Tomorrow, Rosemary Kaye will share her Favorite Books Read in 2025, so I hope you stop by to check out her list. I love these lists. Everyone reads different books, and shares what they enjoyed most during the reading year.
I had a terrific week. The new Canal Winchester Branch Library of the Columbus Metropolitan Library System opened on Saturday, and I went to see it in the afternoon after all the ceremonies were over. The small branch had worked just fine for me because I place a lot of holds, but it was really just an express branch, with a few books. Now, it’s the first full-sized library for the community. I really wanted one of the new commemorative library cards, which is why I went that day. It has a picture of the new library on it. Check out my card!
Linda kids me, and says, you’re pretty proud of the that card, aren’t you? Yes, I am. It’s a beautiful library.
Then, yesterday, she and I went to see “Song Sung Blue”, based on the true story of a Milwaukee couple who performed as a Neil Diamond tribute band. My father was a big fan of Neil Diamond’s songs, so we grew up on that music. It was a moving story with terrific music.
So, a good week. A cold front came through last night, and I don’t have to go anyplace until Sunday. I’m happy to stay home and read for the rest of the week.
Along with a few other books, I’m reading Martin Walker’s third book in the Bruno, Chief of Police series, Black Diamond. Since I’ve only read two chapters, here’s the brief summary. “In a French village, Police Chief Bruno investigates attacks on Vietnamese vendors, truffle smuggling, and his friend’s murder, while navigating local cuisine and reconnecting with a former love.”
What about you? What are you doing this week? What are you reading, besides Rosemary’s Favorite Books Read during 2025 tomorrow?
That is a very fine looking library Lesa, and I’m so glad you got one of the special cards!
Not much to report from here this week. The two most important things that happened were that David got his ‘mapping scan’ done so that when the radiation sessions begin they’ll know exactly where to aim the radiation. He has three tiny tattoos now that mark those spots. A much more enjoyable happening was looking after Evelyn last week – picked her up from school, then snack, games, books, dinner, and bed. She was a delight to be with.
Books read this week:
A KILLING IN NOVEMBER by Simon Mason
(1st in the DI Ryan Wilkins Mystery series)
From the book cover: ‘Ryan Wilkins grew up on a trailer park, a member of what many people would call the criminal classes. As a young Detective Inspector, he’s lost none of his disgust with privileged elites – or his objectionable manners. But he notices things; they stick to his eyes. His professional partner DI Ray Wilkins of affluent Nigerian-London heritage, is a smooth-talking graduate of Balliol College, Oxford. You wouldn’t think they would get on. They don’t.
But when a young woman is found strangled at Barnabas Hall, they’re forced to.’
I don’t want to give anything away because it was such fun having some important assumptions on my part unexpectedly turned upside down. I really enjoyed this book. The mystery was twisty, it was set in Oxford, there were lots of suspects and red herrings, and aspects of various issues such as class, Syrian refugees, and abuse were seamlessly woven into the story. But the best part was the vividly rendered characters that made me care about them and their personal lives, to the point that I was in tears at one point; not something that normally happens when I read a police procedural. Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.
(And, as Lesa said about the Harry Potter book a few days ago: Wonderful escape reading. I did indeed just sink into it for almost an entire day and the rest of the world didn’t exist.)
DEFINITELY MAYBE NOT A DETECTIVE by Sarah Fox
A light rom-com mystery.
Emersyn is having a tough time of it – 28 years old, currently unemployed, her ex-boyfriend has stolen all her savings from her bank account, and since the death of her brother she is the legal guardian of her beloved young niece. With hardly any money to her name now, she’s found a somewhat affordable place to rent even though it’s in a run-down seniors’ complex. But her best friend Jemma has a plan to get Emersyn and her life back on track – by hiring a private investigator to scare the ex-boyfriend into returning Emersyn’s money. Not that there’s an actual investigator; she just had business cards printed with the fake name of an investigative firm with hopes that once the ex sees the card that it will be enough to get him to give the money back. When things go a bit awry, a handsome stranger steps into the role of the supposed private investigator.
Just when this plan is being put into action, the superintendent of Emersyn’s building is found dead and after finding one of the business cards, her neighbours ‘hire’ her firm to find out who killed him. And that’s how Emersyn and the handsome stranger get their first case, even though they aren’t detectives at all. And does all the ‘help’ they get from the ‘Senior Squad’ in the building actually help?
This was an enjoyable, fast-paced, often humorous little story. A few too many mentions of how handsome certain men are, and some of the characters are completely over the top, but the story was strong enough that I could forgive the excessive mentions.
You sold me, Lindy. First comment I read today, and I put a hold on A Killing in November. A new police procedural! I’ll take a shot at that one.
I’m glad you had Evelyn as a break from your health problems and David’s. A friend said radiation was a breeze for her, compared to her previous chemo. She said she was quite tired for a few months after, but so much better than chemo. I hope David’s is easy for him.
Lindy I have had that Simon Mason book on my Kindle for a while, and I’m glad you agree with the other reviews I’ve read about it. Will try to get to it soon.
I got so into searching for A Killing in November that I almost missed my chance to chime in today, Lindy! I am familiar with the tiny tattoos and hope David sails through radiation.
That is a great library card!
I’ve finally returned to Gigi Pandian’s Jaya Jones series. It’s been five years (yikes!) since I read book three, but I’m really enjoying book four, MICHELANGELO’S GHOST. I should finish it up today, and I can’t wait to see what exactly has been happening and where the treasure is.
Thanks, Mark! I really like that card.
It’s been quite a while since I read one of Gigi’s books. And, I don’t know why. I liked the ones I read.
That’s much nicer than our tan library cards. The playhouse we go to started off the new season with Grease which was a lot of fun.
My favorite book of the week was DRIFTING COWBOY by Will James. It’s a book of short stories that follow a cowboy named Bill as he drifts from job to job.
An ARC of A STUDY IN SECRETS by Jeffrey Siger was also good. A former intelligence officer, Mr. Michael has withdrawn from the world and spends his days watching people in the park across the street. Until one night he sees a park regular, a young woman, sleeping on a bench and decides to help her. But helping her will pit Mr. Michael against the city’s seamier side and he’ll need to draw on skills he hasn’t used in years.
This is the first book in a new series so it started a bit slowly but once the story got going it really hooked me.
Translated from Japanese, BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is set in a small cafe where you can travel back in time. But there are rules and one of them is that you must finish your coffee before it gets cold or you won’t be able to return.
Good Morning from snowy Michigan! We were supposed to receive a dusting of snow, but ended up with 6 inches. It was warm enough (30) to take our grandson for a walk in the morning, but it is too cold to do that today, at least for me!
This week, I read The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child. This is the first Reacher book I have read since Lee Child handed over the writing to his brother and it will be the last. I did not enjoy the book.
I am also reading Kate Ellis’s Wesley Peterson series, which combines a current mystery with a mystery set in the past. I am enjoying the series. The books are providing a much needed escape for me.
We are meeting my kids in Detroit for the day on Saturday. We are having lunch and will spend the afternoon at The Detroit Institute of Arts. This museum is a wonderful museum, much underrated. And on Monday, we will be volunteering in honor of Dr. King.
I hope everyone has a nice weekend. l am looking forward to seeing Rosemary’s list tomorrow!
Good morning, Jennifer. I don’t know which is worse, expecting the accumulation you get, or getting more than predicted. But, six inches! I’d be stuck in the apartment for a week or so. They don’t clean the driveways and walks here. The first year I lived here it was under different management, and they did. So much better than now! Stay safe and warm!
Enjoy the day at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Sounds like an enjoyable day!
I don’t mind the snow, as long as there is enough that we can stay in and be lazy. This was not enough to qualify.
Six inches is more than enough for me, Jennifer!
Jennifer, I feel you. I read Andrew Grant (Lee Childs’s brother)’s first book and it was OK, but his second was so awful I swore I would never read another that he wrote. So even though I read all the Reachers by Lee Child, there is no chance I would read one by the brother.
Sandy, I was always getting my Kroger’s card mixed up with my library card. They looked quite similar. I’m happy to have the new card.
I have the new book by Jeff Siger, and hope to get to it this week. I’m glad you liked it!
Hello, Lesa and friends. How nice that you have a wonderful new library near where you live, Lesa!
I’ve had a good week. Two highlights: Last Friday night, my husband and I drove into the Bernese countryside to a small theater and saw a superb magician. He was on a tiny stage, and we were in the front row. I have always loved magicians, and I never fail to be amazed by their tricks, and this one had our mouths hanging open. Another highlight was that a book group in Connecticut invited me a couple of months ago to discuss my first mystery, Pesticide, with them after they read it. That was last Saturday for an hour, everyone on Zoom, and I had a very good time; I hope they did, too.
Audiobooks first. I finished THE RAVEN SCHOLAR by Antonia Hodgson, a fantasy set in an empire in which young people choose which of seven skill-and-personality groups they want to belong to. The heroine, Neema Kraa, belongs among the Ravens, who are scholars. Every 24 years, the Emperor resigns, and the seven “Houses” choose young contenders to compete to take the throne. When the Raven contender is murdered just before the trials begin, Neema is forced by the Emperor to take the murdered woman’s place as the seventh contender, despite her lack of preparation for the difficult trials. While competing to become emperor, Neema is also tasked with solving the murder.
The world-building in this book is ingenious, there is lots of action and excitement, and not only the heroine but many of the characters are interesting and likable. Clever plot twists, too. Yes, this is only the first in a trilogy, but at least it ends in a semi-satisfactory way, and I’ll definitely buy volume two!
Now I’m listening to a long (600 pages) novel by Richard Powers called THE TIME OF OUR SINGING (2004) about two brothers born in the early 1940s to a German-Jewish immigrant father and an African American mother. They are raised to pursue careers in classical music and come of age in the middle of the fight for civil rights. It’s a complex and beautifully written book, and so far I’m enjoying it very much, but I’m not even halfway through, so I’ll report more when I finish it.
For the first time, I was asked as an author to blurb another mystery writer’s book, so I had the pleasure of reading a novel set in late-eighteenth-century Tokyo (Edo). It takes place in the area of the city where all the high-class houses of prostitution are located. The story focuses on the life of a twelve-year-old girl, Birdie, who is being trained by an “oiran” or top- ranked courtesan to be an oiran as well. The portrait of Edo’s courtesan houses, their samurai or bureaucrat patrons, and the world of political intrigue they move in is outstanding, and the reader quickly comes to care about Birdie. Several mysteries surrounding Birdie’s life heighten the excitement. When this book, THE SAMURAI’S OCTOPUS, comes out in April 2026, I highly recommend it.
I also read the first Tim Sullivan police procedural, THE DENTIST, with detective George Cross, and I join Lesa and several more of you in praising this book and recommending it. I’m looking forward to the next one, which has just arrived after I pre-ordered it weeks ago.
Finally, I’m in the middle of a Jodi Picoult novel, the first one I’ve ever read, believe it or not, called SMALL GREAT THINGS. It’s about racial prejudice and responsibility, but I haven’t read very far, so I’ll wait to tell you more about it when I finish it.
So glad you enjoyed The Raven Scholar, Kim. That was my favorite read of 2025!
I agree about magicians, Kim. I was in a reading lab in high school, and a boy a year younger than me already worked as a professional magician. He’d do simple tricks each week, and I was always fascinated.
Thank you for the reviews. I put The Raven Scholar on hold, thanks to your review and Jennifer’s comment that it was her favorite read in 2025. I may have to wait a little. There are thirteen people ahead of me.
Kim, a highlight of a Bouchercon years ago was seeing Walter B. Gibson, creator of The Shadow and writer of many other pulp novels, who was a very good magician. At that point he was in his 80s, but he was still great. He did a thing where he pretended he’d made a mistake and people could see how he did his magic, but that was actually part of his act. Even in his 80s he fooled everyone. He died at 88 in 1985, so this was early ’80s, perhaps Milwaukee in 1981. I got one of his books signed.
I have The Raven Scholar on hold and am looking forward to it!
Currently listening to The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson and reading Queen Esther by John Irving (who I adore!). I find non fiction easier to listen to.
Thank you, Melissa. Now, I’m going to have to look up The British Are Coming.
Good afternoon everyone, from a sunny Aberdeenshire.
Your new library looks wonderful Lesa, and I love the new card!
Our snow has at last mostly gone, and we have been able to get out and about again. Tonight my friend Karen and I are going to the theatre to see NUTCRACKER IN HAVANA, which has had excellent reviews.
Unfortunately my very elderly mother appears to be deteriorating fast, and we are hoping to persuade her to move into hospice care. Our elder daughter Anna, who lives 30 minutes’ drive from mother, has being doing a sterling job in dealing with doctors, medications, etc, but I will be going down myself at the weekend to take over. Not a pleasant time, but at 98 mother has had a good life.
At the moment I am reading two books.
The first is Rosamunde Pilcher’s COMING HOME, which I have read before but am rereading for a group read on the Rosamunde Pilcher Facebook group. It’s a long book but an easy read, and oneof Pilcher’s best in my opinion.
I’m also reading a new book, Hattie Crisell’s IN WRITING: conversations on inspiration, perspiration and creative desperation .’ It’s a collection of conversations with writers, some famous, some less so – Liane Moriarty, Meg Wolitzer, Maggie O’Farrell, Kit de Waal, Curtis Sittenfeld, Grace Dent (The Guardian’s food critic), David Sedaris and many, many more.I’ve only just started it but it does look really good.
