It’s been a good week. You already read about the program with Norah O’Donnell and Connie Schultz on Monday night. Linda and I are already making more plans. We have tickets to see Mary Kay Andrews at a luncheon in June. She’ll talk about her forthcoming book, Road Trip. It’s set in Ireland! And, I’m hoping to get tickets to see Celtic Thunder in September, speaking of Ireland. Other than that, it’s been a week for reading. Some warm weather, but thunderstorms and tornado watches today.
I just started Lucy Mangan’s Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading. She might provide a few reminders for our Childhood Reading discussion on Friday, April 3. I’m not into it very far. The first section is about picture books, including the history of early illustrators, including Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway, and Arthur Rackham. I just reached her discussion of Maurice Sendak. I think he scared her to death as a child.
I love that it was her father who read to her. I’m looking forward to reading about the books she reads as an older child and adolescent. We’ll be talking about our own reading soon.
What about you? What have you been doing this week? What are you reading?
I loved last Friday’s discussion of Comfort Reads. I added so many books to my list. Thank you for sharing!
I loved the Comfort Reads discussion too, Lesa, AND now my list is a little longer as well.
i have Lucy Mangan’s Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading on my Kindle and am looking forward to it.
One of my favorite books of the year, so far, is Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher
Description
An astounding multigenerational saga, Red Clay chronicles the interwoven lives of an enslaved Black family and their white owners as the Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins.
In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave—on the morning following his funeral—his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words “… a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.” Adelaide Parker has a story to tell—one of ambition, betrayal, violence, and redemption—that shaped both the fate of her family and that of the late Felix H. Parker.
But there are gaps in her knowledge, and she’s come to Red Clay seeking answers from a family with whom she shares a name and a history that neither knows in full. In an epic saga that takes us from Red Clay to Paris, to the Côte d’Azur and New Orleans, human frailties are pushed to their limits as secrets are exposed and the line between good and evil becomes ever more difficult to discern. Red Clay is a tale that deftly lays bare the ugliness of slavery, the uncertainty of the final months of the Civil War, the optimism of Reconstruction, and the pain and frustration of Jim Crow.
With a vivid sense of place and a cast of memorable characters, Charles B. Fancher draws upon his own family history to weave a riveting tale of triumph over adversity, set against a backdrop of societal change and racial animus that reverberates in contemporary America. Through seasons of joy and unspeakable pain, Fancher delivers rich moments as allies become enemies, and enemies—to their great surprise—find new respect for each other.
Interesting to note –
Charles B. Fancher is a writer and editor, and a former senior corporate communications executive for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He also worked as a journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Detroit Free Press, and WSM-TV, as well as a publicist for the ABC Television Network. Fancher was previously a member of the School of Communications faculty at Howard University and the adjunct faculty at Temple University. It appears that Red Clay is his debut novel.
This sounds very good Kaye, and I’ve added it to my online shopping cart at the bookstore. I remember hearing about the book before but had forgotten about it, so your post was a good reminder!
Kaye, Red Clay sounds like the kind of epic novel that you love. Painful to read about, but sounds important on a large scale. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
It’s been a good week over here too. It was our anniversary on the weekend. What did David and I do for excitement you ask? We played a game of rummy ha ha. I won that one, but overall he’s three games ahead of me since we started keeping track of them. 183 wins for him and 180 for me. We also ordered dinner in from our favourite Thai restaurant and ate it in front of the TV while watching Will Trent.
And for the first time this entire winter it finally snowed here yesterday morning! I was so excited. Lovely big flakes, quite a little blizzard. I went for a walk and was out there for well over an hour, just enjoying being the first one to walk in it, and listening to that special snowy crunch sound as I went along. I walked and walked and loved every second of it. A top ten activity for sure.
Two books this week:
THE ASTRAL LIBRARY by Kate Quinn
This book has been mentioned here a few times.
Briefly, Alix is struggling with some things: she’s still trying to overcome her feeling of abandonment from when her mother left when Alix was just eight years old; and she’s trying so hard to make ends meet and having to work three jobs to do so; and now even her meager bank account has been frozen because of dentity theft. She often seeks solace in the reading room at the Boston Public Library which is the only space where she feels safe and can escape into the world of books. One day she comes upon a door to a hidden library, wherein The Librarian helps desperate people like Alix ‘escape to new lives … inside their favorite books’.
But before this properly gets underway for Alix, it seems that previously-helped Patrons are being threatened and The Librarian is determined to help them, and Alix goes with her. What follows is a frantic race through the favorite books these Patrons escaped to. And further even more dire, threats keep on coming.
I like Kate Quinn’s books and am certainly not averse to a paranormal fantasy novel. But I’m sorry to say that I didn’t really enjoy this book. I just didn’t find it all that interesting, although the author’s love for libraries and librarians came through loud and clear. Alix didn’t resonate with me; for some reason I didn’t feel a connection to her, much of the book felt repetitive (especially Beau the costume designer’s far too frequent utterances of ‘Oh honey, no.’), and there was a fair amount of swearing which can work in many books but felt out of place and unnecessary in this one. I fully expected to like the book and I feel uncharitable for not doing so. Maybe my expectations were too high.
