We love to hear tidbits about royalty and what their actual interests are or about their real personalities. I mean, what if royalty is just like us? Of course, they're not really and we know it. In S.J. Bennett's entertaining novel, the first in a planned series, The Windsor Knot, royalty is definitely not just like us, not unless we investigate and solve a murder that happened after a dinner party we hosted.
Windsor Castle with the Queen in residence is a busy place, full of staff, invited guests, and other royals. After one of the Queen's dine and sleeps thrown for Charles' benefit, a guest, a young Russian pianist, is found dead in his room. Initially thought to be the result of auto-erotic asphyxiation gone wrong, it turns out to be a case of murder instead. When the direction the authorities take in investigating is clearly off track, the Queen gets involved with her own behind the scenes investigation. Of course, as the Queen, she cannot be seen to be looking into this so she uses her new assistant personal secretary Rozie as her proxy. Rozie is uniquely positioned to help the Queen and keep everything extremely private, setting up meetings, interviewing people of interest, and researching connections. Her military background doesn't hurt either.
This is a mystery in the tradition of the Golden Age of crime writing and it is quite fun. The Queen is constrained and so must direct others to uncover the nuggets of information she's already uncovered and connected to the web of the whole. There are a multitude of suspects, an unclear motive, delicate international diplomacy issues, and a Director General of MI5 who consistently underestimates the Queen as a little, old grandmotherly sort instead of a long reining, fiercely intelligent woman. Bennett's Queen comes off as thoughtful, determined, kind, and diplomatic. She hews to duty but has a firm sense of justice and will quietly sidestep duty if justice requires. Rozie, a Brit of Nigerian descent, is a delight as she settles into detecting at the direction of her boss and into the always on call role of assistant private secretary. There's also a scene where she is a complete and total badass. Woven around the detecting bits are charming scenes from the Queen's daily life at Windsor as she walks her dogs, deals with her staff, and interacts with Prince Philip. The novel is occasionally a little slow moving but there is some good humor and several red herrings to balance the pace. All in all, a clever, fun, and enjoyable murder mystery.
Some books make you feel young. Some make you feel every bit of your age. Some are light hearted and delightful. And some are heavy and darkly depressing. I didn't expect light hearted and delightful from Jean Kyoung Frazier's Pizza Girl given the premise but I didn't expect the heavy, every bit your age feeling either. Unfortunately that's what I got.
Pizza Girl (unnamed until quite late in the novel) is 18 and pregnant. She lives with her mother and her boyfriend and works at a local pizza joint. She is ambivalent about having a baby, is unhappy at work, feels smothered by her loved ones, worries how she is similar to her late father, an alcoholic, and is just drifting through life. She spends a lot of her time avoiding the boyfriend who has given up his college dream to be with her and raise their upcoming child, sneaking out to her dad's locked shed where she sits and drinks and thinks. Then one Wednesday a woman calls the pizza place and orders a pizza with pickles. Our pizza girl delivers this odd order, quickly becoming obsessed with Jenny Hauser, a housewife who seems to be as discontented as Pizza Girl herself. This unexpected attraction to Jenny takes over Pizza Girl's life, as she imagines them into a deeper friend relationship than they actually have.
The angst oozes from this coming of age novel like hot cheese on pizza. It is a character study, ruminative and moody, and there's little plot to hang the story on. Pizza Girl makes mistake after mistake, moping about and refusing to make a change towards claiming her own happiness. Jenny is lonely but that makes it no less odd and slightly creepy that she invites this unknown young girl to hang around with her and to babysit her child. None of the characters besides Pizza Girl come alive at all and since she's such a depressed and aimless character, it makes for a frustrating reading experience although those who like intentionally quirky novels might find it more engaging than I did.
This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.
The book is being released by Grand Central Publishing on January 12, 2021.
The book's jacket copy says: For readers of Station Eleven and Good Morning, Midnight comes an electric, heart-pounding novel of love and sacrifice that follows people around the world as they unite to prevent a global catastrophe.
When dark comet UD3 was spotted near Jupiter's orbit, its existence was largely ignored. But to individuals who knew better -- scientists like Benjamin Schwartz, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies -- the threat this eight-kilometer comet posed to the survival of the human race was unthinkable. The 150-million-year reign of the dinosaurs ended when an asteroid impact generated more than a billiontimes the energy of an atomic bomb.
What would happen to Earth's seven billion inhabitants if a similar event were allowed to occur?
Ben and his indomitable girlfriend Amy Kowalski fly to South America to assemble an international counteraction team, whose notable recruits include Love Mwangi, a UN interpreter and nomad scholar, and Zhen Liu, an extraordinary engineer from China's national space agency. At the same time, on board a polar icebreaker life continues under the looming shadow of comet UD3. Jack Campbell, a photographer for National Geographic, works to capture the beauty of the Arctic before it is gone forever. Gustavo Wayãpi, a Nobel Laureate poet from Brazil, struggles to accept the recent murder of his beloved twin brother. And Maya Gutiérrez, an impassioned marine biologist is -- quite unexpectedly -- falling in love for the first time.
Together, these men and women must fight to survive in an unknown future with no rules and nothing to be taken for granted. They have two choices: neutralize the greatest threat the world has ever seen (preferably before mass hysteria hits or world leaders declare World War III) or come to terms with the annihilation of humanity itself.
Applying to college is stressful. It's stressful for students but it's also stressful for parents. I've been through it not only for myself, but also three times now as a parent. And I think it may be harder as a parent. Of course every school is going to want your amazing child, right? Well, no. And it is incredibly painful to see a college tell your child that they regret...blah, blah, blah. (I still make spitting noises whenever the name of one particular institution is mentioned even though the kid in question is long since over the hurt of the denial.) So those of us privileged enough to have the time and money to do so try to do whatever we can to help our child look attractive to the college of their choice. We harangue them about their grades. We drive them to and from countless extracurricular activities. We lecture them on their social media presence. We take them on college visits. We hire tutors or outside college counselors. We enroll them in SAT/ACT prep classes. It's a lot. But we want them to have their choice of colleges. So I suppose that it isn't really surprising to find out that some parents crossed a legal line to make sure their children got into the college of their choice, as we all saw during the 2019 college admissions scandal. We watched as the highest profile parents pled guilty, lost professional opportunities, were pilloried in the press and public opinion, and ultimately served time. But did we ever wonder at the effect on the children at the base of the scandal beyond wondering how much they knew? Although the parents were ostensibly acting in their interests, the impact on the kids and their lives has been largely ignored. This unexplored angle is what Julie Buxbaum has created in her ripped from the headlines novel, Admission.
