Thankful for a Library Haul

 

With the holidays fast approaching, it feels like there’s not enough time to prepare for them as well as enjoy the delights of the season to boot.

However, getting something good to read is as important as finding the ideal vegetables for your Thanksgiving side dishes(my mom is a rutabaga fan)so a library trip combined with a little grocery shopping was fruitful on both counts.

The first book on my to-be-borrowed pile was Lucy Foley’s  The Guest List, which I had tried to read in ebook form last year but it was too popular a library loan to have for long.

The story is set on an island, where celebrity couple Will Slater and Julia Keegan are having their big wedding. The occasion is fraught with tension already from jealous members of the wedding party, not to mention a mysterious note given to the bride warning her about the groom , before a murder is announced during the reception.

The fact the Irish island where this wedding is taking place was formerly best known as the site of a gruesome massacre doesn’t inspire much confidence among the still living attendees. Can those who remain survive long enough to discover the killer in their midst?

This book happens to be a Reese Witherspoon book club selection and I tend to like many of those page turning picks of hers. Also, TGL has been favorably compared to the Agatha Christie classic, And There Were None, which adds some extra sinister spice to the party mix indeed:

The next novel that caught my eye was That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron. 

The title lady is Jennie Jerome Churchill, the mother of historic British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Well before he was born, Jennie was making a name for herself in more ways than one.

Jennie was an American heiress(one of those Edith Wharton style “buccaneers “)  who married Lord Randolph Churchill and became a very well received society wife, eager to advance her husband’s political career.

As time went on, it was clear to her that she was in a marriage of connivance and in order to find true affection, Jennie had to look elsewhere. That pursuit of passion did not affect her determination to advance the goals that her husband and then later on, her son had in mind to make the world a better place.

I’ve read several of Barron’s Jane Austen Mystery books and really liked them, so that alone makes this worth a try. Plus, this story sounds like a good way to learn a bit more about Jennie Churchill, a woman who seemed to know how to make the best of things while staying true to herself:

To round this library stack off, I went with A Wrench in the Works by Kate Carlisle, one of the books in her Fixer-Upper Mystery series.

Shannon Hammer is well known for her home renovation skills along with her knack for solving murders but her sister Chloe is more of a household name due to her popular show on the Home Builders Network.

When Chloe and her film crew come to their hometown of Lighthouse Cove for some special episodes, Shannon is happy to see her sister again after being ten years apart from each other.

 Yet, despite Chloe’s seemingly successful life, there are some hidden tensions and secrets that threaten to be revealed when her executive producer Bree is found as dead as a door nail.

Can Shannon use both sides of her toolbox to help her sister out of this sticky situation or is Chloe painted into a deadly corner with no way out?

Over this past year, I have become a fan of Carlisle’s Bibliophile Mysteries titles(reading one as we speak at the moment) and thought that checking out her other cozy mystery series would be fun. 

Also, some of these books have been turned into Hallmark Channel movies and this gives me good reason to watch a couple of them before the new year begins:

While I must confess to not having finished all of the books from my last library haul(the Stephen King book was read quickly) but I do have higher hopes for this TBR pile.

Mostly, I’m thankful to be able to visit my local library on a regular basis and that we still have the right to read freely, a right that is being challenged more and more these days. Things are bad enough as it is without simple minded folk attempting to force their particular brand  of narrow thinking upon all of society.

Hopefully, a celebration such as Thanksgiving can unite us in focusing on what positive energy we can bring to the collective dinner table as well as set up more chairs for others to join in and contribute to the mutual bounty. 

So, I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and/or Friendsgiving to relax, have a great meal and spend a little time with your loved ones, perhaps watching a classic or sharing a fine read: