Winter – real winter – has finally arrived in Michigan with a vengeance. Lake Michigan is protecting us from the truly arctic temps sweeping down from Canada but it’s still dang cold. To that end, I am eager to see everyone’s reads this month and pad out my TBR list cuz I’m NOT going outside for awhile!

As always, I am joining the link-up hosted by Steph and Jana!

I’ll review my two “Nordic Noir” reads first – both recommended by the excellent Crime by the Book. The Butterfly House by Katrine Engberg is the second book in the Korner and Werner series. Bodies drained of blood are showing up around Copenhagen, and as Korner investigates, it appears that they all have links to caregiving institutions. Werner is on maternity leave after an unexpected pregnancy, chafing at being home with a newborn and struggling to cope with her new normal. When she decides to do some independent sleuthing on the case, it exposes both of them to a murderer bent on vengeance. The strength of this series, to me, is the human element of Korner and Werner’s personal lives as they intermingle with their investigations, and the relationship between these contrary characters. A solid follow-up to The Tenant.

My starred review this month, however, goes to The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler. It knocks every other Scandinavian thriller into the ditch and is not for the faint of heart, but I absolutely could not put it down. The book opens with the grisly murder of a family in Sweden, a sole surviving teenager, and a hypnotist called in to try to see the murderer through the boy’s eyes. The book ties unexpected yet expertly woven threads of the hypnotist’s past and his family as well as the shocking secrets of the murdered family and the surviving boy. Overseen by charismatic lead detective Joona Linna, the action hurtles to its crazy climax with a tight, fast plot, excellent characters, and many twists and turns. Warning – it contains distressing elements of child abuse and murder, as well as incest, so probably not for everyone.

I read one other mystery this month, The Searcher by Tana French. I’ll start by saying that I love Tana French and normally I can’t put her books down. This one, however, was disappointing. The writing was solid and engaging, and I liked the main character, Cal Hooper, a retired American detective who has pulled up stakes in Chicago and moved to a small village in rural Ireland. His life is absorbed in renovating his dilapidated house and brooding about his broken family until a local boy shows up for help in finding his missing brother. Unfortunately, I just could not get engaged with the kid or the plot. I enjoyed French’s Dublin Murder Squad mysteries as well as Witch Elm but sadly this one just didn’t click for me.

My last read is a divergence but very enjoyable if you are a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, edited by Pamela Smith Hill, is the first manuscript that Wilder set down about her childhood and family. If you thought you knew anything about the Ingalls family from reading the Little House books, you will find that the true story is very different. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, a writer herself, collaborated heavily on the juvenile series, changing the history of the family and blending and creating characters that would appeal to children. This book is the real, adult telling of their journeys – it’s an absolute treasure trove of photographs, journal entries from both Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane, and includes amazing details about their creative partnership to bring the series to life. It also discusses with clarity the more troubling aspects of the juvenile series, and thoughtfully discusses the racism in the original books (heavily rooted in concepts of Manifest Destiny, their view of Native Americans as less than human, and yet also very evident in other scenes – remember Pa’s participation in the ‘minstrel show’?) An all-around excellent and absorbing read.

That’s it! With my library reopened, I hope to do lots of good reading in February and I look forward to sharing at our next link-up. Until then, as Mr Williams, the school superintendent, said to Laura’s pupils at the Brewster School during his unexpected visit, in Chapter 9 of These Happy Golden Years, “Whatever else you do, keep your feet warm.”

Linking up with hosts Steph and Jana for another month of bookish show and tell.

It was a doozy of a month so I’d better just jump right in.

The First Mrs Rothschild by Sara Aharoni was a Kindle Unlimited rec for me – not my fave, it dragged in parts but provided an eye-opening look at life as a Jewish woman in the Frankfurt ghetto. This was more interesting to me than the financial machinations of the Rothschild family.

A Cold Trail, Robert Dugoni (Tracy Crosswhite #7) brings me up to date with the Crosswhite series and I am eagerly awaiting #8. In this offering, Tracy, her husband Dan and baby Dani are back in the small town where they grew up. Tracy is dealing with being a new mom and making decisions about her career and in the meantime, investigating the unsolved murder of a teenage girl years before. I love Tracy.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – A murder / suicide at a grand old decrepit British mansion during a weekend party? Yes please. But not straightforward, as this story unfolds in a Groundhog Day sort of way, with the protagonist being placed in different characters as the day repeats. I liked this, and I liked the characters and the mystery, but the plot grew increasingly outlandish. Extra points for an ominous Plague Doctor making creepy appearances.

Abandon by Blake Crouch was also hard for me to put down. A journalist attaches herself to a group of hikers (including her long-distant father) striking out to explore the ruins of a gold mining ghost town in the mountains. What caused all the inhabitants of this town to disappear without a trace? The supernatural elements build with questions and atmosphere. I liked where this story was going and was totally hooked when Crouch did the bait-and-switch. (No spoilers.) I didn’t love where the story went as much as I could have if it had continued to develop a more supernatural / ghostly explanation but I tore through it, on the edge of my seat throughout.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata was a quick read and a good breather from more tense books. Keiko is an outsider in her Tokyo culture, and can only find a place for herself, a sense of self-esteem and purpose through her job at a convenience store. Her family and friends do not understand her lack of interest in marriage and children and her contentment in what is considered to be a lowly, dead-end job (not a “career”). This is a bit sad but also funny and daring for a Japanese female writer who shrugs her shoulders at traditional expectations & expressions of female sexuality and independence. Interesting to me as I have been to Japan and work in a Japanese company, so have seen some elements of the culture that are described here.