Chloe Berringer has a pretty great life. She's the daughter of privilege. She goes to an elite private school. Her mother is Joy Fields, a B-list actress. She doesn't totally fit in at school but she has a fabulous best friend, Shola, who is closer to her than her own sister. She's just been accepted at her dream college, the school she never thought she'd get into in a million years. And the guy friend she's been crushing on forever might just be showing signs of finally being interested. Sure, she isn't a high achiever or have a driving passion or know where she wants to be in five years or what she wants to be when she grows up. But those are minor and her life, on the whole, is truly pretty great. But that whole life changes early one morning when she opens the door to the FBI who are there to arrest her mother for her role in a college admissions scandal.
Chapters alternate between "Now" and "Then," or the door opening and moving forward from that moment versus the school year leading up to the fateful door opening. Both pieces are told in the first person by Chloe allowing the reader to see both her struggles with the admissions process itself and how her parents involvement in the scandal makes her feel about herself. Chloe isn't a stellar student but she's decent. Her standardized test scores are not good and no amount of tutoring has helped her. Her first attempt at a personal essay is dismal. Her friends appear to be sailing through the college admissions process while she hits every hurdle an otherwise wealthy, white girl can hit. The stress, anxiety, and fear accompanying the whole process is incredibly true to reality and made me sad to read about (thank heavens I'm done getting kids through this). The process stress, anxiety, and fear are nothing to the stress, anxiety, and shame that she feels once the scam becomes public though and she has to do some hard thinking about her own culpability and wonder if she practiced willful blindness and therefore deserves some of the public scorn and vitriol directed her way. It gets even harder as she examines the whole situation from the perspective of her best friend. Although they are incredibly close, Shola serves as a foil to Chloe in many ways. She is an outstanding student, black, and a scholarship student at their school. Her family does not have the financial means to fund even the additional legal "leg-ups" that everyone else at the school uses as a matter of course but Chloe still envies Shola without understanding all of the privilege she, Chloe, takes for granted.
As a character, Chloe is complex and contradictory. She is a typical teenager, entitled and a bundle of nerves, a compassionate kid and a whiny, thoughtless brat. Sometimes she can be all of these within the space of a few sentences. The reader alternates between sympathizing with her and thinking, "really? You didn't stop to question any of the odd or off or truly questionable things you were being asked to do?" The way that Buxbaum shows the daily deceptions in this Hollywood family, the importance of appearances, and the way that this has seeped into not only Chloe's character make-up but is also present in the people surrounding her in life, school, and beyond, is quite illustrative. As this premise is clearly pulled from current events, it would be impossible not to see the similarities with the real life college admissions scandal. Mom Joy and the situation itself are large parts Lori Loughlin mixed with small bits of Felicity Huffman but Chloe is her own person, grappling with everything in ways that none of the actual kids seem to have done, at least not in public. Some of what Chloe learns or acknowledges is a little heavy handed at times, although perhaps the obviousness of certain lessons are to reinforce the whole oblivious teenager thing. As for the secondary characters, Chloe tells the reader about their fabulousness and compares herself to them but they are clearly meant just to show aspects of Chloe's personality rather than to be fully fleshed out characters on their own. I do have one rather specialized nit pick as well but most people are never going to notice it.
As the mom of a pole vaulter, the terminology and the look of the sport is all wrong. Again, you could suggest that since Chloe isn't actually a pole vaulter and she's the one narrating, she'd likely get it wrong but I think that's a stretch since she's seeing a picture of herself as still saying she's "spear in hand." And having spent years trying to get good pictures of my kid pole vaulting, the picture as described cannot exist, even if someone was fantastic at photoshop. But as I said, no one else is going to notice that but we very few. It's a clumsy error though and did jerk me out of the story.
There were some clunky bits and a little too much didacticism, but over all, this was an interesting exercise in looking at privilege, entitlement, expectations, and hard learned lessons. If you want to think some more about the college admissions scandal, give this novel a try.
Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair
Faces: Profiles of Dogs by Vita Sackville-West
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Holding on to Nothing by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne
Difficult Light by Tomas Gonzalez
Adults and Other Children by Miriam Cohen
Grief's Country by Gail Griffin
Moments of Glad Grace by Alison Wearing
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube
Search Heartache by Carla Malden
What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
The Book Keeper by Julia McKenzie Munemo
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
Blue Marlin by Lee Smith
Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
A Short Move by Katherine Hill
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger
Watershed by Mark Barr
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
The Goshen Road by Bonnie Proudfoot
We Have Everything Before Us by Esther Yin-ling Spodek
Anna Eva Mimi Adam by Marina Antropow Cramer
This Is My Body by Cameron Dezen Hammon
Impurity by Larry Tremblay
The Last Goldfish by Anita Lahey
Invisible Ink by Guy Stern
A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Raphael Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey
Blue Summer by Jim Nichols
The Miracle of Saint Lazarus by Uva de Aragon
Red Mother with Child by Christian Lax
The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos
Tamba Child Soldier by Marion Achard
The Girl with Braided Hair by Rasha Adly
The Book of Second Chances by Katherine Slee
Disfigured by Amanda Leduc
Floating in the Neversink by Andrea Simon
Seven Sisters and a Brother by Marilyn Allman May
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita
The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson
The Change by Lori Soderlind
The Man in the White Linen Suit by David Handler
I Saw Three Ships by Bill Richardson
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
Wild Ride Home by Christine Hemp
The Book of Rosy by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schweitert Collazo
The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle
How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences by Sue William Silverman
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
Continental Divide by Alex Myers
The Road to Urbino by Roma Tearne
The Wanting Life by Mark Rader
Invented Lives by Andrea Goldsmith
Friends of the Library by Susan Cushman
In Praise of Paths by Torbjorn Ekelund
Tea by the Sea by Donna Hemans
Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
The Expert's Guide to Driving a Man Wild by Jessica Clare
How to Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
Love and Hunger by Charlotte Wood
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify by Carolyn Holbrook
You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles
In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen
On the Steamy Side by Louisa Edwards
The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah
The Second Home by Christina Clancy
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss
Unconditional Love by Jocelyn Moorhouse
Along Came Mary by Jo-Ann Mapson
The Big Quiet by Lisa D. Stewart
All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana Masad
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown
The Moonshiner’s Daughter by Donna Everhart
True North by Beverly Brandt
Betrayal at Ravenswick by Kelly Oliver
Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst
Wild Dog by Serge Joncour
Meet Me In Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz
Happily Ever After by Debbie Tung
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg
Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew
The Last Blue by Isla Morley
Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell< br />
The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart
Yellow Earth by John Sayles
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett
House of Gold by Natasha Solomons
A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbuo
Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison
In the Hall with a knife by Diana Peterfreund
Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework
Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis
Things to Bring, S#!it to Do by Karen Rizzo
Bingo by Rita Mae Brown
Down and Out in Bugtusssle by Stephanie McAfee
Sir Philip's Folly by M.C. Beaton
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
The Exact Same Moon by Jeanne Marie Laskas
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
Slightly Chipped by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
I'm with Fatty by Edward Ugel
Breakfast in Bed by Robin Kaye
A Beach Less Traveled by John Berglund
Pulling Princes by Tyne O'Connell
Lady Helena Investigates by Jane Steen
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham
Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry
An Idiot Girl's Christmas by Laurie Notaro
The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Last Leonardo by Ben Lewis
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett
Admission by Julie Buxbaum
Mutts and Mistletoe by Natalie Cox
The Gifts of Reading by Robert Macfarlane
I've really liked the other Donoghue books I've read so I'm sure I'll be gripped by this story of three women working in a maternity ward in Ireland in the midst of the 1918 Flu Pandemic.
