I have nothing to report that I’m reading this week. I spent two days working on the Treasures in My Closet post, two evenings reading August book releases for reviews, and I’m getting ready to go to Ohio for my mother’s birthday. I did read a wonderful children’s book, and I’m going to review it for Saturday. I do have reviews pre-scheduled for next week, including one by a favorite author. And, for most of next week, I’ll check in to see comments. But, next Thursday I’ll be driving back home from my Mom’s, so you’ll be on your own for most of the day. (It’s an eight hour drive.) I’ll check in when I get back Thursday evening. I hope you all keep the conversation going. I know everyone still wants to talk about books!
This Thursday, though, is all about you. How are you doing? Is your world starting to open up a little? What are you reading?
It was great to have a long holiday weekend so my older son, who recently had a short stint with Covid and has since had his first dose of vaccine, could join us for some family fun. And today was a new milestone: granddaughter Autumn (2-1/2) had her first day of preschool, joining her big brother Henry (4-1/2). The teacher said she was a happy girl, talking nonstop for the 3-hour session!
Here’s what I read this week:
In SECOND FIRST IMPRESSIONS by Sally Thorne, Ruthie is 25 and has been an office administrator for an upscale retirement community for six years. No love life to speak of, no prospects on the horizon, no real friends, doesn’t know how to dress to impress (and she’s the daughter of a pastor). But she’s great at her job, catering to the residents, keeping the files immaculate, filling in for the vacationing manager, and protecting the rare turtles that populate the area. When two nonagenarian, eccentric residents need a new assistant, Ruthie thinks of an Adonis she recently met at a gas station (paying for his gas when he couldn’t do it himself). She knows that the ultra-wealthy ladies have driven out all of their previous assistants with their ridiculous demands, but Teddy is so beautiful that she just wants the opportunity to keep looking at him. Teddy turns out to be the son of the facility’s owner, with dreams of having his own tattoo shop but no money of his own and a vindictive half-sister, and he’s game to take on this temporary assignment. I adored this charming, quirky romance with so many lovable and unpredictable characters. Just the ticket to lighten up my reading, which has recently included too many WWII books.
INCENSE AND SENSIBILITY is the third in Sonali Dev’s Jane Austen-inspired series about the Indian-American Raje family, but it’s not necessary to read the others first. Yash Raje is a 38-year-old politician who is embroiled in a close race for Governor of California. He is enthusiastic about the changes he can make, but he is not expecting to get shot during a campaign event, with the bullet going through his bodyguard, Abdul, putting Abdul in a coma. Now Yash feels empty, unmotivated, and panic-stricken that he is responsible for Abdul’s life-threatening injury just two days after the bodyguard’s first child was born. Several of Yash’s teenage years were blemished by a serious accident that put him in the hospital, then a wheelchair, for months, and left scars he keeps hidden. With the help of his supportive family, he was able to recover, to excel in law school, and to start a political career. But Yash has had to make some sacrifices. He and Naina have used their 10-year relationship to keep their parents satisfied, but no one realizes there is no romance involved. And that means that Yash has never allowed himself to find a soulmate. India Dashwood runs her family’s yoga business, which is suffering financially, and watches over her younger sister and ailing mother. She met Yash 10 years earlier for a memorable night at the wedding of one of his sisters and never forgot him, but he has never contacted her again. The story of Yash’s journey to win his campaign and to push for what he really wants in life sucked me in, along with India’s struggle to control her own desires and to be true to her lifestyle and occupation. Although Yash and India are the protagonists, and there is arguably too much story devoted to secondary characters, I found many of the latter more believable and interesting and will definitely seek out the other two books in the series (already on my Kindle). The book will be released July 6.
