Whew! I made it to Thursday. I was cramming in books for reviews you’ll read here in November and
December. But, I’m fine. How are you doing this week?
I’m just about to start Alex Trebek’s memoir, The Answer Is…Reflections on My Life. Rosemary, Trebek is the well-respected game show host of a program called “Jeopardy”. He’s hosted it for thirty-six year. He’s had a great deal more attention than usual in the last year after he announced he had pancreatic cancer. He’s always been very private, but wrote his memoir when he learned how many people cared about him. I’ve been watching “Jeopardy” longer than those thirty-six years. I watched when it was on years earlier with Art Fleming.
How are you doing? What have you been reading in the past week?
I always wanted to be able to answer the questions like you did on Jeopardy when I was little. I am reading Lineage Most Lethal. Good book! Thanks for letting me know when it came out.
I love watching Jeopardy and started watching it with my grandmother as a kid. I have Alex’s book on hold at the library so I’ll get to read it someday.
This week I read BARNABAS COLLINS by Marilyn Ross. It’s part of a series that’s loosely based on the a Dark Shadows TV show. I had read some of these back in the 70s. The series is being reissued so reading this was nostalgic.
WITCHES AND WEDDING CAKE by Bailey Cates. I always enjoy my trips to The Honeybee Bakery.
STILL AS WHISKEY by J.A. Kazimer. A cozy mystery set at a distillery in a small Florida town.
MUZZLED by David Rosenfelt. It’s a standard entry in his Andy Carpenter series.
Me too! I watched with Art Fleming (and Don Pardo was the announcer) and I watch Alex Trebek. I have a friend who was on Jeopardy in the '90s when they still gave prizes, and she got a bedroom set for finishing second.
Yes, we're doing OK here. Our second library is open too, and I have gotten a few books, though some I will be returning because they just didn't suit my mood of the moment.
What did I read this week? First, HOPES & FEARS, the next Peter Turnbull mystery on my shelf, with Hennessey & Yellich on the case. I've found it so interesting how he has been able to ring different changes on what is basically the same police procedural series featuring three recurring characters. In this one, a man stumbles on the body of a young woman in the woods who was – apparently – kept in the deep freeze for some time before being dumped. As usual, it was a short, fast read. I like his books.
Next was NADA by Jean-Patrick Manchette, his first success (1974 France), about a disparate gang of leftists and anarchists who plan to kidnap the American Ambassador for ransom…and political reasons. Not my favorite of his books, but as always it was a quick read. My library has a few more I haven't read yet. I'd recommend THE PRONE GUNMAN or 3 TO KILL.
I like Susie Steiner's Manon Bradshaw series, but what is the deal lately with British writers' obsession with human trafficking? It dragged down the last couple of Peter Robinson books for me, and now Bradshaw has to deal with Lithuanian men enticed to Britain, supposedly for jobs, who are treated almost as slaves. A man is found hanging in a tree with a note implying he was murdered. Let's just say, read these for her private life and that of her family and friends. I found the parts about the men dragged the book down for me. Sorry if I'm shallow, but there it is.
I've been reading the Robert Silverberg short story collection ALIEN ARCHIVES with some enjoyment, even though I'd read most of the stories previously.
At a friend's recommendation, I bought (since I didn't think I would finish a library book quickly enough) Otto Friedrich's CITY OF NETS: A PORTRAIT OF HOLLYWOOD IN THE '40s (1986), and since I finally started it, I am enjoying it very much. If you have any interest in the movies and that period, I recommend it highly.
Next: the next in Val McDermid's Karen Pirie series, BROKEN GROUND.
This week I finished PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA by Jenn Mckinlay. I really enjoyed it. Her books are always great fun.
I should be finished with MISS GRAHAM'S COLD WAR COOKBOOK by Celia Rees but life got in the way yesterday . Quite the u-turn from the Mckinlay book but I am loving this one too. Edith Graham is in Germany after the WWII to supervise schools. She also is recruited as a spy to help track Nazis for the Nuremberg trials. She uses coded recipes to pass along information. I am finding it most interesting to read about life in post war Germany. Most recent WWII historical fiction pretty much stops with the war.
Happy Reading!
Aww, Christie. Thank you. At that time, I couldn't answer the opera questions. Now, I can answer the opera, literature, history questions, but not popular culture. And, I'm sometimes appalled at the lack of historical knowledge by some of the contestants!
You're welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying Lineage Most Lethal.
I need to read it this weekend, Sandy. There are holds at our library as well.
Sounds as if you had a good reading week.