A modern day Dr. Faustus with the added twist that everyone Addie LaRue is forgotten by everyone she meets in her unnaturally long life, this is a big buzz book and I'm looking forward to seeing how I feel about it.
The story of a young girl, duaghter of a married Japanese woman and an African American GI, who is locked in her aristocratic grandparents' attic to hide her from the world and what happens when her older half brother helps her see a world that does have a place for her, this looks fascinating.
Two babies born minutes apart on New Year's Day, one of whom seems charmed and the other missed out (on being the first baby born in the New Year and on the charmed thing), and what happens when they meet at a party on the eve of their thirtieth birthdays. What a cute idea for a love story, right?!
If I had a super power, I might want it to be like the main character in this one, who can bring book characters to real life. It sounds phenomenal, right?
If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.
I know we said we didn’t know if there was going to be a 2020 version of this letter but why should you get to skip it just because the year has been hideous? Maybe our rotten year will make your rotten year a little more palatable. Consider it our gift to you this holiday season, or maybe it’s just piling on, but in either case, you’re welcome. Without any further ado, the K. 2020 year in review:
January: T.’s senior season of indoor track was a bust after he injured his leg. We hoped that rest and PT would make for a better spring season. Little did we know. Also this month, we fostered another cat. We are terrible at this as Sammy is now and forever a K.
February: K. was sick. Like sick sick. Was it COVID? Probably not but she didn’t even read for a week so whatever it was was incredibly unpleasant. D. was traveling hither, thither, and yon during this month so he should probably keep his hotel and flight status next year despite the rest of this year. Yes, he’s one of the people who get to board practically before the pilots. Jerk.
March: T. turned 18 this month. Everyone is an adult now, at least chronologically. The statewide stay at home order meant that we had (adult) kids at home again as R. stayed here after her spring break extended to forever and T.’s senior year was just declared finished. K. took the opportunity to inventory the freezers and the pantry. Ask her just how many jars of pickles and varieties of mustard we have. Also, in case you need to know, veggies frozen since 2010 are a little dry once thawed, meat frozen since 2014 is a tad tough, and no amount of partially used sauce from who knows what year in the fridge door will make this dinner taste amazing. But none of the above causes food poisoning. Silver linings, people, silver linings.
April: We had a flurry of activity this month: a pipe burst in the yard, we finally replaced the fence to keep the dog from escaping and visiting the neighborhood when she should have been social distancing, and K. organized field trips to the grocery store for the extroverts climbing the walls while she herself worked on creating a body shaped divot on the couch. She also tried to give the dog a haircut. The result was the doggy version of a mullet. She used the dog clippers on D. with better results. At least he thinks so since neither he nor his Zoom coworkers could see the back. And the culinary experiments continued as we tested the shelf life of Velveeta (less than 3 years, fyi).
May: R. graduated virtually at the kitchen table wearing her jammies, cap, and gown. We hadn’t seen the plumber in a while so it was fantastic to have him here for R.’s graduation (the kids’ shower was leaking onto K.’s car in the garage). And that wasn’t our only water adventure this month. D.’s office in the basement leaked during the monsoon-like rains we had and grew mold on the carpet. D. is allergic to mold.
June: T. had his virtual graduation this month (the wifi died just before they flashed T.’s name on the screen so we just assumed he was listed) and we drove through the high school parking lot to pick up his diploma. It was nice to see he did in fact graduate—see wifi issue above. We practically peeled out of the parking lot to head to Michigan for the summer. W. and his girlfriend joined us up north for a week and life almost felt normal.
July: We spent most of our time hanging out on the island, where social distancing is pretty much our way of life, even in normal years. R. worked at Culinary School up there for another year (all internships having been canceled) while T. didn’t work at all, his job being a COVID casualty.
August: We took R. up to the University of Cincinnati to start her Masters in Architecture this month. Classes were all online but she had access to the studio and shop for her projects. She also got to learn how to parallel park a stick shift on a hill, a dying skill for sure. T. started college from our dining room table this month so Ozzie, like cats everywhere, got to share his backside with yet more classes (he debuted his waving tail and backside in R.’s classes back in the spring).
September: D. lost his mom to cancer this month. Despite that terribly sad happening, we were happy to finally take T. up to Miami of Ohio for a modified college experience. He was thrilled to be in college *at college* while K. and D. were less impressed to hear that he sometimes fell asleep during his classes since he was attending them from the comfort of his bed. They were also baffled by his random corn cob pictures. ::Shrug::
October: T. was sailor of the week for the sailing club and competed in his first college regatta. Mostly they’ve just had practices (and only the one regatta) so we think he got this honor simply for showing up to the lake on really cold days. At home with only pets underfoot, we decided to replace all of the floors on the first floor. Nothing we do goes smoothly and it’s still not entirely finished. Ask about it if you want a rant from K.
November: R. came home this month to bury Needles, her hedgehog. We bought a hedgehog garden ornament to mark his grave and apparently the hawks in the backyard think it’s real because it has moved several times since it was installed. R. did go back to Ohio after the internment and then she and T. drove home together for Thanksgiving. They’ll be home until mid-January when school starts up again. Before they came home, T. got elected Safety Officer for the sailing club’s spring season. It’s exactly the position he wanted—a leadership role without too much responsibility. Aim high kid!
We’ve seen more of the plumbers, painters, HVAC, leak detection specialists, carpenters, and other home improvement people this year than friends and family. 2020 has been an annus horribilis for sure but it’s almost over. Don’t let the doorknob hit you in the a$$ on the way out! As the year comes to a close, we once again hope that you are surrounded by peace, love, and happiness now and throughout the coming year. And maybe in 2021, we’ll get to see you in the wild once again!
I've never read the Sherlock Holmes stories so why on earth would I read this tale based on the Sherlock oeuvre? Well, because I am always interested in well done books that use classics as a springboard, of course (and also because I am giving it to my Sherlock loving daughter for Christmas and we believe in pre-reading in this family).
Metropolitan Pictures is a well known movie studio about to make Holmes' adventure from The Speckled Band into a movie. However, Stephen Worth, the writer they've contracted to turn the story into a screenplay hates Sherlock Holmes and the group that reveres him. Worth is also a reprehensible human being. Not wanting to alienate Holmes' most devoted (and mostly quite famous in their fields) fans and unable to fire Worth, Maureen O'Breen, who works in PR at the studio, cooks up the idea of asking the group, called The Baker Street Irregulars, to consult on the film, moving all of the men into a house at, you guessed it, 221B Baker Street, and supplying a housekeeper named Mrs. Hudson (and eventually a Sergeant Watson). During a press party with the Irregulars, Worth arrives drunk, picks a fight, and gets knocked out cold. The party quickly breaks up and when Maureen goes upstairs to "powder her nose" before leaving, she witnesses Worth getting shot but doesn't see the murderer. However, when the police investigate, Worth's body is gone and the clues they find in the room are all from Holmes' stories. The game is afoot. In the course of the investigation, which the Irregulars want to solve themselves, each of them then goes on to have an unusual adventure he relays to the rest of the group as they try, rather badly, to uncover the murderer, who might still be among them.
As this takes both aspects of the Holmes canon as well as unwritten stories that are referred to within the stories in its telling, this is probably best read by those who have read and enjoyed the originals. Even without reading them though, I cheerfully followed the mystery most of the way, only getting slightly confused at the very end (like the lieutenant in the story). The stories relayed by each of the characters were bizarre but entertaining enough. I did have some trouble keeping some of the characters separate in my head throughout. One twist of the novel was fairly predictable while a couple of others were definitely surprising, which I appreciated. This is well written and had moments of good humor in it. There is a little bit of timely political commentary as the Anschluss has recently occurred, although the US is still firmly out of any conflict. The bumbling and infighting amongst the Irregulars in the face of murder is entertaining though so fans of Golden Age mysteries will find this a worthwhile read.
This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.
The book is being released by Graydon House on December 29, 2020.
The book's jacket copy says: A novel of survival, love, loss, triumph--and the sisters who changed fashion forever
Antoinette and Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel know they're destined for something better. Abandoned by their family at a young age, they've grown up under the guidance of nuns preparing them for simple lives as the wives of tradesmen or shopkeepers. At night, their secret stash of romantic novels and magazine cutouts beneath the floorboards are all they have to keep their dreams of the future alive.
The walls of the convent can't shield them forever, and when they're finally of age, the Chanel sisters set out together with a fierce determination to prove themselves worthy to a society that has never accepted them. Their journey propels them out of poverty and to the stylish caf's of Moulins, the dazzling performance halls of Vichy--and to a small hat shop on the rue Cambon in Paris, where a boutique business takes hold and expands to the glamorous French resort towns.
But the sisters' lives are again thrown into turmoil when World War I breaks out, forcing them to make irrevocable choices, and they'll have to gather the courage to fashion their own places in the world, even if apart from each other.
I've long been intrigued by the American heiresses who traveled to England in search of titled husbands so combining that idea with a 1912 set murder mystery sounded completely delectable. Add in a down to earth aristocratic sister turned investigator and a humble but lovely lady's maid and the cat she's rescued and you have all of the ingredients for a pleasant, diverting read.
Danby Hall is clearly in need of funds as the slightly shabby interiors and missing possessions attest. The Earl and Countess of Avebury have invited an American heiress to the country to meet Patrick, the absent-minded, gentle scientist heir to the estate, in hopes that he and the rather trying Annabel Clarke will make a match of it, securing her fortune so they do not lose their ancestral home. All seems to be going reasonably well until a guest is murdered at a pre-party dinner they've thrown for Annabel. In order to prevent her brother from being considered the primary suspect in this crime and because she isn't entirely convinced that local law enforcement will uncover the real murderer, Lady Cecilia Bates, Patrick's level-headed and intelligent younger sister, starts investigating the crime herself with the help of Jane, Annabel's lady's maid.
The house and the relationship between the aristocracy and below stairs is well drawn. Cecilia and Jane's friendship developed very quickly, even if it was meant to show how relatable and kind Cecilia is despite her title, but it was also necessary to have an instantaneous rapport so that they could investigate both above and belowstairs equally. There are a lot of other characters in the novel all at Danby Hall for Annabel's visit but many of them have limited function in this first in the series. Perhaps they will be more integral to the overarching story as it goes on in later novels. Jack, the cat that Jane saves, who features on the cover and in the series title (The Manor Cat Series), is not really a major part of uncovering the murderer, which for me as a reader was actually welcome but might be a disappointment for those looking for a larger role for the ginger feline and the reveal of the murderer and the motivation behind it was rather predictable in the end. Despite these quibbles, this was still a fun, amateur sleuth mystery, perfect for a busy time of year.
Yeah, holiday prep isn't any less time consuming this year. ::sigh:: This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.
