Donna - I too liked the ending of Nothing to See Here.

Well, The Woman in the Mirror was a real Gothic! It was back and forth in time between the 1800s, 1940s, and present-day Cornwall and New York City, horror, suicide, murder, asylums, lonely mansions, governesses, strange children, scarred and wounded war veterans, you name it. I thought I was at the end three times before the grand finale, and the second time would have been better.

I'm finally out of my reading brain fog, at least for the time being, and have begun to work on reading the Hugo nominees. It's probably not a coincidence that we are also slowly emerging from coronavirus lockdown. Many stores and all crowd events are still closed in our county, but I have been able to go to several shops. We've dropped grocery delivery which was never very satisfactory. Who knew that going to the grocery store could be so rewarding? Maybe in a few weeks we'll even be able to go to the gym or get our hair cut.

Tom and I even re-booked our postponed trip, a river cruise in Portugal. We plan to go late summer next year, in hopes that gives us time to get properly vaccinated. Fingers crossed! We had considered May, but wanted the extra buffer of time for science to do its work.

Carolyn, your comments about The Woman in the Mirror were most entertaining!

I recently read Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman. This is the story of a young woman living in New York City whose mother, upon her death, specifically wanted her to take possession of her copy of a 1968 yearbook from the high school where she (the mother) taught and also oversaw production of the year book. This particular issue of the yearbook had been dedicated to her. Over the years, rather oddly, the mother/teacher had attended all of the reunions of the class of '68 and during all those years had written ongoing notes about the students, next to their photos in the yearbook.

Long story short (believe it or not), the daughter did not value her mother's yearbook and disposed of it in the recycling bin of her apartment building, where an eccentric neighbor takes possession of it and decides to make a documentary about the mother/teacher who annotated the yearbook so thoroughly. The daughter quickly learned there are family secrets to protect and spent much of the book trying to regain possession of the yearbook and halt the filmmaker's efforts to research details. It turns into a kind of an I Love Lucy screwball comedy. Pretty silly, but amusing and enjoyable.

It's most unusual for me to post two reads in a row, but this was a quick one and I've spent more time reading the last few days. I just completed a cozy mystery, The Victim in Victoria Station by Jeanne M. Dams, and I enjoyed it. It's one in a series in which Dorothy Martin solves the mystery. Dorothy is an American ex-pat, older woman married to a retired police commissioner (?) in a pleasant U.K village. I like it enough to read another one soon, and perhaps another ...

Kathy, I have read and enjoyed the Dorothy Martin series. I think I liked the very first one best. She had me at moving from Indiana to live in a cozy house in an English cathedral close. And meeting her policeman wasn't bad, either.

Carolyn - Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed the Dorothy Martin series. That will encourage me to pick up more of them at the library. A couple days ago, I did pick up an early book of the series, Trouble in the Town Hall (1996) at my curbside-pickup stop at the library (temporary pandemic situation). But I have a friend who is not computer savvy and is thus still cut off from our library. I showed her the books I'd brought home and offered to share with her. Wouldn't you know it, she selected only one book and it was the Dorothy Martin! What could I say? She's reading it now, I suppose.

I'm reading Who Speaks for the Damned by C. S. Harris, the latest in his Sebastian St. Cyr series set in London in the early 1800s. Sebastian is an early crime solver from the upper class who don't think he should be involved in such sordid stuff.

Now reading Your Turn, Mr. Moto, the first Mr. Moto book by John P. Marquand. In this time of staying home so much and with the public library still closed, I have been downloading library ebooks and reading one after another like eating popcorn. Today has been so pleasant weatherwise that I've spent most of the afternoon on the patio reading and listening to the birds.

Carolyn, that sounds lovely! Our weather in central FL has been very hot and muggy, though yesterday we had lower humidity and a nice breeze.

I'm reading Dark of the Moon by John Sandford, the first Virgil Flowers book. I've read several of the VF books and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd start from the beginning. :)

Donna

I finished that Mr. Moto book, which was the first one, and looked at used book prices because the library doesn't have any others. Look is all I did! My goodness, the prices for the old used paperbacks are astronomical. The one I just finished is a new edition, so maybe they will continue to republish them,

Just read Wicked Autumn by G M Malliet. An American author of whom I was unfamiliar, but the blurb says she was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge(!) universities and as this book is set in England she has done quite a bit of homework on her use of language/setting/characters etc.

It it the first in a series about a C of E clergyman with a previous life in MI5 . . . and although there is precious little sleuthing there is much detail about the characters of a fictional village which seems (to me) rather more like a full-size town. The butcher, the baker, even a candle-maker, restaurants, antique shop, pubs, school, a railway station are all run by either 'hippy', grand, down-to-earth or shady characters.

Our job is to decided 'whodunnit'; not easy as everyone has a motive. Well written and the 'whole' I felt more interesting than the 'outcome'.

Has anyone read anything else by Malliet?

A Better Man , the last ( so far ) Louise Penny novel in the Three Pines series. I think that LP might want to wrap up this series with the forthcoming novel. After her husband's death to Alzheimer's it feels like she's gone to a slightly darker place with Gamache, who is inspired by her husband. Perhaps she's subconsciously processing her personal loss through her writing .......however, she's dragging the reader along with her.

Vee, the name is familiar but when I checked the SYKM website I didn't remember any of the plots of her books. Someone here may have recommended her. Are they well written?

annpan, yes the Malliet books are well-written 'though surprisingly for a English edition they use American spelling. I know you enjoy a whodunnit that concentrates on the 'who' and 'why' rather than the scenery or what the characters had to eat . . .lots of cake, sandwiches and even scones spread with peanut butter . . .And Louise Penny gave Malliet a good write-up.

Ugh! Yuk! I like peanut butter but on bread for a late night snack. Never on scones.

I shall try one book and see how I like the style. I need to broaden my author list.

Never heard of peanut butter on cake or scones.......pb and jelly sandwiches, yes. Sometimes on sliced banana. Where do these authors get their ideas about such things !?

I'm reading The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey. It isn't a mystery and I can't remember who recommended it, but it is a good book. It is a flash back to the Bright Young Things between the world wars, and the fruits of the choice of safety over feelings.

I'm another who found the Maillet and Max Tudor names familiar but don't remember reading any of the books. I'll be interested to know how those of you who try them feel about them.

I like PB&J sandwiches, too, but not peanut butter on scones. And bananas, yoyo? Shades of Elvis.

I’ve just finished up a quick read of a 1946 novel called “The Street” by Ann Petry. This was a really good read about a woman and her young son trying so hard to get out of poverty at a time when it was just near impossible due to segregation, lack of options and no support. Just loved it as an excellent solid read.

Also a hat-tip to Black Lives Matter since Petry was the first Black female author to write a novel that sold more than one million copies. It’s still a great read more than 50 years later. Highly recommended.

I just finished The Glittering Hour and just loved it. Ms. Grey has written one other book, Letters to the Lost, that I read some time ago and also liked a lot. So satisfying to find a really great book.

Today I have read Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante, in the Maggie Hope series by Susan MacNeal. I'm still pretty much staying home and reading and reading and reading. I have some sympathy for the people who are desperate to get out and DO something, but not much. I can be content reading a book a day.

I finished an ARC by Mark Billingham called Cry Baby. I enjoyed it very much - he took his main detective character back 20 years and we get to see him meet the pathologist he now has a strong friendship with.

I also finished listening to Flights of Angels by Cindy Brander, one of her series set in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and enjoyed that too.

Finished A Better Man and thought I might read something light and fluffy so I cracked open The Sugar Queen. Unfortunately after a Louise Penny novel this one reads like a simple " How To Write A Story 101". I get spoiled by good writing.

I finished Dark of the Moon and now I’m on #10 in the women’s murder club series.

Bon, I wonder if L Penny is planning to wrap up the Gamache series in the next book. Seems that way, doesn’t it? And I agree the last two or three have been darker than the previous books.

Donna

A few years ago I picked up a copy of Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey but put off reading it until now.

Although hardly a light and happy read it is really a page-turner and Healey, who's first book it was, has got into the troubled and confused mind of the Alzheimer sufferer, Maud, who is convinced that her friend has disappeared.

Interwoven with this is the 'real' story set in just post-War England where Maud's older sister did vanish. I got the feeling that the young Maud's 'mental troubles' began all those years ago and she had since been teetering on the edge of whatever 'normal' is, since then.

Has anyone read it? If not don't be put off by the content I found it very powerful . . . though I do worry that this is something coming to most of us, especially when I can't remember why I have come upstairs or where I put the TV remote!

Vee, I have read that book, but it was a long time ago. I do remember that I thought it was very good.

I just finished reading When All Is Said by Anne Griffin. The novel covers a single day in the life of an eighty-four-year-old Irishman as he sits in a bar, mostly alone, toasting the people who have been most important in his life. It's a touching internal monologue, an imaginary conversation with his son who lives in America. It feels revealing and honest. At times it seemed to me that his revelations of emotion and tenderness did not fit with his outward tough-guy persona. Then I would remember the author is a woman and I wondered how much of his tender soliloquy was due to that fact. It's a pleasant, though rather sad read. The book has that "hard times" feel much like Frank McCourt's book, Angela's Ashes.

I am reading Murder in the Holy City by Simon Beaufort. Set in Jerusalem in 1100, two knights and three priests have been murdered. The murder weapon is a dagger with a jeweled hilt. A knight named Geoffrey Mappestone has been tasked with solving the mystery of the killings. I think I will like it if I can get more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time to read.

Donna

I'm reading The Lincoln Lawyer, the first Mickey Haller book by Michael Connelly and not liking it as much as his other books. So far, Harry Bosch is not in it. Mickey seems to be finding his ethical feet as opposed to making a lot of money, and his client is not what he thought him to be.

Carolyn, that was the first Michael Connelly book I read. I liked it well enough to read more of his books. Now that I've read several I can say I prefer the Bosch stories.

Donna

msmeow, I finished The Lincoln Lawyer and liked the ending much better than the beginning. I'm in the process of reading all the Connelly books in order as much as I can and like them a lot.

Today has been unusual for me. I worked in the yard this morning, had a nap, and this afternoon worked on integrating new books alphabetically into the bookshelves which means a lot of shoving around, so all I have read today is the new Southern Living magazine that came in the mail. A day without a book is like . . . well, I can't actually think what it is like. Maybe I will get started on one before bedtime.

Sorting out a pile of old books belonging to my DD I came across a yellowing copy of The Wheel on the School by Meindert de Jong. I realise I must be one of the few people who never read it as a child, but think it was published when I was slightly older than the age-group it was aimed at. Now I'm so old it doesn't matter any more! I thought once the story got going it held my attention and showed something of the life led (how many years ago) by the fishing families in Friesland and I'm sure would have held the attention of 9 -10 year olds. Maybe because de Jong wrote the book after living in the US for some time I found some of the expressions used by the children to be very American "Say Teacher that's a swell idea" . . . I quite expected one of the boys to come out with "gee willikers" Does anyone still use that expression in the US?

Vee, I don't think anyone uses "swell" any more in that context. And I wonder if anyone ever said "gee willikers" or if that was a literary or movie script term.

Donna

I think you're right, Donna. "Gee willikers" might have been confined to Opie talking to his "Pa" on the Andy Griffith Show.

The Gown

You probably noticed that I'm immersed in reading the Hugo nominees. I have read and selected Best Novel, Best Short Story, and Best Novellette (long short story). I have the Best Novella to read (short novel) yet to read and select. I like reading the YA novel and the New Writer category but I'm not sure I'll get to those this year. I've been running late due to my personal lockdown inertia. In addition the Hugo committee doesn't have set up electronic voting yet so I'm running out of time. (Shocking to a resident of Silicon Valley.) I'll actually need to mail in my ballot and it has to get to New Zealand by July 15th.

One discovery from this exercise is that the SF magazines which I used to read have pretty much faded away to be replaced by digital magazines. About half the shorter fiction nominated came from a magazine called Uncanny. I mention it in case other SF fans out there are interested. I have just signed up to subscribe myself.

Yoyo, did you like it? I've had The Gown on my wishlist for quite a while now.

I finished American Dirt for my book group but found it stressful and violent (murders and sexual assaults) so I skimmed about two-thirds of it. I'm an emotional reader, and with the pandemic and protests and toxic politics going on right now I just didn't have the bandwidth required to read something like this. That said, what I did read of it was very well written and the subject matter is certainly timely and important.

I went straight to the lighter books after that, zipping through the newest Nora Roberts, Hideaway, which was very good, and a YA re-telling of Beauty and the Beast by Brigid Kemmerer titled A Curse So Dark and Lonely, which was OK but not riveting. I also read and enjoyed Five French Hens by Judy Leigh (recommended here by Yoyobon maybe?) and topped it off yesterday with the latest from Elizabeth Hunter in her Elemental Legacy series, Dawn Caravan. I adore her books (yes, mainly vampires - you've been warned) and this was a wonderful story and a fun escape.

I shifted some books around earlier this week and realized I need to work on the TBR pile. It has completely overflowed its bookcase and the books need to be either read or culled.

And sometimes culling is as satisfying as reading, especially if you aren't going to love the books.

Thanks for the warning on American Dirt. It is firmly on my Do Not Read list. Not my kind of book.

I was going to tell you that I just read Hideaway for my book club, but I was wrong. We read The Hideaway by Lauren Denton. I'm going to have to refresh my memory of it. Our discussion is coming up next week.

Vee -I’m one who also read “Elizabeth is Missing”... I loved it. Poignant and thoughtful. Glad you enjoyed it as well.

Just finished up a good read of a NF: “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights” by Gretchen Sorin (2020). Really interesting to learn more about how private car ownership played such a role in the Civil Rights movement.

Sheri, I'm just beginning The Gown and like it so far.

I reserved a copy of The Gown. The library says it will be about 8 weeks. :)

I finished Murder in the Holy City today, and I liked it a lot. It was a nice change from my long string of homicide detective stories, even though Sir Geoffrey Mappestone was trying to solve a series of murders.

Donna

I just started A Curious Beginning, a Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn. Set in 1887 England, with a very modern heroine, it's just wonderfully clever and very funny. The main character is cut from the same cloth as Flavia de Luce and Amelia Peabody, and I can already see I'll need to get the next books in the series. So much for reducing the TBR pile!

Donna - you're pleased that your book has an 8 week wait time?

Skibby, that’s more of a wry grin! I’ll probably forget I requested it by then. Good thing they send an email when it’s available.

Donna

Thanks Donna. I hope you enjoy the book.

I am reading The Dressmaker's Gift by Fiona Valpy, loaned to me by my daughter because she liked it so much. It is a present day/Paris during the Nazi occupation story of a young English woman whose mother died young and who never knew her grandmother. She discovered that her grandmother had worked in a high-fashion house during the war. She is herself interested in fashion and has obtained a job in that same firm and has met another young woman working there whose grandmother worked with her own. So far, it is a pretty predictable but good story of young love, the resistance, and the dreadful Nazis.

I just started Anne Tyler's new book, The Redhead at the Side of the Road. It is so pleasant and comfortable to read one her books again. I'm enjoying it very much.

I'm not reading many books but rather about books. I recently came into a windfall and so have been making a list of books I'd like to buy. Some non-fiction seemed to catch my eye and here is my list so far: What it's Like to Be a Bird - David Sibley; This is Chance! Jon Mooallem (about the 1964 Alaska earthquake); The White Darkness - David Grann (an explorer book about a man following Shackleton's journey to Antarctica) ; Tales from the Ant World - Edward O. Wilson; How to Sharpen Pencils - David Rees ( a book about sharpening pencils - seriously) Has anyone read these?

Skibby, how nice to get a windfall! I have been receiving money as a result of the Covid virus! The Govt and others have automatically sent me money and I have had decisions to make about how I spend it. Like you, I have used some to buy books and DVDs to entertain myself as I have had to stay at home.

I felt rather awkward about receiving this money as I have hardly been inconvenienced, apart from missing haircuts and having to bend somehow to trim my toenails! However there are family birthdays coming up so I can be extra generous with cash gifts then!

I hope you enjoy your unusual titles!