Linda and I went to see “Kimberly Akimbo” last night. It won five Tonys a few years ago, including Best Musical. It was original, and I enjoyed it. It’s a small cast and they were all good in their roles. But, what a dysfunctional family! But, I don’t know if I would have picked it for Best Musical. I just checked to see what it was up against in 2023. It looks like we’ll be seeing a few of them next year with Broadway in Columbus. I have to say I agree with Jeff on this one. It was good, original, but not great. There were no songs that I’ll remember.
What about you? What have you been doing this week? What are you reading?
As I said, I was reading two books that didn’t excite me. In fact, one’s going back to the library today. So, I’m reading Simon Brett’s fifth in the series, Mrs. Pargeter’s Plot. This one is one of the funniest in the series so far. Mrs. Pargeter is building a house on a plot of land that her husband picked out, but it’s not far along when the builder is arrested for murder. Mrs. P doesn’t think he did it, but he won’t talk to anyone, including his lawyer. While she tries to solve the case, she moves into the Greene Hotel. But, a monkey named Erasmus also takes over her suite.
There are people and elements in this book that I find funny. There’s a magazine called “Inside Out” that tells which prisoners are in or out. Keyhole Crabbe is one of my favorite characters, a prisoner with more years to serve, but he’s able to unlock any lock, and he out of prison almost as much as he’s in, and he makes conjugal visits to his home.
This one is an enjoyable treat. And, if you read on a Kindle device, you can pick up the first eight in the series for $1.99.
What about you? What are you reading this week?
I’ve only read the first in the Mrs. Pargeter series and did enjoy it.
My best read of this week was a new nonfiction book from best-selling author John Greene, EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. Less than 200 pages, the book is fascinating, especially for someone who considered it a disease of the past.
In 1882, when Robert Koch identified the bacteria that caused the disease, it caused a profound shift from the idea of an inherited disease of intellect (consumption in English literature) to a contracted disease of filth in the racialization of tuberculosis.
Streptomycin became available in the mid-1940s. By the late 1950s, the illness was broadly curable. However, antibiotic resistant strains of TB are increasing, something to think about with the gutting of USAID.
I also really enjoyed the audio of THE SECRETS OF HARTWOOD HALL by Katie Lumdsen. Great story if you’re in the mood for a gothic mystery or a love letter to Victorian fiction.
But I was disappointed with VERA WONG’S GUIDE TO SNOOPING (ON A DEAD MAN), the second in the Vera Wong series by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Maybe the scenario only works once or maybe just too many characters or maybe the “chinese grandmother” leaping into TikTok, but it just wasn’t much fun.
A little bit of dog-sitting coming up this weekend. They love to chase the wild rabbits through the yard. Fortunately the temperatures have returned to the very comfortable, very dry 80’s.
My temperatures, MM! 80s and dry, not humid.
I can see why Vera Wong was disappointing. It sounds as if it was. As you said, maybe it only works once.
You’re right. There are going to be deaths here, with the gutting of USAID and other irresponsible activities surrounding health.
Hello everyone, Happy Thursday to you all. This week has been another ‘interesting’ one, as a few days ago little itchy, sometimes blistery, bumps have been erupting on my hands and arms. Have been to the doctor and she is unsure what they are, and today punctured one of them so she could extract whatever was inside and will send it out to be analysed. All I know is those spots itch like the dickens!
This week I read:
THE BUSYBODY BOOK CLUB by Freya Sampson
Recently moved to Cornwall and soon to be married, Nova works at the local community centre and takes it upon herself to start a book club there. It’s not going terribly well. For one thing, it only has five members, including Nova herself – two pensioners, a teenage boy, and a new member who seems very unhappy. For another, the five of them don’t ever seem to find common ground, so there’s lot of arguing.
During one of the meetings a large sum of money is stolen, the newest book club member runs out of the meeting and promptly goes missing, and a dead body is found at his house. Even though on the surface it seems he is the thief, and possibly a murderer as well, the misfit members of the book club band together to find him, and the missing money, and maybe save their community centre in the process. Unfortunately, due to a series of mishaps and forgetfulness, Nova is accused of stealing the money and her job is in serious jeopardy, and the book club members have their hands full indeed.
