Weekly Reading Round-Up

Get grounded at DFW for fourteen hours due to tornadoes? More time for books! This week, I read my through a bunch of books I’ve been meaning to read for ages, including:

— J. Courtney Sullivan’s Saints for All Occasions, a look at an Irish family in Boston over the course of two generations, and what one secret can do to a family;

— Christine Mangan’s Tangerine, a twisty novel of psychological suspense unpicking the relationship between two former Bennington roommates, one a married woman in Tangier, the other a working woman who suddenly shows up on the doorstep for a visit, going forth between the past and the present as the truth becomes more and more sinister;

— Susan Wiggs’s Family Tree, about a cooking show producer who finds herself back in her Vermont home town after an accident lands her in a coma for a year, reconnecting with her family’s maple sugar business and the man she once loved and lost (the wholesome sweetness and happily ever after was a perfect antidote to Tangerine);

— Piper Weiss’s You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession, part memoir, part true crime, about a tennis coach who preyed on his students in New York in the early 90s. Piper and I were classmates at the same tiny all girls’ school, so, I’ll confess, it was fascinating to me to see my own world through someone else’s eyes (including a deeply awful Drama Club production about women writers, which has remained a running joke between me and my best friend to this day), and to realize what different experiences can be had under the same roof;

— Elsie Lee’s Season of Evil, classic 1970s romantic suspense. I came home from my trip to two sick kids and promptly caught the bug– which meant comfort reads. Nothing says comfort read to me like Elsie Lee. Snarky first person heroines who always have a PhD or a business degree and are simultaneously either deeply ditzy in a clever way or super-efficient organizers who cut a wide swathe through everyone in their paths;

— and, since this bug is really a nasty one, Elsie Lee’s Sinister Abbey (really, can you beat that as a title?), about a fabric designer who stumbles into international espionage, as one does.

I have a pile of new books to read, but while I’m still blazing through NyQuil and tissues, I’m thinking this may be a Georgette Heyer and Jennifer Crusie week for me.

What are you reading this week?

Oh, also, just a quick reminder: it’s your last chance to cast your vote for the winner of the 2018 Pinkorama!

13 Comments

  1. Jessica S. on April 20, 2018 at 11:02 am

    I’m still working on the Chernow biography of Hamilton. Not much time for reading these days 🙁

  2. Randy Riddle on April 20, 2018 at 11:15 am

    I’ve been reading lots and lots of Susanna Kearsley this week. I immensely enjoyed The Winter Sea. I’ve done a lot of research on ancestorial memory the past couple years, how exciting finding a book with a MC who has it!

  3. Diane (bookchickdi) on April 20, 2018 at 11:16 am

    I was in Florida so I got in a lot of reading time. I read Tangerine too, Anna Quindlen’s Alternate Side (fantastic, especially if you live in NYC and have been married a long time), and Tara Westover’s Educated, which I will be recommending to everyone I see. I read Piper Weiss’ book last week and that was good too.

  4. Karlene on April 20, 2018 at 11:54 am

    I’m reading Murder in Mayfair by D.M. Quincy, and a reread of Georgette Heyer sounds good to me! Which ones are you thinking about?

  5. Angela on April 20, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    Oohh, Tangerine? How is it? That has been turning up on my recommendations on Amazon and B&N. As for me, I finished the Woman in the Window, then I tried to read a couple of Spanish picaresque novelas, but couldn’t get into them. So I am about to start The Service of the Dead by Candace Robb.

  6. DJL on April 20, 2018 at 12:53 pm

    Finished Defy The Worlds by Claudia Gray (sequel to last year’s Defy the Stars) in a day, so good, definitely lived up to the first entry in series, and–this one has a cliffhanger ending! So I’m hoping not the last entry by a long shot…
    Now reading Bond of Blood by Roberta Gellis, and have her Roselynde chronicles lined up & ready to go after that! Great medieval historical romances that remind me (a tiny, tiny bit) of Game of Thrones, with all the political maneuvering amongst the greater and lesser houses of the day on a backdrop of dynastic struggle. So good!

  7. Rachel Adrianna on April 20, 2018 at 1:11 pm

    I hope you feel better soon, Lauren! Although any kind of extra reading time is always good 🙂

    This week I started listening to Beatriz Williams’ Cocoa Beach on audiobook during my new, longer commute to work. AMAZING.

    Also began Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin, which has one of the most beautiful covers ever. And the story is really engaging, too!

  8. Laura on April 20, 2018 at 5:14 pm

    Just finished book 1 (Queen of Blood) of Sarah Beth Durst’s Queens of Renthia SF series. It has some really unique world building and I love the main characters. I’m looking forward to continuing the series.

  9. Joan on April 20, 2018 at 9:43 pm

    I just finished the last of Rachel Gibson’s hockey series (the Seattle Chinooks). Cute romantic stories and a some hockey (which I knew NOTHING) about. Next up is Defy The World by Claudia Gray since my daughter strongly recommends it!

  10. Freya on April 21, 2018 at 1:52 am

    Which Jennifer Crusie novel is the best one to start with?

  11. Freya on April 21, 2018 at 2:00 am

    I just finished The Family Plot by Cherie Priest. It wasn’t quite my cup of tea. I was hoping it would be an enthralling, creepy story about a sinister old house — preferably historical, or alternating between time periods, and with a complex woman protagonist. I need more books like The Haunting (Shirley Jackson) and Wylding Hall (Elizabeth Hand.) Recommendations, anyone?

  12. Tara on April 21, 2018 at 6:24 am

    I’m currently still reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. It’s so good and comforting, and the characters are very compelling.

  13. Jessica C on April 21, 2018 at 8:42 am

    Re-reading the second book of the Illuminae series Gemina, before diving into the third (Obsidio) which was released last month. As for Heyer comfort reads – Frederica and Cotillion always work for me!

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