan’s occupants causing noise and disruption. One of their members is a beautiful young woman named Brigid Sweeney, and Dimpna is shocked when Brigid later turns up at her practice, her clothing splattered in blood and an injured hare tucked into her shirt.
Brigid claims that a mysterious stranger has been trying to obtain a lucky rabbit’s foot. Dimpna is incensed at the thought of anyone mutilating animals, but there is far worse in store. On the night of the meteor shower, Dimpna finds Brigid’s body tied to a tree, her left hand severed. She has bled to death. Wrapped around her wrist is a rabbit’s foot.
Brigid had amassed plenty of admirers, and there were tangled relationships within the group. But perhaps there is something more complex than jealousy at play. The rabbit’s foot, the severed hand, the coinciding meteor shower—the deeper Dimpna and Detective Sargeant Cormac O’Brien investigate, the more ominous the signs seem to be, laced with a warning that Dimpna fears it will prove fatal to overlook.
What about you? What are you reading this week?
Thursday already! I should go to bed!
I read four books this week, all good, one exceptional. It’s awfully early in the year to be naming favorite books of the year, but this will be on my list.
William Kent Krueger does it again with The River We Remember.
Description from NetGalley.
“In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the “expansive, atmospheric American saga” (Entertainment Weekly) This Tender Land.
On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.
Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.
Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of midcentury American life from an author of novels “as big-hearted as they come” (Parade), The River We Remember is an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.”
No, it’s not too early, Kaye. I have a couple for my list. William Kent Krueger’s latest sounds fascinating. And, I’m sure it’s filled with his beautiful writing.
Good to hear, Kaye! I have the Krueger ARC as well but haven’t gotten to it yet.
I finished two books this week. AN AMERICAN BEAUTY by Shana Abe is a novel set during the Gilded Age and based on the true story of Arabella Huntington. Coming from a poor family in Alabama she became the mistress and eventually the wife of Collis Huntington, a railroad tycoon and eventually one of the richest women in her own right but she was never accepted by high society. It was an interesting read but dragged for me towards the end.
PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA by Jenn McKinlay. A romcom where a woman travels to Europe trying to recapture the joy of the year she spent there after college. She looks up her old boyfriends and of course things don’t go the way she expects. The story was predictable and I didn’t really care for the main characters.
Oh, I’m sorry, Sandy. I think you had a better reading week last week.
I’m in the middle of MURDER AT SEA, and short story collection, the third in the Destination Murders anthology series. It’s a full length book with eight short stories, so they are a bit longer than I typically think of a short story, but not full novella length.
Anyway, I’ve read two stories and I’m working on the third. So far, so good.
(And my ARC of the 4th Mrs. Claus mystery arrived today. I turned right to the acknowledgements. Thanks for the heads up. I probably wouldn’t have seen it until September otherwise.)
You’re welcome, Mark! I’m glad you got to see the acknowledgements now. I know it wasn’t a surprise this way, but it’s always nice to see.
It was a surprise last week when you mentioned it. 🙂 And yes, it is always a thrill to see.
Lesa – I didn’t remember that Carlene O’Conner’s new series was called “County Kerry”, but I did read the first and will look for this one in the fall.
It was a perfect week to be outside in the yard – except for the abundant mosquitoes. The native shrubs (bitterbrush & desert peach) are in full bloom as the weather jumped right from winter to unseasonably warm. We purchased a dozen new plants from the state nursery last week and plan to go back today for a few more.
I did manage to find time for two books. The latest (#23) in the ever-enjoyable Dana Stabenow series with Alaska native Kate Shugak, NOT THE ONES DEAD. My favorite series for its use of the Alaska setting. And THE LOCKED ROOM by Elly Griffiths, the fourteenth in the Ruth Galloway series. I’ve only read a few in this series, but always inventive with great characters.
MM, I didn’t remember that Carlene O’Connor’s series was called County Kerry either. Definitely not one of her cozy mystery series.
Enjoy the weather & your plantings!