Verity by Colleen Hoover was another suspenseful read. An introverted writer takes the seemingly-golden opportunity to step in for a very successful author and finish her popular series after she is badly injured. She quickly becomes embroiled with the author’s sexy husband and with the author’s hidden journal, full of horrifying secrets. I didn’t like the ending, which felt like a ripoff, and although I was fully absorbed, it loses points when I don’t like any of the characters and can’t find a sympathetic viewpoint.

Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol – Miss L likes graphic novels so I bought her a handful of them for her birthday. I picked this up after she was done with it and thought it was well-done – a teenage girl from an immigrant family struggling to find her place in her private school becomes involved with a ghost who seems pathetic and eager to please, but quickly turns Anya’s life upside down. I liked the overall messages in this book (being true to yourself, the traps of popularity, loyalty to friends, etc) and enjoyed discussing it with Miss L when we were done.

Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang was recommended by a bestie and it was my favorite read of the month (saying a lot in a month of overall great reads). In turn-of-the-century New York society, Tillie Pembroke’s older sister has wealth, beauty, heart, and an excellent match – and then she turns up dead with two puncture wounds in her neck. Tillie – younger, more headstrong, always in her sister’s shadow – sets out to find the killer, using Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” as a guidebook. Along the way, she develops addictions to heroin and morphine, and, at a cost, breaks all the molds that her family and society have set for her, finds love and a purpose in life. I liked this book so much – the characters, the atmosphere, the mystery, the setting, and definitely plan on reading much more of Kang’s work.

The Sound of Rain by Gregg Olson is Nicole Foster Thriller #1 and another absorbing, suspenseful read. Nicole Foster is a former homicide detective who’s hit bottom – thanks to her terrible taste in men and a rampant gambling addiction, she’s lost her home, her dog, and her job on the force. She’s also haunted by the case of a murdered child and a terrible family life, starring a vicious and narcissistic younger sister. Nicole has to go all the way down (which is hard to read) in order to fight her way back and work through the case – which has crazy ties to her problematic personal life. It’s always hard to read a book where none of the characters are appealing and Nicole is certainly a very ambivalent protagonist. It’s hard to root for her until about 3/4 through and even then, her choices are really not good. But she claws her way out and it’s quite a ride with an absolutely bananas ending (that seemed a little “huh” to me). But I’ll read the second Nicole Foster and hope she’s in a better place.

I hope your reading month was as excellent as mine was!

As always, linking up with my hosts Steph and Jana for Show Us Your Books!

I’m going to get the big one out of the way first even if it wasn’t chronologically the first one I read.

The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel was essentially my July reading project. It tipped the scales at 882 pages and every page was well worth it. This book rounds out Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy, which started with Wolf Hall. The whole trilogy is simply excellent and mind boggling in its ability to bring these people – Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour – to vivid life. No doubt my best read for 2020 as of yet and I would also recommend the PBS miniseries “Wolf Hall” which is actually a mashup of the first 2 books in the trilogy. It stars Mark Rylance as Cromwell, Damien Lewis as Henry, and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn.

The Closers by Michael Connelly. An 882 page hardcover was just not going to happen for a “beach read” due to sheer size and lack of portability, so for my up-north outdoor reading I took along a battered Harry Bosch paperback and thoroughly enjoyed the change of gears from Cromwell. In this contribution to the Bosch franchise, Harry has returned to the Cold Case Unit after his short-lived retirement from the police force and tackles the unsolved case of a fifteen-year old girl abducted from her home and shot.

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler tells two stories that join up at the end – the first, of a struggling librarian / researcher trying to keep his family home from sliding into the sea (literally) and a traveling carnival from the 1880’s. Aforementioned young librarian (aptly named ‘Simon’) comes to own a mysterious antique book about this circus inscribed with his grandmother’s name. Hopefully this book can help Simon unravel why women in his family are prone to drowning. I thought the premise was great but the execution missed the mark;  it left me a little disappointed. Still, it passed the time just fine.

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have the Answer To When You Work in the White House by Alyssa Mastromonaco. Mastromonaco worked for Obama during his time as a Senator and also during his much-missed White House tenure. This book details her almost-magical entry into politics and in its chatty, breezy way tells you everything you need to know if you’re a privileged young female working in the White House. If I sound jealous I’m not really, although it would have been my dream during my senior year in college. I guess that’s why it’s a good thing you don’t get everything you want – I would NOT have been well suited for politics (I’m barely presentable for widgets). Anyway I enjoyed this book and it made me almost weep for missing Obama. My only criticisms are her fondness for the word “stoked” and that she is very prone to telling the reader all of the nicknames of the people she worked with and that got super name-droppy and cringy after awhile. (Sample: “The next day I assembled the SkedAdv team to deliver the news to them. Emmett, Dey, Jess, Big Liz, Astri, JoeJoe, Pho, Chaseh, Tedders, Nool, Teal, Q, Levitt, Donny, and Little Kate the intern.” I swear I almost stopped reading.)

Hope you all had some great summer reads and I look forward to catching up next month! xo

 

Another month joining up with our hosts Steph and Jana for SUYB!

Looking back at June, I actually did a LOT of reading – it just didn’t really feel like it because a few of my reads just felt “meh”. I apologize in advance for my dour reception of several of these undoubtedly fine works.

Without further ado:

The Splendor Before the Dark (Nero, #2) was not as good as the first one in Margaret George’s Nero pair, “Confessions of Young Nero”. I love Margaret George and have her books about Cleopatra, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I on my shelf and bought this one in hardcover. I’m happy to own it but I was disappointed that even the burning of Rome seemed a little dull. It’s also tough to get my head around a sympathetic portrayal of Nero, although that didn’t bother me in the first novel, so who knows.

A Really Big Lunch: Meditations on Food and Life from the Roving Gourmand is the rare book about food and wine that did not make me hungry. Jim Harrison is a Michigan writer who we ultimately had to share with Montana by way of Hollywood (“Legends of the Fall”) and he’s apparently quite the libertine when it comes to food and wine. There is a LOT of drinking in this book of essays and the fact that it’s expensive French wine didn’t ease my feeling that I was getting a hangover by osmosis, absorbed through my fingertips through the pages. Also a lot of big eating of very heavy meats (lotta pig here, folks) and game and several Mario Batali name-drops. He’s such an amazing, lyrical writer that I’ll just forgive him this one.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier – I loved “Rebecca” but this one was not what I expected. Although it is set in Cornwall and it was kind of exciting to see some of the town names that I’ve heard mentioned watching “Poldark”. Kind of a gloomy gothic number and while the heroine has her fair share of pluck, I honestly didn’t much care about anyone else.

(Wow – I’m already coming across as quite the disgruntled reader this month, aren’t I? Buckle up, the worst is yet to come.)

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams was a Kindle Unlimited recommendation and I feel like it perfectly fit in with two other Kindle recs that are upcoming in that they were stridently mediocre. This one was perhaps the least palatable of the three, telling the story of a strange 1930’s love triangle between New York socialites that comes to a heady climax during a seaside summer in a posh oceanfront enclave. There is flippancy, red lipstick, cigarettes and martinis, unrequited love, anti-Semitism, someone named “Budgie” and misunderstandings rife throughout. Just when you can’t take any more of this, a hurricane sweeps through like a wonderful deus ex machina to wipe the slate clean and resolve all angst. Sigh. I guess if you like beach reads plus light historical romance this would be a good pick.

A Steep Price, by Robert Dugoni (Tracy Crosswhite #6) – thank God for Robert Dugoni and Tracy who saved my June reading from the crapper. This one wasn’t my favorite in the series but it’s still a solid page turner that features a bit more from Tracy’s colleagues and supporting players in the police department as she navigates the early stages of her pregnancy and investigates the intersection between a missing persons case and the body of a young Indian woman found in a well.

This Won’t End Well – Camille Pagan’s writing belongs, I’ll say right off the bat, to a genre that I’m not super into. Historical fiction and mysteries, psychological and supernatural thrillers and some YA & literary fiction are solidly in my wheelhouse but lighthearted chick lit with witty romance and navel gazing thrown in are not my cups of tea. That said, I blew through this in a couple of days and can’t say anything really bad about it except that it’s just not a genre that I enjoy much. But it is light, funny, and easy to like with a suitably cute and neurotic heroine in a bit of a life tailspin thanks to a recent firing, a case of sexual harassment in the workplace, a mysterious new neighbor, and her fiance’s completely unexpected and unexplained departure for Paris. You’ll probably like it better than I did but don’t blame me if you don’t.

The Price of Paradise by Susana Lopez Rubio was my final June Kindle rec and the one I enjoyed the most. Set in Cuba in the 1940’s, the main character is a young immigrant from Spain seeking his fortune in Havana. He works his way up at an exclusive department store and runs afoul of the local gangster when he falls in love with his wife. Again, not my favorite genre but this was better than the Pagan or the hurricane book.

I also did a lot of running during the month of June and most of my time on my feet was spent listening to Stephen King’s latest book of novellas, If It Bleeds, which I got on Audible. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors and when he’s good, he’s brilliant (The Stand, The Shining) and when he’s not so good he’s still better than most anything else out there. I enjoyed this listen more on the strength of King’s masterful ability to unwind a story with patience, to put you into the skin of the character, and invest you in something that seems so outlandish. The titular novella was my favorite, due mostly to Holly Gibney – she is a great female detective character (I will always picture her as portrayed by Cynthia Erivo in the wonderful HBO miniseries featuring her, “The Outsider”). All the narrators are wonderful but particularly Will Patton, who narrates many of King’s works (as well as James Lee Burke, another favorite writer).