Thank you everyone for pitching in last Friday to talk about Childhood Reads. I hope you had a chance to circle back at the end of the day to see what everyone else was reading. I enjoyed the reminders of favorite books.
I have one more picture book to add. Believe it or not, Meg Shaffer’s The Book Witch reminded me of this book. I loved The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes when I was young. I still love it, and bought a copy the other day. No one else in the family, including my mother, remembers this book, but I know I read it multiple times. I must have checked it out from the library. It came out in 1939. The cover says “As told to Jenifer”. The back flap of the book says Du Bose Heyward wrote it. Marjorie Flack, the author of The Story of Ping, convinced Heyward to write down the story he’d been telling his daughter night after night. Flack then illustrated it in pastels, the colors of Easter.
I could tell you the entire story because I still remember it. But, my favorite part of the book was always the beautiful white glittering Easter egg with a hole in it, and a scene inside the egg. I wanted one of those eggs so badly. Both Linda and my Mom said they don’t think they even make sugar Easter eggs anymore. The story is still memorable and that Easter egg still calls to me.
This cover is the one I remember, but another edition has a cover illustration of the country bunny, Mrs. Cottontail, with her twenty-one children.
Now that I’ve made you read about my forgotten childhood book, I’ll ask this week’s question. What have you been doing in the last week? What are you reading?
I read The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes to all three of our children, and I still have that copy on my shelves here at home! The edition I have is the one with the twenty one bunny children on the cover.
This was a birthday week around here. Our daughter-in-law’s, and we went to their house on the day. Our 8-year-old granddaughter showed drawings she’d done using instructions from an app called Simply Draw. Very interesting. Then later she did a drawing from her imagination but using techniques she’d learned about from the app. Then this evening we went to our daughter’s house where we’d been invited for dinner to celebrate our grandson’s 24th birthday. (How is it possible I have a 24-year-old grandson?!). Her husband made the entire delicious dinner while she was at work – barbecued steaks, grilled zucchini and eggplant slices, spicy green beans, the yummiest mashed potatoes ever, sauteéd mushrooms, tomato slices with cheese, and homemade gravy.
Books this week:
BEATTIE CAVENDISH AND THE WHITE PEARL CLUB by Mary-Jane Riley
Set in 1948 at the start of The Cold War, this is the first of a new series which came out last year, with Book 2 being released this May.
During the war Beattie worked as an agent for the Secret Operations Executive and now that the war is over, life in the Civil Service office seems a bit dull. So she’s very pleased to unexpectedly be offered an undercover assignment for COS, the Covert Operations Section of GCHQ. Her task is to infiltrate and get close to the Bowen family by being a love-interest for Ashley Bowen. The mission is to obtain as much information as possible about Ashley’s father Ralph, a powerful politician and current Shadow Foreign Secretary who is suspected of having Communist sympathies. While doing some snooping around the Bowen home Beattie comes across the brutally murdered body of the Bowens’ housekeeper Sofia.
Meanwhile Irish private detective Patrick Corrigan has been hired by Ralph’s wife to tail him and find out where he goes and what he does because she suspects her husband is up to something. Turns out Corrigan has often seen Ralph at The White Pearl, a club with an unsavoury reputation, but that doesn’t put him any closer to finding out why he goes there.
And what’s up with the priest at church?
Beattie and Corrigan cross paths in a dramatic way and the scene is set for the two to work together to find out who killed the housekeeper. Not that investigating her murder is part of either of their ‘official’ jobs, but no one else seems interested in discovering why she was killed.
The two main characters are very likeable; Beattie is intelligent, tenacious, and a good person. Corrigan, scarred during the war is hard-working, hard-drinking, and a decent human being despite being conflicted about many things.
The book is a nice balance of well-drawn characters with interesting backstories, suspense, red herrings, a sense of menace, and a smidge of maybe-romance. It was a great story that kept me entertained even as it kept me guessing. A good read!
DOG PERSON by Camille Pagán
This bittersweet story, about grief, second chances, guilt and love, is told from the point of view of Harold – a dog.
Amelia, her partner Miguel, and very senior dog Harold are the perfect little family and filled with love for each other. Amelia is a writer of popular romance novels and she and Miguel make their dream of opening a bookstore a reality. Then Amelia dies at an unexpectedly early age and now Miguel and Harold are struggling with their grief after the most important person to each of them is no longer there. Nevertheless, they do their best for each other – with Harold on a mission to fulfill Amelia’s last wish to ‘Help Miguel find someone to love.’ Being a dog, he’s not sure how he’ll be able to manage that but he will do his utmost.