Hi everyone, it has been a quiet reading week for me. I finished listening to Des Linden’s memoir Choosing to Run and am still working my way through Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea in Spanish. It is so much easier to read novels in other languages than when I first learned Spanish in college, at least on devices. I can tap a word and see the definition and can even translate a sentence or passage if I think I didn’t quite get the sense of it. I’ve been reading a bit every day, which has been a nice break from a super-intense time at work. We have an 800 person gala on Sunday, which I am both excited and nervous about.
That’s interesting, Trish. I never thought about it being easier to read another language on a device. I took some Reading Spanish in college, but not enough to be able to read like you’re doing.
Wow! 800 person gala. As an introvert, that’s just too much for me. Enjoy!
I was completely surprised, Lesa. Before I realized you could just tap a word I was cutting and pasting into an online dictionary. I continue to be amazed at how much easier it is now.
Good morning! I forgot to submit my post last night but I still have time before I go out walking with the Walkie Talkies. So here goes:
CLOVER HENDRY’S DAY OFF by Beth Morrey won’t be out until January 2024! As narrator Clover, age 46, frequently tells us, she has always allowed herself to be “ignored, slighted, overlooked, rebuked.” She has somehow lost herself while trying to please everyone else. Although she has a good job as a producer of TV reality shows, she hasn’t reached the level, or pay grade, she deserves. At the root of her dilemma is her dismissive mother, who has always been hypercritical of both Clover and her sister, with nary a retort from her daughters. But one day, it becomes just too much. Throwing caution to the winds, Clover decides to do and say whatever she wants, with mixed and sometimes hilarious results. As with Ferris Bueller, the action occurs mostly in that one day. And while I understand why Clover has finally snapped, I feel that too often her actions are melodramatic, unnecessarily harsh, even obnoxious. That made it difficult for me to root for her. I do like the fact that Clover has an ultra-supportive husband, 16-year-old twins who aren’t horrible, and a few good friends. And I enjoyed the development of her relationship with both her sister and her mother (even though the latter was mostly over-the-top). I prefer Beth Morrey’s first book, The Love Story of Missy Carmichael, but those who enjoy quick reads about quirky, memorable characters should enjoy Clover Hendry’s Day Off.
In YOURS TRULY by Abby Jimenez, Briana and Jacob are both excellent ER doctors, and both are dealing with difficult personal issues. Briana has sworn off romantic relationships since her ex-husband cheated on her, and her younger brother is suffering from kidney disease and a rare blood type that may make finding a donor impossible. Jacob is dealing with chronic social anxiety and with the fact that his girlfriend left him to marry his own brother. With the wedding coming up, he needs to convince the rest of his family that he has accepted the situation, so he and Briana embark on a faux romance, at least until after the wedding and after Briana’s brother’s transplant surgery (did I mention that Jacob is his anonymous donor?!). Honestly, it would be difficult to find a 35-year-old bachelor who is more endearing than Jacob, and Briana knows it. But, as with most contemporary romances, there are stumbling blocks to overcome on both sides, much of it from lack of sufficient communication. And although I feel this book is unnecessarily long and a bit repetitive, I am still a sucker for the author’s writing and the stories she tells. I also loved the interaction of both Jacob and Briana with Jacob’s family members, and of Briana with her loyal best friend. I will continue to look for romances by Abby Jimenez.
In ONE SUMMER IN SAVANNAH by Terah Shelton Harris, Sara never expected to return home to Savannah after being sexually assaulted eight years earlier. Daniel, her assailant, is still serving a prison sentence for the crime, and neither he nor his family knows that he has an 8-year-old daughter. But Sara’s father is terminally ill, so she and her genius daughter, Alana, make their way back to her home town to help with her father’s bookstore. Sara is determined to keep Alana’s existence hidden from the Wylers, whose matriarch continues to deny her son’s culpability and who dragged Sara through a difficult trial that threatened her reputation and her sanity. It turns out that Daniel has a twin brother, Jacob (he had changed his name from David to distance himself from his brother), whom Sara meets and to whom she is gradually attracted. This is a complicated story surrounding the concept of forgiveness. I had some difficulty with Sara’s father, who speaks only in poetry, as I am not a big poetry fan. Also, I felt that Sara’s character was not sufficiently fleshed out to make her relatable. And the twins’ mother is a one-note harridan. I did, however, especially like Alana, a true child prodigy who can relate to adults much more than children her age, and who is on track to solve one of the “unsolvable” mathematical equations by the age of 18. Also, I found Jacob to be a fully realized character who kept me engaged. The last chapters of the book are a full-on sob-fest, in which I couldn’t help participating. Overall, I enjoyed this unusual story from a debut author. (July)
Good morning, Margie! Good to hear your weather is nice, and you’re out with the Walkie Talkies. Enjoy your day!
