Tutu's (TinaB) unmitigated mess of 2014 - #2

Happy Summer!!! It's lazy hazy days here in Maine, and I'm on a hazy, lazy reading kick. Just strolling through a bunch of cozies, following up on some long neglected mystery series, and doing a few reads to review for the fall. One of the big time consumers here in Tutuland is the 10th annual

Books in Boothbay: Maine's Book Festival

Authors participating include that Branco person who is married to Tutu, and some other pretty hefty names in the book world. We're really excited. Here's a partial list of participants. I'm really excited about getting a chance to meet JSF - she's one of my favorites!

CB Anderson – RIVER TALK
Paul Betit – THE MAN IN THE CANAL
Gerry Boyle – PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE
Bob Branco – STRIKE FROM THE DEEP
Dorothy Cannell – MURDER AT MULLINGS
John R. Cobb – TALES OF THE CEMETERY TREES
Jessie Crockett – DRIZZLED WITH DEATH: A Sugar Grove Mystery
Paul Doiron – THE BONE ORCHARD
Vicki Doudera – DEAL KILLER; A HOUSE TO DIE FOR
Kate Flora – PLAYING GOD
Tess Gerritsen – GIRL MISSING
Fred Kaplan – JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: American Visionary
Al Lamanda – SUNRISE: A John Bekker Mystery
Sharon Lee – CAROUSEL SUN
Helen Peppe – PIGS CAN’T SWIM
Barbara Ross –CLAMMED UP; BOILED OVER
Julia Spencer‐Fleming – THROUGH THE EVIL DAYS
Andrew Vietze – BOON ISLAND
Lea Wait – SHADOWS OF A CAPE COD WEDDING
Meg Wilson – MOURNING DOVE
Roxie Zwicker – HAUNTED PORTLAND: From Pirates to Ghost Brides

The Adult authors will be there from noon to four on Saturday July 12th. This would be a cool opportunity if anybody is interested in a meet-up. Send me a PM if you're planning to come and we can make arrangements for a good spot to meet.

I'm not doing tickers or any fancy graphics this year. Just trying to keep up on reading threads, and trying to post at least mini comments on books read, books dumped, and books leaping into the TBR pit. I'll be keeping an ongoing list, but off thread and will simply post as I finish reading.

I do hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend now that Arthur has finished dumping a lake's worth of moisture on us. We've been engrossed in futbol and baseball in addition to gardening, weddings, babies, visiting relatives and now remediating an extremely high radon level in our well water. I long to move to Three Pines where I can slurp scotch with Ruth, dunk baguettes into patè, and find something to read at Myrna's.

I read 60 books from January to June. As a panelist for Maine Readers Choice, I'll have 25 books to read from Sept to Dec, so I know I'll hit my 75. In the meantime, it's whatever floats my boat at the moment. Stay tuned.

New thready madness! Happy summer's-almost-over-ain't-it-grand!

Gladding you are enjoying your reading! XXXX

Happy new thread! I'm off a book award team this year for an award given every two years. I was on for two tours of duty. I will have to say that I'm absolutely loving the freedom from having to read some books which should have never been nominated in the first place. Enjoy your fun reading until the 25 required books hit you before you know it.

#46 Queen of the Road



The Subtitle of this one is "The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own".  That pretty much sums it up.
The book's publisher tells the story pretty clearly:  

 A pampered Long Island princess hits the road in a converted bus with her wilderness-loving husband, travels the country for one year, and brings it all hilariously to life in this offbeat and romantic memoir.
Doreen and Tim are married psychiatrists with a twist: She’s a self-proclaimed Long Island princess, grouchy couch potato, and shoe addict. He's an affable, though driven, outdoorsman. When Tim suggests “chucking it all” to travel cross-country in a converted bus, Doreen asks, “Why can’t you be like a normal husband in a midlife crisis and have an affair or buy a Corvette?” But she soon shocks them both, agreeing to set forth with their sixty-pound dog, two querulous cats—and no agenda—in a 340-square-foot bus. Queen of the Road is Doreen’s offbeat and romantic tale about refusing to settle; about choosing the unconventional road with all the misadventures it brings (fire, flood, armed robbery, and finding themselves in a nudist RV park, to name just a few). The marvelous places they visit and delightful people they encounter have a life-changing effect on all the travelers, as Doreen grows to appreciate the simple life, Tim mellows, and even the pets pull together. Best of all, readers get to go along for the ride through forty-seven states in this often hilarious and always entertaining memoir, in which a boisterous marriage of polar opposites becomes stronger than ever.

I've always had a secret desire to rent a bus/RV and take off across the US and Canada, stopping whenever we see something that looks interesting,  staying until we've seen whatever looks interesting.  The hubster on the other hand, does not relish the thought of battling traffic in a big box, towing another vehicle and spending all his time hooking up, unhooking, and watching his dollars going down the gas tank drain.   So when I saw this book on the e-book deal of the week,  I knew this vicarious trip would probably be the closest I ever got to this adventure, and hit "buy."

I could totally relate to some of Ms. Orion's travel aversions, but her sense of humor shines through, and although she bills herself as a "princess", her willingness to compromise and follow her husband's suggestions shows us the fun that can be had when two people with a strong marriage embark on a new phase of life together.  It's not only a travelogue, but the story of personal growth, and the continued expansion of a very strong love relationship.   Altogether a fun read.

 
Title: Queen of the Road
Author: Doreen Orion
Publisher: Broadway Books (2008), e-book, 304 page equivalent
Genre: Memoir
Subject: RV Travel
Setting: US and Canada
Source: my own e-reader

#45 Home to Italy


I can't remember who here on LT mentioned this one, but thank you, whoever you are. It's a nice, calm, lovely sweet nostalgic love story about a man who left Italy in his youth, enjoyed a lovely marriage and a big extended Italian family in Rhode Island but who decides after the death of his wife to return to his home village, move back into the old homestead he inherited from his now deceased parents, and essentially return to the site of his youth.

He tells no one he's coming, (and doesn't correspond with his US relatives for almost a year) but goes about adjusting slowly to the changes that have come about in the 50 years he was gone. His love of family, his love of biking, and the presence of his best friend from childhood help him transplant his life. A sweet and easy to read fairy tale.

Sorry these numbers are so screwed up - they are from the list I kept on the first thread and really mean nothing to anybody but me.
I read this about 6 weeks ago, but the publisher asked that reviews be held until just before publication in August. If I don't post it now, it's going to get lost in the chaos....

#52 A Place Called Hope


Sam Gardiner is a Quaker preacher.  He's timid, he's perfectly content to spend the rest of his life pastoring a meeting in his hometown of Harmony.  When he inadvertently attends and prays for a newlywed couple as a favor for the sick Unitarian pastor, he creates an uproar as it is revealed that the couple is lesbian.

As the furor builds, Sam retreats to lick his wounds.  Now that their two sons have graduated from high school and left the nest, his wife Barbara takes a job as the assistant librarian in the town, and is not in the mood to let Sam feel sorry for himself.  Nevertheless Sam quits and finds that no other Quaker congregation will have him.  Suddenly the Gardiners are at a crossroads in their lives. 

When the Quakers in Hope (about 2 hrs away) offer a position to Sam, he jumps and Barbara tags along to investigate the chance to start anew.  The congregation is tiny, the physical facilities are gorgeous and in spite of some trepidations, the couple decides to move on.  At this point, the author begins pulling more rabbits out of the hat, and the story spins off into fairyland.

This is a sweet non-pretentious book with a "happily ever after" feeling, in spite of the wimpy main character, and the delightful feistiness of his wife.  It's a perfect read for an afternoon when the breeze is blowing, or the snow is falling, or the fog is rolling in: in short, when nothing will do but curling up with a cup of tea, a snuggly pet, and a non-controversial and heart-warming story.  My copy included the first chapter of the next book in the series, and for fans of the Jan Karon "Fr. Tim" series, this one will be quite welcome.

Title: A Place Called Hope
Author: Philip Gulley
Publisher:  Center Street (2014), e-galley 256 pages 
Genre: Christian fiction
Subject: perils of pastoring
Setting: fictious midwest towns
Source: egalley from the publisher via Net Galley
Why did I read this book now? The cover attracted me!

>7 tututhefirst: That would be me.


Second time I've used this jpeg tonight!

#47 Massacre Pond


The Mike Bowditch series has matured with each new volume. In this one, set in the autumn in the far north of Maine, Paul Doiron uses the real life battle going on over the eventual disposition of hundreds of thousands of acres of land currently owned by a private party and her desire to turn the area into a wilderness park where hunting, logging, and other current activities will be prohibited. It's a game warden's nightmare trying to walk the tightrope of emotions generated by both sides of the fight.
From the book cover:

On an unseasonably hot October morning, Bowditch is called to the scene of a bizarre crime: the corpses of seven moose have been found senselessly butchered on the estate of Elizabeth Morse, a wealthy animal rights activist who is buying up huge parcels of timberland to create a new national park. What at first seems like mindless slaughter, retribution by locals for the job losses Morse's plan is already causing in the region, becomes far more sinister when a shocking murder is discovered and Mike's investigation becomes a hunt to find a ruthless killer. In order to solve the controversial case, Bowditch risks losing everything he holds dear: his best friends, his career as a law enforcement officer, and the love of his life.

Bowdoin is now living alone in a run down trailer provided by the warden service. His friend Billy Cronk (a rather scurrilous dude given to trying to stay one step ahead of arrest) is somehow involved in this whole fiasco, testing his loyalties and making Mike's job more precarious then ever.  Bowditch is still a flawed character, but Doiron has managed to grow him into the hearts of readers of the series.  We're all now rooting for Mike to develop into the mature nature lover he show signs of becoming.

Doiron's bold and precise descriptions of the Maine woods add another dimension to these stories that keep readers coming back.  I wasn't sure after the first two, Poacher's Son, and  Trespasser, that I was overly thrilled with this character, but he's really grown on me.  This one is a definite winner, and the best yet in the series.  It's definitely worth a look.

Title: Massacre Pond
Author: Paul Doiron
Publisher:Minotaur Books (2013), Hardcover, 320 pages
Genre: Mystery, police procedural
Subject: murder and animal cruelty
Setting: North Maine Woods
Series: Mike Bowditch Mystery
Source: public library

>7 tututhefirst: Book bullet.

>8 tututhefirst: I remember reading that one when it first came out but I remember not liking it as well as the Father Tim series by Karon. I never ventured further into the series.

