It’s been a good week here, starting with weather. It’s been in the 80s, and we didn’t get the rain that was expected. That’s okay. I had things to do.
Last week was fun. On Thursday, Mom, my sister, Christie, and I headed out to go to an afternoon tea. (Thank you, Rosemary, for clarifying that.) But, before going there, we ended up at a cemetery and arboretum. What a beautiful place. We spent forty-five minutes wandering around there, looking at the trees we were unfamiliar with. Fortunately, they were all identified. Beautiful place. We enjoyed the tea as well, sandwiches, scones, desserts, and tea. Christie’s daughter-in-law and son gave Mom a gift certificate for there. On Friday night, Mom had nine of us over before we all walked across the street to see the musical “1776”, sponsored by the Huron Historical Society. It was not only for the 250th anniversary of the country, but also a memory. When it ended some years ago after 67 years of operation, Huron had the longest-running summer theater in Ohio. It was a shame to see it go. It had been run in conjunction with Bowling Green State University. A number of alumni of the Playhouse summers came back to participate. The actor who played Benjamin Franklin was fantastic; an opera singer. If you’ve seen the movie, he sounded just like Benjamin Franklin in that, with the rolling laughter underlying his voice. The show was terrific, but he was above and beyond. On Saturday, my sister, Linda, came up for the afternoon, with her daughter and two grandchildren. Just a nice family afternoon.
Linda and I have tickets to see “Pippin” on Saturday afternoon. We’ve both seen it before, but it’s been years. I saw it on Broadway in 2013 with Patina Miller as the Leading Player, and Andrea Martin and Terrence Mann in it. Of course, I know it won’t be the same, but we know this will be a fun show.
So, busy week. What have you been doing? And, what are you reading?
I’m reading The Witch’s Orchard by Archer Sullivan. It came out last year, and introduced PI Annie Gore, She’s a former Air Force Special Investigator, just barely making it as a PI. The second book in the series, Brimstone Hollow, comes out at the end of the month, and I wanted to read this one first. The voice and descriptions are wonderful in the first book. There’s a sadness and desperation in Annie’s voice. She was raised in an Appalachian holler, and her new case takes her to a small community in North Carolina, familiar to her from her own childhood.
Ten years earlier, three young girls went missing, but one was returned before the third girl disappeared. The brother of one of the girls hires Annie to investigate because she knows mountain towns and mountain people. It’s a story of secrets and folklore. I’m eating this one up, and anticipating the next one.
What about you? What have you been reading this week?
What an excellent week you had Lesa; sounds perfect from beginning to end.
David and I went to an area in Vancouver that has interesting stores to poke around in – a tea store with a selection of baked goods, a high-end clothing store for men and women (fun to look around but one could never afford to buy anything there), a store filled with chocolate treats, a fabulous bookstore, and a store where I was able to find a new crossbody bag to replace my ancient one.
The trip didn’t start off well though because there was no free parking to be had anymore; for blocks and blocks it’s now all pay parking, so we headed back to an underground parking lot where we were confronted with a list of various parking apps. I despise parking apps; I just want a machine I can drop some coins into, or even one that takes credit cards. Long story short, the credit card company denied the charge, plus they blocked the card. When I got home and phoned to have the card unblocked I was told they’d had several fraudulent transactions with that particular parking app and he recommended that my card be cancelled and they would send me a new one, which would take ten days to reach me! That’s a long time, and has already caused a problem because an automatic withdrawal charge was denied of course because the card had been cancelled. Still wrestling with how to solve that issue. It’s all been extremely frustrating.
Then I got angry while reading the newspaper this morning – to discover that the U.S. president has apparently decided (but not yet elaborated) on a punishment for Canada for the wildfire smoke, saying it was Willful Negligence on Canada’s part. It just makes me mad. At this moment in British Columbia there are 7300 properties under evacuation orders, and another 3000 under evacuation alert, and even where we live there’s smoke in the air and we’re all being cautioned to keep windows closed and to limit outdoor activity, and the smoke is making me cough. We’re really struggling and here he is, threatening further trouble. Grrrr.
Books this week:
HOW TO LOSE A LORD IN TEN DAYS by Sophie Irwin
I had fun reading this regency era romance. It’s the third book by Sophie Irwin I’ve read, and I’ve loved them all.
Lydia, pushed into agreeing to an engagement to Lord Ashford by her Aunt Agatha and Uncle Edmund (on threat of otherwise being sent to live with her monstrous Aunt Mildred) she nevertheless has no intention of actually marrying him, or indeed any man she hasn’t chosen for herself. Especially arrogant Lord Ashford, no matter how eligible he is.
Luckily, Lord Ashford’s father has asked him to keep the engagement a secret for ten days so that he may announce it at a party taking place at that time. This works to Lydia’s advantage since it gives her ten whole days to make herself so disagreeable that Lord Ashford will be sure to want nothing more to do with her and so will break off the engagement.
There are ridiculous pranks and lots of fun banter. Of course we know how it will end but it’s a lot of fun getting there. There’s also a more serious domestic abuse subplot that doesn’t fit with the overall vibe of the story and I’m not sure the book benefitted from it being included. But I did very much enjoy the story of Lydia and Lord Ashford.
THE BUTLER by Clare Mackintosh
Early on we are introduced to Baxter, a butler with an excellent reputation and years of experience catering to the ultrawealthy. The agency he works for has sent him to a villa in Cannes where he will be looking after Alec Prescott and guests as Alec hosts a gathering in honour of his son’s 21st birthday. Baxter has his work cut out for him as this family is truly dysfunctional and none of them seem to like each other, and all of them have secrets. Even Baxter himself isn’t quite what he seems.
A light Agatha Christie-ish murder mystery, with just the right number of characters to keep the story interesting, and all of whom have a plausible motive for the murder of the guest found floating – dead – in the pool.
It’s up to Baxter, with some unexpected help from a local pickpocket, to solve the mystery since the police seem to be pursuing the wrong angle and aren’t that interested anyway.
A short book, short chapters, and an ending that implies there will be another book starring Baxter.