In OFF THE WILD COAST OF BRITTANY by Juliet Blackwell, Natalie and Alex are two of five sisters who were raised as survivalists by their strict, eccentric parents. Natalie left home as soon as she could and wrote a book about her experiences that became a best seller. She came to Ile de Feme, a tiny island off the coast of Brittany (France) to restore a guest house with her lover and to start another memoir detailing that process, but her boyfriend tired of her and moved to Paris to open a restaurant with another woman, leaving her with an unfinished renovation and a lack of funds. Alex stayed with her parents longer but finally became disillusioned and traveled to the island to be with Natalie and for a change of environment. Neither sister at first suspects that the other might have a secret she hasn’t shared. For me, hearing about island life–“if you didn’t bring it with you, you weren’t likely to find it here”–was the highlight of the book/ Natalie and Alex are characters with depth, who developed throughout the book. The other timeline was World War II (not again!) when the island was occupied by German soldiers. Violette was a young, pregnant wife with a crush on her brother-in-law, whose new husband, along with most of the able-bodied island men, joined the French army to fight in the war. This part of the story focused on Violette who, along with all of the other adult women, wore a long black dress and distinctive headdress every day, and one particular German soldier with whom she struck up a special friendship. Although this was not my favorite Blackwell novel, I felt it was well worth reading.
Margie, I love the comment about your granddaughter, that she talked nonstop for 3 hours! It’s sad to think that enthusiasm will probably be squashed somewhere along the line in school. I hope she always enjoys school, though.
I have a copy of Off the Wild Coast of Brittany on my TBR pile. I’ll get to it!
As always, I love your reviews.
Margie, My grandson Eli and your granddaughter would get along great! We tease him that he has all the words.
I enjoyed OFF THE WILD COAST OF BRITTANY and really wished she had just omitted the WWII storyline. The present day storyline of the two sisters was good enough to be a stand alone plot.
Sharon, I agree with you that the WWII timeline could have been eliminated and nobody would have missed it. Not every book has to be about WWII! And yes, between my two grandchildren, there are LOTS of words! Too bad we don’t live near each other, or at least I don’t think we do (I’m in El Dorado Hills in northern California).
I live not too far from there. I used to go to the fireworks show on Independence Day. Don’t know if they’re having it this year.
It feels like things are opening up. There are going to be concerts again, maybe even some Independence Day celebrations.
I read:
Breaking the New by Alex Marlow; I think I read my first press expose when I was in seventh grade. The only thing that’s changed was that back then, there was some hope of reform. That’s completely gone. Nowadays, believing the press is the enemy of the people is completely mainstream. The worst part is that they did it to themselves. Around here, the daily paper was bought out by the usual corporation, and now it only comes out 5 days a week. Meanwhile, a free weekly has sprung up. This newspaper is getting more advertising. It’s getting bigger. People are actually paying to subscribe to a free newspaper. One outfit publishes a newspaper people actually want to read. The other complains about the internet a lot. Guess which is which?
Wolf Spy by Bruce H. Markuson; A trained wolf is sent parachuted into Russia to find a microchip. A different sort of spy novel. I still wouldn’t want a wolf as a pet.
The Body Blog by Karen K. Wentz; A collection of blog posts about the human body by an EMT turned bio-archaeologist. Interesting stuff, if a bit graphic.
Pies, Lies and a Last Good bye by Maria Graizia Swan; A cozy without a murder. The sleuth is asked to watch the horse belonging to the local married rich guy she has a crush on. The wife disappears, and the sleuth is the natural suspect. Way too complex for a short story.
Fedor by Brant Vickers; A fictionalized biography of JoJo, the Dog Faced Boy. He worked in a freak show of some kind his whole life, and parlayed that into fame fortune and influence. A powerful book about using the resources you have to your best advantage.
A Touch of Torment by Gary Ponzo; The seventh entry in the series about an FBI agent and his mafioso cousin fighting terrorism. In this case, it’s Chechen mobsters. I can’t say it’s very realistic, but it’s an entertaining series.
Sounds as if you had a good reading week, Glen. Most of those books had positive verdicts! It is sad what has happened to newspapers, but, as you said, they did it to themselves. I stopped subscribing to the physical newspaper here when they dropped all the book coverage.
We are starting to see people again but slowly. We had a friend of the family visit on Sunday and my boyfriend’s grandchildren visited for the first time in almost two years on Monday. The youngest turned down holiday pay at work to come. The visits were better than the books I read.
TRUFFLES AND TRAGEDY by Gayle Leeson. I usually enjoy her cafe mysteries but this one just didn’t quite work for me. Maybe because some of the regular characters were less involved in the story.