Although I did like the idea of the ghosts in the hidden library – ‘people who die with too many books on their TBR stack … who don’t feel they can pass over until they catch up on their reading.’ I could see myself being one of them!
TOO OLD FOR THIS by Samantha Downing
Well, this was certainly a different type of story than I’ve read before. Equal parts completely farfetched, unrealistic, often downright disturbing yet strangely compelling to read.
Lottie, 75 years old and feeling her age somewhat, is enjoying retirement while living in a new town. In Spokane, where she lived before, she was suspected of having killed three people but was never arrested nor convicted. Still, to get away from the constant scrutiny, she adopts a new identity and moves to a small town in a different state and is living a normal quiet life – bingo with the senior’s group at church, cooking, and friends. What no one there knows is that she actually did kill those people!
Then one day her quiet retirement is shattered when Plum, an investigative journalist, knocks on her door hoping that Lottie is willing to be interviewed for a docu-series she’s doing about people who have been wrongfully accused of a crime. Lottie is suspicious. Somehow she needs to make this problem disappear.
And that’s just the beginning of the knocks on her door and awkward questions being asked and she soon has a lot of problems to deal with. Even though she wants to find herself a nice retirement home with no stress and no worries, it looks like Lottie’s going to have to come out of retirement for a bit.
This is not an edge-of-your-seat scary story but it’s still disturbingly entertaining because if you can put aside your disbelief that this seemingly normal ‘would you like some tea and cookies’ woman is a cold-blooded serial killer, and put aside the gruesomeness of her killing and disposal methods, you have yourself a story with a very different take on the thriller genre. With its short chapters which entice you to read just one more, and then just one more again, it’s a quick easy read which leaves you guessing till the very end whether Lottie gets away with it all or not.
That sounds like the perfect anniversary evening to me, Lindy! The older I get, the less I enjoy going out for dinner (plus – the expense!! The price of eating out here is becoming quite ridiculous.) My husband doesn’t like eating in front of the television, so it’s a pleasure I save for when he’s away (along with my chicken casserole, as he doesn’t eat meat.) Small things like these…
Lindy, Happy Anniversary. As you will see, we read two of the same books this week, though clearly I liked THE ASTRAL LIBRARY a lot more than you did. Only a little way into the other one, so we’ll see.
Lindy, It does sound like a wonderful anniversary. I understand. By now, I don’t need a big celebration. I just appreciate a quiet day at home. I’m so happy you finally got your snow day! And, it sounds as if you took full advantage of it!
I’m sorry you didn’t like The Astral Library. Oh, well. No book is for everyone, and you’re not the first to say this book didn’t do anything for you. Funny, though, that you enjoyed the ghosts who died with books on their TBR pile. That would have been me!
Happy Anniversary, Lindy!
I didn’t love The Astral Library as much as many others did either. I will stick with Kate Quinn’s historical fiction books.
I really liked Too Old for This. Like you said, very farfetched but I could not stop turning the pages!
We had a few days of temperatures around 80 but we’ll be back to the 40s and 50s again by tomorrow.
This week I read two books.
An ARC of Countdown by Sara Driscoll.
New Year’s Eve. New York City Harbor. When a gunman takes a billionaire and his party guests hostage on his yacht, the NYPD negotiating team and the tactical assault team get involved. But the more they talk to the gunman, the more off the situation feels, and they begin to suspect something else is at play. Can they figure out what’s going on before hostages start to die?
This was hard to put down.
East is East by Emma Lathen.
John Putnam Thatcher, a senior executive at the Sloan Guarantee Trust, travels to Japan to facilitate a deal between two companies. But negotiations are derailed by a murder.
This is an old series I read years ago and though it’s a bit dated I still enjoyed rereading it.
I enjoyed our days in the 70s, Sandy, but it’s cooler temperatures again. Really, March weather. Those warmer days were a tease.
Emma Lathen! I loved those books back in the day. Other than one friend who brings them up when we talk, I hadn’t heard that name in years. She’s great at older mysteries, and the history of mysteries, so those writers do come up in conversation.
I read all of the Emma Lathen books that were published back in the day – 2960s and ’70s, at least. The two women who wrote as Lathen wrote a second, shorter series as by R.B. Dominic, set in Washington and featuring Congressmen and Women. I liked it too.
I remember that my mother read lots of Emma Lathen mysteries. Not sure why I didn’t follow up.
Lesa, I read there’s been a raft of Bigfoot sightings in Ohio, so keep your eyes open!
Spring has sprung and so has my allergies.
This week I read:
Poison and Prejudice by Daphne Silver; Our intrepid sleuth goes to a storage auction. There’s a lot of valuable merchandise in her locker, which she bought for her friend…and a dead body! Holy Darrel Sheets!
All’s Faire in Love and Murder by Cindy Samples; Our actress/sleuth is working a renaissance Faire, and the Queen is murdered. No beheading, though. Our sleuth investigates, and gets herself in a lot of trouble, but gets to the bottom of things. A local author who should be much better known.
