Weekly Reading Round-Up
Happy Friday, all!
This week, after bouncing off a couple of recent releases that were perfectly fine books, but just not for me, I decided it was time to revisit some old favorites: Elizabeth Peters’s Jacqueline Kirby books.
The Seventh Sinner is set among artists and archaeologists in Rome; The Murders of Richard III at an English country house meeting of a society in support of–you guessed it– Richard III, Die for Love among romance novelists in New York at a thinly veiled version of the Romance Writers of America or Romantic Times convention as they were in the 80s, and Naked Once More in a small town in Pennsylvania, but what they all have in common is Jacqueline Kirby as a sort of Katherine Hepburn meets Sherlock Holmes, elegant, acerbic, and invariably right.
I don’t know whether it’s that I read these when I was very young or the sheer number of times I read these when I was very young, but they seem to be imprinted on me. Despite not having reread them in a decade or so, I can still quote whole passages by heart.
The current dilemma? Whether to move on to something completely different or revisit the Vicky Bliss books next– and see if I can still remember whole passages from those by heart, too.
What have you been reading this week?
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys and The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull. They both involve the Nazis’ theft of valuable art, and an art restorer’s attempt to thwart them.
Because I couldn’t decide which to start first, I am reading both “Soulless” by Gail Carriger and “The Dead Travel Fast” by Deanna Raybourn. Enjoying them immensely!
The Dead Travel Fast is so good!!
I’m just starting a re-read of The Lure of the Moonflower after just finishing the latest Veronica Speedwell book by Deanna Raybourn. And I will always cast a vote for Vicky Bliss!
Vicki Bliss definitely… can’t go wrong with Elizabeth Peters!!! Amelia and Emerson, Jacqueline (never Jackie…), Vicki and John and Schmidt, and the stand alone books never get old or disappoint.
I love the Jaqueline Kirby books.. I’m afraid the Amelia books have gone to the point of self-parody, although I enjoyed the first six of them very much.
Vicky, obviously. In fact you’re making a strong case for me to do nothing this coming week but read Jacqueline Kirby… Finishing up The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde for book club. It’s interesting and odd and relevant but the anthropomorphised rabbits are still freaking me out. I think too many stories about Pookas while young…