IN THE SHADOW OF SPINDRIFT HOUSE by Mira Grant. This was sort of an aging out Scooby Doo type gang of teen sleuths meets HP Lovecraft and not at all what I was expecting from the book blurb. All I can say for this one was that it was short enough that I finished it.
THE MAN FROM UNCLE #9 THE DIVING DAMES AFFAIR by Peter Leslie. Based on the TV show, the agents from U.N.C.L.E. have to defeat THRUSH’s latest evil plot. It was predictable which I expected but I also found that the story dragged.
Sandy, I think it’s wonderful that we’re starting to be able to visit with family again. I’ve missed that. And, my best friend and I have both been vaccinated, so we take off our masks in the morning when we talk books. That’s so wonderful. Sorry about the so-so books, but the family visits sound great!
SandyG,
I’ve read all the Man from UNCLE books at one time or another. I believe there were 12. I heard someone is actually selling fanfic entries inthe series, but I’ve never encountered one.
First and most importantly, have a good, safe trip to Ohio. We’re not really opening up much yet other than eating out in restaurants again (mostly outdoors where available, but indoors a couple of times) and not wearing masks outdoors (or in our building). Stores and restaurants still require them and most people still wear them automatically. We do have our first trip (to Connecticut and Boston with cousins) scheduled for the end of the month.
I feel like I’ve been reading a fair amount, but I haven’t finished any books this week. Instead, I’ve been alternating among three short story collections and closing in on finishing all of them. It is Jim Shepard’s LOVE AND HYDROGEN, Antonya Nelson’s FEMALE TROUBLE (her fourth collection I’ve read this year), and the MWA anthology, WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN, edited by Michael Koryta.
The other book I’ve been reading and very much enjoying is the non-fiction FIRST RESPONDER: A Memoir, of Life, Death, and Love on New York City’s Front Lines, by Jennifer Murphy, an EMT with the Park Slope Volunteer AMbulance Corps in Brooklyn.
Also, just got Jon Talton’s historical, CITY OF DARK CORNERS.
Thank you, Jeff, for the good wishes for my trip. I still wear my mask at work when I’m on the public floor, and I wear it in stores, although it’s no longer mandatory. I wanted to be healthy for my trip home! I’m glad you’re going to have the chance to see family, too.
I’ll be curious as to what you think about City of Dark Corners.
Have a good trip, Lesa! I hope you can enjoy some lake time as well as visiting. Things are opening up more and more around us. It feels good.
Life is finally settling down a little after our son’s wedding. That feels good too. However, reading time was limited.
Earlier this week I finished Trial and Error by Robert Whitlow – Seventeen years ago, Buddy Smith’s girlfriend left town with their newborn daughter. He has been desperately searching for them ever since. As a lawyer, he is partial to cases involving kidnapping of children, because he knows the trauma of having a child taken from you. It sounds like it could be dark, but it was a very hopeful book full of great characters.
I have been listening to The Iliad by Homer for several months, but have really picked up the pace this week as I just want to finish it.
I am currently in the middle of Peach Clobbered by Anna Gerard and am enjoying it so far.
Have a great week!
Thank you, Gretchen! We’ll probably make it down to the lake at some time. Our hometown is very walkable, and we often take walks to the lake and around town when we’re home.
You’re right. Whitlow’s book sounds dark. I’m glad it was really the opposite.
I finished the Kitchen Front on audio and in the end I enjoyed it more than I did in the beginning. I started reading People You Meet on Vacation and I accidently returned it in Libby. Ugh! Now I am waiting for the physical book in order to finish it. While I am waiting, I started Murder in Mykonos. I am enjoying it but have to read it quickly because Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is waiting to be downloaded. I put holds on all these books months ago and now they are all coming in at the same time! The saying “so many books and so little time” is definitely true in my case.
Enjoy your week ahead.
Thank you, Kathleen. I hope you enjoy your week as well. Rough when all those books come in at the same time, isn’t it? I returned an entire stack today that I just didn’t have time to read.
I hope you enjoy Murder in Mykonos, it’s a good one!
Things are going well in my life. Another of our kids will come to visit in July, I’m meeting two friends for lunch in the park tomorrow, and I’m reading an excellent historical fiction from Pamela Nowak called Never Let Go. Set in the Dakota Territory in the late 1850s, it’s a pioneer women story told from multiple points of view.
Patricia, It’s so nice to hear that things are going well for you, and that another family member will visit. This summer looks like it will be so much better than last for so many of us. Enjoy the visits & the book!
Lesa, Enjoy your trip to Ohio! I will finally get to see my family later on in this month and we are our making our first foray into a restaurant for our 44th wedding anniversary tomorrow.
This week I finished THE SUMMER OF LOST AND FOUND by Mary Alice Monroe. I wished I had stopped reading it after 50 pages or so. I guess I was not ready to read about the pandemic yet nor could I relate to any of the characters. Although they were in their 20’s, it read as teenage angst to me. I usually love her books but this one was a miss for me.
I also read DEADLY EVER AFTER by Eva Gates. Connor and Lucy are engaged. For some inexplicable reason her ex-boyfriend Ricky and his mother show up for the engagement dinner in hopes to get Lucy to change her mind about marrying Connor. Then Ricky’s father ends up murdered and no one can figure out what he is doing on Nags Head in the first place. I really enjoyed this one especially as Louise Jane one of the most annoying characters ever has very small appearances.
Safe travels and Happy Reading!
Thank you, Sharon! Enjoy your family when they arrive. And, actually eating at a restaurant!
Oh, darn, about the Mary Alice Monroe novel. She’s one of a group of authors with a weekly show, Friends and Fiction, and those authors seem to be pouring out the books in the last year. I wonder if they’re just writing them too fast.
And, I agree. Louise Jane is one of the most annoying characters ever.
Good afternoon,
Lesa, I hope you have a fabulous trip and a great time with your family. 8 hours seems such a long drive to me, but I suppose it is nornal in the US. Take care!
It’s a beautiful day here and I have just had a lovely walk along the river with a friend and her Labradoodle. There have been some complaints on our local FB page about people’s over-enthusiastic dogs approaching ‘reactive’ dogs and ruining their training, so I must admit I was a little bit nervous – Jayne’s dog is lovely, but she does think everyone wants to be her best friend. However, I’m glad to say there weren’t that many other dogs around, and their owners were all happy for the dogs to play,. All the trees and flowers along the path are bursting into leaf and bloom now, and the birds seem to sing all day, so it is fine to be out.
Things are, of course, also bursting into life in my garden, so I have been out in the sun tending to that – then I suddenly remembered it was Thursday, and hurried to my desk to talk to everyone!
Our restrictions are being lifted very slowly. There is no change re masks, which are still mandatory in all shops and public buildings, and on public transport. I don’t mind this at all. The north and south of Scotland are about to go down into ‘tier 1’, which means more people can meet indoors, and can, I think, stay overnight. Large swathes of the Central belt – Glasgow, Edinburgh, etc and also Dundee – are being kept in Tier 2 as their numbers are not good. I think you have to have less than 50 cases per 100,000 people per week to go into Tier 1. Two of my friends are away to the islands this month. You are supposed to do extra testing before you go, although this is not mandatory. We are not due to go till September, so I’m not worrying about that yet.
My youngest, Madeleine, gets her final degree results tomorrow, so I have everything crossed for her. At the weekend we will help her move down to our house in Edinburgh.
Like you Lesa I haven’t read too much this past week.
I finished ‘Writing at the Kitchen Table’, Artemis Cooper’s biography of Elizabeth David. I do think ED must have been a very difficult woman to live or work with – she was volatile, demanding, bore grudges and cut people dead if they had annoyed her in some way. She was also typical of her class and generation in that she saw herself as poor, but in fact lived a rather comfortable life in Chelsea (where she had bought a house), and in the houses of friends scattered around the world – she came from the kind of background where families know one another for generations, constantly meet up at hunt balls, weekend house parties, etc and are then routinely invited to people’s villas in Italy, apartments in New York and second homes in Tangier for weeks on end.