Lesa, I meant to ask if there is any controversy in the US re JK Rowling? Here there is a huge amount of discord, sides have been taken, and young people in particular are very unhappy with her views. I just wondered if it was the same over there? I read all of the Harry Potter books to my childen when they were young; my daughters would not read them now. Not sure about my son.
On TV I am now up to the third episode of season two of THE NIGHT MANAGER. I had to watch it twice to have any hope of understanding what was going on! But it’s excellent. I’ve also been rewatching some of THE WINDSORS episodes, which are a truly hilarious send up of our royal family.
I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned that our youngest daughter Madeleine has been awarded a two week all expenses paid residency at Hospitalfield, a lovely arts centre in Arbroath, on the coast south of Aberdeen (it’s where the famous Arbroath Smokies come from.) I’ve never been there myself, but friends who have say it’s wonderful. As well as the lovely old house there are beautiful gardens and a very good cafe, both of which are open to the public in summer. Madeleine will go in April. I am thrilled for her – and I do apologise if I’ve already mentioned this!
It’s a beautiful day here today so I am planning to go for a much needed walk. I hope everyone is getting better weather now?
Have a good week all!
So sorry to hear about your Mom, Rosemary. Sending a hug your way during this stressful time.
Thank you for the hug Mary! I appreciate it.
Rosemary, Good news about Madeleine in contrast to the sad news about your mother. I’m sorry about that. I can’t imagine trying to take care of her while you know she’s failing. And, kudos to Anna for stepping up.
Congratulations to Madeleine! Her residency sounds wonderful. I hope she enjoys it, and gets a lot out of it, including new friends.
Yes, I know there is controversy about J.K. Rowling.I’m not letting her opinions influence my reading of the Harry Potter books. I loved the books the first time around, and I think I will the second time around. I haven’t asked my older nephews and niece what they think now. They loved the books when they were younger, and those are the books that introduced them to fantasy. My nephews are still lovers of fantasy, and, one of them even collects fantasy books from the U.S. and England. My youngest niece is in her mid-twenties, and she’s a fanatic about the books. Her son just turned one, and she had an elaborate Harry Potter-themed party for him. (She said it’s one of the last times she’ll get to pick the theme.)
It’s not such a beautiful day here. It’s cold, and next week is expected to be even colder with temperatures in the negative numbers.
Thanks Lesa.
I’ll pass on your kind words to Madeleine.
And thanks for the information about Harry Potter. I wasn’t judging either way, I just wondered if the issue was confined to the UK.
Sad news about your mother Rosemary. I’m sorry. I know from personal experience that this next while will not be easy for you. I will keep both you and your mother in my thoughts.
Congratulations to Madeleine. What sorts of things will she be doing during her residency, do you know? I hope she loves it.
Rosemary, I am so sorry to hear about your Mom. You are blessed that your daughter is helping as much as she is.
Such exciting news for her with her residency!
We have not started the new Night Manager. I don’t think they’ve dropped all the episodes yet so we are waiting for that to be able to watch them all at once.
Take care.
I am sorry to hear about your mother, Rosemary. Will be keeping you in my thoughts.
Thank you Jennifer, that is so kind of you.
What a beautiful library, Lesa! It has the feel of a Frank Lloyd Wright design. I’m sure that the community is thrilled to have a real branch. Enjoy!
We’ve had some strong winds and snow and ice. Everything was closed down yesterday and of course I had to miss my specialist appointment that I had been waiting for. Can’t get in now until February. Sigh. Like you, Lesa, it does give me more time to reading though – so there is a silver lining.
I read two books this past week. The first was Culpability by Bruce Holsinger. Dysfunctional family dynamics occur inside a family composed of a genius wife involved with AI algorithms, a husband that is a lawyer, a son that is a lacrosse scholarship jock, and daughters. While the boy was driving the family van in auto pilot, his sister screams for him to take the wheel because a car is coming into their lane. It comes out later that he was texting and he over corrects the wheel when he looks up, killing the two elderly people in the oncoming vehicle. While the boy, as well as his father (who was the responsible parent in the front seat) are under investigation by the police, they decide to go on a week’s hiatus to an Airbnb that is owned by a tech mogul. Said tech mogul has a large estate next to the rental, with a very attractive daughter who falls for the boy. Soon they are hanging out together and one night do not return home. A suspenseful search and rescue takes place, with AI drones assisting with the recovery. The boy is found on the girl’s sailboat, still alive but badly bruised and with a broken leg. The girl is still missing. Suddenly this family has been thrown into not one, but two, disasters. AI, family secrets, drugs all come into play. The essential question this book asks is who is really culpable when there are so many inputs that impact dire outcomes.