I liked the premise of the book, and that there was more depth to the characters than I expected, since all of them were dealing with secrets and issues of their own – which made for a bit meatier story than most cozy mysteries. And yet I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped, based on having read other books by this author. This one seemed a bit cliché or pat or something. Not as heartfelt as her other books maybe. Still, I will always read a book by Freya Sampson.
ON ISABELLA STREET by Genevieve Graham
A historical novel in which the author brings to life another little-known piece of Canadian history – in this case that even though Canada chose not to fight in the Vietnam war, approximately 40,000 Canadians volunteered and enlisted with the Americans to help fight. It was also news to me that Canada manufactured and supplied weapons for the war, thereby likely prolonging an already long war.
The story takes place in the sixties, with the Vietnam war being central to the story; all of which is made personal by showing how it affected the lives of the characters in the book.
There are four main characters:
Marion – a psychiatrist working in a mental hospital in Toronto, and who is adamantly opposed to the new plan of deinstitutionalizing the patients. She lives in an apartment on Isabella Street.
Sassy – a resident in the same building, from a wealthy family, trying to find her place in life, spends her days at protests against the war and finding fault with capitalism as so many young people in the sixties did.
Daniel – a patient Marion works with at the hospital; mentally scarred by the war and prone to outbursts.
Tom – a young man who works for Sassy’s father in a large real estate firm.
Initially none of these four people seem to have anything at all in common, but how they come to know one another, and how their lives (snd those of several secondary characters) intersect and come together is what brings the history to life.
Besides the issues of the Vietnam war and the deinstitutionalization of mental patients, there are those of draft dodgers from the U.S. coming to Canada, and themes of friendship, bravery, guilt, love, and hope – all set in the sixties, a time of huge social change.
I liked the book and I always learn some history when I read a book by Genevieve Graham. It started a bit slowly I thought, and it took me a while to warm to the characters. I enjoyed the author’s The Secret Keeper more; mostly because the characters worked their way into my heart more easily, but I do think this one is a book worth reading.
Lindy, I’m so sorry that you had another “interesting” week. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one that doesn’t deal with health? Good luck!
The Genevieve Graham book sounds interesting. I’ll pass on the Freya Sampson. It sounds as if the book was all over the place.
Sending hugs, and hoping you get some answers and something you can use for the itching!
Oh no Lindy!
My friend had a similar thing, the doctor never really worked out the cause, but it did eventually respond to steroid ointments. I hope yours is cured quickly. I certainly notice that gardening affects my hands in ways that it never did a few years ago – I don’t know if that’s something to do with the plants, or just my age!
Good morning. We had front row seats for Hair on Saturday. Since it’s community theater they toned down the nudity which was fine with us and also funny because they had a man with a beard playing one of the female characters so “she” could open the top of her dress and flash the audience. It was a fun show. We have Young Frankenstein coming up in a few weeks.
I only read one book this week, RUFFIAN BURNING FROM THE START by Jane Schwartz. It’s a biography of Ruffian, the three year old filly who broke her leg in 1975 during a match race with Foolish Pleasure and had to be euthanized. The book is well written but it was a difficult read because I watched Ruffian when she was running and saw that final race on TV.
That’s funny, Sandy, about the man with the beard flashing the audience.
Oh, I would have had a hard time with that book about Ruffian. That was such a tragedy.
Yes, definitely agree on KIMBERLY AKIMBO. Good but not great. My cousin, who has been going nuts with theater since she returned from Florida, went to see GYPSY again last night, this time with Audra McDonald, and she had to call Jackie at intermission to tell her that she was right about how great she was. (She also saw GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK at the matinee, which she thought was good but not as good as the movie.) Jackie has been interested in seeing HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD since they made it a one part version in 2021, and especially since they shortened it to under three hours last year. For some reason, this week the matinee is Friday at 1:00, and through our TDF (Theatre Development Fund) membership, I was able to get tickets for $51.50 for tomorrow.
Up next (since it just started turning up on TDF), PIRATES! (probably).
Books. Jackie wanted to make a point of how much she enjoyed the Nora Roberts standalone, MIND GAMES. Usually, she far prefers her trilogies and finds the single books too long, but she really liked this one a lot. She is currently reading Darynda Jones’s MOONLIGHT AND MAGIC, fourth (I believe) in her Betwixt & Between series about witches, etc. She likes it.
I talked about Rob Osler’s The Case Of the Missing Maid last week. I did enjoy it in the end, though the number of gay people turning up in this small circle seemed a bit unlikely. The best thing about it was, he did a really nice job with the setting – 1898 Chicago really comes alive here. If there is a sequel, I’d read it.
We’ve discussed Cara Hunter’s procedural series set in North Oxford here before, as I read through the six books in the series a couple of years ago, and she quickly became a favorite of mine. The new Ch. Insp. (now) Adam Fawley book is Making A Killing. As mentioned before, this is a series you benefit greatly from by reading in order, but if you don’t want to do that, you must at least read the first book in the series, Close To Home, as this is a direct sequel, set eight years after that book. (SPOILER ALERT – DO NOT READ THIS BEFORE READING THE EARLIER BOOK) In that book, 8 year old Daisy Mason, the very intelligent child in a horribly dysfunctional family, disappears without a trace after a summer party, presumed dead. Her awful mother is convicted of her killing, but we discover that Daisy is NOT dead. Rather, she has escaped into a new life with an accomplice, living the detritus of her family behind. (END SPOILER) Now, eight years after the first story, a dead body turns up in Gloucestershire, who is suspected of being a teenager who disappeared a month previously, But DNA on the body is connected to, you guessed it, Daisy Mason. I don’t want to give too much away here, but it takes a very dark, nasty turn. Fawley takes charge of the new case due to his having run the previous one. It’s a good book, as all of hers are, but it is not – IMHO – quite up to the two or three best in the series. I’d strongly recommend starting from book one and reading them all in order. Very good series.
I’ve been trying to analyze why I didn’t feel as positive about Amity Gaige’s Heartwood as so many other readers seem to. Is it just that it appeals more to women than men, with the whole “mothers and daughters” theme? It is another Jenna’s Book Club pick, and I was anticipating another GOD OF THE WOODS, but for me it wasn’t. 42 year old Valerie Gillis is a nurse, hiking the Appalachian Trail from Harper’s Ferry to Maine, after which she plans to do the southern section to Georgia. One problem is, you never really get a clear explanation about why she feels a need to do this. Somehow, when she gets to Maine, she gets lost without a trace, and the Maine Game Wardens, led by 57 year old Lt. Beverly Miller, is determined to find her. The first parts race by, as Valerie writes her thoughts in the form of a letter to her mother. But then, somewhat awkwardly, a third voice is added, crotchety 76 year old Lena, a birdwatcher in a nursing home in Connecticut, who sees her own situation there (she is estranged from her own 40ish daughter, also a nurse) and wants to help. The sections about Valerie’s trail buddy Santo is good too. But for me, it lost a lot when, almost inexplicably, Valerie does something as stupid as Kate Burkholder put herself in jeopardy. Frankly, it started dragging for me then, and I started skimming some of the sections. I think I found my problem – believe me, you might love the book – in one of the Amazon reader reviews. She said, “Most certainly the book is beautifully written. It’s just that I became impatient for movement, for something to happen, that I skipped parts.” For me, the 260 pages dragged more than the 460 pages of THE GOD OF THE WOODS. I’d call it, again, good but not great. It was not as good as Cheryl Strayed’s book about the Pacific Coast Trail, or Paul Doiron’s series about Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch.
Currently, speaking of Maine, I am reading Tess Gerritsen’s second book about The Martini Club, a group of retired CIA agents now living in coastal Maine, The Summer Guests, a sequel to THE SPY COAST. This time, a teenage girl from a wealthy family up for a summer visit, suddenly disappears without a trace. Maggie and the other retirees once again help Acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau (against her wishes), to make sure they find the girl and prevent a neighbor from being wrongly accused of her abduction. I’m 100 pages into it.
Also reading three short story collections:
A Century Of Fiction In The New Yorker
Laurent Groff, Florida
Paul Doiron, Skin and Bones.
I totally agree with your cousin, Jeff. Good Night and Good Luck wasn’t as good as the movie. I hope you enjoy Harry Potter! A few years ago, the book reviewer Oline Cogdill went to see it. It was probably still at the original length. Her husband is a theater critic in Florida. They loved it, and said it was the best show they saw while they were there. I hope you both enjoy it, especially since Jackie has been waiting to see it. And, Audra McDonald is glorious in Gypsy. I’m so glad your cousin got to see her in the role.
I’m with Jackie. I usually prefer Nora Roberts’ trilogies.
Cara Hunter’s series is terrific. I agree. Start at the beginning!
I know a number of people didn’t enjoy The Summer Guests. I did. I just like the members of The Martini Club.
You’d love it here today – it is 85 degrees and not too humid.
OK, just finished Gerritsen’s THE SUMMER GUESTS. Good one.
I thought it was a good one, too, Jeff.
Nice weather!
I just placed a hold on the new Cara Hunter ebook, my local library doesn’t have it. But totally surprised to find the author labeled as a “TikTok sensation”. I know I heard it here first 😁
I did write about the Cara Hunter books early on, MM. But, I was lucky. A publicist for the publisher clued me in.
Well I guess, just like books, not all make the favorites list – hopefully you still had a fun time, Lesa!
My husband and I came down with COVID last week and are still trying to get over it. I didn’t even feel much like reading, so nothing new to review this week. I have a couple in progress, so will have more to offer next week. In the meantime, I’ll look forward, as always, to read everyone’s else’s posts!
I always have a fun time when my sister and I go to the theater, MM. Thank you! And, not every show is for every person.
I hope you get over COVID quickly. I’m sorry you both got it. That seems to be the case with this strain. Good luck!
I admit I am tired of locked room mysteries and this is a variation of the type. And I would like the author to whittle down the number of the characters but this is a great first novel.
I finished This is Not a Game by Kelly Mullen,
In order to no get confused, I drew a diagram of the relationships of the characters and that helped a lot. I enjoyed the movement in the relationship between the grandmother and the granddaughter to coming together after an estrangement. I think they would be a great team in future books, especially with them learning more about each other and enjoying each other. I also enjoyed the wit and and knowledge of classical cozies and modern mystery games.
I foresee some spectacular cozies in Kelly Mullen’s future!
Oh, I had This is Not a Game at home from the library, and never even opened it, Carol. You were smart to diagram it as you read! I like the sound of the grandmother/granddaughter relationship.
Good morning! Last Saturday I got to see grandson Henry compete in the flag football championships and was glad I did because his team won. The only issue was that it was 102 degrees at 3:00 p.m., but at least all of the parents (including Zach) had brought tents so we didn’t have to sit under the direct sun. And afterwards, we got to go back to their house, where a birthday/pool party was going on for my daughter-in-law’s mother. Now it’s settled back into the nineties. Here’s what I finished reading this week.
Lesa had just posted a glowing review of the first in Elizabeth Penney’s Ravensea Castle series, BODIES AND BATTLEMENTS. I had just finished another book and remembered being offered this one from the publisher, so I grabbed it from NetGalley and am happy I did. Beginning it Wednesday morning, I finished it the following morning (it’s less than 300 pages long). I love the setting of an ancient castle in scenic Yorkshire, where 30ish Nora is aiming to improve the family’s finances by renting out a few rooms for an “authentic” castle experience and hoping the resident ghost, Sir Percival, doesn’t scare the guests away. Nora also has an apothecary business, making creams, lotions, and teas, and her brother, Will, makes and sells honey wines (mead). Their sister, Tamsyn, is a popular TV star whose show was just canceled, and their father is writing a family biography and entertaining guests. The first three guests seem fine–a birdwatcher, a couple who own wine stores, and an attractive man who turns out to be a new local Detective Inspector. But when Nora’s nemesis, Hilda, who has openly opposed the new enterprise for a full year, is found dead on the property, there’s a lot more to worry about than ghosts and refreshments. More murders follow, and Nora and Tamsyn try to figure out how they can help with the investigation. The mystery is well written and interesting, the primary characters are instantly relatable, and I enjoyed spending time with them, with Nora’s entrepreneurial friends, and even (briefly) with Sir Percival. There’s also a promising hint of romance. I will definitely look for the next in this entertaining series.
Rachel Joyce is a staggeringly talented author, several of whose books have rated very high with me (The Music Shop and the Harold Fry books). But I had a mixed reaction to her latest, THE HOMEMADE GOD. On one hand, Joyce’s writing style is as beautiful as ever, featuring expressive language and memorable characters. But in this case, the family that is center stage is so dysfunctional that I found it almost unbearable to read about them at their lowest depths. Each of the four adult children, all in their thirties as the story unfolds, has a different–and often unhealthy–relationship with their artist father, who at age 76 declares gleefully that he is about to marry a 27-year-old that none of his family has met. He begs his children to visit him and his new bride in the family’s vacation home in Italy, but before they can do so, their father tragically dies, leaving them to wonder what’s happened to his final painting and how his estate will be divided. The relationships between the adult children also become fraught and damaging. There is some redemption for a few of them much later in the book, but it wasn’t soon enough for me. Other readers, however, may well find this a satisfying and provocative book. (July)
I’ve been reading good reviews from several of you of Simon Brett’s Mrs. Pargeter Crime Mystery series, so I bought ebooks #1 through #8 (grr, the price dropped from $5.99 to $1.99 the next day) and thoroughly enjoyed being introduced to the formidable protagonist in A NICE CLASS OF CORPSE. The Devereux Hotel in England is home to a number of wealthy seniors, all of whom are eager to meet the newest resident, 67-year-old Melita Pargeter. Unlike her fellow residents, she finds it unnecessary to follow all of the hotel’s rules and routines, but she goes her way with (mostly) good humor. And when Mrs. Selby is found dead of suspicious circumstances, Mrs. Pargeter feels a compulsion to do her own investigation, armed with useful tools and valuable advice left to her by her late husband. His mysterious, unnamed career had allowed him to leave his wife well off but had sometimes resulted in lengthy absences from home. Through her eyes, and through entries in a journal by an unidentified resident, we get to know the foibles of each of the other residents, And Mrs. Pargeter makes good use of the list of contacts her husband had also left her–all specialists in a variety of fields. These are short books–highly entertaining and full of humor and detail. I loved Mrs. P and the way she conducted herself, and I’m eager to see where she goes next and how she solves future crimes.
Whew! Made it through that heat, Margie. That’s hot even for me. But, congratulations to Henry!
I’m glad you enjoyed Bodies and Battlements. I liked the setting, the castle premise, and the characters, even Sir Percival. And, I felt sorry for him when I learned how he died!
And, you’re enjoying the Mrs. Pargeter books! They’re just fun, aren’t they? I like to meet the various people from her husband’s address book.
Margie, I love Mrs Pargeter! Simon Brett is such a good writer, so easy to read and so funny.
I like his Charles Paris series too, and I also enjoyed the only one I’ve read so far in the Fethering Village mysteries series. Brett is great at creating memorable characters.
Good afternoon everyone.
It’s 59F here and rain is forecast for later today – I think our period of sunny, warm weather is over for a while. The garden is looking better than it has done for ages – the bedding plants are diong really well, especially the pansies and night-scented stocks, and the sweet peas are racing up the trellis.
Last week was so busy for me. On Friday I went to the library’s live streaming from the Hay Book Festival. Jacqueline Wilson and Kate Mosse in conversation – Wilson is of course the author of numerous children’s books, including the very famous TRACEY BEAKER series, Mosse is the author of many historical novels, her best known one probably being LABYRINTH.
It was a great session; these two writers have been friends for many years, and chatted about all sorts of things – such a welcome change from many of the Edinburgh Book Festival events, at which famous authors just push their new book relentlessly for an entire hour.
Mosse is a carer for her parents and mother-in-law; they all live together in a multi-generational household. She starts writing at 4.30am while the house is still quiet. She said she’d like to go to bed at 6pm, but this isn’t possible – nevertheless, she’s asleep by 9. Her books require a huge amount of research, which she really enjoys. Unlike Wilson she doesn’t write every day, but once she has all the information she needs she ‘plunges in’ and writes non stop for as long as she can to get the first draft finished.
Wilson is now almost 80 years old, though you wouldn’t think so. She lives in the Sussex countryside with her partner and a lot of animals; they rise at 6 to let their dogs out, but she then goes back to bed, and writes there, on her laptop, till 12. Her partner deals with the chickens!
There were some good questions at the end of the session – one was asking which character in her young adult books Wilson would like to bring back in an adult novel. She said she could never bring Tracy Beaker back, as ‘I’d have to write about her sex life, and that would be too terrible!’
Wilson is known for being very connected to her fans. One girl said that getting replies to the letters she writes to Jacqueline has helped her through many difficult times. Wilson was so nice – she said ‘Oh it’s so lovely to meet you in person at last!’
I do think children’s authors are often especially nice people, though Kate Mosse was also very good.
Once again there were very few people at the library for this. I checked, and tickets for the live event at Hay cost £16 each – we saw it live for free, yet still people don’t bother. It’s such a shame.
On Saturday we went to Peacock Printmakers for an artist talk and demonstration, both very good, then on to the university to see the new FEAR AND FASCINATION exhibition. This one is all about the Gothic, from the early novels of people like Ann Radcliffe, then Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe, MR James, Daphne du Maurier and many more. It was very interesting to read about the birth of the genre, and why it became (and is again) so popular. Many theories are put forward, most of which focus on ideas of ‘othering’. I learned a lot.
This week Nancy and I walked at Crathes, which was very very windy – I kept looking at all those trees with apprehension! But we survived. On Tuesday evening I went to the ‘studio-warming’ of two artist friends, which was great fun. I caught up with a few other friends there, and also met some new people, including a guy who designs afro hair combs and a Nigerian hairdresser who is on a mission to encourage people with Afro-Caribbean hair to celebrate their curls arther than trying to straighten them out. Her photos were amazing.
BOOKS:
I have just finished CAUGHT OUT IN CORNWALL, the final book in Janie Bolitho’s murder mystery series set in West Cornwall. In this one a small child goes missing on a crowded beach and (of course!) artist Rose Trevelayn saw her being taken away by a man. DI Jack Pearce, Rose’s on-off lover, soon uncovers a very dysfunctional family and many potential suspects. Needless to say, in no time at all Rose is talking to them all and finding out far more than the police seem able to. All a bit ridiculous, but I must admit I’ve grown fond of this series, and I’ll miss the minor characters and the wonderful Cornish scenery.
Before that I read THE MOURNING NECKLACE by Kate Foster. The novel is based on the true story of ‘Half-Hangit Maggie’ – Maggie Dickson, daughter of a Musselburgh fishing family, who in 1724 was hanged in Edinburgh for the murder of her newborn child. Foster has added fictional elements to the story, but the basic plot is true.
Maggie Dickson marries to get away from the traditional fishwife’s life. She believes her husband, a somewhat dodgy importer of perfumes, to have been pressganged and lost at sea. Not wanting to return to her parents’ tiny cottage she decides to go to London to seek her fortune. Getting only as far as Kelso, a border town, she finds work in a travellers’ inn; all goes well until she discovers she is pregnant. She conceals the pregnancy from everyone except her sister, and continues to work, but the baby is born very prematurely and dies.
From then on Maggie is in deep trouble; blamed for things she has not done, and greatly let down by her self-centered sister, she ends up imprisoned in Edinburgh and sentenced to death.
But Maggie survives the hanging, and after adventures in the capital, she eventually returns to Musselburgh and rejoins the fishing community. How did she escape death?