Books I completed over the past week are:
Admission by Julie Buxbaum
Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Christmas Pudding and Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford
Reviews posted this week:
nothing
Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair
Faces: Profiles of Dogs by Vita Sackville-West
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Holding on to Nothing by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne
Difficult Light by Tomas Gonzalez
Adults and Other Children by Miriam Cohen
Grief's Country by Gail Griffin
Moments of Glad Grace by Alison Wearing
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube
Search Heartache by Carla Malden
What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
The Book Keeper by Julia McKenzie Munemo
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
Blue Marlin by Lee Smith
Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
A Short Move by Katherine Hill
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger
Watershed by Mark Barr
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
The Goshen Road by Bonnie Proudfoot
We Have Everything Before Us by Esther Yin-ling Spodek
Anna Eva Mimi Adam by Marina Antropow Cramer
This Is My Body by Cameron Dezen Hammon
Impurity by Larry Tremblay
The Last Goldfish by Anita Lahey
Invisible Ink by Guy Stern
A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Raphael Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey
Blue Summer by Jim Nichols
The Miracle of Saint Lazarus by Uva de Aragon
Red Mother with Child by Christian Lax
The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos
Tamba Child Soldier by Marion Achard
The Girl with Braided Hair by Rasha Adly
The Book of Second Chances by Katherine Slee
Disfigured by Amanda Leduc
Floating in the Neversink by Andrea Simon
Seven Sisters and a Brother by Marilyn Allman May
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita
The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson
The Change by Lori Soderlind
The Man in the White Linen Suit by David Handler
I Saw Three Ships by Bill Richardson
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
Wild Ride Home by Christine Hemp
The Book of Rosy by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schweitert Collazo
The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle
How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences by Sue William Silverman
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
Continental Divide by Alex Myers
The Road to Urbino by Roma Tearne
The Wanting Life by Mark Rader
Invented Lives by Andrea Goldsmith
Friends of the Library by Susan Cushman
In Praise of Paths by Torbjorn Ekelund
Tea by the Sea by Donna Hemans
Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
The Expert's Guide to Driving a Man Wild by Jessica Clare
How to Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
Love and Hunger by Charlotte Wood
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify by Carolyn Holbrook
You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles
In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen
On the Steamy Side by Louisa Edwards
The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah
The Second Home by Christina Clancy
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss
Unconditional Love by Jocelyn Moorhouse
Along Came Mary by Jo-Ann Mapson
The Big Quiet by Lisa D. Stewart
All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana Masad
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown
The Moonshiner’s Daughter by Donna Everhart
True North by Beverly Brandt
Betrayal at Ravenswick by Kelly Oliver
Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst
Wild Dog by Serge Joncour
Meet Me In Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz
Happily Ever After by Debbie Tung
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg
Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew
The Last Blue by Isla Morley
Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell< br />
The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart
Yellow Earth by John Sayles
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett
House of Gold by Natasha Solomons
A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbuo
Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison
In the Hall with a knife by Diana Peterfreund
Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework
Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis
Things to Bring, S#!it to Do by Karen Rizzo
Bingo by Rita Mae Brown
Down and Out in Bugtusssle by Stephanie McAfee
Sir Philip's Folly by M.C. Beaton
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
The Exact Same Moon by Jeanne Marie Laskas
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
Slightly Chipped by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
I'm with Fatty by Edward Ugel
Breakfast in Bed by Robin Kaye
A Beach Less Traveled by John Berglund
Pulling Princes by Tyne O'Connell
Lady Helena Investigates by Jane Steen
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham
Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry
An Idiot Girl's Christmas by Laurie Notaro
The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Last Leonardo by Ben Lewis
Lady Takes the Case by Eliza Casey
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett
Admission by Julie Buxbaum
This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.
The book is being released by St. Martin's Press on January 12, 2021.
The book's jacket copy says: From Matthew Dicks, the beloved author of Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, comes The Other Mother, a novel about a teenage boy coping with the rupture of his family by viewing his mother in an unusual light.
The one he loves most, is the one he knows least.
Thirteen-year-old Michael Parsons is dealing with a lot. His father's sudden death; his mother's new husband, Glen, who he loathes; his two younger siblings, who he looks after more and more now that his mother works extra shifts.
And then one day, Michael wakes up and his mother is gone. In her place is an exact, duplicate mother. The 'other mother'. No one else seems to notice the real version is missing. His brother, his sister, and even Glen act as if everything's normal. But Michael knows in his heart that this mother is not his. And he begins to panic.
What follows is a big-hearted coming-of-age story of a boy struggling with an unusual disorder that poses unparalleled challenges—but also, as he discovers, offers him unique opportunities.
The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Last Leonardo by Ben Lewis
Lady Takes the Case by Eliza Casey
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett
Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Admission by Julie Buxbaum
Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair
Faces: Profiles of Dogs by Vita Sackville-West
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Holding on to Nothing by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne
Difficult Light by Tomas Gonzalez
Adults and Other Children by Miriam Cohen
Grief's Country by Gail Griffin
Moments of Glad Grace by Alison Wearing
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube
Search Heartache by Carla Malden
What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
The Book Keeper by Julia McKenzie Munemo
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
Blue Marlin by Lee Smith
Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
A Short Move by Katherine Hill
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger
Watershed by Mark Barr
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
The Goshen Road by Bonnie Proudfoot
We Have Everything Before Us by Esther Yin-ling Spodek
Anna Eva Mimi Adam by Marina Antropow Cramer
This Is My Body by Cameron Dezen Hammon
Impurity by Larry Tremblay
The Last Goldfish by Anita Lahey
Invisible Ink by Guy Stern
A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Raphael Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey
Blue Summer by Jim Nichols
The Miracle of Saint Lazarus by Uva de Aragon
Red Mother with Child by Christian Lax
The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos
Tamba Child Soldier by Marion Achard
The Girl with Braided Hair by Rasha Adly
The Book of Second Chances by Katherine Slee
Disfigured by Amanda Leduc
Floating in the Neversink by Andrea Simon
Seven Sisters and a Brother by Marilyn Allman May
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita
The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson
The Change by Lori Soderlind
The Man in the White Linen Suit by David Handler
I Saw Three Ships by Bill Richardson
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
Wild Ride Home by Christine Hemp
The Book of Rosy by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schweitert Collazo
The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle
How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences by Sue William Silverman
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
Continental Divide by Alex Myers
The Road to Urbino by Roma Tearne
The Wanting Life by Mark Rader
Invented Lives by Andrea Goldsmith
Friends of the Library by Susan Cushman
In Praise of Paths by Torbjorn Ekelund
Tea by the Sea by Donna Hemans
Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
The Expert's Guide to Driving a Man Wild by Jessica Clare
How to Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
Love and Hunger by Charlotte Wood
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify by Carolyn Holbrook
You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles
In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen
On the Steamy Side by Louisa Edwards
The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah
The Second Home by Christina Clancy
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss
Unconditional Love by Jocelyn Moorhouse
Along Came Mary by Jo-Ann Mapson
The Big Quiet by Lisa D. Stewart
All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana Masad
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown
The Moonshiner’s Daughter by Donna Everhart
True North by Beverly Brandt
Betrayal at Ravenswick by Kelly Oliver
Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst
Wild Dog by Serge Joncour
Meet Me In Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz
Happily Ever After by Debbie Tung
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg
Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew
The Last Blue by Isla Morley
Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell< br />
The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart
Yellow Earth by John Sayles
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett
House of Gold by Natasha Solomons
A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbuo
Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison
In the Hall with a knife by Diana Peterfreund
Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework
Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis
Things to Bring, S#!it to Do by Karen Rizzo
Bingo by Rita Mae Brown
Down and Out in Bugtusssle by Stephanie McAfee
Sir Philip's Folly by M.C. Beaton
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
The Exact Same Moon by Jeanne Marie Laskas
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
Slightly Chipped by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
I'm with Fatty by Edward Ugel
Breakfast in Bed by Robin Kaye
A Beach Less Traveled by John Berglund
Pulling Princes by Tyne O'Connell
Lady Helena Investigates by Jane Steen
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham
Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry
An Idiot Girl's Christmas by Laurie Notaro
The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Last Leonardo by Ben Lewis
Lady Takes the Case by Eliza Casey
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett
First of all, this is set in Passamaquoddy, ME, the location of Pete's Dragon, one of my favorite childhood movies so I was all in right from the first two words in the blurb. But that it is also the story of a woman who gets a terrible diagnosis and wants to help her husband figure out how to go on without her even as her estranged mother returns and causes upheaval everywhere makes it appealing even beyond the setting.
If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.
Alcatraz, Prohibition, organized crime, vaudeville, making it in America, and redemption. If any of those things intrigue you, you'll want to read Kristina McMorris' novel The Edge of Lost, which weaves all of these together into a surprising and enjoyable read.
Opening in 1937 on Alcatraz where the young daughter of a prison guard has gone missing and one prisoner readies for his escape, the novel then jumps back in time to Ireland in 1919. Twelve year old Shanley Keagan's parents have died, leaving him in the care of his unpleasant, ill, and alcoholic uncle Will in their small Irish town. Shan has a beautiful voice and he dreams of going to America, making it as a singer, and finding the American sailor, biological father he's never known. But when his wish to emigrate comes true, things go worse than he could have imagined with his uncle dying on the ship, leaving Shan without a guardian until an Italian family returning to the US claims him as their child in order to get him into the country. This act of kindness, the first in a string of kindnesses by the Capella family, will, with some betrayals, shape Shan's entire life in America.
Shan is a charming character and readers will be engaged by him almost immediately. He appreciates his small moments of good fortune and is a loyal and sweet kid who grows into an equally loyal and likeable adult. It is entirely believable that his performing in NY supper clubs and on vaudeville would bring him into the orbit of the murky underworld of Prohibition. And it is his deep loyalty to his adopted family, combined with this less than savory connection, that drives the novel's action. McMorris has seamlessly created the immigrant's America of the early twentieth century. Her Shan just wants to belong, to the Capella family and to the community; he just wants to be loved. The end of the novel had a very different tone than the previous three quarters and the resolution was an easy coincidence. Life rarely ties up so neat and tidily but, in fairness, it is what the reader wanted all along. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this, as will readers who like novels that ask and answer what it means to be a family.
This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.
The book is being released by Bloomsbury on February 9, 2021.
The book's jacket copy says: "It was Indiana, it was the dirt she had bloomed up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, how she thought, what she knew.”
As a girl, Zorrie Underwood's modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material.
But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun.
Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt's extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout.
I first read Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed many years ago and enjoyed it a lot. I have read some (but not all) of her books since then and have mostly liked them too. So when I saw that this was billed as being her most ambitious book, a sprawling family saga about sisters, I was excited to read it. In retrospect, the title really tells you everything you need to know about this book: it's going to be about absolutely everything, which turned out to be just a bit too much.
Jo and Bethie Kaufman live in 1950s Detroit. Jo is a rebellious tomboy while Bethie is the pretty, compliant sister, at least at first. But they are growing up as the country is changing and they change and grow too. Spanning from the 1950s to 2015, this novel is a microcosm of the changing societal expectations of women neatly wrapped up in the characters of these two sisters. Framed by a 2015 narrative that signals to the reader where Jo is in her life now, the story goes back to 1950 to move through the decades, following Jo in her relationship with her mother, especially after the death of her father, her time at college, her wish to live an authentic life that gets squashed with her marriage, her own motherhood, and more. Jo is stifled in her life, by her mother's expectations, by her husband's expectations, by society's expectations, and most importantly her own vision of what her life should look like. Meanwhile, Bethie is growing up too, feeling abandoned by her sister when she needs her most, changing from the picture perfect child into a free spirited hippie drifting through her life until she finally finds safe harbor. Each sister's road twists and turns echoing the growing pains of the nation.
There is a lot of change in the years between 1950 and 2015 and this novel touches on all of them. The sisters are almost Forest Gump like in their involvement or proximity to so many of the major events of the second half of the twentieth century. And all of the social issues that have been (and continue to be) in the forefront of the nation's consciousness make their way into the women's lives as well: feminism, civil rights, illegal drugs, abuse, violence against women, eating disorders, abortion, divorce, mental illness (depression), religion, capitalism, LGBTQ, interracial marriage, immigration, and more. It's a more than 450 page book but that's still too much ground to cover even if the title warns that this will in fact encompass everything. And although there's too much crammed into the narrative, it still feels overly long and drags in places. The historical timeline is completely off and some of the facts, especially about Detroit, are not accurate, taking the reader out of the story. For me, it was the fact that Jo takes a Greyhound bus from Southfield to the camp she works at in the Upper Peninsula in the 60s in an amount of time I can personally make now, with my lead foot and a speed limit of 70-75 but which would have been impossible at the time she's doing it. Small inaccuracies like this caused me to question a lot more (and discover that this was not the only one), keeping me from ever sinking completely into the story. I wanted to love it. I wanted to appreciate the grand sweep of women's history through Jo and Bethie. I wanted to see Jo and Bethie grow and mature and be happy in their own skin, learning to embrace themselves. I wanted to be transported. But I wasn't. I just wasn't. If you read it, I hope you will be though.