A Touch of Treason by Gary Pnzo; Ninth book of the Nick Bracco series. Nick and his mafioso cousing, Tommy got to Sicily, where there’s the mafia (of course), Russian spies, and mole, and Syrian terrorists. I really like this series, but can’t take it seriously. I see it as an 80’s TV movie starring Joe penny as Nick Bracco, Barry Van Dyke as his sharpshooting partner, and Tony Danza as Tommy, the mobster with a heart of gold.
Harm’s Way by John Gilstrap; Missionaries in a South American country are taken hostage, and Jonathan Graves is recruited to rescue them. Pretty boring for this sort of thing.
Backstage Pass by JD DeCosta; a singer who almost made the rock and roll big time tells us about his life and the famous people he encountered along the way. Not too different than a lot of these, but the author didn’t have the money of the really crazy dudes. Probably for the best for him.
Ralph Compton’s Hell Snake by Bernard Schaffer; I think this is an attempt at a woke western, but the author was aware enough of his audience that he doesn’t quite go all they way, and we get a mess.
Hail to the Chin by Bruce Campbell; The second autobiography by the B movie actor goes into his time on the TV show Burn Notice, and making movies in Eastern Europe. His personality comes out on every page. I think it’s too bad he never quite got to the A-list.
Glen! You made me laugh with your opening sentence. I hadn’t heard that there have been Bigfoot sightings here! I wish I’d known this last night when I talked with a friend who has written a paper on that.
Is it good or bad that Cindy Samples should be better known? Good that is was a good book; bad that she hasn’t broken out.
I love your description of your movie casting of A Touch of Treason.
Lesa,
I thought all of Ohio was abuzz with the Sasquatch news, to be honest.
I feel like Cindy Samples should have a major publisher that sells at Barnes & Noble and the like. Opinions may vary.
That’s so funny, Glen. My mother read your post, and she hadn’t heard talk about Bigfoot, either.
We’ve hit the 80’s! And I’m making good progress in stuff at work this week, which makes me happy. I think the hardest stuff is behind me as far as this quarter end close goes.
Tuesday, I finished BROKEN TRUST, the third Laurel Highlands Mystery from Liz Milliron. This is her first series, and the last one I’ve gotten to, ironically. I’m enjoying it and looking forward to more soon.
I’m about a quart of the way into FROZEN STIFF DRINK, the sixth in a series from James J. Cudney. I have all eight books, and I’m going to finish. But I do struggle with this series. It makes me wonder why I am so determined to finish when I’ve been able to walk away from other series. I think part of it is I want to like this series.
I get it, Mark. Books you want to like are harder to quit. But, an entire series? Now, that’s easier for me to go without picking up the next one.
Enjoy the weather when you have time away from work. 80s are my temperatures!
Mark – I’ve done exactly the same with some series. I know they’re not great. and I have so many other books calling my name, but I just have to read them all. (I usually then bundle up the entire lot and pass it on to the Oxfam shop.) Do we think they’re going to improve each time, or are we just the masochists of the book world?
Glad I’m not the only one!
In this case, they are ebooks that I kept buying for cheap. So I can’t give them away, but it will be nice to not have them looking at me when I log into the app. (Not that I don’t have plenty of books I’ve had for years and not touched yet.)
Good morning everyone,
I’m writing this on Wednesday evening, as tomorrow I’ll be in town all day. (Weather forecast: torrential rain and gale-force winds….hey ho.)
I’ve just finished going through all the recommendations in Lucy Mangan’s BOOKISH – my goodness did I end up with a long list! I’ll check them all with the library catalogue first, but there are a few I can already tell I’ll end up buying. One of the things I like about Mangan is that she’s as enthusiastic about well written ‘sex and shopping’ books as she is about certain classics. She loves Shirley Conran and Jacqueline Susann – and she detests book snobbery every bit as much as I do.
I finished reading Nora Ephron’s HEARTBURN, which I enjoyed; it’s the fictionalised account of the breakdown of the author’s second marriage. Rachel, a food writer, is seven months pregnant with her second child when she discovers that her husband Mark has been having an affair with another member of their Washington press set. How she deals with this forms the backbone of this short and highly entertaining novel. Ephron’s sharp, witty style works so well, and her depiction of this community of affluent, smart, often promiscuous and ultimately shallow people is so vivid that I – who have absolutely no experience of this milieu – felt I was there.
I also listened on BBC Sounds to MAAME by Jessica George. It’s the story of Maddy, daughter of a Ghanaian couple who moved to the UK for a better life. Maddy and her brother were born in London, but their lives – and hers in particular – are still heavily dominated by the customs and traditions of their parents’ birthplace. When Maddy begins her story, she is living with her father in south London; he has advanced Parkinson’s disease, and Maddy (along with a guy from the social services) is his carer, as her mother has returned to Ghana to run a hostel left to her by her own father. She returns from time to time, but isn’t any help; Maddy’s brother believes she is having an affair.
Maddy is PA to a theatre manager, but soon (unfairly) loses her job, eventually finding another one working for a small publisher. She’s an aspiring writer, and wants to get more involved in editorial decisions, but finds this an uphill struggle. She also feels that her social life is miles behind that of her white friends, partly because her father needs her at home, and partly owing to the very different cultural norms that her mother still seeks to impose, albeit long distance.
