Book a Week 2022 - BW30: Bookish Miscellanea

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday! This week we celebrate Amelia Earhart day, National Tequila day, Culinarians day, All or Nothing day, National Love is Kind day, National Milk Chocolate day, National Lasagna day, National Cheesecake day, and last but not least. Paperback book day.  Hmm, I think I'm hungry!   

My neighbor dropped off a bag of peaches from his garden today. I decided I should make lasagna as well as a peach pie this week, so off the the grocery store I went.  And while I was there, I got to thinking how we have been in kind of a food rut lately and should pick up something different for a change versus the same ole, same ole.  I ended up with a potpourri of items.  Which brings me to my web wanderings which mirrored my shopping trip. A little bit of this, a little bit of that!

Fiona Barton's Favorite Thrillers featuring Female Detectives 

Pass the popcorn: action-adventure thrillers 

Tasmanian 'book detective' reunites customers with long-lost books and beloved childhood titles

Discovered a new blog as well as an annual book celebration Women in Translation

Chance, Choice, and the Avocado: The Strange Evolutionary and Creative History of Earth’s Most Nutritious Fruit

10 Food Writing Books to Read This Fall

He Might Be a Prophet. That, or the Greatest Chef in the World.

The Cocktail at the End of the Universe

Do any of you remember Graham Kerr?  Why the Galloping Gourmet—a Kooky, 1970s TV Chef—Is an Unsung Style Icon for Our Times

Are you hungry now? 

🙂

 

Our A to Z and back again letter and word of the week are W and Wine.

 

Link to Book Week 29

Visit  52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini, and perpetual challenges.

[Robin M]

I'm currently on #14 Kingdom of the Blind in Louise Penny's Armand Gamache reread and still enjoying the heck out of the series.

"The investigation into what happened six months ago—the events that led to his suspension—has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip though his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception.

Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner city Montreal. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers.

As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there."

James and I are also listening to Ready Player One on Audible.  

 

 

[Negin]

Robin, thank you for the thread. Oh my, both lasagna and peach pie sound perfect. I'll be off to look at some of those titles and links that you've posted. 

I read Long Live the Queen: 23 Rules for Living from Britain's Longest-Reigning Monarch - 4 Stars

[tuesdayschild]

Agreeing with @Negin, @Robin M:  to both the lasagna and peach pie, and, link hopping later.  Waving hello to everyone, and looking forwarding to reading your book posts.

Since my last check-in I’ve listened to a few more books:

The Physicists' Daughter - which has a really nice cover - by Mary Anna Evans, narrated by Kimberly M. Wetherell .  This ended up as three plus star read, once I’d finished the story.  Portions of the story and the characters involved in those portions felt a little unclear at times, and there are plenty of the red-herrings to keep the waters muddied about who the undercover saboteur at the plant was .....  stick with it as those things are cleared up at the very end of the book.         Extra: Some physical attraction scenes (kissing).  A creepy stalker, and, sexual harassment.  Some heavy drinking at a nightclub degenerates down into the beginnings of a jealous brawl   - not surprising when the MC is stringing the two men along until she makes up her mind which she likes best.

For  Crime Spree / The Americans,   I found it so hard to settle on a book I felt like listening to and so decided to just stick with The Fourth Postman: John J. Malone Bk9 by  Craig Rice, narrated by Johnny Heller.   It ended up as a two out of five stars.  This reads like a 1940’s B grade movie complete with screwball, slapstick comedy. The comedic portions were fuelled by alcohol, lots of alcohol - even the dog drank.

A redeeming feature of this book, for me, was that I listened to it on audio and the narrator did a really excellent job.      Extra, for others that like to know things like this too: some bawdy talk, lots of cussing.

Currently listening to, and enjoying both these titles: 

• The Oaken Heart ~ Margery Allingham, narrated by Georgina Sutton (non- fiction/memoir)
• Death In Soho: Augusta Peel Bk1 ~ Emily Organ, narrated by Sarah Nichols (historical, cosy mystery)

[Mothersweets]

Hi everyone! Thanks for the thread, Robin. I thought the audiobook of Ready Player One was terrific and hope you are enjoying it!