I also read Fog City: A Fog City Noir Mystery by Claire M. Johnson (published in 2024). Loved this book! Maggie Laurent is a secretary to a PI in 1920’s San Francisco. Her boss, Nick, has been on a bender ever since a client, that he fell for, turned out to be evil incarnate and was hung for her transcretions. Maggie, who may be all of 20, decides to try to keep the business afloat by taking on a case by herself (although the client is unaware that Nick is not involved). The client is the shady wife of a wealthy banker who is searching for her adult stepson who has turned up missing ever since daddy fired him from the bank. Maggie’s search for the stepson has her dealing with his disgruntled twin sister, an even more disgruntled cop, an untrustworthy journalist who makes overtures as a suitor, and speakeasy’s, alcohol and drugs. Maggie is a force and you can’t help rooting for her to solve the case and make her way in the world. The time period and place add a nice evocative feel to the story. I’m looking forward to reading the next installment.
Oh, Mary. I’m sorry you couldn’t get to your specialist. I know how long you sometimes have to wait. I was lucky to get in, but it takes almost a year to get in to see a dermatologist without a regular doctor to say it’s urgent. But, with that ice, stay home and stay safe.
Fog City is the one that sounds the most interesting to me. And, it was good enough for you to anticipate the next book.
I loved Fog City so much I ordered the sequel City Lights. But then I love all mysteries set in San Francisco.
I loaned it out to another friend who lives in SF and have plans to keep it rotating among my two in person reading groups.
Unfortunately, it is not available through our library system.
Hi, everyone! This week was a better week. Reading wise. I finished two books.
This month’s theme for my book club was that the title had to have the word “Winter” in it. Man, I never realized how few mysteries there are with “Winter” in the title. I actually went to the library and pursued the mystery section to find one. I ended up with “Winter at the Door” by Sarah Graves and it turned out to be a good book.
Lizzie Snow is a police officer whose sister died in a car accident. Lizzie’s niece was in the car at the time of the accident but no one knows what happened to her afterwards. Lizzie gets a tip that there’s been a sighting of her niece in Bearkill, Maine and it just so happens the police department there is interested in hiring her.
She’s hired but finds out when she arrives to start the job that they are giving her a different job. She is the new community liaison officer. She quickly becomes involved in solving a series of murders. There’s even a drug trafficking ring involved. It was fast read and I liked it so much I requested the second book in the series from the library.
My other book is “Everyone in This Bank is a Thief” by Benjamin Stevenson, courtesy of NetGalley.
In the 4th installment of Ernest Cunningman mysteries, Ernest is engaged to Juliette. Together they are trying to raise funds for their detective agency which has yet to be paid for any murder they have solved in the past. They are invited to Huxley to talk to the bank president about a loan. Which should have been a warning to them, because no other bank would even consider loaning them money. While there, the bank gets robbed and the robber takes everyone as a hostage. There are 10 hostages. Each had their own story and I felt like even though the author was working on the character development of each one, it was just too monotonous.
I’ve enjoyed the three previous books, so I had high hopes for this one. It seemed to drag on till about ¾ of the way in.
Well, that’s interesting, Bev. I’m not familiar with that series by Sarah Graves. I never read any of the Lizzie Snow mysteries. I read a number of the Home Repair is Homicide books, and just a couple of the Death by Chocolate ones. I’m glad you liked Winter at the Door.
So what’s wrong with being a library nerd? That new building looks great. Enjoy. I was thinking about how rarely I visit the library these days, other than to pick up reserved books and to check out the New Titles. Years ago, once a week after I dropped Jackie off at school I would drive over to Grand Army Plaza to the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and just wander up and down the fiction second looking for books.
But I digress. We have a Cold Weather Warning! Yes, even South Florida is getting colder this week. We’ve dropped from the low 80s for a high to the low 70s, and now we’re going to the mid-60s, with a predicted low of 45 and a Wind Chill in the 30s! So glad we’re here and now at home for this. Plus, it won’t last for long.
Books. Jackie is reading her first Carley Fortune book, ONE GOLDEN SUMMER. She really likes it and is adding Fortune to Ashley Poston, Emily Henry, and Abby Jimenez on her Escaping Trump list of romance authors.
We’re pretty much settled here now, and I’ve been getting some reading done. First, I started two or three books that just didn’t do it for me. One sounded good, but it was Just. Too. Young. I mean, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY starts in 1979. But this started at college in 2017 and I just couldn’t relate. (EXIT LANE, for those who might be more interested.)