Nevertheless, many people see ED as the woman who singlehandedly changed the eating habits of a nation, and brought Mediterranean cooking to dreary post-war Britain. I suppose part of my problem with that is that she didn’t change the eating habits of a nation, but of a certain echelon of society in London and the Home Counties. As Cooper herself says, ‘people who longed to return to Italy or France after 6 years of no holidays’. In the 1940s and 50s most people’s ‘holidays’ would not have extended beyond going to Brighton for a day out, and they would not have ‘returned’ to Sienna or Lyons, as they would never have even thought about going there in the first place. And what is more, most people did not aspire to this ‘foreign food’, they were glad enough that rationing was coming to an end at last.
There’s also a section about the Elizabeth David cookware shop, which ED and four partners opened in Pimlico (London) in the 1960s. This became extremely fashionable, but it made no profits. Some of the partners had invested considerable sums of money in it, and they wanted some sort of return, so eventually they employed a marketing manager who might actually stock the place with things people wanted rather than what ED wanted them to want. ED was incandescent with rage, and severed all connections with the shop, though she was unable to stop them using her name above the door. She was notoriously unable to see anyone else’s point of view about anything.
But ED’s influence is long lasting, and she was a very good writer who worked very hard on her journalism and books – I have read some of her writing, and it is still enjoyable. She was an extremely independent-minded woman at a time when feminism was still way over the horizon. She did not compromise, she expected perfection from herself as well as everyone else, and many famous cooks cite her as the greatest influence on their careers. After she had died, the contents of her Halsey Street kitchen were sold in situ – Prue Leith recalls queuing up outside and fighting her way in to buy ED’s kitchen table for £1,000. When asked what she would do with it, she said she would of course use it in her own kitchen, just so she could feel close to ED as she cooked – Prue Leith is of course famous in her own right, and immensely wealthy, but she just wanted thie little piece of ED with her when she worked.
So this was an interesting book even though I could not warm to the subect.
After all that I wanted something light, so I have moved on to Rebecca Tope’s ‘Guilt in the Cotswolds’, in which the always rather annoying house-sitter,Thea, is employed by the son of an elderly woman to prepare an inventory of her house, now that she has moved into a care home. The woman’s grandaughter is furious with her father for pushing his mother into the home, although the woman herself seems very pleased with her new situation. Thea starts (at her usual slow pace, and with her usual moans and groans) to go through the contents of various rooms, and finds a large collections of beautiful, unworn, ladies’ dresses and silk shawls, etc. Thea’s new boyfriend Drew, an undertaker, through whom she got the job, tells her that the woman had a sister who died at a young age. A few days later the son goes missing; the police are not especially interested in the whereabouts of a 50 year old veterinary surgeon, but Thea and Drew begin to investigate.
I always find these books unsatisfactory, mainly because Thea is such an unattractive character, but I still find myself going back to them. Maybe it’s Thea’s extremely patient spaniel Hepzibah (a name I wanted to give one of my daughters, but which, like so many others, was vetoed) who keeps me interested!
On TV we are now into the most recent season of The Crown; Diana Spencer has come along, and has married Prince Charles. Margaret Thatcher is in full throttle and has taken the UK into an unforgiveable war with Argentina over the Falklands. The Queen realises that she does not really know any of her children, so has lunch with each of them separately to try to find out about their lives. I must say the only one who comes across as even approaching self-awareness is Princess Anne, who freely admits that she is fed up with Diana stealing all the limelight, when none of her own charitable works are ever written up in the press because she isn’t glamourous. I do think this happened, and it was unfair, as Anne is well known for her support of many charities, especially projects in the Third World. HRH’s lunch with Charles reveals him to be entirely self-obsessed and concerned only with his own happiness. Edward – then about to leave Gordonstoun school – is a self-important little prig who sees the general public as beneath contempt and expects them to be grateful for his existence, and Andrew is the irresponsible playboy who doesn’t care tuppence about anything.
On the radio I have just finished Dorothy Sayers’ The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, which I quite enjoyed, though I felt the ending was weak. I’m also listening to another Julie Enfield mystery – Imelda Staunton plays Julie, a London police inspector. In ‘Leaves of the Dead’ she is investigating a murder in the reading room at the British Museum.
The old film of Picnic at Hanging Rock is on TV tonight. I saw it when it first came out in the 1970s, so I am recording it to see what it looks like now, in the light of the more recent adaptation starring Natalie Dormer, which I loved, but many people seem to have loathed.
Has anyone seen Mare of Eastown? I haven’t watched it yet myself but it seems to have had great reviews.
Have a good weekend all,
Rosemary
Eight hours is still a long drive here, Rosemary, but it’s worth it to go home and see and hug family.
Your walk and the time outside sounds wonderful! But, I’m glad you remembered it’s Thursday. We would have missed you. And, I would have missed that fascinating discussion of Elizabeth David. I admit I only knew her name, but not a thing about her, so I really enjoyed your background and commentary about her. Thank you!
I haven’t seen The Crown, but have to say those portraits of the Queen’s children sound as if they’re just how we imagine them from the little bit of public information we have. We really only know them from the media, though.
Thank you, Rosemary! I always enjoy your letters from Scotland.
Rosemary, It takes us a little over 6 hours to drive from Columbus, Ohio to our daughter in the Chicago area. The drive seems longer each time we make it.
Thank you for The Line of Duty recommendation. My husband and I finished season one on ACORN TV Monday. It was very good. We are looking forward to season 2.
Rosemary, I have one more episode of Mare of Easttown left, and I have really enjoyed it. It’s a great story, and Kate Winslet is spectacular, but also the characters speak with what I always called a Philadelphia accent, and it is pretty authentic! I used to live in the Philadelphia area, so I’m pretty sure I used to have that accent, but at least it’s still instantly recognizable to me, and for some reason it has enhanced my enjoyment of the show..
A few extra hot days to start to the month here. Yesterday was our first no-mask day in public, visited a couple garden stores and the library. Nevada changed as of June 1st that masks are no longer required for “those fully vaccinated”.
I wanted to put in a good word for Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara, one of this year’s Edgar Winners. Earlier this year when I read an oldie, I Capture the Castle, I said I couldn’t think of another like it. But this bears similarity, a story convincingly told in the voice of an optimistic, imaginative, resilient child.
With the luck of the library’s hold list, I also read Paula Mclain’s 2021 When the Stars Go Dark. Well written and absorbing, a child abduction set in 1970’s Northern California echoing the Polly Klaas kidnapping.
On a cheerier note I’m rounding out the reading week with Close to Birds: An Intimate Look at our Feathered Friends. Beautiful photography and anecdotes covering about 30 common birds.
It seems like a totally different world, doesn’t it, MM, when you can go without masks? I really haven’t. I’ve still worn my to work and to the grocery store. I haven’t been in too many other places.
I appreciate your comments about When the Stars Go Dark. I don’t know if anyone has really mentioned that here.
That’s interesting, as I found Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara virtually unreadable, and gave it up after about 40 pages. Did I just quit too soon?
Richard, I’d say yes, but I’m an armchair traveler. While I wouldn’t physically want to be in the slums of India, I love to explore a totally different situation via reading. Same with historical fiction.
How exciting that you are going to Ohio to see your mother. Have a lot of fun, I am sure you will. I have always wanted to go to Ohio because my husband grew up there, but we just don’t travel that much. Although he isn’t much interested in returning and no relatives are still there, he does tell me how beautiful the state was. That is also what I remember about Alabama, the beauty, the green trees. Every time I visited my family over the years, I would marvel at the beauty of the outdoors.
This week I finished A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY by J.L. Carr. A lovely, short book about a veteran of World War I spending time in a remote village in England uncovering a Medieval painting in a church. I found everything about it interesting, and thought it was a great read.
I started THERE ARE NO GHOSTS IN THE SOVIET UNION, a book by Reginald Hill that includes a novella by that name and five short stories. I usually take a while to get through short story books, reading a few at a time. And some of these are longer short stories.
I am now reading my first book for 20 Books of Summer, THE BIRDWATCHER by William Shaw. I am enjoying it so much I stayed up too late two nights in a row. I have vowed to review every book I read for that “challenge”; we will see how that goes.
Tracy, Ohio is beautiful. It really wasn’t until I moved back here and drove through it that I appreciated the beauty, the farms, the country cemeteries, the small towns. It’s a lovely state.
What is your 20 Books of Summer challenge? Is it 20 books read over the summer, or 20 books about summer? Just curious.
