Carolyn, I believe another of his books about his wife was Surprised By Joy.

I really enjoyed The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalian! During the Civil War, a badly wounded Union captain is left behind when the army moves on. He’s found by a free black woman and his life is saved by a southern woman, the free black woman and her husband. It’s a very moving story.

Donna

Donna - That does sound like an interesting book but I'm wondering, how did it come by its title?

Kathy, the southerners start calling the Union captain ”the jackal”. Bohjalian doesn’t say why, as far as I recall.

Donna, I wonder if it has anything to do with the Union flag, called the Union Jack.

I finished Sipsworth and enjoyed it very much.

Yoyobon - Glad you liked it. I really did also. Once the surprising information was revealed, it caused in me a self-realization of a prejudice I did not know I possessed.

LOL.....made me want to consider becoming a vegan !

I'm reading The Garden Party by Peter Turnbull, the first I've read by him. It's a gruesome crime but not told in a gruesome manner and with good guy English police.

I’m almost caught up with the murderbot novellas; the full length novel Network Effect is next on the list. I also read The Honey Pot Plot by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Now I am going to go back and reread the first two Rocky Start books to see what clues I missed the first time around

Kathy........what are you currently reading ? Have you ever read The Spellman Files?

Bon ........I'm currently doing a re-read of How to Read a Book by Monica Wood so I can lead a book club discussion on April 21. Next up after that is Death and Croissants by Ian Moore, a gift from a friend. I have not read The Spellman Files. Are you suggesting I should?

Kathy.... It was a clever, witty , sarcastic change from my usual book choices. In fact I'm currently reading the third book in the four book series of the Spellman family !

It might be worth a look.

From the award-winning author of The Accomplice and The Passenger comes the first novel in the hilarious Spellman Files mystery series featuring Isabel “Izzy” Spellman (part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry) and her highly functioning yet supremely dysfunctional family of private investigators.

I'm not big on sarcasm, but I will put it on my list to look into.

I also read something outside of my usual - The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune. “In the spring of 1995 Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother wants nothing to do with him, and he’s been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington, DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family’s summer cabin outside the small mointain town of Roseland, Oregon… Inside the cabin is a man named Alex and a little girl who isn’t exactly as she appears.”

At first I thought I wouldn’t like it, but I enjoyed it a lot!

Donna

Kathy.....reflecting back on Sipsworth.......did you ever read Mrs. Frisby And The Rats of NIMH ?

I'm reading The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre and I can't put it down. It's the non-fiction account of one of the great spy stories of our time. I'm reading it as the main character, Oleg Gordievsky, recently died in Surrey, England, and I wanted to know more. He was a highly placed KGB agent who became disgusted with the Soviet system of repression and execution and began to spy for the British. He was so valuable that only a very few knew of his existence or who he was. MI-6 didn't even tell the prime minister or the CIA for a long time. Even then, only a few knew his identity. The British had been badly burned by spies within their own ranks, even up to the Queen's staff.

I'm coming to the part about his betrayal by Aldrich Ames, a mole in the CIA who cost many lives, and Gordievsky's thrilling escape to the West. Supposedly, John LeCarre said it was this is the best non-fiction spy story he ever read. The author is a noted journalist for The Times of London.

Yoyobon, no I have never read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

It's one that had the same effect on my rodent attitude as Sipsworth did !

Donna.........have you read The Book Of Doors ?

No, Bon, I haven’t. I’ll see if one of my libraries has it. I’m in line for a copy of The Spellman Files. 😁

Yoyobon - I don't think we saw Sipsworth the same way. For me, it wasn't about the mouse. It was about the old woman and how my attitude toward her changed once I knew more about her.

Interesting.......I had no shift in my view of her, she was simply endearing. However I did begin to see the mouse through her eyes and care and began to realize that the stinkin' thing actually had a relationship with her !! ( no more mouse traps for me!! )

^^^Donna ~ I'm skipping down to recommend any of TJ Klune's books! They are stand-alone, except for the House/Cerulean Sea, which has a sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them!!

Thanks, Roxanna! I will read more of his. I really enjoyed Bones Beneath My Skin.

Over the past couple of weeks I have read two nonfiction books about books (as opposed to novels with a bookish background). Both were recommended by a friend.

The first was The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss. And a history it was. Beginning with Benjamin Franklin's printshop, it examines pretty much every kind of bookstore from street vendors to Amazon, and every iteration in between. I learned a lot, and enjoyed the process along the way.

The second one I just finished this evening. This one was Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney. I had been vaguely aware that there were earlier women novelists that Jane Austen had read and enjoyed, but went along with the accepted opinion that these authors were not very good. Romney set herself a project to read these authors and see what she thought. She actually liked some of them, some as much as she did Austen, and set about discovering why Austen is admired today while they were pretty much forgotten. I was so inspired by her persuasive story that I found myself ordering a book each by Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Ann Radcliff, and Charlotte Lennox. I'll let you know once I've tried them what I think. Romney herself is a pleasure to read, but definitely more scholarly in her personal reading than I am.

I am starting with Mysteries of Udolpho which I picked up in college but was put off by the many, many long descriptions of landscapes. This time I am listening to it as a recorded book, and so far, so good. It's not Jane Austen, but it is holding my attention.

Ginny12, I think Old Herbaceous has been reprinted because it was popping up on current lists of spring books. I enjoyed it very much and it was nice and short, unlike The Forgotten Garden. I have to agree with you that it's not a favorite. I think it could have used a good editor, though there were parts I liked.

Rereading a Corinna Chapman story. Kerry Greenwood died recently and I am reminding myself how much I enjoyed her books.

I had not heard about Kerry Greenwood. Sorry to hear it. I enjoyed her Corinna Chapman books as well as the Phryne Fisher series.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear about Kerry Greenwood. I really enjoyed the Corinna series.

I just finished a not-very-good book, In at the Death by Francis Duncan, only to find when I went to post it on Goodreads I had already read it in 2020. What a waste of time! I really wish I could remember to check before reading since it is obvious I can't remember what I've read,

Carolyn, not only do I forget books I have read but TV programs I have watched!

I am enjoying a rerun of Ludwig as I can't remember all the episodes. Have you seen it?

We are getting the last Vera episodes. I nearly bought the DVD as I was so impatient!

I forget books too but TV shows even more often. The up side is that I get to enjoy my favorites over and over every few years. :)

I was visiting family for Easter and could not post. I can't log in except on my desktop, very annoying. I read Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner who is in her 90s and was a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth at her 1953 coronation. Then she went on to be Princess Margaret's lady in waiting for decades. Her early life and the coronation account were very interesting but Princess Margaret didn't impress me at all tho the author liked her very much. Her marriage (the author's) was one of the worst I've ever heard about, starting with the honeymoon from hell. She wrote an even more explicit follow-up, Whatever Next?, but I don't think I'll be reading that.

Ginny, that reminded me of our marriage night, So many things went wrong that day and we spent our first night in an apartment that was so cold I wore my glamorous nightdress over thick PJs.

There was a blockage in the outside trash chute and my new husband, trying to be helpful, set it on fire! The residents who flocked around to put it out, whispered not to disturb the honeymooners, who were collapsed laughing behind the front door.

The rest of the honeymoon went well.

Oh dear, Annpan! That was quite an experience, I'm sure. So good you and your husband were able to laugh about it.

Of course, we did not realise that he had started a fire!

It had been quite a day of mishaps for me. The hairdresser at the salon forgot to get back to me after I had my hair washed. leaving me with dripping hair until my MiL came to see what was keeping me.

She had been to the florist for the bouquets and found they had booked the wrong date so the flowers weren't ready for collection! Also something had gone wrong with the baker and we had no wedding cake either.

The whole day went downhill as the taxi driver taking me to the church got his instructions wrong too and we waited and waited...

You had to laugh...eventually!

Ann, at least you two had plenty of memories to laugh about for years. It sounds like an I Love Lucy show.

Carolyn, you are right, excepting that my mishaps were spread over one day, not one short episode.

What happened on a different day was that an engagement present got stolen by a delivery man. It was discovered that he had been helping himself to a few parcels and went to prison.

Not suitable material for Lucy's kind of show!

Annpan, I'm so sorry all that happened to you. What a train of events on your most special day! But the troubles of the author of the book I just posted about, Anne Glenconner's Lady in Waiting, were terrible in a different way. She married a monster and endured it for fifty-four years--and then he disinherited her and their children.

Ginny, I don't fancy that book from your description! Why did she put up with being married to that man?

I think I have seen her being interviewed on documentaries about Royalty.

I'm reading The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas while awaiting The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny from the local library.

Bon - I read The Persian Pickle Club years ago. I liked it.

Annpan, You are right. Anne Glenconner has been on TV a lot, both in connection with the royals and with her books. You can google Anne Glenconner YouTube to see some. She is charming. She didn't divorce her husband as divorce just wasn't done. There is a lot more to it but as this topic may be disturbing to others I will leave it at that. But I must confess that after posting that I wouldn't read her sequel, Whatever Next, I sat down yesterday and read it right thru.

Ginny, with a title like that, who could resist?

Ha ha! How right you are, Annpan.

Got The Grey Wolf from library today and realized I'd already read it ! After checking my handy little notebook where I jot down books I verified that I had read it, plus noted that I felt so " meh" about it that I will not read the part 2 sequel....The Dark Wolf. I am done with Louise Penny.

I finished The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley and didn't like it as well as other Foley books I've read. Next up is A Drink of Deadly Wine by Kate Charles.

Bon, I’ve found the last several Louise Penny books to be very formulaic, and Gamache is a pretty unbelievable character. Nobody can be that patient and never lose their temper.

I’ve been reading a string of unremarkable books. I’m on the waiting list for The Spellman Files and The Book of Doors.

Donna

Ginny, I'll see if they have the Glenconner book in our library. I saw one of the interviews she gave (on line) Allowing for the fact that true blue-blooded aristocrats have always led a life quite removed from our own (well, mine certainly) she comes over as a decent person and it shows that palaces, wealth, servants etc are no compensation of a happy or safe life.

On the reading front, I have just finished one of the early works of Susan Hill, I am the King of the Castle. She is an excellent writer but her themes are SO dark. This one, which became popular as a 'set-book' in a school exam syllabus choice, is the story of two 10 year old boys who are brought together by the father of one advertising for a housekeeper who brings her son to live with the 'new' family. One boy resents the other who he sees as babyish and 'needy' which leads to bullying and a very nasty ending. Both parents are shown as weak characters. The father of the house being unable to control his horrible son and the woman thinking only of herself and hoping to make a match to give herself security and a place in society.

Vee, I'm sure your library will have it. It's very popular. And I totally agree that a happy life is far better than palaces and all that glitters.

I just finished The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan, my book club's choice. It's set in the very early days of WW2 in the south of England and tells the tales of various women and girls on the home front. I thought it was lightweight and predictable but easy to read. There was an interesting plot line about switched babies that would make a good book by itself.

I finally read something worthy of mentioning here! (I know it’s May, but I finished it last night 😁).

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks is a charming and heartwarming story of how the lives of three adults end up entwined. Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, and has spent his adult life traveling the world without putting down roots. Jasper is an elderly man who had a successful business and a beautiful family, but lost everything. Kaitlyn Cooper is a divorced mom of two who doesn’t realize how small her world has become until she meets Tanner.

It was very touching and I enjoyed it a lot.

I finally got my copy of The Spellman Files so that’s up next.

Donna