Are you ready to talk about books? Let’s talk about what we’ve been reading in the last week or so.
I’m reading a novel that definitely will not be for everyone. In fact, I’m planning to have a box of tissues by me when I get to the last fifty pages or so. It’s called Photos of You by Tammy Robinson. Set in New Zealand, it’s about a twenty-eight-year-old woman whose cancer returns. She had an earlier bout, but this time, she’s told it’s terminal. While I’m only on about page eighty, I can’t say if she continues to turn down treatment. I can say, she’s decided she wants to celebrate her life, instead of not being there for her funeral. She’s always wanted a wedding, and she’s going to have one. Her family and a couple friends agree to throw a wedding for her, and then a Facebook post about it goes viral. That’s as far as I am. But, I suspect I’ll need those tissues and a cat in my lap when I get to the end of the book.
So, what are you reading this week? What’s kicking off your March books?
Lesa, I don’t think that’s something I’d read. This week I read an ARC of LITTLE BOOKSHOP OF MURDER by Maggie Blackburn. I sent the publisher a list of errors I found and I hope they clean it up before they publish it. Some were fairly major like wrong names and people who disappeared in the middle of a scene.
COCONUT LAYER CAKE MURDER by Joanne Fluke. Every time I read one of these I ask myself why. The police ask Hannah to investigate a murder since they can’t because one of the sheriff’s officers is a suspect. Whatever happened to a neighboring jurisdiction stepping in?
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF WITCHCRAFT by Mandy M Roth. A paranormal romance / mystery with characters in their 40s. The main character moves into her grandmother’s old house in a town full of paranormals after a divorce. Of course she doesn’t know anything about the paranormal or that she’s a witch. Not a new idea but it was well written.
DROP DEAD LOLA by Melissa Bourbon. A mystery that feels like a cozy but the main character is a PI rather than an amateur sleuth.
That sounds like a real tear jerker.
I finished (just before it was due) Bill Bryson's THE ROAD TO LITTLE DRIBBLING: Adventures of an American in Britain. Bryson met his wife on his first trip to Britain and they've lived there for 40 years. In fact, he just got British citizenship a few years ago. He revisited places again (on foot and by car and train) as well as new places, and his asides and commentary about everyday life are among my favorite parts. If you've read and enjoyed other Bryson books, you will enjoy this one.
I mentioned HOUSE ON FIRE by Joseph Finder last week, and it is another I enjoyed quite a bit. His first Nick Heller book, VANISHED, is probably my favorite, but I like them all.
Current short story reading: the Arthur Train Mystery Megapack. Train is most well known for his creation of clever lawyer Ephraim Tutt (first appeared in 1919), but these stories range wider than that, though legal issues are in all of them. They're fun.
I've started Max Allan Collins's KILLING QUARRY, the latest in his series about the former Vietnam veteran turned hitman, which started in the mid-'70s. The latest group are period pieces in that they are set in the 1970s and 1980s.
I'm reading The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O'Neal and liking it lots (due for release this summer). Next up an ARC of a book I'm really looking forward to – The Paris Hours by Alex George; Paris in the 20s, my cup of tea!
Right there with you on the Joanne Fluke, Sandy. I haven't read one in years, but the police asking a bakery shop owner to investigate? That is suspending disbelief.
I've been a Barbara O'Neal fan for years, Kaye. I'll have to look that one up because even the title is appealing. Well, of course. That's your era!
Jeff, It is going to be a tearjerker. But, I was hooked by the concept before I realized there's also a love angle. That makes it even sadder. Oh, well. I can handle a sad book now and then.
Love Bill Bryson. And, I really enjoyed that book.
I'm not really into legal novels that much. Even with Law & Order, I always liked the police investigation more than the court part. Just a fan of police procedurals I guess.
I really enjoyed Hill Women by Cassie Chambers, which I finished yesterday. She writes about the influence of her maternal grandparents who were eastern Kentucky sharecroppers (= Appalachian poverty). Her mother was the first in the family to not only graduate from high school but also from college. Cassie graduated from Yale and then Harvard Law School. She returned to Kentucky and is an attorney with a specialty in domestic abuse cases. I couldn't not compare her story–going a way and returning to give back–with J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. (He went away, stayed away, and doesn't appear to be giving back.)
The Arthur Train is short stories. And a lot of it is pulpy, but in an interesting way. I am not that much of a legal book fan either, though I did read a lot of Perry Mason when I was younger. An interesting aside is that Train's son John was editor of the Paris Review when it ran interviews with Hemingway and Faulkner, and he later had Presidential appointments from Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
I guess I must have averaged a book a day this week (1) so I'll split my post into two parts.
Part I:
In THE ANTIDOTE TO EVERYTHING by Kimmery Martin, Georgia is a quirky urologist with a tasteful nose ring and tattoos and a lackluster love life. Her best friend is Jonah, a gay internal medicine M.D. practicing at the same hospital. They are each other's closest thing to family. As Georgia travels to Amsterdam for a conference, Jonah begins to discover that his patients at the hospital, which is run by an evangelical church, are being told not to return–especially the transgender ones. When Georgia and Jonah work on strategy to resolve the situation, things suddenly turn dangerous for both of them. This is a compelling story that kept me up till midnight to reach its conclusion. Highly recommended.
WESTERING WOMEN by Sandra Dallas was recommended by Lesa. It reminded me of watching TV westerns such as Wagon Train way back when. A group of 35+ women agree to journey on the Overland Trail from Missouri to California to find husbands among the gold miners. Led by two clergymen, the women have chosen the trip for varying reasons–to escape a man or a difficult living situation, to find a protector and start a family, to make a better life. Throughout the difficult months-long trip, the women face many hardships while finding new relationships and learning to support each other.
OONA OUT OF ORDER by Margarita Montimore is a time travel novel that isn't as light-hearted as I expected. On New Year's Day when she turns 19, and every year thereafter, Oona jumps (involuntarily) to a different point in her life. The first time, she jumps to age 51. She remembers her previous jumps, but not any other time in her life. So she tries to write herself brief letters of explanation to find after she jumps, but it isn't a perfect solution. Only her mother knows about Oona's "condition," as well as one other character who is too young to be around for some of her jumps. Oona has apparently made some outstanding investments so she is quite wealthy–how convenient, because she doesn't seem to work. There are a few love interests over the years. It's an interesting premise, although it is never explained why it's happening to her. Also, Oona isn't the most likable character–probably because she has to live her life out of order in one-year chunks! I found the book fascinating, but not totally satisfying.
Sharon, thank you for recommending RULES FOR VISITING. Forty-year-old May lives with her father and makes her living as a university gardener. She knows everything there is to know about plants and trees, and treats them with love and reverence. She is not as knowledgeable about human relationships, although she has a mild flirtation with a local man who owns a garage and a Mexican restaurant. May doesn't feel she's good at much except her job and she admires an author who is known for making instant and lifelong friends. So she resolves to visit four of her childhood and college friends to rekindle their friendships. A quietly effective book.
Part II:
In DREAD OF WINTER by Susan Alice Bickford, winter in Central NY is brutal, but Sydney Lucerno finds herself traveling back there from Silicon Valley when she learns her mother is dying of pneumonia. She makes it in time to say goodbye, but not to have a two-way conversation, and she is unnerved upon finding her mother's house packed with the antiques she sells . . . and something more lethal. Sydney had a difficult childhood, dropping out of school and getting into trouble with drugs and alcohol, but she has turned her life around. Nevertheless, her return to Oniska is met with serious challenges, including the death of Randy, her mother's lover and business partner, threats on Sydney's life from Randy's Native American father, and the news that she has a troubled teenage half-sister. Sydney is a fascinating, street-smart young woman who can think on her feet and isn't above bending the law. And her story includes plenty of danger and exciting action scenes. But what I was most impressed with was the bone-chilling reality of sub-zero temperatures and severe winter hardships in Oniska, along with local color around the Iroquois community, beautifully and realistically conveyed in this excellent, Edgar-nominated novel of suspense.
I pre-ordered DON'T OVERTHINK IT by Anne Bogel a few months ago and read the whole thing when it arrived this week. Turns out it was just the right book for my state of mind. The subtitle is "Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life." I find it all too easy to worry about worst-case scenarios that may never happen, to become paralyzed when there are too many solutions to a problem, to let negative thoughts become my reality when they are just that–intrusive thoughts. I'm not clinically depressed, but as we all do, I sometimes struggle to get out of my head. This book details why this happens and suggests many ways to banish those unwelcome thoughts and get back to real life. I highlighted so many passages that I'm now summarizing them in a document that I'll keep for posterity. Oh, and the quotes and epigraphs are worth the price of the book alone!
