Weather seems so applicable today. I went from reading a Christmas mystery set in Scotland to a Halloween mystery set in Vermont, with the appropriate weather for both settings and seasons. And, both books are due out in October, but I’m going to only discuss the one I’m currently reading here today.
Home at Night is the fifth Mercy Carr mystery by Paula Munier. Release date isn’t until October 17, but I’m reading it for a Library Journal review. Because I’ve only read a chapter so far, I’ll use the blurb as a summary. I have two comments, though. The opening chapter is terrific, and eerie, setting the scene. I also think the blurb gives away too much of the plot, so it’s edited.
“It’s Halloween in Vermont, winter is coming, and five humans, two dogs, and a cat are a crowd in Mercy Carr’s small cabin. She needs more room—and she knows just the place: Grackle Tree Farm, with thirty acres of woods and wetlands and a Victorian manor to die for. They say it’s haunted by the ghosts of missing children and lost poets and a murderer or two, but Mercy loves it anyway. Even when Elvis finds a dead body in the library.
There’s something about Grackle Tree Farm that people are willing to kill for—and Mercy needs to figure out what before they move in. A coded letter found on the victim points to a hidden treasure that may be worth a fortune—if it’s real. She and Captain Thrasher conduct a search of the old place—and end up at the wrong end of a Glock.”
That opening chapter tells of the Halloween when a young Mercy Carr accepted a dare to spend the night at a “real-life haunted house”, Grackle Tree Farm. It’s an excellent beginning.
And, for those such as Jeff who will probably read the new Mercy Carr mystery, I didn’t include the spoiler details from the blurb.
What about you? What are you reading this week? Please share!
I am halfway through The Covenant of Water and highly recommend it. The main characters are kind people trying to make the most of their lives.
Those are the kind of people it’s a pleasure to read about, Ann. Thank you.
Lesa, I love Paula Munier’s series but was turned down by NetGalley for this one. I’ll be looking for it in the library later on. My reading this week was a bit up-and-down, but I mostly enjoyed it. I also recently bought Seth Rudetsky’s Musical Theatre 101, so I’m interspersing chapters of that entertaining book with my other reading.
Pip Williams fashions beautiful prose and unforgettable characters in THE BOOKBINDER, much as she did in her earlier bestseller, The Dictionary of Lost Words. There are a few references to the previous book, but those who haven’t read it will not have a problem understanding this one. The story revolves around 21-year-old twins Peggy and Maude, both of whom work binding books at the Clarendon Press in Oxford and who live nearby in a narrowboat. Peggy would rather be reading the books and studying at a nearby college, so she often brings home damaged pieces of books she has been working on. But upon the death of her mother, she took on more responsibility for looking after Maude, who is “different” (per the Acknowledgements, she is on the autism spectrum and suffers from echolalia, a compulsion to repeat parts of others’ sentences). When World War I turns part of the college into a hospital for injured soldiers, Peggy volunteers to help read and write letters for the patients, and it is there that she meets a young Belgian man, part of whose face has been disfigured, who will play an important role in her life. In the meantime, one of the women fleeing from the conflict in Belgium joins them at the bindery and takes a personal interest in Maude. An outspoken friend of the family, Tilde, works as a nurse in war-torn France and sends the sisters letters with her perspective of the war. Normally I shy away from war stories, but I’m glad I read this one. Although parts of it are gut-wrenching, the lives of these women, their struggle for rights that the men already have, Peggy’s courage to pursue her dreams while torn by her familial responsibilities, all made this a memorable experience for me. (August)
The duo known as Christina Lauren certainly know how to write an entertaining high-concept book. In THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT, Fizzy, a character from the authors’ earlier book, The Soulmate Equation, now has her own story. A popular romance writer, Fizzy is having trouble writing her new book because she’s not sure she believes in true love anymore, based on a previous traumatic relationship. But when hunky British producer Connor recruits her to be the star of a new reality dating show, she reluctantly agrees. After all, her friend River will get some publicity from the show, which includes matching using his scientifically-based online dating app. But Fizzy wasn’t expecting to have a more sizzling connection with Connor himself than with any of the bachelors selected for the show. While I enjoyed reading the book, I have some issues with it. I never really engaged with Fizzy because I found her to be an over-the-top man-eater who pursues Connor relentlessly with embarrassing overtures. Both Fizzy and Connor act unprofessionally during the run of the show, threatening to derail it altogether. And I wish there had been more about the show itself and the 8 contestants. However, I enjoyed Connor’s relationship with his 10-year-old daughter and with his ex-wife. My favorite Lauren book is still the first I read, The Unhoneymooners.