Due to a no-show author appearance at the bookstore, which has seriously set the store back financially, Miguel is afraid he’ll have to close the doors for good despite the efforts of a small, very devoted staff. He decides to track down the no-show author to tell him how much it’s affected the bookstore and to plead with him to arrange another date for him to honour his commitment to the event. When he gets there, it turns out the author isn’t at home and there’s only Fiona, his personal assistant, and Fiona’s 11-year-old daughter to speak to which is less than ideal. But this is when the story begins in earnest.
I did enjoy the book – and I was invested enough to read to the end to see how it all came together – but not as much as I’d expected to. It had all the ingredients for a touching, heartwarming story and in many ways it was exactly that. But somehow (I’m in the minority here) I didn’t connect with the characters as I wanted to; not entirely sure why.
Thank you, Lindy! Someone other than me who read The Country Bunny! It’s good to know I’m not the only one with those memories.
What a nice birthday week! And, dinner at your son-in-law’s sounds so good. I’ll take that any
day. Fortunately, Kevin is a good cook, and I do get a comparable dinner most Sunday nights.
The Beattie Cavendish book sounds good. A little different with the Cold War timeframe.
Keeping you and David in my thoughts.
Thank you Lesa. It means a lot to us that you care.
Hi Lindy – that birthday dinner sounded super yummy! And I liked your BEATTIE CAVENDISH AND THE WHITE PEARL CLUB review on my TBR!
Mary, I hope you enjoy Beattie Cavendish if you read it. My husband has decided to read it now and he’s reading snippets of it out loud to me; always a sign that he’s liking a book!
I’ve been enjoying the last of our nice weather here – at least for the foreseeable future. We are dropping from 80’s today to low 70’s tomorrow and then down to the 60’s, possibly even 50’s on Sunday, with rain this weekend.
Reading wise, I’m a third of the way into an ARC of IN THE SPIRIT OF FRENCH MURDER by Colleen Cambridge. It was a bit slow getting to the murder, but I’m intrigued now that it’s happened. Sadly, we’ve met a psychic in this book, and I’m not a fan of that particular plot point in the books I choose to read. Think she’s going to keep playing a part in the rest of the book, but we’ll see.
Well, darn, Mark. I know your weather is usually enviable.
I’m not a fan of Cambridge’s books. And, while I like paranormal, I don’t care for psychics that much either. Ghosts, yes. I know. Someone in the book has to be able to see or hear them, but that’s a little different than a professional psychic.
If I were reading a paranormal book, I’d be able much more willing to go along with a psychic. It’s the fact that we have one in a historical mystery that has nothing to do with the paranormal until now.
Colleen can be hit or miss for me. She definitely over describes things, and that’s happening in this book as well. The last book of hers I read I really enjoyed. And I will be trying to catch up in another of her series this year, so expect her to pop up regularly from me this year.
I’m getting over the flu (finally) and reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow as well as listening to Not Quite Dead.
Don’t push it, Melissa. It’s hard to get back to full strength. Take care of yourself.
Up early (as usual) for the last leg of the journey home. It’s been good so far.
As an aside, we count license plates on the road. We saw all but three states this trip – Alaska, Wyoming, New Mexico – and we’ve seen 42 so far since we left Florida. I like to note which states are and aren’t sending people on the road. In January, on the way down, we barely saw a Michigan plate, maybe one or two, which was unusual, and we saw at least 6-7 from West Virginia, also unusual. Going home, Michigan is everywhere, as is Texas (much more so than usual). As far as Canada goes, it’s continued the recent trend of a lot more from Quebec than Ontario, which never happened until last year.
/end geographical aside
Also, there seems to be a lot of RVs on the road. There were almost none in January. Yes, a lot are from Canada.
🇨🇦
Books, then. Jackie very much enjoyed and definitely recommends Abby Jimenez’s second in a two book series (after The Friend Zone), The Happy Ever After Playlist. This tale of a rock star, an artist, and the dog that brings them together, really did it for her. She is now reading Christine Feehan’s Deadly Storms
We used to play that game, Jeff, when we were on the road when I was a kid. We did particularly well at the Grand Canyon. It was fun to see all the various license plates there. Because we were on the road for a month at a time, we usually found all fifty plus Canadian plates. It was always a triumph to find Hawaii.
Safe travels the rest of the way home!
I have been enjoying the license plate game a lot lately. I walked through a student neighborhood on my way to get a haircut recently and got 17 states in a little over a mile!
The Abby Jimenez books Jackie is enjoying are really good, and there are fun connections between them.
Trisha, she agrees on the Aby Jimenez books, though the rock star one she just read is her favorite (so far).
