My High Summer reading has me feeling blue in a good way

It may not be December but the weather outside is frightful as in frightfully hot enough to stay indoors with a cool drink and a good book at hand. Fortunately, the Seasons of Reading High Summer readathon is set to start this August and the sign ups have begun(I’m lucky number seven on that list!).

As per my usual, three books are on my TBR here and the one thing they have in common (other than being novels, that is) is that each cover has a strong element of blue as background color, artwork, etc. Coincidence? Perhaps but with these ever increasingly heated days ahead of us, any cooling touch is welcome indeed:

First up is Jennifer Weiner’s The Summer Place, set at a Cape Cod summer house where a big family wedding is planned with the standard amount of hectic arrangements, last minute guests and long held secrets and lies just waiting to be revealed.

Some of the drama here comes from Sarah, whose stepdaughter Ruby is marrying Gabe who Sarah thinks is rushing into this marriage a little too soon. Also, her husband Eli has become rather emotionally distant since Ruby’s announcement and her stepson Sam is newly widowed with conflicting feelings about his romantic future.

Meanwhile, Sarah’s mother Veronica is just happy to have one last family gathering at the house she’s planning to sell but is worried that a certain something from her own past might pop up during this farewell party of sorts.

Weiner is at her best when chronicling the ins and outs of familial relationships and this book sounds picture perfect for her writing wheelhouse there. Definitely an end of summer read if I ever saw one to be sure:

Next up is A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore, the second entry in her League of Extraordinary Women series.

The subtitle refers to a group of women fighting for the suffragette cause in Victorian England who find themselves having to deal with high society men to achieve their goals.

Lady Lucie Tedbury would much rather prefer to fully own all of the shares of the London based magazine she has recently acquired to publish her  political views on the controversial Married Women’s Property Act.

However, the remaining shares belong to Lord Tristan Ballentine, a known ladies man who needs the magazine to be successful in order to free himself and his mother from being under the vicious thumb of his father.

As Lucie and Tristan attempt to reach a reasonable compromise that doesn’t compromise Lucie’s reputation, an attraction does arise between them that appears to be mutual. Can these two work together in more ways than one to the benefit of each or is true love the ultimate price to pay here?

I did greatly enjoy the first book in this series, Bringing Down the Duke, and hope for more of the same lively energy in this next outing. Publishing both then and now is a heartfelt venture that can make or break someone but in this case, I wish for the former most passionately:

For the finale, my choice is the third book in Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series, Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen.

As the third bride-to-be of Henry VIII, Jane is understandably reluctant to enter marriage, particularly as she’s seen up close what happens when a woman defies this particular king.

Pressured by her ambitious family , Jane gives in and winds up falling in love with Henry, who seems to really care for her. Nonetheless, the shadows of the wives before her are impossible to ignore completely.

I have read the other books in this series and like how Weir blends historical facts so seamlessly into her fictional takes on these real life characters. 

Plus, I did promise myself to read at least one more of Weir’s novels on my TBR shelf before looking into her more recent work so this is a good opportunity to do that. Jane Seymour may look like the least exciting of the six wives yet she could contain multitudes of depth within her romantic soul:

The High Summer readathon runs for the entire month of August and if you want to sign up and/or learn more about it, please check out the link in the first paragraph of this post. Thanks in advance to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for setting this literary romp up for us all in smartly steadfast fashion.

And it looks like we’ll be getting more time to read beyond this season as there are now two strikes in Hollywood that will delay many a movie and TV production schedule.

With the Writers Guild of America (WGA) along with Screen Actors Guild (SAG) both sharing equal concerns about their payments being severely undercut and having AI being used to minimize their creative contributions to the corporations that have grown obscenely wealthy off of their labor, the wait for new content will be more than worth it.

This isn’t about giving movie stars big bucks; it’s about getting regular working actors enough money to live on and be able to afford health insurance from residuals that have gone down to literal pennies in some cases.

Also writers need to be included when comes out to getting a proper slice of the payout pie, not to mention the insult of having AI gobbledegook replace their hard work in the not too distant future.

With Hollywood executives acting like mustache twirling villains by boasting of “starving the writers out” and insisting that SAG’s issues are “not realistic “, it’s going to be awhile here on the picket line, folks.

So let us support those on strike in any way we can and use this extra time to catch up on some good books or movies and shows that we haven’t seen yet (got a few Marvel series to watch myself!). 

It is extremely important that Hollywood be made aware that the creative people they hire have talents that are independently owned and deserved to be treated with respect as well as equally compensated :

 

Back on the Book Haul saddle again!

Well, I did take a brief break from book buying (granted, emphasis on the brief part to be sure) but now am happy to say that my summer time fun is fully underway in this regard.

My first big purchase was from Book of the Month Club; having skipped June, I made up for lost time by selecting one of their major new releases, The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

This novel chronicles the growing friendship between future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, who became known as the First Lady of the civil rights movement.

Despite their overt differences, both women had much in common, particularly a drive to improve the basic conditions of women via access to education as well as offer those impoverished by the Great Depression a chance to get back on their feet.

Through a mutual understanding of what needed to be done to achieve as many of their goals as possible, Mrs. Roosevelt said Mrs. Bethune decided to join forces to not only support FDR in his bid for the White House but to change the viewpoint of one political party to a more favorable approach to the issues facing Black Americans. Not an easy task to be sure yet having each other’s back at certain times was a good start.

I started reading this book on the Fourth of July (I kid you not!) and so far, it’s a well paced and engaging read. Both authors write together in excellent harmony with much depth of character and feeling. Much like the iconic women of this story, this literary partnership is one for the books indeed:

Added to that was a debut novel, Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul and the latest from Fiona Davis, The Spectacular.

Set in 1956 NYC, Marion Brooks decides to upend the course of her dreary expected life by becoming a Radio City Rockette. 

While the job costs her a breakup with her fiancé and her own family, Marion is thrilled to be living her dream of professional dancing. Caught up in the backstage life of her contemporaries, plus a new chance at romance, she starts to feel that her life has truly begun.

However, an attack at Radio City Music Hall by the unknown “Big Apple Bomber” shakes Marion’s new found confidence to the core. Can her dreams continue or is this her last dance?

Even though I do have a couple of other Fiona Davis books to get to, it’s hard to resist picking up a brand new one. Davis has a wonderful knack for placing well thought out characters at prime real estate locations in New York, making their lives an integral component of what makes this setting so special there. A good mix of history with heart:

Next up is my Simon Books Buddy selection, courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

They sent me the paperback edition of Marianne Wiggins’ Properties of Thirst, a novel that takes place in the early stages of WWII on a California ranch run by the Rhodes family.

As patriarch Rocky battles for water rights with the city of Los Angeles, his daughter Sunny pursues her love of cooking while a newcomer named Schiff is pursuing her heart. Schiff is sent by the government to set up an internment camp for Japanese Americans, a task that he quickly loses the taste for. Can this mutual loathing of official policy bring Schiff imo the family fold or will this connection not bring any of them a lasting peace?

This does sound like what some call a thumping good read but I may save it for autumn. Something about this epic saga energy of this book is going me all the fall feelings;

Finally, my last stop was my local library, where I returned four books (finished two of them at least) and borrowed a pair of mystery related reads.

One of them was the newest entry in Ellery Adams’ The Secret,Book & Scone Society series entitled Paper Cuts and the other is Rogue Justice , the follow up to Stacey Abrams’ Supreme Court thriller While Justice Sleeps.

Avery Keene is still working at the highest court in the land but it’s the demise of a judge at the FISA(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) that leads her to another case to be solved. 

Before his death, law clerk Preston Davies tells Avery that his former boss was being blackmailed with a deepfake video into making rulings that drove her to end her own life. Witnessing Preston’s murder, Avery is determined to find out what the ultimate point of this secretive plot is that has already cost two lives and perhaps more to come.

I did enjoy While Justice Sleeps (also a library loan) and this looks to be more of the same, which is a welcome sight to be sure. As timely as this book is, having a fictional force of nature take on the upper echelon bad guys is definitely my idea of a good time:

That should be enough for now, I hope. With the weather getting wilder and warmer by the day, sitting under the AC with a stack of good books at hand sounds like the perfect vacation spot to me.

I’m also looking forward to the third season of Only Murders in the Building (recently added Hulu to my TV lineup and caught up with this fantastic show!) this August, especially with Meryl Streep being a guest star! Yes, Paul Rudd is here as well but Meryl is must-see, no question about it, a true summer treat indeed:

 

My Sci-Fi Summer did some fantasy footwork there

Self fulfilling prophecy alert! I did say that after two of these readathons where I finished all of the books on those respective TBRs, that the Sci-Fi Summer one was going to break that potential streak for me and it did!

This, of course, is of my own doing as I chose much longer books for this challenge and seriously underestimated how long one of them would take to read(YA fantasy shouldn’t be taken for granted in this regard). However, two out of three really isn’t that bad so let me get into this pair of fantastical reads:

The School for Good and Evil 3: The Last Ever After-Yes, despite the high page count, I thought this would be a quick read but to be fair, there is quite a bit of backstory that requires the additional length.

When we last left Agatha and Sophie, the two of them were in separate realms with their respective “true loves” but as it turns out, neither girl is really happy or safe from the total destruction of both their worlds.

As Agatha and her prince Tedros head back to the tittle school, things have definitely taken a few turns for the worse as zombie versions of classic villains have risen up to brutally rewrite the endings of their stories at the behest of Rafal, the evil School Master determined to make Sophie his Queen.

Teaming up with a band of aging former fairytale heroes and the wizard Merlin, Agatha and Tedros must find a way to convince their friend to break her ties with Rafal to save the day yet can Sophie truly turn down the chance at some sort of true love, not to mention a crown?

I did enjoy the wild twists that this finale took, including the bits of humor from the pack of old school legends (including a very cranky Cinderella!) at times. This book was more than just a wild ride through fairytale land as character development emerged strongly and many surprisingly touching moments occurred all the way towards the end.

There are more books in this series (a follow up trilogy and a pair of prequels) but I think that I’m good stopping here. The ending tied up most of the major plot points and left a few loose ends to be suitably imagined by the reader if you ask me. 

At the very least, I got to see both leading ladies achieve their dreams even if one of those made her an evil queen for a day:

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi: We don’t get enough pirate queens in pop culture, if you ask me, and this novel by Shannon Chakraborty more than makes up for in treasure chest abundance.

Amina has retired from sea faring life to raise her daughter Marjana in relative peace but her past comes back to demand one more journey from her.

A wealthy woman who happens to be the mother of Asif, a former crew member that died under secret circumstances, requests that Amina find her missing granddaughter Dunya, who has been allegedly kidnapped by Falco, man seeking objects of powerful magic.

Amina is reluctant to take this job but a combination of great payment and threats against her family make her say yes. Along the way, a number of  very startling revelations and dangerous encounters cause her to reconsider this voyage but an experienced sailor like Amina knows when there is a point of no return indeed.

This book is old fashioned storytelling at its finest with fresh takes on both the characters and expected tropes to boot. What’s not to love about a book with a pirate queen battling evil magicians, sea monsters and the occasional acting up of an injured knee?

I got this book from Book of the Month Club awhile ago and saved it for this readathon which made it go down like a very fine wine there. If you get a chance to read it, do so as soon as possible! This is one literary trip you won’t regret :

While I am sorry about not getting to The Fifth Season in time, this was still a great readathon and much thanks to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for making this all happen.

The rest of the summer should be smooth sailing but I do plan to put a few books aside for the High Summer readathon in August. 

We’re getting some steamy dog days of the season to be sure so staying cool with a good book sounds ideal to me. Not much out there to tempt me to venture out beyond my local library but best wishes to those heading out for some warm weather fun, especially if you’re a Barbie fan:

 

My Series-ous Reading is haunted by Jane and The Ghosts of Netley

My Triple Play theme for this year’s Series-ous Reading takes me further into Jane Austen country with Stephanie Barron’s Jane and the Ghosts of Netley, which directly follows the SR selection from last month, Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House.

Jane is still living near Southampton when she receives an invitation to secretly meet up with one of her dearest friends (and possibly more than that), Lord Harold Trowbridge aka The Gentleman Rogue.

She’s well aware of the discreet missions that Lord Harold done on behalf of king and country, even adding some assistance of her own from time to time. This is one of those occasions that requires some of Jane’s help as a woman from Lord Harold’s past has just moved into Netley Lodge and keeping his presence a secret is important for the moment.

The lady in question is Sophia Challoner, a widow with no love for English politics, particularly due to their restrictions upon the Catholic faith. Jane becomes injured during her attempts to casually observe the doings at Netley and Sophia’s courtesy towards her soon grows into a new friendship.

She soon doubts that all of Lord Harold’s suspicions about Sophia are correct but gathers up some concerns of her own as a local shipyard is attacked with a man being ruthlessly killed in the process. Furthermore, Sophia is also entertaining a mysterious American guest named James Ord and an even more mysterious visitor known only as Monsignor:

Once Lord Harold makes his presence known to Sophia, tensions rise even greater. As Jane finds herself caught between these two dynamic forces, can she truly make an accurate judgment of the situations before her, not to mention her own heart?

Having read the book that comes after this one(Jane and His Lordship’s Legacy) already, I was somewhat prepared for a certain character to permanently depart the narrative here. 

Despite that knowledge, the final scene between him and Jane was most touching and startling indeed.

What was a real surprise for me was the appearance of Maria Fitzherbert into the plot. The not so secret love(and not legally recognized wife) of the Prince Regent comes to visit Sophia and appears to have connections with several of the guests at Netley, making the political intrigue that Lord Harold is involved with rise to a much higher level there.

I do appreciate the research that Barron does  for these book and slips neatly into the storylines, sometimes with footnotes, that enriches the world around her version of Jane Austen. That blend of actual history with inspired imagination is what make the Jane Austen Mystery a real cut above the rest for me:

Soon this part of my Triple Play pleasure will be at an end as I am now reading Jane and the Barque of Frailty. This will complete the series for me until the actual last novel is published this fall.

For this story, Jane is staying in London with her banker brother Henry and his wife Eliza as she is getting ready for her first novel, Sense & Sensibility, to be released to the public.

When the shocking death of a foreign princess happens not too far from her family’s doorstep, Jane grows curious about the case and becomes even motivated to find the killer when she and her sister-in-law are accused of taking part in the crime!

Yes,Jane never did fit well into London society and as her fictional heroines Elinor and Marianne discover, such places do bring excitement of the worst kind into ordinary people’s lives most certainly there:

 

Following a fresh stream of summer reading

It may be early in the summer season but the vibe is definitely giving off halfway point there.

What with questionable weather,dreary news updates and lackluster  blockbuster films, the tone is decidedly more in the dog days zone than the good old summertime scene.

A good way to push back against such overheated weariness is to cool off with a great read and a streaming show that ties in together nicely. For example, the new season of Outlander has begun on Starz, airing on Friday nights.

As the Revolutionary War fast approaches, Jamie and Claire find themselves having to make choices that will not impede history yet also protect their loved ones from serious harm. The consequences for all are all the more dire for knowing what is supposed to be.

The Diana Gabaldon novels that this show is based upon have gained new readers while pleasing the already loyal fans for the most part, not easy to do at all. Nevertheless, this new season is truly a welcome sight to see on screen.

I’ve been a fan of the show ever since it started and yes, the books are long(I have only read a couple of them) but just one of them should tide you over nicely during many a heat wave to come:

If you’re more in the mood for something a bit shorter and snappy, Amazon does have the adaptation of Naomi Alderson’s The Power fully available.

This story is set in our world where across the globe, young women and girls are discovering that they possess an electrical energy that literally changes the power balance between the sexes.

The possible impact of this sudden shift is explored through various characters such as a politician (Toni Collette) who wants to see how this can alter her path of ambition to a journalist (Toheeb Jimoh) getting the ultimate story of the century and the daughter of a crime boss(Ria Zmitrowicz) looking to being truly in charge of her life.

The novel was amazing and hopefully, this series has lived up to such the embarrassment of riches that the source material provides:

However, for those of you looking for some book club fare, Reese Witherspoon and company have something right up your literary alley.

Jennifer Garner takes the lead in Apple + TV ‘s miniseries, The Last Thing He Told Me, based on Laura Dave’s bestselling novel chosen for Reese’s Hello Sunshine Book Club. Garner plays Hannah, a woman who discovers that she doesn’t know her husband Owen(Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) as well as she thinks she does, especially when he disappears seemingly without a trace.

In order to find him along with some answers, Hannah has to team up with Bailey(Angourie Rice), her teen stepdaughter who is just as confused and concerned about her father. Can they locate him before those out to destroy their family unit do so?

I really like how Reese Witherspoon has been very forward thinking in bringing good books to cinematic life, whether it’s a big Hollywood movie or a made for streaming showcase. I haven’t read every book that’s been highlighted in her club but many of them I have enjoyed and anticipate seeing sometime soon on screen:

Of course, it’s going to be awhile before many of our favorite shows return due to the Writers Guild strike (which may be followed by an actor’s strike as well). It’s ridiculous that these top executives refuse to properly pay the people who are making these vast fortunes for them but selfishness and greed know no bounds, it seems.

Frankly, it will be worth the wait as not only will many of us find time to catch up on shows that we haven’t seen before (Only Murders in the Building and The Mandalorian are on my list!) but catch up on our reading as well. 

For now, we still have some book based entertainment to engage in and here’s to the fall season where back to school time starts off with Lessons in Chemistry, courtesy of author Bonnie Garmus and Brie Larson:

My mysterious plans for Autumn in August

As some of you may know, I tend to make late summer staycation plans on my blog and this year is no exception.

So, for Autumn in August(where I watch and review movies that give off that feeling of the fall season nicely), this time around, an air of mystery seemed to be very suitable with a blend of two English authors whose works keep being adapted to screens small and large on a regular basis.

First up is Agatha Christie with the 1978 version of  Death on the Nile, starring Peter Ustinov as Inspector Poirot(my favorite take on this character) who finds himself on a cruise down the famed Egyptian river with quite the cast of potentially murderous travelers.

Such a great selection of actors for this film with the likes of Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Mia Farrow and the dynamic duo of Bette Davis and Maggie Smith who play an aging countess and her cynical companion that take great delight in tormenting each other. 