Next one sounded good (though it got a mixed set of Amazon real person reviews). This guy’s wife had an affair TWELVE YEARS AGO, and at that point he decided to stay together until their youngest was in college, then leave. Now the daughter is 18 and off to school, and he – apparently, as the prologue section does go on – is going. But his narrative voice gets annoying (at least to me) after a while and – frankly – I just didn’t care enough about rich white man’s problems to stick around and see what happened. (THE REST OF OUR LIVES, for those who are interested.)
I started Mark Pryor’s first Paris-set mystery, THE BOOKSELLER, but I’m now sure if I’m going to read it.
So what did I read? Tim Sullivan, The Teacher is book six in his Sgt. George Cross series, and in some ways the best so far. A retired Headmaster is found in his house at the bottom of the stairs, and he was stabbed. Turns out he was a sadistic SOB who liked to beat the boys, way too much. Was that what got him killed after all these years? Meanwhile, George’s partner Josie Ottey is moving house, so they bring in another Inspector from Kent to run the case, and to say he and George conflict is a gross understatement. Of course, we know who will be right, but it goes beyond just that. Meanwhile, there is a development with his personal life too. And the mystery of the actual murderer is not easily solved. So, as I said, an excellent book I raced through in a couple of days. I have at least one more to read.
I believe I talked about Geraldine Brooks’s Memorial Days: A Memoir last time. She is the Australian turned American journalist, who covered the world, often with her fellow journalist husband Tony Horwitz. They are settled in Martha’s Vineyard, writing books (she has moved from non fiction to novels) when Brooks gets the call that her 60 year old husband, in Washington on a book tour, has dropped dead on the street. He was in great shape, worked out nearly every day, though there were some warning issues he ignored. This alternates chapters between his death on Memorial Day weekend of 2019, and her return to Australia to finally mourn alone in 2023. Good book, and may remind you of similar widow’s tales by Joan Didion and Joyce Carol Oates.
Ann Packer, Swim Back To Me. This is her second collection of short stories and I enjoyed it pretty much.
Also still reading the Fredric Brown collection.
I’ve – coincidentally, I think – been getting back into non-fiction lately. Besides the Brooks I am very much enjoying a book Lesa reviewed last week, Marilyn Johnson’s The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries. This really made me want to subscribe to the Daily Telegraph’s obituary page. Great stuff. It also brought me to a second Alaska book by obituary writer Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons From a Small-Town Obituary Writer. It’s her follow-up to If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, which I enjoyed several years ago.
One more: in 2020, Belle Burden, from the socially prominent family that included her parents, Carter and Amanda Burden, and her grandmother, Babe Paley (you could look them up), moved to her Martha’s Vineyard home with her husband of 20 years and their two younger children (12 and 15) to escape the pandemic. A phone call informed her that her husband was having an affair, and after one night he told her he was gone, out – no marriage, no kids, no custody, nothing, just gone. (The guy comes across as a total dick.) He tells her, “You’ll be fine, you’re young.” Her response: “I was fifty.”) Three years later she had a very well received piece in the New York Times about this, and with encouragement she has now turned it into a memoir which is getting great reviews: Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage. I’ve read the essay and Part I of the book and they are excellent so far.
Have a good week, everyone.
There’s nothing wrong with being a library nerd, Jeff. In fact, my sister would agree. She volunteers at her library, reading with kids, and she takes her grandchildren to multiple libraries. She’s just kidding me because I not only showed off the library card, but I also pulled it out to show her. (smile)
I like Jackie’s list of escaping Trump romances. We all need escapes. My genres are all over the place – police procedurals, nonfiction, a romance or a fantasy. I have Jim Butcher’s Twelve Months coming up, the latest Dresden Files. I was addicted to the early books, but not as much when he got into the Fae world too much. I liked the emphasis on the “Only Wizard Detective in Chicago”.
Adding Strangers to my TBR list. Just what I need, another one. I’m glad you’re enjoying The Dead Beat. And, that’s so encouraging to read that The Teacher is the best in the series so far. I’m going to miss Josie in that one, though. She keeps George grounded.
I’m not joking when I say I’m sorry for your cold front. Never fun in Florida, even when they don’t last long.
Josie does show up later in the book, but she is definitely less visible, much like Duncan in the Eve Ronin books with Sharpe & Walker rather than the standalones.