Vicki Delany’s cozy holiday mysteries continue with HAVE YOURSELF A DEADLY LITTLE CHRISTMAS. It’s December, and the town of Rudolph (NY) is determined to maintain its reputation as a year-round Christmas destination, even though a nearby town would love to steal its thunder. Merry and her fellow shopkeepers are gearing up for the increasing hordes of shoppers, as the local amateur theatre group rehearses its production of A Christmas Carol. But rivalries among the actors are encroaching on everyone’s Christmas spirit. Merry’s mother, a retired opera diva, is making a guest appearance, and one of Merry’s store employees is hoping for her big break, despite the fact that she has little talent. To make things even more uncomfortable, a wealthy newcomer with no real theatre experience has taken over as Artistic Director, much to the dismay of the company’s long-term leader. Then, one of the most disagreeable members of the troupe is found dead of suspicious causes, and it is difficult to decide which of the many who might benefit from her death may be a murderer. I enjoyed the charming small-town atmosphere but feel that the festive Christmas details were a bit lacking in this series entry. Merry’s romantic relationship was present, but not given much emphasis. And the final reveal of the killer was abrupt and fell a little flat for me. (September)
You’re right, Margie, quite an up-and-down week of reading there. I agree with you. Loved the Unhoneymooners. I’ve started a couple of Lauren’s other books, and just returned them to the library unfinished.
Did you know Delany has published 50 books? 50! I can’t even imagine.
Although I have enjoyed reading several of Vicki Delany’s cozy mysteries I am a big fan of her Smith and Winter mystery series set in British Columbia. Sadly she decided to stop writing them 7 or 8 years ago but it was good while it lasted.
Susan, Right there with you about the Smith and Winters books. Those were my favorites of Delany’s mysteries.
I’m reading a non-mystery. Shocking, I know. I’m working on Happily Ever After, the final book in James Riley’s Once Upon Another Time series. It’s middle grade fantasy and fairy tale adjacent, as you probably picked up on from the title. I’m enjoying it, although I wish I remembered for sure where we’d left all the characters. At some point, I think I’d like to read this trilogy and his first trilogy in this universe (Half Upon a Time) all back to back to not have these issues where I can’t remember where the characters were. But that’s a minor complaint. I’m definitely enjoying getting back into this world.
Our weather is slowly warming up. We made it to the lower 70’s today! I’m ready for some serious summer weather. We should be in the 80’s by now.
I’m shocked, Mark! Just shocked!
No, not really. I know you appreciate a good series, no matter what the grade level is.
I’m like you, though. I really appreciate weather in the 80s. I hope you get it soon!
Like Lesa, I’m reading a ARC set during Halloween, Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant by Darci Hannah. A body turns up while ghost hunters are investigating a haunted lighthouse.
I got a third of the way into an ARC of The Block Party by Jamie Day and gave up. It was listed as a thriller but mostly it read like a bad soap opera and a lot of it was told from the viewpoint of a 17 year old.
Sandy, I do enjoy mysteries that revolve around holidays.
An author had a question on Facebook today or yesterday. What age do you want for the protagonist? I agree with those who say whatever works for the story, but I actually prefer a mature character with a little life experience. It doesn’t sound like you had that with The Block Party.
I’m still catching up on my TBR list. DEATH COMES TO MARLOW Robert Thorogood – The second installment in the Marlow Murder Club has the trio from the first book – Judith, a whiskey-sipping, crossword puzzle author, Becks the vicar’s wife, and Susie the dogwalker – detecting to solve a locked-room murder on an English estate. I followed the trail of clues and came to a sure solution to find at the conclusion that I was wrong. Delightful!
The third book in Con Lehane’s series, MURDER OFF THE PAGE, features librarian and sleuth Raymond Ambler who uncovers murderous secrets hidden behind the majestic marble façade of New York City’s landmark 42nd Street Library. This case centers on bartender Brian McNulty primarily in absentia.
Finally got to ONCE UPON A TOME – THE MISADVENTURES OF A RARE BOOKSELLER. The review here in March captured my attention. Enjoyable reading. An odd connection, but thoughts of you, Lesa, and your upcoming move popped into my head with the phrase “hordes of papery treasures”.
And I just started the eighth book in Anne Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee series, THE WAY OF THE BEAR, yesterday. A suspicious death outside of Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument raises questions for Navajo Tribal Police officers Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito.
For those of you following the series Janet Dawson announced the fifth Jeri Howard mystery, Nobody’s Child, will be free on Kindle June 18 – 20.
That made me laugh, MM. My family would agree that the phrase “hordes of papery treasures” reminds them of me, too. Unfortunately, I’m getting rid of some of those hordes in preparation for the move.
Brian McNulty is my favorite character in Con Lehane’s series.
Thank you for the news of the Jeri Howard mystery!
Yes! Jackie anbd I will both definitely read the new Mercy Carr book. Now we have several months’ anticipation. GHOSTLY GAMES.
FUNNY GIRL yesterday and enjoyed it quite a bit, though I always have difficulty with how they made Nick Arnstein “just” a degenerate gambler rather than the awful person he really was, a swindler and con artist who served two – not one, as in the show – terms in prison (one in Leavenworth). Also, I wonder how sympathetic Fanny Brice would seem to audiences who knew she and Nick lived together for six years when he was married to another woman. But producer Ray Stark was married to Fanny’s daughter and cleaned it up as best he could. There are some very good songs and Lea Michele was terrific. We also saw ROCK & ROLL MAN, a jukebox musical about Alan Freed, with lots of music, mostly from the late 1950s.
Haven’t had a lot of reading time. I’ve been reading short story collections by John Lutz about PI Alo Nudger and Edward P. Jones.
I did finish T> J. Newman’s FALLING, which screams “movie” on nearly every page. No wonder she made a fortune from it. I have her second book now, and will read it as soon as I finish S> A> Cosby’s outstanding ALL THE SINNERS BLEED. More on that next week when I’ve finished.
I also picked up a couple of non fiction books at the library.
Something happened to my first paragraph. GHOSTLY GAMES is by Christine Feehan. Jackie is reading it now, after finishing the Iris Johansen book she was reading. I guess the FUNNY GIRL part is still understandable. Don’t know what happened.
I know, Jeff! That Fanny Brice/Nick Arnstein “history” is not reflected at all in Funny Girl. I’m glad you enjoyed Lea Michele, though. I would have enjoyed Rock & Roll Man because I love the music of the late 50s.
I like your use of the word “outstanding” in front of All the Sinners Bleed. I’m looking forward to your comments next week!
Something to anticipate with the new Mercy Carr.
I meant to comment on your favorite, Ramin Karimloo. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a Nick who can sing! They seemed to beef up the role by adding a couple of songs for him in Act Two, which was otherwise rather thin. (I noticed that they also moved “We Taught Her Everything She Knows” from Act One to Act Two.)
You’re right, Jeff. They did add some songs for Ramin, which is kind of ironic because everything I read said he took the role because there wasn’t much singing for him.
You’re right about Act Two. Quite thin.
Happy Thursday, everyone.
In a bit of a reading slump I re-read Nora Roberts’ Dragon Heart trilogy. It was even more magical the second time around.
Then I was suffering from severe Nora Roberts book hangover and trying to decide what other Nora Roberts trilogy might work when I magically received a note from NetGalley inviting me to read Inheritance, the upcoming Nora Roberts book, first in the Lost Brides trilogy. And it was fabulous.
Here’s a little Inheritance backstory in a letter from Nora: https://fallintothestory.com/fall-into-the-story-behind-inheritance/?fbclid=IwAR1WdUgbN1XRu9d5UUCjgc9afn7EL5fNXPjjAEnawpuaE-rvd2JbbLV7JP0
And now I’m stuck again, wondering what to read next.
It’s so hard, Kaye, to move to another book after a magical Nora Roberts.
Thank you for sharing the backstory. Now, I can’t wait to read Inheritance! You’re probably eager to read the next in the series.
Kaye, I just requested Inheritance this week. St. Martin’s is usually nice to me, so we’ll see. I’m glad you enjoyed it, especially since its the first in a new trilogy.
Oooh, Margie you are going to love it!
Hi everyone,
It has been a busy week so I don’t have a lot of reading to report. I went back into the Jeri Howard mysteries (I am so glad they are on Kindle unlimited and that I get to use that membership because sometimes I forget) and have gotten to the middle of #9. The parts about homelessness in Nobody’s Child (#5) could have been written today as opposed to the 90s, which says awful things about our society.
That does say terrible things about our society, Trisha, and rightly so.
I forget about Kindle Unlimited sometimes, too, until I “need” an author or title.
Two books this week. Lease on Love by Falon Ballard. I vacillated between this is really to cute to this is not so good. By the end, I decided this was not so good to me. I didn’t really care for the main character of Sadie who got fired from her job in spectacular fashion and then swiped the wrong way while drunk thinking she was on a dating app instead of a roommate app. Enter Jack Thomas who has never had to work and lives in a paid for brownstone in NYC. I think I’ll stop there.
Next, I finished An American in Scotland by Lucy Connelly. Lesa and several others commented on how much they enjoyed it. I thought it was great fun too. I loved the setting and the characters. I look forward to the next one but hope Emilia manages to solve the next murder without being in mortal danger.
Summer is back in Cincinnati today after several much appreciated cooler days with rain.
Happy Reading!
Sorry about Lease on Love, Sharon, but I’m really glad you liked An American in Scotland. The setting and characters were fun.
Well, darn. You must have received the rain we were supposed to get. We didn’t get anywhere near what they had predicted, and we could have used it.
Between my son’s wedding, a week of vacation touring old homes and battlefields in Virginia, and now my granddaughter being here for 2 weeks, I am not getting too much reading done. I did read Falling by TJ Newman. I was afraid the book would not live up to all of the hype, but it was excellent. Stayed up all night to make sure I could finish it. My current reading is Charlotte’s Web and the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators mystery series. My granddaughter is enjoying both, as am I. I still cry when Charlotte dies!
Highlight of our travels was visit to Monticello. We went on the full tour which includes the upper floors of the house. Well worth the time and money. Both the indoor tour and the tour of the slave areas outside dealt extensively with slavery, Sally Hemmings and the power dynamics of master/slave. Also, Jefferson’s writings, his professed feelings that slavery was wrong and his unwillingness to align his actions with (some) of his writings. Well done.
Have a good weekend!
It’s been so long since I’ve been to Monticello, Jennifer, that none of what you mentioned was covered when I was there, and the upper floors were not open. Lots of changes over the years!
Congratulations on the wedding!
It does sound like a fun vacation, and your current reading sounds fun, too. Oh, I embarrassed my younger sister when I took her to see Charlotte’s Web and I wept during the movie. How can you not cry when Charlotte dies?
Good afternoon everyone,
It’s 69F here and this is FAR TOO HOT for me! I have never been good in hot weather and I think I’m getting worse. I have most of the blinds closed (with the windows opened behind them) to try to keep the house cool enough to sleep. When you’ve lived in Northern Scotland as long as I have, you really are not cut out for warmth.
Having said that, i was at the hairdresser’s this morning, and the receptionist was telling me how much she loves this weather. And the girl who does the colour had just returned from a week on Rhodes which ‘wasn’t too hot’ (sounded positively boiling to me…and what’s more she’s a native Aberdonian, which is more than you can say for me.)
The good news here (at least so far as I and everyone I know is concerned) is that the Parliamentary Privileges Committee has finally published its report into Johnson (Boris) and it is damning. Everyone knows that man is a serial liar, now at last a cross-party investigation has confirmed this (the committee actually has a majority of Conservative – ie Johnson’s own party – members.) I hope he never has another role in public office – though as many people have said, he feeds on the oxygen of publicity and simply does not believe he has done anything wrong. You of course have your own version of him. The wonder is that there are still people prepared to defend both of them.
Anyway, we are back from our holiday. We spent two nights in Cullen, on the Moray coast – a town we sometimes visit for the day. On a sunny weekend the beach is extremely popular. The days we were there it was freezing! We decided we had to spend at least a couple of hours on the beach, so we put up our pop-up tent – and huddled inside it with our books. The only other people we saw were well-clad dog walkers.
Cullen is famous for Cullen Skink, which is a soup made from smoked haddock. We didn’t have that but we did have some good meals at our hotel.
We then went over to Spean Bridge, a village near Loch Ness. The weather was positively tropical. We had stayed at our hotel before, it is a lovely little place. The owners have goats, hens, geese and dogs, and they are all free to roam around the grounds. One afternoon I came back from a walk to find all three goats lolling on the front steps, in the shade of the porch. The geese often waddled past the windows when we were having dinner.
The real star of the show at this hotel is the food. Their marvellous chefs do a five course dinner for £55 and every course is special. It is so lovely to enjoy the meal while looking out at the Nevis range. David was determined to go up Ben Nevis. I was equally determined not to. So he went by himself, which was not a worry, as the mountain is so popular he said it was like Piccadilly Circus up there even now, before the school holidays start. He also said it was quite hard going, so i am extra glad I stayed away.
We also walked along part of the Caledonian Canal, and admired two flights of locks. The Neptune Flight is especially impressive – I think it’s something like seven locks in succession. Unlike the manually self-operated single locks on many of our canals in the UK, these complicated ones are electronically powered and operated by well trained volunteers. David, being an engineer, loves looking at them, and he – along with just about every middle aged+ man in the vicinity – was thrilled to find that a small cruise boat was navigating the flight that afternoon. It seemed to be a river cruise for a small group of American visitors, who were all on their balconies waving and saying hello. The weather was so good for them – they probably think it’s like that all the time! (This week, since we got back, they’ve had thunderstorms and downpours, and the top of Ben Nevis received a direct lightning hit.)
We also went down to Fort Augustus, which has, I think, the last set of locks before the canal flows into the Loch and out to sea. It’s a pretty little village, and there were lots of people having a drink at the canalside pubs. No boats going through that evening, but on our way there we had to wait while a road bridge was opened up for two yachts to pass through.
We also called in at the Dufftown to Keith railway, an old line that has been partially restored by keen volunteers. One of the old railway dining cars has been converted into a café, run by a lovely Dutch (? German?) lady. It was fun to have our coffee and scones while watching the guys working on the locomotives.
So since I got back I’ve just been catching up, and also walking by the river. I was so relieved to see that my garden had miraculously survived without watering.
Tonight I am going to a little exhibition opening at the Suttie gallery at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Many of our hospitals here in Scotland have vast art collections. This one is going to be a show of postcard art donated by lots of different artists. You pay £30 for any one of them you like, but you only find out afterwards if the artist is well known or not. So some could be worth a lot more, I suppose.
While I was away I finished reading Margaret Drabble’s A SUMMER BIRD-CAGE, which I enjoyed but not as much as THE GARRICK YEAR. A Summer Bird-cage was her first novel, and I think it shows – The Garrick Year was her second, and it is better written, with more nuanced characters and less waffle. But I still enjoyed A Summer Bird-Cage. It’s very much of its time.
I then read EDWARD KANE AND THE PARLOURMAID MURDERER by Ross Macfarlane QC (now KC I suppose). I had been sent this book for review ages ago, and had put it off as it looked so thick and heavy – but in fact it was a quick read, and I enjoyed it far more than i had anticipated.
Edward Kane is a hard up and struggling lawyer in 1850s Edinburgh. He lives in parlous lodgings in the Old Town, with his manservant, an old soldier known as Horse.
The Dean of Faculty lands Kane with the job of defending Patrick Macnair, a man accused of the murder of a parlourmaid in the house of his fiancé’s father, the wealthy and successful Edinburgh businessman Sir Charles Irving. Macnair refuses to say one word about the death of the girl, and will not even enter a plea. Kane has never done any criminal law, and at first has no idea why he’s been given this case.
As he attempts to work out what did happen in Sir Charles’s house that night, he begins to uncover a web of corruption and cover-up among the movers and shakers of 19th century Edinburgh.
Can he save Macnair from the hangman’s noose? And if he does, what will be the consequences for his own career?
The book is well written, the characters are wholly convincing, and the details of life in Edinburgh almost 200 years ago are fascinating, without feeling like a history lesson.
