Clue 2016

Books are keys to wisdom's treasure
Books are gates to lands of pleasure
Books are paths that upward lead
Books are friends: come let us read.

Emilie Poulsson

I look forward to reading again with you in 2016, may we all have a great reading year!

Fiction (36) COMPLETED DECEMBER

Secondary Goal for fiction categories: minimum of 12 over 500 pages

1. The Village School by Miss Read
2. Transatlantic by Colum McCann
3. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
4. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
5. The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
6. Sylvester or the Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer
7. Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
8. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
9. Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
10. A Memory of Violets by Helen Gaynor
11. faint promise of rain by Anjali Mitter Duva
12. The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
13. The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
14. Citizens Creek by Lalita Tademy
15. Sisters of Heart and Snow by Margaret Dilloway
16. Hatchet by Gary Paulson
17. My House in Umbria by William Trevor
18. Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
19. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
20. The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch
21. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
22. Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
23. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (504 pages)
24. Small Blessings by Martha Woodroof
25. The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
26. The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal
27. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
28. The Muralist by B. A. Shapiro
29. The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis
30. Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavit
31. The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
32 All Through The Night by Mary Higgins Clark
33.The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor
34. Victoria by Daisy Goodwin
35. The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood
36. The Maiden of the Blue Willow and Other Japanese Folktakes by Hema Pande

Mysteries and Thrillers (18) COMPLETED NOVEMBER

1. Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
2. The Lake House by Kate Morton (512 pages)
3. The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt
4. A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George
5. Miss Zukas and the Library Murder by Jo Dreske
6. Booked to Die by John Dunning
7. The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie
8. Miss Zukas and the Island Murders by Jo Dereske
9. The Hamlet Trap by Kate Wilhelm
10. An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
11. The Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart
12. How The Light Gets In by Louise Penny
13. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
14. A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon
15. The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches
16. As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
17. The Inheritance by Charles Finch
18. Death of a Travelling Man by M.C. Beaton

19. Plot Boiler by Ali Brandon
20. Among The Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Memoir and Biography (6) COMPLETED AUGUST

1. Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
2. Only In Naples: Lessons In Food and Famiglia From My Italian Mother-In-Law by Katherine Wilson
3. Girl in Dior by Annie Goetzinger
4. Midlife Irish: Discovering My Family and Myself by Frank Gannon
5. Recipe for Life by Mary Berry
6. Dimestore: A Writer's Life by Lee Smith

this

Other Nonfiction (12)

1. Old Fort Smith by Ruth Mapes
2. Used Books by Taylor Prewitt
3. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
4. Humans of New York Stories by Brandon Stanton
5. The Tree by John Fowles
6. Braving It: A Father, A Daughter, And An Unforgettable Journey Into The Alaskan Wild
7. Tea in the Library by Annette Freeman
8. Gypsy Horses and the Travelers' Way by John S. Hockensmith
9. The Heroine's Bookshelf by Erin Blakemore
10. Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book by Molly Rockwell

1. Village School by Miss Read
2. Girl in Dior by Annie Goetzinger
3. Old Fort Smith by Ruth B. Mapes
4. Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer
5. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
6. Booked to Die by John Dunning
7. The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt (art and antiquities dealer)
8. Citizens Creek by Lalita Tademy
9. Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichel
10. Used Books by Taylor Prewitt
11. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
12. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
13. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
14. The Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart
15. The Hamlet Trap by KateWilhelm
16. Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
17. Transatlantic by Colum McCann
18. The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
19. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
20. Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
21. Only In Naples by Katherine Wilson
22. Braving it by James Campbell
23. faint promise of rain by Anjali Mitter Duva
24. The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie
25. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Multiples of 6 for the year 2016 - very nice!

Looking forward to following your reading again in 2016.

Here's hoping for another great year of reading!

What a lovely saying! Good luck with your challenge.

Good luck with your challenge and with tackling the bigger books in your General Fiction category!

Nice setup! Looking forward to another year following your reading!

Have a great challenge - looking forward to following along!

Some great categories and hence some great reading!

Beautiful quote! Enjoy your reading!

I started the challenges with a gentle little book, The Village School by Miss Read. I loved it and although I've read a couple in the series, I'm thinking I'll just go on from here and read them all in order. As they say, "famous last words".

ROOT, Bingo (Debut book)

I pulled Old Fort Smith by Ruth B. Mapes a borrowed local history from the shelf when I discovered my Kindle wasn't charged and I didn't want to read on the laptop. I'm in the early stages of a research project on women (roughly 1817-1900) to be exhibited during the 200th anniversary of the fort and the city in 2017. Although I found it an enjoyable read I didn't find anything new other than this from a 1900 newspaper excerpt on arrests:

"Pearl Starr and Daisy Forrest before Judge Freer charged with being on the streets without sufficient reason after hours by ordinance when ladies shall be at home unless accompanied by a member of the sterner sex. Pleaded not guilty were fined, but appealed."

Prostitution was legal at the time, Pearl owned a brothel, but this was probably intended to curb solicitation on the street. Irritates the heck out of me though!

BINGO (less than 200 pages), Random CAT

>17 clue: I think a lot of women would be in trouble if that law remained on the books.

Both sound like great reads!

>17 clue: Interesting. Thanks for sharing the newspaper excerpt.

I've been working my way thorough Miss Read's Thrush Green series and have plans to then continue on with her Fairacre series. Her gentle observations make me smile as well.

TransAtlantic by Colm McCann is written in 3 sections. Each revolves around the Irish and/or American experience in some way. There are historical characters and fictional characters that run through the maternal line of a family through 5 generations. The historical characters include Frederick Douglas on an 1845 visit to Ireland, Alcock and Brown's transatlantic flight from Canada to Ireland in 1919, and former Senator George Mitchell and his attempt to mediate peace in Northern Ireland in 1998. The family story, which connects to the historical characters, begins with a housemaid in the home where Douglas stays during his visit. Inspired by him, she takes passage to America hoping for a better life. History is told from her to the current time by the lives of each succeeding generation. 4.5 stars

ROOT, Bingo (flight)

"The sterner sex" Is that how the law is written, or some journalist's idea of being cute. *eye roll*

>23 cammykitty: Appears to be how it was written in the newspaper but I also think this would be an accepted way at the time (1900) to describe the "requirement". I'm going to see if I can find the original ordinance.

'The sterner sex' caught me up as well - and also, 'without sufficient reason'. Ugh!

Taylor Prewitt was a voracious reader as a child and graduated from college with a degree in English. Then he took a different turn, went to medical school and became a well liked and respected cardiologist. Once he retired he was able to read more for pleasure and also began writing and self-publishing reviews for his family and friends. Used Books is the collection of reviews he wrote in 2001 and 2002. There are 26 reviews and include books of fiction, history, and biography. Among the fiction reviews are 8 books by Trollope, an author he describes as a hobby. He says that the books were read for fun and the reviews should be read the same way. Indeed, I do enjoy reading Dr. Prewitt's comments and find them insightful especially when he is comparing an earlier society to today's. And I put the book down with an urgency to read more Trollope!

>22 clue: - I was just recommending this book elsewhere on LT. Happy to see another positive review for it!

I wouldn't be shocked to find "the sterner sex" to be the wording of the law. I've just met too many silly boys to consider men to always be "sterner."

So are there any books that went on the top of your wishlist after reading Taylor Prewitt?

>28 cammykitty: I had read most of them except for the Trollope titles. I'm going to read at least a few of the 8 he reviewed.

I have completed A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. As you may know it's about Bryson's attempt to walk the 2100 mile Appalachian Trail with his childhood friend Stephen Katz. I haven't seen the recent movie and wanted to read the book before I saw it. The walkers have experiences that are laugh out loud funny but Bryson is a serious nature lover and makes many tart comments about the environmental loses that have been perpetuated upon the woods along the trail. Some of those he explains so thoroughly that I had a hard time following along. The book is well worth reading though and I'm glad I finally got to it.

BINGO (Environment), ROOT

I was in the library for a meeting last week and while walking out saw Humans of New York Stories and checked it out. It's 428 pages but quick to read because each page has at least one picture of a New Yorker and then a few words they have said about themselves. Some are funny, some break your heart, some make you glad you don't know that person. Overall, interesting.

>22 clue: That might just be a BB right there...

And >31 clue: I'm tempted by the HONY book, although as I follow him on facebook I get to see several a day anyway. I do really really like the project though.

>31 clue: One of our English classes just did a project they called Humans of ______ High. They were supposed to go out and interview a person they did not know and take their picture. I imagine that's probably being done in a lot of classes.

>33 mamzel: I love that idea.

Dissolution by C. J. Sansom is a mystery set in 1537, a year after the death of Anne Boleyn. Under the orders of Thomas Cromwell a team of commissioners is investigating monasteries and preparing for their dissolution. Mathew Shardlake, a lawyer and Reformist, is sent to the monastery at Scarsea to investigate the murder of one of those commissioners. What he learns and all that he must question leads him down dangerous paths and ends in surprising discoveries not just within the monastery but also of his own beliefs. A fine historical mystery.

BINGO (one word title), ROOT

I really enjoyed the Shardlake series. Do you think you will read more?

>35 clue: I'm a huge fan of the Shardlake series.

>36 mamzel: Yes, in fact I had read Dissolution several years ago, I think 2009, and have always thought I'd read more. I have the next 3 on my shelves, I got them at the library book sale for $1 each, but because it had been so long since I read the first one, I decided to reread it before going on.

I read Dissolution a couple of years ago and remember thinking it was an excellent historical mystery. Yet another series that I seem to have let slip!

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 and is credited with moving Native American literature into the mainstream. Many Native American authors, including Louise Erdrich, say that it has been the inspiration for their own work. Momaday was born in the Indian hospital in Lawton, Oklahoma to a Kiowa father and a white mother. When he was small the family moved to the Southwest and his childhood experiences growing up on reservations were key to the book. Momaday grew up hearing and being taught from Kiowa legend and myth. In traditional Kiowa legend the story is not told in a linear format and Momaday uses that same structure in his books. Here there are flashbacks, flash-forwards and legends interspersed with the narrative. The story is about Abel, a young Indian man returning from WWII and his attempts to live and make peace with mainstream society. Among the challenges he faces are alcoholism, violence, alienation, separation from the reservation and the natural world, and learning to live in a big city, work in a factory, and live in white society. This is the story of many young Indian men.

Momaday, born in 1934, has a degree in political science from the University of New Mexico and an M.A. and PhD in English from Stanford. He has taught at Stanford and the University of Arizona. Our local university has chosen House Made of Dawn as the community read for 2016 and Momaday will be coming in March to teach and speak and I look forward to hearing him. I had read House Made of Dawn in the early 1970s but now that I have more life experience I appreciate the book so much more.

ROOT, BINGO (indigenous writer/protagonist)

Tender at the Bone is Ruth Reichl's first book about becoming a foodie. It begins when she is a child hanging out in kitchens and progresses through her twenties when she becomes a restaurant critic for the New York Times. I had read her first novel Delicious last year and enjoyed it enough to look this book up and I liked this one enough to continue with the next,Comfort Me With Apples.

BINGO (Food is Important)

I've only read one Reichl book and I'm eager to try another! (Hmm, there's a memoir-box on the Bingo-card, I think....)

>42 -Eva-: Yes, there is a memoir/autobiography square on the BINGO card but I keep thinking it's biography. At the time I decided to use the Reichl book for the food related square, I was thinking I would read Clementine the bio of Wiston's Churchill's wife, for the square that doesn't exist! Oh well, its likely I'll read more memoir later this year anyway.

The Lake House by Kate Morton has a very good mystery at its core, the disappearance of a small child from his nursery during a party in the 1930s. The parents are well known and wealthy but no ransom demand is received nor is the child's body ever recovered. Despite great effort from the police in this small Cotswold village, the crime goes unsolved. The Edevane family, husband, wife and three children, move to London taking their grief with them. They do not return to the country house and it remains abandoned for seventy years.

In 2003 Sadie, a young London detective visiting her grandfather while on leave from her job, finds the Edevane house in the woods on an early morning run. Looking through the windows she is shocked to see it furnished as if the inhabitants had just gone out for an errand. After learning about the abduction from her grandfather she is drawn to investigate the very cold case. The path to the solution is lengthy and takes many twists, turns, maybes and what ifs.

The Lake House has received high ratings from it's readers but I would have loved for it to have had a stronger edit. Morton is otherwise a good writer, the basic plot is very interesting and her characters are often well drawn. The problem for me is that there are so many extraneous plot elements they weaken the story and in the end it all becomes implausible.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante tells the story of two girls growing up poor in Naples during the 1950s. Their knowledge of the world outside their neighborhood is scant. The only way to improve their lives is to marry into one of the better off neighborhood families. As they grow they begin to yearn for more than the life they know. At the same time the familiar holds them in its grip. At seventeen, when the book ends, they have made decisions that will determine the path their lives take.

Ferrante has written four books in this series, it continues throughout the lives of the girls into old age. I look forward to journey.

ROOT, BINGO (translated book)

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman is based on the life of Rachel Pomie, the mother of the Impressionist painter Camille Pissaro. The book begins when Rachel is a child, she was born to a Jewish family on the island of St. Thomas in 1795, and concludes when she is in her sixties. A stubborn, tempestuous child, she became an adult that lived her life by her own rules. Although she made a second marriage that caused the couple to be expelled from the synagogue it was, at least in Hoffman's hands, not so much a marriage as a decades long love affair. However, her relationship with her youngest son, Camille, was fraught with disagreement and dissatisfaction.

I didn't like Hoffman's last book The Museum of Extraordinary Things, because I thought magical realism was so evident it took over the story. In this book magical realism, in the form of island spiritualism, weaves it's way through the story and among the characters in a much more satisfying way. Hoffman's descriptions of the island, the sea, and of Paris, where her son goes to study painting and where she makes her home late in life, are often so beautiful they deserve a second reading. While there were a few plot elements that didn't seem quite right, I liked this book a lot and I'm glad I gave Hoffman another try.

BINGO (a focus on art)

>46 clue: I did not like the one Hoffman book I have read, The Red Garden, also because the magical realism elements were too heavy-handed. The Red Garden is interconnected short stories. Hoffman would hit you over the head with the magical realism threads she was using to connect the stories! They were too repetitive.

In Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer Sylvester is a Duke who decides it's time to marry. After drawing up his list of requirements for a bride, he meets Phoebe Marlow, an outspoken and rather plain girl with none of the virtues Sylvester expects in a lady. A debutante the year before, Phoebe hasn't had one single suitor from the eligible young men she was paraded before, including Sylvester. But Phoebe doesn't care, her mind is on becoming a writer. When her first novel is published, all of London knows the arrogant main character has been clearly drawn from Sylvester. A fun, quick read with Heyer's skill for historical detail and humor.

BINGO (about a writer)

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer is the first volume in Archer's Clifton Chronicles and like some of our favorite television dramas, is a saga that includes family secrets, wealth and tragedy.

Harry Clifton is a poor child in London. He and his mother live with her in-laws and with Harry's Uncle Stan. Uncle Stan works on the docks as do most men in their poor neighborhood and Harry's mother is a waitress. Once Harry starts school it is discovered that he has a near perfect singing voice. His talent and his willingness to work will open the doors of the best schools in England to him. He goes through school with 2 best friends, one a scholar and the other a fine athlete who is also a member of one of England's wealthiest families.

Beginning in 1919 Only Time Will Tell continues into 1939. Archer used an usual but effective style telling the story, he arranged the book into sections and each section focuses on a character who gives a first person account in the first chapter. Each subsequent chapter in the section is told in the third person.

Of course the book ends with a cliffhanger. Oh no, Harry's in great peril and I've got to get my hands on the next volume!

Only In Naples is a memoir by Katherine Wilson. She begins with graduating from college in 1996 and subsequently accepting a nonpaying job in Naples for a period of one semester. Raffaella Avallone, a contact made through a friend, found her an apartment that was ready when she arrived. Rafaella's son Salva (Salvatore) picked her up at the airport and took her to his parents ritzy apartment for dinner. Katherine fell in love with Rafaella, a great cook with impassioned Italian values and opinions. Not long after she was also in love with Salva and eventually they married and now live in Rome with their two children. The book's subtitle "Lessons in Food and Famiglia from my Italian Mother-in-law" is a bit misleading. The book focuses on Rafaella and Salva rather than cooking although a few recipes are included. There are also a few nuggets about Naples but neither Naples or the few friends Katherine makes get the attention I expected.

A debut book, I was never connected with the characters and would not read a sequel.

I received this book through ER.

BINGO (Memoir), ROOT

In The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty Sophie Honeywell unexpectedly inherits a house from her ex-boyfriend's Aunt Connie. Connie, her sister Rose, Connie's daughter and two granddaughters live on a small island the family owns, however not only is the island their home, it's also their place of business which is quite lucrative.

Seventy years ago a husband and wife mysteriously disappeared from the island leaving their baby behind and Connie built a tourist business around the famous story. Paying visitors to the island can tour the preserved home where the couple lived, buy baked goods at Connie's cafe, or picnic on the bank of the pretty river that surrounds the island. Once a year the family holds an Anniversary Night that is similar to a street fair with entertainment, music and food.
With Connie's sudden death the family is left to figure out how to carry on without her and whether to make public information about the disappearance that only a few of the family know.

This is an enjoyable, quick book, my first by Moriarty and based on this one, I'll read more.

Girl In Dior by Annie Goetzinger was a complete surprise to me. I saw it on our library website while I was browsing ebooks and grabbed it because of the beautiful cover art. When I opened it a few days later I was so surprised to see it was a graphic novel with more beautiful artwork. The story is very simplistic but oh, the drawings of Dior's dresses! The story begins in 1947 when Dior has his first fashion show and ends with his death just 10 years later. Again, the story isn't done well but I would love to have some of the art as prints for bedroom walls. I haven't read many graphic novels but if I find more of this type, I'm hooked!

BINGO (graphic novel)

>52 clue: - Oh, that one looks great! Happily, my local library has three copies. ;-)

>52 clue: Unfortunately my local library doesn't have Girl in Dior but I was so fired up that I have requested another book about Dior. Although I do not in any way, live in "runway" fashion, I love to read books about fashion and designers.

A beautiful little book about two neighbors who come together to cure loneliness. He is a widower, she a widow. It was her idea, in fact she went to his house and asked him if he would be interested in sleeping with her. Not for sex, but to have someone to talk to and be close to. He decides to give it a try and it changes both of their lives.

BINGO (senior citizen as the protagonist)

A light book based on London's flower sellers, girls who may be orphaned or crippled, and either living in very impoverished circumstances with their families or living alone on the streets.

There are two story lines, one follows Tilly Harper as she leaves her family home in the beautiful Lake District to go to London to serve as an assistant housemother at the Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. The Home is a place of refuge where former flower girls can live and thrive, earning their keep by making silk flowers. The second story line tells the story of Florrie, a previous assistant housemother and former flower girl, who died leaving a diary behind. Florrie lived full of guilt because she had become separated from her 4 year old sister while selling flowers in a London crowd. Though she looked in every place and for years, Florrie never found Rosie. When the diary falls into Tilly's hands she is haunted by the story of the two girls and begins her own search into Rosie's disappearance. The story has many twists and turns but Rosie is eventually found, though in unexpected circumstances.

ROOT

Give me matchstick sellers or flower sellers, that one sounds good, especially the two story lines. BB happily taken!

>56 clue: Like Lori, I have a thing for flower sellers and have also taken a BB!

faint promise of rain by Anjali Mitter Duva is a superb historical novel that takes us to the desert of India during the 16th century. Adhira, the youngest child in a family of Hindu temple dancers, tells her story. She begins by saying:

In Rajasthan, where I was born, a child of five is likely never to have seen rain. For hundreds of years, the monsoons have been elusive. In the children's rooms in the royal palace, not far from what used to be my family's home, the walls are painted with black and blue cloud designs, so the little ones will not be afraid when the skies finally break open. But for less fortunate children, such as my brothers and sister, the day of their first rain can mean an intensity of fear and hope.

It is fear and hope that are at the core of Adhira's life. A Muslim emperor threatens with an expansion of his territory, there is threat of rebellion from within when her eldest brother declares he will become a warrior rather than follow tradition, the uncertain future of the younger son who is crippled, and the surety that Adhira's father, a pious man, will force her to "marry" the temple deity and give herself to a wealthy patron, an act that she doesn't even understand until long after she is promised to the temple at the age of 5.

I predict that this will be one of my favorites of 2016. I like books about families and their struggles to remain together, especially when tradition clashes with changing mores. This is a debut novel but Duva writes with skill, knowledge, and heart. I anxiously await her second book which will be set in 19th-century Lucknow.




Published by SHEWRITESPRESS.

BINGO (Coming of Age Story), Dewey (Religion)

>59 clue: And yet another Book Bullet!

>60 DeltaQueen50: Good! I really liked this and since it wasn't published by a major publisher I'm afraid it will get overlooked.

The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt was first published in 1974. Holt was one of several pen names used by Eleanor Hibbert. A very successful writer, Jean Plaidy and Phippa Carr are two of her other pen names. Hibbert published 200 books in total including 4 nonfiction, with 100 million copies in 20 languages.

Under the Victoria Holt name Hibbert wrote gothic romances. This book begins in England and moves to Hong Kong. Holt developed a suspenseful atmosphere by using mysterious Chinese characters and customs. After entering into a rash marriage and learning the man still has a living wife, Jane enters a marriage of convenience with a man who deals in art and antiquities, primarily Chinese. Upon his death she inherits his large and successful business which she plans to manage as her husband trained her to do. Before a year has transpired after her husband's death, three men have indicated they want to marry her and Jane has to decide if they are sincere or if they are hoping to get their hands on her business. One of the three is her first love who she had unknowingly married while he was married to someone else. After Jane left England the first wife reappeared and died at her husband's home under rather mysterious circumstances. But Jane had learned after leaving him she was pregnant with his child and was still fervently in love with him. She questions his trustworthiness (well, duh) and that is at the heart of the story.

The book has rather a slow pace compared to current fiction and I had a niggling irritation with the fact that she didn't state when the book took place. Since traps and horses were used to move around I suppose it was early 20th century. It's been years since I've read a book by this author but if my memory is correct it's not one of her best. It's not bad but it does drag and the protagonist's blind attraction to this man caused me to remind myself this was written 40 years ago and readers then may have been more likely to believe her attraction to this man.

ROOT, BINGO (You want protagonist's job or hobby)

>56 clue: >59 clue: Those two hit me as well, BBs taken.

>56 clue: I've taken a bullet from Memory of Violets too!

>55 clue: Our Souls at Night is indeed a beautiful little book.

A Great Deliverance is the first in the Thomas Lynley detective series which a friend has been encouraging me to read for years. I spied it at the library a few days ago and I'm glad I can tell her I liked it. Lynley is an interesting character, wealthy, titled and troubled by love, but recognized at Scotland Yard as one of their best. After a young woman is found wearing her best dress in a barn beside the decapitated corpse of her father, Lynley, accompanied by Detective Sargent Barbara Havers, travels to Yorkshire to investigate.

For the first in a series it's good and since it was published in 1988 and 18 more have followed, it is obviously a series that many like. I hope to continue with it but darn, I'm having a hard time working everything I want to read in!

>64 VivienneR: I hope you like them both!

>59 clue: - I'll take a book bullet on that one too. It's not a period of time or place that I'm even remotely familiar with but like you I'm a sucker for the family stories with the challenges you mentioned.

>67 LittleTaiko: I was pretty much the same and to be truthful I don't think I would have read it had I not heard the author speak first. It was just one of those lucky finds.

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson is, I'm happy to say, another winner. Like many other readers I loved Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and was afraid I would be disappointed in Simonson's second book, but I actually like it even better. I'm at odds with a few elements in the plot, but that's a small dissatisfaction.

Beginning just before WWI, Beatrice Nash is hired as a Latin teacher in the village of Rye. As soon as she arrives she is inspected by one of the most prominent ladies in town, Agatha Nash, and told in no uncertain terms that Agatha, as one of two women on the hiring committee, has staked her own reputation on supporting Beatrice and she is expected to live up to expectations. After seeing Beatrice, Agatha is worried that although Beatrice is over qualified and presents herself in an acceptable manner, she is much too young at 23, and not the older spinster that was expected. And so it begins.

A character driven book, there are the same themes in The Summer Before the War as in Major Pettigrew; snobbery, discrimination and love. As refugees flee to England from Belgium, as young men face their inevitable future, as love places itself in the wrong places, the people of Rye go forward. And dear reader, expect to shed a few tears as they do.

>69 clue: Onto the wish list it goes!

The Tree by John Fowles is a 91 page essay in which he writes about the connection between nature and creativity. He uses his childhood garden as an example of the propensity we have to control nature and ultimately destroy our relationship with it.

Fowles father had apple trees behind the family home. He faithfully pruned the trees to such a degree that he was able to grow so many apples that he shared them with the whole town. Although he didn't sell them, he still priced them at the market rate so that he could determine the worth of the trees. It is from this personal anecdote that Fowles begins a passionate argument in favor of leaving nature be, encouraging us to step into the natural world and not try to define it or it's worth.

Beautifully done, and what else would we expect from one of the 20th century's finest novelists?

ROOT, Random CAT

I've been feeling rotten the last few days with allergies and haven't been sleeping well. Definitely not wanting to read anything that would require much effort, just too tired. I checked my Kindle for something light and found Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske, the first title in a cozy mystery series. It was perfect for the time and it turned out to be one of the better cozy mysteries I've read.

Miss Zukas is a young librarian on the staid side. She sees everything in life pretty much as black or white. Nonetheless, she's a very likable character and a smart one. Her friend Ruth is quite different, a flamboyant artist who drinks too much and isn't particularly choosy when it comes to men. Or maybe I should say she makes it easy and just chooses them all. It's likely Miss Zukas and Ruth wouldn't be friends if they hadn't grown up together.

A murder is committed in the library after hours and Miss Zukas begins to wonder about a few patrons that have been coming into the library in recent days. Like many cozy mystery heroines she doesn't initially plan on solving or becoming involved in the murder but a cryptic note falls into her hands, one that she isn't sure is part of the mystery and her home is broken into though nothing is stolen. Unfortunately, Miss Zukas blindly walks right into the murderer's trap. It was a surprise to both of us.

It was a surprise to both of us.
*smile*

I enjoyed Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and will definitely be adding The Summer Before The War to my wishlist.

>70 thornton37814:,>74 DeltaQueen50: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

James Campbell, a well known outdoors-man, has written for many popular outdoor and adventure magazines. Before his eldest daughter, Aidan, was in school he made a series of trips to the Alaskan Arctic to research his first book. She told him then that when she was a "big girl" she wanted to go to Alaska with him and as she entered her teens the reminders became frequent.

When Aidan was fifteen, Campbell's cousin, Heimo Korth, asked him to come to far Northern Alaska to help build a cabin that would become the home of Heimo and his wife Edna for a large part of each year. Although it would be an adventure that would last months and one that could be dangerous, even deadly due to the remote location and the work being done, Campbell decided to take Aidan if she was willing to work alongside the two men.

Braving It: A Father, A Daughter, And An Unforgettable Journey Into The Alaskan Wild is his account of that adventure and of two later trips the pair take to Alaska; a second trip to the Korth's in winter (-50 below!), and a canoe trip down the Hulahula River. This is a good book on so many levels. It gives us an understanding of the harsh life some people choose over living among people, it shows a man's struggle and love as a father and as an aging man, and it lets us see into the turmoil and frustration a teen experiences as she begins her move out into the world. While it's a great adventure story, it's a great people story too.

I found Aidan's blog (Grittygal) and look forward to checking in with her again in the future to see what she chooses to do. The truth is, I have some jealousy of her, I was an outdoor girl too but once I became a teen the 1960s I was encouraged to let the boys be the adventurers. Aidan, you go girl!

I received this book as an ER.

ROOT, Bingo (Adventure)

>76 clue: Sounds fun. Thanks for the review!

>76 clue:
Sounds like an amazing experience. I love the outdoors, but I'm more of a "glamping" type of person; there had better be a shower and a soft bed at the end of the trek:)

When Frank Gannon was growing up he knew his parents were from Ireland. It was odd though that they never talked about it and would rarely give anything but a curt answer to his questions about their lives before coming to America. It's not surprising that after his parents died he decided to go to Ireland and see if he could uncover some family roots.

Midlife Irish: Discovering My Family and Myself is about the trip to Ireland but also about being Irish in America. Gannon is irreverent and funny but he writes with heart too. An Irish heart it turns out.

"Growing up, I knew that I was Irish in much the same way I knew I had asthma. I knew I had it but I didn't know anything about it.".

ROOT, Memoir, DEWEY

The Peach Keeper is similar to other books by Sarah Addison Allen. There is friendship, loyalty, love and a sprinkle of magical realism. Thirty-year-old Willa learns her once wealthy family has a hidden secret. She finds that out when the mansion her family owned is being restored and a skeleton is found buried on the property. Unfortunately the restorer is someone Willa went to high school with, one of the perfect girls, and Paxton is someone Willa doesn't consider a friend. But if the mystery is solved the two will have to solve it together because as a young woman Willa's grandmother lived in the house. The Peach Keeper is a light read, and if not profound, fun to read.

Author John Dunning owned a Denver bookstore for many years and is an expert on rare and collectible books. Using his experience in the book trade and of Denver, he created a detective series featuring Cliff Janeway, a book loving Denver detective. There are five titles in the series and Booked to Die is the first.

Bobby Westfall, a well known bookscout, earns a tenuous living finding and selling collectible books to Denver bookstores. When he is found murdered Janeway begins an investigation leading to a hidden collection valued at $20,000. Janeway's gut tells him where the collection came from and how Bobby got them will lead him to the killer. Before it does, two more in the Denver booktrade are dead and Janeway, who doesn't always follow the rules, is no longer on the force.

The Booked to Die mystery is solid and the book talk terrific. There is a love interest that doesn't jell, but that won't keep me from reading the rest of the series. I'm sorry there are only four more!

BINGO (Title Uses Wordplay)

Somehow your star got lost and I'm months behind on your thread. Saw a bunch of interesting books as I rushed to the bottom since I saw your mention of Booked to Die over on the Bingo thread. That's one of my favorite series. I just wish he'd write a few more. Now I'll go back and read some of your reviews. I'm pretty sure there will be a book billet or two (or more) before I finish.

This is the first book in the Poirot series, written because of a bet Christie had with her sister Madge. It introduces the characters of Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Inspector Japp. Christie tries the elements that will become the foundation of her enormous success; a wealthy family, a mystery set at a country house, a non-violent murder, and a bit of romance.

The mystery begins during WWI. Emily Inglethorpe has made a second marriage to a younger man. Her first husband left her a country house, money and two grown stepsons who also live at the estate called Styles. Arthur Hastings is friends with one of them and has gone to the country home to recover from a war injury. During Hastings' visit Emily Inglethorpe dies in a mysterious manner. Poirot happens to be a Belgian refugee staying in the nearby village, is known to Hastings and is brought to the country house to help solve the mystery.

Of course this is not the best of the Poirots, characters will be furthered developed in subsequent novels. I liked it because it was the first, not because it was the best. The Styles estate will also become the setting for the last in the Poirot series.

BINGO (published before you were born)

Citizens Creek by Lalita Tademy is an epic novel, covering three generations of a Black/American Indian family. Based on the Tom family's actual history, the story begins in the 1830s in Alabama and concludes in Oklahoma after Indian Territory became that state in 1907.

Cow Tom is 12 years old, a black child owned by a Creek chief prior to the Removal (also known as the Trail of Tears). Not only was Tom good with cows, he was good with languages too and became an interpreter, or linguister, for the chief. Tom's mother had been kidnapped by Seminoles who had come to Alabama for that purpose. His first adventure begins when the Army approaches Chief Yargee for Creek warriors to help in rounding up Seminoles for Removal. Tom is determined to go so that he can look for his mother even though she has been gone for years. Chief Yargee is persuaded and rents Tom as a linguister to the Army for $350. Money that Yargee will allow Tom to save towards the day he will have enough to buy himself.

The plot follows Tom through his marriage, his family's removal, their resettlement in the Territory, and his becoming the first black Creek chief. Once Tom dies the story follows his granddaughter and her husband through the remaining years of the 19th century and through the turmoil of the deconstruction of the Territory.

All of my great grandparents were mid 19th century settlers in the IT region and I grew up hearing stories about the Removal and it's aftermath. Now, as a docent at The Fort Smith National Historic Site (a National Park), I'm often asked about the tribes in IT and slavery (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole were the primary tribes removed from the Southeast U.S.). I've read the nonfiction I can find and have attended various seminars that include the subject, but it has never been given the attention it deserves by those that study and write American history. Fortunately the Tom family's personal records fell into Tademy's hands. As a skilled novelist she aptly brings life to the history.

The book has a few problems but nothing that can't be overlooked. The research and writing took years and I'm most grateful that Tademy took the project on. I'll definitely recommend Citizens Creek to those who may want to understand the relationship between slaves and Indian owners better but may prefer a novel to a scholarly tome.
4 stars.

ROOT, Bingo (a body of water in the title)

>82 dudes22: Thanks Betty, I've had some good reading this year. I've tried to stick to books on the TBR and wishlist but oh, the pain when I go to the library.

>84 clue: Great review of Citizen's Creek, a book that I definitely want to read!

>84 clue: Wonderful review!

>84 clue: I liked Cane River better than Citizens Creek; however, I'm glad I read both.

Stopping by to get caught up and making note of the great reading since my last visit!

The third book by Margaret Dilloway, Sisters of Heart and Snow, has two interwoven stories. The first is contemporary and is about two adult sisters who have been estranged since their bully of a father kicked the eldest out of the house at sixteen. Their mother, a mail order bride from Japan who always remained distant to her daughters, is now suffering from dementia and living in a nursing home.

During a visit to the home Rachel, the eldest, understands that there is a book her mother wants her to find. She calls her sister Drew and asks her to go to their childhood home with her to help find it. When they do find it they can't read it because it's in Japanese. After hiring a translator they learn it is about a woman samurai who lived during the 12th century in Japan.

The two stories, the first of the sisters and the second of the samurai, are intermittently told from that point on. The purpose of the book to the plot is to lead the sisters to reconciliation, but the story of the samurai never seems anything but inconsequential. In the beginning the sisters are good characters but they become so predictable that they become boring, particularly the youngest who wallows in immaturity. Near the end there are a couple of revelations that are meant to be bombshells but they fizzle because the reader has seen them coming. My impression is that Dilloway had a plot in mind that she just couldn't pull together. 2.5 stars.

I'm not sure if it was your intention, but, much like the book, your review drew me in and had me thinking this would be a BB for me. But by the end I realized that it will not be. Good review.

>90 clue: No, that wasn't my intention but the description of the story drew me to it too. I just thought she wasn't able to pull it off. I liked her first two books and wish this had been better. If you check the LT reviews for it though you will see others really liked it.

Annette Freeman, a patent lawyer in Australia, decided that she was going to open a bookstore because she loved books. She eventually opened her store in 2003, about 5 years after she first started thinking about it. She tells us right off that the store closed after 18 months and the purpose of the book was to share the "triumphs and disasters" that she experienced along the way.

Because I am by nature a practical person and because I have years of experience in business it was hard for me to read this. When Freeman planned the store she spent a lot of time visualizing what it would look like. She loves visualizing. She had been to several private clubs in the U.S. that had libraries and she envisioned that kind of environment. Lots of wood and lovely fabrics on the comfy chairs and couches. She had also seen bookstores with coffee shops (remember this is about 15 years ago) and decided she would have food as well. By the time her visualizing was over she was serving full meals (on white tablecloths) and the food section of the bookstore was 50% of the space.

Her planning goes something like this:
- She decides to call her bookstore Tea in the Library although she thinks it may confuse some people.
- She visited a lot of bookstores in Australia and the U.S. to see what she liked and wanted to incorporate. This is called research.
- She read books on business plans and wrote one. There were gaps in the details of marketing, organizational strategy and financial predictions but says "at least I had defined what I needed to discover".
- She did market research using college students to collect some kind of data. She says that her original estimate for the "shop fit" was $25,000 and it ended up being $350,000.
- She tells us she is not and never has been a numbers person (no kidding)
- Although she didn't quite have the business plan down she hired a design team to develop an interior design. They came up with a logo, lovely fabrics, etc.
- Then she says she didn't know what to do next because she didn't have any money to continue but put everything she had gathered in a box and kept it for 2 years.
- She was also pushing herself to do adventurous things and went to Nepal (and later to Patagonia and Antarctica).
- She decided to sell her only piece of rental property against the advice of her financial adviser.
- The sale didn't yield enough so she took out a loan.
- Oh, I forgot to say that she had a divorce settlement but gave it to a fraudster who had gone to prison.
- She started reading personal development books and recommends Tony Robbins.
- She hired a personal coach.

So, she continues on and on and then opens the store. Afterwards there are sentences like "if we had only been profitable we could have done so much more". Her financial adviser and accountant asked her to meet with them jointly and told her she needed to get out of the business. She "appreciated their concern" but she didn't consider closing for a minute. She was "caught up in the vision". Well obviously the store did close after she lost more money.

I feel rather mean but really! She comes across as a nice, naive, woman who is totally ignorant about practical matters and won't listen to advice she pays for. But, bless her, she wrote this book so the rest of us wouldn't make her mistakes.

Its hard to rate this book because it's tempting to rate her. The book is not poorly written but its like watching someone commit suicide across the street.

(ROOT)

>93 clue: Great review. She was definitely gullible. The whole story sounds hilariously bad. I'm not sure the lady could've been a worse business owner. I hope she found something else she was better at doing.

>93 clue: - I don't think I'll take a BB on this as tempting as it may be. I too am practical and the "...pushing herself to do adventurous things and went to Nepal, etc..." when she could have used the money spent toward her bookstore makes me just shake my head. Maybe the book should be subtitled "How not to".

Hatchett by Gary Paulsen is a children's book, a survival story, and every bit as suspenseful as an adult book. Brian is 13 and traveling to see his father who is working in the northern Canadian wilderness. The airplane Brian in on is small, with barely enough room for the pilot and himself.

After being in the air a few hours the pilot breaks monotony by showing Brian a few tasks that have to be done to fly the plane and even let him take control for a few minutes. Of course, Brian didn't know that later that same day he would be trying to keep the airplane in the air by himself after the pilot has a fatal heart attack. Using what little he knows about keeping a plane aloft, he manages to do so for a few hours, but eventually has to attempt a landing.

On every succeeding page I asked myself how much longer Brian would live. He was in a deep wilderness, the plane in a lake. He has to have food, water, shelter and safety from wild animals and weather if he survives. He has nothing to provide those things but a hatchet that was in his belt when the plane went down.

Paulsen is a well known children's writer although I had only read one of his adult books. He has won many children's literature awards, this book alone won 5. Just under 200 pages and a nail biter, I was fighting for survival right along with Brian, it's a great adventure story for kids and adults!

>93 clue: - Oh ouch! That sounds like quite a painful read. Where you want to grab the author by the shoulders and shake some sense into them.

The protagonist of My House in Umbria by William Trevor is Mrs. Delahunty. Mrs. Delahunty is English but owns a property in Umbria where she takes in lodgers when the hotels are full. While she is on a train returning from a trip to Milan there is an explosion attributed to terrorists though that is never proven. Several passengers are killed but Mrs. Delahunty receives injuries that aren't fatal. Two adults and a child from her car are also hospitalized. The three are a young German man, a retired English General, and a young American girl. The families and traveling companions of the three are all killed. Once they are released from the hospital all need a place to go and Mrs. Delahunty invites them to stay at her home until they are ready to travel. The girl is suffering from psychological rather than physical injuries and a search for a relative is launched because her parents and brother are among the dead.

From the beginning Mrs. Delahunty admits to a shadowy past: " It is not easy to introduce myself. Gloria Grey, Janine Ann Johns, Cora Lamore: there is a choice, and there have been other names as well". We learn she previously lived in Africa where she owned a bordello. Quinty, who runs her house in Umbria, came with her from there. Three other people, the child's estranged uncle, the Dr. that treats her and a maid who is also Quinty's love interest complete the cast of characters.

The book has many layers and the reader can think them over or take the book at it's most basic level. Over the months the characters reside in Mrs. Delahunty's house she gathers tidbits of their histories. Even then, all is not clearly uncovered and the reader is left to wonder.

A movie starring Maggie Smith was made from the book and is available on Amazon. I'm interested to see how it compares.

3.5* ROOT

This sounds so familiar to me, but I don't see it in any of my lists here on LT. Unless I read it before LT, maybe.

>99 dudes22: Or maybe you saw the movie, it was on HBO.

Maybe I did. I do like Maggie Smith.

>81 clue:
I read that one a while back, but the characters didn't work for me, unfortunately.

I'm behind posting and I hope to catch up today, I've mostly been reading short light reads.



I read the YA book Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac for the Dewey Challenge and loved it. It's about Navajo code talkers during WWII. The author is of Navajo heritage and prepared to write the book by talking to both Navajo men who were Marine code talkers, and men who served as Marines in other capacities during the war. One of those was his uncle who fought on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Bruchac includes an impressive Bibliography.

Although this is fiction I would forget that while I was reading! It is written in the first person as if the narrator is telling his grandchildren about his experiences as a code talker. When Ned is a small child he is sent to a school run by white people for Navajos. The children are told to forget their native customs and language because they are "no good". If a child persisted in speaking Navajo he was punished, even beaten. Ned is very careful about using Navajo, only speaking it if he thinks he won't be caught.

A year after WWII begins Ned joins the Marines even though he is only sixteen. He wants to serve his country and his parents give him permission. They arrange a Blessingway ceremony before he leaves their home to keep him safe. In this way Navajo customs and traditions are described throughout the book.

Ironically, Ned is assigned to a group that is developing a communication code based on the Navajo language. Once the code is developed he becomes a code talker and will receive and send messages from numerous battlegrounds. One of the many things I leaned reading the book is that code talkers were't just used to communicate between high level officers as I thought they were. Instead, about 400 Navajo code talkers sent and received messages among officers on the battleground. The important role these intelligent and courageous men played remained top secret from the end of the war until 1969.

Garden Spells is Sarah Addison Adams first mainstream novel and was published in 2007. Since then she has written 5 others and this is the 3rd of the 6 I've read and I've liked them all. Her characters are Southern and her books include magical realism and a little romance. They are fun, lighthearted reads.

Claire lives in the lovely Waverly family home where she concocts foods from edible plants for her catering business. Her sister Sidney left their hometown as soon as she could flee. When Sidney turns up with a small daughter, Claire's carefully constructed quiet life is shattered. Include a handsome neighbor, a magical apple tree and a relative who "knows" when she needs to give someone a particular item and you have the makings of a good summer read.

>104 clue: Garden Spells is my favorite SAA novel.

"The Island Murders" is the second in the Helma Zukas, librarian, cozy mystery series. Miss Zukas receives an anonymous letter reminding her that she promised she would plan her 20th year high school reunion. Why an anonymous reminder and how can the conscientious Miss Zukas successfully plan a reunion from a Michigan high school when she lives in Washington state?

I wouldn't want to read a Miss Zukas mystery every day but once in awhile she's a hoot.

>106 clue: I love Miss Zukas. As you said, it's a fun read.

The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch was a disappointment to me. It's the sequel to The Vintner's Daughter which I read last year. That book was a first novel and while I thought it had some rough spots I also thought the writer had promise. In fact I thought those passages relating to growing grapes and processing wine were very good. Unfortunately I didn't find this book as interesting, and a bit too "romancy" for me.

I did like Recipe for Life, the autobiography of baker Mary Berry. I've used her cookbooks, she's written over 70, but wasn't very familiar with her until The Great British Bake Off where she is one of two judges.

Berry was brought up in Bath where her father was mayor. She is very frank about the fact that she was not a studious child and didn't do well in school. Her parents were worried about her and quite relieved when, as a teenager, she excelled in Home Economics classes. She went on to study what we now call hospitality management.

Her first job was going to customer's homes to show them how to use their new electric ovens, baking a sponge cake while she was there. She went on to work for magazines developing recipes and writing cooking articles, and also presented cooking related programs on television and radio. She is dedicated to her family and has always considered herself a home cook, her first interest is providing healthy, good and easy recipes for families.

It wasn't until Berry was in her seventies and planning a quiet retired life that she became a "celeb". The opportunity to be part of The Great British Bake Off came to her unexpectedly and it's success is far beyond what was originally thought possible. While the program was still in development bread was added to the venue and she requested another baker join the show as she did not consider herself a bread baker. That's when Paul Hollywood, whom she seems fond of, was selected as a second judge.

It is her spirit that makes Berry so engaging. Although she has certainly known difficult times, she had polio as a child and one of her children died in an accident at 19, she kept moving forward. She is currently 81 and still open to new experiences. A very refreshing and inspiring person!

As I read this over, the thought occurred to me that there wouldn't be much of a chance that a U.S. producer would put a program like the British Baking Show into the hands of a 70 plus year old woman regardless of how charming and knowledgeable she was. Yet another reason I'm glad the show and Mary Berry are such a success!

My reading to category goals is better this year at the half year than I think they've ever been:

Fiction: completed 21 to a goal of 36 (15 to go)
Mysteries: completed 8 against a goal of 18 (10 to go)
Memoir/Biography: completed 5 to a goal of 6 (1 to go)
Nonfiction: completed 7 to a goal of 12 ( 5 to go)

So I need to read 31 more to complete the challenge and I've read 41 the first half of the year.

I also have all of the Bingo squares filled but 2 and one of them is in progress. Last year I didn't finish, had 3 squares left at year end. It's just been easier to fill them with what I was reading rather than having to read an additional book.

For the ROOT challenge I've completed 18 against a goal of 30. I've tried to read 3 a month and if I can continue I'll finish ROOT in 4 months.

I'm going to check where I am on Dewey and Random challenges but I think I've read a book for all of them.

I'm glad I'm doing this well because I want to start the Outlander series and I should be able to do that towards the end of the year.

This year is passing so fast to me and the time to plan next year's challenges will be here in a flash! The immediate thing I need to do though is catch up on posting!

You're doing great! And I agree, where has the first half of the year gone?!

I find the older I get the faster the years fly by! Looks like you are in firm control of your challenge at the half-way point. I have been working my way through the Outlander series for the last couple of years. I am listening to the audible versions and really enjoy them, but they do require a lot of time to be invested. My current one, The Fiery Cross is over 55 hours in listening length.

>109 clue:
I didn't know she had written an autobiography - BB for me! I like her as a person just as much as I like her recipes. :)

I was drawn to The Hamlet Trap by Kate Wilhelm because it takes place near Medford, Oregon where my brother once lived. Roman (Ro) Cavanaugh owns and manages a theater in nearby Ashland. He has a talented and dedicated group of professionals working for him including his only living relative, Ginnie. Ginnie is a brilliant set designer and Ro plans for her to take his place when the time comes for him to step down.

When a new director is hired all goes astray and two separate murders take place in the theater. Because Ginnie is the prime suspect, her estranged grandparents hire a retired NY cop and his psychologist wife to investigate.

The characters are good, the theater setting well done and though the solution to the mystery is a little far fetched, I still enjoyed it. 3/5

BINGO (theater)

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill tells a raw, but not hopeless story.

Baby, 12 when the book begins, is being raised by her heroin addicted young father, Jules. Her teenage mother died in a car wreck soon after Baby's birth. Jules and Baby live on the skids in Montreal, eventually landing in the lowest place possible, the red light district.

Baby is a tough, smart little girl. Still, by 13 she is experiencing drugs, sex and prostitution, her adult "boyfriend" her pimp. She loves Jules and longs for him to become the parent she needs. Jules loves Baby too and comes out of his fog long enough to understand she needs a savior and he has to find a way to become one.

This is a riveting book. The author apparently lived Baby's life and has chosen to write about her childhood in fiction rather than nonfiction. She does so brilliantly. 4.5 stars

ROOT, BINGO (musical term in title)

>115 clue: I'm hit! you got me.

>116 VictoriaPL: It's still lingers in my thoughts, sometimes a disconcerting read but obviously very memorable. I hope you like it.



An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear is the 5th in the Masie Dobbs series and is very good. Set between WWI and WWII Masie is still making progress in establishing a career and private life after being a field nurse in France during the war.

James Compton hires her to investigate some irregularities near and on some property he is interested in acquiring, an estate that includes a brickworks. There have been robberies and fires set on the property and in the nearby village. Some are sure the culprits are gypsies and some are sure it's visiting boys from London. Masie isn't sure who it is, and is as much interested in why as who.

I like this series more with each book. Winspear does such a good job with the time period and the lingering effects of WWI on the English and on Masie. 4 stars.

London Road: Linked Stories by Tessa Smith McGovern is one of the books I acquired from Amazon for 99 cents and it's a good one.

The book is comprised of seven stories that are told on the same day by seven residents of a boarding house on London Road. The first story is by Janice who has just been released from prison. Others include Betty who suffers the effects of abandonment by her mother and Nora, the romance writing landlady. 3.5 stars

I've just bought the one other book Amazon has by McGovern, Cocktails for Booklovers, a nonfiction book that has received high praise from LTers. It looks like fun:

From Amazon:

From Jane Austen's little-known fondness for wine to Hemingway's beloved mojitos, literature and libations go hand in hand. Cocktails for Book Lovers blends these in a delectable book that will delight both readers and cocktail enthusiasts alike. This irresistible collection features 50 original and classic cocktail recipes based on works of famous authors and popular drinks of their eras, including Orange Champagne Punch, Salted Caramel and Bourbon Milkshakes, and even Zombie Cola. So dip in, pick your favorite author or book, and take a sip—or start at the beginning and work your way through. Cheers!

Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay takes place in 1975 in Northern Canada and revolves around people who work at a radio station with very few listeners. The characters are primarily station employees. They include the beautiful, seductive and talented Dido, quiet Gwen who drove 3000 miles through remote Canada alone looking for a job, and Eleanor who has been in Yellowknife the longest and is realizing it's time to move on.

The employees think the first television station coming to Yellowknife will change their lives. Before that can happen, a canoe trip taken by four of the employees becomes a fateful turning point.

I was impatient with the book at first but stayed with it and I'm glad I did. The characters are quirky and the ending unexpected. I like those things.

3.5 stars

ROOT

The Stormy Petrel by Mary Stewart was written in 1991 near the end of Stewart's long career. Dr Rose Fenemore, while on break from her teaching position at Cambridge, plans to meet her brother Crispin on the island of Moila for a restful holiday. The isolated cottage she has rented seems the perfect place for her to work on her next book and for Crispin to to fish and take nature photographs. Traveling separately, Crispin doesn't arrive when expected due to a train collision in which he suffers an ankle injury.

Rose has been settled in the house a few nights when a strong storm brings not only torrential rain and wind but two men looking for shelter. The first to arrive explains having a key to the cottage door by saying he had grown up in the house and thought his parents still lived there. The other claims to have recently inherited both the cottage and the estate house nearby. Rose suspects the two know each other although they behave as if they don't.

This begins the web of mystery and suspense that are the hallmark of Stewart's novels. The story is entertaining and the remote isolated setting is well described. The "stormy petrel" by the way, is a bird.

Good reading for a lazy summer day and with it I complete my BINGO card.

3.5 stars.

Congrats on completing your Bingo card!

>120 clue: I remember reading that one back in the day!

>119 clue: Late Nights on Air ended up reeling me in too. The parts about running the radio station were my favourites.

Well done on the Bingo-card!

The ninth installment in the Chief Inspector Gamache books, How The Light Gets In by Louise Penny, is a pivotal entry in the series. At the end of the previous book Gamache's relationships with both his assistant Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and with Chief Inspector Francoeur, were seriously eroded. In advancing the story, Penny kept me on the edge of my seat, and at the same time brought Gamache's situation to a satisfying conclusion. Her writing gets better and better.

I saw "pivotal entry" and skipped right over everything else since I'm not that far yet.

Hurrah for completing your Bingo card!

>125 clue: Yes! This was such a good installment. So good that I am not sure whether I feel the need to continue the series. I liked how it all wound up.

Gypsy Horses and the Travelers' Way by John S. Hockensmith is a coffee table style book with beautiful photographs but a lot of text as well. The primary purpose of the book is to explain the Gypsy fair, called Appleby Fair, held in Northern England on the first weekend in June. This gathering is centuries old. The Gypsies travel for days, weeks and some for months to attend the Fair. Many drive horse drawn "living wagons" and camp along the way. The Fair is an opportunity to show off their beloved horses and to buy and sell them. The current Gypsy horse, or cobb, is a breed developed over a period of 100 years. Gypsies don't maintain written records so the exact source of the breed isn't known. These are beautiful work horses. They are short, ranging from 12 to 15 hands and have very long manes, forelocks, and feathers along their legs. The bodies are wide and provide strength for pulling heavy loads. One man who had a mare for sale at the Fair the author attended, advertised his horse as 14 hands high and 14 hands across!

There is a history of the Gypsies included but it is very brief, if you were looking for a comprehensive history this would not be it. The author's goal was to understand the Gypsy horse trade and the ways of the Gypsy people. Because he had a Gadjo (non Gypsy) friend who buys horses from them, he was able to travel to the Fair with a Gypsy family, even taking a turn at driving the horse pulled wagon.

Hockensmith writes: The Gypsies and their horses spurred me to examine perceptions, challenged me to be a seeker and encouraged me to respect and celebrate life...

Random Cat, Dewey 4 stars

In Gillespie and I by Jane Harris, Harriet Baxter is writing her memoir. It focuses on her life beginning in 1888 and chapters rotate between then and the time in which she is writing. In 1888 Harriet was in her thirties and a single woman of independent means. That year she decided to leave her home in London and live temporarily in Glasgow. She was drawn to Glasgow by the 1888 International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry.

While attending the Exhibition Harriet sees a painting by a young artist, Ned Gillespie, and remembers a brief conversation with him in London a few years previously. Oddly, she had an encounter with Gillespie's mother and wife soon after she came to Glasgow and his mother, Elspeth, credits Harriet with saving her life. When invited to Elspeth's home, Harriet is surprised to learn she has rented an apartment just around the corner from both Gillespie families. Soon she begins a somewhat obsessive friendship with Ned, his wife Annie, and their two young daughters. One of girls tends toward unsettling behavior and there is a strain on Ned's work as well as the marriage. Harriet's friendship and help in the household becomes invaluable.

Two years after their first meeting, and long after Harriet originally planned to leave Glasgow, the Gillespies became victims of an unspeakable crime. The perpetrator isn't easily found and eventually Harriet and the coincidences that caused the beginning of her friendship with the Gillespies come under police suspicion. Is all truth in Harriet's relationship with the Gillespie family? Is her memoir reliable?

A novel that hangs on after the last page is read, Gillespie and I is literary, atmospheric, and chilling. I found the first 50 or so pages slow going but sticking with it was well worth it. Without a doubt, this will be one of my favorites of this year.

ROOT

Lee Smith grew up in a small Virginia town in the mountains of Appalachia. Her mother was a former school teacher and her dad was the owner of the town dimestore. Lee loved Grundy and all the people who lived there, but she was "raised to leave" and didn't live in Grundy beyond her high school years.

This is not a sentimental account but rather a collection of essays that show how a small town upbringing and Southern culture created a writer. Now in her seventies, Lee has written an unflinching account of a life that always had writing (and reading) at it's core. 4*

>130 clue: Gillespie and I sounds great - a BB for me!

I'm not going to say much about this because I don't want to spoil it for those that haven't read it yet. Gamache leaves retirement to lead the Surete Academy where agents are trained.

There is a plot element that I thought was not very effective, rather clumsy. Still, it's good reading and I gave it 4*.

Small Blessings by Martha Woodroof is a charming book. Although there are serious subjects involved, it's something of a romantic comedy, and I see it as a Hugh Grant movie.

Tom Putnam is an English professor at a small college. His wife Marjory has always been fragile, so much so that her mother advised Tom not to marry her. Now middle aged, Marjory is withdrawn, rarely leaves the house, and is rarely involved with any of Tom's friends.Sweet Tom looks after Marjory to the exclusion of a fully lived life himself. His favorite activity is going to the campus bookstore and perusing the Shakespeare shelves.

Tom is shaken when he receives a letter from an old flame. And shaken again when the bookstore hires a new assistant manager and Marjory takes a liking to her. Tom takes a liking to her too. And so does Tom's best friend.
And so does pretty much everyone else. It's not long before things begin to happen on this quiet little college campus that have never been seen before.

A debut novel, I hope we'll see more from Woodroof sooner rather than later! 3.5*

The Reluctnt Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal is chic-lit with a little bit of a twist. It follows the typical formula but with cultural issues.

Meena is 31 and is a PR professional at a high tech company in New Jersey. Her mother and aunts pester her constantly about marrying. Meena's parents are well educated professionals, her mother a doctor, and her father has a doctorate in engineering. They are both immigrants from India and both expect their children to accept an arranged marriage. After lots of disaster, both in her family and in her love life, the plot brings Meena to the expected conclusion.

>133 clue: - Hmm, wondering which plot element that was? I loved it but am willing to admit that it maybe had a flaw or two. Just curious which one bothered you.

>136 LittleTaiko: It was the whole map thing. I know she needed to get them away from the Academy but the whole map issue seemed superfluous to me.

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz is a historical YA novel. It has won several well deserved awards including the 2016 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Children's and YA Literature.

This book is written in diary form, beginning in 1911. The diarist is 14 years old, motherless, and living on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania with her father and three brothers. After the death of her mother, Jane's father forces her to leave her beloved school and teacher, and take on "the woman's work" on the farm. The work is thankless, brutal, and never ending. While she works, Jane dreams about the heroines she knows from the few novels she's read, and longs for a heroine's life.

After a particularly harsh incident with her father, Jane runs away, trying not to dwell on what he will do if he catches her. She makes her way to Baltimore on secret money her mother had sewn in a doll's dress. She has heard that "hired girls" do very well in Baltimore although she knows nothing about how to find a job or even what hired girls do. By luck she is befriended by a member of a wealthy Jewish family after he finds her sleeping on a park bench her first night in Baltimore. She is given a job in this family's home and she continues to write in her diary through her (and their) first tumultuous year.

In Jane, Schlitz created a lovable, maddening character. She's worthy of cheers and cringes as she learns about the world and life beyond the borders of the farm.

4*

The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder by Erin Blakemore explores how our admired literary characters can be examples for us when life gets tough.

There are 10 chapters, each with a different topic. There is Self (Lizze Bennett), Happiness (Anne Shirley), Family Ties (Francie Nolan), etc. The concept is great but while I enjoyed reading it (and I read it over several months) Blakemore's comments are often mundane.

ROOT 3.5*

>138 clue: - This sounds like a book I would enjoy, so I'm going to take a book bullet for this.

>140 dudes22: I think you'll like it, I'm going to check out her other titles.

The Muralist by B. A. Shapiro is a historical novel that revolves around the disappearance of a young artist in 1941. Alizee Benoit lives in New York City and has a job with the federally sponsored arts projects for the WPA, one of FDR's New Deal employment programs. Her friends are the artists who will lead the Abstract Expressionist movement, including Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko with whom she has an affair.

Alizee is Jewish and her family is in Germany and France. She becomes consumed with fear for them and tries to find a way to bring them to the United States. Although she has not been a political person, when she realizes the situation in Europe is far more dangerous than Americans understand, she begins to combine her art with political activism. As she becomes more and more involved she begins to draw attention to herself and is accused of being a communist by men in high places. She becomes paranoid, can't sleep, can't eat and thinks someone is opening her mail. Her friends fear she has had a breakdown. Then one day, they can't find her and they never do. The book is about the search Alzee's niece launches in 2015 and chapters rotate between the present and the past.

Shapiro is a skillful writer. The plot is delicious and she does a fine job creating the atmosphere of denial and fear American's experienced prior to the U.S. entering the war.

ROOT and DEWEY CAT 4*

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was published in 2012 and I've seen very few reviews below 4 stars.

Ove was married to a woman he will always love deeply, one that managed his curmudgeon ways easily. Now she has died and left him to manage himself. The results are rather disastrous. He hates the neighbors, including his former good friend, any car that's not a SAAB and the idiots who buy them, and pretty much any other person or animal that crosses his path.

As we learn what has caused Ove to behave so irritatingly, he begins to steal our hearts. And it's so much fun to see how Ove is affected by the pregnant "foreign woman" that moves into the house next door, her screaming brats, and her stupid computer consultant husband who falls off Ove's ladder and has to be taken to the hospital.

Be prepared for an emotional read in more ways than one!

ROOT, Random Cat (translation) 4*

"The Dollhouse. . . . That's what we boys like to call it. . . . The Barbizon Hotel for Women, packed to the rafters with pretty little dolls. Just like you.".

In The Doll House by Fiona Davis Darby McLaughlin becomes one of the residents of the famed Barbizon Hotel for Women in 1952. During that decade the Barbizon was the home of aspiring young women who had come to New York to pursue careers as models, writers and secretaries. Darby's plan was to live in the Barbizon during a nine month course at Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School and return to Ohio to a good job.

In 2005 the Barbizon was gutted and rebuilt as condos. Fourteen elderly women, all long time residents, remained in the Barbizon after renovation due to rent contol. In The Dollhouse, the secretive Darby McLaughlin is, after more than fifty years in residence, one of those who stays. Rose Lewin, an upstairs neighbor and a journalist whose personal and professional life is coming undone, becomes fascinated by the fourteen women. When she hears a hushed up death, possibly a murder, took place at the hotel during the fifties she becomes further intrigued by Darby who is rumored to have been involved.

Moving back and forth between 1952 and 2016, we get the personal stories of both women, the story of New York, and of society's attitude toward women in general during two very different times.

Although this is a first novel, Davis has created complex characters and managed moving back and forth between the two time periods deftly.

The Dollhouse gets 4.5* from me.

I went to look up the book to add as a BB and neither of your links goes to the right book - just so you know ;)

<145 - Just so you know - I went to add this as a BB and neither of your book links nor your author link goes to the right book. The author link sent me to Macbeth. Odd...unless LT is having a touchstone issue.

<146 Thanks, I should have tried them because it took me a few tries to get to the right place for the cover. Part of the problem is that there are so many books with that title! I took the touchstones out and will try later. Probably the best way to find it is to search on the author since its her only book.

>144 clue: - The ending caught me off guard-I was desperately trying to discretely cry next to a stranger on a plane.

>148 clue: - They didn't just take me to another book called "The Dollhouse" - one of them linked to Anne of Green Gables. Anyway, I finally got it added to my "recommended by LT" collection where I keep my BBs. I would have taken one for >144 clue:, but I already took one from someone else. (Judy, I think)

>149 LittleTaiko: I would have probably been blowing my nose on my seat partner's sleeve!

A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon is the 7th in the Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery. Brunetti once again manages corruption and aristocratic Venice to solve the murder of the son of one of the richest families in Venice. 3.5*



The Trouble With Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon is a delight! Ten year old Grace and Tilly are on a mission. They decide to spend the summer break from school going door to door in the neighborhood looking for two things...God and Mrs. Creasy. They heard at church that God is everywhere but since they've never seen Him they decide to ask at each house in the neighborhood if He is there. If they can find Him, they may very well find Mrs. Creasy too. Mrs. Creasy just suddenly disappeared one day and the adults sure don't seem very good at finding her. They've been told by those same adults that Mrs. Creasy's disappearance is likely due to the heat wave but they don'y buy that either. A summer of searching proves they were right. A morality tale and a mystery with a unique writing style make this debut novel a winner. 4.5*

Definitely taking a Book Bullet for The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, it sounds excellent!

Me too!

>153 DeltaQueen50:, 154 As you can see I loved it so I hope you like it too.

Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt

Iris is sixty-seven when she takes in two small girls after their parents have been killed in a car wreck. She doesn't tell them she is their sister, that they are daughters of the same womanizing man who drifts from one young wife to another, she only says she is a distant relative. She becomes a good mother and the girls bring her a joy she thought she would never have. The girls, Charlotte and Lucy, are very close during their childhood and Charlotte carefully watches over her younger sister. Once they become teens though, a distance begins to grow between the studious Charlotte and the free spirited Lucy.

When Lucy is sixteen she falls in love with one of her teachers. It's the 1960s and William fascinates the students, particularly the girls. He's handsome, wears his hair long, opposes the war in Vietnam, doesn't teach from a textbook and encourages his students to question authority. Not surprisingly, he loses his job.

Unknown to Iris or Charlotte, by this time Lucy and William have a personal relationship. When William tells Lucy he has a job in Pennsylvania, he asks her to leave Boston with him and she agrees. He also makes her agree not to let anyone know because she's a minor and "they might not understand".

When they arrive at the house William has rented for them, Lucy is shocked at the rural and isolated location he has chosen. The school is about 30 minutes away, the closest store is 45 minutes in the opposite direction. There are no close neighbors. Lucy tries to build a life with William but as time passes she begins to realize the romantic relationship she thought she had is something else.

Carolyn Leavitt has written an absorbing and tragic story of guilt, loneliness and family. A story she tells through characters I will be thinking about for a long time.

4*

Whoops, a mistake!

>144 clue:
Thanks for the reminder - I still haven't read that one (I thought I had it on hold at the library, but I guess not...).

When I read the first Flavia De Luce Mystery I wasn't sure I'd continue because I thought the protagonist was overly precocious. Now that I've read the sixth in the series I'm so glad I gave the author another chance! The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches may be my favorite in the series and I can't wait to read the next title. There are 100 reviews on LT so I'm not going to say much other than that the cliffhanger at the end of the last title has been resolved and at the end of number six we leave Flavia facing a big change in her life, wo we're hanging again.

I notice with this series the books are no longer described by the publisher as Flavia de Luce mysteries, but are now being called Flavia de Luce novels. I have already seen that change with Louise Penny's Gamache series.

4*, ROOT

I'm a little late to the party, but Gillespie and I and The Muralist: A Novel are BBs for me as well.

>159 clue: I hadn't noticed the change in description, but that makes sense. The last couple of books in the series have focused much more on the de Luce family and the mysteries have felt slight in comparison.

...it begins with a great breaking wave of peonies. Th blooms are white and pale pink, grow upright for now, giant buttons of brilliance festooning green leafy tunics. But soon their heads will become too heavy for the thin, weed-like stalks on which they rise with such hope, and the peonies will crash to the ground in a wave of grief. I have always loved peonies. There is something almost heroic in their reckless collapse. And there is nothing sadder than a crowd of stricken peonies, their heads full of rain.

The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys is a beautifully written book of love, loss and longing. By 1941 Gwen Davis can no longer watch London landmarks and neighborhoods fall to ruin and death. A trained gardener, she volunteers to the Land Army and is sent to Devon to train young girls to grow food crops. Here she and the girls live on an estate along with a regiment of Canadian soldiers who are waiting to be posted.

While the girls work on reviving the vegetable gardens, Gwen finds and is intrigued by three overgrown ornamental gardens she learns were planted around themes. One of them, the last she finds, is surrounded by foliage that causes it to be hidden from view. A secret garden she finds only by crawling through a row of yews. This was the garden of love...and loss.

Over the three months the girls and soldiers live on the estate, Gwen makes her first friend and falls in love for the first time. In just those three months, she is changed forever.

5* and placed back on the shelf for a reread.

ROOT

>162 clue: - That sounds lovely. I'll have to put this on my wishlist.

>162 clue: - I have that on my list to read this year, but am not sure if I'll get to it or not. My reading has really slowed down as RL as intruded.

>163 LittleTaiko: I second that, put on the BB list.

I loved The Lost Garden when I read it earlier this year and I love your review, you brought the book vividly back to my mind and described it perfectly.

>162 clue: You have reminded me that this is a book that should be on my re-read list. Helen Humphreys is an outstanding writer. Have you read Coventry?

>162 clue: I have not read Coventry, in fact this is the first book I've read by her. I've ordered The Frozen Thames and I'll plan on Coventry next. Oh, it's so exciting to find a new author!

>163 LittleTaiko:, >164 dudes22:, >165 Chrischi_HH: I hope you all like it as much as I did!

I was curious about this book after reading the proceeding title in the Flavia de Luce series last week, it was definitely a cliffhanger. While this book is written as well as the others, I didn't like the plot as much a I usually do. As I think it over, I think the primary reason for the plot was to introduce a new character. Now I'm looking forward to the next one to find out!

3.5 *

With The Inheritance, the tenth in the Charles Lenox series, Charles Finch has probably written the best yet. It's such joy to read the tenth title in a series and find the characters and the plot fresh. A joy as well to find Finch's writing continues to mature.

All of our favorite characters, Lenox's family, friends, and associates, are back, and two new primary characters are introduced. The mystery swirls around an old school friend of Charles, one he hasn't seen in thirty years! A very well respected but aloof scientist, Gerald Leigh, has lived outside of England most of his adult life. When he returns to London to be honored by the Royal Society, he is physically attacked twice, barely escaping with his life. Another new character, Frost of the Yard, teams with Lenox to investigate this seemingly unlikely murder attempt.

As backstory, we learn more about the Harrow years where Leigh and Lenox originally met and the investigation leads Charles to Cornwall, a trip taken in company with his brother Edward. In these and other segments Finch not only moves the plot along but gives his characters depth by giving us insight into their personal character.

On the last page, Leigh is leaving London and as he departs the Lenox household where he has been staying, he sees Charles, Lady Jane, and Sophia on the steps watching him depart.

Already he looked forward to returning to see them again.

Me too Gerald, me too. 4.5*

I read only the first sentence of your review. I'm still a few behind. I do like the covers in this series.

>170 clue: - I'll come back to your review soon once I've read this latest. Happy to see from the first sentence that it's going to be good!

>170 clue: - Okay, I'm back after finishing the book - loved it! Wish there was more Graham, but maybe he was setting that up for another book.

I've been awful at keeping up with LT threads, so I'm just now catching up with yours...and wow, you have read so many amazing-sounding books! I'm especially excited about Code Talker, The Dollhouse, and The Lost Garden. And of course, I'm dying to read the latest Charles Lenox book, but I still have to read Home by Nightfall first!

Just stopped by to say how happy I am that I took a book bullet from you for The Lost Garden. Started reading it yesterday and finished it today on my lunch break. Absolutely loved it! I can see why you'd want to have a copy on your shelf for a reread someday.

I've been in a bit of a slump and fell back on a couple of cozies:



In Death of a Traveling Man by M.C. Beaton poor Constable Hamish MacBeth has been promoted. It's the worst, an assistant has been sent to live with him and life goes downhill pretty fast for our Hamish. Then a suspicious traveling man comes to town accompanied by a young woman who calls Hamish a pig every chance she gets. Though some in the village of Lochbubh take to the couple right away, Hamish remains suspicious of the handsome man who drives about in a caravan and acts as if he's a gypsy. Hamish knows he isn't and goes about trying to find out what the real story is.

This series is great light reading and it's a comfort to know there are 29 more available! 3.5*



In the Black Cat Bookshop series the bookstore cat occasionally knocks books off the shelves so that the title will give the bookstore owner clues to mystery and murder. It gets a bit far out for me once in awhile, but the characters (including Hamlet the cat) are so good I keep reading. This is the fifth in the series and mayhem revolves around a 4th of July street fair to promote buying local. The fair was the idea of Darla, the bookstore owner, and wherever Darla goes murder comes calling. We get a surprise from that good looking detective that often finds Darla in the middle of his investigations too. 3*

On Christmas Eve 1931 Maisie Dobbs sees a man commit suicide. A man she recognizes as a casualty of the Great War. Called as a witness by Scotland Yard, Maisie is asked to bring her skill and knowledge as a psychologist to the investigating team. When letters begin to arrive at the Yard and to individuals in high political positions, it becomes clear there is a connection between the dead man and another who is capable of making and using chemical weapons on the London population.

Once again, Winspear is terrific at creating the feel of the time period and one of the things I like about the series is that Maisie always learns from her experiences. In this case what she learns about national security and the machinations of politicos disheartens, but she soon regains her balance.

4*

The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor rotates chapters between 1912 and 1982.

In 1912 Maggie Murphy is eighteen and living in a small village in Ireland. Her mother has recently died and her mother's sister, Katherine, has come from America and will take Maggie back with her. Maggie is in love with a young man, Seamus, who is the only one left in his family to care for his ill father and can't marry Maggie or go to America.

By the time Maggie and Katherine are ready to travel, fourteen others in Ballysheen, County Mayo have decided to go with them. They are all excited about having tickets for the maiden voyage of the most magnificent ship ever built, the Titantic.

The story follows the group as it travels across Ireland and across as much of the sea as the Titantic sailed. There isn't much I can say about the 1982 chapters without telling too much of the story because they concern descendants of the survivors.

This is an easy and engaging read and Maggie is a very likable character. Some elements are predictable but there is one huge surprise that I don't think anyone would guess. I have read two other books by Helen Gaynor and I liked this one, her first, the best.

ROOT 3.5*

I was surprised when I read that Daisy Goodwin had written the Masterpiece drama that would follow Downton Abbey on PBS. Goodwin has written two novels, I read the first but passed on the second.

Goodwin studied history at Cambridge and her first assignment was on Queen Victoria. She had access to the Queen's diaries, and according to the PBS website, has read all 62 million words of them. Goodwin says while writing Victoria, she thought that it would make a good TV drama and that's how the script came about. Now that I've read her book, I think the story she has written will be well suited to TV.

The book begins with Victoria learning she has become Queen of England just weeks after her 18th birthday and is primarily about her relationships with Lord Melbourne, her Prime Minister with whom she becomes infatuated, and her mother. Late in the book Prince Albert is introduced. Their relationship is written very much like a romance novel and the book ends with their engagement.

3.5*

Chapters in The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood are organized so that we catch up with a different character with each chapter. Ava is both first and last. At the beginning of the book we learn that her husband of twenty plus years has suddenly left her for another woman and she is having a difficult time understanding and accepting his betrayal.

At Eva's friend Cate's urging she joins a book club that Cate leads. At the first meeting members are planning the next year. Cate asks the members what book matters most to each of them and those books become the next year's plan. At first Ava can't think of a book but then realizes the book that matters most to her is one that brought her some comfort as a child after a tragedy in her family.

From that point the plot revolves around Ava's current condition, the condition of her young adult daughter Maggie, and the tragedy in Ava's past. The book club meetings become the setting for some of the chapters and I was always interested to read the discussion of someone's "book that matters most". Though the plot is improbable and some of the characters are thinly drawn, I never wanted to abandon the book. It's a book that's entertaining but won't be remembered for long.

3*

Ann Hood is a local author so I read most of her books (although I still have a couple on my TBR). This one sounds like something I would enjoy. Books about books...

Taking the morning to play catch-up on all the threads in the group. I have enjoyed getting caught up with your reading and making note that Late Nights on Air is worth sticking with.... I have a copy of that one waiting for me on my TBR pile.

>162 clue: - Like you, I also absolutely loved The Lost Garden and have kept my copy so that I can read it over and over again. ;-)

>170 clue: - Oooohhhhh.... you are ahead of me in the Charles Lenox series. Something for me to look forward to reading, possibly in 2017!

I've finished The Maiden of the Blue Willow and other Japanese Folktales by Hema Pande.

I've only got two books to complete my Challenge, need one nonfiction. I'm halfway through Outlander, can I put it down?

Finally read Outlander! I didn't love it to the extent many do but it was entertaining for sure. I have the next in the series on my shelf and will read it though not right away.

This is probably my last read of the year, I'm happy with my 2016 reading and now I'm anxious to start 2017. I hope to see you on the new thread!