I have had almost no reading time, what with driving all day (Jackie doesn’t drive), plus another couple of days of packing. I have managed to finish the two books of short stories I was reading – THE RICHARD DEMING MYSTERY MEGAPACK (well worth the 99 cent Kindle price) and THE BEST OF MANHUNT 4: THE JACK RITCHIE STORIES, mainly cops and crooks stories from the 1950s.
I am nearly done with (should finish tomorrow if I don’t get reading time today) Lucy Mangan’s entertaining BOOKISH, recommended by Lesa. Non- fiction is the one thing other than short stories I’ve been able to pick up and put down on the road.
I get that, Jeff. And, you’re right. Hard to keep interested in a novel when you’re spending most of the day driving. Jackie has the easy part on the trip, but I like to drive or I get bored.
I agree. Jackie actually had the nerve to tell a friend that her job was “harder” because she was falling asleep! In the old days, she had to direct me how to go if it was a new place we hadn’t been to before. (Once I’ve driven somewhere once, I can generally find my way back. This was even true in Rome, when we drove there from London and I was able to go directly to the right street where we were staying.)
Unfortunately, she is terrible at reading maps and has a poor sense of direction (this is not an insult, just simple truth), so I’d have to map out the route beforehand and have her follow along. (I love maps and I’m good at it.) But now she can just Google directions to wherever we’re going and it makes it so much easier all the way around.
Incidentally, we made it home by 2:30 this afternoon and I had the car unpacked before 3:00. We’re still putting things away, of course.
Jackie wanted to make the point that the Christine Feehan book she is reading is NOT paranormal, but romantic suspense.
Jackie makes me laugh, Jeff. I was Jackie when I rode as a passenger. Fell asleep the minute the car started, and slept for hours. Couldn’t read a map to save my life. GPS was the greatest invention in my lifetime.
Glad you’re home!
Bookish : How Reading Shapes Our Lives is the complete title of the Lucy Mangan book.
We saw Mame on Sunday which we enjoyed. Then we stopped at one of our favorite Italian restaurants for dinner. They had the place all done up with tablecloths and pastel napkins for Easter which was pretty.
I read FIRST COURSE by Jenn Bouchard.
When she suffers four life changing events in just one day, including the death of her parents in a plane crash, twenty-four year old Janie Whitman returns to her family’s summer home in Maine to help support her sister and two young nieces.
Through a mixup by her parents Alma mater Janie meets Rocky, a high school guidance counselor and gradually begins to see a path forward with her life.
I really enjoyed this. It was full of twists, turn, delicious sounding food, and discovering what you really want in life.
THE HOT ROCK by Donald Westlake. A team of thieves are hired to steal an emerald but nothing goes as planned and one caper turns into multiple attempts to get the stone.
I hadn’t read this since the ‘70s and had forgotten a lot of it so I enjoyed rereading it.
AN ALIEN TO REMEMBER by Fiona Rourke. A romance centered around the town of Alienn , Arkansas which is inhabited by Aliens hiding in plain sight in a town where all of the businesses play up the alien theme.
An ARC of REVERSE by Steven Havill.
Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is supposed to be counting down to retirement. But things are never quiet in Posadas County, New Mexico and after surviving a near fatal crash with an elk, Estelle gets involved with several cases including vandalism at the airport and a missing classic car.
I feel like the quality of the last couple of books in the series has been mixed. This is definitely one of the good ones – it reminded me of the earlier books in the series.
I’ve never seen Mame, Sandy, even the movie. But, it always sounded as if it would be fun.
I’m happy to hear Reverse is one of the good ones again. I agree. The earlier ones were much better than some of the later books. In fact, I think I even skipped one because I just couldn’t care.
Very much enjoyed REVERSE.
Great to know, Kevin!
Hi everyone
This is going to be uncharacteristically brief as we are today moving a lot of the big things from one house to another.
We have hired a man+ his friend + their van to do this. They seem excellent, very careful and helpful. Fortunately we’re not having the usual panic rush to make sure one of us is at the new house to let them in, as this time it’s only half a mile away – but it still seems to be taking far longer than I over-optimistically expected.
I’m afraid I haven’t finished one single book this week – everything’s just been too full on. I did get to the launch of a new ‘curated space’ in town, where one of the vendors was a writer of books for children in Doric (the Aberdeenshire dialect, in which Nan Shepherd wrote all her books.) Doric is still widely heard in NE Scotland today, particularly in North Aberdeenshire.
I thought it was a great idea to introduce children to their heritage in this way. My friend Lucy Beth performs wonderful monologues in Doric; it’s great to see the renewed interest in traditional ways of life.
Tomorrow I’m abandoning the boxes and going to Dundee for a members’ talk and tour of the Scottish costume gallery at the V & A. Then on Saturday our daughter and her partner will be coming up with some of our furniture from Edinburgh. – and very soon a larger house won’t feel large any more!
I hope everyone has a great week. By next Thursday I might even have read a book!
Hi Rosemary!
The lack of a book doesn’t surprise me at all. When I moved, I didn’t even have the energy to open a book by the end of the day. I hope you’re getting a little down time at the end of the day.
And, it takes time to feel settled, even with all the same furniture. I hope you just keep us in the loop as you try to get comfortable in your new home.
Sending hugs!
Thanks for the empathy Less! It’s very reassuring to know that even you didn’t read when you were moving.
I’ll certainly keep you in the loop – Thursdays here are a very important piece of ‘down time’ for me.
Sorry. I did of course mean LESA!
Moving is so much work. Doesn’t matter if it’s only half a mile down the road; it’s all just work. It will be good to have some of the furniture back that you didn’t have room for before! Old friends. I hope you’ll love everything about your new home when you’re all settled in.
Thank you so much Lindy. I’m sure it’ll be fine, and we do have the advantage of not needing to change much else – same village, same bus service, same health centre, same co-op, same walks and – importantly for me – same much loved library!
But yes, you’re right – moving is one long physical trudge. I’ve done it many times, but I’m not getting any younger! Once we’re actually living in our new house I’m determined not to spend every waking minute on sorting it out – I still intend to see my friends and do my walks, especially now the weather is improving and the hours of daylight are rapidly increasing.
I’ve told david he too should take some down time. He’s much less able to do this than I am – he gets very determined to make everything perfect right away. But unlike past moves, for this one neither of us has a job to rush back to, nor do we have young children to sort out, we really can just take our time.
I started The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall about a set of twins, the boy grows up to be an RAF pilot in WW II, and the girl disappears after working undercover in German-occupied France.
That’s an interesting sounding book, Carol. I hope you enjoy it all the way through.
We’ve been having beautiful weather here. It’s been in the 70s but it’s going to drop to the 50’s and be raining this weekend. I’ve been trying to get the garden beds cleaned out while the weather is nice. Because I have so many, it takes me a while to get them all done.
The school district I work for doesn’t have school on Fridays. In the past, I’ve had to work a 1/2 day on Fridays. Last week, I asked if I could do 4 – 10 hour days due to the high gas prices – $4.39 a gallon here. Round trip is 34 miles for me. They agreed and now I’m trying to get used to working longer days which left me with less time to read.
I did finish one book – Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I’m not a science fiction reader but I loved the book and the movie. Ryan Gosling does a great job and Rocky, the alien was so funny. I’ve been watching the space mission and if you listen carefully, you can hear Misson Control making references to the movie.
‘
Really, Bev? That surprises me that Mission Control is referencing the movie. Wasn’t Rocky delightful in Project Hail Mary? And, I loved the final scene.
I hope you don’t drop out because you have less time to read. I can understand though with the price of gas that it’s easier to cut out one round trip. Hopefully, once you’re in the new routine, you’ll find time to read on three-day weekends, despite having to run errands and do chores on those days.
Oh, I might be a little slow on the reading for a while, but I’ll still be here. Thursday is my favorite. I’ve really cut back on a lot of my running around. If it’s not on my route, it’s not happening.
I love Thursdays, too, Bev. So, I’m glad we’re still on your route!
I can make you feel a bit better about your gas prices Bev – here on the west coast of Canada we’re currently paying $2.16 per litre which is equivalent to $8.18 per gallon!
Oh my gosh, Lindy! That’s horrible. Idaho has never embraced public transportation. We have a city bus system but it only runs during the day and good luck finding a route that will get you to work on time. With all the people moving here from Washington, Oregon and California, the roads are really congested. I wish the last time they widened the freeway (which we only have one of) they had put light rail in. It would have been us in a better position.
Bev, when I changed to a different law firm some years ago, I asked if I could work one full day and three half days instead of 5 haif days.
They were fine with it and it made my life so much more manageable (my children were still at school at the time.). That Wednesday off became so precious – I did plenty of chores, but also did a dog walk with my friend, and frequently took myself out for coffee – such a treat.
Our petrol is currently£1.60 per litre. I believe that’s about $9.78 per gallon. Thank goodness for buses is all I can say (many of ours are now electric.)
I too have been working like mad to get our small garden into reasonable shape for house viewers. I love my garden but frantic post-winter tidying isn’t my favourite thing! However, I can see peonies pushing through, our willow tree is coming into glorious leaf, and the little birds are singing fit to burst – there are far worse places to be than a garden in springtime.
