Rambling Notes on What I'm Reading by Lucy Burdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: Probably because I finished the draft of the short story I was working on as well as the murder mystery for the library, and because I was sick of course, I had more time to read this week. I feel so lucky (and I know you guys do too) to have talented writing friends from this blog and beyond whose books I savor. But once I’d torn through the three new ones from Jenn, Rhys and Julia, what could be next?

“I’ve got nothing to read,” I said to John. He just laughed.

Since our library book sale season is coming up, I took this as a sign to sort through my stacks to cull out ones that, to be honest, I will never read or reread, and try a few others that I’d set aside for some reason. One of those was Fly Girl by Ann Hood. She was a guest speaker for our Friends of the Key West Library series last spring, along with her husband Michael Ruhlman. They were so lovely! Fly Girl tells the story of Ann’s years training and working as a stewardess with Pan Am. It may sound like an odd topic, but it was really fascinating and she’s a wonderful writer so I highly recommend. Then I picked up The Family Chao, about a family of Chinese immigrants with three sons who have settled in a small town in Wisconsin and are running a Chinese restaurant. It was beautifully written, but I had to skim through parts of it because their lives were so grim. I’ll probably think about it for a long time. For something lighter, I moved on to Jenny Colgan’s Secret Christmas Library. It’s a perfect Christmas read, with people snowed into a castle in northern Scotland with hundreds of thousands of old books as they hunt for the one that might be worth enough to save this estate. Very much fun and on point for the season.

Next I turned to my dusty iPad to open my Kindle app because you know and I know I have hundreds of books waiting there. I’ve been wanting to read The Correspondent forever. But I was thwarted because I’d let the charge die, so I had to turn back to a paper book. I dug out Lizzie and Dante by Mary Bly. I wondered if this was one of the books that Debs recommended? I often follow her lead when it comes to women’s fiction. I’ll keep you posted on that--so far I love it. 

What are you guys reading? Anything out of your usual lane?

***By the way, SUSAN is the winner of Ellen Byron's Crescent City Christmas Chaos! Please email me at raisleib at gmail dot com and we'll arrange the drop...

Let's Talk Audiobooks!

 LUCY BURDETTE: I know some of you, Debs in particular, are big fans of audiobooks. John is too, he always has his EarPods in listening to something. Usually when I’m out walking, I prefer to be looking around at the world or trying to come up with plot ideas. One time I do listen is when I’m trying to get to sleep. This is very particular, though. The story has to be something that I’m already familiar with so I’m not worried about keeping up with what will happen. One of my favorites is Jenny Colgan, especially The Endless Beach or others in her Mure series. Since I love those, I bought two other titles when I saw them on sale. But oh horror of horrors, it was a different narrator—one that I did not feel the least bit soothing. I tried listening a little more while I was walking to see if I could get used to her voice, but it was like nails on chalkboard.

So that’s the question of the day. If you listen to audiobooks, how important is the narrator, and when do you most enjoy listening? And one more question, do you like the narrator acting out the voices or would you prefer they just read the darn book? (I guess you can tell what side I’m on!)

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m not (is it anathema to say this?) a huge fan of audio books or of narrators who get into all the voices. Plus I fall asleep and then have no idea where I tuned out when I restart the thing. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yeah, um, oops. Well, I cannot listen to them. I HAVE listened to mine, although I have to say it’s really difficult to listen to one’s own audiobooks for a million reasons, but I adore my actors and am happy with the terrific response to them. The actor who reads  ALL THIS, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, is incredible, and shows how a good reader can make a book fully realized.

 But me, listening to an audiobook? Is me, sleeping. Boom, done, I am out. (I think it has something to do with not knowing where to look.)

If I try to do something else while I’m listening, I cannot do either thing, god forbid I should drive, which would be deadly. 

I’ve just downloaded one now, though, because someone told me it was unmissably fabulous, so we shall see. 

Adding this later: wow. This is interesting. The book I am “hearing” is great--but I can sort of tell that if I would have been reading it on paper, I would have thought: ”backstory backstory get on with it” but because I am hearing it, it’s like someone telling me a story, and that’s fine. Whoa.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ve adored audiobooks ever since they were cassette tapes in HUGE boxes. The audiobooks of the Harry Potter series and novels like The Wizard of Oz and The Boxcar Children made many a long, long car trip bearable when my kids were small.

I tend to lean more to nonfiction for my audiobooks, interestingly. Right now I’m listening to Becca Syme’s ENERGY MANAGMENT FOR WRITERS. Next up will be 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin. 

I’m going to give a shoutout to the reader who performs my audio books, Suzanne Toren. She is SO good, and I can’t tell you how many readers love her. I’ve listen to her narration for other books as well, and she always knocks it out of the park. The performer/reader/narrator is SO important to the enjoyment of the book!

JENN MCKINLAY: Like Julia, I’ve been a listener since the old “books on tape” days. I used to listen during my commute in CT and now I listen at the gym, while gardening, etc. My latest love is the graphic audio books where they have multiple narrators and sound effects! I listened to all of Sarah J Maas’s ACOTAR and Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing on audio — so good! 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Well, obviously, I am a fan. I did start with the books on cassettes, how many ever years ago, then CDs, but that was mostly in the car on long trips. (I can't listen to audio books while driving in Dallas traffic.) But the digital audio books were revolutionary. I think my gateway books were the Harry Potters, read by the marvelous Jim Dale, because I knew the stories and didn't have to worry if I didn't understand or was missing something. (The new full cast audio of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is really good and is unabridged, but I think I prefer one narrator.) I do like readers who do different accents and character voices!

Lucy and Hank, I listen while I am cooking (as long as not following complicated recipe!), washing dishes, doing mindless chores like watering and cleaning out catboxes, and I do listen in bed at night. I just set the Audible timer on my phone, so if I fall asleep I only have to back up a bit the next day.

RHYS BOWEN: there was a huge upheaval in my world when the narrator for the Royal Spyness series died. Not only because she was so young and it was so unexpected but because she was so talented. She was nominated for an Audie award every year and one year she won, beating out Meryl Streep. So the fans had a hard time accepting a new narrator, who was quite good. But this time she was nowhere to be found so I had to choose yet another new narrator. Luckily the actor who has done the Molly series was available so all is well. But the narrator makes a huge difference. A grating or inappropriate voice and the book is ruined!

Red readers, are you audiobook fans? How important is the narrator?

Comfort Reading and Watching by Lucy Burdette

 

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ve said this before, and I’m sure it’s tiresome, but these are difficult wearying times we live in. I have often found myself looking for something familiar and comfortable to read or watch--something in a series so I know the characters. Sometimes a good murder mystery/police drama will do, like the many episodes of NYPD Blue. I love these people! John and I often say to each other, are we going to spend some time with our friends tonight? I watched an episode last week where the detectives were called to the scene of a dead man with his head in his lap. How can that possibly feel like comfort watching, but it does. I think it’s because of the lovable, wonderful, quirky and endlessly surprising characters in that police precinct. You always know that even if their world is filled with bad guys and violence, the good guys will always win in the end.

 I was also obsessed this winter with reading Jenny Colgan‘s series set in northern Scotland. You might guess because we live in Key West half the year now that I don’t like winter. But I like the idea of it, because it lends itself to coziness. Winter on Colgan‘s fictional isle of Mure is absolutely wicked, cold and windy, plus dark for many many hours in a day. Yet by the time she’s finished describing it, I can’t wait to get there because of the bustling pubs and the crackling fires and the sips of special Scottish whiskey. Each of her books in this series highlights a different character so you get to see the family and the community from a different point of view. Lots of bad things happen, people die, people are refugees from Syria, families are difficult. But Jenny makes them all palatable, maybe because community and good food trumps all ills?

Do you find yourself reaching for comfort books and television or movies? (Now this is making me wonder if this applies to food as well…)

RHYS BOWEN: I’m a great one for comfort reads and watches. I have all of Agatha Christie’s books. I stare at the shelf and see which one I might not quite remember then read it again. Usually I’m halfway through when I realize i do know whodunit. But it’s still quite calming. 

The same for television. Thank God for Britbox. I can watch Poirot, Marple, Sister Boniface, Rosemary and Thyme etc ad nauseam.

I can also re-watch the Vicar of Dibley, Miranda or any of the silly comedies when I really need cheering up.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Hmm, I don't really read books again. But I can always always watch My Cousin Vinny, or any Alfred HItchcock movie, or The Devil Wears Prada, or Say Yes to the Dress, or Chopped. I used to love What Not To Wear–is that still on? I love makeover shows. I can always watch Born Yesterday, or the Die Hard that’s at the airport, or absolutely any Tracy and Hepburn.The Philadelphia Story, and High Society. Any Fred Astaire. And oh, That’s Entertainment. I think if I sing along, I’m fine.

HALLIE EPHRON: oh, cousin Vinny!! Or Singin’ in the Rain. Or ET. Comfort watches rather than “reads” for me, too. I was just re-watching Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple series. And New Tricks hold up over and over.

JENN McKINLAY: I almost never reread or rewatch anything because so many books and shows, so little time. However, I did recently watch the K-Drama Crash Landing on You and much to my surprise, I watched it again. A South Korean woman crash lands into North Korea and is found by a Captain and his soldiers and it’s just soooo good. So, I guess that’s been my comfort watch. Now I’m looking for my next. As for a comfort read, I can’t think of any book that I’ve gone back to repeatedly but I am always on the hunt for a series to fall into. The most recent being The Shepherd King duology by Rachel Gillig, it’s a two volume series that reads like a fairy tale. Loved it.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hank, I am tickled by your “comfort” choices including Alfred Hitchcock and Die Hard! I might go with Die Hard–we all want to see the bad guy get his due–but not Hitchcock.

Lucy, I do get detective series being comfort watches, but medical dramas work for me, too. How that is possible with blood and gore and people’s lives in danger, I don’t know, but somehow it does. We just finished The Pitt, Noah Wyle’s new series set in a Pittsburg ER, which is astonishingly good. I had to check afterwards, and yes, all 19 seasons of ER are streaming, so if we run out of things to watch and want to check out baby Noah… That said, I don’t actually tend to re-watch a lot of stuff.

My reading has definitely been skewing towards the comforting lately. Here’s a recent find that I absolutely loved: MRS. QUINN’S RISE TO FAME by Olivia Ford, about a woman in her late 70s who applies for the fictional equivalent of Great British Bake Off. Also, Jenn’s I CAN’T EVEN, which I adored and it still has me thinking about the characters and wondering how they’re doing:-)

LUCY: John loved the Pitt too–the students annoyed me so much that I quit watching. Loved Mrs. Quinn, and have Jenn’s book on order! I meant to say Jenny Colgan and NYPD Blue aren’t reruns for me, I was just far behind the rest of the world!

DEBS: Lucy, I wish you’d stuck with The Pitt! The students get better! But here’s a fun TV crossover. If anyone is watching LUDWIG on Acorn (so fun and not really as silly as you think at first–there are undercurrents) the actor who plays Whittacker, the student from Nebraska in The Pitt, is actually Welsh, and is Detective Constable Simon Evans in Ludwig. His American accent was flawless–I would never have guessed he was British!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My daughter and her wife are DEEP into The Pitt, so I suppose I'll have to try it.

My comfort rereads? The Murderbot series by Martha Wells (which is coming to Apple TV in May and will get me to re-up my subscription!) Eva Ibbotson's novels for adults (marketed at YA, but that's not how she intended them.) Lucy's Key West series (just such a NICE world to live in.)

Weirdly, my comfort watches are disaster movies. Just last night I re-watched CONTAGION. For some reason, seeing the world fall apart always cheers me up. 

Jenn, if you loved CRASH LANDING ON YOU, I highly recommend DESCENDANTS OF THE SUN, which you can stream on Viki Rakuten for free, with ads, or on Amazon with a trial subscription to Kocowa. I was glued to the screen.

Red readers, how about you?

Curl Up With Our Favorite Christmas Reads

 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Recently we talked about our favorite Christmas mysteries, but going into the hustle and bustle of Christmas week, let's push that out a bit and share our favorite Christmas READS. What do you pull off the shelf when you need a gingerbread latte-sized dose of the warm and fuzzies?

 

I always, always read Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales, a tradition that I've given to the Kincaid/James family as well. Even though I have a nice, new illustrated copy, before bed on Christmas Eve I will pull out my little much-loved, paper-covered copy with its woodcuts by Ellen Raskin because it's not Christmas until I've read it all the way through.

 

 

Then there is my very battered copy of The Night Before Christmas, illustrations by Arthur Rackham, and an almost equally battered copy of A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Ronald Searle (although they both miraculously still have their dust jackets!) J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsberg. An old book about gnomes which isn't exactly Christmas but is such fun.

And because nothing says Christmas like a little romance, I'm going to add Notting Hill in the Snow by Jules Wake, We Met in December by Rosie Curtis, Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm by Jaimie Admans (the book is better than the title, I promise.)  And I'm looking forward to The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan.

 

 

I know I'm leaning way British here, so chime in, dear REDs, and share what books say HOLIDAYS to you.

HALLIE EPHRON: With my daughters and grandkids arriving soon, Debs you’ve inspired me to scour our many many many bookshelves for holiday stories, hard because Debs grabbed off the classics and because Jerry’s encyclopedic brain isn’t around to point me to the correct room, never mind the right shelf. 

I’m a huge fan of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, especially the opening stanzas that say winter more than any other work I can think of. 

Now I have a little stack ready to go. The Night Before Christmas of course… for the eponymous night. The Grinch That Stole Christmas. And more. Then queuing up music: The Nutcracker and Handel’s Messiah and Elvis’ Christmas Album. 

And adding hot chocolate and marshmallows to my shopping list.

LUCY BURDETTE: I love both of your lists, but I confess not to being much of a rereader. I can recommend Jenny Colgan’s CHRISTMAS AT THE ISLAND HOTEL. I found it in the pile of light reading I’d bought during the pandemic months and didn’t have time to read. At first, I thought it was too light to keep my interest, but by the end, I was yearning for the story to continue. She is so good at bringing cold, remote Scottish settings and quirky characters to life–this one is set on the fictional island of Mure, halfway between Norway and northern Scotland. And the action takes place in a new hotel kitchen leading up to Christmas–it hit all my sweet spots!

 

DEBS: Lucy, I LOVE Jenny Colgan's Bookshop on the Corner trilogy so much that I hated for the books to end! These are set in a Highland village on the shores of Loch Ness and by the time you finish them you will be hunting for your passport!

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: My step-dad used to read from A Child’s Christmas in Wales to us every year when we were little. We could not figure out what was so great about it, and fidgeted. Now, I see. (As can be said for so much.)  What books say holidays? On First Chapter Fun last year, we read out loud the first and last –I think they’re called “staves”--of A Christmas Carol.  I could not get through mine without crying. I urge you all to re-read.

This year we are doing something a bit different, but a bit the same. See you there! And you will be surprised at what books take place at Christmas!

 

DEBS: Ooh, can't wait! Mark your calendars!

JENN MCKINLAY: The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve forever and ever! Then I roll into my favorite Christmas mysteries always set in England, by our Rhys and Kate Kingsbury. Cozy reads by the light of the tree with a hot cup of tea - perfection. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Love Christmas mysteries and romances. In fact, I just finished reading several of Carla Kelly’s novella collections. She’s one of my favorite Regency writers, but there aren’t any dukes and marqueses in her books - her characters are most often men and women whose lives have been torn apart by the Napoleonic Wars, which lasted half a generation. SO GOOD. And speaking of Regency, one of my favorite seasonal mysteries is Georgette Heyer’s A CHRISTMAS PARTY - if you’re a fan of Rhys’ THE TWELVE CLUES OF CHRISTMAS or GOD REST YE, ROYAL GENTLEMEN, you’ll like this.

For the classics, I’m a Dickens gal, and when the kids were little, Clement Moore’s ageless poem as well. I would read The Polar Express and bawl at the end, because I was a grown up and couldn’t hear the magical sleigh bell ring.

 

DEBS: Julia, if I ever read the Heyer, I've forgotten it! Searching now...

RHYS BOWEN: My Welsh grandfather used to insist on A Child’s Christmas in Wales, so I felt that I’d had enough of it, until recently when I rediscovered it and it took me back to my childhood. The Polar Express both moves me and scares me. I don’t want to think of Santa’s place as a giant factory! I’m also a sucker for Christmas cozies–and movies like The Holiday. But who has time for reading right before Christmas? I have family arriving: 15 people for quite a few meals. When they’ve all gone again I’ll curl up by the fire and read.

 

DEBS: Rhys, somewhere I have a DVD of Denholm Elliott reading A Child's Christmas--it was that dramatization that was done years ago on PBS, I think. So lovely. I also have a recording (somewhere) of Dylan Thomas reading, but I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't understand most of it with his very heavy accent! 

READERS, what faves have we missed? Oh, and has anyone read Mr. Dickens and his Carol? 

 

It's a novel about Dickens writing A Christmas Carol and has such fabulous reviews that I've ordered it.