Good morning! It’s been sunny here for a week or so, which is a lovely change from all the rain. This week it’s supposed to be in the low sixties, but it’s still in the thirties overnight and when I wake up–brrr! The highlight of my week so far is securing a ride to Left Coast Crime in late February/early March in San Francisco. SF is a nightmare for drivers, with lots of one-way streets and such, and it’s a 2+-hour drive from here. Since my auto accident, I wouldn’t even try to make it, so I’m grateful to a lovely author from the nearby Sisters in Crime chapter whose book launch I once attended. By the way, that and other launches I have attended were held at Face in a Book, a local indie bookstore which just announced it is closing in March–darn it! Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of my fellow members of Sisters in Crime NorCal chapter, whose in=person activities have been too far for me to attend since I moved here uve years ago (thank goodness for hybrid meetings on Zoom!). I’m looking forward to seeing Tina: the Musical on Sunday and just signed up to attend the Back to the Future musical later in the year, thanks to Lesa’s recommendation. It’s at a theater-in-the-round, which should prove interesting..
Here’s what I read this week:
Steve Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn legal thrillers always feature the most difficult cases, along with over-the-top action and absorbing courtroom scenes. Eddie used to be a con man, but now he is a defense attorney who, along with his insanely talented and fearless team, is willing to go to any lengths–some of them not exactly legal–to obtain a not-guilty ruling for his clients. In the ninth in the series, TWO KINDS OF STRANGER, 26-year-old Elly has built a successful online presence and an audience that loves her. What makes her really stand out is her emphasis on acts of random kindness–performing them as often as possible herself and encouraging her fans to do the same. She is also a happy newlywed of six months. Elly never expects that one such act of random kindness will have deadly reverberations in her personal life, including a charge of murder in the first degree. This is a case where we know who the perpetrator is from very early in the book, so the focus is on the “why” and especially the “how,” as other murders follow. We get inside the murderer’s head, which is disturbing and fascinating at the same time. This is not one of my favorites in the series because I think there is actually too much going on. Focusing on the original case would have been enough for me, as the others are not as interesting. Also, the final twist seemed too obvious, and I don’t usually try to figure out what will happen. However, I believe that Cavanagh is one of the most creative legal thriller writers today, and there are more in this series that I haven’t yet read. So I will keep looking for more from this prolific writer. (March)
I really enjoy Leslie Karst’s cozy An Orchid Isle Mystery series for the authentic food, tropical activities, and culture of the Big Island of Hawai’i, where the author lives for part of each year. She also brings her experience as a lawyer and a culinary graduate to the party and devises plots that work well specifically in that location. In the third in the series, MURDER, LOCAL STYLE, the suspicious death of the president of the local orchid society calls into question the food that was served at the most recent banquet, disputes among the orchid growers, and secrets of the society’s members that have yet to be revealed. As the banquet’s caterer, Valerie is motivated to help the police investigate, so she won’t become a person of interest. While there are plenty of suspects–and another death–the author keeps the plot moving and the violence largely behind the scenes. There is also a helpful glossary of local language and some tasty-sounding recipes at the end. I’m “dying” to try the sugar cookies with gochujang and hoping for more in this delightful series. (April) By the way, the second in Karst’s series has been nominated for a Lefty Award at Left Coast Crime!
Margie! I’m so glad you got a ride to Left Coast Crime. I love that conference, but it’s just a little far for me to travel nowadays. Have fun!
I hope you enjoy Back to the Future. That will be interesting to see it in the round.
I hate to hear about an independent bookstore closing. I’m sorry.
That is a very cool card there, Lesa. Loved hearing about your new library!
After picking up and putting down without finishing a couple of books that I was excited to try I fell into THE WOMEN IN WHITE by Sarah Pekkanen, courtesy of NetGalley.
Description
Extrasensory perception.
The Gift.
A Sixth Sense.
Or something else….
In 1964, four remarkable young women at a prestigious university became the subjects of parapsychology experiments by a visionary scientist. On the cusp of a historic breakthrough, the women mysteriously vanished and the program was erased from history. Decades later, Riley Bell, newly divorced and desperate for a fresh start, accepts a caretaker job for an elderly widow named Betty. Riley steps into a home that is frozen in another era – no microwave, television, or cell phones, and Betty has never heard of the internet. Why has Betty lived in such profound isolation for so many years, and why does she need Riley now? As the story unfolds across two timelines – Betty’s 1960s era of 5 o’clock martinis and high-stakes experiments, and Riley’s quest to uncover the truth about the missing women – old secrets rise to the surface. And the only way to survive is to confront the mystery that has lingered for sixty years.
Loved it!
I like that card, Kaye. I agree it’s cool.
Don’t you love NetGalley? I stumble across books that I normally wouldn’t pick up. I’m glad you enjoyed The Women in White.
I read three books this week.
