It’s National Read a Book Day! For this Thursday group, every day is National Read a Book Day, isn’t it? What are you reading today?
I’m going to start a book at the airport while I’m waiting to fly to St. Petersburg for Bouchercon. I can tell you two of the books I packed. (Nothing like packing books to go to a crime fiction conference.) I have Juliet Blackwell’s The Lost Carousel of Provence about a photographer who explores a chateau and its antique carousel to find its history, and might reunite a family by bringing the past to light. I also have the ARC of a March release, When All Is Said by a debut author, Anne Griffin. Griffin is an Irish writer, and her title is a line in a song called “The Parting Glass”. It’s the story of Maurice Hannigan who tells the story of his own life as he sits in a pub. In the course of one night, he orders five different drinks, and toasts five people who were important to his life. Irish, music, debut. I haven’t started it, but this book might have been written for me.
What are you reading or listening to this week? I’ll try to check in from the airport.
I've just started an ARC of For Better & Worse by Margo Hunt. And I'm about 30% done listening to Due Process by Scott Pratt – the last in the Joe Dillard series (for now).
This week I finished A NIGHT DIVIDED by Jennifer A Nielson. It is a young adult novel about the Berlin Wall going up and dividing one family between East and West Berlin. Twelve year old Gerta sees her father on the other side of the wall while walking to school. He begins pantomiming the verse of childhood bedtime lullaby which Gerta interprets that he wants her to dig a tunnel to escape from East Berlin.
My 12 year old grandson read this and loved it. While we were at the USAF Museum at Wright Patterson this summer and were at the Berlin Wall exhibit of the museum he talked endlessly about this book and encouraged me to read it. It was very good. I thought the author portrayed a realistic version about the Wall especially because not everyone made it out alive.
I also finished THE SLEEPING LADY by Bonnie C. Monte. I liked this one a lot too. The title refers to Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County which is where the mystery takes place (as well as in France). Rae owns a home décor shop with her friend, Thalia. Thalia ends up murdered after receiving blackmail notes. I think this is the debut novel by this author. I enjoyed the setting especially when the story moved to France. I had an inking who the murderer was but I did not have it all unraveled until the end.
Now I am reading ANOTHER WOMAN'S HUSBAND by Gill Paul.
Safe travels Lesa and Happy Reading!
Lesa, I'm here! We got in at 5:30 yesterday. Unfortunately, they said there was "lightning in the area" so refused to unload the luggage and we were stuck waiting for TWO HOURS. Hope you have better luck. We're not at the convention hotel. I'm sure I'll see you there.
I took PLANETSIDE (the book is in the room – I'm eating breakfast) so can't remember the author. It's science fiction. Also reading, on the Kindle, collections by Raoul Whitfield (the Complete Jo Gar stories)and O. Henry.
I had to return it to the library before we left, so raced through Colin Cotterill's DON'T EAT ME in a say. Also finished the Ed Hoch collection and TEN YEAR STRETCH, the latest edited by Martin Edwards (and Adrian Muller).
I'll have to check my notebook to see if I missed anything.
Oh, I also started the second Death Investigator Angela Richman (?) book by Elaine Viets.
Michael Mammay is the author of PLANETSIDE. WORD PUPPETS is the Mary Robinette Kowal collection I also read. "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" was the highlight. And FIRE AND ASHES is the Viets book.
If not sooner, I will see you at your panel. I'very known Marv Lachman for 40 years! He's read almost everything, especially short stories.
Reading and thoroughly enjoying Brandy Colbert’s beautifully written Finding Yvonne
In Barbara O'Neal's latest, THE ART OF INHERITING SECRETS, food magazine Olivia learns, after her mother's death, that she has inherited a gorgeous but crumbling estate in England, along with the title of Countess. In England she discovers clues to her past through her mother's artwork, an intriguing sister-and-brother team (the woman a chef and the man a former bestselling author-turned thatcher), and a couple of dead bodies. Told with O'Neal's usual charm, this story has enough room for at least one sequel.
In Laurie R. King's ISLAND OF THE MAD, Mary Russell's aunt, a long-term resident of London's notorious Bedlam asylum, has disappeared with her nurse, and Mary calls upon her husband, Sherlock Holmes, to help find her. Their investigation takes them to glamorous Venice in 1925 and involves appearances by Mussolini's Blackshirts and famed composer and dilettante Cole Porter. The author's intelligent writing, compelling plot, and complex characters make her books well worth reading.
I saw the movie Crazy Rich Asians this week, and I was delighted to find that the book's fascinating view of Chinese billionaires in Singapore and their excessive spending habits and prejudices was well represented on the screen, especially in wedding, bachelor/bachelorette party, and other party scenes. The cast was well chosen (especially Henry Golding as the male lead–where has he been all my life?) and I'm happy to hear they will be filming the second in the series, China Rich Girlfriend, in the future.
I finished three cozy mysteries this week. AGAINST THE CLAW by Shari Randall, POPPY HARMON INVESTIGATES by Lee Hollis, and DEATH ON THE MENU by Lucy Burdette. They were all quick reads.
I also read SKIPPING CHRISTMAS by John Grisham and the only thing I can say for the book was that at least it was short.
I’m currently reading LIVE & LET CHAI by Bree Baker
Finished Desert Wind by Betty Webb
Now reading:
Desert Rage by Betty Webb
Purrfect Murder by Nic Saint
I am blessed to have so many books to read.
📚📚📚📚📚☕️
Just started The Grave Is A Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley.
Desolation Mountain by Wm Kent Krueger
I read Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich; Ridiculous as the other novel I read.
Tremain by Brad Dennison; a sort of western romance, with characters that disappear in the middle of the book.
Concourse by SJ Rozan; a 90s style mystery with a sensitive, 90s kind of guy as the sleuth, and his smarter than he is friend/love interest as the other sleuth. This was written back in the days when NYC was supposedly an ungovernable city.
Imperium by Robert Harris; An historical fiction about a couple of episodes in the life of Cicero. I was expecting something more like the SPQR series.
I gave up with the book that I won that has very small print. Will give it to the library in our apartments maybe someone with better eyes with me can tackle it. My readers are at the highest level offered. I sent off for a better magnifying glass if that would help with the rest of my small print stash.
Continuing with It Wasn;t Me by Dana Alison Levy which I love.
Also,started listening to The Last Mile by David Baldacci. I love this series, listened to all but this one. Then there is one more in the series out which I will add to my To Buy List.
Hello everyone reading this message I'm here to ask for your assistance in helping those poor kids out there. I want to feed 5,000 (five thousand kids) in Africans this Christmas and I want to also send them back to school and I'm asking for your help to make this possible. No amount is too small or big $50, $100 any amount will be appreciated. Contact email via: (charitydonation8@gmail.com) thanks.
i am browsing this website dailly , and get nice facts from here all the time .