Weekly Reading Round-Up
This week, a bunch of much-anticipated books arrived. Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:
— Kristan Higgins, The Best Man
Kristan Higgins’s contemporary romances are one of my favorite escapes from the nineteenth century, so a new one is always cause for celebration.
— Rachel Hore, A Place of Secrets
Thanks, Pam, for the recommendation! Definitely for those who like Kate Morton, Susanna Kearsley, or Lucinda Riley’s The Orchid House
— Barbara Michaels, Sons of the Wolf
An old favorite Gothic novel, which I hadn’t re-read for quite some time. It is just as good as I remembered, and rather thought-provoking (for those who like debating the whole hero/villain issue in Gothic fiction). The voice of the heroine is also decidedly Amelia Peabody-esque, although her circumstances– indigent relative sent to live with mysterious guardian in Yorkshire– are very different.
— Alexandra Fuller, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
A fascinating memoir of growing up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia in the 70s and 80s. Even though this was so much more recent, I was struck by how much was still familiar from my research into English ex-pat life in Kenya for The Ashford Affair
What have you been reading this week?
I read The Art Forger after someone here recommended it. I really liked it. Definitely a page turner. Something about the aftermath bugged me a bit but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Now I want to visit as many art museums as I can!
I’ve been re-reading my collection of Anne Rivers Siddons this week — I had a bad cold over last weekend and just needed some comfort reading. I highly recommend anything by her, as long as you don’t mind a little old-fashioned Southern crazy…or, in some cases, deep-seated madness.
ARS is good. Sweetwater Creek is one of my favorites.
Lauren , I am so glad you got around to the Fuller book.
I am reading Kate Ross’ first Julian Kestrel book, Cut to the Quick. I am glad, I guess, to have yet another new series, but sad that there are only 4 because of her premature death.
I thought that Rachel Hore’s “Gathering Storm” was also pretty good.
This week I finished re-reading George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” and discovered Gail Carriger’s omnibus “The Parasol Protectorate Soulless, Changeless, Blameless.” – Alexia Tarabotti seemd to me as a supernatural version of Amelia Peabody and I just loved it!.
Now I’m staring very promising first book in Phillip Rock’s Trilogy – “The Passing Bells” that my best friend recommended as “very Downton Abbey”.
It is “March Break” here in Ontario (your Spring Break, but we do it now) and the weather has been terrible – which is great for curling up in a chair with hot chocolate and books!!
Read Susanna Kearsley’s The Shadowy Horses — loved it, Mary Stewart’s Nine Coaches — loved it and Tana French’s In the Woods — on the fence there – her Faithful Place was really good, and not that In the Woods was “bad” it just seemed to go on too long – or maybe I just got tired of the main character and his little dramas. Have Barbara Erkskine’s Time’s Legacy all set to go now.
I read Forbidden by Kelley Armstrong; fun to read once from the library, but that’s enough for me. I never liked the werewolves as much as the other narrators in the Otherworld series.
Then I read The Barbed Crown by William Dietrich, an Ethan Gage book. I picked up the ARC even though I haven’t read the rest of the series because it was Napoleonic. It was a lot of fun and reminded me a bit of the Flashman series. Ethan Gage isn’t as much of a scoundrel as Flashy but he has a similar talent for being dragged against his will into every side of a conflict.
This week I’ve been skipping back and forth between Flame Trees of Thika and Mark of the Lion… today though I feel like something different, the problem is there are too many wonderful books to chose from!
Read “Ice BLue” and “Blue Murder.” Number one and two in the Lord and Lady Hetheridge mysteries by Emma Jameson. I really, really loved them! If you like Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James novels, then you will enjoy these.
Ahhhhh! I too am part of March Break here in Ontario Canada. Have read a book everyday and yet i just found six books mentioned here that sound interesting. If only I did not have to sleep!! Best one of my week….A Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham. Loved the movie. Decided to try the book…..it was even better. Just started A Little Folly by Jude Morgan. As jacket cover says it is a lovely mix of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.
I read The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson. I liked it sort of but I felt rather disappointed by the
ending. Has anyone else read this?
Anyway onto The Cocoa Conspiracy by Andrea Penrose. I loved the first one so I have high hopes for this one.
Am7, I am with you on The Morning Gift. Too much misunderstanding and too much angst. The ending also seemed a little flat to me. My favorite Eva Ibbotson is In the Company of Swans.
Thank you Alice! I really wanted to like it, but I was so disappointed by the end. Someday I will try A Company of Swans!
Just finished “Broken for You” by Stephanie Kallos. Very compelling…after the first 50 pages. I’m also re-reading Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mysteries. Same era as the Pink series and very good!!
I was blessed to receive an advance copy of All the Appearance of Goodness by Maria Grace. This is Vol 3 of her Given Good Principles trilogy and it did NOT disappoint. It is a totally different re-imagining of Pride and Prejudice which I would recommend to any reader who cannot get enough of Elizabeth and Darcy.