At last! I finally added some new books to my list.
First, I finished up my re-read marathon with Dorothy Sayers’s Whose Body?
, which is a very ingenious mystery, but probably my least favorite of the Lord Peter oeuvre.
And then I finally made it to the bookstore. I was looking for Pamela Morsi’s Love Overdue
, but they didn’t have it, so instead I bought:
— the second of Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James mysteries, All Shall Be Well
(think Lynley and Havers, if Lynley were less aristocratic and Havers more attractive)
— and Susan Wiggs’s The You I Never Knew
(women’s fiction/romance), in which a woman returns to the Montana town she left as a pregnant teenager in order to donate a kidney to her aging movie star father. I’ve been on a Longmire
kick recently, so I’m particularly enjoying the Montana setting. (Okay, Longmire is set in Wyoming… but there’s a similar vibe.)
What have you been reading this week?
I’m reading The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova, and re-reading Scarlet Feather, my favorite Maeve Binchy. I would LOVE to see a movie, a sequel (RIP, Maeve), a prequel, anything related to that book.
A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott. It is so very different from Little Women and was not published in the author’s lifetime. It is about a man who becomes obsessed with a young woman and follows her throughout Europe, trying to win her love. It is a good read.
The Perfume Collecter by Kathleen Tessaro-Loving this one although am always excited to read her books. Also finished The White Queen & The White Princess by Phillipa Gregory. Awaiting delivery of The Kingmakers Daughter. Love the mix of history and fiction.Also on my list-The Painted Veil and The Thinking Womans Guide To Real Magic. Dontcha love reading????
I also finished The Perfume Collector and it was absolutely fabulous!
Also, B&N blogged about fictional groups of friends and which one you’d want to be part of. The Outsiders and Frog snd Toad were popular but I think the Pink Carnation charachters make a lovely group! They drink tea after all……
I am almost finished with Sarah’s Key, an absolutely beautifully written and intense story of Paris during WWII and how it has an effect on people in the present.
In between unpublished books, I read the latest installment in Julue James’ FBI/US Attorney series, Love Irresistibly and it was great! Probably on the her best books! I highly recommand it, it was funny, sassy, heart-warming…
Susanna Kearsley’s The Firebird
The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon. I’ve heard a lot a people express their dislike for her books because they don’t like how she adds her own twists to classic fairy tales but I for one love it!
While I was on vacation I was reading Diana Gabaldon’s “A Breath of Snow and Ashes.”
Well, seeing as I have been MIA from the weekly reading roundup (for some reason technology has turned against me).
So last week, I got out for ‘Under the Dome’ and read the wonderful ‘The American Heiress’ by Daisy Goodwin, very much like a Downton prequel, with the heroine’s name being Cora, lovely nice quick read.
Then I moved onto ‘Netherwood’ by Jane Sanderson, it’s coming out in December here and all Downton fans MUST pick it up. About an estate in Yorkshire, but it’s the villagers in the coal mining town that capture you. Like a grittier Upstairs, Downstairs.
For the final finished book, I read the newest Flavia De Luce book, ‘The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches’ which was originally going to be the last in the series, until a further 4 books were added. But it ties up this part lovely, especially the cliffhanger from the last book. Out in January!
Now I’m reading a Dr Who book with an Agatha Christie twist called ‘Ten Little Aliens.’
I am sooooo envious! I absolutely LOVE the Flavia De Luce books. So wickedly intelligent!
Just finished “Blackmoore” by Julianne Donaldson. Loved it!! She is such a talented author. Then read “Letters From Skye” by Jessica Brockmole. Hmmm. I am split on this one. I enjoyed it, the letters were lovely and the story intriguing. I just felt like it didn’t grab me emotionally. Not in the way “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” did.
I loved letters from Skye and could feel the turmoil and sense of loss. Wartime and personal struggle well expressed. As for emotion, I cried through the last 20 pages.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. If you love books and codes and questing, you might enjoy this one. I did.
Just finished The Proper Treatment of Bloodstains by Catriona McPherson. I love Dandy’s relationship with her maid Grant. Unfortunately there wasn’t much space given to it due to the plot premise. I must say though that the ending was quite abrupt – not the usual Dandy ending with a little self-reflection, a goodbye to Alec and a snippet of Hugh.
Started Sheer Folly by Carola Dunn. I need to reconnect with Daisy and Alec.
Love Deborah Crombie’s Kinkaid & James!
I’ve been rereading the Amelia Peabody series the last few weeks. In between, I’ve read a bio of Queen Elizabeth 2, and for total brain candy, “Richard Castle’s” Derek Storm series from the library.
I loved Crombie’s series as well and recommend it highly to everyone. Great plotting and characters I really loved.
I read That Camden Summer by LaVyrle Spencer, whom I hadn’t . It was a romance set in the early twentieth century. I thought it was ok.
This week I’ve been reading ‘The Orchid Affair’ as I just can’t get enough of your Pink Carnation Series. On a non-fiction front it’s been ‘Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France’ by Lucy Moore which is fascinating so far.
Ooh, I think I will have to check out Deborah Crombie’s mysteries as they sounds really enjoyable.
I’m reading the second of Cynthia Wright’s Beauvisage trilogy (circa 1789 in the former colonies) Touch the Sun. After reading the first one, Caroline and finding it to my liking, I thought why not read all three? What I’ve enjoyed about this series is how the author interweaves actual historical figures from America’s war for independence into her romances and brings them to life. The only drawback is the length of the stories which must be 400+ pages, quite long for a story of this type.