Oh, a sob-fest in a novel. And a debut author, Harris, who can bring that on. Very nice!
I think I’ll find it easier to deal with books with future release dates once I’m retired. As it is, I don’t remember if I read a review, saw the book, or read the book.
Thanks for the heads-up about the new Abby Jimenez! I also really like the way she shows us the other important relationships in the lives of the protagonists and doesn’t focus just on romantic love.
Good morning, Lesa. Some of Us are Looking sounds intense! My current read, Quicksilver by Dean Koontz, is also an intense read. I’m enjoying it very much because of the characters and the random words of wisdom. Koontz has a nice way of inserting a little philosophy into his horror. 😀
Good morning, Patricia. My friend, Donna, is a big Koontz fan, but she hasn’t enjoyed his foray into science fiction.
Yes, Some of Us Are Looking is intense right up to the end.
Good morning, all. Chilly here this morning, only 53 degrees (but sunny). It’s a good day for soup. We are supposed to get some much needed rain on Saturday.
Had a concert on Monday (Steve Earle and David Byrne) and have a show next week. Otherwise, it’s quiet. Jackie read her J. R. Ward and is now reading Kelley Armstrong’s fourth Rockton novel, WATCHER INT HE WOODS, which she seems to be enjoying quite a bit.
As usual I have a bunch of books going at once.
Edward P. Jones, LOST IN THE CITY> This is a beautifully written collection of stories about black people in Washington, D.C., originally published in 1992. It is straight fiction and I’m enjoying it.
The other short story collection is a mystery collection, John Lutz’s SHADOWS EVERYWHERE. No series stories here, just good suspense tales.
I’m also reading Benjamin Stevenson’s EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, another Australian mystery. The title is meant to be literally true, and our narrator claims to be scrupulously honest in what he tells the reader, including which chapters further deaths will occur. It’s sort of an Agatha Christie-type isolated setting (a ski resort in winter), where everyone has been gathered to await the imminent arrival of the narrator’s brother, released after three years in prison for, yes, killing someone. I was not sure about this for a while, but as long as you’re not expecting anything deep, the narration moves right along. I hope it’s worth it in the end.
Non fiction title is Oliver Darkshire’s ONCE UPON A TOME: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller, which Lesa recommended. Oliver gets a job at the nearly 250 year old Sotheran Books in London, right off Piccadilly, and shares tales of his co-workers, his oddball customers, and the ins and outs of the antiquarian book trade.
Up next when I finish the Stevenson: GOING ZERO by ANthony McCarten.
Jeff, I wondered about Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. I know I have a copy of it somewhere.
We start our mornings in the 50s, but end the day about 80. As my Mom said last night – perfect temperature -79-81. I like those numbers.
Concerts and shows. One nice thing about living in NY. I’m looking forward to my move to Columbus, and doing some of the same. Maybe not quite as many concerts, but definitely some shows.
Whew, Some of Us Are Looking would have to be a book I read with eyes wide open during the daylight hours nowadays. It sounds intense. I’ve been to Dingle lots of times — Idaho, not Ireland!!!
Travel to Northern California has wrecked my reading, but in the best way. I was reading sea, sand, and forest. As for books…nothing finished this week. I’m back to the Valley of the Sun now and have 4 books I’m juggling to make up for things. I’ll share two of them.
The Search by Nora Robert’s was pressed into my hands by my mom, who’s turning 90 this next week. So, for the birthday girl I am caught up in a story of a Canine Search and Rescue volunteer and her three labs in the PNW. Fiona is the lone survivor of The Red Scarf killer 8 years previous and has retreated to Orcas Island in search of peace, solitude and re-centering her life. When a copycat killer begins a killing spree, Fiona immediately senses that the killer is searching for her, the one that got away. I’ve never read a Nora Robert’s book before but I am a sucker for a canine search and rescue plot! I’m about 2/3 into the story and enjoying it.