Finished #10 in the Joe Pickett series, Nowhere to Run . Enjoyed it very much!

[mumto2]

Thank you!  @Robin M

I have skipped ahead in the alphabet challenge and finished my V last week.  Swiss Vendetta by Tracee De Hahn https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29503758-swiss-vendetta. is a book I bought for my kindle library several years ago because it kept popping up at me on lists but I never bothered to actually read it.  I ended up giving it a 4* because I enjoyed the scenery greatly, a Swiss Chateau on the banks of Lake Lucerne in a blizzard.  The mystery wasn’t bad but that house captured my imagination. 
 

I finally read Holocaust House from the Americans section of the Crime Spree that I mentioned very enthusiastically a few weeks ago.  Norbert Davis wrote pulp fiction and one of his series was “Doan and Carstairs” which features a very hard boiled detective named Doan and his partner a ginormous Great Dane named Carstairs.  Holocaust House turned out to be a novella by current standards and I think these stories may all be short and previously serialized in magazines.  I own a few more as I bought a collection cheap.  It was an enjoyable read and I plan to finish the collection soon. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8134945-holocaust-house?ref=bk_bet_out

I have started listening to Melissa Gilbert’s Back to the Prairie as it fits a bookchain and I had it marked in my to reads.  So far it’s fun and gossipy.  She narrates.  I was a huge Laura Ingalls fan!  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59345236-back-to-the-prairie
 

 

 

[Kareni]

One of my summer reading challenges is to read a book in the Dewey decimal 700s, so I decided to read Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture by Annelise Heinz. I read the first fifty pages and then skimmed the rest; this is a dense, very well researched academic study...but not quite what I'd hoped for!

Any other mah jongg players here?

"Click-click-click. The sound of mahjong tiles connects American expatriates in Shanghai, Jazz Age white Americans, urban Chinese Americans in the 1930s, incarcerated Japanese Americans in wartime, Jewish American suburban mothers, and Air Force officers' wives in the postwar era.

Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture illustrates how the spaces between tiles and the moments between games have fostered distinct social cultures in the United States. This mass-produced game crossed the Pacific, creating waves of popularity over the twentieth century. Annelise Heinz narrates the history of this game to show how it has created a variety of meanings, among them American modernity, Chinese American heritage, and Jewish American women's culture. As it traveled from China to the United States and caught on with Hollywood starlets, high society, middle-class housewives, and immigrants alike, mahjong became a quintessentially American game. Heinz also reveals the ways in which women leveraged a game to gain access to respectable leisure. The result was the forging of friendships that lasted decades and the creation of organizations that raised funds for the war effort and philanthropy. No other game has signified both belonging and standing
apart in American culture.

Drawing on photographs, advertising, popular media, and dozens of oral histories, Heinz's rich and colorful account offers the first history of the wildly popular game of mahjong."

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Some bookish posts ~

Jo Walton’s Reading List: June 2022

https://www.tor.com/2022/07/14/jo-waltons-reading-list-june-2022/

 

Five Feel-Good Comfort Reads

https://www.tor.com/2022/07/21/five-feel-good-comfort-reads/

 

This is a Good Book Thursday, July 14, 2022

https://arghink.com/2022/07/this-is-a-good-book-thursday-july-14-2022/

Regards,

Kareni

[Storygirl]

Thank you for the thread, Robin! I'm looking forward to exploring some of your links from your first post!

Some recent reads:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, on audio. A reread for my 100 best books scratch-off poster. This was utterly delightful and had added sound effects. So fun.

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny, on audio. Gamache series #4. I'm reading these for the first time and enjoyed seeing Gamache in a new setting. While on vacation at a remote hotel, Gamache solves the murder of one of the other guests, who was there for a family reunion. It turns out that the reunion happened to be for the extended family of Gamache's friends from Three Pines, so a few familiar characters appear, even though it's not set in the village.

The Hidden One by Linda Castillo, on audio, #14 in the Kate Burkholder series, new release. My first time reading this series on audio, and I enjoyed it. This is a favorite series for me, because it's set in my home state of Ohio. Kate grew up Amish, left the faith in her teens, and is now back in her hometown, as the chief of police. Every book involves the Amish, which give the series a unique perspective. Another series where an awful lot of crime happens in a small town!

