Weekly Reading Round-Up
As New York swelters in the late summer heat, I’ve gone back to my Barbara Michaels shelf— because no one writes sweltering summers like Barbara Michaels.
I started with a re-read of Witch, in which a middle-aged divorcee with grown children buys a cottage in the Virginia woods and discovers evil lurks in the bucolic small town, then moved on to Be Buried in the Rain, with its wonderfully snarky first person narrator, a med student come back to the decaying family plantation to care for her bed-ridden, much despised grandmother, but finds herself dealing with random skeletons both literal and figurative. Right now I’m finishing up Vanish With the Rose (a lawyer masquerades as a landscape designer at a Virginia estate to try to discover what’s become of her missing younger brother), which was never my favorite Michaels, but has held up decently.
I have enough Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters to keep going indefinitely, but I’m going to pause to read Megan Miranda’s latest, The Last House Guest (which does sort of fit the Michaels oeuvre, no?).
What have you been reading this week?
p.s. Speaking of things to read…. The last Team W effort, The Glass Ocean, is currently up for grabs in paperback on Goodreads! Just head over to the Goodreads contest page before August 11th to enter.
Madam, will you talk? by Mary Stewart and The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews were this week’s beach reads 🙂
I’m finally reading Searching for Sylvie Lee and loving it. I’ve also started Waisted, and numerous research books. Why does my pile of TBR books seem to get bigger the more books I read???
Reading Daniel Silva’s The New Girl. Very good and very timely.
I adore Barbara Michaels, Elizabeth Peters, Barbara Mertz! Just finished rereading the Amelia Peabody series, and plan on rereading the rest of her books. She was such a fantastic author 💕
I loved The Summer Country, and thanks to your recommendation, I just finished Sugar in the Blood by Andrea Stuart. What a history she tells! Hard to find, but I found in on Amazon, really very worthwhile. I also read Montauk by Nicola Harrison and the Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See, also about some very inspiring women and a slice of history I knew almost nothing about , despite having a Korean sister-in-law whose life encompasses the era of this book
I read a couple of ARCs: Hank Phillippi Ryan’s The Murder List and Ellen Crosby’s The Angels’ Share. Both suck you in! I also read Beyond the Moon by Catherine Taylor. It is a lovely time slip romance that bounces between WW1 and present time in England. I just started The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins and so far, so good!
I’m r eading the Vicky Bliss series by Elizabeth Peters for the first time. Just finished Borrower of the Night a light mystery/suspense which I enjoyed. Next is The Street of Five Moons.
Just finished Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (again)! I really like the fact that one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Peters, is also a favorite author of another of my favorite authors, you. A sword parasol is on my wishlist.
I also recently finished reading the Elizabeth Peters non-Egypt books and especially enjoyed the Vicki Bliss ones. More recently I had enjoyed 3 art history mysteries by Jennifer S Alderson and am working my way through the Peter Lovesy’s Peter Diamond books.
I love that there’s another person who re-reads Barbara Michaels in the summer! She’s so perfect for these heavy afternoons. Finishing Scales of Gold by Dorothy Dunnett. ^_^
Working my way through The Chronicles of St. Mary’s series of time traveling historians by Jodi Taylor… on #4 (there are 10 plus some short stories) so will take up the rest of my summer!
Also re-reading the Amelia Peabody series on audio books in the car and on walks….agree never get tired of anything written by Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels have read everyone more than once!!!