Good morning! On Easter we all went to a lovely buffet brunch at a nearby casino. We enjoy going there for special occasions ($60 for adults, $25 for children!) because there is a big variety of foods, and everything tastes wonderful. Grandson Henry claimed he ate 10 pieces of pizza, and I saw him do it, so I hope he didn’t have an stomach troubles afterward. Granddaughter Autumn surprised me with a large stuffed Highland cow (my obsession) that she and her mother won from a claw machine on their overnight trip to Santa Cruz! I don’t even want to know how much they spent to keep trying to win this! Now I have three Highland cows, so I guess I have a collection! As for me,I ate way to much food, and I shudder to remember how many were desserts. Today I’m off with the Drama Queens to see MJ:The Musical in Sacramento–can’t wait! Here are the two books I finished this week:
In the tenth in the delightful Veronica Speedwell historical mystery series, A GHASTLY CATASTROPHE, Veronica and her beau Stoker are at work on their usual projects. Lepidopterist Veronica is researching and collecting exotic butterflies for herself and her customers, and Stoker is applying his expertise as a former Navy surgeon to a taxidermy project, creating a huge animal that is wrapped in secrecy. It has been a while since the couple was called upon to participate in a murder investigation, often assisting the local constabulary, and they are growing restless. So they are intrigued and excited by the discovery of a dead body that has been exsanguinated–not a drop of blood left in him. And that death is shortly followed by that of the victim’s friend, deemed a suicide but definitely suspicious. Their investigation leads them to a deadly couple–a man who may or not be a vampire and his witchy companion, who have established a secret society for nefarious purposes. In 1890 London, Veronica and Stoker make an unconventional pair, dedicated to each other and enjoying an intimate relationship without the legal status of marriage. Veronica is highly intelligent and analytical, and she fancies herself the protector of the dashing Stoker, who often rushes into danger without first establishing a foolproof plan. She has a hidden family relationship to royalty, while Stoker comes from an aristocratic family, but they are both nonconformists when it comes to Victorian customs. I especially love Veronica’s narration of the story, which is full of fascinating detail, archaic vocabulary, and dry humor. I hope this series continues into the future, even while the prolific author is pursuing other types of series.
IRONWOOD, book #2 in Michael Connelly’s Catalina novels, finds Detective Sergeant Stilwell (Stil) and his team trying to catch some drug dealers as they make a drop at a remote airstrip on the island, just 22 miles from Los Angeles. But when two of his team members are viciously attacked and Stil is temporarily relieved of responsibility for the case during an investigation, he finds evidence in another case that involves four long-missing females who disappeared as each was hiking alone, and some buried bones that suddenly revitalize the case. Working for the first time with LAPD detective Renee Ballard, the star of another Connelly series, and her cold case team, Stil uncovers a situation that some prominent Catalina residents seem to be trying to cover up. We’re told that Catalina is where where LAPD officers are sent when they are no longer wanted in Los Angeles, for a variety of reasons. That’s what happened to Stil as well, but he has found that he thrives in the island culture and is enjoying living with his girlfriend, Tash, the interim harbormaster. He uses common sense in dealing with some lesser crimes and won’t be deterred or intimidated by local politicians and law enforcement bosses who would like to keep him under control with respect to all of his cases. The plot in this book is well developed and fascinating, with action but not a lot of gruesome violence. I would like to see more development in Stil’s personal life, including his relationship with Tash. We did, however, get an offhand clue about Stil’s first name, which is a little progress.. I would also love to see more interesting book titles–ironwood is the type of tree under which one of the female victims was found. The title didn’t attract me to this book–I come for Connelly’s excellent writing–and it didn’t seem meant to attract readers. Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer books are my favorite of his series. (May)
What a great sounding Easter, Margie. I think that’s funny that Henry ate 10 pieces of pizza. That’s a great brunch restaurant that even includes pizza. That will take care of a lot of younger people who might not eat most items on a brunch menu.
I love Veronica and Stoker and their relationship.
I have Ironwood on my TBR pile. That’s kind of funny that you want more interesting titles.
Good morning everyone – Lesa, I have never heard of that book either but it looks like something I would’ve liked especially the glittery Easter egg! Someone pointed out to me that every time I send a greeting card it has glitter on it. I had no idea that I did that until they pointed it out.
This morning, I’ve been up early getting an MRI and bloodwork now I’m heading to Physical Therapy and then I’m going out to lunch with some girlfriends which I’m very much looking forward to.
I read :”Murder in Manhattan” by Julie Mulhern. As soon as I finish this book, I went looking for its sequel – unfortunately one has not been written yet. Freddie Archer is a fast talking, fun, loving brassy journalist who writes a column for the Gotham newspaper about fashion and nightclubs in the 1920s. Coming off a broken engagement, she gets involved with a handsome bootlegger whose business partners keep on getting murdered in nightclubs that Freddie frequents. Freddie has noticed a certain woman was with each of the deceased and goes on a mission to find the woman. She gets into a bunch of scrapes, and luckily, for her the local gangster boss in the town takes a shine to her and assigns her a personal guard who comes in handy on more than one occasion.
Also “The Delivery” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins. Lots of action! Mercury continues to save the day with his Wiley E.Coyote type improvised tools that actually work. While trying to make a delivery, he gets sidetracked by a woman who was in a bad car accident, which led to another woman that had been hijacked into prostitution, which led to a couple of dead bodies of men who slept with said prostitute, which led to a couple of bad actors who were stealing personal information from nursing homes to make money on the black market. Mercury manages to make everything right again (except for the dead bodies).
Mary, My youngest sister told me my Mom had a sugar Easter egg. She thought Mom won it at work, but said I probably wasn’t around (in college, probably) at the time. She said it was beautiful. In other words, you and I would have liked it.
I put a hold on Murder in Manhattan. Good enough that you immediately wanted a sequel? I’ll give it a try!
Oh, Lesa! i remember The Little Country Bunny! loved it! STILL love it! Maybe that sugar egg was the beginning of our fascination with paintings and illustrations of windows??
i am finally getting over my cold.
ugh.
Finally feeling up to reading again.
I’m reading, thanks to NetGalley, A THOUSAND PAINTED HOURS by Barbara O’Neal.
Description –
An epic, emotionally charged novel about love, art, and survival spanning 1900s colonial India to Blitz-era London by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.
In the shadow of the London Blitz, artist Elsie Turner clings fiercely to her canvases, refusing to let war dim the colors that define her. The bombs test her nerve, but the struggle also stirs memories of her golden youth in India and of the long-lost love of her life.
The daughter of a British civil servant in the Himalayan station of Nainital, Elsie crosses cultural divides to forge an unlikely bond with Tanveer Singh, a Sikh prince with hopes, dreams, and far-reaching ideas. What begins as shared sketchbooks and stargazing becomes first love and a secret correspondence. When Elsie’s father is summoned to England, Elsie is severed from the world she knows—and is determined to preserve it through both her art and a connection with Tanveer that endures through the most tumultuous years of their lives.
Across four decades and two continents, Elsie navigates a journey from lush colonial India to war-torn London, amid landscapes of beauty, protest, and peril. As past and present collide, the most impossible choices and sacrifices are yet to be made in the name of love, war, and survival.
Kaye! I had told my family I was going to check with you because it looked like a book you would have loved! I just waited because I knew you had a cold. Thank you! You might be right that it kicked off our love of windows. For my birthday, Linda gave me a framed picture, done in wool, of a door. I believe doors and windows are about possibilities!
I love Barbara O’Neal, but I think I’ll skip that one.
So glad to hear you’re over your cold!
I’m still working on The Lost Angels: A Thriller by Michele Domínguez Greene. A sequel to Hollywood Hitmen, I see no signs that it is really a thriller. Neither was the first which was also supposed to be a policed procedural. It wasn’t, in my opinion, bit this one is more like one.
I have not been doing much read as I am sick as a dog with some sort of upper respiratory deal. I don’t have much of am immune system so I never could stop masking when the powers that be declared everything fine. So, I mask everywhere I go. Despite that fact, I am sneezing coughing, sore throating through life every day and wasting a small fortune in cough drops, over the counter meds, and kleenex. Not to mention the low grade fever.
So, I have all the symptoms of having something and yet it could just be allergies as I am one of those freaky people who can and does run a fever from the damn pollen. And everything here is yellow. If I step outside, I get way worse. Things seem to get really bad about an hour after I have been out. If Scott goes out, he very quickly starts coughing and sneezing. So, I am hoping it is just the damn pollen.
So, I have been watching a lot of tv that has nothing to do with anything here.
I hope you will feel better, Kevin. Take care.
Thank you, Jennifer.
Kevin, I’m so sorry. We have a lot of yellow here, too, but it’s mostly dandelions. They’re abundant right now, but not the pollen-carrying plants you and Scott are dealing with. I know what it feels like to have no energy for books, but that doesn’t help. Take care of yourself.
Thank you, Lesa. I have never seen it so bad here with the yellow. Am having one heck of a time with it.
This all sounds completely miserable Kevin. Spring seems to be unkind to many people but I wish you weren’t one of them. I believe you have more than enough on your plate on any given day.
Thank you, Lindy. The body is in full revolt these days.
Good morning. I finished one book this week and hopefully will finish the second this afternoon. I have the new Emma Grey waiting for me so I anxious to start that.
My first book was the one Lesa wrote a review a couple days ago. I thoroughly enjoyed Amy Rose Bennett’s The Governess’s Guide to Spells and Managing Misfit Marquesses (The Parasol Academy #2). It was fun and flirty and lighthearted enough for these challenging times. I think I enjoyed it more than the first in the series.
The book I hope to finish today is from the Mindy Kaling book studio. As Far as She Knew by Diana Awad has Amira Abadi dealing with her husband of 23 years’ death and unraveling his secret past when she discovers Ali purchased a house in North Carolina that she had no idea about its existence. Diana Awad used to write the Atlas Catesby books under D.M Quincy. This one is good, but I liked her mysteries better.
Sunshine and summer are back at my house today. My azaleas are in bloom which makes me smile.
Happy Reading!
Sharon, My sister, Christie, and I were discussing the Parasol Academy series today. We hope there is going to be a third book featuring the owner of the Academy. There are hints at the wedding. I hope so! It was fun. And, you’re right. Maybe even more fun than the first book, although I really liked the Raven in the first one.
I can see why the azaleas make you smile! I always enjoyed the blooming seasons in Florida and Arizona. But, then, I’m not allergic like poor Kevin and Glen.
I dearly love satisfying my curiosity of reading about what books appeal to everyone here! It is definitely a favorite Thursday morning activity. We just returned from a few weeks overseas and I think my most frustrating part, besides 12 hour plane rides, was not being able to see what people were reading!! (Darn Kindles, earbuds, and dim lighting!)
It’s finally a more realistic Arizona spring – thank you April! I love all of the colors of the bougainvillea, the yellow bells and the lantana all through area. For a desert typically known for it’s saguaros and the predominant color of brown it is a delight to see the riot of color.
I am currently still reading The Lawless Land by Boyd and Beth Morrison as I handed it over to my husband to read when he finished his own book mid-vacation. I loved a recent quote I found from Lee Child where he blurbed the book, “Fantastic – Gerard Fox could be Jack Reacher’s ancestor, 700 years ago. Highly recommended.” I agree, Lee Child! (But I love the historical authenticity and the details best!)
While we visited our son and his wife on the island of Guam we hiked, visited glorious coral beaches and immersed ourselves in island life alongside the Mariana Trench. We also visited the War in the Pacific National Park and Museum. While there I discovered a book called Robinson Crusoe USN by George R Tweed – At the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan captured the island of Guam. Given the choice of surrendering or being taken prisoner, George R. Tweed escaped into the countryside. Aided by several Chamorro natives who risked their lives to keep him safe, Tweed survived for two and a half years until he was eventually rescued. I am enjoying how readable it is and how the areas he is speaking of are in the exact village where our son lives! I can picture the jungles and falls because I was so recently there!! We also visited Talafofo Falls and while there visited Yokoi’s cave, the hiding spot of Imperial Japanese Army Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi, who survived for 28 years in the jungles of Guam following the 1944 Battle of Guam. Unaware WWII had ended Yokoi was discovered in 1972 near Talofofo Falls, where a replica of his underground, bamboo-reinforced shelter stands. Two different men, two different experiences, both in the same jungle at the same time. Holy cow.
Lastly, when I returned and recovered from jet-lag I discovered that all 9 of my library holds were ready and eagerly waiting for me at my local branch! I dipped into Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell just for a book-taste-test and found myself coming up for air an hour later. Oops, now I have 3 books going at the same time. I think I may have a book ADHD problem!
Thanks again for fostering this reading and reporting space! I for one am ever grateful.
You’re so right, Gaye! I love to check out what people are reading in public. I’ve complained that people are holding books at the wrong angle, and I can’t see the titles. Even though I usually read on a Kindle, I agree with you I’d rather see the book!
That’s so interesting that you found the books about Guam during World War II. It’s wonderful that you could “see” where the people were because you had just been to the actual sites. It makes such a difference when you read.
Thank you! I love Thursdays at Lesa’s!
The Napping Grannywas a favorite reading of my grandchildren.
I am reading Hidden Nature. Pretty good. Just finished Smugglers Cove by Nora Robert’s…it was wonderful but didn’t have an ending. Hoping Lesa lets me know when the next one is out.
Smuggler’s Cove is by Fern Michaels, Carol Jeanne. The next one, The Boat House, is due out on Aug. 25. I’ll try to remember to let you know!
I remember the Country Bunny and recognize both covers (maybe one version was at home and one was in the elementary school library?). I was able to get some fun reading done this week—I finished The Astral Library by Kate Quinn, which others have covered and was entertaining.
I also read Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley. It was pretty gripping but also sad in that a key part of the plot is how the system mistreats Native American kids in foster care. There were interesting connections to her other books, which I liked. Highly recommend!
For class I have been rereading The Book of Joy, which details a series of conversations between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. The ideas about the relationship between joy and suffering are still super-relevant.
Trisha, I’m so happy that several of you remember The Country Bunny, especially since no one in the family does. It must not have impacted them the way it did me.
I’ve read several books about the treatment of Native American children in schools, including William Kent Krueger’s This Tender Land. It’s just so brutal. Marcie Rendon’s Cash Blackbear series is somewhat dark, but deals with a young woman saved from ending up in the foster care system.
I had a pretty good Easter. This is the first Easter I can remember when it was hot enough to swim! Now we’ve had thunderstorms and such, even a tornado warning, which, while not unknown is pretty unusual around here.
This week I read:
Dessert is the Bomb by Catherine Bruns; A new bakery, specializing in cake bombs, opens right across the street from the one owned by our sleuths. Of course, the obnoxious owner is kakked forthwith, and our sleuths are the primary suspects. Much of the conflict was actually stupid misunderstandings by the spouses of the sleuths.
A Killer In The Family by Ami Ahmad; A psychological thriller about an Indian American who marries rich, only to find his in laws are nut jobs, and so is he.
Hunting Ground by Andrew Warren; I helped out with an ARC, and noticed the author lost count of the bullets in a gun fight, which is verboten in this genre. It’s an anti-Trump book that tries not to be too obvious, but only makes it more obvious. It’s tough to keep the verisimilitude when Trump, love him or hate him, is one of a kind.
A Desperate Place by Jennifer Greer; A Rizzoli and Isles knock off set in Oregon. When a bear digs up a body, the investigation starts. I was hoping for more bear, I guess.
Cartel Justice by Dmitri Shabsis; An old fashioned team Men’s Adventure book, where they assemble the squad, and start depopulating the area, even though it is set in 2026.
The Misinformation Machine by James Lawrence Powell; All about fraud in science, and how it affected the pandemic. While misinformation abounded, the fact that pro-mask politicians were constantly getting caught breaking their own rules wreaked more havoc than anything actual scientists did or did not do.
Death, Taxes, and Turduckens by Jens Kurt Heyke; A True Crime about a billionaire tax cheat and the relentless IRS machine that tracked him down. Americans have an at best, ambivalent attitude toward taxes (that’s what caused the revolution, after all), so the book had a weird vibe, and resembled a sort of white collar moonshiner story.
We have tornado watches and warnings often here, Glen, more than I did when I was in Indiana. But, then the climate has changed, hasn’t it? Never pleasant to deal with.
White collar moonshiner story! Ha! Made me laugh.
Hey Lesa, I do remember that picture book, the orange cover with the children is very familiar to me! I just finished Impostor (netgalley) by LJ Ros, my first by her but not my last. I have a book from a different series from netgalley and the next in the Gregory series on hold at the library. I just started Final Target by Nora roberts on audio. Have a good weekend.
Thank you, Katherine! I’m so pleased that others remember that book, too. I enjoyed our chat about Childhood Reads, and it makes me feel good that others remember some of the same books.
Now, I’ll have to look up Imposter to see what it was about.
I do not remember The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes specifically but I am willing to bet Glen or I or both read it to my son when he was young. There are so many books we read to him and many were read again and again.
I am writing this so late today I should just give up on it, but I won’t. Today we picked up more supplies for the front garden beds, and got some lovely peach colored zonal geraniums [pelargoniums] which I am thrilled with.
In the last week, Glen has been reading A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING by Bill Bryson. He likes it, but not as much as some of Bryson’s other books. He has read excerpts to me about interesting topics, for example particle physics, which is very very complicated.
I am currently reading DEATH IN A DARKENING MIST by Iona Whishaw, a Canadian author. The setting is British Columbia in 1946. There is lots of Canadian history mentioned that I was not aware of, and I am enjoying that in addition to the mystery. It is maybe a bit too cozy, but I also like that the heroine was in intelligence in WWII (she moved to Canada from the UK after the war).
I also just started reading THE IVY TREE by Mary Stewart, on the Kindle. It is interesting so far.
Tracy, I’m glad you dropped in, even if you feel as if you’re late. I always like to know what you and Glen are reading.
That was one of Bill Bryson’s books that I couldn’t get into. Glen is right. Not as funny or as readable as his other ones.
Phyllis A. Whitney, Victoria Holt, and Mary Stewart were the big three Gothic romance writers in the early 70s. I read some of Mary Stewart’s. Loved Airs Above the Ground, but never got into her books as much as I did the books by the others.
Tracy, David and I both love Iona Whishaw’s series. I think we’ve read ten of them, but there are still four to go!