Cold, Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs, on audio, new release. I've read all of the Temperance Brennan series (inspiration for the TV series Bones, although the characters and entire set up are quite different from book to screen), and this is #21. Reich's writing style is not my favorite, actually, but I love series fiction, so I've stuck with these. This is my first time on audio, and I found I enjoyed the story more, perhaps, this way, so I will continue.

We've also been watching Bones with DD20 for a year or more, whenever she is home from school and available to see an episode or two. Last night, we finally got to the series finale. I never watched it when it was airing originally (probably conflicted with something else I had going on), and I really enjoyed it.

 

[Storygirl]

And some more:

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner, on audio. This YA book explores the friendship between three teens -- Dill, a musician whose father's mistakes loom greatly over him; Travis, who loves fantasy books and faces secret battles at home; and Lydia, who is famous on social media but unpopular in this small town. They navigate the rockiness of their senior year in high school, while trying to envision better futures for themselves. This one includes some romance and some danger, as well as hard family dynamics and is a emotional read. The characters drew me in.

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf, on audio. This is the first time I've read this author, and I'll try more, though this book was not a huge favorite. I found it somewhat contrived. Isolated in a farmhouse during a winter storm, a true crime writer looking into a local unsolved murder finds a child huddling in the cold in her yard. Trying to help the child and figure out what happened leads Wiley in directions that she never would have anticipated (though this reader did figure out much of it before revelations were revealed). Told in several perspectives that unravel the past crimes and present drama.

The Secret Keep of Jaipur by Aka Joshi, on audio. I didn't know until almost the end that this is the second book in a series. But it didn't matter. Things from the first book that have importance were explained well enough that I didn't even realize I had missed an earlier story. But I will go back and read the first one (The Henna Artist). Set in India, the story explores themes of culture, as well as family and a bit of mystery.

The Liar's Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard, on audio. Ten years after a serial killer who targeted Dublin college women was locked away, killings begin again. The police contact Allison, who is the only person the convicted killer will talk to about what seems to be a copycat situation-- because she was his girlfriend during the murder spree. Can Allison help the police stop the current crimes by revisiting what happened in the past? It's the last thing that she wants to do. This was an entertaining thriller.

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman, on audio. #2 in the Thursday Murder Club series. If you like your murder mixed with a big dollop of humor, reading this series about elderly, retired (though highly skilled) sleuths is recommended. I read the first one in print and this one on audio, and I found that the droll British narration in my ears added a lot to my experience.

[mumto2]

@Storygirl The Hidden One is a book I currently have checked out.  I also love that series but have to say it’s made me really respect pigs!  I also have the latest Reichs in my hold’s....I keep having to delay it.

[Storygirl]

16 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

@Storygirl The Hidden One is a book I currently have checked out.  I also love that series but have to say it’s made me really respect pigs!  I also have the latest Reichs in my hold’s....I keep having to delay it.

Yeah, you don't want to mess with pigs! I had no idea, either!

[Kareni]

A more successful outcome for my summer reading challenges of reading a book in the Dewey decimal 700s ....

I reread A Beginner's Guide to American Mah Jongg: How to Play the Game & Win by Elaine Sandberg which I read a few years ago when I was a novice. This time I was able to nod with familiarity at most things though I did still learn a thing or two.

"This affordable best-selling book is one of the only available game strategy guides specifically geared toward American Mahjong (Mah Jongg) and follows the official National Mah Jongg League rules. Offering first-time players an easy-to-follow guide to this complex game, A Beginner's Guide to American Mah Jongg includes simple, easy-to-follow instructions and clear diagrams to walk the reader through each step of the game, including how to select a hand, how to play and how to develop winning strategies. A key feature is the color text which shows various hands and tiles."

Regards,

Kareni

[Laurel-in-CA]

I really enjoy Jo Walton's reading list, and I'm glad to see she agrees with me about The Steerswoman series. A favorite!!

I read The Beekeeper of Aleppo, which was a story about a Syrian refugee and his wife, told through flashbacks as he journeyed from the ruins of Aleppo to meet up with another Syrian beekeeper who had already found asylum in England. The flashbacks were all tied in with sensory memories, which was a cool sort of stream of consciousness way to shift time and place in order to tell the story. Not a happy story, but some peace and hope at the end.