Richard me dear, I suspected twas you. I did try the next one by Pezzelli but it didn't seem to follow #1 and it got pearls at about page 30. Do we ever get back to the original characters?

>12 tututhefirst: No, it wasn't a sequel so much as a follow-on, and nowhere near as good. Pete's a lightning-strike writer: When it's there, it's really hot and bright, and when it's not it's Stygian.

Happy Summer and Happy New Thread, Tina!

Congrats on the new thread Tina! I am taken with Queen of the Road. Thanks!

>10 tututhefirst: I was really unhappy with the Doiron series after book two....mostly because of his very negative descriptions of Washington County and it's citizens. Also because, his main character, mike, has not been very sympathetic so far. Based on your comments, I will give this next book a try before I totally abandon the series.

I hope you and your hubby are enjoying the Boothbay Book festival. That is one fantastic author lineup! So bummed I was not able to come down!

>16 Cobscook: Heidi, I really enjoyed Doiron's #5 The Bone Orchard - the character is maturing. I had a chance to talk with Paul Doiron at Books in Boothbay last weekend. We talked about the main character, Mike Bowditch's maturation process. Paul agrees that Mike has a ways to go, but says that's what is compelling him to continue with the series.

I've heard a wide range of reactions of citizen's reactions to Doiron's portrayals of various geographic sections of the state, and the descriptions of lifestyles and customs. I think we each loften tend to judge our own neck of the woods with a more optimistic overview that those "from away" (even two towns down the road) might perceive it. I just finished Bone Orchard and hope to get a review up within the next week. As I've said, I think it's the best one yet and certainly holds out hope that young warden Bowditch may finally be getting his stuff together.

Speaking of Books in Boothbay Bob Branco had a fairly successful experience, lined up a local radio interview, sold some books and both Bob and Tutu got to smooze with Tess Geritsen, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Barbara Ross (fun new cozy series I'm going to check out), Vicki Doudera, Lea Wait, and a host of other up and comers and already arrived authors. Gorgeous Day, Gorgeous weather, delicious lunch. Tutu did some damage to the library book account (with permission from my successor) and added several others to the B&T e-readers. Ok Ok, I confess, just a tad of name dropping.

I have a photo of the controlled chaos, but my photo editing program is giving me fits, so we'll just have to do with a single of Bobbie boy .

We're on our way to hit Trader Joes, load up the cooler, out to din-din, and then a Gordon Lightfoot concert in Portland before heading home after a fabulous weekend.

>18 tututhefirst: What a great day! I wish I'd thought to ask you to hug Lea Wait from me. I love her Shadows series!

Congratulations to Bob, too.

Glad you had a great time - just what you both deserve!

What a fun day! Thanks for sharing the photos. : )

Yes...I'm way...........................behind. I've been reading, indulging myself in one of the most glorious stretches of Maine summer I've had the freedom to enjoy in a long time. So I owe a bazillion reviews (or catchups or whatevers) I have about 15 more ARCs or ER to read BEFORE I start with the long list for Maine Readers choice (already getting preliminary feelers about some titles), and I'm determined to just take a deep breath, and continue to spend my summer reading for enjoyment, not for HAFTA.

I did finish the entire Louise Penny series, and now have Mr. Tutu (Aka Bob) listening to them during his daily walk. I don't think we're going to make it Quebec this summer as we'd planned, since we just sunk about $6500 into new well pump and anti-radon filtration system. I decided I didn't want to glow in the dark! At least we got tickets to attend the divine Ms. Penny's book signing in Portland next week.

Starting with July's reads that need to be reviewed: (I've given up counting here, although I do have a spreadsheet and will let you know when I hit 75 -probably close to end of August) here's what I'm hoping to clear out by the time I go to MahJongg on Friday:

Brush with Death and Dead and Berried by Karen MacInerney
The Deepest Water by Kate Wilhelm
The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor
Summer of the Dead (Belle Elkins) by Julia Keller
Stranger Room by Frederick Ramsay
All the light we cannot see ********** (is that 10 stars?) by Anthony Doerr
The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron
All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
Just One Evil Act By Elizabeth George
Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanne Fluke
The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

I'm also not reviewing the three louise Penny's I read(or listened to) prior to the last one (due out August 26th) since I've already reviewed them:

A Trick of the Light
The Beautiful Mystery
How the Light Gets in

So bear with me friends and sports fans ... another reason I'm getting distracted...daughter girl got her father the MLB package on DirecTV so we are gorging on all of our favorite baseball teams the Tutu will be offering opinions on all of the above not previously reported. I've also had sister #2 up here visiting for the past couple weeks. It's been lots of fun getting together with them - hope they can break away from the twin grandbabies in Louisiana for some more visits to their darling cottage on the ocean here in Maine.

Off to do some sweet/sour fennel to go with a nice lamb steak num num num num. That farm is so so so good.

Sweet and sour fennel
lamb steak

I'm on my way. Riesling and Sangiovese in the car

RD....just like a Motel 6 - we'll leave the light on fer ya.

The Bone Orchard

Last month, I read and reviewed Massacre Pond  the fourth in Paul Doiron's  series about the Maine woods.  That was just in time to read my ARC of this newest one published last week.  Although I didn't need any real enticement, the publisher offered:

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Mike Bowditch has left the Maine Warden Service and is working as a fishing guide in the North Woods. But when his mentor Sgt. Kathy Frost is forced to kill a troubled war veteran in an apparent case of "suicide by cop," he begins having second thoughts about his decision.Now Kathy finds herself the target of a government inquiry and outrage from the dead soldier's platoon mates. Soon she finds herself in the sights of a sniper, as well. When the sergeant is shot outside her farmhouse, Mike joins the hunt to find the mysterious man responsible. To do so, the ex-warden must plunge into his friend's secret past—even as a beautiful woman from Mike's own past returns, throwing into jeopardy his tentative romance with wildlife biologist Stacey Stevens.
As Kathy Frost lies on the brink of death and a dangerous shooter stalks the blueberry barrens of central Maine, Bowditch is forced to confront the choices he has made and determine, once and for all, the kind of man he truly is.

I was once again lucky enough to meet Paul Doiron at the BOOKS IN BOOTHBAY fair earlier this month.  I told him how excited I was to see the series continuing and to see that Mike Bowditch is finally maturing. Indeed, the characters are well drawn, and becoming more familiar to us with each volume.  However, it's the glorious descriptions of Maine's varied landscapes from lakes to mountains, from forests teeming with trees to windswept rocky ocean beaches and the rich animal life (humans, insects, birds, bugs and four legged critters), that make the reader want to slow down and savor the flavor of the state, while at the same time wanting to rush to the next page to see who the bad guys are to solve the mystery.  They're a great introduction to the Pine Tree State and its people. Let's hope there are more to come in this series.

Title: The Bone Orchard
Author: Paul Doiron
Publisher: Minotaur Books (2014), Hardcover, 320 pages
Genre: mystery, police procedural
Subject: murder
Setting: Maine woods, and various southern Maine venues
Series: Mike Bowditch
Source: E-galley from the publisher
Why did I read this book now?  I like the author, the series, and the publisher asked for a review.

All the Light We Cannot See


 Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father's life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering. At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in. Doerr's combination of soaring imagination and meticulous observation is electric, as Europe is engulfed by war and lives collide unpredictably.

I almost didn't check this out of the library, because I'm almost worn out and almost blasè about war books.  However, the premise of this one was a bit different. So I took a chance and am really glad I did, because I almost missed the read of the year.  Here is a war story told from the perspective of two young people - almost too young to be directly involved when the war begins.  The blind french girl is on the one hand so dependent on others to show her the way -- at least until she memorizes the way on her own; the young German is so determined not to have to go down into the dark, claustrophic bowels of the earth as the miner his father did. He'll do anything to avoid that darkness.

Each is dealing with darkness from a different standpoint: he is trying to avoid darkness, and she is doomed to live within it.  Both of them find light and life from music and from sound.  She is evacuated to St Malo where she lives with an uncle who, although a recluse, is building and hiding radios.  The German boy too, displays an expertise in building and operating radios, and eventually is rescued from having to go to the mines. 

Doerr tells their stories, along with several auxiliary plot lines, in alternate chapters from each youth's point of view.  The story is easy to follow, the tension builds quickly, and the inexorable march toward the inevitable makes this a true page turner.

In my case, I was able to "read" this book the same way Marie-Laure would have -- with my ears.  The audio version, produced by Simon and Schuster, and and narrated by Zach Appelman, really enables the reader to experience life exactly as young Marie-Laure did.  The descriptions of how she "saw" things, how she counted her steps, listened for creaking boards, and was able to tune into radio broadcasts was well portrayed, and perfect for the audio format.  I am especially thankful that the producers did not attempt to articulate sounds Marie-Laure heard in her head.   It was left to the reader's imagination to furnish that sensory experience.

I don't want to give away the ending of the story.  It is realistic, beautiful, heart-rending.  This is a book worth reading in any format.  I intend to read the print version again this fall.  I'm really hoping it will appear on the Maine Reader's Choice Long List.  It's certainly the best 2014 Fiction I've read so far this year

Title: All the Light We Cannot See
Author: Anthony Doerr
Publisher: Scribner (2014), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 544 pages 
Audio format:  Simon & Schuster Audio, 2014, 13 audio discs (960 min.)
Narrator: Zach Appelman

Genre: Literary Fiction
Subject: blindness; radio transmissions
Setting: Germany; Paris and St. Malo France
Source: public library
Why did I read this book now? It looked interesting.

>26 tututhefirst: I read something else today that also mentioned that a lot of librarians think Doerr's book is the best of 2014 to date. I'll check it out at some point, but I may wait until I'm feeling a bit more "caught up" to do so.

The Long Way Home


It's so hard to write about Armand Gamache stories without giving them away, and that is, in my humble opionion, the worst sin a reviewer can commit.  Every time I review a Louise Penny book, I find myself saying things like "It's quintessential Louise" or "Just when I thought she couldn't get better, she does" or other blathery, toady, almost syncophantic  wind-blown compliments that are almost insulting they're so inflated.

BUT SHE'S JUST THAT GOOD.

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an ARC earlier this summer, and waited to read it until I'd finished a re-read (this time in audio) of the previous nine books in the series, and lurked along in the on-line discussions.   Quel fun!

So after I'd read The Long Way Home, I put it aside for a couple weeks to let the experience sink in and try to figure out how to explain why these are so special.  At least I can start by sharing what the publisher has given us as a hint:

Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he’d only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. “There is a balm in Gilead,” his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, “to make the wounded whole.”