Maame is about the many roles that all women, but especially women from traditional cultures, are expected to fill. It’s also about the covert, institutionalized racism that black people face every day, even in a so-called cosmopolitan city like London. I soon felt invested in Maddy’s future, both professional and personal, and I found the contrast between Ghanaian and English family values very interesting. In the end Maddy discovers things about her mother that help her to overcome her justified resentment at having been left to shoulder so much responsibility. I’d certainly recommend this one.
And I’m still reading AT HOME IN MITFORD – I like the way it’s written in little snippets, each one telling us more about different people in this small community. Jan Karon does a good job of showing both the good and the bad of rural life, and although the book does wander into the realms of the ridiculous from time to time, on the whole I’m finding it quite addictive.
On television I am watching the second series of THE CAPTURE, starring Holliday Grainger (of CORMORAN STRIKE fame.) It’s about artificial intelligence and the manipulation of images – in this series someone is trying to kill off members of a government committee set up to consider a bid by a Chinese company to provide sophisticated facial recognition software. It’s really quite scary to realise how little we can trust what we see.
Last Friday I had a good day out at the V & A in Dundee. The talk I attended – ‘Miss Cranston’s Tea Rooms’ – was excellent. Catherine Cranston was a pioneering feminist who opened tea rooms in Glasgow to provide the first places for women to meet without men. Not only did she open tea rooms, she also provided ladies’ toilets – the lack of which had been another reason why women could spend very little time away from home. She commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design her cafes, and stuck with him even when, in later life, he became a penniless alcoholic. She also employed working class girls and paid them well, giving them one of the few alternatives they had to factory work or domestic service.
If you visit Glasgow you can still take tea at the Willow Tea Rooms, and another of the cafes has been partially reproduced in the V & A itself. I hadn’t been into their Scottish Design Galleries for years – there are some wonderful exhibits in there.
I also had a look at the museum’s latest exhibition, which is about the Maggie’s Cancer Centres. These were started by two women who wanted to give people somewhere to go that wasn’t a clinical environment. They developed an architectural brief that has now been interpreted in different ways across the world. The exhibition includes models of centres from Edinburgh to Norway and California, and although the buildings vary a great deal externally, they all encompass the same concepts of light, air and open plan layouts. People are welcome to come into the centres if they want to meet others, or simply to be peaceful in a setting that exudes calm and beauty. People can bring their craft projects or join in group activities, or they can just have a coffee and relax They can read, walk in the gardens, cook, and participate, if they wish, in meditation sessions, yoga, and many other things.
There is also a film in which users of some of the centres talk about what Maggie’s means to them; one of the most important things is that at Maggie’s they feel like normal people, not ‘cancer patients/victims.’
This week I have had two good walks; the first was to Mains of Drum and back, which is a route alone quiet back roads beside fields, woods and country houses. As I was alone I was able to listen to Sounds – as I said last week, I find I can only really concentrate on audiobooks when I’m walking.
The second walk was yesterday with my friend Nancy; we were at Dunecht estates; the walk there includes hills, woodlands, a golf course (for locals only), a small lake and a fine view across Loch Skene. The daffodils were just about to flower, and the rhododendrons will soon be in bloom.
Today I walked along the river here and did a litter pick. So many people seem to think it’s OK to dump drinks cans and bottles, tissues, sweet wrappers and cigarette butts – but we are told by the group organisers to stay positive, and hope that the less litter people see, the less they will drop it – so here’s hoping.
I almost forgot to mention that our son ran the Inverness half marathon last weekend. He managed a time of just under 2 hours, which he was pleased with. He was running in aid of Alzheimer’s Scotland, and raised almost £1,000. We were all so pleased for him, especially as he has a stoma; he said he wanted to show others that a disability does not have to hold you back.
Have a good week all!
Speaking of BOOKISH… I have it on my hold list, but we started watching BOOKISH the TV series, with the first episode(s). For those who don’t know it, Book (Mark Gatiss, who created the series and wrote the script, as well as starring) owns a used bookshop in 1946 London, where the streets are still destroyed from the Blitz. His wife, Trottie (Polly Walker) , has a store next door. Book is clearly very smart and mostly spends his time on his hobby, which is helping Inspector Bliss solve murders.
We re-watched the first new LYNLEY episode, and I must say it had its drawbacks, mainly in the way Barbara Havers was portrayed. Instead of just a working class girl with a bit if a chip on her shoulder, this time she is an incredibly obnoxious, aggressive and self-important jerk, to put it bluntly. The guy who plays Lynley is fine but I hate her.
I think we finished the newest GRACE series (5), with a couple of good twists in the new episodes.
Thanks for the Bookish TV series tip! Sounds great!
I’ve never heard of the TV series Jeff – thanks for the tip. Which channel is it on for you?
It’s on our PBS Masterpiece.
Thanks Jeff – we don’t have that one but I’ll see if it’s streaming on anything else.
Hi Rosemary, whenever you read this. The exhibits at the V & A sound wonderful. I’ve never heard of Maggie’s Cancer Centres. It’s a strange thing to say about cancer, but the centres sound so important for the quality of life. And, the tea cafes sound great. I hadn’t really thought about it, that the lack of women’s restrooms meant that couldn’t be away from home long. I certainly couldn’t!