Very little reading this week as I get ready for the holidays (have you started Christmas shopping yet?) and try to put my house back together again after all the work on it. I've reached the stage of wishing I could just walk away from it all so I'm sort of at crisis point on it! This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.
Books I completed over the past week are:
Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry
An Idiot Girl's Christmas by Laurie Notaro
Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:
The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Last Leonardo by Ben Lewis
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair
Faces: Profiles of Dogs by Vita Sackville-West
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Holding on to Nothing by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne
Difficult Light by Tomas Gonzalez
Adults and Other Children by Miriam Cohen
Grief's Country by Gail Griffin
Moments of Glad Grace by Alison Wearing
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube
Search Heartache by Carla Malden
What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
The Book Keeper by Julia McKenzie Munemo
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
Blue Marlin by Lee Smith
Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
A Short Move by Katherine Hill
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger
Watershed by Mark Barr
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
The Goshen Road by Bonnie Proudfoot
We Have Everything Before Us by Esther Yin-ling Spodek
Anna Eva Mimi Adam by Marina Antropow Cramer
This Is My Body by Cameron Dezen Hammon
Impurity by Larry Tremblay
The Last Goldfish by Anita Lahey
Invisible Ink by Guy Stern
A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Raphael Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey
Blue Summer by Jim Nichols
The Miracle of Saint Lazarus by Uva de Aragon
Red Mother with Child by Christian Lax
The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos
Tamba Child Soldier by Marion Achard
The Girl with Braided Hair by Rasha Adly
The Book of Second Chances by Katherine Slee
Disfigured by Amanda Leduc
Floating in the Neversink by Andrea Simon
Seven Sisters and a Brother by Marilyn Allman May
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita
The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson
The Change by Lori Soderlind
The Man in the White Linen Suit by David Handler
I Saw Three Ships by Bill Richardson
A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy
Wild Ride Home by Christine Hemp
The Book of Rosy by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schweitert Collazo
The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle
How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences by Sue William Silverman
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
Continental Divide by Alex Myers
The Road to Urbino by Roma Tearne
The Wanting Life by Mark Rader
Invented Lives by Andrea Goldsmith
Friends of the Library by Susan Cushman
In Praise of Paths by Torbjorn Ekelund
Tea by the Sea by Donna Hemans
Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
The Expert's Guide to Driving a Man Wild by Jessica Clare
How to Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison
Love and Hunger by Charlotte Wood
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify by Carolyn Holbrook
You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles
In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen
On the Steamy Side by Louisa Edwards
The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah
The Second Home by Christina Clancy
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss
Unconditional Love by Jocelyn Moorhouse
Along Came Mary by Jo-Ann Mapson
The Big Quiet by Lisa D. Stewart
All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana Masad
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown
The Moonshiner’s Daughter by Donna Everhart
True North by Beverly Brandt
Betrayal at Ravenswick by Kelly Oliver
Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst
Wild Dog by Serge Joncour
Meet Me In Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz
Happily Ever After by Debbie Tung
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg
Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew
The Last Blue by Isla Morley
Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell< br />
The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart
Yellow Earth by John Sayles
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett
House of Gold by Natasha Solomons
A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbuo
Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison
In the Hall with a knife by Diana Peterfreund
Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework
Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis
Things to Bring, S#!it to Do by Karen Rizzo
Bingo by Rita Mae Brown
Down and Out in Bugtusssle by Stephanie McAfee
Sir Philip's Folly by M.C. Beaton
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
The Exact Same Moon by Jeanne Marie Laskas
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
Slightly Chipped by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
I'm with Fatty by Edward Ugel
Breakfast in Bed by Robin Kaye
A Beach Less Traveled by John Berglund
Pulling Princes by Tyne O'Connell
Lady Helena Investigates by Jane Steen
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham
Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry
An Idiot Girl's Christmas by Laurie Notaro
A book about two sisters in love with the same man and the lengths that one sister will go to to sabotage her sister's wedding to that man, this one sounds fun and juicy.
Unlike the main character here, I have never thought that math was the answer to everything but I am interested in this novel about a middle aged woman whose life is no longer adding up as so much goes wrong.
I loved Confederates in the Attic so I am looking forward to Horwitz's return to the South on the trail of famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.
Can we survive our families? Sometimes the legacy we have from family is crushing, leading to repeated patterns and damaging coping mechanisms. And when an already splintered family faces yet another blow, will they come together, fragile as they may be, or do they break completely? This is the question swirling through Anissa Gray's debut novel, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls.
The Butler family had a tough upbringing, each member shaped differently by their hard childhood. Oldest sister Althea stepped into the gap created by their mother's death and their angry and volatile father's absences caring for her younger siblings until she moved on to start her own family and a restaurant that was a community touchstone with husband Proctor. Now she and Proctor are in jail, arrested for fraud, guilty of taking donated charity money for themselves and illegally buying food stamps. Someone will have to care for Althea and Proctor's fifteen year old twin daughters, Kim and Baby Vi, who are struggling mightily with their family's fall from grace. Lillian, who has moved into their father's old house and is already taking care of her late ex-husband's elderly mother Nai-Nai, steps up but she is desperate for help from younger sister Viola and is equally as determined that the girls do not end up with brother Joe. Viola ignores the pleas from Lillian as long as she can, grappling as she is with her own demons, a floundering marriage and a recurrence of her bulimia.