While Gamache doesn’t talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache’s help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary, Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines. “There’s power enough in Heaven,” he finishes the quote as he contemplates the quiet village, “to cure a sin-sick soul.” And then he gets up. And joins her.

Together with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence river.  To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it the land God gave to Cain. And there they discover the terrible damage done by a sin-sick soul.    

All through the series,  I've never liked the character of Peter, so I wasn't sure I was going to have much sympathy for him or the people trying to find him.   When I sang in the choir several years ago, our choir director tried and tried and tried to get us to master the hymn "There is a Balm in Gilead" to the point that I HATED that hymn.  And to put frosting on the proverbial cake, I had a pretty negative recollection of trying to get through Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer winner Gilead when our book club read it several years ago. 

If this current book hadn't been written by Louise Penny, and hadn't been about my all-time favorite mystery personality, I probably wouldn't have wanted to read it.  I wouldn't have wanted to see Armand's well-deserved retirement "ruined".   I wouldn't have wanted to find myself caring whether Peter was found and/or saved. I just wanted everything to stay in "Three Pines Fairyland". Fairyland it isn't. Life it is. The characters who have become so familiar to us continue to expand, to mature, and draw us into their lives. Ruth Zardo, another of my favorite characters finally allows a tiny crack in her armor to let us in, so those of us who have loved her all along can at last begin to see why.

In the end, the only thing I can say is that once again, Louise Penny does not disappoint.  She steals our heart, she takes our breath away, she causes us to lose a huge chunk of time since once we embark on this adventure, we neglect everything and everyone else in our lives.  I can't wait for the publication date August 26 because I've already pre-ordered a hard back copy (something I rarely do), and the audio to go with it.  In the meantime, Bob and I are truly looking forward to being able to meet her in person in two days when she comes to Portland for the launch of the paperback of #9 How the Light Gets in.

If you're not yet a fan, and think you don't like mysteries, give these a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Title: The Long Way Home
Author: Louise Penny
Publisher: Minotaur Books (2014), ARC e-galley, 384 pages
Genre: Mystery
Subject: Missing persons
Setting: Quebec and environs, village of Three Pines
Series: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache
Source: ARC from publisher
Why did I read this book now?  I couldn't wait another minute!!

Lalalalala

Not reading not reading not reading

RD....not listening to you, not listening to you....

Just one Evil Act

I wish I could start this off by saying "Here's another favorite author and favorite series."  Alas.........

I really want to say that the title refers to the story of an evil act, but the book is replete with evil acts, evil intentions, and unethical choices. 

However......the true evil act is the editor's lack of cleaning up a mess and foisting this 700+page monstrosity on the series' fans.

In some ways, it's vintage Elizabeth George, but mostly it's overblown, way too long, insulting to readers.  Periodically, authors will take well-known and well-developed characters and move them to a new and "out of the comfort zone" setting. That keeps a series fresh, and adds a new perspective to the character. In this case, the crime scene and investigation moved to Italy, where Italian police procedure is quite different from that normally expected in New Scotland Yard.  If the author had helped clarify what crime was being investigated by whom and why, we might have been more disposed to follow along. 

As it is, a non-crime occurs when Barbara's next door neighbor, little Hadiyyah Azhar is taken by her mother to Italy without the father's knowledge or permission.  Let's remember that Daddy is not on the birth certificate, is not married to mommy, and in fact not only has this paragon of fatherly virtue (as far as Havers is concerned) never divorced his first wife, he's had no contact with her OR his TWO OTHER CHILDREN in over a year.  Barbara Havers is stuck in London, working for a new boss (not Lynley) and is frantic to get to Italy to "help".

At least in the beginning, we get vintage Havers - impulsive, slovenly, damn-the-torpedoes, misguided, and in this book, totally blinded to her own motivation. Thomas Lynley is nearly an afterthought throughout this book.  If he hadn't spoken Italian, he'd have almost no part in the story, except to be starting what appears to be a new romance with a roller-derby veterinarian.

The plot is contrived, the dialogue is stilted and very difficult to follow since the author has entire paragraphs of words spoken in Italian WITH NO TRANSLATION. This is a language I can usually follow along thanks to my grandmother, but the excessive use of Italian was way over the top.  I found myself constantly going to translation tools because I wasn't comfortable enough with my assumptions to feel sure I understood what was happening, and whether it was important or not.   (And if it wasn't important, it sure didn't need to be in a book that was over 700 pages long).  I guess we're supposed to feel the frustration Havers feels at not being able to understand the language, but all I felt was frustration that the story was being hijacked by the author's showing off her supposed knowledge of the language, and dragging us along for about 200 pages too much.

There are so many plot lines and sub-plots that I got dizzy trying to keep up.  Is it kidnapping?  Is it a custody fight?  Later is it murder?  And who's working the case?  And who's responsible?  Why is Havers so blind about what's really happening?

The book is even worse in audio.....usually one of my favorite formats.   I had the large heavy and awkward print version that was driving me crazy and decided to download the audio to see if Davina Porter - normally one of my favorite narrators -could help make more sense of this mess.  That was a horrible mistake.  Ms. Porter's very clear, clipped and normally understandable British accent does not do well at all with Italian...it was absolutely painful to hear.  I constantly had to stop the audio to go to the print to see what on earth she thought she was saying in Italian.

There is so much not to like about this book....the choices all the characters make, the stereotyped sleaziness of the characters, the convoluted plot(s), the implausible and almost incredible (meaning NOT credible) ending - one of those "Oh, I guess I need to wrap this up because I have a deadline and it is getting a tad bit long."   In addition, this really should have been at least two, and probably three books.   Maybe that's a good thing if you're a fan.  You can purchase an entire trilogy for the price of one book.  Anyway if you're interested, here's the publisher's blurb about the story:

 Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is at a loss: The daughter of her friend Taymullah Azhar has been taken by her mother, and Barbara can’t really help—Azhar had never married Angelina, and his name isn’t on Hadiyyah’s, their daughter’s, birth certificate. He has no legal claim. Azhar and Barbara hire a private detective, but the trail goes cold.

Azhar is just beginning to accept his soul-crushing loss when Angelina reappears with shocking news: Hadiyyah is missing, kidnapped from an Italian marketplace. The Italian police are investigating, and the Yard won’t get involved, until Barbara takes matters into her own hands. As she attempts to navigate the complicated waters of doing anything for the case against her superior’s orders, her partner, Inspector Thomas Lynley, is dispatched to Italy as the liaison between the Italian police and Hadiyyah’s distraught parents.

In time, both Barbara and Lynley discover that the case is far more complex than just a kidnapping, revealing secrets about Angelina; her new lover, Lorenzo; and even Azhar—secrets Barbara may not be willing to accept. With both her job and the life of a little girl on the line, Barbara must decide what matters most and how far she’s willing to go to protect it.

I still like this series and these characters.  Let's just hope that Ms. George can get them back to London, and can tighten up her propensity to verbosity and give us some more good solid detective work without all the extraneous HUH?  And without going over about 500 pages!

Title: Just One Evil Act
Author: Elizabeth George
Publisher: Dutton Adult (2013), Edition: 0, Hardcover, 736 pages
Audio format:  Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (October 15, 2013) 28 hrs downloaded
Genre: mystery,
Subject: international parental kidnapping
Setting: London; Tuscany Italy
Series: Inspector Lynley detective mysteries
Source: ARC from publisher, & Audible download 
Why did I read this book now?  I try to keep current with this series.

Dead and Berried


Last month I reviewed A Brush with Death  one of the later volumes in this Gray Whale Inn Mysteries series. I was doing a test of my tablet download capabilities and saw this earlier one available and said "why not?" It's Maine, it's a cozy mystery, and the foggy summer day was perfect for the read.

Like most cozy mysteries, this one relies on a lovely setting - Cranberry Island off the coast of Down East Maine, a likeable protagonist (and sometime amateur detective) innkeeper Natalie Barnes, a local law enforcement officer (in this case a romantic interest of the innkeeper's), and villainous villains who are threatening to convert the idyllic village into a high-scale resort.  There's the obligatory murder and Natalie feels honor-bound to
help identify and capture the perpetrator, while dealing with needed repairs to the Inn, a reappearing and less than welcome ex-fiance, and a cooling friendship with her previous best bud.

As seems to be almost de rigeur these days for New England mysteries anyway, the story includes several delicious sounding recipes. Both the ingredients for the goodies and for the mystery are bound to make this a treat for cozy lovers who want to spend a day in Maine, even if it's only in the pages of a book.

Title: Dead and Berried
Author: Karen MacInerney
Publisher:Woodbury, Minn. : Midnight Ink, 2007, ebook.  
Genre: cozy mystery
Subject:
Setting: Cranberry Island Maine
Series: Gray Whale Inn Mysteries
Source: Public Library ebook download

No on the George, hmmmm on the McInerny, still not reading That Review.

Smooch on Tina.

>28 tututhefirst: I'm officially jealous that you got an ARC of it. I'll have to wait until our library's copy arrives. It will probably be in September because of the timing of our lease program renewal. (They don't pay the bill until tuition is in the bank.) However, I can be first to check it out!

>33 richardderus: RD - there are NO spoilers in the review. None, nada, niente, rien, zip, nil, zero

Awesome reviews Tina! Another push for me on "All the Light We Can Not See." Way behind on the Three Pines series, so not ready for that one yet. Keep 'em coming!

Blueberry Muffin Murder


"They" say hope springs eternal. And when you're talking about Hannah Swenson, owner of the Cookie Jar Bakery in Lake Eden Minnesota, the hope is usually on the part of the reader.  Will she choose Mike the cop or Norman the dentist?   Will she actually be able to get through a whole volume without being entwined in a murder investigation?  Or without becoming a possible murder target herself?  Will these books ever change the formula, or ever resolve the slight (very slight) sexual tension between Hannah and her two beaux?

This is actually the third book in this very popular series that has been around since 2001.  Blueberry Muffin was originally published in 2002.  It was available as a public library e-book download, and it was a convenient way to test an app on my new tablet.

If you enjoy lots of sweets with your cozy reading, if you like goodie goodie people with no true villains, if you like being able to read along without engaging very many brain cells, while at the same time, not having to scream about poor sentence structure, unconnected plot elements, or slightly developed characters this series is for you.   There are actually about 18 of these sweet-tooth specials, complete with well documented recipes for all the treats mentioned.   I read about one every 20-30 months.  That's more than enough brain candy for me.   They're fun, but a steady diet is not what I can handle.

Title: The Blueberry Muffin Murder
Author: Joanne Fluke
Publisher: Kensington (2011), Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Genre: cozy mystery
Subject: cookies, murder,
Setting: Lake Eden Minnesota
Series: Hannah Swenson mystery
Source: public library e-book download

The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion


Southern Fiction is one of my favorite genres - especially when it's well written, when the author is steeped in the culture, when it's summer time for me and I can imagine myself in the languid palm-tree filled South while I read it. The publisher enticed me:

Spanning decades, generations, and America in the 1940s and today, this is a fun-loving mystery about an Alabama woman today, and five women who in 1943 worked in a Phillips 66 gas station, during the WWII years. Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married off the last of her three daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle. The only thing left to contend with now is her mother, the formidable and imposing Lenore Simmons Krackenberry, never an easy task. Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people, but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter. Then one day, quite by accident, Sookie discovers a shocking secret about her mother's past that knocks her for a loop and suddenly calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.

In this surprising novel, Fannie Flagg once again delivers a story with believable characters who bring us an inside look at the meaning of being a "lady" in the person of Sookie Poole of Point Clear Alabama, who must deal with the mother of all mothers, Lennore Simmons Krackenberry.  It is Lenore's mission in life to ensure that women know how to dress, drink, talk, work (as in supervise the help), dine out, and raise her grandchildren so that civilization can be saved from going to you-know-where in a handbasket.

This whole premise could have easily become a very corny caricature of  Southern women.  Instead, Flagg turns this into a mini-mystery and a wonderful exposè of a chapter in US history during World War II concerning the WASPS, women pilots who ferried military planes around the world to free up male fighter pilots for the war effort.   These are some spunky women.  These are heroines.  Their quirky, laugh-out-loud predicaments may have some readers shaking their heads in dis-belief, but for those of us who were raised by southern ladies, and who served in the military, this one rings true, rings fun, and rings proud.   A delightful way to spend some summer time reading.

Title: The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
Author:  Fannie Flagg
Publisher: Random House (2013),  Hardcover, 368 pages
Genre:  Southern fiction; historical fiction
Subject:  Women in military service in WWII
Setting:  Alabama, California
Source:  Public Library

>>38 tututhefirst: What happened to the Wisconsin setting?
Glad you liked it.

>>28 tututhefirst: Please put me in line for this one when you come down in October.

Cheli- I only have the egalley of this one and have pre-ordered the audio from audible. Sorry.

And yes....it did have a wisconsin setting, but I felt that was just a framework for the story. I was stressing the southerness of it.

>>40 tututhefirst: If you get the audio in time, could I do that, please, pretty please?

>37 tututhefirst: I enjoy "brain candy" from time to time, although less so now than a few years ago.

>38 tututhefirst: I read that one earlier this year so you can't hit me with a book bullet. Fannie Flagg is probably my favorite current Southern author. Her A Redbird Christmas remains one of my favorite Christmas books.

Just a reminder - giveaway running on the blog for a copy of Bob Branco's Strike from the Deep. Deadline is July 31st. Open to US and Canada.

Also found a great free app to load on smart phone and tablet - "Anti-Mosquito" actually does seem to keep the skeeters away. I might even be able to make it through the Lobster Festival tomorrow without too many bites.

the deepest water by Kate Wilhelm


This is a very early Kate Wilhelm....not part of the Barbara Holloway series, but still an adequate mystery published in 2001. The story of a daughter trying to find her father's murderer, it is definitely a foreshadower of the later series. I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I'd read some of her others before back-tracking to this one. It's very enlightening to see how authors grow in their writing. A weak three stars.

>>43 tututhefirst: I have that app for my Blackberry and it works for pretty good on the golf course.

Happy 6th Thingaversary, Tina! *smooch*

>26 tututhefirst: Great review!!!!!

OM Gosh - it is my thingaversary! So I'm supposed to buy more books??? How about I count my celebration this year by going to see Louise Penny tomorrow night, and then heading up to Quebec next week to take the Bury Your Dead tour? We are really busy this whole week selling Bob's book at the Lobster Festival (a good new crowd and sales are the best they've been). I honestly don't want to get any more books just to buy them. The new batch of Maine Reader's Choice is starting to arrive, and I am lucky enough to be able to buy books whenever the fancy hits me, so I decided on the book related fun stuff instead.

I'll probably buy the Louise book in hardback (something I hardly ever do) and buy the audio, but if I buy any books, they'll be audio.

I have in mind a couple of Chris Grabenstein John Ceepak adventures, and a few of the original Lynley mysteries (hard to find UNabridged versions). Other than that, nothing is jumping out screaming buy me buy me.

I'm just happy and thankful to have found such a terrific group of fellow readers to have along on this adventure. Read a good one on me.

Happy Thingday!

Happy Thingaversary!!

Happy Thingaversary to you!! Exceedingly jealous you get to meet Louise Penny and that you have already read the upcoming release.

I am so glad you are getting to read what you want this summer. Keep it up! On the other hand, I am excited to see what makes the longlist for the MRCA!

Belated happy thingaversary, Tina!

Good reviews. I'll avoid the George, I pretty much had the same reaction to the Wilhelm, I'm anticipating the Penny, and I must try that Mike Bowditch series.

I'm so happy to see your review of All the Light We Cannot See. I loved that book.

I had to skip over your review of The Long Way Home because I'm in the middle of listening to How the Light Gets In. I plan to listen to The Long Way Home soon.

A Share in Death
All Shall Be Well
Leave the Grave Green
Mourn Not Your Dead #1-4 in Duncan Kinkaid/Gemma James Mysteries

by Deborah Crombie
Earlier this summer I was offered a chance to review the upcoming To Dwell In Darkness, #16 in this series. I had read (or listened to) several of them over the past 10 years, but hadn't kept up with the series. Since I'd so much fun re-reading all the Louise Penny series earlier this summer, I decided to do some catch up on Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James.

These are every bit as good as I remember them. Like Penny, Crombie uses dynamic characters to catch our interest, involves them in well-plotted murder mysteries, and gives us a good sense of modern day London and its environs.

As crime fighting partners - he's a Superintendent at Scotland Yard, and she's the Sergeant Detective assigned as his partner - Duncan and Gemma bring different skills to the team, but both have a professional respect for each other's competencies. They also each carry a load of emotional baggage from their previous marriages, and as the series begins at least, Gemma is struggling with all the logistics and financial issues plaguing many single custodial parents while Duncan is dealing with the sudden and depressing realization that he has no life apart from his work.

These are great mystery reads with enough clues to allow the reader to say "Aha....I should have known", heart-warming romances, and well-written fiction, all told over a series that has not waned in its quality. I can't wait to get the newest one. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to sprinkle the rest of this series into my ongoing reading.

Stranger Room


This is another series where I've been catching up. I read my first Ike Schwartz murder mystery last year as a freebie on my Kindle, and when I had a chance to grab another from the library, I did so. I've not been reading these in order. There's enough back fill in the four that I've read that the reader doesn't feel the need to go back to number one and go in order.

This one is an especially good mystery. Here's what the publisher tells us:

Elderly Jonathan Lydell III is proud of his family history and his house, which he is committed to restoring to its antebellum configuration, complete with a stranger room. Found in many family homes in the 1800s, an attached room with its own entrance, separately locked and kept for use by unknown travelers, it was intended to protect the family from unsavory guests. Nearly 150 years ago, an inexplicable murder took place in the locked stranger room of the Lydell house. The murderer was never caught. But when a new, identical murder is committed in the same room, not even sheriff Ike Schwartz and FBI agent Karl Hedrick can explain it. Why would history repeat itself? What could explain these identical murders? Could the Lydell family history hold the key?

I had never heard of a Stranger Room before, but it makes for a very engrossing mystery read.  The  main character, Ike Schwartz is not only the town sheriff but a retired CIA ageny who keeps having pieces of his previous life reinserted into his "retirement." His significant other is the local college president. They haven't quite figured out their relationship yet - in large part due to the constant back and forth of Ike's roles.  It's a fun series, well-written, and I plan to read more of them.  There are three more stacked on my e-reader, so look for more comments in the future.

Title: The Stranger Room
Author: Frederick Ramsay
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Books (2008)
Narrator: Lloyd James
Genre: Mystery police procedural
Subject: Ancient mystery mirrored in current
Setting:  Western  Virginia
Series: Ike Schwartz
Source: Public library audio download

The Shape of Water

Another series re-read...
We started watching The Young Montalbano on Netflix and I decided to go back and periodically listen to these - they are great workout audio books. Bob and I both just love all the characters, the scenery, the food......oh ... the food....and the pure southern Italian/Sicilian exuberance of this series.

I've just downloaded a review copy of Camilieri's newest one The Brewer of Preston due out Dec 30th. It's a lookback at Vigata in the 1890's and sounds like it will be hoot. A little backfill to help understand the lunacy of the current residents?

The Girl Who Came Home


This one is bound to please Titanic fanatics, romance readers, and historical fiction fans.  It's was a bit tear-jerky for my taste, but it's well-written, gives us good insight into the main characters, and provides enough detail that the reader definitely can feel the disaster as it happens. 

Ireland, 1912, Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Seamus, the sweetheart she left behind. When disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the few passengers in steerage to survive. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that fateful night again. Chicago, 1982, Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her great-grandmother Maggie shares the painful secret about Titanic that she's harbored for almost a lifetime, the revelation gives Grace new direction, and leads both her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago.

I found the ending rather contrived, although I disappointed myself in that I hadn't seen it coming.  It's still a book worth spending some time with.  Not a barn burner, but a good comfortable read - either for these last weeks at the beach, or to settle down with as the autumn creeps in and days grow shorter.

Title: The Girl Who Came Home
Author: Helen Gaynor
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (2014),  egalley 384 pages
Genre: historical fiction
Subject: travel on the Titanic
Setting: Ireland, onboard Titanic
Source: Net Galley

The Home Place



A bold well-written novel featuring the trendy theme of successful family member who has left the hometown and is pulled back into a family disaster/drama she thought she was well out of. In this case, the setting is a bleak, rundown rural town in Montana. With the exception of the main character Alma Terrebone, the family is underemployed, under-educated, dysfunctional, and struggling to recover from a series of poor choices, bad luck, and outside villains.  The publisher tells us:

The only Terrebonne who made it out, Alma thought she was done with Montana, with its bleak winters and stifling ways. But an unexpected call from the local police takes the successful lawyer back to her provincial hometown and pulls her into the family trouble she thought she’d left far behind: Her lying, party-loving sister, Vicky, is dead. Alma is told that a very drunk Vicky had wandered away from a party and died of exposure after a night in the brutal cold. But when Alma returns home to bury Vicky and see to her orphaned niece, she discovers that the death may not have been an accident.

The story is deeply emotional, offering insights into the basic human need for forgiveness, for family, and for a place that holds the roots of our grounded-ness.  There were a few sections where I almost lost interest, but on the whole, readers will find this an excellent debut novel with a story worth reading. I look forward to more from this author.

Title: The Home Place
Author: Carrie La Seur
Publisher: William Morrow (2014), Edition: Advance Reader's Edition, egalley, 304 pages
Genre: literary fiction, mystery
Subject: family secrets,  
Setting: Montana
Source: egalley via Edelweiss

I've heard of most of these except for Duncan Kinkaid/Gemma James Mysteries. Can you bring #1 with you next visit, please?

Love Duncan and Gemma and Montalbano. I can't believe your sister hasn't been introduced to them as much as I rave about them when I read one! Crombie is one of my favorite mystery writers.

Bittersweet


Years ago I read The Thorn Birds and fell in love with the book, the characters, and the setting. So I was excited to get a review copy of what I hoped would be another big bold family saga set in the big bold continent down under.  What a disappointment. I expected much more from this author.

I come from a family of four girls.  I understand sisters and the relationship formed by four related but distinct women. In this novel, two sets of twin sisters make their way through the cultural upheaval of post World War I and the Great Depression.  But the story of each sister, while well developed, does not a novel make.  Each sister is an individual, well defined, with definite motivation and ambitions.  Each individual story works.   But, there is no real plot, there is a constant feeling of "where is this going?" and even at the end, the reader is left with a feeling of "what on earth did I just achieve by plowing through this?"  Their is no cohesion except for the fact that they are sisters.  SO???

The writing is certainly not up to the standards of a great  or even very good novel. It's poorly edited, the sentence structure is often fractured and difficult to read.

Overall, it's an interesting book that pulls the reader from the beginning to find out what happens to each sister, but which becomes a slower read about halfway through. A good beach read but nothing to rush right out for.

Title: Bittersweet
Author: Colleen McCullough
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2014), Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Subject: women's roles in the early 20th century
Setting: Australia
Source: e-galley from the publisher through Edelweiss

>61 tututhefirst: That's disappointing. Hopefully they'll fix some of the sentences before it goes to print. LJ's review seemed favorable when I read it earlier today.

I must try the Crombie mysteries. And I have that first Ike Schwartz mystery waiting for me . . .

Sorry to hear Bittersweet was a disappointment

I see you have been cranking out the reviews. Nicely done! Hope you are enjoying the long weekend. : )

I;m on a roll....this time reading the Duncan Kinkaid/Jemma James mysteries in order. I'm up to #9 Now You May Weep...mostly in audio as a break from heavy fiction. Maine Reader's Choice has started again so I'm trying to sprinkle in fun audio with the intellectual stuff to keep my judgment genes in shape.

I'll have a monthly wrap-up (i've finished 71 so far this year) in the next day or so.

Also looking forward to a Maine Meetup in Ellwsworth with Heidi (Cobscook), Mike (Currerbell), and Cindy (countrylife) this coming Sunday. Join us if you're in the area. I think Cee may try to join us too.

Another series I'm reading is the Bruno Correges series - I got the jump on September when I read The Dark Vineyard and The Black Diamond in August. This series is definitely one I'm getting to like a lot! Bruno is such a loveable, no nonsense cop.  His character is perfect for the setting- a gentle farm town where people don't want life too technologically connected, where wine, food, truffles, and friendship are what really matters.  Generational clashes  the incursion of "progress," discussions of the GMO movement in agriculture, some romantic entanglements, and scrumptious food discussions all add to the authentic flavor of these polished and undervalued police procedurals. Do take a look if you've not tried them.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm having too much fun reading and not at all in the mood for reviews right now. I'll just be dropping mentions, and maybe get some I'm particularly fond of on the blog. If they're ER or publisher commitments, or books we're considering for Maine Reader's Choice, I'll eventually get something up on the boards. In the meantime, enjoy your reading as much as I'm enjoying mine.

Shotgun Lovesongs


Wow!  Every once in awhile a book comes along that gives the reader an "AHA" momentShotgun Lovesongs is such a book.  I didn't want this book to end. I wanted to read, re-read, listen to the audio, and just sink into the glorious prose telling the simple story of four friends who grew up together in a small town, and whose individual stories are told in such clear, stellar prose that I was captured by the end of page 3!

Each of the stories is discrete, but each advances the story of the whole, of the group.  Each life is separate and unique, but every life meshes with all of the others.  In the end, we see an entire range of experiences and relationships.  Friendships turned sour, friendships stretched as friends move away and then return, friendships poisoned by jealousy and rivalries, but through it all, it is the simple, beautiful story of four people whose ties to their life in a small town and to their love of each other overcomes the obstacles and rivalries that are the staples of life and love.  Here's how the publisher describes it:

Henry, Lee, Kip and Ronny grew up together in rural Wisconsin. Friends since childhood, their lives all began the same way, but have since taken different paths. Henry stayed on the family farm and married his first love, whilst the others left in search of something more. Ronnie became a rodeo star, Kip made his fortune in the city, and musician Lee found fame but heartbreak, too. Now all four are back in town for a wedding, each of them hoping to recapture their old closeness but unable to escape how much has changed. Amid the happiness of reunion and celebration, old rivalries resurface and a wife's secret threatens to tear both a marriage and a friendship apart.

Not only did I read this one in print, but I listened to the audio - a spectacular production from MacMillan Audio, read by Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Shepherd, Scott Sowers and Gary Wilmes.  Each voice clarified the character, and each story took on an even more defined picture from the audio.  The word pictures are as sharp as one listens as they are when we read the well-written words.  This is definitely going to be on my top of the year list.

Title: Shotgun Lovesongs
Author: Nickolas Butler
Publisher:Thomas Dunne Books (2014), Hardcover, 320 pages
Audio Publisher:  Macmillan Audio, 2014. 10 hours
Subject: small town life, friendship
Setting: rural Wisconsin
Source: review copy from publisher; audio copy from public library

Euphoria



Anthropology is not a reading topic I'm apt to run right out and grab off the shelf. I'm marginally aware of what the subject matter purports to study, and I'm minimally acquainted with Margaret Mead's early studies.  That's about where my background ends.  Euphoria is an articulate exposè (albeit fictional) of the early history of the practitioners of the craft. The publisher offers this recap:

.... a breathtaking novel about three young anthropologists of the ‘30’s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives.
English anthropologist Andrew Banson has been alone in the field for several years, studying the Kiona river tribe in the Territory of New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers’ deaths and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when a chance encounter with colleagues, the controversial Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband Fen, pulls him back from the brink. Nell and Fen have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo and, in spite of Nell’s poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearby, the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone’s control.
Set between two World Wars and inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is an enthralling story of passion, possession, exploration, and sacrifice from accomplished author Lily King.

The ill-fated three-sided love story pulled me in emotionally.  The scenes of tribal practices left me less than excited, although from a strictly intellectual perspective, like all new material, I found the descriptions riveting.  It's a short book, the action moves along at a decent pace, and the publisher's addition of end-papers with a map of the region was extremely helpful.  While it did not entice me to set off for more on the subject matter, neither did it tempt me to stop reading until the book was finished.  It's well worth the read, even if this isn't your normal cuppa.  I certainly would recommend it to readers with an interest in South Pacific early tribal customs.

Title: Euphoria
Author: Lily King
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (2014), Edition: 1ST, Hardcover, 256 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Subject: Anthropology
Setting: South Pacific Islands
Source: Review copy from the publisher
Why did I read this book now?  It's being reviewed for consideration for the 2015 Maine Reader's Choice Award.

I'm listening to Euphoria on audio right now, Tina! I'm glad to know that the book has a map of the region. I may have to check out a copy just so that I can take a look at that. So far, I'm most fascinated when the story is being told from Nell's point of view, and Fen just drives me crazy. But I agree that the story has drawn me in enough that I'll definitely keep reading.

It was so great to meet you in person today, Tina! I loved every bit of my first LT Meetup and look forward to more in the future. Hopefully we can get together more often since we are practically neighbors!! LOL

Really nice reviews here Tina! Carry on...

We had a great time at the Maine Meetup today - great weather and a small but enthusiastic group:


Cindy's Mom, Heidi, Tina, Mike, Ed, Cindy


the line up: from left - clockwise
Mike (currerbell), Mr. Ed (hubbie of Cobscook), Cindy (country life)
Cindy's mom, Heidi (cobscook), Tina (tututhefirst)

Ballroom


Ballroom dancing seems to be making a recovery these days, perhaps thanks to several "Dancing, etc etc etc" TV shows.  Ballroom, Alice Simpson's debut novel tries to captures the world of ballroom dancing in the late 20th century by looking at that world from the point of view of about six major and several minor characters.

Although billed as a series of interconnecting stories, the characters connect only in the fact that they meet at a ballroom on Sunday nights.  I kept waiting for some deeper connection, but with two exceptions, these were lonely, shriveled up, past their prime, solitary creatures whose individual tales  related to each other only in their personal fantasies.

I really wanted to like this book, but it took quite a while for any relationships to develop, and when they finally began to emerge, they didn't go very far.  Even the endings of the stories left me bereft.  The ballroom, the dancers, the hangers-on, all of them seemed not to get what they were looking for, and it was hard for the reader to decide if the lack of closure was deliberate on the part of the author, or just not written well enough to bring some resolution to the reader. 

I found the publisher's back cover blurb to be misleading. 

Told in interconnecting stories, Ballroom is a beautifully crafted debut novel—reminiscent of the works of Elizabeth Strout and Jennifer Haigh—about a group of strangers united by a desire to escape their complicated lives, if only for a few hours each week, in a faded New York City dance hall.
Time has eroded the glamour of the Ballroom, but at the end of the 1990s, a small crowd of loyal patrons still makes its way past the floor-to-ceiling columns which frame the once grand hall each Sunday evening. Sweeping across the worn parquet floor under a peeling indigo ceiling, these men and women succumb to the magic of the music, looking for love and connection, eager to erase the drab reality of their complicated lives.
Nearly forty and still single, Sarah Dreyfus is desperate for love and sure she’ll find it with debonair Gabriel Katz, a dazzling peacock who dances to distract himself from his crumbling marriage. Tired of the bachelor life, Joseph believes that his yearning for a wife and family will be fulfilled—if only he can get Sarah to notice him. Besotted with beautiful young Maria Rodriguez, elderly dance instructor Harry Korn knows they can find happiness together. Maria, one of the Ballroom’s stars, has a dream of her own, a passion her broken-hearted father refuses to accept or understand.
As the rhythms of the Ballroom ebb and flow through these characters’ hearts, their fates come together in touching, unexpected ways.

This opens the door to let us spy on the main players, but I just don't buy the implication that everything comes together in the end.

The quotes from various dancing handbooks and etiquette books at the beginning of each chapter were fascinating and gave us a excellent glimpse into the past glories of the art.  There's an excellent bibliography of material about ballroom dancing in the book for those who want to delve further.

Title: BALLROOM
Author: Alice Simpson
Publisher: Harper Collins (2014)  ARC 285 pages
Genre: fiction
Subject: Ballroom dancing
Setting: New York city and environs
Source: review copy from the publisher
Why did I read this book now?  I was asked to do a review by the publisher.

Hurtling to the Edge: a thriller involving Physics, Religion, Drugs ....and Sex> by Ed Linz



potty mouth drug dealing group of sleaze balls takes 53 year old menopausal women on internet dating adventure. Total trash. I read because I know the self-pub'd author.

Not my cuppa.
A thriller? I guess that depends on your opinion of thrilling.
Physics? - way too much - author is a retired nuclear submariner who then taught HS honors physics for 20 years. (He also has an econ degree from Oxford).
Religion? I couldn't find it
Sex? WAY TOO MUCH and not how you're thinking.....

It's a kindle only, and if it comes up on the daily deal and you're in for an adventure, he's not a bad writer, but the whole premise of 53 year widows taking off across country to meet a 27 year old stud they found thru the internet does absolutely NOTHING for me.

Hi Tina!
Sorry to have missed the Maine meet-up yesterday. I was thinking of you all yesterday and wishing I could have worked it out somehow. The pictures show a happy bunch - no surprise there! So glad you had a good time :-)

How was the book store? Did you buy anything?

>76 -Cee-: The bookstore was typical mish-mash Maine antiques. organized well by categories, but difficult to find anything within the section. Children's book section (where I was looking for a couple treasures for the grandbabes) was a disaster ....books just thrown on shelves, no way to find anything except go through every single book. Didn't matter...I didn't go for the books. I went to have fun with similar minded people. We had a great visit, a very friendly and accomodating waitress at lunch, and a wonderful time. Well worth the effort.

I hope we can do it again, and that you can join us next time.

>77 tututhefirst: Hear, hear!!

I wanted to stop by and let you know that I went to my library today and voted in the 2014 MRCA.........drum roll please......my vote went to TransAtlantic. I had a super hard time deciding and really enjoyed all four of the finalists, but TransAtlantic is the one I keep thinking about.

Can't wait for next year's list!

Probably my favorite read was TransAtlantic. Or The Luminaries. Or....

I have eliminated Goldfinch but am so torn about the other three! My book club who read them all is also having the same problem. Voting ends on Sept 15, so I don't have much time left. YIKES.

The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing a 2014 sleeper!


What an enjoyable and enchanting read!  The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing brings us a cast of sometimes looney, but always loveable characters whose quirks are laid out for all to see, and whose struggles to become integrated into their society while holding onto their unique cultural identity are easily understood by anyone who has ever felt "different" for whatever reason.

The publisher's notes about the premise "Brain surgeon Thomas Eapen's decision to shorten his visit to his mother's home in India has consequences that reverberate two decades later as he starts conversing with the dead and daughter Amina must sort through the family's past to help him."  give us just a hint of the magic and mayhem the reader deals with in this story of three generations of family coming to grips with illness, emmigration, and different cultural norms - especially for young women.

The main character, Amina Eapen is a 20 something budding photographer living in Seattle who is called home to Albuquerque by her mother to help with her father Thomas' strange behavior.  (He's talking to dead people for one thing.)  Not only does Amina have to decide if this call for help is just a ploy on her mother's part to get her home again, but she has to sort out whether or not her father truly needs help and what she is responsible for doing.    All during her visit, various relatives appear, (among them her cousin "Dimple" the all-American girl who has fully adopted to not only the American way of life, but to the full feminist agenda) telling stories about the family back in India, and pulling Amina further along into the family past, not to mention trying to convince her to abandon her job in Seattle, and find a nice Indian boy to marry to settle down near her parents.

Mira does a fantastic job of weaving back and forth from past to present, of painting word pictures that have us seeing, hearing and smelling all the elements of the cultures this family is dealing with.  It's an emotional roller-coaster; it's a long read that takes a while to settle into; but in the end it's a story of love, forgiveness, acceptance, and hope.  It's perfect to settle into as the nights lengthen this autumn.  I just wish we had a good Indian take-away close by!

I had so much fun with this I checked out the audio also.  It's exceptionally well done - read by the author - and really gives the listener an added emotional dimension. Her ability to give different voices and accents to the characters is exceptional.

Title: The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
Author: Mira Jacob
Publisher: Random House (2014), Hardcover, 512 pages
Audio: Books on Tape (2014) 12 hours.
Genre: Literary fiction
Subject: immigration, assimilation, cultural differences
Setting: Albuquerque, Seattle, India
Source: Public library

Run, don't walk, to grab this one!

A Spinning Heart



A Spinning Heart is a small book, written in a series of 21 short, concise, heartbreaking and/or heartwarming vignettes about the inhabitants of an unnamed town in contemporary Ireland.  Simply put, it's 156 pages of pure literary gem.

Around 2008 Ireland had been experiencing a building boom, its young people had jobs, and the older generation was perhaps breathing a bit easier that this upcoming generation would not be forced to emigrate to find employment. Then the world financial crisis burst upon the scene with its impact crushing not only huge banks but small villages worldwide.

Ryan takes us to one such village, and tells the story of the impact of that burst bubble on the lives of the people living there.  With raw vernacular and piercing wit, we get to see a story through the eyes of each participant, whether active or passive.  The writing is stunning, the characters are so intricately carved that it is almost impossible to believe that we can know them that well when they each get only an average of 7 pages to tell their story.

As the stories progress, the puzzle pieces begin to fit together, and a whole emerges.  It is a spell-binding literary tour-de-force.  Donal Ryan certainly deserved the Irish Book of the Year award for this one.  He has another book coming out soon: The Thing About December. I'm already lining up for this one too.  This is an author we're going to be hearing about.  In the meantime, dust off your Irish slang dictionary, pull yourself a pint, and settle down.  This one can be read in a very pleasant evening.

Title: A Spinning Heart
Author: Donal Ryan
Publisher: Steerforth (2014), Paperback, 160 pages
Genre: Literary fiction
Subject: small town life in Ireland
Setting: unamed Irish village
Source: review copy from the publisher
Why did I read this book now?  It's being considered for the 2015 Maine Reader's Choice Award.

Many thanks to Steerforth Press for providing a review copy.

Oooooh....A Spinning Heart sounds fantastic!

Would you put that one on my pile, please?

Thanks for such a wonderfully written review of A Spinning Heart. On the tbr pile it goes.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. I imagine it is getting rather chilly in Maine.

Oh, Spinning Heart sounds marvelous! I must look for that. Great review!

>75 tututhefirst: Ugh! That one wouldn't appeal to me, either. Succinct and helpful review.

>84 cyderry: Cheli...as usual, you're in line after Mr. Robert.

You need to tell Mr. Robert to read faster. :-P

Short stories don't always check out well here, but that one does sound lovely, and Irish fiction is quite popular, thanks to one of the English professor's great enthusiasm for Irish lit.

Thanks for posting the meet up pictures. And the reviews. My daughter might really like the short stories. She is headed back to school and doesn't have a lot of free time and she spent last fall in Ireland. I will have to see if I can get it for her. : )

Oh, Tina. MUST you spend all my birthday money for me? *trudges off to Ammy*

>89 thornton37814: Lori, I certainly wouldn't classify Spinning Heart as short stories - it's more a series of different POV pulled together by the same set of circumstances. It reads like a novel, not a disconnected set of stories.

>92 tututhefirst: In that case, I'll try to remember to order it.

Oooh, several of the mysteries I'm waiting for at my library. And I'm hit by two more bullets - The sleepwalker's guide to dancing and A Spinning heart have gone directly to my hold list.

I've been bad at keeping up with threads this year. Glad to hear you're having so much fun reading.

>94 markon: Ardene....good to see you stopping by. I think you won't be disappointed by either of those book bullets.

Hi Tina! I'm stopping by to say I checked the MRCA website but it says the next list of books won't be announced until spring? Will the longlist be announced before that? (I hope so!)

The good news is, both The spinning heart and The sleepwalker's guide to dancing came in at the library. And I'm enjoying sleepwalkers guide. And I'm doing a science fiction/fantasy class on coursera, so now I have to shoehorn my reading around the reading and writing for the course.

Crossing my fingers in hope I can keep the heat turned off at my house a little longer.

et correct spelling

Hi Tina!!

>96 Cobscook: Heidi, I'm not sure how they're going to announce a long/short list this year. We're in a state of flux trying to refine a process. Fear not, I'll keep you posted on books we've been given to consider (those I consider a longish list). So far I've received:

*Shotgun Lovesongs
The Lobster Kings
Fourth of July Creek
The Free
*Spinning Heart
*Euphoria
*All the Light We Cannot See
The Headmaster's Wife
The Invention of Wings
Remember Me Like This
An Unnecessary Woman

I've read the **ones, and am 1/2 through Fourth of July and Lobster Kings. The only one I really wasn't impressed with (as far as saying "yes, move to the next level" was Euphoria.

I'll keep you posted. I'm especially curious to see what you think of The Lobster Kings if you get a chance to read it.

Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials


I'd never heard of Rosie "Aunty" Lee before TLC Blog Tours offered me a review copy of Ovidia Yu's latest volume in this series.   I was attracted to it by the setting.  Singapore is one of my favorite cities and if you asked me why, I'd say without a second thought "The Food."  So when I saw a story set in Singapore about a little old lady who ran a restaurant and a catering business I was in.  Here's what the publisher said to entice me:

Rosie “Aunty” Lee, the feisty widow, amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore’s best-loved home cooking restaurant, is back in another delectable, witty mystery involving scandal and murder among the city’s elite

Few know more about what goes on in Singapore than Aunty Lee. When a scandal over illegal organ donation involving prominent citizens makes news, she already has a list of suspects. There’s no time to snoop, though—Aunty Lee’s Delights is catering a brunch for local socialites Henry and Mabel Sung at their opulent house.
Rumor has it that the Sung’s fortune is in trouble, and Aunty Lee wonders if the gossip is true. But soon after arriving at the Sung’s house, her curiosity turns to suspicion. Why is a storage house she discovers locked—and what’s inside? What is the couple arguing about behind closed doors? Where is the guest of honor who never showed up?>Then, Mabel Sung and her son Leonard are found dead. The authorities blame it on Aunty Lee’s special stewed chicken with buah keluak, a local black nut that can be poisonous if cooked improperly. Aunty Lee has never carelessly prepared a dish. She’s certain the deaths are murder—and that they’re somehow linked to the organ donor scandal.

To save her business and her reputation, she’s got to prove it—and unmask a dangerous killer whose next victim may just be Aunty Lee.

I enjoyed the story, but found it to be a bit hard to follow.  There are numerous characters with similar names, and I needed to actually write down names and relationships to keep them straight.  The choppy dialogue was very disconcerting.   I couldn't tell if it was a poorly edited e-galley or if it was the author's attempt to replicate "pidgin" English ( or its Singaporean version).  The food descriptions were certainly enough to make me want to call my travel agent to book an immediate flight, but the murder mystery was a bit bland (OK, it's a cozy).  It was obvious from the beginning what was going on, and the machinations of Aunty (a nosy old lady if ever there was one) and her friends to out-solve the authorities (or convince them that a crime had been committed) got to be boring after a while.  I just wanted them to get on with it.   I liked the setting and the premise did offer some opportunities for mysterious undertakings. I certainly would recommend it to readers who like new and exciting settings, descriptions and recipes of good food, and a cast of crazy quirky characters.   I'm just not sure I could take an entire series of Aunty.  In view of Ms. Yu's background as a playwright, I'd bet this could be a great comedic play, movie, or TV series.

Title: Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials
Author: Ovidia Yu
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (2014)
Genre: Cozy mystery, amateur sleuth
Subject: illegal organ harvesting
Setting: Singapore
Series: Singaporean Mysteries
Source: e-galley from the publisher via Edelweiss
Why did I read this book now?  I am participating in the TLC Blog Tour

When We Were the Kennedys

 1963, Mexico, Maine. The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on a father’s wages from the Oxford Paper Company. Until the sudden death of Dad, when Mum and the four closely connected Wood girls are set adrift. Funny and to-the-bone moving, When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how this family saves itself, at first by depending on Father Bob, Mum’s youngest brother, a charismatic Catholic priest who feels his new responsibilities deeply. And then, as the nation is shocked by the loss of its handsome Catholic president, the televised grace of Jackie Kennedy—she too a Catholic widow with young children—galvanizes Mum to set off on an unprecedented family road trip to Washington, D.C., to do some rescuing of her own. An indelible story of how family and nation, each shocked by the unimaginable, exchange one identity for another.

Our local book club chose to read this one for our monthly discussion this week.  Set in Maine, it tells the author's family story of growing to adulthood in the same time frame as the majority of our members.  As such, it was a memoir for us too.  World events were the same ones we lived through. For several of us, the flashbacks to a pre-Vatican II catholic school education are almost chilling.  For all of us, the struggles of the family due to the father's death, and then the impending and always threatened closure of the paper mill (the town's major employer) are producing some dejà vu moments as several towns here in Maine are wrestling with exactly these problems of mill closures, bankruptcies, high unemployment and the despair that goes along with those events.

It's a beautiful and poignant story that, in spite of the hardships portrayed for the children, is full of hope and promise. Wood writes from the heart, evidencing the close and loving structure of her family, and the solidarity of small town life.  Definitely a memoir worth reading.

Title: When we Were the Kennedys
Author: Monica  Wood
Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (July 10, 2012), Amazon digital edition
Genre: Memoir
Subject:growing up after a parent's death
Setting: Mexico Maine
Source: my own digital shelf

Time to clean up the catch up. September is over and I'm still finishing up some series I got hooked on. I'm not writing reviews because when I read a series one after the other, the story blends (as well it should) and the enjoyment is ruined for me if I have to sort out what happened when. If I read one at a time with several months (or years) between volumes then I can "review" them as stand alones.

Anyway, thanks to our good friend Richard, I'm well into the Bruno Correges series and now have finished #4 The Crowded Grave - a really fun, spooky and well-written romp through the wine country of France. I love this series, and hope it will continue with Bruno finding true love! I have #5 Resistance Man planted on my MP3 for next week's swim sessions.

I've been totally immersed in Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kinkaid/Gemma James detective series. I cannot get enough of these, and find that as soon as I finish one, I'm on to the next. I got a bit out of order because I've been grabbing them as they become available from the library. I had to review #16 (see below) and found that it worked fine as a stand alone, but then wanted to go back and catch up. So in the last two months I've read #
Dreaming of the Bones 5
Kissed a Sad Goodbye 6
A Finer End 7
And Justice There is None 8
Now May You Weep 9
In a Dark House 10
Where Memories Lie 12
Necessary as Blood 13
Each one builds on the previous, but Crombie gives us just enough backfill to be able to pick up any book and read, understand and enjoy. I have three left, and will finish them by Thanksgiving.

Another ongoing series: Cork O'Connor by William Kent Krueger
Trickster's Point = as the series progresses, Cork becomes more introspective, and the tone more moralistic. Still a good story, but this one didn't grab me as much as earlier entries.

>99 tututhefirst: Thanks for the list Tina! I will start checking some of these out. I was already interested in The Lobster Kings of course.

When We Were the Kennedys sounds great too.

Hi Tina, I stopped by to see if you had anything to say about The Lobster Kings yet but instead I see that you loved When We Were the Kennedys. I thought it was great, too, and such a touching story.

I'm still loving the Montalbano books, one after another. I still have William Kent Krueger and Debbie Crombie on my list to try. My reading life was simpler back before I started reading anything that was part of a series!

>105 Copperskye: Joanne, I know what you mean about series. Every once in a while I get to where I need the sink in comfort of characters I know, and love, and want to walk with as they go through life. I just get a hankering to renew my acquaintance with them whenever a new book comes out, and often go back to read a few in the series to catch up. Other series don't grab me that way - I enjoy the characters, and like the settings, but don't feel personally invested in their lives.

Oh I need to do a major catch up myself but I wanted to check in on my regulars first.

The Bruno Correges series sounds fun

>100 tututhefirst: I won that one in the July ER batch but it never showed up. I'll read it if it ever shows up, but I doubt it will unless LT works a miracle. After reading your review, I'm not going to add it to a wish list to read if it doesn't show.

Lori, it's funny but I find that when ER books don't show up and I later check to see what others are saying that I usually say "Good riddance." I am missing 5 from the past 2 years, and only one of them am I panting for (it's a July book, so there's still an outside chance it might show up). I passed up a chance to get a few review copy from another source since ER told me I'd won it, and now I'm kicking myself.

>109 tututhefirst: It is funny how that generally works.

Time to catch up....here are a few photos from our recent trip south. This one shows our Mom at her 90th birthday party surrounded by her four daughters. L-R Chèli, aka cyderry on LT, Tina aka tututhefirst on LT, Maureen aka traumatroller on LT (although she's pretty silent - not a 75er YET), and Mary-Ruth - a great reader but not an LT member.



Mom has already decided she had so much fun that she'll have to live to be 100 so we'll throw another party for her!

This is the Tutu and Bob Branco branch of the family including daughter Lisa and tall husband Jon, son Matt (the mountain man) and granddaughter Kyla (Matt's daughter):

Our two grandsons, Adrian and Cameron were not able to attend Mom's party. Our wonderful daughter-in-law Amy stayed home with her boys - Adrian (4 1/2) had "the sniffles" and a sore throat, and Cameron was only 9 days old so they missed the celebration.



We brought Grammie over to spend a day with her boys and as you can see, she sure hasn't lost the touch with the little ones.



BTW, Cameron weighed in at 9lbs 6oz when he was born, so we all had to take turns holding him....too much for old shoulders! He's a strong strapping one.

Obviously Tutu will be making periodic trips to Virginia to keep tabs on both ends of the generational pyramid. It was a good trip, but I'm glad to be back, and now that our internet is back up in a steady state, I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend catching up on threads, and maybe even writing a few reviews.

Stay warm, it's going to be a wicked wintah.

Obviously, I've lost track of what numbers these are, although I know I'm way over 75, so let's just forget about that numbering nonsense.

Since I last posted any reviews,  I've finished 10 books, including the last three in the Duncan Kinkaid and Gemma James series by Deborah Crombie.  I was motivated to fill in the blanks I hadn't read after reviewing To Dwell in Darkness for the TLC Blog tour.  I've now completed that series, and can't wait for a new one to come out.  As I say earlier, I'm not writing reviews because when I read a series one after the other, the story blends (as well it should) and the enjoyment is ruined for me if I have to sort out what happened when. 
The Sound of Broken Glass
No Mark Upon Her
Water Like a Stone




Suffice it to say, all three of these were terrific reads.  I especially like how Crombie blends specific facets of London's neighborhoods and/or history to fashion a story.  Each book features the same characters, but the settings, and the criminals and their motivations are quite different.  She's exceptional at blending cold cases with new ones. 

And don't dare ask me which one is my favorite. I'll end this by saying that IMHO Deborah Crombie is right up there with Louise Penny when it comes to concocting good mystery stories.

Just One Damned Thing After Another


You've probably noticed that time travel is not my normal cuppa.  In life, however, there are always exceptions, and since this was so highly touted by several people (including our dear Richard), when it popped up as the Amazon Kindle freebie of the day, I thought I might as well see what all the hype was about.

It was certainly worth the marketing ploy, because now I want all the rest in this series.  It's light, it's humorous, it's got a little bit of something for everyone.

The author presents us with a delightful heroine who doesn't quite realize what she's gotten herself into, but who has the uncanny ability to hop back and forth in historic times, to perhaps "adjust" history.  She's cheeky, she's industrious, she's brilliant, and even if Jurassic park wasn't your thing, the dinosaurs in this one will change your mind.

Everything everyone says is true. Now I just have to pace myself, because this series is one I'm going to have to have.   I even paid for the "Whispersync" audio version from Amazon since the ebook was free.   That recording made it even more fun. 

Definitely worth trying the first one - it's still showing as free.  But beware, you'll be hooked.

Title: Just One Damned Thing After Another
Author: Jodi Taylor
Publisher/format: Accent Press Ltd (2014), ebook 332 pages, audio: Audio Studios
Genre: fantasy, time travel
Subject: time travel to various historic eras
Setting: England
Series: The Chronicles of St. Mary's
Source: My own library
Why did I read this book now?  It was highly recommended by several readers I trust.

River of Darkness


Tutu has egg on her face with this one.   I listened to the audio of River of Darkness back in August, and have had the book on my "write review" list since then.  I have several notations indicating I liked the setting, found the mystery compelling, and the protagonist engaging.  But my memory of the exact details of the story has dimmed.  I suppose that means that I may want to listen to it again.  It is however, the first in a series that looks like it may be just what I like in mystery series, so I'm going to go after #2, and hope that my memory gets refreshed enough to continue.  In the meantime, here is the publisher's recap:

In rural England, in a landscape shadowed by the sorrow of World War I, the peace of a small Surrey village is shattered by a murderous attack, which leaves five butchered bodies and no motive for the killings. Sent by Scotland Yard to investigate is Inspector John Madden, a grave and good man who bears the emotional and physical scars from his own harrowing war experiences and from the tragic loss of his wife and child. The local police dismiss the slaughter as a robbery gone tragically awry, but Madden and his chief inspector detect the work of a madman.

With the help of a beautiful doctor who introduces Madden to the latest developments in forensic psychology and who opens his heart again to the possibility of love, Madden sets out to identify and capture the killer--a demented former soldier with a bloody past--even as he sets his sights on his next innocent victims.

As darkly stylish as the best of P. D. James, rippled with tension and resonant with historical atmosphere, River of Darkness marks the debut of a powerful new voice in suspense writing and of a compelling character whom readers will long to know better.

Title: River of Darkness
Author: Rennie airth
Publisher: W.F. Howes Ltd./Clipper Audio ; Prince Frederick, Md. : Distributed by Recorded Books, p2002, c1999.  
Genre: mystery
Subject: murder, police procedural
Setting: rural England, post WWI
Series: John Madden
Source: public library
Why did I read this book now? It caught my eye while browsing the library.

The Resistance Man



Dear Richard introduced me to this series. It's become one of my favorites. Since France is one of the European countries where I've not traveled extensively and Walker's descriptions of the land, the landscape and the people really impart an atmosphere of the area, I really enjoy the rural French setting.

Bruno Courrèges, the engaging Chief of Police of the small town of St. Denis, is still struggling with several romantic interests, but the author handles the conflicts without having Bruno come across as a Lothario, ladies' man, or in any way unpleasant.  He's just a friendly gentleman whose female acquaintances aren't always everything he'd like them to be.

Romance aside, this series offers not only mysteries, in this case murder and an ancient unsolved train robbery, but also gives the reader a charming history lesson.  The Resistance Man elucidates the often confusing story of various political and military factions that inhabited France during World War II, by reflecting the adventures of several elderly inhabitants of the town who served during that period. The story is further embellished with descriptions of delicious foods and the wines that accompany them.

This is an altogether charming series with plenty of meat on its bones.  At the end of episode 6, I'm now hoping that Bruno might soon find a more permanent relationship so we can watch as he turns his small farm into a burgeoning family homestead.

Title: The Resistance Man
Author: Martin Walker
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc (2014)
Genre: mystery, police procedural
Subject: murder, train robbery, history and politics
Setting: fictional village of St. Denis France
Series: Bruno Courrèges 
Source: public library

Oh, my sister, why do you do this to me.

Debbie Crombie - ZAP!!! BB if you say she's up there with Louise, then I have to try her.

Bruno - ZAP!!! Another BB! You and Richard - shame on you.

I'm suitably ashamed ......(not!)

Etta Mae's Worst Bad-Luck Day


The Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross is one I've always enjoyed.  In this volume, the author serves up a previously ancillary character and makes her the star.  In this audio version I received from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, the story rings clear, clean and very southern, but without the often insipid southern accent many readers find necessary to give the story authenticity.

Etta Mae is introduced to us by Miss Julia who tries very hard not to appear prejudiced against this "poor girl" who hasn't had all the right opportunities that life can dish out.  In fact, you can almost hear the phrase "poor white trash" bouncing through Miss Julia's head. 

Etta Mae is trying to better herself.  To that end, she has become a certified home care provider and landed the plum job of caring for a very wealthy, but very sickly old gentlemen.  Visions of sugarplums (and dollar signs) dance through Etta Mae's head as she sets out to capitalize on her patient's obvious obsession to marry her while outsmarting the gentleman's grown son and daughter-in-law who are intent upon stashing him in a sterile old age facility well out of the reaches of Etta Mae.

The mad-cap shenanigans that befall all the players are almost over the top.  At times I thought I was reading an episode of Three Stooges meets Green Acres.  In the end, justice (of a sort) is done, and life goes on.

This is a pleasant, if zany, read that will help while away a pleasant weekend in the upcoming winter.

Title: Etta Mae's Worst Bad Luck Day
Author: Ann B. Ross
Publisher: Recorded Books
Genre: southern fiction
Subject: getting rich quick
Setting: fictional town of Abbotsville NC
Series: Miss Julia
Source: review copy from the publisher

I was impressed with River of Darkness, and bought a copy of the next in that series. I must get around to reading it.

You've reminded me that I have a lot of great books on tap. Bruno, Chief of Police, River of Darkness, Just One Damned Thing After Another, and a Deborah Crombie (I forget which one), are all lined up unread on the shelf. One of these days and hopefully soon I'll get to them!

Your family photos are delightful! And what a span of ages. Your mom looks wonderful. And so happy, I'm sure, to be surrounded by her family.

Love the photos from your trip!

Good to see you've joined the Chronicles of St. Mary's fans. I want to read the second one soon.

I listen to the audio versions of the Miss Julia series. They're great for my driving around and commute time. I'm a few behind - I think Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle is next up for me.

I am also a Chronicles of St Mary's fan. Glad you are enjoying the series. Thanks for sharing all the photos. : )

Hi Tina!!! Loved your family photos and congratulations on the new grandbaby. Our dear Govna gave me the afternoon off so I am trying to catch up on LT....hope the snow is not too bad on your end of the state. Just started about an hour or so ago here.

I'm another St. Mary's fan....number two is excellent as well!

Happy Thanksgiving, Tina!

I read the first Ann B. Ross book a few months ago. Really enjoyed it and definitely hope to continue with these soon.

Hey Tina! Just stopping by to note that Sarah Graves has started a new mystery series and the first one is one this month's ER list. Looks like it takes place in the Allagash.

Heidi....thanks for the heads up. I'm determined to make 2015 the year of the series.....and only ones that I want to read, no more assigned books.

>128 tututhefirst: I'm determined to make 2015 the year of the series.....and only ones that I want to read, no more assigned books.

Tina, I'm kind of thinking the same thing. I think I'm going to pass on all challenges that would get in the way of me choosing what I want to read -- no category challenges, no ROOT challenge, no author challenges. (If I really feel like reading something that fits a group read or challenge, maybe I'll join in, though.) I'll probably title my thread something like "tymfos reads whatever the heck she wants, whenever she wants to, regardless of where it came from, how long she's owned it, or who else is reading it." And I really want to get caught up on some of my favorite series.

I've let some series reading get stalled this year because I owned the next book in line, and it wasn't old enough to count as a ROOT. That's silly.

I'm thinking 2015 will be the year when all of us throttle back and read willy-nilly. after all, we're not in school, there are no haftas and we're here on LT because we love to read.

that said, I do love to share and see what others are reading, so I'm also going to make it the year of the mini review.. just a few sentences about what I'm reading.

I'm even thinking of putting my blog in hiatus and only chatting here on LT.

I think mini-reviews rock! Easy for both writer and reader to deal with quickly. If a mini review catches my eye and I want more info, I can always look it up.

I've recently simplified my category challenge for 2015 to the point where all I'll plan to read is basically what I want to read...mysteries, sports books, history, and novels (non-mystery fiction).

If I do a TIOLI challenge or anything else, it'll be basically whatever I want to read and not something I'm feeling forced to read.

I think we are all thinking along the same lines. My categories are so broad that it isn't even funny. They are basically how they came into my possession. The one exception will be the "challenge books" category which will allow me to participate in the ones in which I wish to participate. I may not read something every month for every one, but if I hit 15 total, I've made it. I want to read what I want to read for the most part also. I do, however, want to make some backlogs of books go away. I think my challenge allows that. I can usually find a spot for most of my reads in the TIOLI challenge, but I've had a few that didn't fit. I plug them in if they fit.

Haven't been posting for awhile. Real life, MRCA, and just plain review fatigue have taken over. I'm going to wrap up this thread with a quick recap of the year, and tomorrow morning (or later this AM I guess) I'll start a 2015 thread.

As far as I can tell, I read a total of 113 books in 2014. No formal stats, but about 40-50% were audio, another 30% were in e format. Here are my top ten (not in any order whatsoever):

Benediction
Transatlantic
All the light we cannot see
The Long Way Home
Shotgun Lovesongs
The Free
Fourth of July Creek
Remedy for Love
Invention of Wings
Orphan Train

Several of these are books that I've read as a panel member for the Maine Reader's Choice Award. The entire long list for the award for is listed here. Do check out the list. There are some fabulous reads there. I for one am going to have a very difficult time choosing 10 out of that 25. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, in addition to reading those books, I'm going to finish up some that I have promise reviews for ( a couple ERs still waiting) and then concentrate on some non-fiction, some mysteries, and a few cozies.

I'm way behind where I'd wanted to be on reading presidential bios, I'm horribly behind on several series I want to continue, and January 16th is looming to close. I'm supposed to be leading a discussion of Ben Ames Williams' epic novel of Maine COME SPRING and I've only finished 185 of the 866 pages. It's incredibly interesting, set right here where I live, and I want to dive in and not come up. With projects like this looming, it's no wonder I'm suffering from review revolt.

Best wishes for a wonderful New Year to all of you who have inspired me to continue to expand my reading horizons, share my love of books, and just enjoy the fellowship of readers around the world. LT ROCKS!

Tina--Best wishes for a wonderful 2015!! Thanks for all your great recommendations. Of course you had a large selection to recommend from--113 books is awesome!! Happy New Year.

Oh I love Come Spring!!!!!

Also, love your list of top reads for 2014!