I’m also listening to When We Had Wings by Ariel Lawhon, Susan Meissner and Kristina McMorris. The subtitle is the Angels of Bataan, which i didn’t notice until about 1/3 of the way into the narration. I love the narrator, Saskia Maarleveld and as always she is terrific. I am remembering my friend’s father as I read. He was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and was medically and physically fragile the rest of his life. I am learning a lot and am reminded, just a bit, of one of my favorite books, A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute.
I love to read through the comments at the shared reading experiences!! Have a wonderful weekend all.
I had no idea there was a Dingle in Idaho, Gaye! This one is an intense book, as you said, for daytime reading only.
My Mom is almost 87, and an avid reader. Isn’t it great that they’re still reading and recommending books? It sounds as if she knows you love canine search and rescue plots.
It would be hard to not think about your friend’s father with about about Bataan.
I enjoy reading the comments as well!
Good evening all, from a cloudy and humid Aberdeenshire. We’ve had some nice days recently but this isn’t one of them!
I’m still reading WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU by Ajay Close. It’s very good, but quite economically written, so you do need to pay attention, and I’ve had to go back a few times – I think it will repay a re-reading. Close has got the description of a Women’s Collective down to a T – not quite as extreme as the Michigan Womyn’s Festival so brilliantly described by Andrea Lawlor in Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, but this is 1980s Leeds, not 1990s Oceana County.
The Yorkshire dialect is well handled and doesn’t feel at all forced, but again – coming as I do from the soft south – I need to concentrate to work it out sometimes.
The time of the Yorkshire Ripper is very well evoked; women scared to go out alone, the police ‘reassuring’ women that ‘he only kills prostitutes’ (so that’s OK then…) – then when a ‘respectable’ girl is murdered, making a big point about how they would work much harder on this one, because (of course) the other women really brought it on themselves….
The sexism in the police force is shocking to us today (though the London Met has recently been severely criticised [yet again] in a report that uncovered the rampant, institutionalised, sexism, racism and misogyny that still infects the force today.) In one scene, the new, young, female police officer has just been promoted to plain clothes work. She arrives on her first morning wearing trousers. Her boss demands to know where her skirt is. She says she doesn’t have one. He gives her £10 and tells her to ‘go down the market at lunchtime and buy one.
‘And make it a short one.’
Apart from that, I’ve been sorting out my ’20 Books of Summer’ for this annual reading challenge. The idea is that you pick 20 (or 10, or however many you like) books from your TBR stacks (no buying new ones) and try to read AND review them all between 1st June and 31st August. I’ve never managed to complete this, but I still persist in choosing my 20 books as it’s so enjoyable digging them out. If anyone wants to see my list, it’s here: https://sconesandchaiseslongues.blogspot.com/2023/05/20-books-of-summer-2023.html
Jeff, I am so jealous of you getting to see David Byrne and Steve Earle!
Last Thursday we went to see TALISK in concert; they were absolutely brilliant. A completely new take on Scottish trad music: concertina, fiddle and guitar. So energetic, so loud, and so much fun. I had tired legs the next day but it was worth it! I’d definitely recommend seeing them – their performance was exhilarating.
I finished watching FORTUNES OF WAR – wonderful – and started the new series of DALGLEISH, based on the novels of PD James. Not sure about it so far – it seems very old fashioned in its production values, and I’m not sure if that is deliberate or not. Sinead Cusack is good though, and I was pleased to recognise Sibyl from The Cazalets (actress Anastasia Hille) as the museum guide in ‘The Murder Room’ (the series consists of three stories, each given two episodes.)
On BBC Sounds I am listening to A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN read by the fantastic Irish actor Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Fleabag, and much more). I think I probably read this when i was far too young, as I don’t remember much about it. Scott has the perfect voice, conveying so well the trials of being a troubled young man in a country oppressed by both the church and the prevailing social mores, in the early years of the 20th century. I must reread the book.