I loved The Charmed Library by Rachel Moorman. Lesa reviewed it last Thursday. Thank you so much for the recommendation.
Next, I read Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life: A Memoir by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This was a fun quirky read where the author meandered on snippets of her life and life around her in alphabetical order. Unfortunately, she died from cancer at age 51 in 2017.
Lastly, I read The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. Olivia Dumond is a disgraced ghostwriter trying to hide that she is Vincent Taylor’s only child. When she hired by her father to write his memoir, she needs to decide if she wants to revisit a painful past and get back to financial solvency. Discovering her father has Lewy’s dementia she decides to go ahead and try to solve the 50-year-old mystery of who murdered her father’s two siblings. This was very good and had me guessing until the very end.
Winter has made an unwelcome resurgence this week despite it being January and to be expected. Lots of reading for my husband and me.
Happy Reading!
I’m so glad you loved The Charmed Library, Sharon. It just worked for me right now.
I read Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life a number of years ago. Such an interesting book. Then, I read one by her husband.
Winter is always unwelcome in my life.
Enjoy your reading!
Now reading Family Drama! My eyes are worse; I could read 5 pages yesterday, I did warm compresses and eye rests and was able to read 50 pages. There is bouncing back and forth timelines. A Soap Opera star dies, and her children rarely saw her and never saw her on TV. Her husband hid the tapes of the show from the kids. Part mystery, part dysfunctional family.
I want a referral to a glaucoma surgeon to see if more can be done.
I’m so sorry about your troubles Carol. It all sounds so awful.
Oh, Carol. I agree with Lindy. It sounds awful. I hope you can get a referral.
Finished “snow Lies Deep”. Loved it but too much detail on druids etc.. am reading “Dark Humor “ no. Not bad..
And, I liked the detail, Carol Jeanne, because Munier focuses on something different in each book.
Hi all, it has been nice to have a few days at home, but I don’t have a lot of reading to report on. I finished up A Forbidden Alchemy today (which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago), since I didn’t want to lug a big hardback around on the train. This is the fantasy novel about a very divided society in which magic is one of the things that separate the haves from the have-nots. We get to know people on both sides of the inevitable rebellion, and the ending was really good.
I also read Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis, a fun fantasy story that takes place in a world that has a rapacious empire where magic is tightly regulated and also has separate kingdoms where magic and magical creatures are more wild. The (allegedly) cruel and evil witch queen of the title is trying to hold on to her kingdom against the empire, her fratricidal uncle, and the archduke of the neighboring territory. There are two other witch queens, the three together form a group called the Queens of Villainy. It is fun to see them flaunt their power!
Trisha, Two books of fantasy, probably both large ones, is plenty to report on. And, you obviously enjoyed both of them. I call that a successful reading week!
That is a nice card, Lesa! Mine’s pretty plain.
This week I read:
Murder at Home by Bruce Beckham: Skelgill and crew are assigned to a task force going after welfare cheats. Somehow, they glom on to an old man with dementia abandoned in some sort of clinic with no ID or anything. They try to pursue things, but the NIH is their biggest obstacle. We also read about a family of cheats/con artists in action. They should have gone to Minnesota.
Bad Moon Over London by SJ Cullen; This series started so well, but has dropped off quickly. This time our duo arrive in London, where The Conspiracy is killing off Onlin Influencers. My first reaction was, and? That’s a bad thing? But Hunter and Higashi persevere, and fall in Loooooovvvvveee! I almost threw up.
Tokyo Traffic by Michael Pronko; There’s a murder at a porn studio, and a Thai girl escapes, but is being tracked by Yakuza. Meanwhile, the cops try to figure out what’s going on. Good thing they have an accountant, but even he’s confused.
Five Decembers by James Kestrel; In the days just before Pearl Harbor, a navy man and his Japanese girlfriend are found dead after being tortured. The detective tracks things down for the entirety of WWII. It read like a James Ellroy novel to me.
Rome’s End by Fiona Forsyth; A legal thriller set just before the Ides of March, and one of the few recent novels to treat Julius Caesar as an out and out villain. Et tu, Fiona?
Ocean of Guilt by Robert W. Stephens; The day they return from their honeymoon in Venice, our sleuth and his wife find themselves working a wedding on a yacht. There’s a bridezilla to make everyone miserable, and the in laws don’t get along. The crime needs solving even if all the detectives want to do is sleep. Good thing everybody else on the boat went to Harvard, to make it easier for them.
My old library card was plain, too, Glen. In fact, it looked like my Kroger’s card.
I didn’t read Five Decembers, but I think it was on a lot of favorites lists the year it came out.
I’m so tired of bridezillas in books.