I enjoyed this book, though perhaps not quite as much as the author’s previous one, THE KING’S WITCHES. It certainly paints vivid, and not always attractive, pictures of life in a close-knit East Lothian fishing community and in the slums of Edinburgh. Maggie’s story interweaves with that of several other women, all of them struggling to get by at a time when wealthy white men hold all the power. Sound familiar?
Now I am reading THE CAT WHO SAW RED by Lilian Jackson Braun, the next in the series about news reporter Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. In this outing Qwilleran has just moved from his Junktown appartment to a rambling old mansion, now divided into flats. The building belongs to an ex lawyer who cooks all the meals, so it’s a bit like a hotel. Needless to say the other inhabitants are a motley crew, and I’m sure it won’t be long before at least one of them meets a gruesome end.
On Saturday we are away to Glasgow to see PULP in concert. Jarvis Cocker never fails to entertain, so it should be a good night.
Have a good week all.
That’s funny, Rosemary, that you say children’s authors are so nice. One of the nastiest authors I ever hosted at the Reading Festival was a man, a children’s author. He was asked by a child why he wrote, and he answered, “For money”. Parents were mad, and complained. Too late. Nothing I could do, but I never invited him again. On the other hand, I heard R.L. Stine give a child a thoughtful answer, and the young boy was very pleased that the author took him seriously.
It’s a shame that people don’t take more advantage of what’s available, but I’ll admit I’m guilty. I blame my health, but, I’m not sure I’d go anyways. Too lazy at times. That’s my fault.
Lesa – I don’t think people should ever feel obliged to attend anything, it just annoys me in Aberdeen when so many people complain endlessly that ‘there’s nothing to do in the city’!
That’s interesting re children’s authors, and you reminded me that my Madeleine once had a similar experience with a (male) children’s author. She took her very well thumbed copy of his book, which she loved, to his signing table and he was extremely dismissive because she wasn’t handing him a new copy. I don’t think she read any more of his books.
Always exceptions, aren’t there? Jacqueline Wilson is just an all round wonderful person.
Thursday already!!! the day had gotten away from me.
have finished the first three in the Mrs. Pargeter books and loving them – and her!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying Mrs. Pargeter, Kaye! Sending love and hugs!
I just finished THE WIDOWS’ GUIDE TO SKULLDUGGERY by Amanda Ashby scheduled to release on June 30. This was the first time I had ever read this author or this series and I really enjoyed it, so I have since purchased books one and two in the series. I am just about to get started on the third in the Marlow Murder Club series, MURDER ON THE MARLOW BELLE.
Not familiar with the author or series, Pattie, but I love the title of the book!
Got a little hot. Fell off a ladder, so I’ve been staying inside. Nothing broken, but I really didn’t need that kind of pain.
This week I read:
The Beast of Littleton Woods by TE Kinsley; Apparently, there’s a panther on the loose, killing people. I’m always interested in Britain’s Alien Big Cats, even though it’s a Hound of Baskervilles type deal.
For Batter or Worse by Jenn McKinlay; The bakery is going great guns. One of the sleuths is pregnant, and the other is getting married. The usual celebrity chef is catering the wedding, as their former minion is interning there. Seems like I missed a book somehow?
Anyway, the obnoxious celebrity chef is offed, and of course the minion is the prime suspect. There’s some illusion of progress that doesn’t fool anybody, but other than that, it was okay, even though they’re sort of running out of minions.
Once Upon A Grind by Cleo Coyle; Another obnoxious celebrity chef is kakked, and this time, it’s the sleuths daughter in jeopardy. The super cop boyfriend is working on his own case, and getting nowhere. There are times I worry the real cops are this inept. To be honest, I think jail might do her daughter some good. And the ex-husband is more of doofus than usual. Maybe he should spend some time on Ryker’s or Sing Sing to smarten up.
Whoa! I hope you’re okay and on the mend, Glen.
I never liked the ex in Cleo Coyle’s series. I do like the mother-in-law, though. You’re right. He needs to be sent someplace.
Now, I’m trying to remember which book I recently read that had one of the big cats in it. I think it might have been Murder in the Grotto by Amy Myers, but I’m not sure.