I'm doing a quick reread of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin to refresh my memory before my library's First Thursday book discussion. I can't help loving this book.

We are experiencing the most appalling weather, being Winter. Small tornadoes and strong winds have been ripping off roofs and bringing trees crashing onto homes and cars etc. The rain has poured down in buckets!

I have to stay indoors a lot and need something amusing to read so have borrowed some early Wodehouse books that have been reprinted. My current read "A Damsel in Distress" was written in 1919 but still makes me smile. That man could write so well.

Most of the books that amuse me these days are cosy mysteries. Not many authors pen pure light comedy nowadays.

I agree, Ann! So much comedy now is sex and potty humor. Your weather sounds really wild! Stay safe. :)

I'm reading The Cutthroat, the latest Isaac Bell novel by Clive Cussler.

Donna

Reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. A person who came to my workplace was reading this book and passed it on to me when she finished it. She recommended it highly.

Told in the first person by Frank Drum, who is remembering the summer of 1961, when he was 13 and there were several deaths in town.

reader, I read and enjoyed Ordinary Grace a year or so ago. I'm sure you will get a lot out of it.

Annpan,sorry to read about your awful winter weather. Spare a thought for our so-called Summer days of rain, wind, temps hovering in the low 60's to high 50's!

Our neighbours are holidaying in central France and we are 'in charge' of caring for their rabbits, meant to be feeding and watering them. Watering! I practically have to squeeze them out every day.

Vee, you made me chuckle, imagining you wringing out bunnies. :) We leave on the 11th for our trip to Alaska. We will be spending 3 days in Denali National Park, and the high temp those days is supposed to be 48F. ACK! I was born & raised in Florida and 48F is freaking cold! I think we may have had two nights that got that cold during all of last winter.

Donna

Enjoy your trip to Alaska, Donna. When I lived in Canada I had always hoped to get there, or to the Yukon but never made it to either.

An elderly US Aunt took a cruise there and sent our youngest son a woolly hat with 'Red Onion' sewn of the front. It turns out it used to be a well-known (but not to Aunt) brothel. ;-)

Yes, enjoy your trip, Donna. 48F in August sounds pretty darned good to me!

I am taking a trip down memory lane with the audiobook of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He got so much wrong about Africa but as a child I believed it all. Tarzan was my girlhood crush (if you can call it a crush when I was 9 or 10 at the time). I am cringing over some of it but will finish it anyway.

I am reading the fourth Frieda Klein book, Thursday's Children. Good, as always.

Carolyn, is Frieda Klein an admirable character, or at least an interesting one? I ask because nearly all the characters I've run across named Frieda usually have 'bad issues' of some kind, or turn out to be a villain. When you find a character named Carolyn are you ever apprehensive? I can't think of any nasty Carolyn characters, but a Frieda is likely to have a stiletto hidden in the toe of her shoe, Lotte Lenya style.

I've read five of Colin Thubron's travel books recently. I think it was Netla and Vee who put me on to him. I enjoyed the books although Thubron is about as dry as unbuttered popcorn. I recently learned that Thubron has also written fiction, but after reading about the subject matter and settings of his novels -- in a mental asylum, in a penal institution, and about someone with amnesia -- I have to say that I'm a bit leery. Have any of you RPers read Thubron's fiction?

Rouan, I read The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne every summer for five or six years when I was around junior-high age, mostly because I had a crush on the teenage boy who was stranded on the island with the adult men. :)

Donna

Frieda, I don't think I have come across any Frieda's in fiction . . . nor did I know that Colin Thubron has written anything but travel books. I would expect them to be rather turgid.

A travel book I have been battling with, picking it up putting it down is Slow Boat to China by journalist Gavin Young. Written in the late 70's - early 80's (?) GY determines to reach China by sea; even 40 years ago this had become almost impossible. So far I'm several chapters in and despite him picking up his first cargo ship in Italy he has only meandered as far as the Turkish coast via Greece and Cyprus. The accommodation is often filthy, his fellow travellers seem to be petty crooks and smugglers and virtually every conversation he has is recorded in detail. The political situation in the Middle East was as dodgy then as it is now.

Frieda, Dr. Klein is a very admirable person. Although troubled herself, she is a psychotherapist who helps people explore the problems they have within themselves. She also frequently gets in hot water herself from trying to help them, has a friend in the police who gets exasperated with her, has a cozy little house in London, and likes to walk London streets following old waterways. They are written by Nicci French, a husband and wife team, and there are seven of them so far. Each has a day of the week in the title, beginning with Blue Monday, and are best read in order. I find them quite gripping.

As far as Carolyn's, I only seem to run across the name in mystery authors, e.g., Carolyn Keene, Carolyn Hart, Carolyn Haines. CK got me started down this slippery slope.

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Included in the Wodehouse books I borrowed was a Fan fiction "Jeeves and the Wedding Bells" by Sebastian Faulks, praised as pitch perfect by someone with a tin ear IMHO!

I won't go into what I found jarring, it would take too long...

I have just read Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger. They are Minnesota Indian Reservation and adjoining small town based. I like these books but haven't read very many of them. There are too many British mysteries out there. People keep asking me if I have read the popular U.S. mystery authors, but I don't like them nearly as well. My daughter does pass along her David Baldacci's, which are pretty good.

I finished Tarzan and am now listening to The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer. This one is narrated by, of all people, Richard Armitage, the actor who played Thorin in the Hobbit movies. Funnily enough, I have been watching the extended versions of the making of these movies over the past few days so was surprised to find him doing the narration of this book.

Finished Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, and I loved it.

Frank Drum remembers that summer of 1961, when he was 13 in New Bremen, Minnesota, the summer that changed him and his family forever.

There are several deaths in town, and there is a mystery around one of these. But this is not your typical mystery. It deals with family, faith, community, Frank's coming-of-age, all told in just the right voice. The mystery is not an edge-of-the-seat sort, which works well in this book. I guessed the culprit way before the end, but it didn't matter, I wanted to see how it would be found out.

I loved Frank, his younger brother, and his Methodist minister father. The small-town early 60's atmosphere is well recreated, down to the TV shows the boys watch.

This is not a happy book, but it is very satisfying. It will definitely be on my "Best of 2017" list.

It's nice to hear when someone happens upon a new favorite. Congrats Reader!

I am reading short mystery stories set around books "Bodies in the Bookshop" edited by L C Tyler & Ayo Onatade. A good source to find new to me authors.

I finished The Cutthroat by Clive Cussler last night. It was good, but not as exciting as the other Isaac Bell stories.

I started Mangrove Lightning by Randy Wayne White last night. I also checked out seven other books to try while I'm on my vacation.

Donna

I'm reading As She Left It by Catriona McPherson. A young woman goes back to her childhood home following the death of her alcoholic mother and finds the house is hers since her mum never got around to letting the Council know she went to live with her father and wicked stepmother. A three-year-old neighbor disappeared while she was gone, most of the old neighbors are still living in the street, and Opal sets out to find out what happened.

Reading Day for Night by Frederick Reiken. Last year I read his first novel, The Odd Sea, and liked it very much, so decided to give a try to this one. It starts with a woman swimming with manatees while vacationing in Florida with her boyfriend and his son.

I'm reading The Blood Royal, a Joe Sandilands book by Barbara Cleverly,
and enjoying it immensely. Setting in this book is 1920 London; the
series began with Joe sent to India to solve a problem. I've liked them
all so far.

I've been binge-reading everything I can find from N.K. Jemisin since reading her Hugo winner, The Fifth Season, a couple months ago. I finished the Inheritance Trilogy & just completed the Dreamblood Duology, so I'm ready for The Stone Sky which will be released this week.

Working my way through the Booker long-list. Four finished, two abandoned (though I may well go back to Days Without End). Just started 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster. 800 pages, so I'll disappear for a while :)

When we were Orphans by Isuzuo Ishiguro was a Booker Prize contender some years ago, so is hardly a straightforward easy read, in fact anything but.

A first person telling of life in the early 20th century International Settlement area of Shanghai as told 'looking back' by an English boy, now a world famous detective who, twenty years after the disappearance of his parents goes back to China to solve the mystery. The writing style echoes that of the crime-writers of the pre-war age; rather stiff and formal. Lots of turgid prose and it isn't until the second half of the book, in war-torn (China v Japan) Shanghai that the 'search' takes off but becomes most surreal . . . but possibly the narrator has been unhinged throughout the entire book.The Booker pundits say it is a book all about Memory and the tricks it can play but when we are told of the 'true events' the boy couldn't have known of them, so a somewhat wasted argument.

Finally finished Daniel Deronda. All 800 plus pages of it. Blindly pulled a book out of the closet bookshelf and started it last night. Well, not quite blindly. The first one that I grabbed was The Count of Monte Cristo and decided, 'Nah. Enough with the classics for now. Next one up was Carla Negger's Night's Landing. Looks like a quick read, change of pace.

I have almost finished "Some Girls, Some Hats, and Hitler" by Trudi Kanter. It is a true story of a couple who escaped the Holocaust from Austria. The memoir was self published in the 80's in the UK but the copyright was lost. Now it has been re-issued and I recommend it highly. The independent, vivid personality of Trudi shines through as she travels from country to country seeking a new life. It is told in a lively way so that it is not depressing. In the end, the couple do escape the Anschluss and make new lives for themselves in the UK. The "hat" reference is because Trudi actually had her own millinery business in Vienna, making hats. Another positive is that the details present a marvelous portrait of what Vienna was like before WW II.

I have been reading The Long, Long Trail, fourth in the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I was reduced to ordering it on Kindle since my library doesn't have it. It is very good, of course, as all of her books are. I can't think why the library doesn't have all her works. They do get the Bill Slider books and the first of the War at Home ones, but the Morland Dynasty and her stand alones are not available. All of her books are so good; I just think people aren't aware of them. Should I start a one-woman public outcry?

The only place I've seen Cynthia Harrod-Eagles mentioned is here at RP. I've never seen her books displayed at any bookstore. Our library, which is pretty good, has only some of Bill Slider mysteries, one of the Morland Dynasty books and none of the War at Home series. I've never read any of her books, but I wonder why isn't this author more widely known?

I'm currently reading Lillian Fishbox Takes A Walk.

The next book on the top of my TBR pile is The Alice Network.

Finished Day for Night by Frederick Reiken. It is an unusual novel. The first chapter is about a woman who fled Europe as a child with her mother during WWII. She lives now in New Jersey, but is vacationing in Florida with her boyfriend and his son. They are swimming with manatees.

The next chapter is told by the boat tour guide who took them to the manatees. Each subsequent chapter is narrated by another character, and slowly the readers starts to see the connection between all the characters. It is quite ingenious.

It is slow at the beginning, and there are loose ends that will irritate some readers. Still I liked the book. Not as much as his first novel (The Odd Sea), but enough to read other things by him. Unfortunately, he has written only 3 novels. I got the 2nd one in a book sale a couple of months ago, but will wait another year or so to read it, to make it last.

Yoyobon,

Let me know what you think of Lillian Fishbox Takes a Walk. It was recommended by the independent booksellers when it was published earlier this year.

I recently finished The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede. When the U.S. closed its air space following the September 11, 2001 attacks, there were 400+ planes already in flight over the Atlantic, destined for U.S. airports. All had to be redirected. Many were directed to land at Gander, Newfoundland. Although Gander is a small town, it has a very large airport because it formerly served as a military base and a refueling stop for planes headed east across the Atlantic. And so, on September 11, this town of 10,000 residents was inundated with approximately 8,000 unexpected guests who needed food, shelter and support for several days. The book recounts how the town's people gathered their resources to provide incredible hospitality to the stranded passengers. Though unfortunately not very well written, this is a short, heart-warming book about a topic I knew nothing about and found really interesting.

Have just finished Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and although I can hardly claim it was enjoyable at least it was very different from my usual choice of book.

I felt the last line from a Cambridge professor leading a symposium on the state of 'Gilead' in which the many outrages against women occurred, was the most telling for the reader.

"Are there any questions?"

I'm reading The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb, the first of the Owen Archer series in which Owen, blinded in one eye and thus incapable of leading his archers in battle, is sent to find out what or who killed one of his Archbishop's pilgrims at York.

I have read a couple of these books out of order in the distant past and am enjoying this one Ms. Robb is a good writer and student of the age.

Kathy, I know someone who made that unexpected trip to Gander. He spent a few nights in the home of complete strangers. He said he couldn't believe how warm an welcoming they were.

Donna

That's cool, Donna. It really is an amazing story. Gander has much to be proud of.

It's a long time since I've been here, so apologies for that.

Carolyn, I will join you in praising Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - as you know, she is one of my favourites, and I have never been disappointed in her work.

I've just finished House of Spies by another of my go-to authors, Daniel Silva. Although his books are predictable in outcome, I always enjoy them and hold my breath that Gabriel Allon will be back for another one.

I've just started The Force by Don Winslow, which comes with a high rating from just about everyone who has read it. So far, it is very good.

I read a second book by Chris Carter after being totally underwhelmed by The Caller which was incredibly gruesome and very, very poorly written. I Am Death was better, but I won't bother with another.

I enjoyed I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh - a crime book with a good twist.

I read Murder on the Serpentine by Anne Perry, latest in her Charlotte and Pitt books, over the weekend. In this one, Queen Victoria asks Pitt to investigate a murder. The surprise ending was great.

Now I'm halfway through Sanctuary Hill by Kathryn R. Wall. Her books are set in the islands off South Carolina, and this one has to do with people who keep to themselves on one where a sort of voodoo is practiced.

Read Louise's Gamble by Sarah R. Shaber, WWII Washington, D.C. setting. Louise works as a file clerk for the OSS but gets more involved. Good book.

I am enamored of 'Death Comes For the Archibishop' by Willa Cather. I hadn't read it in high school and thought it may be a bit jejune for my taste now. Instead a wonderful portrayal of human nature with funny and sad events 170 years ago in New Mexico when the forced cessation of that land from Mexico occurred. Almost finished.

'Mister Monkey' by Francine Prose was not the effervescent comedy the book jacket proclaimed, nor a dizzying ferris wheel. Each chapter reveals a day of inner dialogue of a character, from the main actress in the off off off off Broadway play to the kindergarten teacher of a boy in the audience. Each has a morose view of themselves and their lives. Not effervescent.

Boo hoo. I finished the last of the library's Arthur Upfield books with "Bony" the half aborigne police detective. These stories are right up there with Sherlock and Miss Marple for me. Also finished this month the 11th book of Craig Johnson's series with Sheriff Walt Longmire. Should have stopped after the 5th. Pages devoted to trial and tribulation with attendant violence kept increasing.

So I am back here culling authors. Oh, and I read a cozy by Erika Chase called 'A Killer Read'. Nice subplots and good action. Happy reading everyone.

Carolyn, recently read 'Simon Said' by Sarah Shaber. Thanks for mentioning her other series (love series). I intended to read more of her.

Edited in: how could I forget 'To the Elephant Graveyard' by Tarquin Hall in one week? Recommended. True story of a rogue elephant in NE India (Assam territory). He also wrote 4 lighthearted detective stories set in India where he lives with his wife and children.

I just finished in the past hour Traces Remain: Essays and Explorations by Charles Nicholl, one of my favorite writers. Three of his earlier books I can read over and over and always find something I never considered before:

1) The Fruit Palace ( I think this is subtitled: On the Trail of the Great Cocaine Story -- anyway that's what it's about, two of his forays into Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s);

2) The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe;

and 3) The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street.

I feel that I will ponder Traces Remain for a long time as well.

The essays included are short pieces that I suspect anticipated Nicholl's longer explorations, such as:

"A 'Naughty House': Mr. Mountjoy at the Magistrates' Court" (Christopher Mountjoy, a French Huguenot immigrant, was Shakespeare's landlord in Silver Street. It seems he might have been a pimp too,)

"A Canterbury Tale: Christopher Marlowe's Boyhood"

"The Life etc.: Shakespeare's First Biographer" (Nicholas Rowe, his "Mr. William Shakespeare" was written as a preface to a new edition of The Plays published 1702)

However, Nicholl seems to have boundless interests -- from many times and many places. He obviously gets a kick out of literary forensic research. Three that tickle me are:

"Screaming in the Castle: The Case of Beatrice Cenci" (Beatrice was executed in Rome in 1599 for the murder of her father)

"The Wind Comes Up Out of Nowhere: Arthur Cravan in Mexico" (Cravan was a boxer who was also a poet! and the nephew of Oscar Wilde's wife Constance. But he's most famous for his disappearance in Mexico in 1918.

"Mystery at Moonlight Cottage: The Disappearance of Jim Thompson" (Thompson vanished in Malaysia in 1967.)

There are twenty-five essays in this book, but I could read fifty or a hundred more! I hope another collection is published.

A quick light read I Left My Tent in San Francisco by Emma Kennedy. About EK's working trip to the US in the 1980's. Described as a catalogue of disasters one can only hope she was exaggerating as it was only by good luck and the kindness of strangers she and her friend lived to get back to England in one piece. They certainly were ill-prepared with too little money and a simplistic view of the US as having streets paved with gold and holding out its arms to two useless ex-students.

Reading a longer book by Andrew Taylor, The Silent Boy. Young son of a runaway English wife witnesses her murder at the beginning of the French Revolution. Many people want him, from French refugees to English family members and some in between, part of them for good and part not for good. He was threatened at the crime scene to never speak again--and he doesn't.

This morning I finished reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. This is a historic novel, set in the early 19th century, about two scientific-minded women, Elizabeth Philpot and Mary Anning (real people), who searched for and studied fossils in cliffs and on beaches in and near the town of Lyme Regis on the south coast of England. Now that may not sound very interesting, but I found it quite fascinating. Having spent a few days in Lyme Regis some years ago, I enjoyed the book's descriptions of that area, but the real draw was the pioneering spirit of these two women working so diligently in an era when they were not even allowed to attend meetings of the all-male Geological Society. It was inspiring.

I'm reading At Risk by Stella Remington. The
blurb on the cover says it is the debut thriller from the former head of
Britain's MI5. I'm about half way through, and it is really good. Best
of all, according to stopyou'rekillingme.com there are eight more books by her. It's so much fun finding a good new-to-me author.

I know that I was the first person at the local Big W to get Sue Grafton's Y is for Yesterday which came on sale this morning.

I waited while the sales assistant opened the carton!