The story is told in the first person from each of the sisters' perspectives and interleaved with letters from Proctor to Althea. As the sisters tell the story of what exactly happened that landed Althea and Proctor in jail and even further back in their pasts, it is clear that each of them continues to struggle with the legacy of that past. But as they reckon with their own festering hurts, the twins, Kim and Baby Vi, are floundering as well and the adults in their lives do not know how to best help them. Gray keeps some of the reasons behind the women's suffering vague, writing around the causes for much of the novel, ostensibly to increase tension. Why is Viola's marriage to Eva on the rocks? Why does Lillian have her ex-mother-in-law living with her? Why did Althea and Proctor do what they did? Choosing to use first person narration makes it hard to offer the answers to questions like these for the reader because the narrator already knows the answer but without enough forthcoming information, it's hard for the reader to get completely invested in the characters. The letters from Proctor to Althea help this a bit as he tries to exonerate her for his part in all of it, giving explanations of why he went along with her decisions. The letters are loving but also offer much needed truths and the reasons for everything else eventually come out. The explanations do feel anti-climactic though after being avoided for so long. Each of the women is fully fleshed out but seeing the rest of the characters only through their eyes, especially Kim and Baby Vi, makes these secondary characters less complex even though the escalating situation with the twins drives a lot of the actual action in the novel. Gray is an accomplished writer and the book has some beautiful language in it. This novel of healing and forgiveness, of family and need, of overcoming and hope offered an interesting book club discussion although I ultimately didn't connect with it emotionally as much as I think was intended.
So very often we hide parts of ourselves, the unhappy parts, the unsavory parts, the hard, struggling parts. This has probably always been true but seems to be accentuated by our social media society. We only post our highlights reel. If we can get the lighting correct and crop the messes of real life out, our curated life looks enviable and aspirational. But behind the scenes, we're all human with all the attendant ups and downs of real life. So what would happen if we told the truth about our lives? Telling the truth is exactly what happens in Clare Pooley's debut novel, The Authenticity Project.
Monica, owner of Monica's Cafe, finds a plain green journal titled The Authenticiy Project at the recently vacated table of a dapper, elderly man. She reads the first page in hopes that she can identify the owner and return it but what she discovers is an honest and open journal entry that almost eighty year old Julian Jessop, a lonely artist whose wife is gone, has written. At the end of his journal entry, he challenges whoever finds the journal to add their own truth to the pages and pass it along if they would like to. So Monica, a control freak for whom the cafe is her entire life, does so, admitting her sorrow at the lack of a husband and child in her life. She leaves the journal at the bar across the street where it is picked up by a deeply unhappy man named Hazard. Hazard surprises himself by not only furthering Monica's plan to engage Julian in life by getting him to teach art classes at the cafe, but also by reading, contributing to the journal, and passing it along to an easy going Australian named Riley, who he's vetted as a friend for Julian and as a potential lover for Monica and is headed to London from the Pacific Island where Hazard has landed to try and beat his addiction and get a handle on his life. These characters, with the addition of Monica's barista Benji, his boyfriend Baz, and Alice, a local, frazzled, mommy Instagrammer whose life is anything but picture perfect all come together through the journal and the art classes as they learn to bare their true selves to others, to chase their own happiness, to offer kindness, and to be authentic in the world.
The novel is definitely a feel good story. It's a story of love and friendship and claiming the life you want. The conceit of the journal passing from hand to hand and connecting disparate people is a sweet one. Each of the characters has quirks and flaws that make them feel real. This also makes them not always terribly likable and sometimes they come across as a bit too stereotypical. The short chapters are centered on different characters, moving the story along as they interact together but also when they are at a far remove but thinking of the others. Of course, the path to happiness isn't smooth. The novel's conflict is a little reminiscent of a romance novel and there is an interesting twist in one character's "authentic" story. The final scene is predictable but still the right ending. This is a big hearted and charming novel, perhaps perfect for the year we've all been having.
This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.
The book is being released by Dutton on December 29, 2020.
The book's jacket copy says: The war may be officially over, but journalist Billie Walker's search for a missing young immigrant man will plunge her right back into the danger and drama she thought she'd left behind in Europe in this thrilling tale of courage and secrets set in glamorous postwar Sydney.
Sydney, 1946. Though war correspondent Billie Walker is happy to finally be home, for her the heady postwar days are tarnished by the loss of her father and the disappearance in Europe of her husband, Jack. To make matters worse, now that the war is over, the newspapers are sidelining her reporting talents to prioritize jobs for returning soldiers. But Billie is a survivor and she's determined to take control of her own future. So she reopens her late father's business, a private investigation agency, and, slowly, the women of Sydney come knocking.
At first, Billie's bread and butter is tailing cheating husbands. Then, a young man, the son of European immigrants, goes missing, and Billie finds herself on a dangerous new trail that will lead up into the highest levels of Sydney society and down into its underworld. What is the young man’s connection to an exclusive dance club and a high class auction house? When the people Billie questions about the young man start to turn up dead, Billie is thrown into the path of Detective Inspector Hank Cooper. Will he take her seriously or will he just get in her way? As the danger mounts and Billie realizes that much more than one young man’s life is at stake, it becomes clear that though the war was won, it is far from over.
Other people's lives are endlessly fascinating, especially the hidden pieces of those lives. One of the reasons we read is to inhabit these lives so very different from ours, at least for a a little time. Adrienne Brodeur's memoir about her glamorous mother Malabar, who entrusts fourteen year old Rennie with the knowledge of Malabar's affair with her husband’s married, best friend, making Rennie both confidante and co-conspirator, and the effects of this knowledge on her life and relationships, offers the reader a life it is impossible to look away from.
Brodeur has written an astonishing memoir of mothers and daughters, dysfunction, complicity, lies, and secrets. She looks back, not only at the obviously inappropriate revelations of her mother but also at her own deep desire to be her mother's ally, the favorite, to be special, the one who would aid and abet her mother in this affair despite her love for her stepfather. She presents the reality of her relationship with her mother and her knowledge of this affair as she remembers it, not letting her mother off the hook for her questionable decision to include her young teen in her deception but not letting herself off the hook either for the thrill she felt in safeguarding this knowledge. Her writing is self-reflective and honest. She knows she's writing of rich people behaving badly but she embraces that without apologizing for it.
Without excusing her selfish and toxic behavior, Brodeur tries to convey the magnetism and appeal of her mother but she's not entirely successful. And her own complicity can easily be forgiven when she's a child but the reader will find it harder to understand her loyalty to this secret once she is older and it threatens her own relationship and marriage. This is a perfect book for book clubs who can delve into the very real, even if it reads like fiction, impact Brodeur's mother had on her life and in forming the person, wife, and mother she has grown into being and the rocky journey of self-discovery that got her there.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.
This meme is hosted by Kathryn at 
This past week's mailbox arrivals:
