It’s been a warmer week here, but still a rainy one. Thunderstorms one night, heavy rain off and on yesterday. It didn’t stop me from running errands, but did give me reading time. It was a good week of reading with books by Craig Johnson, Nora Roberts, Eloisa James, James Byrne. I hope you had a good week with good books, and good weather. What have you been doing this week?
I still have a number of galleys of books that are due out in the next week. While reading one of those, I’m also reading an author who has become a favorite. The Reluctant Matador is the fifth in Mark Pryor’s Hugo Marston series. Hugo was checking on the teenage daughter of an old friend when the girl disappeared. He and his friend, Tom, follow her to Barcelona, only to find her father standing over a dead body. Kaye Barley was right, and I’m loving this series.
What about you? What have you been reading in the last week?
The best thing about the past week is that the countdown is on for the people who live in the unit above ours to finally move out. For the whole two years we’ve lived here, every day has been extremely annoying due to these people. Stomping around so hard our ceiling lights rattle in their frames; throwing open their balcony door and throwing out heavy bags filled with who knows what, making me leap in alarm at the sudden loud noise; but the worst is that there’s yelling every single day and we can hear every word and I find it upsetting that both parents yell and swear at their five-year-old child, “You’re f—ing 5 years old now; what is your f—ing problem?” or “What are you doing?! F—ing get out of there.” And being regularly woken at 4:30 a.m. with yelling or closet doors slamming. Anyway, a year ago they had another child and they’ve run out of room and have sold their place! If all goes well it’s three days till moving day. Hallelujah!
Books read this week:
WEST WITH GIRAFFES by Lynda Rutledge
Quite some time ago someone here, I don’t remember who (I’m sorry) mentioned this book. Based on what they said I bought the book but have only now read it. A huge thank you to whoever it was, as I absolutely loved the book.
It’s a novel based on a true event – that of two giraffes having survived their journey on a merchant marine ship at sea in the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, and their subsequent transportation from New York Harbor to the San Diego Zoo at the behest of Belle Benchley, the world’s first female zoo director.
The main characters are Woody, Red, the Old Man, and of course the two giraffes – Boy and Girl.
Woody, not yet 18 years old, is the only one of his entire family to survive the Dust Bowl. He makes his way from the Texas Panhandle to the east to find a cousin he’s never met, and yet his suffering isn’t over when he finds him, as the cousin is not a good man. One day he overhears someone (the Old Man) talking about having to get two giraffes to California. Sure that that’s where he’ll finally find his good luck, Woody is determined to get there too. The story of how he eventually gets the Old Man to agree – albeit very reluctantly – to take him on as a driver is a story in itself. Also in the mix is Red, a young woman determined to make a name for herself as a photo journalist for Life Magazine, who keeps turning up. All three of these people are harbouring personal secrets. The giraffes come across as characters in their own right, with their own personalities.
The story moves between Woody’s time on the road with the giraffes and that of him now as a 105-year-old man in a nursing home, where he has just realized with a sense of urgency that he must write down the whole story of that 12-day road trip and what it meant to all of them before the story dies with him. He knows he doesn’t have much time left to get it all down.
The story has characters that will live on in my memory, including some quite villainous ones. The book was utterly absorbing, it brought out so many emotions in me, I felt deeply for the characters, and there were many scenes of heart-stopping suspense. At 350 pages it wasn’t a short book, but I didn’t feel there was even one page too many, and I devoured them all in short order. It’s that rare book that I will keep on my shelves.
As it says on the book jacket ‘Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.’
ALL RISE FOR MURDER by Roz Nay
This is the author’s fifth book, (although the first of hers I’ve read) and apparently a departure from her usual dark thrillers.
This was such a fun book to read. The mystery was good, the family drama/secrets were believable, the small town setting was perfect, the characters were captivating, and it had one of the best and most amusing first chapters I’ve read, which immediately set the tone for the story.
After her marriage ends in spectacular fashion, Maude and her prickly fifteen-year-old daughter Rhette move from Brazil back to the tiny town where Maude grew up in British Columbia; and back into her mother Val’s house. Secretly Val isn’t unhappy to have them back but things do get a lot more complicated with them there, and all three have personal secrets that weigh on them.
Maude ends up working as a clerk in the court house. One day a case comes before the judge – an 18-year-old young man has just been convicted of the murder of the owner of the local gym. It seems like an open-and-shut case since Levi has pleaded guilty, but Maude doesn’t for one minute believe Levi is guilty of the murder. She takes it upon herself to try to find out what really happened. She receives unexpected help in her quest from both her mother and her daughter.
So now we have three generations of (very) amateur sleuths, each approaching the ‘case’ from a different angle; none of them have any idea what they’re doing; and each of them is dancing around the other two with no one willing to rock the precarious boat by bringing up things about the past.
But this book is so entertaining, with humour and heartfelt family drama, that you can’t help but cheer on these three inept yet intelligent sleuths as they bumble their way from one clue or red herring to another, with suspicion falling on a whole host of side characters until a very satisfactory ending is reached. And I was happy to read that there are more books planned for the series. Can’t wait.