Jeff, I don't know. I dropped Susie Steiner's book because I found it too boring with the human trafficking. It must be the same thing American authors have for Mexican cartels. There's an author I really like as a person, but I just had no interest at all in the series she wrote about the Mexican cartels. No interest at all, even though I lived in Arizona for eight years.
You have quite a variety this week. That's why I love to see what others are reading.
Sharon, You're so right about Jenn's books. They are fun. She can handle death and serious issues in her mysteries, but still have fun. I loved Paris is Always a Good Idea.
Thanks for the explanation Lesa! I have heard of Jeopardy but had no idea what it was really.
I finally got to the end of that British Library Crime Classic book – ‘The Hog’s Back Mystery’ and it didn’t get any better in my opinion. Far too much verbiage about how someone could do X at 3.25 if he was at Y by 3.55, etc etc.
Now I am reading The News from Ireland – it is a collection of short stories by William Trevor, who, I believe, is a very famous Irish author. I’ve had this book on my shelves for years, and I think I may well have read it as a teenager, but of course I couldn’t remember a thing about it. I’m not a great fan of short stores, but I can see that Trevor is a master of them – his writing makes you think, and the way he can describe a character or a place in just a few well-chosen, unexpected, words is outstanding. I think I just find short stories too – short! I’m going to finish this though, as it’s a good read. I’ve just read one about an American woman in Florence who makes repeated (doomed) attempts to strike up a relationship of some kind with an English tour guide writer. His sad and unsatisfactory past is hinted at, as is her unhappy marriage. Then she disappears. I thought we would find out at the end of the story what had happened to her, but as is so often the case with this form, it is left entirely open.
I’m also reading Lion, a memoir by an Indian man who got lost on a railway station when he was 5, and ended up being adopted by a loving Australian family. The book is about what happened to him in between and how he starts the search to find his birth mother and siblings.
And I’m also taking part in a quirky book tag suggested by another blogger – it’s called A Bibliophile’s NIght Out – a title which would have put me off right away except that the person whose contribution I first saw said that she – like me – absolutely hates nights out (and she’s only 28!) but enjoyed choosing the books for this theme. There are headings like ‘In the toilets – the book you did not finish’, ‘The Morning After: A Comfort Book’, ‘On the Dance Floor: A Book that made you feel like jumping up and down with excitement’ and ‘in the taxi: a prequel or novella you’d recommend’. It’s fun.
But now I am going to take a walk beside the river. It’s a sunny day here but ferociously windy, so I am hoping that the trees down there will give a little protection.
Have a good day everyone!
Rosemary,
I always enjoy your comments. Thank you! And, I'm jealous that you're leaving to take a walk by the river.
I've heard of Lion, but never read it. It's your book tag that sounds interesting. She picked some interesting topics. It sounds like fun.
Sending hugs to Scotland.
Lesa, I can't wait to hear what you think about Alex Trebek's book. I, too, am a long-time Jeopardy viewer (yelling out the answers when I know them), even from the Art Fleming days. I put a "season's pass" on the show so I don't miss any new ones and am looking forward to the new season in September.
I look forward to new Marian Keyes books, but I found GROWN UPS disappointing. It's about three brothers and their families in Ireland. Johnny married Jessie after her first husband, Johnny's best friend, died young. Jessie has her own business and is addicted to it, plus she has 5 children. Liam and Paige divorced and he married the much younger Nell, whom everyone in the family likes. But Nell may have married too quickly, as Liam is turning out to have some unattractive tendencies. Steady Ed is married to Cara, who has a bulimia program. The whole book is about the travails of each of the characters, with subplots about their children thrown in. It is way too long at over 500 pages (when it didn't need to be) and I got impatient trying to find sympathetic characters. There are some, but they are overshadowed by the tedious ones. Too bad. Maybe it's just me–Amazon reviews are mostly pretty good.
In Linda Castillo's OUTSIDER, Amish Adam and his children in Painters Mill, Ohio discover an injured woman in the snow while on a sleigh ride and take her home to recover. Gina says she is a police officer and asks for the town's chief of police, Kate Burkholder, who was her roommate at police academy. Kate had left Columbus when she suspected Gina was becoming a dirty cop and returned to her home, where she had left her Amish background behind. Now she is afraid Gina is a target for corrupt cops, but Gina is less than forthcoming about the details. Kate and her live-in boyfriend, FBI agent John, put themselves and the Amish family housing Gina in jeopardy as they try to navigate this sticky situation. Typical of this long-running series, I enjoyed the fast-moving story.