The goal of the challenge is to pick 20 books (from your TBR pile, I think) to read from June 1 to Sept 1, and also to review them. I have done it several years, and two times I actually read all twenty, the other times I read that many over the summer but did not stick to the list. It is very flexible (like change your mind and swap our books), and there 10 and 15 book versions, but I always stick with the list, and I could never narrow a list down below twenty.
I have never succeeded at reviewing all the books, but this year that is my goal. I want to train myself to do shorter reviews so I don’t leave so many wonderful books unreviewed.
Thank you! I like that goal. Thanks for answering, Tracy.
Yes, Rosemary, we loved Mare of Easttown, even though the first episode was a little slow to get into.
As far as driving 8 hours being normal here, I guess it depends on where you live. Even when we drive from New York to Florida, I never drive that long in one day (though I probably did when I was younger). I’ll drive a couple of hours. stop to stretch my legs, go another couple of hours, stop for lunch, etc. Since my wife doesn’t drive, it is all on me. Of course, distances in Britain are a lot shorter. I’ve driven from Heathrow to York and from York to Edinburgh, which seemed long at the time but are nothing compared to the distances in this country. Each of those is just over 200 miles. As long as you’re on the Motorway, it’s a piece of cake. It’s shorter than the drive from where we are to Washington, D.C.
We finally had a sunny day yesterday. I went to Half Price to sell one bag of books. I had not been there since February 2020 because of the pandemic. What a change! They must have cut staff because the place was a mess! Boxes everywhere, all the chairs were gone-where did they go? and it was depressing. I sold my books and audiobooks and left.
I bought an old library copy of an audiobook by Jodie Picoult about a family with brittle bone disease. The daughter is a real charmer and super intelligent. The mother wants to do a wrongful birth suit against her best friend, an OB-GYN. That would end the friendship, in order to get enough money to make her daughter independent later in life, eg special car for her etc. The father is totally against the suit, he says that would not that make Willow think that they did not want to her to be born. Willow’s older sister, is jealous of the attention that her younger sister gets and then hates herself for it.
There are a few very happy spots in the story and I love the Willow character.
Also started a graphic about two friends who love art. The graphics are wonderful and the story needs something.
Planning a walk in the nearby park that has ducks for the next sunny day.
Carolee, They probably let all the staff go during the pandemic, and haven’t hired them back yet. That’s a shame that it was so depressing.
I bet that graphic book is beautiful since it’s about art.
I hope you have another sunny day soon!
It’s day three of quarter end close. I can see this part of the finish line, but unfortunately, tomorrow will be crazy busy again with all kinds of extra reports we have to do for quarter end. I’m just hoping I don’t have to work on Saturday.
I’ll be starting A TREASURE TO DIE FOR by Terry Ambrose today. I’ve heard some good things about the series so I’m looking forward to it.
Last night, I finished up KILLING IN A KOI POND, the newest Murder, She Wrote novel. I enjoyed it, but I think the suspects could have been stronger to make me really care about it.
Mark, Have you seen or read Ellen Byron’s August release, Cajun Kiss of Death, yet? I won’t tell you the spoiler, but you and I are several of the reviewers mentioned in the Acknowlegements.
Really? How cool! I’ve got an eARC, but I won’t read it until closer to release date.
Mark, I read an eARC, too, and the Acknowledgements were in it, too.
I’m sitting in the Morning Room watching a Stellar Jay gobbling up Sunflower seeds. It’s mate is splashing in the bird bath, both are in filtered sun mottling the Hostas and ferns outside the open windows. It’s 71, clear, a beautiful morning in Portland. We had a nasty heat wave, just now ended, so it’s a pleasure to enjoy a second cup of coffee with you here this morning.
From the library came MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM. I liked NARROWBOAT SUMMER a lot so got this one, but it’s Epistolary in format and I find that off putting, so I’ve set it aside. Also from the library, THE PLACE TO BE, an autobiography by newsman Roger Mudd, which was interesting but awfully full of names and dates and could have used more anecdotes and perhaps less personnel listings.
Reading short stories, I finished THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF LOCKED-ROOM MYSTERIES AND IMPOSSIBLE CRIMES edited by Mike Ashley, 2000 ebook, which I reviewed over 2 posts on my blog (www.tipthewink.net). Quite a good anthology, and the ebook version makes it easy to handle, as the print version is bulky.
