What are you reading the week of April 1, 2023?

I read Maigret and the Saturday Caller last weekend. That's number 59 in the series. So I have sixteen more to go.

I picked up a copy of Lynne Olson's new book Empress of the Nile. I always love her books. I'm about a quarter of the way through it, and Olson has written another compelling biography. This time the subject is a French Egyptologist named Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt. Standing only five feet tall, she was still a force to be dealt with. She served in the French Resistance during the Second World War. After the war, she led an international effort to save a number of ancient Egyptian temples before they were inundated by the construction of the Aswan Dam. I remember the National Geographic articles documenting the efforts to move the temples out of harms way.

I'm just a few pages from finishing The Lady from Zagreb, the tenth book in Philip Kerr's excellent historical noir series, featuring our long-suffering and ever morally compromised hero, Bernie Gunther.

Next up for me will be Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys by Steven Gaines.

About 80% done with The Mountain in the Sea. Have just started Brothers in Arms. Station Eternity will come after that.

Started this Libby audio ~

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia
by Candace Fleming
(interesting and informative YA history book)

Currently reading:
SF/F
A Fugue in Time by Rumer Godden
The Race by Nina Allan
Other
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter

The Bitterroots
C.J. Box
4/5 stars
Cassie Dewell, who is now living and working in Montana as a private investigator in her own practice. Asked to investigate a rape, she now has to come up against the Kleinsassers’ family dynasty and Blake Kleinsasser, the one who is accused of raping his niece. Hard to put down! Cassie Dewell Series

I just began reading "Covert in Cairo by Kelly Oliver. The way she writes is wonderful. Now all I need is a couple of Palm trees. Maybe a pyramid or two would add just one more secret pleasure.

This week I listened to Lisa Jewell's The Night She Disappeared. I enjoyed it. It was creepy and hard to put down. My audiobook of the moment is Wild Swans by Jung Chang. My sister-in-law recommended it to me over a decade ago, but I could not get into the book. Ten years later I am finding out how good it is.

I read A Question of Identity by Susan Hill, which is the seventh novel featuring DCI Simon Serailler and his family. Her books are excellent, slow-paced, and detailed. I'm now reading the Norwegian novel Long Live the Post Horn by Vigdis Hjorth, chosen as much for its title as anything.

Am ploughing my way through The Life of Neville Chamberlain by Keith Fieling. This was on the recommended reading list when I studied History at college in the late 1970s, but I never got round to reading it until now. It's pretty heavy going - the author has an oratorical style which must have seemed dated even in 1947 when the book was first published - but I'll soldier on because I want to read about Chamberlain's meetings with Hitler.

Also rereading Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins Mysteries and am halfway through a Crown of Lights, the third in the series.

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir
Paul Newman
4/5 stars
Wonderful autobiography written by Newman about his life but in between his chapters, his family and friends also contributed their thoughts. They then were compiled by Stewart Stern. I liked the way they set this up and enjoyed reading about him.

I finished an ER win, Cathleen Schine's Kunstlers in Paradise, which was very good and now I've just started Jane Harper's Exiles. I expect it will be a great read, as well.

I'm about to start Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, which I meant to read last month but didn't get around to. Not sure what else I'll start this week.

I finally finished The Sot-Weed Factor. It was a ribald farce full of twists and turns, fluid identities, multitudes of plots with some gems of wisdom sprinkled in. The number of twists and characters did lose me now and then but no matter, great fun and memorable.

>13 snash: I'm glad you enjoyed The Sot-Weed Factor. I read it for a grad school seminar and thought it was a lot of fun. Hardly anybody reads Barth anymore, it seems. I guess his sort of metafiction is out of style these days.

Queen of America– Luis Alberto Urrea
4****

Urrea picks up where he left off in The Hummingbird’s Daughter and continues the story of his great aunt, Teresita Urrea, “The Saint of Cabora” or “Mexican Joan of Arc,” who fled the 1892 uprising in Mexico with her father, Tomas, to the relative safety of Arizona. But the Mexican government, fearing that she was still fomenting revolutions sent a series of assassins to kill her. And yet pilgrims continued to flock to her, for the tales of her healing powers would not abate.

Trying to find her way she travels across America, from Arizona to Texas, California, St Louis, and New York. She encounters physicians, journalists, famous politicians and tycoons, even European royalty. She also finds love … of a sort … sometimes with decidedly unworthy men. She begins as a naïve, sheltered young woman who wants nothing but to gather herbs and help the women of her area as a midwife / healer. Teresita is in turns sheltered and looked after, abused, taken advantage of, earning and taking charge of her celebrity, and finding peace. She is best served when she listens to the women around her.

As always, Urrea’s writing is full of the mystical and includes many references to indigenous culture (here the Yaqui). Set against the backdrop of historical events in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he gives us a woman who has earned a place in history and legend.

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba – Chanel Cleeton
Digital audiobook performed by Frankie Corzo, Holly Linneman, and Rebecca Soler
3***

For her fourth book featuring a member of the Perez family, Cleeton turned to history and one exceptional Cuban woman – Evangelina Cisneros – who was instrumental in the fight to liberate Cuba from Spanish rule.

This is true: At age eighteen Evangelina was imprisoned at the infamous Recogidas prison. Meanwhile, back in New York, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were rival newspaper tycoons, each intent on making HIS paper the best and widest read. Hearst did, in fact, publish a photo of Evangelina and dubbed her “the most beautiful girl in Cuba.” Her escape from Recogidas was done with the help of American journalists. The loss of the USS Maine brought the US into the war against Spain. And Hearst did, in fact, charter a yacht to get a “front-wave” seat to the battle between US and Spanish warships.

Cleeton invented Marina Perez to support Evangelina’s story and to connect this book with her popular series. And she added intrepid Grace Harrington, who gets caught in the back-and-forth between Hearst and Pulitzer before coming into her own.

The action was constant, as one would expect during such a conflict. I thought the love interests were mainly there to provide a big, strong, man to rescue the damsel(s) in distress. But the story held my attention and I’m glad I read it.

The audiobook was performed by three talented voice artists: Frankie Corzo (Evangelina), Holly Linneman (Grace), and Rebecca Soler (Marina). This made it easier for the listener to handle the changes in point of view throughout the work .

Finished The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter. Truly gruesome. Added A Fatal Lie by Charles Todd to my rotation.

Enjoying this audio via hoopla ~

The Promise of Easter (An Amish Holiday Novel)
by Marta Perry

Enjoying this revisit via a Libby audio ~

The King of Torts: A Novel
by John Grisham
(this is one the first audios I listened to 2 decades ago)

Elementary, She Read – Vicki Delany
Digital audiobook narrated by Kelly Clare
3***

First in a new (to me, at least) series starring Gemma Doyle, “a transplanted Englishwoman who has returned to … Cape Cod to manage her great uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium.”

This has all the elements of a successful cozy mystery series: an amateur sleuth who is frequently smarter than the police and incredibly nosy, a cute pet (in this case the black cat named Moriarty), a job in a retail shop that brings her into contact with many public persons, a best friend who runs a complimentary business, and a supporting cast of “helpers.” I loved all the book references, and thought the basic premise was sufficiently plausible to keep me interested and engaged.

I’m likely to continue this series.

Kelly Clare does a good job of voicing the audiobook. She sets a good pace and does a good job of giving Gemma a recognizable British accent.

The Barbizon – Paulina Bren
Audiobook read by Andi Arndt
4****

Subtitle: The Hotel That Set Women Free

I remember reading Mademoiselle magazine when I was a teen, anxiously poring over the “College” issue and imagining myself on some distant campus, dressed “just so.” I never say myself in New York City, however, HAD I imagined that I would have imagined myself living at the Barbizon.

Bren has done her research and chronicles the history of the iconic hotel from its conception and construction in 1927 to its eventual conversion to multi-million dollar condominiums in 2007. As she tells the story of the hotel, she tells the story of women in America, of their hopes, dreams and aspirations as contrasted with society’s expectations and the structured roles assigned to “proper” women. The list of famous women who lived there is impressive, from writers such as Joan Didion and Sylvia Plath, to film stars (Grace Kelly and Ali McGraw), but it is the countless others who grabbed the chance for independence and success who should really be celebrated. Brava, ladies!

The audiobook is narrated by Andi Arndt and she does a marvelous job of it. Even my husband got hooked on the story when he listened as we drove to dinner one evening.

Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century
Roseanne Montillo
4/5 stars
This was the fascinating, true story about the death of a millionaire's wife, Ann Woodward in the 50's and the role Truman Capote figured into her death.

I finished Heroes and Villains: the True Story of The Beach Boys by Steven Gaines. This group bio provides a detailed account of the individuals' troubles with drugs, bad business decisions, bad romances and each other, with special emphasis on the damage wrought by the Wilson Brothers' father, Murray. It's a well-written narrative, but while this book is a good place to go to learn about the group's lives, the discussion of their music and creative processes is cursory. I've posted a longer review on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me will be Dream Team by Lewis Cole. For basketball fans of a "particular age," this is the history of the iconic 1969/1970 New York Knicks team led by Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. Those were the days!

The Gunslinger – Stephen King
Digital audio performed by George Guidall
2.5**

This is the first in the novels that comprise King’s epic odyssey “Dark Tower” series. It’s an odd mixture of classic Western mixed with science fiction, fantasy and horror. In it, he introduces the reader to Roland Deschain, a “gunslinger. ” Haunted and determined, Roland wanders a bleak landscape in search of the man in black, determined to eradicate evil. It’s an odd setting – a civilization in ruins that bears some resemblance to the United States, but that is fantastical enough to make this reader wonder if this is another world entirely.

Among the characters he encounters are Jake Chambers, a young boy from New York, whom he befriends and who accompanies Roland on his meandering journey. Some people they meet are helpful, others a danger to them. I found most of these encounters strange and unsettling, and, in at least one instance, quite frightening.

There is something about Roland that makes me want to follow him, that makes me believe that he is “a good guy” and the kind of hero I want to cheer for. Still, I’m left with far more questions than answers, and a general sense of unease. As much as I love Stephen King, I really have no desire to continue the series to find out what happens next.

George Guidall does a fine job performing the audio. He really makes these characters come alive.

The new thread is up over here.

>24 BookConcierge: I encourage you to continue! I felt the same way about The Gunslinger when I read it, but I was encouraged by some friends to continue the series. It will make sense as you read more of the series, and none of the rest of the books are as cryptic. In fact, the second one in the series was my favorite. The Drawing of the Three is completely different than The Gunslinger with a lot more action, interaction, and snark.

I finished Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry yesterday. It could use some editing, but it was interesting to read more about his life.