What are you reading the week of October 31, 2020?

Boo! Happy Hallowe'en! What are you reading?

I've just finished If It Bleeds by Stephen King. I enjoyed three of the four stories very much.

Next on my list are The Bone People by Keri Hulme and for non-fiction, I've picked up Jane Austen's England by Roy and Lesley Adkins.

Still reading Or What You Will, The Devil You Know, and Troubled Blood. Making slow progress on all of them.

Just finished Merren and the Heron! Cute new picture book :) It's an indie, and the author is going a giveaway right now to promote it.

Shadow of Doubt (Newpointe 911 Series #2)
by Terri Blackstock
(OverDrive audio/Christian suspense)

Just finished the enthralling The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Highly recommended.

I've just reached the halfway mark of Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow by Leon F. Litwack. This is a long, detailed, infuriating, depressing and essential history of life in the American south from the end of the Reconstruction Era to the Great Migration to the north in the middle of the 20th century. Learning how how cruel, unremitting and effective wee the efforts to keep blacks as individuals and as a group from improving their lives is horrifying. I'll have more to say when I finish the book.

I'm still reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón because I spent too much time watching scary movies in October.

Finished up the month with Joseph Wambaugh's true-crime tale, The Blooding. Interestingly enough, I realized fairly early in that I had read it years ago, and while I remembered bits and pieces of it, I couldn't remember "whodunnit" and how the killer was apprehended. Wambaugh has pretty well retired at this point, and I do miss his stuff, which was always well-written.

October was an 11-book month for me, with Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls being the best read of the month.

Have just started Busting the Brass Ceiling as an LTER.

Finished listening to the moving novel, The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi.

Next up for listening is Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart.

Finished Late Migrations which probably will top my list of fav non fiction this year, and very possibly the top of my total reads.

Starting Hilary Mantels Mantel pieces hoping these are mostly new to me pieces, tho I suspect there will be a few that are not.

I just started The Searcher by Tana French, and for when I’m just too anxious to concentrate, I’m dipping into Billy Collins’ latest collection, Whale Day.

I finished the LTER book, The Language of Liberty. It was an extremely informative book, presenting in encyclopedic format much information on the history of the government's formation and how it works. In my opinion, however, when the author expressed his own opinions and concerns, he did so from a traditional conservative view point.

Finished The Devil You Know by Mike Carey. Enjoyed it but, like his SF stuff he writes as M. R. Carey, it does tend toward the brutal/violent at times. He doesn't really pull his punches.

Added DEV1AT3 by Jay Kristoff to my rotation.

At long last, I finished reading The Rosy Crucifixion: Plexus by Henry Miller. What a brilliant writer!

Next up to read is an Early Reviewer selection, a collection of short stories, part of the Akashic Books Noir Series, Berkeley Noir by Jerry Thompson &Owen Hill.

At long last, I finished reading The Rosy Crucifixion: Plexus by Henry Miller. What a brilliant writer!

Next up to read is an Early Reviewer selection, a collection of short stories, part of the Akashic Books Noir Series, Berkeley Noir by Jerry Thompson.

The Housekeeper: A twisted psychological thriller
by Natalie Barelli
(OverDrive Kindle)

Fair And Tender Ladies –Lee Smith
5*****

Ivy Rowe is born around the beginning of the 20th century in the mountain cabin where her parents have settled. She is in the middle of a pack of eight children and we learn about her life through the letters she writes, beginning at age 12 to a pen pal in Holland, or to her teacher, and continuing through her long life as she writes to her friends and family over the decades.

What a marvelous character! Ivy is curious and adventurous, intelligent if lacking education, forthright, determined, and self-reliant. She makes mistakes and deals with them. She finds love in the wrong places and then with a good man. She observes the workings of the world as it changes around her but remains true to her tiny corner and her mountain ways. She raises children – her own, her neighbor’s, her grandkids. She helps her neighbors, advises her siblings, dares to dream big, and resolves to live well and true to herself. And through it all she writes these wonderful letters, full of all the emotions of life – joy, despair, hope, dejection, enthusiasm, resignation and love, always love.

The landscape is vividly portrayed and practically a character. I’ve driven through some of these mountain areas in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, but even if I had never seen them with my own eyes, I think I would have a clear picture in my head based on Smith’s descriptions. I could hear the bees buzzing, smell the fragrance of a summer meadow, feel the leaves crunch underfoot on an autumn afternoon, or smell the smoke from a chimney fire welcoming me home on a cold winter evening.

Smith also uses a vernacular dialect throughout. However, Ivy’s language (and spelling) improve as she grows from a 12-year-old with limited education to a grown woman who loves to read. There were a few times when I really had to stop to think before I could puzzle out what a word was. For example, Ivy mentions “hunting sang” and continues writing about “sang” … and it wasn’t until she mentioned that it’s only the root, “which looks like a headless man” that I finally realized that she was talking about ginseng. Still, I really enjoyed the colloquialisms Smith used, which gave a definite Southern flavor to the text.

Espresso Shot – Cleo Coyle
Digital audiobook read by Rebecca Gibel
3***

Coffeehouse Mystery series book # 7 finds Clare Cosi in the uncomfortable position of catering a wedding reception for her ex-husband and his intended. The bride-to-be is a Trend magazine’s editor – wealthy, beautiful, sophisticated and a known tastemaker. But when people connected to the event begin to die, Clare’s radar goes into high gear and she starts investigating.

I like this series. It’s populated with a nice cast of recurring characters and Clare’s romance with detective Mike Quinn is heating up nicely. There are plenty of suspects and some twists and turns to keep the reader (and Clare) guessing. I find all the references to foodie culture and explorations of different cuisines, desserts and beverages (including various coffees) entertaining. Recipes are included at the end, and I’m really tempted to try the Lomo Saltado included in this volume.

Rebecca Gibel does a fine job narrating the audio book. I especially like the way she voices Madame, Clare’s ex-mother-in-law.

Compulsion
Jonathan Kellerman
3/5 stars
Alex Delaware, psychologist, hooks up with his old colleague Detective Milo Sturgis to search for a missing young woman, tries to solve the cases of an ex-school teacher who was killed in her driveway and solve the cases of two dead women found in a beauty shop. Are the cases linked and who did it? Full of details, you will be guessing to the very end. Not my favorite book of the series but never boring!

Just finished Aspire to Die and starting Killing by Numbers both easy reading mysteries by MS Morris, handy at this time.

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