It’s Thursday! I love to read what you’re all reading for the week. I’m halfway through a book that Jeff’s going to love. It’s a collection, The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers. It’s broken into three sections, but I’m only partway through the second one. They are: “Joy to the World: Random Acts of Kindness at Christmas”, “Silent Night: The Darkest of Holiday Noir”, and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus: And Other Holiday Secrets”. That second section? There are some very dark stories, but that’s why it’s called “noir”. Peter Lovesey wrote the foreword, and a perfect concluding story (I cheated and read it early). Authors include Tim Hallinan, Colin Cotterill, Stuart Nevill, Sujata Massey, Cara Black. There are eighteen stories in this outstanding collection. You have time to save your pennies. It comes out in October.
What are you reading this week? We want to see your lists!
I only finished two books this week. The first was the new book by Stuart Woods, BARELY LEGAL. I'm not a fan of his Stone Barrington books but I took this out of the library since it centered on Herbie Fisher. It was a light read which is what I was looking for.
I also read CAT ABOUT TOWN by Cate Conte. It's a cozy mystery and although I finished it, it was a bit predictable.
I also read part of a fantasy book, A Kiss Before Doomsday by Laurence MacNaughton but it wasn't grabbing me. I left my bookmark in so I might give it another try.
That does sound good, Lesa. Thanks for the mention. We're off to D.C. for the weekend tomorrow (the weather is cooperating, fingers crossed), but first…I read DEATH AT THE EXCELSIOR, a fun collection of early P. G. Wodehouse stories, including a couple of Jeeves stories, and Bill Crider's latest fun Sheriff Rhodes book, DEAD, TO BEGIN WITH. Also finished WHEN BOOKS WENT TO WAR, which you've mentioned before. I liked it a lot.
Currently reading a couple of short story collections: Richard Christian Matheson's DYSTOPIA: Collected Stories (good so far, and I like that a lot of these are quite short), and (for review) the fourth Crippen & Landru collection of the late Edward D. Hoch's Dr. Sam Hawthorne impossible crime stories, ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE. Hoch was a master of posing "impossible" crimes and solving them – for instance, how could someone be murdered while crossing a covered bridge, observed as both ends as empty? The stories in this collection all take place between 1936 and 1940 in Connecticut. I believe there are enough stories for one final collection. All of these are worth reading. Hawthorns is my favorite of Hoch's characters.
Also reading (on the Kindle, as with the Matheson) Philip Roth's chilling novel set during the 1944 polio epidemic in Newark NEMESIS.
I need to finish these as I have several library books on the shelf, by P. J. Tracy, Peter Robinson, and Colin Cotterill, among others.
My library has copies of the Santa collection on order, so I was able to reserve one.
Finished CRAZED by Jacob Stone and started THE IOWA BASEBALL CONFEDERACY by William Kinsella.
Sandy, Sometimes, it's just nice to sit down with a predictable book as a comfort read.
Jeff, Glad you were able to reserve it! I thought of you when it arrived. And, Bill's latest Sheriff Dan Rhodes was as good as usual, wasn't it?
By the way, Bill, thank you for writing those mysteries.
I'm reading a cozy mystery, Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan.
I finished Gone Gull by Donna Andrews. Now I am reading The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor and liking it very much. I have had too many time thieves taking up my reading time this week!
Jeff, thank you for sharing that your wife likes J D Robb's books. I am enjoying them also. I must confess that I skip all the sex parts. Not into that part. I do enjoy Eve and her fight for truth.
Lesa, you know I read the book by Lisa Scottoline and her daughter. I really laughed out loud many times when the funny things Lisa wrote about. I had to copy pages and send to a few people. I am sure you enjoyed it as much as I did. I still laugh when I think of all her book selves and adding some to the kitchen. I have thought many times about putting them in my kitchen.
I finished Glory in Death by J D Robb.
I am the third book in the series Immortal in Death by J D Robb.
Since this is a ebook from the library with only 14 days to read it, all other books are on hold.
Trust everyone will find time to read your 📕 each day, life is to short not to.
Till next week for sharing our love of 📚📚
Mary, It's always good to find time for a cozy mystery.
Love that, Sharon. "Thime thieves".
No shelves in my kitchen, Charlotte, but that doesn't mean I don't have plenty of books there. 😉 Piled on counters, the table. Thanks for sharing your love of books with us!
There's a new JD Robb due soon and I'm chomping at the bit waiting for it! AND a new Pendergast due soon also.
I just finished an advance copy of the latest in the Cavendon series by Barbara Taylor Bradford, who I fell in love with many years ago when she gave us her Harte family saga. This series is very much like the Harte series and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I'm not sure what I'll grab next – something from Mt. TBR, I think
The Santa stories sound wonderful!
I reserved The Usual Santa at the library. It sounds good.
I recently finished The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan, which is one of my favorite reads this year to date–enchanting,engrossing, quirky, a feel-good story with some laugh-out-loud moments. I highly recommend it. It's not to be confused with The LUSTER of Lost Things, which I have out of the library but haven't read yet.
This week I also read Mary Feliz's Address to Die For, which was a fantastic start to a cozy series about a professional organizer. There are two other books that follow it and I intend to read them as well.
I also re-read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, one of my favorites back in 2011, because I wanted to experience it again before the movie comes out. If anyone is planning on seeing the movie, which will be released in 2018, do yourself a favor and read the book first–there is so much delightful detail that I can't imagine the movie will do it justice.
Right now I'm reading the second in Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series. This one is The Storm Sister, and I'm enjoying it just as much as the first.
Kayenta (and Charlotte),
My wife got the new J.D. Robb yesterday from a friend, not the ARC I was expecting but the hardback. She's excited.
Kaye – sorry, I hate autocorrect.
Margie, I loved the Keeper of Lost Things as well!
I read Bill Crider's newest, Dead, To Begin with as well. Bill does his usual great job, but changes things up a bit with the pacing, to keep thing fresh.
Northern Thunder by Anderson Harp, which either is or isn't the first book in his Will Parker series. It seems to depend on who you ask.
Sold! Thank you, Margie, and thank you, Sharon, for chiming in on The Keeper of Lost Things. I loved the online description, and bought it. We only have an ebook in the system, and I don't read them if I can help it.
Glen, Doesn't Bill do a wonderful job with the humor and that series? I liked the connection with A Christmas Carol.
Twenty Four books and no clunkers. That's a pretty good record!
That's a darn good string of good books, Glen.
I am reading The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper which has the slowest pace of any book in a long time! The story is OK, it is just slow. Also will be listening to the audio book of the The Lynching by Laurence Lerner. The sub title is The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan.