Weekly Reading Round-Up
So many apologies for the big gap between Weekly Reading Round-Ups!
With a two year old and a six year old confined in an apartment, what little computer time I could wrangle was devoted to finished up the next book, Band of Sisters, which will hopefully be coming your way in Spring 2021. (And, yes, they may have flooded the kitchen while I was finishing the last chapter. Details, details….)
But the book is now safely in the hands of my editor, so here I am again, with your Weekly Reading Round-Up!
Like so many others, I’m having a very hard time concentrating on books I really wanted to read, oh, a month ago. I’ve got Kate Weinburg’s The Truants sitting on my nighttable, I’ve got The Twelve Doors of January. I’ve even got the latest Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London book. But I can’t quite bring myself to start any of them. All I want to read are cozy mysteries that were written at least thirty years ago. Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver books (think Miss Marple, complete with knitting), Charlotte MacLeod’s Janet and Madoc Rhys books and her earlier Sarah Kelling books…. For some reason, they’re the only thing I can concentrate on.
Maybe it’s because they’re such comforting vanished worlds: postwar England, 1970s Canada and Boston. Or it could be because, as Dorothy Sayers so wisely observed, “In detective fiction, virtue is always triumphant. It’s the purest literature we have.” There’s an order and a logic to a mystery. It’s like doing jigsaw puzzles: you know all the pieces will fit together in the end. In a time of uncertainly, that promise of answers is incredibly comforting.
What have you been reading these past few weeks? Have you found that your reading habits have changed at all?
Still stuck (very snuggly!) in Georgian & Regency England. Finished the John PIckett mysteries by Sheri Cobb South, and can’t recommend them enough; cozy and romantic and mysterious, there are 9 so far and each subsequent one was as good (or better!) than the previous entry.
Also read The Beau and the Bluestocking by Alice Chetwynd Ley, which was light and entertaining 1780s English romance. ACL has many other books for me to look forward to; very fun finding a new author!
Also read The Painter, by Mary Kingswood, the 4th in her Silver Linings mystery series, also set in (surprise) Regency England. Drama, romance and intrigue abound when a governess has to take her two young charges to their new, reclusive guardian (who just happens to also be an Earl).
About to start the first in the Captain Lacey Regency mystery series, which I’ve heard about for years but am only getting around to now, and can’t wait!
Agree that lately I’ve had no interest in heavy reading fare; mysteries and light romantic fiction are hitting the spot at present.
Wow… I have never heard of any of these authors… where are you finding these books… excited to add them to my TBR pile… this is not the time for heavy, depressing reading… want to keep it light, cozy and entertaining. Thanks for some new choices.
I know, I hadn’t heard of most of them either until very recently!
A trusted acquaintance online pointed me in the direction of Sheri Cobb South (John Pickett mysteries), Mary Kingswood (Silver Linings mysteries & other Regency set books) and Ashley Gardner (Captain Lacey mystery series). Basically I’ll now read whatever she recommends, as these were all golden recs 🙂
And Amazon kept recommending Alice Chetwynd Ley until I finally caved and tried one–and I’m very pleased I did! Most of her books came out between 1950-1970, from what I can tell, and she is now deceased, but her son re-issued many of her books very recently.
I am reading the Captain Lacey series by Ashley Gardner. They are about a cavalry officer who fought in the peninsula and his return to England. There are 14 in the series so faf and I am starting book 2.
Who Speaks For the Damned by C. H. Harris. A viscount, family and friends in London in the early 19th century. This is the latest book in the series they are all excellent, but try to read then in order. Some of the plot lines span more than one book.
My reading habits are never circumstance dependent as far as content goes. I like what I like, no matter what’s going on, what time of year it is, or where I am. Now in terms of format, my review ARCs have started arriving as egalleys, which makes me happy not to be going anywhere since then I’d have to make a rights-protected, limited time ADE file work on a device I could carry around. In the last week I read a short story collection, Bluebeard’s First Wife by Ha Seong-nan and Ornamental by Juan Cardenas to review, and The Quartet by Joseph J. Ellis, about George Washington, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton in the transition from the Articles of Confederation to the the Constitution. I also reread Heavy by Kiese Laymon in case I’m back at work at the library in time for the May book discussion; I’m sure programming won’t be happening and patrons most likely won’t be in the building but if the staff is back we might be able to do something online.
I am definitely struggling to concentrate and it’s really frustrating as reading is my go to. I re-read A Court Of Thorns and Roses, which I can’t even believe I read the first time, but I loved it. Then decided to go back to tried and true Historical Romance. Just finished the new Suzanne Enoch Scot Under the Covers and it was definitely diverting and entertaining.