At Home is Mitford. This is the setting my sister would pick after I told her about The Astral Library and picking a book setting as a place to live. I said there was no book where I wanted to live. She said Mitford, North Carolina, because the town sounds so peaceful.
I’m not sure I’d appreciate Scotland’s climate, but I love the places where you can walk.
Lesa, the Maggie’s Centres began in Scotland but are now all over the UK and in other parts of the world. It was fascinating to see the different ways in which architects had interpreted the brief, but the best thing was hearing from the clients themselves. I was actually talking with someone today who had used the Aberdeen centre in the past. She confirmed that it was a wonderful place, with lots on offer, but also the space and opportunity just to relax and read, craft, etc if that was what you needed.
I’m sure, Rosemary, that it was best to hear from the clients themselves. They know how it feels to use the centres.
Rosemary, what a great thing your son did, raising the money and doing such an impressive run. Thanks for telling us about it. I’m also glad you told us about your litter pick-up; good for you! (And don’t believe that Switzerland is always clean, except after our many city cleaners have been by–people here litter, too). Also, my husband and I are big fans of Mackintosh’s designs and saw as much as we could find of his buildings and furniture when we were in Glasgow years ago. I didn’t know he had such a sad end to his life.
Thank Kim, I will pass that on to Freddie.
And it’s quite a relief to hear that even the Swiss aren’t great about litter – or rather, it’s not a good thing but it does make me feel a bit less frustrated by litter bugs here in Scotland.
Rosemary, Congratulations to your son! I’m so impressed.
Thank you Lindy, I will tell my son – he will be amazed to hear that people the other side of the Atlantic have heard of him!
Good morning everyone – I love your upcoming plans, Lesa. You’ve inspired me to make some of my own! I had a great weekend at my games and pizza event with relatives. So much fun and the weather was great for driving. Now back to Winter as snow is back and more coming this weekend.
I finished one book this past week, “Each to Their Own” by Jean Grainger. #3 in the Mags Munroe series. Mags has her hands full in this installment, with teenagers trashing an unoccupied house and smoking dope resulting in her charging all of them with numerous charges which requires them to go before a magistrate. Compounding parents who are angry with her is her husband’s anger, as their own daughter was part of the melee. Refugee Ukrainian women come to the town inciting local people to protest against their ways. Then her mother-in-law and husband have a huge quarrel and a huge secret is unearthed that threatens their marriage and family dynamics. All ends well with each storyline. Bring in the next book in this series!
Good morning, Mary! Making plans gives me something to think about beyond this month, which is sort of caught between winter and spring. Yesterday we had torrential downpours. That seems more like March than the 70s we had last week. But, I foresee some events in my future!
I’ve never heard of the Mags Munroe series. They sound like they’re more in depth than many mysteries of that type with Mags’ family issues.
Better week this week. First, you’d love the weather, as it has been around 80. Today is supposed to be hot, around 87, though we’ll be getting something of a cool down starting tomorrow.
I did finish three books this week, and I’m reading four others currently. But first, Jackie’s books. She finished Julia Spencer-Fleming’s HIDE HER EYES, the 6 year old previous book in her series, and she really enjoyed it, partly because she didn’t remember the story at all! While she’s waiting for the new one to come in (which it did this morning), she’s reading one of her books, BIA’S BLADE by Aussie fantasy writer Keri Arthur. Pixies, elves and the like in this series.
This week I finished: I’m Not The Only Murderer In My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig. I know I talked about this one last week, about Carol, out from jail after 35 years for killing 7 people (she thinks it was 7, anyway), trying to fit in and make new friends, only to have the body of a murdered man turn up, and people rushing to blame her. The ending was not exactly what I’d expected, perhaps, but I loved her Poirot-like “dénouement,” where she explains who did what to whom. Very entertaining, fast reading book.
Next was Allegra Goodman’s first collection of stories, Total Immersion. Goodman has an interesting back story. She was born in Brooklyn, raised in Hawaii, then went to Harvard, where she met her future husband, who now teaches at MIT. A few years ago I read her collection THE FAMILY MARKOWITZ, though this one was published earlier. Several of the stories are about various members of the Markowitz family, though more are about people starting a small Jewish community in Honolulu post-WWII. Interesting. What provoked this was the publication this year of Goodman’s latest collection, THIS IS NOT ABOUT US, which is one of the four books I’m currently reading. Her earlier collections were published in 1989 and 1996, by the way.
Third was a book Lesa reviewed a few weeks ago, Kate Quinn’s The Astral Library, her first real fantasy novel. I really enjoyed her THE BRIAR CLUB a couple of years ago. This one is all about books and libraries, and who doesn’t agree with the importance of those things. Alix Watson has struggled in her life, since her mother ran off with a boyfriend when Alix was 8, leaving her to the foster care system Now, at 26, she is scraping by on three meager jobs. Her favorite is as a page in the Boston Public Library, and it is there she discovers the secret Astral Library, connected to all other libraries, where people in need can actually go and “live” in books. I read this one the way I’m sure it was meant to be read, racing through it in two short days, as Alix and a few allies rush to save the Library – and the Librarian – from the one-dimensional (it has to be said) forces who believe books should be discarded if they are “dangerous” and libraries should be no more than 25% books. Very, very good book, even if we never got to see Alix herself actually living in a book.
It might have been Rosemary last week who mentioned a book I’d been meaning to read since I first heard of it, but whoever it was, thanks for reminding me of SHAKESPEARE: THE MAN WHO PAYS THE RENT, a series of interviews between Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea, where they discuss Shakespeare’s plays, the many Shakespearean roles Dench has played over the years, how she feels about the plays themselves, her co-stars, the roles, etc. For a woman of 90 her memory is amazing – she quotes passages over and over -and her sense of humor is wonderful. We saw her in London 50 years ago, playing my favorite MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING opposite the hilarious Donald Sinden, in a production set in the Raj in India. There is even a reference to an actual incident we saw that night! A woman sitting down front came in about 10 minutes late and Sinden stepped out of character to address her directly in a hilarious – but very embarrassing to her – way. “Madam, take your time. We’ll wait for you. Would you like me to catch you up on the plot?” I’m more than halfway though it and will finish it quickly, I’m sure. I definitely recommend it if you are at all interested in theater.
The other two books I’m reading are fiction. Samantha Dowling’s TOO OLD FOR THIS has a brilliant cover – an old lady with white hair holding a hammer behind her back. Apparently, she is a serial killer too, but there is none of the hilarity of the Craig book. All we know (from what we’ve read, as I am not far into the book) is that “Mrs. Jones” (clearly not her real name) was accused years ago of being a serial killer but never charged, after which she changed her name and has been living quietly in a village. But now a young woman turns up, and she is planning a docuseries to “clear your name” from the unfounded accusations. But they are not unfounded after all, clearly, and things go downhill from there. Some of the reviews talk about humor, so I’ll see as it goes along, but not so far.
Lastly is another book I’d read recommendations for, THE LISTENERS by Maggie Stiefvater. It’s January 1942, a month after Pearl Harbor and the Avallon Hotel & Spa in West Virginia has been taken over by the FBI to stash Nazi (and other enemy) diplomats. Obviously, they play to not only watch them but eavesdrop on their conversations. It’s a fairly long book and I haven’t read much yet, so we’ll see.
Have a good week.
You’re right, Jeff. Definitely my kind of weather.
Tell Jackie I haven’t yet entered the world of pixies, although I enjoy some fantasy.
That’s an interesting thought, Jeff. I would like to see Alix’ living in her book. Now, I’d have to go back to see what book she picked. I don’t remember. And, I think you’re right. That book needed to be read straight through, not picked up and put down.
I really enjoyed SHAKESPEARE: THE MAN WHO PAYS THE RENT. There were a few times it became repetitive, but I adored Judi Dench and her sense of humor. I’ve seen ehr on Graham Norton’s show, and enjoy her so much.
It was AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS.
That’s right! Thanks, Jeff!
Lesa, Alix picked Around the World in Eighty Days as her book if I remember correctly.
Thank you, Sharon!
Jeff, just last week I bought a copy of The Listeners! Not sure when I’ll feel it’s the ‘right’ book to choose, but at least it lives here now.
Oh and I wanted to mention that I watched the first installment of “Scarpetta” on Prime. Has anyone else watched? What do you think of it?
Mary, I disliked the books and the characters so much (and, frankly, Cornwell herself) that I am not watching the series. Hope you enjoy it.
I have the same type of feelings, Jeff. But with Nicole Kidman as Scarpetta, I’m willing to watch one or two of them to see. Both the Scarpetta books and the VI Warshawski books were some of my favorites, but then they started to get too political. I read to get away from that!
I only managed to read one book this week. Lots of life taking up my reading time.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey based on the Russian fairytale. This story takes place in Alaska in 1920. Jack and Mabel are childless and suffering from the death of their baby. Trying to work a farm along with the loneliness and despair of the harsh Alaskan weather, they build a snow girl one harsh winter. The next day they see a blond girl running through the forest. Eventually the girl who calls herself Faina approaches them but always leaves to go back to the wilderness. This was beautifully written and since I only read one book this week, I was glad it was this one. I loved it.
We streamed The Count of Monte Cristo with Sam Claflin on PBS Passport this week. It also was very good, but I have no idea how closely it followed the book having never read it.
Thank you again for last week’s comfort reads, Lesa. I truly enjoyed it.
I enjoyed it, too, Sharon. I hope everyone added as many books to their TBR lists as I did. Then, today a publisher sent a list of books set in Ireland or by Irish authors. I’m glad it’s a list on paper, or I’d be buried on my TBR pile.
Oh is it possible to share that list Lesa? (Says the women whose TBR list could probably already encompass several small countries…)
Good morning, all. It’s been warmer here in Northern California, and we may reach 80 degrees this weekend. But I’m still wearing heavy sweaters at home and using my hand warmers at Safeway. Last Saturday I had the opportunity to attend both of my grandchildren’s basketball games (last of the season) and then enjoy dinner out with the whole family.This week I’ve spent much of my time getting my tax documents gathered and scanned and filling out the tax organizer for my tax accountant. I absolutely hate this every year, and I’m not sure why. I’m always worried I’m missing a document or two (I’m not), and just when I think I have the tax organizer down pat, they change the process. They’re excited that we can now fill it out directly online, but they didn’t tell us the PDF document is difficult to fill in if you don’t know all the procedures (which they do not provide) and that it’s laid out differently than last year. Grrr! Oh, well, I should be done today, and I can’t wait!. Meanwhile, I did find the time to read two books.