Meg Mitchell Moore's latest, TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE, deals with two single-parent women in a New England town and their daughters. Sherri and 11-year-old daughter Katie have fled their previous lives when Sherri's husband was sent to jail for his role in the murder of a young girl. Rebecca's husband died more than a year ago but she isn't really ready for the dating scene just yet. Her daughter Morgan becomes best friends with Katie, and her beautiful 17-year-old, Alexa, has a budding blog which is gaining more followers every day. Her mother knows nothing about it, nor about Alexa's desire to skip college and move to LA. It's an interesting, quiet look into these characters' lives as they change, evolve, and open themselves up to new experiences.
The rave reviews for MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, along with its title, led me to believe it would be a gothic mystery. I found the first half-plus to be mildly interesting, although I thought the writing was rather sophomoric and without nuance. It's set in 1950 in Mexico. Well-to-do Noemi is sent by her father to find out why her cousin and childhood friend, Catalina, has written an alarming, almost incoherent letter about being frightened and made ill by the house where she resides with her new husband, Virgil, an Englishman, and his extended family. Noemi's father wants her to convince Catalina's husband to send her to Mexico City for treatment. Noemi discovers, however, that Virgil's family is creepy, to say the least, and that the house itself is keeping unsavory secrets. I won't say more, except that the last third or so is flat-out horror, some of it disgusting. Clearly, I'm not the intended audience. I did speed-read till the end to find out what happened.
Margie, I have OUTSIDER at the library waiting to be picked up. Maybe tomorrow.
Rosemary, I didn't read LION but I did see the movie adaptation, starring Devl Patel, Nicole Kidman, and Rooney Mara,
I'm tired this week. I haven't been sleeping well, but more than that, I'm just tired of the stress of work. We've been in crisis mode for 6 months now. I need things to slow down a little. Sadly, I don't see that happening any time soon.
On the reading front, I'm working on THE FIRST WAVE by James R. Benn. It's set in World War II. I'm about half way through and really enjoying it.
Happy to learn that someone else remembers Art Fleming. I have Alex Trebek's book on my library list. I raced through Jonathan Kellerman's Museum of Desire…typical of his stories but I enjoy the characters. Murder Once Removed is going slowly as I have to use my magnifying rod to read the small, close together print.
Oh, Alex Trebek – don't we love him?!
I haven't read as much this past week. I took my time reading "A Gentleman in Moscow" just to savor each and every word.
Laura Lippman's "My Life as a Villainess: Essays" was the perfect book for after. And I loved it.
Then "The Road Not Taken" by Susan Rubin (ARC) which was a very, VERY strange book, and I loved it!
And then, "All the Missing Pieces" by Julianna Keyes (ARC) which was quite a romp. Fun, suspenseful and sexy.
And no idea what I might read next. There are some books coming out in September and in October I'm antsy to read.
xxoo
I've met Alex Trebek, and he's everything you might expect: Handsome, suave, smart, and amazingly modest.
All e-books again!
Sinkhole: woke horror novel.
The Mountain: Ryan Decker goes to Humboldt County and starts shooting pot dealers.
Targitt; Prose version of the obscure comic book.
Demented; Sexual harassment starts to ratchet up.
Sailing Blue Water Solo Mystique; Some guy tries to re-write Walden while sailing in the Caribbean.
A Rock and a Hard Place; Adventures of a geology student in 1970's South Africa.
Yes, Margie. Although Gothic was mentioned for Mexican Gothic, a lot of the reviews aimed at libraries mentioned horror. I'm not that market either.
It doesn't surprise me one bit that so many of us love Jeopardy. I'll let you know about the book.
I had a few issues with Outsider, but I didn't mention them in my review & won't mention them here since Jeff hasn't read it yet. Maybe we should take our discussion offline once he's finished it. But, I love this series.
I'm sorry, Mark. Since they let people go where you work, I don't see it slowing down either. I don't even know what you do for a living, but cutting staff certainly didn't help. I'm sorry.
And, it makes it hard to read, too, when you're under so much stress. I hope you're finding a book that helps you escape now and then.
Take care of yourself. Easy to say, isn't it? Not so easy to do.
Ouch, Gram. I'm sorry about the print in Murder Once Removed.
We do love Alex Trebek, Kaye. And, I love that you had a good week of reading, even if you didn't read as much as usual. Sounds as if every one you did read was satisfying.
Glen, That is so nice to know. You always worry that someone won't live up to expectations when you expect them to be a nice person.
Nothing wrong with all e-books. You found time to read!
Lesa and Margie, I did try to read "Mexican Gothic." It bored me to tears and I gave up fairly early on. I did get as far as being in the house, but the characters were all rude, the protag less than interesting and the house was nasty. I didn't find anything "gothic" about it. Just ugh.
Well, there you go. One more reason not to even try it, Kaye.
Now, I read the Alex Trebek book on my lunch hour – quick read. In one hour, I'm on page 93. I should have a review on Saturday.