I also read Revenge in Rubies, the second in a 3-book series set in Singapore in colonial times. I enjoy the heroine, who is an Englishwoman and a suffragette, facing some of the trauma she fled England to escape (she was imprisoned, force fed, and almost died due to suffragette protests).

And Veronica Speedwell #7, An Impossible Impostor, by Deanna Raybourn. I have read all of these and haven't found a bad one, though Veronica is a quite unlikely nonconformist for the Regency/Victorian period. She's a lot of fun and very adventurous and independent.

I also did a yarn hop this weekend -- four stories in 2 counties in one day -- and am hoping I get lucky on the door prizes. I also have some nicely scrumptious yarn to experiment with this week!

Thanks again for these threads, Robin!!!

[mumto2]

3 hours ago, Laurel-in-CA said:

I really enjoy Jo Walton's reading list, and I'm glad to see she agrees with me about The Steerswoman series. A favorite!!

I read The Beekeeper of Aleppo, which was a story about a Syrian refugee and his wife, told through flashbacks as he journeyed from the ruins of Aleppo to meet up with another Syrian beekeeper who had already found asylum in England. The flashbacks were all tied in with sensory memories, which was a cool sort of stream of consciousness way to shift time and place in order to tell the story. Not a happy story, but some peace and hope at the end.

I also read Revenge in Rubies, the second in a 3-book series set in Singapore in colonial times. I enjoy the heroine, who is an Englishwoman and a suffragette, facing some of the trauma she fled England to escape (she was imprisoned, force fed, and almost died due to suffragette protests).

And Veronica Speedwell #7, An Impossible Impostor, by Deanna Raybourn. I have read all of these and haven't found a bad one, though Veronica is a quite unlikely nonconformist for the Regency/Victorian period. She's a lot of fun and very adventurous and independent.

I also did a yarn hop this weekend -- four stories in 2 counties in one day -- and am hoping I get lucky on the door prizes. I also have some nicely scrumptious yarn to experiment with this week!

Thanks again for these threads, Robin!!!

This is my week for having things in my stack that other BaWers are reading!  I have both the Revenge of the Rubies and the first book in that series, something Sapphire, waiting to read has we go back thru the alphabet. I’ve been looking forward to them.

[LaughingCat]

6 hours ago, Kareni said:

A more successful outcome for my summer reading challenges of reading a book in the Dewey decimal 700s ....

Kareni, are you trying to read a book from each of the dewey decimal 100's (100's, 200's etc) or did you come up with this challenge some other way?  

[Kareni]

@LaughingCat, I'm participating in my library's summer reading challenge for adults. One challenge is to read something between 0 and 299 in the Dewey decimal system, another is to read something in the 700s. The rest of the challenges include reading a book with a brown cover, a book by an author new to you, a book of poetry, rereading a book, .... There are some twenty or so challenges and meeting them earns a ticket for possible prizes.

Regards,

Kareni

[bookbard]

Yay, The Grief of Stones finally available in Australia. I really enjoyed it. It's the sequel to Witness for the Dead, in the same world as The Goblin Emperor. It did the same thing as Witness for the Dead, though, and finished really suddenly. 

Read a couple of middle-grade books, Darwin's Dragons and The Girl, the Dog and the Writer in Rome. Both were a bit so-so, although the first one was quite educational, I learned a fair bit. The second has so many people raving about it but didn't do it for me at all. 

Re-reading The Curse of Chalion for the billionth time. Such a comfort read. 

[mumto2]

Btw, Back to the Prairie has been abandoned at the halfway point.  Let’s just say I couldn’t take take the irritating parts anymore......both the F bombs and whining.

[Mothersweets]

18 hours ago, Laurel-in-CA said:

 

I also did a yarn hop this weekend -- four stories in 2 counties in one day -- and am hoping I get lucky on the door prizes. I also have some nicely scrumptious yarn to experiment with this week!

 

Sounds like fun! Let us know if you win something!

[LaughingCat]

12 hours ago, Kareni said:

@LaughingCat, I'm participating in my library's summer reading challenge for adults. One challenge is to read something between 0 and 299 in the Dewey decimal system, another is to read something in the 700s. The rest of the challenges include reading a book with a brown cover, a book by an author new to you, a book of poetry, rereading a book, .... There are some twenty or so challenges and meeting them earns a ticket for possible prizes.

Regards,

Kareni

off the top of my head I would have said 0-299 was computer and library thru religion and self help, and 700's includes painting/crafting and graphic novels (and maybe business at the beginning of the 700's) -- so it's interesting that they think those are challenges for most people

Just looked at my library pile -- and I already have multiple books out from both those sections currently 😄

Might have to set myself the challenge I asked you about (one book from each 100's place section ) 

[Kareni]

11 hours ago, bookbard said:

Re-reading The Curse of Chalion for the billionth time. Such a comfort read.

I hear you! Enjoy.

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

@LaughingCat, prior years' summer reading programs have included different Dewey decimal challenges. I think that the library is trying to cover the entire range over a number of years.

Regards,

Kareni

[bookbard]

Read The Housekeeper and the Professor which was a nice gentle read - a Japanese book about a housekeeper caring for an elderly mathematician. No horrible twists of tragedy or anything. 

Started The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde but remembered I'd already read it and hadn't enjoyed it particularly. Love his Thursday Next series, but not as keen on some of his other books.

 

[Kareni]

I just finished a reread of The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold which I enjoyed once more. This really is an excellent fantasy. @bookbard, this was probably your fault for mentioning the book!

"A man broken in body and spirit, Cazaril, has returned to the noble household he once served as page, and is named, to his great surprise, as the secretary-tutor to the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is next in line to rule.

It is an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it will ultimately lead him to the place he fears most, the royal court of Cardegoss, where the powerful enemies, who once placed him in chains, now occupy lofty positions. In addition to the traitorous intrigues of villains, Cazaril and the Royesse Iselle, are faced with a sinister curse that hangs like a sword over the entire blighted House of Chalion and all who stand in their circle. Only by employing the darkest, most forbidden of magics, can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge—an act that will mark the loyal, damaged servant as a tool of the miraculous, and trap him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation, and death."

Regards,

Kareni

[Robin M]

Feeling ambitious, I decided to make the peach pie totally from scratch. An hour and a half later, from making the crust to pealing the peaches to fluting the dough edges. Not perfect or pretty but I did it. It was delicious! 

I hadn't planned on July being my reread month but once I started reading the first book in the  Armand Gamache series, decided to read the whole series. Discovered there were a few in the middle I hadn't read so thankfully for Kindle Unlimited was able to read those.  Love the cast of characters, the mystery playing out in the midst of some personal crisis, how they solved the crime. After a while the descriptors attached to some of the characters got a little old but other than that, each story's killer was unique. There were some surprises and red herrings to throw every one off. All in all, enjoyed the series and now have to wait until November for #18 A World of Curiosities. 

Started one of Jennifer Estep's newest series A Sense of Danger. Good so far. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Robin M

[tuesdayschild]

On 7/27/2022 at 1:45 AM, mumto2 said:

Btw, Back to the Prairie has been abandoned at the halfway point.  Let’s just say I couldn’t take take the irritating parts anymore......both the F bombs and whining.

Appreciating your review, you've just protected my book buying allowance   - others on Goodreads are seconding what you've said, - but I'm sort of disappointed as that was a tile I was interested in.  

 

On 7/27/2022 at 4:16 AM, LaughingCat said:

Might have to set myself the challenge I asked you about (one book from each 100's place section ) 

That sounds like a really interesting challenge!

@Kareni, do you play Mahjong?  

Edited July 29, 2022 by tuesdayschild

[Kareni]

7 minutes ago, tuesdayschild said:

@Kareni, do you play Mahjong?

I do. There are a number of varieties; I play American mah jongg which uses a card (that changes yearly) from the National Mah Jongg League. This game uses 152 tiles (eight are jokers) as compared to Chinese mah jongg which uses 144.

Do you play?

Regards,

Kareni

[tuesdayschild]

Just completed Death In Soho: Augusta Peel Bk1 by Emily Organ on audio.  The conclusion to the mystery was a little ho-hum, but I like the book binding, ex. WW1 spy(?)/collaborator, Augusta Peel and,  though the narrator is just okay-ish,  the story itself was interesting enough that I might try the next one in the series.    

 

[tuesdayschild]

59 minutes ago, Kareni said:

I do. There are a number of varieties; I play American mah jongg which uses a card (that changes yearly) from the National Mah Jongg League. This game uses 152 tiles (eight are jokers) as compared to Chinese mah jongg which uses 144.

Do you play?

Regards,

Kareni

No, I don't, but I'm sure given time my games loving (!) son will try his hand at it... and our family will get roped in too.

I've see it mentioned in quite a few historical era books and, beyond a small google search, I've never looked deeper into how the game is played. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by tuesdayschild

[Kareni]

I know that there is a British Mah-Jong Association, @tuesdayschild, which has codified their own version. I believe that they play with a set of 144 tiles. I don't know if that is the convention New Zealand players follow. 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Currently FREE for US Kindle readers ~

The Last Gifts of the Universe by Rory August

End of the Lane (A Dear Abby Cozy Mystery Book 1) 

and Be Still My Heart (A Dear Abby Cozy Mystery Book 2) both by Sonia Parin 

The Edge of Mercy by Heidi Chiavaroli

The Irresistible Billionaire by Christina Tetreault 

Kiss Me That Way by Laura Trentham 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Storygirl]

I finished three books for my scratch-off best books poster this week. One long one, one short one, and one that I read along with DS17 for his school summer reading:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, simultaneous audio and print, read along with DS. I had never read this before and found it interesting, though I found the characters to be types meant to explore the dystopian theme, instead of fully developed characters. I started on audio, but the structure of the book switches so quickly from one thing to another (sometimes paragraphs alternate between two scenes playing out at the same time) that the audio was confusing. I continued with the audio but read along with the book in front of me, so that I could follow better.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, on audio. I read this entire series back in the 80's, and it was fun to revisit, especially with Stephen Fry's entertaining narration.

A Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, on audio. I enjoyed the first and last parts of this book but found the other 20 hours (though I read it at double speed, so really 10 hours) to be a big of a slog, despite James' exquisite descriptive prose. This story is a giant character study, with not a ton of plot, other than discussions between the characters about other characters. I think I need my audio books to have more action and would have enjoyed this one more in print.

Interestingly, yesterday just after I finished it, I listened to an interview with Hernan Diaz, regarding his new book, Trust, on a podcast called The Book Case. Trust is on my TBR. And Diaz said that the book that had the biggest impact on his life was A Portrait of a Lady! Funny --  I'm not sure I've ever heard others reference this book before, and now someone mentioned it on the day that I finished it.

[Storygirl]

The book that I read in print this week was kind of a dud for me --

The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich. The main character teams up with her ex-husband (and some jovial members of a Peruvian drug cartel) to look for the Ring of Solomon, part of Blackbeard's buried treasure. An Indiana-Jones style story. But it was so implausible, and the jokey banter didn't draw me in, and the villain was really cartoony. I thought about abandoning it but decided to just rush to the end, only to find out that the story is to be continued in the second book in the series. Guess I won't ever find out what happens!

Also read on audio:

The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson. This YA mystery was really well done. When a classmate goes missing, an unlikely duo of high school girls (formerly popular rich outcast plus nerdy poor tutor), who don't trust the police investigation, team together to figure out what really happened.

Winterhouse by Ben Guterson. This middle grade book is the first in a series, and I put the second on my TBR already. When 11 year old orphaned Elizabeth is shipped off to a hotel for the Christmas holidays by her uncaring aunt and uncle, Elizabeth finds magic, mystery, and friendship. And she discovers things about herself that will change her life forever. Delightful, just a tiny bit creepy at times, and very satisfying.

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay. I loved this short and sweet epistolary story. When a young woman writes a fan letter to an older writer of a magazine article, the two woman strike up a lovely written friendship. I fell in love with both characters. Recipe ideas, unexpected romantic developments for each of the ladies, and some heartache, fill the pages of their letters, which are set in the 1960's.  Loved it. An author's note says she was inspired during the pandemic to write something comforting.

 

 

[Robin M]

Link to week 31