While continuing to read short stories, today I’m starting DOING TIME by Jodi Taylor, who is the author of the wonderful Chronicles of St. Mary’s. This is a new book, published yesterday, in her Time Police series (the other book in the series is HARD TIME). I like her writing and am looking forward to this one. I’ll open the first page after I come in from some gardening.
I hope you have a wonderful day, and trip next week!
I should have explained that the new Jodi Taylor book DOING TIME is first in the series, and the other book, HARD TIME is scheduled for a January 2022 release.
I ordered Doing Time yesterday, Richard! I love Jodi Taylor’s stories. I’m behind in reading her Chronicles of St.Mary’s, but I’m looking forward to the new series.
And, thank you for the intro to your post today. I like to picture people settling in our Thursday to read everyone’s weekly post, and talk about what we’re reading. Thank you for setting the scene.
The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes sounds so good. I’m going to have to check out your reviews.
Thank you!
Have a great trip and visit! I just finished The Newcomer and We Came Here to Shine. The library due dates have returned in our area, so made an effort to read only library books for a couple weeks!
Thank you, Holdenj. I hope you enjoyed them.
Safe travels, Lesa! I know it’ll be a fun few days for all of you.
Doing some deep deep cleaning here which includes a lot of boxes of stuff leaving the house never to return, including books.
But I have read some good books this past week.
Continuing to seek out books centering on connections and nurturing, each of these did that in a meaningful, albeit very different, way.
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
Haven Point by Virginia Hume (ARC)
These Tangled Vines by Julianne MacLean
And I read Castle Shade by Laurie R. King (ARC) even though I’m not as over the moon about this series as some Laurie King’s historical research draws me in.
Kaye, What did you think of The Last Thing He Told Me? I know the premise. I haven’t read, and probably won’t read it. Just curious. Good for you for deep cleaning! If you want to come to Evansville afterwards, and work on my place, you’re welcome!
I was surprised by how much I liked The Last Thing He Told Me. I only picked it up to see which box I was going to put it to leave the house and didn’t put it down until I finished. I loved it. The characters were all likeable, bright, and enjoyable. Nothing like other books in this whole over-done (IMO) domestic suspense trope. You would probably like it.
I’ll have to look for it, Kaye, unless I put it in a box somewhere.
Haven’t read much this week at all. Since Bill finished tax season, I’ve lost my prime time to listen in the evenings, although I have listened for a few. Still enjoying The Thursday Murder Club. While parts are very funny, there are some very bittersweet moments too. It’s hard to go from tears of laughter to tears of sadness almost in the blink of an eye. And, I confess, some of the British English is over my head. But I get the gist of it.
We are opening up very slowly. We out to eat a couple of times after doctor appointments. Still wore my mask tho since the doctor tested our responses to the COVID vaccine. Anything over 1 is supposed to be OK. I managed a 4 while Bill got >20! With my autoimmune issues, I’m going to play it safe. There are still 50% of people quite vulnerable to the disease still and ready and able to spread it.
Have a good trip Lesa. Let me know if you need anything before you go.
Thank you, Sandie. I’m going to use one of your reviews on Sunday, but I’m ready for the rest of the week!
Yes, please continue to play it safe! Take care of yourself.
That’s the one advantage to reading the book. I could see the British English. He does play with your emotions, though, doesn’t he?
Thanks to all for your suggestions…I put The Last Thing He Told Me on my library list. I have been rereading Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs Pollifax series and Donna Andrew’s Turing Hopper series…
Lesa have a great trip, enjoy and be safe…
Thank you, Gram. And, as I said, I really liked the Turing Hopper books. Thanks for the good wishes.
We are opening up very slowly. We out to eat a couple of times after doctor appointments. Still wore my mask tho since the doctor tested our responses to the COVID vaccine. Anything over 1 is supposed to be OK. I managed a 4 while Bill got >20! With my autoimmune issues, I’m going to play it safe. There are still 50% of people quite vulnerable to the disease still and ready and able to spread it.
Have a good trip Lesa. Let me know if you need anything before you go.