Weekly Reading Round-Up

In the midst of the madness that is life right now, I’m taking solace in the incredibly orderly world of the Golden Age British Mystery Novel, in which even murder manages to be frightfully, frightfully civilized.

I’ve been jumping around and reading books in Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver mystery series out of order for the past month now, but I decided it was finally time to admit I was on a Miss Silver binge, do the thing properly, and go back to the beginning, with her very first two books, The Grey Mask and The Case is Closed.

Miss Silver is very much a Miss Marple– omniscient English spinster, complete with perpetual knitting– and I just wish the BBC would make a series, since they’re so wonderfully soothing and I’ve already rewatched all the Marples and all the Poirots.  Just saying.

Next up?  Miss Silver Book III: The Lonesome Road.

One of these days I will read something from the pile of new books that have been waiting for me for ages now.  But right now– it’s all about a vanished England filled with sprightly ingenues, dubious butlers, and spinster Sherlocks, an England in which the village pub is always full, there’s generally something dodgy about that will, and the vicar’s wife might have something to say about it.

Rather like Angela Thirkell, but with a higher body count.

What have you been reading this week?

11 Comments

  1. Gayle on April 24, 2020 at 10:20 am

    Just started reading Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch. Hope I like it.

  2. DJL on April 24, 2020 at 11:42 am

    A Conformable Wife by Alice Chetwynd Ley was a wonderful Regency romance, very a la G. Heyer in tone and characterization (primary and secondary couples, dashing young bucks, a dastardly villain, a spritely school miss) and set in Bath. Highly recommended.
    Also continuing to read aloud to the kiddos the series of The 68 Rooms novels, by Marianne Malone, which recount the adventures of Ruthie and Jack, two 12 year olds in Chicago who discover that through magical shenanigans they can shrink down and enter the Thorne Rooms–which operate as portals to other time periods…

  3. Dorsey Martin on April 24, 2020 at 12:32 pm

    The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See. Very good so far.

  4. Kristen A. on April 24, 2020 at 3:00 pm

    I finished up The Brothers York by Thomas Penn, then read The Trials of Koli by M. R. Carey, the second in a trilogy the first of which is coming out this month, and Wonderland by Zoje Stage. Today I expect I’ll finish Wolf’s Curse by Kelly Armstrong.

  5. Karlene Barger on April 24, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    I loved Miss Silver! And recently I have been re-reading Elizabeth Peters’ wonderful Amelia Peabody series about two archaeologists in Egypt in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and their adventures with mummies, dead pharaohs, tomb robbers, and murderers!

  6. thersee on April 25, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    This morning I finished Code Name Helen by Ariel Lawhon, which I basically started Thursday night. I am bereft and in full book hangover. It was amazing. I was hooked from the first pages, it’s a little jarring when switching time lines but it kept me on the edge of my seat. Highly recommend – in a similar vein to Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale.

    • Therese on April 25, 2020 at 1:50 pm

      Oh! Typo – Code Name Helene 🙂

  7. Joan on April 25, 2020 at 7:40 pm

    I’m reading The Sisters of Woodside series by Mary Kingswood which is a 5 book series. I’ve finished the first The Governess and look forward to the second The Chaperon. They are set early 1800’s England.

  8. Julie on April 25, 2020 at 11:06 pm

    Big recommendation for the new P&P spin off, The Other Sister by Janice Hadlow. Tells the story of Mary. I loved it!

  9. Maria Carla Delfino on April 26, 2020 at 1:32 pm

    Oh this looks amazing. I would love a TV series!!! Yes please BBC 🙂 I just started Cloche and Dagger because I was looking for that same comfort reading … England, mister, tea, books 🙂
    I’m just so tired of electronic library versions I want paper! I wish I could go to the library right now and look for these books 🙂

    • LynnS on May 1, 2020 at 11:32 am

      I miss my library, too! I still have one actual book left that I checked out before the libraries closed and a massive TBR pile, but still…

Leave a Comment