Lesa, I think you asked about Charlie – he is more or less living with Anna in Edinburgh at the moment, but of course I see him when I am down there, and he is thriving – very much enjoying the advent of the trams, which he can see from the window! He’s become very interested in computers – ie he stamps on the keyboard and causes mayhem, which is of course a good attention-grabbing tactic. If that doesn’t work, he starts ripping up the houseplants (which is why I never had any, but Anna has lots.)
Anna is going on holiday to Norway at the end of this month, so I will be down cat-sitting for a week. I’ll let you know how that goes!
So that’s me for today. I hope everyone has a good week.
Thank you, Rosemary. I hadn’t heard about Charlie, and I was wondering. I understand why your travels these last months haven’t been conducive to a cat’s life.
I read your list of 20 books. I’ve only read 2 – Forever, but so long ago that I can’t remember it. And, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These. I thought it was beautiful. I love her writing.
Good luck on that “20 Books of Summer”. I know what it’s like to have too much on my plate.
Rosemary, you would have loved the concert. Earle does an annual benefit for the school where his severely autistic son is a student, and always gets guest stars to appear with him. This year Byrne was the main guest. In the past he has had Graham Nash and Bruce Springsteen, among others.
We’re watching the second series of DALGLEISH now. Also the third series of GRACE.
Two really good books for me this week.
Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller. Maria Wallner wants to restore her family’s hotel during Vienna’s ball season. Eli Whittaker wants to find out who is stealing America’s secrets and return to his precise regimented life in Washington , D.C.
Sparks fly when their paths cross along with intrigue. I loved the banter between Maria and Eli. This one was fabulous.
Paper Cuts by Ellery Adams. Every book in the Secret Book and Scone Society keeps getting better and better. In this one Nora’s past comes back to haunt her when the woman who caused her divorce is in Miracle Springs. I cannot say enough good things about this series.
Happy Reading!
I wondered about Hotel of Secrets. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Sharon.
Someday, I need to get back to Ellery Adams. I know I’m missing out. I read the Books by the Bay mysteries, and then just a book here and there.
Sharon, i so agree with your comment that every book in the Secret Book and Scone Society keeps getting better and better. It’s a series I love.
Sharon, I love the Secret Book and Scone Society series. Thanks for the reminder. I think I need a reading trip back to Miracle Springs!!!
Just finished it I’m reading lots of British Isles books. Sj Bennett’s 3rd book Murder Most Royal. The Girls In the Glen byLynne MacEwan. I love police procedurals.
I love police procedurals, too, Jean. They’re really my favorites.
I have S.J. Bennett’s Murder Most Royal on my “probably next month” list.
The concert season has started once again at The Palladio. The group that played is called The Aces, and when I tried to look them up online, there were so many groups with that name, I never found the right one. They were a pretty decent cover band, as one would expect. I like The Spazmatics better, but a good time was had by all. My group had a little picnic beforehand, which was very nice.
This week I read:
Deadly Atonement by Dave Edlund; I guess he ended his Peter Savage series, and started this one about a former Mossad agent on the run from her own organization, whose sister just happened to find cold fusion. Doesn’t quite make sense, but moves fast anyway.
An Ace Double Mystery Open Season/ Slice of Death by Bernard Thielen and Bob McKnight respectively. Open Season is an old fashioned espionage novel about a guy sucked into a plot concerning the then newly arrived refugees from the Hungary rebellion. Slice is about a racetrack security guy who finds out there’s a scheme at the track, and someone is willing to murder to cover it up. As is so often the case with Ace Doubles of all genres, the shorter story was the better one.
Very Special People by Frederick Drimmer; I remember seeing the ad for this book in comicbooks all the time. I saw it in the wild, and picked it up. A surprisingly compassionate bunch of biographies of people they used to call freaks. Amazingly, some of them acquired a lot of wealth and influence. I wonder what people like this do these days, without freak shows to earn a living.
The Garden Club Mystery by Graham Landrum; A Grande Dame is murdered, and we get a bunch of shifting perspectives, that seems like the author is trying to find his way out of writers’ block.
Graham Landrum’s name sounded so familiar to me, Glen. I went looking, and for The Garden Club Mystery, it said, “Picking up from an unfinished manuscript of his late father, Graham Gordon Landrum, Robert Graham Landrum follows the further adventures of the ladies of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the quiet little town of Borderville, Tennessee.”
So, maybe the author wasn’t really the author his father was.
Oh, good. Your concerts have started up again. I enjoy hearing about them. Enjoy!
The Landrum series was great. The last one was only about 3/4 complete when Landrum died and his son patched it together for publication.
The Famous DAR Murder Mystery (1992)
The Rotary Club Murder Mystery (1993)
The Sensational Music Club Mystery (1994)
The Historical Society Murder Mystery (1996)
The Garden Club Mystery (1998)
From what Glen said, Aubrey, I have the feeling the son did patch that last mystery together.
I am galloping through the Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. They are very very good. Aso very very violent. I read 8 books back to back and have stopped for a few days to get away from the casual cruelty of the time.
Well, that’s a good series if you read eight of them back to back. I know at least one of my nephews has read the entire series.
Please look at tis auction from Sisters in Crime and bid if you can.
https://www.32auctions.com/CrimeWritersForJustice
Despite reading which I “should” be doing now to review, I seem to have decided last week and this to slip in ones I’ve been trying to get to for quite a while. Last week it was Case Closed by Patricia Wentworth, the 2nd Miss Silver. I had been wanting to try this Golden Age author, and I’m glad I finally did. With 32 books in the Miss Silver series, I doubt I’ll make reading all of them a goal.
So, here is my big read that I’ll finish up today. But first, a prelude. The first book I ever read by Karen Joy Fowler was The Jane Austen Book Club, published in 2004, with a movie adaptation following. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but in an unusual turn of events, I actually liked the movie better. Six adults, five women and one man, agree to meet once a month for six months to discuss the six novels of Jane Austen. Their responses to the Austen novels lead into learning about their lives, and it’s both funny and serious. The next Karen Joy Fowler book I read was We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, winner of the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and short-listed for the Mann Booker Prize. If you’ve ever read (and I’m fairly certain you have) an author who has gone from a good author to a brilliant one, you’ll know how I felt when I read this second book by her. Gobsmacked is the apposite word here. Fowler took a risk here, like the best authors do, and it paid off big time. I won’t describe it at all except to say that when you realize something about one of the characters, it will stay with you forever as one of the best done surprises/twists of your reading.
Now, to this week’s book by Karen Joy Fowler. Thinking she had arrived at her pinnacle in writing with We Are All Simply Beside Ourselves, I have to admit she has managed to take another kick-it-up-a-notch risk. However, I think the writing is pretty much the same brilliant in the two books. It’s just that this new one is a tome of a book, coming in at close to 500 pages. And, it’s historical fiction. The book, which came out last year and is once again a finalist for the Mann Booker Prize for Fiction, is entitled simply Booth. And, you are thinking of the right Booth, John Wilkes Booth, but it isn’t a book about him. It’s about his parents and his many siblings (six who lived to adulthood). His father and mother came over from England, and Junius Brutus Booth was a world renown stage actor, a tragedian who appeared in Shakespeare plays all over the eastern part of the United States in the mid-1800s. Junius wasn’t home much, which left his wife Mary to take care of their children, except when one, Rosalie, got old enough to shoulder most of that burden. But the father of the Booth family had tremendous impact on his children, with the males eventually becoming stage actors, too, except for the youngest Joe. He became a doctor. Only two girls lived to adulthood. Rosalie was the one who Fowler most had to make up, as there was little information about her, but Asia is responsible for leaving a written, though slight, biography of John Wilkes Booth, to try and show the world that he wasn’t always a villain after his murdering Lincoln. While telling its story about the Booth family, the book tells the story of pre-war, Civil War, America, especially Baltimore and Richmond and the rural areas around Baltimore. Philadelphia becomes part of the setting, too. The short inserts of what Abraham Lincoln is doing during the years building up to his Presidency and his assassination is a fascinating history of his path to Washington. OK, that’s all I’m going to say about Booth right now. I imagine that my review will be hard to write because of the enormity of material in the book.
Coming up next for me is Martin Edwards’ fourth Rachel Savernake book, Sepulchre Street. I’m just now putting up a review for #3, Blackstone Fell. I enjoy this series set in the 1930s and written in the form of the Golden Age of Mystery. I have some ARCs I need to give attention, too, like Queen Wallis by C.J. Carey and The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman.
Well, Booth sounds like a major accomplishment, Kathy, with everything else you do. Congratulations!
Time foe a mystery or two now.
Sending hugs!
You’re right, Lesa. I need a mystery now, and I need it to be not too complicated. I may have to put the books at the top of my list back a bit to rest my brain. Hope you get all your deadline work done, but, of course, you will.
Hi Lesa, I am currently reading The Bride Wore White by Amanda Quick and listening to an early audio of Identity by Nora Roberts through Netgalley. Have a great weekend.
Hi Katherine! I hope you enjoy The Bride Wore White. I found it entertaining.
I don’t think I’ve ever read one of Nora Roberts’ contemporary suspense novels.
Our weather has been normal for Santa Barbara. This time of year is when we normally have “May gray,” with overcast skies either all day or the first half of the day. It has been nice and cool.
The County Kerry mystery sounds interesting, I will look into the author and the series.
Last week finished I finished THE OPTIMIST’S DAUGHTER by Eudora Welty. I have not read anything else by her (except for a few short stories), but I have read that it is her most praised book. Laurel Hand goes to New Orleans with her father, Judge McKelva, and his second wife, Fay, to visit the Judge’s eye doctor. The story is divided into three stages, and I felt like the book did not go much of anywhere in the first two-thirds of the book. The last part of the book almost makes up for that, with Laurel remembering events from her childhood, when her mother was still alive. I may enjoy it more when I reread it, and I plan to find more of her novels to try.
Next I moved on to the latest book in the Slough House spy fiction series by Mick Herron, BAD ACTORS. I had just recently finished the previous book, which ends with a cliff hanger, and I decided to go ahead and find out what happened, rather than wait to the summer. It was originally going to be on my 20 Books of Summer list. Anyway, I loved that book and I would read the next one if it existed.
I may include a list of my 20 Books of Summer here next week, since I cannot successfully leave a comment here with a link in it.
I, for one, would love to see your list of 20 Books of Summer. I could post the link, if you want, but I think a list is more fun. Only if you have time!
Thanks, Lesa. I will list my 20 Books of Summer next Thursday, and it won’t be any problem at all.
Our weather went from being pretty warm to being pretty cold for us in May. Allergies have still been terrible. Boo.
I’m about to finish up a Vast Conspiracy by Jeffrey Toobin and I’ve started The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. I find it to be an almost out of body experience to read books about things that I vaguely remember being in the news and how things were going down out of sight.
Allergies have been terrible here, too, Melissa. Boo is right.
It is strange to read about things you remember being in the news.
Well, it is Sunday afternoon, and I am late…..
Current read is THE LAST REMAINS by Elly Griffiths. Apparently this is going to be the last book in her Ruth Galloway series and the only series that she does that I like. Bummer. Got it via Libby/OverDrive as that still works.
For those that do not know, the City of Dallas computer network was taken down by the hacker group, Royal, back on May 3rd. We first knew something was wrong when we could not access the library system and they had to use a pad and paper to write down what we were checking out that day. 911 data dispatch and nearly everything else was also down. Almost everything is still down though city spokespeople keep swearing progress in restoration is happening. They claim it, but we don’t see it. We do see their statements that things may be down for months to come.
For the libraries, they are open, but they can not check in anything so book drops are locked. Materials can not be transferred. You can’t look up anything. So, if it is not on the shelf, you are out of luck. Nothing is due. Allegedly, no patron data was stolen. Allegedly.
As Scott puts it—This is lockdown all over again, but at least we can go in and cool off if the power goes out.
We have heavy Canadian and Mexican wildfire smoke here now as well, and the allergy season has been hell. At least we missed the baseball and bigger sized hail the other night.
The world sucks and being an adult is way over rated.