THE LAST INDENTURED SERVANT: A HOLLYWOOD MEMOIR appeared on my radar screen at the Left Coast Crime convention when I met the author, Aletheia Morden, in person, a fellow member of SIsters in Crime of Northern California, and I was intrigued because I was a high schooler in the 1960s and recognized most or all of the celebrities referenced in the story. Nineteen-year-old British secretary Aletheia Morden was determined to secure a job as an au pair in Los Angeles, and in 1965 she was fortunatet o score a one-year position in the Fielding household in Los Angeles. TV and movie music composer Jerry Fielding and his pregnant wife Camille,a former dancer, were happy to have Aletheia’s help with their 10-month-old daughter Elizabeth, especially since they were expecting their second daughter almost one year to the day since Elizabeth’s birth. They were kinder to her and more flexible than the employers of some of her au pair friends and helped her get adjusted to their frequently changing schedules and lots of surprises. Starting with the arrival of Debbie Reynolds at their door and Aletheia’s discovery that Camille helped her friend Debbie answer her fan mail, she never knew what prominent actors, directors, and screenwriters would be part of her life. While she was there, she experienced the Watts riots, results of the earlier Hollywood Blacklist, life before credit cards, and the prominence of avocado green everything. .The Fieldings also purchased a much larger house in Hollywood that would allow Jerry to work from home rather than traveling so much. Aletheia got to try out her cooking skills, obtain her first driver’s license, visit San Francisco and UC Berkeley, even write some of those Debbie Reynolds fan mail responses, and survive a lengthy visit from her celebrity-mad mother. Throughout the book, Aletheia compares life in England to life in Hollywood in the mid-1960s and reveals, in a late chapter, some unaddressed dysfunction in her family at home. Aletheia confesses she was “bedazzled” by her new lifestyle, but not starstruck. After a year, she felt the pull from home and somewhat reluctantly left her Hollywood family. But, ultimately, she hints at an invitation for a new adventure in Hollywood. The author states that her memoir is based on letters to and from her mother in 1965-1966, in addition to her personal memories. It is a very entertaining and revealing real-life story, told honestly and with a lot of humor. And Aletheia will be the subject of our Member Profile in the next issue of The Stiletta (Sisters in Crime NorCal newsletter), so I’m putting together my questions now.
THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM, a thriller by Laura Dave, is the sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me that fans wanted. Unfortunately, it was not the page-turner the previous book was for me. Five years after that book ended, Hannah and her stepdaughter, Bailey, are on the run for their lives once again. Hannah’s husband is still absent from their lives, and he and Bailey’s beloved grandfather Nicholas are apparently still deeply involved with the crime syndicate headed by Frank, now with his ruthless older children taking on some of the action. What is intriguing is the intricate plan that Hannah and Nicholas have made and now are executing, rightly anticipating more danger. And although the frequent flashbacks to various times were revealing, I found the way they were laid out more confusing than they needed to be. I also felt that the ending could have been more satisfying for those involved and for the readers. Laura Dave’s writing style is elegant and easy to read, but this book just fell short for me.
My college roommate is the one I know who really hates tax season, Margie. She’s a performer in LA, an independent contractor, and has to pull together the information from all kinds of jobs. I visited once during tax season, and her forms were all over her hallway upstairs.
The Last Indentured Servant sounds fascinating.
Hello everyone. Sunny weather again and temperatures getting into the low 50s. My husband just walked to our nearby neighborhood pond (officially referred to a lake, but that’s wishful thinking) to sit on a bench and read his book in the sun. I’m at home working on my novel, although it’s going much slower than I expected. The German translation of my first mystery, PESTICIDE, is progressing even more slowly (I’m only involved in reviewing the German version, not translating–you need perfect German for that, and I’m fluent but nowhere near perfect.) Also, like Margie, getting together documents for my US tax preparers, which I also find stressful. It is crazy that the US expects citizens who live and pay taxes in another country, as I have done for 37 years, to file US tax returns. Some years I have to pay taxes on the same income in both countries, and I don’t even get Social Security.
Okay, sorry to whine. During the past two weeks, I read GATED PREY, the third Eve Ronin book by Lee Goldberg. So far I’ve enjoyed all three of these books very much. One of the reviews says that Goldberg “strikes a precise balance between darkness and humor,” and I agree with that. In fact, he’s great at balancing Eve’s determination to carry on against the will of her bosses with her partner’s thoughtful caution and at keeping all the plot strands balanced as well, bringing them together very cleverly at the end with a grand finale. I’ll keep reading this series for sure.
Now I’m reading ALCHEMIZED (2025) by Sen Lin Yu ), which is long, world-building dark fantasy. Amazon says: “A former alchemist with missing memories fights to survive in a world ruled by necromancers while uncovering secrets hidden within her mind.” There is more description of the heroine’s pain and suffering than I enjoy, but I’ve read enough to be caught up in the story. For the first third of the book, the heroine is being held prisoner by a man who’s supposedly on the enemy side of the civil war she was fighting in. Then the story jumps back four years in time to the war. That’s where I am now, with many, many pages to go, so I’ll report more when I know more. But, at this point, I’m enjoying the book enough to keep going!
I listened to two books as well, one a well-written LGBTQ historical cozy called THE CASE OF THE MISSING MAID, by Rob Osler, who wrote the very funny DEVIL’S CHEW TOY. It is full of well-placed information about Chicago in 1898, and the heroine, Harriet Morrow, who is solving her first case for a detective agency that has taken her on as their first woman operative, is very likable and intelligent.
My second audiobook of the past two weeks was CUTTING FOR STONE, by Abraham Verghese, which I strongly recommend. The first of his two novels is about an expat Indian couple working as doctors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under its Emperor Haile Selassie and the infants they raise as their own, who also become physicians. Verghese IS an Indian who was born and raised in Ethiopia, and he became a doctor, so his writing about the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopian politics and social conditions, and medicine is extraordinarily informative and, for me at least, fascinating. The novel has a strong plot, wonderful characters, and superb descriptions of places, different ways of life, and the hardships and satisfactions of curing people (or at least trying to.) It’s a serious book that’s sometimes sad, but humor and lightheartedness run through it. However, you have to be prepared to read detailed information about operations and medical conditions, which are clearly described.
Not sure what I’ll listen to next, now that I’m finished with Rob Osler. Maybe another Val McDermid mystery. We’ll see.
I’ve always meant to read more of Verghese’s books after reading his first – My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story, and watching the Showtime TV movie adaptation, about treating AIDS patients in East Tennessee. FYI, it was directed by Mira Nair, who – besides her fame as a director – is the mother of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Thank you, Lesa! And thanks for your sympathy, although taxes make us all suffer, not just me. But editing the translation is really difficult. I want it to be as close to perfect as possible. Usually, I can tell when the German words aren’t quite right, but my German isn’t good enough for me to come up with better words. AHHH! So frustrating.
Kim, It’s not your whining that’s unpleasant. It’s all the stuff you have to do – taxes and reading the translation. My gosh!
I love the thought that it’s warm enough to read outside!
You summarized Lee Goldberg’s Eve Ronin books beautifully.
Whoops. Please see my comment above!
Our temperatures are bouncing around from the 80s to the 40s. I woke up with another panful eye attack, the fifth day in a row. I don’t see my neurologist until the last day of this month, so I emailed him for advice. The pain is severe, so I am very frustrated.
The first book that I read was Breakable III by Bryon Kong, an ARC I won from LibraryThing. It is a book of personal opinions; some are irritating, some are entertaining. I do agree with him that water is the healthiest drink. But I am not sure this book is worth the time to read.
The second one is an ARC won from GoodReads by Louise Penny and Melissa Fung. It was fast-paced, and I really enjoyed the Mandarin and French. I liked reading it and checking my translation against the book. I am not a fan of Louise Penny, to me her characters seem not developed enough for me, but I was enticed by the fact that she wrote it with Melissa Fung. There is a lot of Chinese history, the first dynasty and the Tiananmen Square crisis. It is fast-paced. The villain is actually a group, but we have find the leader., The story twists and turns so much that you have to trust your gut as to who the good guys are! I enjoyed it very much.
I received four books that I won from GoodReads this morning!
Oh that sounds horrible Carol, I am so sorry for you – and what a long wait to see your doctor. Because we know that health care is so expensive in the US, we always imagine people get instant attention, but clearly not. My NHS practice is so good, they usually offer a same day appointment (although this definitely is not the case in some other areas.)
I do hope you at least get some email or telephone advice.
Oh, not at all for health care, here, Rosemary. Think a year out for a dermatologist unless your doctor says it’s important.
Good heavens, I had no idea. Our.NHS has similar wait lists for some specialists, but it’s all free. And people *still* complain all the time; they have no idea how lucky we are.
A great day for books, Carol! I hope your eye pain is alleviated somewhat so you have the change to read those books. That Louise Penny book is a month or two away for me, so it’s a good thing you said you liked it!
Carol, the problems with your eyes are just awful. Do you know what’s causing the painful attacks? Scary stuff.
Reading Astral Library…enjoying it . Put Family Drama back after several chapters. Didn’t especially like it.finished Keeper of Lost Children…lots of people and years to keep track of. It was still pretty good.
Isn’t it fun to make contact with so many books from the past, Carol Jeanne? That’s one thing I liked about The Astral Library.
Hey Lesa, We had heavy rain and wind in NC, temp went from 88 yesterday to 44 right now. I’m currently listening to This Book Made Me Think of you by Libby Page. It’s really good so far, The sections are separated by a month and each month begins with book recommendations.. ooh! In print, I’m reading Something Worth Doing by Jane Kirkpatrick for my library book club.
Yes, Katherine! I loved This Book Made Me Think of You, partially because of all the book recommendations. Just what we need, right?
Oh I must look for that one!