And I’m pretty sure not a lot has changed in Edinburgh. Much of it is still run by Old Money, ie a wealthy elite. Which school you went to is still a conversation-opener in many circles. It’s a slightly strange place really.
I’ve now just started WHAT MEN SAY by Joan Smith. When I was a student, Smith was well known as a radical feminist writer and activist. She published a seminal work, MYSOGYNIES, and also a series of murder mysteries featuring Loretta Lawson, an English Literature lecturer and author. At the time I read a few and saw Lawson (aka Smith) as a feminist par excellence. It’s interesting, therefore, to read another today (this one was first published in 1993) and find that many of its values now seem almost reactionary. Some things have changed without my even noticing – though still not nearly enough.
What Men Say opens with a housewarming garden party at the country idyll of Loretta’s friend Bridget and her new American husband Sam. Loretta is sure that Bridget is unhappy, but can’t fathom why. Then an unidentified body is found in a barn on the property. Loretta takes the pregnant Bridget to stay with her in Oxford (one of the other things that stands out to me is that a fairly junior academic would have no chance of buying a house with garden [backing on to the river!] in central Oxford these days.) I haven’t got any further with the plot yet.
There are quite a few mentions in the book of things like ‘word processors’. I do wonder how authors can get round things like this. Do such details, which become obsolete so very quickly, simply add to the period feel – like, for example, Barbara Pym’s references to ‘trollies’ (some form of undergarment…)? I’m not sure that they do – perhaps they will when more time has elapsed, but at the moment they just sound dated and wrong. But how else can today’s novelists deal with the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones? Should they just not mention them?
Joan Smith is still writing, though now mainly journalism and reviews I think. I have occasionally exchanged tweets with her, and I still feel slightly in awe of this woman who was such an icon to me in my 20s.
Last night I watched an old DVD of a made-for-TV film of Rosamund Pilcher’s SEPTEMBER. I have the book somewhere but have not read it. It was her usual thing of aristocratic estate owners in a small Highland village, all with secrets. The wayward daughter of one family disappeared 20 years ago but has now come back to attend the 21st birthday party of someone’s daughter. Needless to say her arrival drags up past events.
Mariel Hemingway is good as the second wife of local laird and entrepreneur Edmund Aird (played by Michael York, who always looks about 29 even though by then he was in fact 54). Edward Fox plays his standard role as the crusty estate owner, Archie. Jenny Agutter is his beautiful but put-upon wife Isobel. Virginia McKenna plays Aird’s mother – frightfully well bred and Good. Jacqueline Bissett is the prodigal daughter, Pandora.
i did feel that to a large extent all of this lot were really just playing themselves. The exception was Judy Parfitt, who played the wealthy ‘incomer’ and hostess of the party. Parfitt is so versatile and such a good actor.
Anyway, it was all quite predictable but easy to watch. And living as I do among the estate owners of Deeside, I have to say there are still quite a lot of people just like Archie and co around here! It’s another world.
Next Wednesday we are finally going to see PET SHOP BOYS here in Aberdeen – or at least I hope we are, as I heard that Neil Tennant fell over on the stage in ?Rome a couple of nights ago, and they have said nothing at all on any social media since. If this gets cancelled I will be giving David a very hard time about refusing to come with me to see them in Edinburgh at Hogmanay!
Before that we are down to the Central Belt again on Saturday to see GRAHAM COSTELLO in concert as part of the Glasgow Jazz festival, then on Sunday we are seeing THE PROCLAIMERS, preceded by HAMISH HAWK, on Leith Links (a wide open grassed area in Leith). Both acts are local to Edinburgh, so have a huge following there. I just hope it’s not too hot!
And I hope everyone has a great week.
Rosemary
I love Rosamunde Pilcher’s SEPTEMBER but did not know there was a movie.
Holidays, books, movies, art shows, concerts. Rosemary, you make retirement sound so appealing. I can’t wait. Two and a half months, and another half month or so to move. So, three months, really.
You are so right about the politics. I can’t believe there are people ready and willing to defend those men.
I just finished a mystery set in Scotland at Christmas and Hogmanay, so it was funny to see Hogmanay come up in your post.
Welcome home! I hope you had a good visit with Charlie.