SAINT X is by Alexis Schaitken. When Claire was just 7, she and her family vacationed on Saint X, a fictional Caribbean island. On the night before the family was to return home, Claire's adored college student sister, Alison, disappeared. Her body was found, but it was never determined whether it was murder or an accident. At age 25, Claire (who now calls herself Emily), lives in NY and one night, by chance, encounters one of the two resort employees who were once suspects in Alison's death. Clive is now a taxi driver, and Emily becomes obsessed with him, learning his after-work hangouts, following him and finally inserting herself into his life as a friend but not confronting him or revealing her childhood identity. I found this to be a thoroughly engrossing book by a debut novelist with a distinctive voice which sometimes waxes lyrical and is always compelling. I highly recommend it.
I'm working on INTO THE FIRE by Gregg Hurwitz. A thriller, so something different for me, but I absolutely love his books.
Oh, Nann! I'm so glad you read and appreciated Hill Women. Excellent book, wasn't it? And, you're right about that comparison.
I read Perry Mason, too, but I wasn't as big a fan as my sister was. She went on to become a lawyer. She liked Grisham more than I did as well. That is interesting about Train's son. I love your nuggets of knowledge behind the authors and history, Jeff.
Margie, My copy of Don't Overthink It just came a couple days ago. I think a lot of us who are readers tend to live in our heads a lot. Your summary made me glad I ordered it. Hopefully, I'll get to it this weekend. If not then, the following weekend. Thank you!
And, thank you for the summary of Oona Out of Order. I brought a copy back to the library yesterday because people were waiting for it. Now, I'm not going to bother to re-order it.
Mark, Gregg Hurwitz is a change for you. I was kind of surprised. We all need a change now and then, though.
Margie, I am so pleased you enjoyed RULES FOR VISITING. I found it really wonderful.
Jeff, I will be putting ROAD TO LITTLE DRIBBLING on my reserve list. I enjoyed his Australia book.
Sandy, I gave up on Joanne Fluke while Hannah was still deciding between Norman and the cop. But I still make her blue blueberry muffins when my family visits from one of her first books 🙂
This week I finished up THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT by Clare Pooley. Seventy-nine year old Julian questions how honest we really are with each other. He writes his story in a green journal and leaves it in his local café. He dares each reader to write their own truth and pass it on. We subsequently meet Monica the café owner, Hazard the addicted trader, Australian traveler Riley and Alice the new mother. I got totally wrapped up in these characters lives and their interactions. I must admit I found the instagrammer influencer Alice storyline a little tedious at the end but I was rooting for all of them to find their happiness. The twist at the end was a delightful surprise.
Now I am reading IF FOR ANY REASON by Courtney Walsh. I am admittedly on the fence about this one.
Happy Reading!
Too many books! I want to rad The Authenticity Project, too, Sharon. Someone mentioned it last week as well. Maybe Margie? I like your comment, Sharon, that the twist at the end was a delightful surprise.
Jeff Meyerson, I'm a big fan of the Quarry series. I've read them all. The first four are the best, but they're all pretty good.
I'm an election official, and with Super Tuesday, I didn't have a whole lot of time for reading.
I got to:
Battle Royale; book that spawned so many imitators and is better than all of them.
Sorry,
Also:
White Anvil: Sasquatch horror when a train crashes and man eating sasquatch come to play.
All the Best Lies; I haven't had such a negative response to a protagonist in quite some time. In my experience, the more someone says "It's not about me," the higher the probability that it's about them.
Barely Maps by Peter Gorman; Minimalist maps from a guy who took a bicycle ride across America. I thought it was sad this guy spent so much of his life fearing vast swathes of the country, until he actually went out and saw it. This sort of attitude seems to be proliferating.
The Big Squeeze by Jim Cirni; Some consider it a minor classic, but it's just an old fashioned Fawcett Gold medal hard boiler.
Thank you for being an election official, Glen. My mother always works the elections, and I think it's great.
And, you notice, I only give away books. I don't read all the books I give away.
I too gave up on Joanna Fluke some time ago.
And, Margie, I'm with you regarding Oona Out of Order. I so wanted to love this book. Oona got on my very last nerve fairly early on and I have cast her aside.
Well, darn that Oona. She had so much potential.
Glen, I've read all the Quarry books too. I'm halfway through this one and will finish it tonight. The earlier ones were better but I still enjoy them.
I just finished Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke and immediately started Deadly Deception by Kate Parker.
I haven't read Attica Locke yet, Patricia. Did you enjoy the book?
I am currently reading The Dark Corners of the Night by Meg Gardiner and Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert. On audio it's You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.
Into suspense right now, aren't you, Katstev? I interviewed Meg Gardiner for Poisoned Pen's blog, https://poisonedpen.com/2020/02/10/meg-gardiner-in-the-hot-seat/. She was so much fun to interview.