Friday, August 30, 2019

What We're Reading



LUCY BURDETTE:  I haven’t been reading quite as much as usual because I had some retina surgery last week that’s cramped my style. (It has not however cramped my appetite, as you can see in this photo, which was on the way home from the surgery center.) 

I have read and loved Hallie’s CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, and Jenn’s WORD TO THE WISE, and Rhys’s LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS, and I have Hank’s and Debs’s new books on my nightstand. Yay! But I wanted to recommend one more nonfiction, non-Red book called MOTHERLAND by Elissa Altman. Altman started out as a food writer and blogger, and has since written three memoirs.


In MOTHERLAND, her latest, Altman tells the astonishing and poignant story of her troubled relationship with a narcissistic mother. It's beautifully written--alternately funny and tragic. I loved it. And loved meeting her at RJ Julia Booksellers , too, to hear her talk about this intense and complex mother-daughter dance.

Assuming you all have the new Reds releases on your TBR pile, what else are you reading or looking forward to this fall?


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Since my actual TBR pile is literally all Jungle Reds books right now, I'll share what I'm looking forward to. I'm going to use the  descriptions, because they're both tantalizing and compact: First, in mystery, Kopp Sisters on the March by Amy Stewart, who had appeared here on JRW. I've enjoyed her series on the amazing (but based on true life) Kopp Sisters, and this is the fifth. Publisher's Weekly says, "In the spring of 1917, the Kopp sisters sign up for one of the military-style training camps for women who want to serve in WWI. When an accident befalls the matron, one of the sisters reluctantly agrees to oversee the camp."

For science fiction/fantasy, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. It's REALLY hard to describe this sword and sorcery debut set in an interstellar empire - PW calls it "madcap", but I read the first chapters at Tor.com and immediately pre-ordered it from one of my local indy bookstores. Crazy good writing.

My final choice, a thriller, isn't coming out until December, but it sounds so much my cup of tea I'm including it here: Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison. SheReads.com says, "The Goode School is an Ivy League boarding school – with only the most elite students – until a stranger shows up and things go from Goode to bad (see what I did there?). In a school where people can’t be bothered to turn their heads or question anything about the evil of some of these students, everything comes to a head when a popular student is found dead…. possibly due to a dark secret." JT, if you read this, send me an ARC!!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I am on book tour, so lots of flight time, but I need to use the to finish MY new book! Still, you cannot work all the time, right? So I am reading the crazy THE ESCAPE ROOM by Megan Goldin, which is a locked room thriller that absolutely should not work but it absolutely does! I have to keep tearing myself away from it.  I know I should read THE WHISPER MAN, such a fabulous cover, but it sounds so scary. And eager to get started on TURN OF THE KEY by Ruth Ware.  I powered through THIRTEEN (The serial killer is not on trial, he's on the jury, so says the cover). Another book that should not have worked, but did. And THE CHAIN! Shaking head. How do they do this? 

RHYS BOWEN: I have just concluded my book tour, while juggling page proofs of my next book and keeping up my writing requirement for the WIP. So... Not much time for reading. I have just read a stellar Book of WW2 Amsterdam called House on Endless Waters. I'm dying to find time to start Louise Penny's new book. Actually I'm dying to find time to sit and read!

JENN McKINLAY: I belong to a plot group with two insanely talented writers and very dear friends. Because we plot together -- shenanigans and mayhem, as you do -- I get to see the inner workings of their writing and marvel at how they take the random suggestions we throw at each other and then deliver them in twisty turny, compelling mysteries. Both of my partners have books coming out that I am just giddy about. Paige Shelton's THIN ICE, a suspenseful mystery set in Alaska, and the latest offering in Kate Carlisle's ever brilliant series Fixer Upper Seris, SHOT THROUGH THE HEARTH. Trust me, these are two books you don't want to miss!

LUCY: Jenn, you’ve talked about your plot group before—I am lime green with envy!

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm just back from teaching at Book Passage's annual conference for mystery writers where I moderated a panel on creating a main character. There were four authors on the panel, each a fantastic mystery writer, and I went back and found the first time each had put their protagonist on the page. At the conference, they read it aloud and (tried to!) remember why they'd introduced their character in that particular way. One of the authors on the panel was Elizabeth George, and the book where she introduces Lynley and Havers is A Great Deliverance. Well, I could not stop reading. I read the entire book in two days. No wonder that series is such a success.

LUCY: That sounds like an amazing conference panel, Hallie. Such a smart way to run it!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am all caught up on my fellow Reds fabulous books--such a reading feast! Next up for me is the ARC of Charles Todd's new Bess Crawford, A CRUEL DECEPTION, and I can't wait to dive in. And here are the top four below it on my nightstand: THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURIES by John Boyne (recommended by our JRW friend Ann Mason), THE SPIES OF SHILLING LANE by Jennifer Ryan, MEET ME IN MONACO by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, and THE PARIS ARCHITECT by Charles Belfoure. Of course, no telling what I'll come across between now and then, or pull off my to-read shelves, or my Kindle. I enjoyed Kate Atkinson's BIG SKY so much that I want to go back and catch up on the Jackson Brodie novels I haven't read.

Okay Reds, your turn! What are you reading?

77 comments:

  1. What, did I beat Joan in commenting? I'm currently reading Elizabeth
    George's book The Punishment She Deserves, #20 in the Inspector Lynley
    series. Enjoying it so far, with a long way to go, since all her
    works are quite verbose!

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    1. Hi Lynn, that sounds like a good blog for another day--long books or short?

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  2. Along with reading lots of dinosaur books to my grandbaby, I’ve read Lisa Unger’s “The Stranger Inside” . . . Iris Johansen’s “Smokescreen” . . . Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s “Old Bones” . . . Emily Winslow’s “Look For Her” . . . Nicola Cassidy’s “The Nanny at Number” . . . James Patterson’s “The Warning” and “The Inn” . . . Alice Blanchard’s “Trace of Evil.”

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  3. Coralee!! I saw Coralee! So amazing, so incredible, so absolutely wonderful! Nothing like being on book tour in a state where a hurricane is about to hit… Coralee and I can attest that going to book events is not the top thing on peoples minds! But we had a fabulous time, and she and her daughter are such style words to drive so long just to connect! Coralee, I am your absolute biggest fan!

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    1. I bet she meant stalwart! Coralee, hope you and yours stay very safe. I hate hurricane season!

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    2. So happy you were able to meet each other! And green with envy.

      Stay safe, Coralee.

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  4. It’s now 5:39 AM, and I am headed for the airport . I had a wonderful time in Florida, and I hope everyone here stays safe .

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  5. I finished Careful What You Wish For last night! Fabulous job, Hallie. And the Murder List kept me on the edge of my seat the week before. I also finally got to Leslie Karst's Murder from Scratch - that she talked about here a few months ago - and Kate Flora's latest Joe Burgess. So much talent all in a row! Next up is an Ann Cleeves' Silent Voices, and then my two of dear Wicked Authors' latest, Tilling the Truth by Julia Henry (aka Julie Hennrikus) and Haunted House Murder from Barb Ross.

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    1. Thanks, Edith! And your list has a bunch of books I need to get my hands on.

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    2. Thank you, Edith! So wonderful of you!

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  6. Let's see now...I finished reading Jack Carr's thriller "True Believer". I also finished reading an advance copy of Nicole Asselin's debut mystery "Murder at First Pitch" (my review of it is now up on Goodreads). I just started the Cornelia Kidd mystery "Death and a Pot of Chowder". I am also reading the For Better or For Worse Complete Library Volume 1 collection. For those who don't know, it is a comic strip by Lynn Johnston that ran in papers worldwide for nearly 3 decades and it is my favorite strip ever.

    I picked up 5 new books at my local library's used book sale for a whole 3 dollars so there's more to read there.

    After the Cornelia Kidd book, Hank's The Murder List and the Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills novel Lethal Agent are up next.

    And on September 11th, I'm headed to a book signing for Brad Meltzer so I'll likely re-read his Green Arrow comic book collection "The Archer's Quest" before I have him sign my copy of it.

    I guess I have been and will continue to be busy not only with reading, but writing reviews for the various books as well as the other articles I write. I think I do this in place of putting forth the effort of having what others might call a "life".

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    1. Reading and writing make up a pretty good life Jay!

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    2. Ditto, Jay. Thoughtful, well considered, and well written reviews are the glue that connects the reader to the writer. I have mentioned before that my son is an avid reader and reviewer of comics. I have been introduced to a type of writing that I would have missed out on if not for him and reviewers such as yourself. Keep it up!

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    3. Well, I have been named both a "very good" and a "wonderful" reviewer by none other than JRW's Hank Phillippi Ryan, so I carry the seal of approval there I guess. (Video proof of the latter can be seen on my Facebook page, because apparently Carly Simon was singing about me with "You're So Vain". HA!)

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    4. ALL TRUE! (not the you're so vain part...xooxo)

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  7. Oh you are on a great run Edith! I love Leslie Karst's series and Murder from Scratch was a good one. I also read SILENT VOICES this summer--it's a good one! I will add Julia and Barb's books to my list.

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  8. I finished A Bitter Feast--and thank you, Deborah, for the pleasure. Afterwards, I spent three days or so feeling like I was still in the Cotswolds. Just finished Rhys's latest Lady Georgie--and I thought I knew something about the decadent excesses of the time--whoa!

    And now, setting (or carving out) time this holiday weekend to read Louise Penney's latest Gamache--my sister reports that she laughed out loud, cried, laughed some more and cried again before she finished it. Sounds like a recommendation.

    And to our fellow JRW community members--stay safe, Coralee--I know you've been to this rodeo before! And Jay, a life filled with books IS a life well lived! Might as well shoot me if there were no books to read!

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  9. So many good reads, but only so many hours in the day! Whose idea is that, anyway?

    Since I'm woefully behind, and now will never catch up with my towering TBR pile, last week I finally read Trust Me by Hank, and the currently penultimate Georgie book, Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding, plus one of the Outlander "in between" books, The Scottish Prisoner.

    This week I am slogging through a reread (after about 35 years) of the ancient copy of Marjorie Morningstar I found in some old books we had. The cover is falling off, and the at-arms-length, on again/off again romance of Marjorie and Noel Airman does not hold up in modern day perspective (it was written in 1955, and takes place in the '30s), but I wanted to pay homage to the recently deceased Herman Wouk.

    On deck are Sophie's Choice, and Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver (also rereads), and Ann Aguire's new The Third Mrs. Durst (thank you for the book, Ann!). Also, Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first Flavia de Luce, for my book club. That's all for next week.

    I've been trying to winnow out my massive library, which does not fit onto the wall of bookshelves we had built. We have at least 30 boxes too many for the shelves. I can't decide whether to donate books to the library book sale, or to save them for the basement finishing we will have done eventually, and which will include another wall of shelves. I know so many authors whose books I want to keep! I almost typed "too many", but that would be absolutely untrue!

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    1. You'll love Sweetness! It was one of my favorite books that year.

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    2. I've read all the Flavia books, and adore them, but I'm happy they chose it for a book discussion.

      I read rings around the others in this book club (they are mostly younger, with busier lives), and have very often read books they want to read, but if they know I've already read them they will choose something else. But I missed the last meeting, and wasn't there when they made this selection.

      And I also just read Amor Towles's A Gentleman in Moscow. Have you read it? I so enjoyed it. Just as charming as can be. And Cathy Ace's The Wrong Boy: Wow. So good.

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    3. I keep hearing about Gentleman, though one friend said she couldn't make it through to the end...

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  10. I am currently savoring Louise Penney's "A Better Man." It is as wonderful as all her other books -- and that is high praise indeed. Just finished my book club book, "The Woman in the Window" by AJ Finn. Though I thought it bogged down in the middle for a while, it was actually a really good book, as evidenced by the way my mind kept going back to it after I was done.(A big plot twist plus a very surprising reveal of the murderer.) Also, I've recently discovered and fallen in love with Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple series. There are 23 of them in print already, so heaven knows why I just found them now. They are light and frothy, but the characters are so likable and the stories are just fun. It's set in London (mostly) in the 1920's, and the dialogue is just full of funny sounding old slang.

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  11. As well as many of the books mentioned above I am most looking forward to Louise Penny's new Gamache. Can't wait. I recently read Todd Borg's latest Tahoe book and I think more people should read his books. Described as thrillers, Borg's Owen, a private detective without a gun, and his sidekick Great Dane Spot, always manage to get the bad guys. I suppose his stories could take place anywhere but he makes Lake Tahoe into another character, and an important one at that. Maybe someday I'll get to see the area he writes about so well.

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  12. Kate Atkinson's Big Sky and binge reading Elizabeth Peters paperbacks about Amelia Peabody's Egyptian archeologist adventures v. a Master Criminal. So fun!

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    1. Oh, I LOVE the Amelias. Those are some of the books that stay on my shelves permanently!

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  13. Lucy, I'm surprised that you weren't key lime green with envy😁. Here's hoping for a good eye recovery and that Dorian's eye spares FL (except for one hotel, if you get my drift).

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  14. I finished Kate Atkinson's Big Sky. Great read. Scrolling through my kindle, I found The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld. I have no recollection of who recommended this to me or why I ordered it. All I can say is, what a gem. I loved it. I have pre-ordered the latest from Ann Cleeves which is due to arrive on Sept. 3rd. In the meantime I'm reading the 3rd book in the Haunted Guesthouse series by JRW friend E. J. Copperman.

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  15. I'm reading Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold and looking forward to reading Call Sign Chaos- Learning to Lead by Jim Mattis due out September 5th.

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  16. I think I'm up to date on all the Reds' books, and loved reading the ARC of Ann Cleeves' "The Long Call," but I've been struggling this summer to keep my head above water on all the work and home fronts, plus I always hate summer weather in Texas. I wanted to keep my reading in the purely escapist realm and somehow or another decided it was time to catch up on all the J. D. Robb "In Death" books that I hadn't read yet. I first picked up the series in the middle--years ago--then went back and read the first five, but there was this huge list of books between #5 and #35 that I hadn't gotten around to. So that's where I've been all summer: 2059-60 New York, kicking butt and taking down the bad guys. I think it says something for Roberts' story-telling abilities that she manages to keep the characters growing and the stories fresh over such a crazy-long span of time. Numbers #49 and #50 will be out in the next few months. I will be there to read them.

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    1. wow Gigi, that is an unbelievably long series! how in the world does she manage it??

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    2. Heaven only knows. She typically turns in five or six books a year and, while some of them are pretty formulaic, some of them are among my favorite books. I have no idea how she writes as fast and well as she does.

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  17. In addition to the Reds, I am reading Paula Munier's wonderful A BORROWING OF BONES. Hank and Hallie are up next, then the second book for a new critique buddy, SinC sib, and Level Best author Peter Hayes, THE THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT.

    I am not counting the reading I'm doing as part of my critique group.

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  18. I'm reading Louise Penny's new book A Better Man. I can hardly put it down!

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  19. I am currently reading The Cold Way Home by Julia Keller. The Murder Book is up next. In September, I am looking forward to Dana Stabenow's Death of an Eye, Juliet Marillier's Harp of Kings, Rosemary Simpson's Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets, and Rachel Caine's Sword and Pen. I would also like to recommend Allison Montclair's debut mystery, The Right Sort of Man. It was so good that I put a review on Goodreads, and I don't generally do that.

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  20. Good morning! In addition to the Reds, I look forward to reading A BETTER MAN by Louise Penny. There are so many wonderful novels coming in the fall. I keep track on Goodreads and write reviews on my Bookstagram, at bookbub, at netgalley, and at goodreads.

    There are novels that I am saving for October that are really scary!

    And I am reading Educated in September. We are doing an online discussion of Educated, a non fiction novel, on Saturday the 21st of September over at Instagram at my @wonderwomanbookish

    Diana

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  21. Well, since I wrote my comment in this post, I have finished the Todds' A Cruel Deception (the ARC of the new Bess Crawford) which I absolutely loved. I carried it around the house with me for two days! I don't know how they keep writing two such good books a year (Bess and Rutledge) but I'm glad they do! I have now picked up Stephanie Barron's That Churchill Woman, her novel about Jenny Churchill, which I bought the day it came out and just hadn't managed to get to!

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  22. Lucy, applaud your post-surgery strategy as shown in your photo! That is definitely the way to convalesce. Books this summer? I pulled myself together and read some applauded books in shades of dark. None a secret and all astonishing: Lippmans Sunburn, Locke's Bluebird, Bluebird, and Harper's She Rides Shotgun. Plus, (equally good, not quite so dark) Rozan's Paper Son.so glad to see Lydia and Bill again. Go find and read them all! Just started Hipster Death Rattle by Richie Narvaez, about neighboorhood tension in gentrifying Brooklyn (naturally I need to read it) and promises to be very smart and slyly funny. (Not surprised -I know the author from MWA/NY) Also started a new book by an author I have loved since before she wrote mysteries, and could not get into it. Wrong book right now but I will certainly try again (Ever happen to any of you?) Going today to pick up Lindsey's Davis's latest Roman historical -have liked her books since the very first.And to whoever shared the news that there is a new Kopp sisters book - thank you! Can't wait.

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  23. I'm hoping to finish off FATAL CAJUN FESTIVAL by Ellen Byron today, and then this weekend, I will start of JUDGE THEE NOT by Edith Maxwell.

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  24. Ah, I love Autumn (not to mention that it's my granddaughter's name). It's probably easiest to list the books (coming out through November) I have placed on hold at two libraries: Hallie's Careful What You Wish For; Louise Penny's A Better Man; Fatal Cajun Festival by Ellen Byron; The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine; Nothing Ventured, first in a new Jeffrey Archer series; Ashley Weaver's A Dangerous Engagement; Strangers at the Gate by Catriona McPherson; Michael Connelly's The Night Fire; Takes One to Know One by Susan Isaacs; The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes; Dachshund Through the Snow by David Rosenfelt; Lisa Jewell's The Family Upstairs; Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia; The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg; Inland by Tea Obreht (for the B&N Book Club). I've already enjoyed the new Rhys Bowen (went to a local appearance last night) and Hank Philippi Ryan. I also highly recommend Catherine Ryan Hyde's Have You Seen Luis Velez?--outstanding and uplifting (if a terrible title).

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    1. Margie, your reserved list would make a fantastic year's reading for a book club.

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  25. Oh poor eye Lucy Roberta. Hope you get the patch off soon. Retina surgery is not easy. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

    August books:

    In progress, both Louise Penny's A BETTER MAN, and Val MacDermid's THE GRAVE TATTOO.

    Recently read:

    MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER, Oyinkan Braithwaite (excellent)
    THE POISON WILL REMAIN, Fred Vargas
    CRIPPEN, John Boyne
    THE HISTORY OF LIVING FOREVER, Jake Wolff
    THE WHISPERER, Karin Fossum
    LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL, Emily St. John Mandel
    THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURIES, John Boyne
    CEMETERY GIRL, David Bell

    I was fortunate to get ARCs of THE BITTER FEAST and CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, as well as an early digital version of THE MURDER LIST. All most excellent.

    Julie has just finished LOVE AND DEATH AMONGST THE CHEETAHS, and I've reread IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER. The TBR pile includes Lucy's DEATH ON THE MENU, Liz Milliron's ROOT OF ALL EVIL, Russo's CHANCES ARE, Joshilyn Jackson's NEVER HAVE I EVER, and of course I am waiting breathlessly for Ann Cleeves's THE LONG CALL!

    Reading is my enjoyment, my escape, my greatest pleasure. Thanks to all of you.

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    1. Thank you, Ann (and Julie!) A house filled with books is a happy home.

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    2. On issue, Julia, is that “In the Bleak Midwinter” has become an August ear worm. So unseasonable.

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  26. I just started A BETTER MAN! (at bedtime, which might have been a mistake).
    It will be the main event of the next few days. ;-)
    I love that the good books just keep coming! <3

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  27. I just finished Stella Cameron's latest, Trap Lane. Such a good series! I've got a ton of books piled up for when I run out of library books, including Ben Aaronovitch's latest. On the waiting list at the library is Beatriz Williams' The Golden Hour and Louise Penny's The Better Man.

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  29. Shalom Reds and fans. I get alternately dizzy and hopeless when I hear of all these books that people are reading. I have so many books on my TBR short list; that I sorrow to think that I’ll never be able to get to them. However, reading is still fun for me, so I trudge on.

    I just finished an audiobook called The Weight of Ink. It is about a trove of Jewish documents found in a hiding place in an old house in England. The documents are from the time of England’s restoration around 1660, the time of Spinoza. Orthodox Jewish law prohibits the destruction of any document that contains the name of God; they must be buried in a grave just like human remains. The story is told from the point of view of three narrators, two contemporary and one a scribe from the past. The scribe turns out to be a woman, which, if not proscribed, is certainly frowned upon by tradition. The contemporary narrators are two scholars who are studying and evaluating the artifacts and one is also a woman.

    I am interested in library science and the study of older literature. So the book was not hard to get through. I learned some new things about English Jewry and also about the Inquisition. (Much of the Jewish population of England referenced in this book was transplanted from Portugal.)

    The other book, which I am now finishing, was Tevye the Dairyman, written in Yiddish at the turn of the last century, by the humorist, Scholem Aleichem and translated into English. These are the stories that were the inspiration of the musical, Fiddler on the Roof. I was drawn to read this book, because right now, the Tikvah Fund, is offering a free online course on this work by the noted Harvard scholar, Ruth Wisse. I found an audiobook translation on the library site Hoopla, which I’ve almost finished (the stories are short) and I am now listening to talks by Professor Wisse which are available as mp3s on the Tikvah site.

    My only problem with audiobooks are that sometimes I am distracted and need to replay parts of the text to catch what I have missed. However, both the stories and the lectures, for the most part, held my attention.

    I live in a small apartment, with a roommate, and I own hundreds of books. I have two small bookcases for my “precious” books and the rest are in grocery shopping bags piled atop each other and reaching the sky. I have one book out from the library, called eBay for Dummies. Maybe I can get a few pennies from the sale of those books which I might find the heart to discard.

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    1. David, I have The Weight of Ink on my Kindle. Glad to know you enjoyed it. I thought it sounded interesting.

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    2. Am off to find the Weight of Ink for my kindle. Thank you David

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  30. I loved The Paris Architect, Debs, and have The House of Thieves on my pile to be read. I have three different piles - My Kindle, my oversized footstool and one shelf of my glass cabinet. I need to get over the idea that the Kindle pile is temporary, that they will all disappear one day.

    While wandering my local bookstore I found The Prague Sonata by Bradford Morrow on the employee suggestion shelf. "Music and war, war and music...the search for missing parts of sonata from the Second World War. I haven't started it yet but it was too intriguing to pass. There is Julia Keller's Bone on Bone, Louise Penny's Kingdom of the Blind, Inherit the Wool by Betty Hechtman, P.J. Tracy's Nothing Stays Buried....the list goes on.... The list from my Kindle is currently hidden because Kindle is multi-tasking - I read and respond to the blogger here. I have an extended Labor Day weekend so I plan on reading and crocheting for the next five days to my heart's content.

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    1. Deana, that sounds like an ideal way to pass a long holiday weekend!

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  31. Jenn! Paige Shelton is a pal of yours? I JUST last night (very late last night) finished THIN CE which I was lucky enough to receive from NetGalley. WOW WOW WOW. I loved it - please tell her. Other recent reads which I recommend include:
    Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson
    Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict (ARC)
    A Bitter Feast by Deborah Crombie (ARC)
    Paper Son by S. J. Rozan
    The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger (ARC)
    Murder in Rat Alley by Mark de Castrique (ARC)
    We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White (ARC)
    ALL excellent!

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    1. Hi, Kaye! Yes, Paige is a dear friend and I will definitely tell her - she'll be thrilled!!! And thanks for the rec of Moonlight Over Paris - adding to my TBR.

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  32. I love the threads where we talk about what we are reading. And, you wonderful Jungle Red authors have made reading so thrilling this year (and every year). Lucy's, Hallie's, Hank's, and Rhys' books have brought me outstanding stories written brilliantly. I've been saving Debs' book for September, and, guess what? September is right here. Yay! And, Jenn, I am finally starting your Library Lover's Mystery series, with Books Can Be Deceiving sitting in my short stack of TBR reads. I will go ahead and say that Julia's book makes a perfect year, even though it's not out until next year, because the comfort of knowing it is coming is so exciting.

    I recently finished Maddie Day's/Edith's Strangled Eggs and Ham, and I loved it, not just because it has my mother's recipe for jam cake in it. I'm currently reading Someone We Know by Shari Lapena, and it promises to be deliciously creepy and getting creepier. Shari reminds me of another author I've found this year that I am so happy to have found. Lisa Jewel is one of my new favorite authors. Watching You by Lisa was sooooooo good, and I can hardly wait for The Family Upstairs this fall. Oh, I recently finished Jamie Mason's The Hidden Things, and I love it, too. I still need to write a review for this unique story. My must-read catching up includes Kristi Belcamino's Night Fall, Steve Cavanagh's Thirteen, Ovida Yu's Meddling and Murder (her latest Aunty Lee book), Clare Mackintosh's After the End, and always more. For those of us who are addicted to British mystery/crime, I got the chance to start Lesley Thomson's Detective Daughter's series, with the first one being The Detective Daughter. I can't wait to continue this series, with the most recent one being The Playground Murders. Lesley sent me a signed hardback copy of The Playground Murders. I met her at Bouchercon in St. Pete (she came over the pond with Elly Griffiths/Domenica De Rosa, whom I adore), and Lesley is so much fun, and now I know what a brilliant writer she is, too. Oh, I have Laura Lippman's Lady in the Lake waiting for me, and I have to read Sajata Massey's The Satapur Moonstone soon. The first in this new series by Sajata was a great read.

    This fall is going to continue my great reading year, with one amazing book after another. I've already mentioned Debs' A Bitter Feast, a book that I can't wait to tear into after the holiday weekend is over and our guest that we are having next week has gone. It's my treat I've been saving. I'm going to count Louise Penny's book as a fall read, since I won't be reading it until September, and I'm sure A Better Man is going to be as wonderful as all the other Inspector Gamache books have been. I have an ARC of Catriona McPherson's Strangers at the Gate, coming out in October, but I'll probably make it a September read, too. Of course, Ann Cleeves' new series book, The Long Call, is on my fall list. Edith Maxwell has a new Quaker Midwife book out in September, Judge Thee Not. Ann Patchett has a new one out in September, too, entitled The Dutch House. Tess Gerritsen will finally have a new one out, in October, The Shape of Night. Elly Griffiths' new Stephens and Mephisto, Now You See Them, is out in October. In November, I'm looking forward to Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen. In December, there will be a new Agatha Raisin by M.C. Beaton, Beating About the Bush (#30) and a new Erica Donato mystery, Brooklyn Legacies, by our own Triss Stein here. And, there will be many more I want to read, new books and old. So impossible to keep up.

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    1. I'm delighted you loved STRANGLED, Kathy, apart from the recipe!

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  33. I would swear someone mentioned Ben Aaronovitch, but not I can't find the comment. But it made me look, and he has a new Peter Grant (Rivers of London) novel out in November, called False Value. It is out in the UK on November 14th, and I will be in London!! (Out in the US a week later, I think.)

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  34. Just finished THE LONG CALL by Ann Cleeves. Now I am reading two digital ARCs from NetGalley. Reading the Vicki Delany / Eva Gates novel Read and Buried now. Also reading FATAL CAJUN FESTIVAL by Ellen Byron.

    Diana

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  35. Coming in late to the party. I am finishing up Caz Frear's Stone Cold Heart. I've been loving the book, but I'm a little apprehensive as to the way the ending is shaping up. Because I can never just read one book, I've been sneaking peeks at Hallie's and Rhys's new books, with the result of being about have way through each. They are both first-rate and exceedingly hard to put down!

    After that, I have Lisa Lutz's The Swallows and SJ Rozan's The Paper Son on my TBR pile. I've taken smaller sneak peeks at those and they're both starting off very interesting. So many books, so little free time!

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  36. Thanks to all for the wonderful suggestions--we will be all set if we ever retire, right???

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  37. I recently read and loved The Murder List by Hank Phillippi Ryan, The Swallows by Lisa Lutz and am now reading A Shadowed Evil by Alys Clare, the 16th book in her Hawkenlye series. And yes, I've read them all in order. I simply can't read out of order. My brain just doesn't work that way.

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  38. Just read A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS by Linwood Barclay....superb.

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  39. Gideon the Ninth sounds fantastic! Thanks for the recommendation. I just finished “Two skies before night” by author Robert Gryn (http://www.robertgrynbooks.com/) I think that anyone who loves a good sci-fi/dystopian read will enjoy this book. I can also say that if you love a good murder mystery you will enjoy reading this. It has a little something for everyone. You get lost in their world and when I finished it I felt like I was in a daze, hahaha… “Where am I?” The city is divided into the very rich who live in the “Above” and the poor who live in the “Below.” When a double murder involves a man from the above and a woman from the below Detective Lang knows he has a tricky case ahead of him. I really hope you will check it out!

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