Hi Lesa — I just finished one book I won in a Goodreads giveaway and have started a second one. The first was Regrets Only by Kieran Scott, a mystery set in the midst of a parent school organization with lots of drama. I enjoyed it. Now I’ve started The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel. I like the WWII Paris setting which includes artists and bookstore owners, so I’m hoping the whole novel is as good as its Goodreads rating indicates.
I hope you’re right about The Paris Daughter, Patricia. There are so many WWII novels set in Paris right now!
It’s so nice when a giveaway turns out to be a good book.
The weather was very strange. It doesn’t usually rain in June around here. Everybody’s allergies are haywire. There was one day I couldn’t go outside.
This week I guess we’re having a Janet Dawson theme. I won her book The Things We Keep in a contest. Jeri finds a box of bones in a house owned by an old hippie. Naturally, she investigates. Even though it was published this year, it was definitely written before the pandemic, as the Bay Area has changed an awful lot in a short amount of time. Just yesterday, the Cinemark Theater left downtown San Francisco. The Death Spiral is continuing downward.
I also read Animal Instinct by David Rosenfelt. Supposed to be a spin off of the Andy Carpenter series, it has all the characters in the Carpenter series, including Carpenter. Seems a bit of a cheat.
I read the first in that Rosenfelt series, Glen – Animal Instinct. I didn’t read the second.
That’s so sad that the area is in a death spiral downward.
Wow! I’m sorry the weather has been so strange there!
Well, it’s no skin off my nose, as I don’t live in the Bay Area, but I don’t visit there much anymore, and I’m certainly not going there after dark.
Glen, I agree that David Rosenfelt’s K-Team spinoff series is not quite as good as his Andy Carpenter series (which I love and have read every one). I miss Andy’s snark for sure!
I don’t miss living in the Bay Area. Where I live now is so much quieter. And the news that the possibility of a huge Amazon facility coming to town will not happen was very welcome!
I agree about the allergies here, too. I’ve never had so much trouble with itchy, running eyes.
I am still experiencing the fatigue I had last week, so my reading is still slow, but last week I finished two books. So now, mid-June I am 2 books into my 20 Books of Summer list. Oh well.
I liked the THE MITFORD MURDERS by Jessica Fellowes a lot. Although I sometimes don’t like real life characters in a novel, I did enjoy the Mitford family being a part of the story. The time setting is about 1919 – 1922 and most of the kids are very young, Nancy is 16-19. They were not the main characters but obviously a focal point, with the series called The Mitford Murders. The next book will feature Pam and I will give it a try and see if I like it. The main characters are Louisa Cannon, a nursery maid for the Mitfords, and Guy Sullivan, a young policeman, and I thought they were very well done.
The most recent book I finished was MINDFUL OF MURDER by Susan Juby. She is a Canadian author and the setting is a small (fictional) island off British Columbia. The story is hard to summarize. The main character is a youngish woman just graduated from butler training. She was a Buddhist nun for three years; after that she she worked at Yatra Institute, an upscale spiritual retreat; the woman who owns the institute dies, and Helen returns to the institute to decide which of Edna’s relatives will manage the retreat. I enjoyed the read, it is light but had many elements I enjoyed. Buddhist teachings, the job of being a butler, the lovely setting, the interesting characters. A lot of fun, and a decent mystery.
I have been thinking about reading the Paula Munier books for years now, and it is time for me to get the first one and actually read one. Later in this year I hope.
Tracy, I’m sorry about your fatigue. I do understand, though, just feeling as if you have no energy, even to read. At least you’re no longer in school, and your challenge is only a challenge, not a requirement.
Take care of yourself!
Thanks, Lesa. I have had some good days lately, there is just a limit to how much energy I can expend in a day, including mental. I am sleeping really well, which is unusual.
I am not really concerned that much about numbers in the 20 Books challenge, I usually don’t read them all. But I am still enthusiastic about all of them at this point, and still hoping to write at least short reviews for all of them.
I am currently reading Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen and Near Miss by Stuart Woods. I am listening to the audiobook of The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel.
You have an eclectic selection there, Katherine. I hope you’re enjoying your books/audiobooks.
I’m currently reading Trust by Hernan Diaz and am enjoying it! I just finished reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and definitely preferred The Handmaid’s Tale.
I’ve heard good things about Trust, Melissa. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.