You get a lot of fun bitchy drama  just from those two alone even before the murder happens, which is such a sinister sweet treat indeed:

After, more Peter Ustinov Poirot adventures with 1982’s Evil Under the Sun, where our detective attempts to rest his “little grey cells “ at a remote island resort.

 Naturally, the assorted guests such as Diana Rigg, Roddy McDowell, Maggie Snith(again!) and James Mason find themselves in the midst of murder with only Poirot to lead the way towards finding the killer among them.

I do enjoy Ustinov’s sly humor as Poirot but he never becomes a totally comical character. Rather, he cleverly uses his amiable nature as a sharp tool in his detective kit to ferret out the true suspects in any case, something that other crime solvers such as Columbo  also employed as well, following in his fictional footsteps so to speak:

Yes, we do have one more Agatha Christie movie but this time, it’s Miss Marple up at bat.

The Mirror Cracked from 1980 stars Angela Lansbury as Jane Marple(which many say lead to her iconic Murder She Wrote TV series) who has no choice but to look into the strange death that occurred at the welcome party for actress Marina Gregg(Elizabeth Taylor) from the sidelines due to an unrelated injury.

Nevertheless, with the help of her police inspector nephew, Jane deduces that Marina might have been the real target of the killer as the poisoned drink that took out a local woman was originally meant for her. That only increases the number of suspects, particularly such Hollywood rivals as Lola Brewster(Kim Novak) and Marty Fenn(Tony Curtis).

This film is what got me interested in Agatha Christie in the first place (also the first Christie book that I ever read) so going back to it is as comfortable as snuggling into your well worn but coziest sweater there:

Finally, what’s a fall

film selection without a bit of Jane Austen? “But she didn’t write mysteries!” you might say and yet, one of her books did toy with the concept of taking fandom a little too far.

The 2007 adaptation of  Northanger Abbey does justice to the novel, where young  country girl Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones) takes her knowledge of the wider world from the gothic books that she and her new friend Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan) eagerly devour while visiting the great city of Bath.

Being charmed by Henry Tilney (J.J. Fielding), Catherine agrees to visit his ominous family home but is everything really as it seems? Or is Catherine’s imagination the most dangerous element in this situation?

I use to encourage teen book buyers to try Northanger Abbey as Austen’s version of Scream(hey, if Clueless gets kids to read , why not this?). So, if you’re new to NA, just think of it as the Regency version of Scream minus the body count:

So, I do hope that many of you will join me this August for some early autumn chills and thrills with this Agatha and Austen blend of cinematic tea.

Ensemble stories of suspense like these never truly go out of style; they just stand ready in the back of the pop culture wardrobe to be taken out and revived when need be. 

The Knives Out films certainly prove that to be the case for one, and hopefully others will pave that  storytelling way forward by looking back to the past properly as inspiration for newer tales to tell:

 

Getting a new book buddy and other summer surprises

While I am still taking a book buying break(even skipped my latest Book of the Month Club selection), apparently the universe wants me to have more new books to read and discuss.

Recently, I was accepted into Simon & Schustet’s Simon Books Buddy program which means that I can receive readers copies(both physical and digital) of upcoming titles to talk about online. This is great as I do like getting the chance to check out advance books and spread the good word to all and sundry.

So far, I gotten two physical books, one of which was released into bookstores this week; Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess. This debut novel follows Jessica “Jess” Jones as she finds herself constantly running into Josh Hillyer, a former college colleague whose political views and general outlook on life is drastically different from her own.

The two of them become reluctant work partners at Goldman Sachs, with Josh being assigned to assist Jess during her early days at the firm. 

Despite their regular debates regarding how the world works for both of them, particularly since race and gender are main factors in society’s perception of Jess, a bond begins to form between them that may not change their basic beliefs, especially as the presidential election of 2016 draws near.

I started reading Everything’s Fine a couple of days ago and I’m already hooked. Rabess has a great narrative flow and sure hand with dialogue that puts one in mind of classic screenplay writing from the golden age of Hollywood.

The tone of the story is firmly set in modern times and promises to become one of the compelling reads of the summer for sure. Being introduced to new authors is part of the joy of early reading opportunities like this and it will be interesting to see what Rabess has next up for her audience of eager readers:

The other novel that I got is a different kind of debut as author Carolyn Mackler goes from YA to adult with The Wife App, set to be released later this June.

When a trio of divorced women are tired of being held to the standard expectations of wives and mothers with no consequences for their former spouses, they decide to take these lemons and make some profitable lemonade.

Lauren, Sophie and Madeline use their combined skills in tech,finance and social marketing to create an app that would hire them to do domestic chores and other wife like responsibilities for paying customers.

Once the service takes off, the ladies find themselves getting the upper hand in many of their personal  and professional situations but can they expand this enterprise without jeopardizing their friendship and future relationships?

Mackler’s work is new to me yet I do want to give this a try, especially since the whole concept is giving me The First Wives’ Club vibes in the best sense there:

Meanwhile, I was sent a digital copy of Jennifer Weiner’s big summer book due out this August entitled The Breakaway (she’s published by Simon as well but this is not part of the Book Buddy selection).

Our leading lady is Abby, who has always found it difficult to find focus in her life but rediscovering the joy of bicycling seems to have finally given her purpose.

When she’s given the chance to lead a bike tour from New York City to Niagara Falls, Abby is beyond thrilled at this opportunity but some of the other riders on this trip might put the brakes on her overall confidence here.

One of them in particular is Sebastian, who she had a one night stand with during a bachelorette party a couple of years ago. Their night together was great but Abby truly thought  that she would  never see him again, particularly now that she’s in a somewhat steady relationship with Mark, her childhood sweetheart.

Add to that her meddling mother Eileen joining in the tour at the last minute, Abby hopes that this potentially rocky road won’t end in complete disaster. Perhaps this reunion with Sebastian might veer off to a batter path as long as her mother doesn’t bring this situation to a complete stop.

I’ve been a Jennifer Weiner fan ever since I read an advance copy of Good In Bed back in my bookseller days (yes, I have actually bought her books since then most happily) and this story sounds like another literary gem from her emotional treasure trove:

Well, having more good books to enjoy and share with others is a real blessing these days. It’s also a good excuse to stay inside this summer, which in my area also has a different type of heat to deal with right now (stay safe, my east coast friends!).

Nonetheless, this summer should have plenty of page turning entertainment for all and hopefully things will be better in time for the Tony awards this Sunday. My preferred kind of hot is on stage winning applause and many well deserved honors indeed:

 

My Series-ous Reading introduces me to Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House

My Triple Play theme for this year’s Series-ous Reading challenge takes me to Jane Austen country as I endeavor to finish Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen Mysteries before the final entry is released. In Jane and The Prisoner of Wool House, we follow our Miss Austen to Southampton, where one of her naval brothers, Frank, is stationed with his wife Mary who is close to her birthing due date.

As anxious as he is for his first child to be born, Frank has an immediate concern about a good friend of his, Tom Seagrave, who is accused of murder. During the capture of a French ship, Tom is said to have killed the captain of that vessel upon accepting the other man’s surrender, a serious charge that could see him hanged.

Seagrave’s  main accuser is a lieutenant named Chessyre,whose motive for giving false witness may be professional jealousy as he has been passed over for promotion time and again, while “Lucky Tom” has been very successful in capturing prize money redeeming ships.

When Chessyre goes missing before the hearing ans later found dead, Seagrave’s situation goes from bad to worse. Despite being promised to be given Seagrave’s much superior ship if a guilty verdict is reached, Frank feels honor bound to clear his friend’s name and Jane is more than willing to aid him in this quest:

Jane not only bonds with Seagrave’s distraught wife Louisa (who is taking too much “health tonic” for her own good) but finds a way to visit the crew of the former French ship as a volunteer nurse.

During those missions of mercy, she comes across a French crewman that is clearly of the officer class, perhaps a ship’s doctor. His version of what happened during the siege contradicts Chessyre’s account and he is willing to testify under oath, provided that he would be allowed to stay in England.

The death of Chessyre complicates that plan and as it turns out, this new witness is more than he seems to be. Can Jane use her savvy skills to save both men before an undue justice is served?

Having Jane work with her brother Frank on this case adds a nice touch of swashbuckling to the proceedings here(including a rescue from a burning ship!) and the engaging supporting characters such as aloof widow Phoebe Carruthers, the remote yet distressed Louisa Seagrave and a very handy in a tight corner fellow known as the Bosun’s Mate enrich the story immensely.

It’s also nice to have a few moments of comic relief from Jane’s mother (who is quite the Mrs. Bennet inspiration indeed!). At one point, she hopes to match Jane up with the navy doctor attending the prisoners, something that neither party has in mind!  Fortunately, such ill conceived plans do not cause too much trouble there:

I have read some of this series out of order but when this triple play reading is complete, I will be ready to embrace what will be the very last Jane Austen mystery.

Jane and the Final Mystery is due out this October, where a gravely ill Miss Austen nonetheless takes up a search for a killer at her nephew’s boarding school. A fitting tale for Halloween and Austen fans alike, it seems.

It will be a sad ending for this series but not a miserable one by any means. Barron has enlivened the legacy of Jane Austen with these reimagined stories that both delight old fans and new, with the bonus of pleasing historical mystery readers as well. I am persuaded that this final mystery will do credit to both Austen’s work and Barron’s writing quite nicely:

In the meanwhile, my latest Series-ous Reading selection is Jane and the Ghosts of Netley,  where she becomes unexpectedly reunited with Lord Harold Trowbridge, Gentleman Rogue and secret spy in His Majesty’s service.

Their mutual target of inquiry is Lady Sophia Challoner , a widow with no love for English politics who may also be doing some sabotage for Napoleon’s government to boot.

She also happens to be living on an estate with possible haunting spirits and some all too real secret passages that would thrill the Scooby gang as well as Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey most suitably to be sure.

We shall soon see!: 

Setting out for a Sci-Fi Summer adventure

With Memorial Day weekend upon us, the official start to summer for many is here. Yet, for others of the page turning persuasion, Seasons of Reading’s Sci-Fi Summer readathon is our launching point for the hot and hazy months ahead.

Beginning June 1 and running the entire month, this readathon is firmly to science fiction but does allow for fantasy as well. That works for me as my taste runs more towards the magical than the mechanical.

The first book on my TBR pile for this challenge is the third entry in the School for Good and Evil YA series, The Last Ever After by Soman Chainani.

With formerly faithful friends Sophia and Agatha on separate sides of the fairy tale realm, finding a balance between the forces of destruction and harmony is more difficult than ever.

To preserve not only the fictional but the mortal world as well, both girls must find their way back to each other with the help of various allies on their mutual paths. Can they fix both realities and their friendship to save the day once and for all?

This series is very engaging, with good amounts of humor and heartbreak, plus plenty of good for thought regarding fairytale tropes. The conclusion ought to quite the battle royal indeed:

The closest to science fiction on my reading list here is N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season , which starts off her Broken Earth trilogy.

The story is set on a world where all reside in The Stillness, a large continent that deals with “seasons “ of environmental chaos such as earthquakes and volcanic activity. The only people who can quell these turmoils are known as orogenes, who are feared and forced into the service of the ruling class.

Three characters are the focus of this book, one a girl newly recruited to the governing forces, another young woman angered by her situation and discovering a few secrets that might help or hurt her and a mother whose family has fallen apart upon realizing their orogene abilities.

As their paths collide , so do the fates of many others and with another destructive season to come, the choices to be made are potentially powerful in their impact to say the least.

I’ve read great things about Jemisin’s work and figured this would certainly be a good place to start. Hopefully, 

I will be continuing with the other two books that follow. The epic energy of this narrative promises to be captivating there:

Rounding this selection is one of my Book of the Month Club books that I saved for this particular occasion.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty has a retired pirate queen as it’s leading lady. Amina fully intends to spend the rest of her days residing in a quiet mountain village with her daughter Marjana but her past literally comes back to demand her assistance.

The wealthy mother of a crewman who died during Amina’s last voyage wants her to rescue her granddaughter Dunya  from the clutches of Falco, a man obsessed with mystical objects and willing to risk any life but his to claim a very dangerous treasure known as the Moon of Saba.

Out of a sense of obligation as well as to protect her own child, Amina agrees to head back out to sea. Facing demons both personal and in the fearsome flesh, she is willing to do what she can yet can Amina truly resist the call of a pirate’s life once the task is done?

This is meant to be the first in a series (becoming a theme in this readathon for me!) and with any luck, I won’t have to wait too long for more of these seafaring stories:

There is still plenty of time to sign up as June starts in the middle of next week and much thanks to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for getting our summer reading off and running here.

One of the best things about summer reading is that you can enjoy a blockbuster story right in the comfort of your home under whatever form of air conditioning is available to you. I’m all for going to the movies, mind you, but the heat does make one want to wait for cooler weather to go out for entertainment.

Not to mention that a certain book based epic will be in theaters before Thanksgiving and should whet your cinematic appetite for new sci-fi storytelling indeed:

 

Extending an invitation to The Late Mrs. Willoughby for a sinister sleuthing party

The works of Jane Austen are to a writer’s imagination as a little black dress is to a fashionable wardrobe: suitable for many occasions and much more versatile than you might think.

To that end, author Claudia Gray follows up her excellent Jane Austen themed mystery, The Murder of Mr. Wickham , from last year with another amiable adventure for the two young amateur sleuths featured in that story, Jonathan Darcy(son of a certain Pride &Prejudice couple) and Juliet Tilney (daughter of a pair of Northanger Abbey residents).

In The Late Mrs. Willoughby, these two inadvertently reunite as Juliet visits Marianne Brandon, who is still recovering from the events of their previous encounter at Donwell Abbey.

While her new guest is quite a welcome sight , Marianne is concerned with a number of things such as her dear sister Elinor being close to giving birth to her first child, becoming friends with Colonel Brandon’s ward Beth and what the neighbors must be thinking of what happened to her at Donwell.

One neighbor she hopes to avoid as much as possible is Mr. Willoughby, her former suitor who cruelly abandoned and publicly snubbed her in order to marry the wealthy Sophia Grey. 

He has now inherited his aunt’s estate at Allenham, not far from the Brandons,,and brought his new wife along with a party of former schoolmates to celebrate his new home. A welcoming party for the Willoughbys is being held by the boisterous Sir John Middleton, an invitation that hard for anyone to refuse, even Marianne:

Staying with Willoughby at Allenham is Jonathan, who was at school with him but could hardly call his former classmate and bully a friend.

While attending the welcoming party, Jonathan is pleased to see Juliet again in what should be much better circumstances than their prior encounter.

Unfortunately, that is not to be the case as not long after drinking a glass of port during a toast in their honor, Willoughby loses his wife to poison before the night is over.

The shock of such a terrible tragedy in the collective midst is compounded by the local constabulary who are too quick to see Marianne as the only suspect. Jonathan and Juliet find themselves taking up the  gruesome yet exciting task of searching for the real killer yet again.

Since Willoughby is not as charming to everyone as he thinks he is, many suspects abound such as another guest at Allenham who was courting Sophia but backed down once Willoughby started pursuing her.

One suspect that neither Jonathan nor Juliet wish to look  at all into is Beth, whose brief relationship with Willoughby made her a single mother and him in danger of losing his inheritance , which caused him to exchange Marianne for Sophia on the bridal market.

While Beth is now in their neck of the woods, her attempts to get Willoughby to at least see his son have been bluntly rejected. Could her despair drive her to such misplaced revenge? Regardless of their sympathies for her situation, Jonathan and Juliet do have to consider all possibilities here:

As the two of them, along with a newly made friend, quietly yet eagerly seek the truth, the risk to Marianne‘a liberty and perhaps her life grows stronger as time goes on. 

Can the killer be captured before another innocent person is done in? Worse still, is the ultimate culprit right in front of them all?

While reading The Murder of Mr. Wickham will enhance your pleasure with this new Austen inspired story, this novel can be read on it’s own merits. Gray possesses an apt ear and a steady eye for Jane Austen’s creations and her nuanced embellishments do justice to both the source material and fandom alike.

If Sense and Sensibility happens to be your favorite Austen novel(it’s in my personal top three), you would throughly enjoy this book as many of those particular players are present here(including a most unwelcome visit from certain in-laws!) to liven up the sub plots nicely.

What is most agreeable to see is the growing bond between Jonathan, who suffers from social anxiety issues, and Juliet, who is aware of how their friendship appears to others yet is unsure of how to move forward on such personal level.

The two of them balance each other out so well and the mutual acceptance of each other’s intelligence and abilities is such engaging character development for any time period. However, the social standards of their day are and will continue to put up some challenges to any romantic future:

Hopefully, more of that journey we will get to read about  soon as the subtitle of this book is “A Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery “. This is a series well worth the wait for but hopefully not too long!

I am very thankful to be invited to this blog tour for The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Laurel Ann Nattress at Austenprose and hope that everyone involved as well as Jane Austen mystery fans have a fabulous page turning time with this graciously gripping book.

A  well written Jane Austen variation like this  is always in style and much like a little black dress, perfect for parties even when not all of the action is on the dance floor:

 

Preparing for a book haul vacation

As much as I love books, there are times when you need to slow your roll or risk being seriously overwhelmed by your to be read piles.

I’m at that point now so I plan to take what Bridget Jones would call a “mini break “ from book buying, at over the summer. Rest assured that I have plenty to read and talk about here(more on that in a moment) but for now, this is my last regular book haul post.

My Book of the Month Club(which I am going to take a break from also) selections include a thriller and a romance, the former being The Last Word by Taylor Adams. Our leading lady is Emma, a woman house sitting at a remote beach house during the offseason.

She is recovering from a personal loss, accompanied by her dog Laika and her only other human contact is a distant neighbor who communicates via whiteboard messages. 

Emma spends most of her time reading inexpensive thriller novels online and the most gruesome one that she’s read so far prompted her to give it a one star review at the bookseller’s website. Much to her surprise, the author who calls himself H.G, Kane sends her a message demanding that she take the review down or else!

Emma refuses to do so and a series of strange situations begins-I’m early in the story at this point but I can say that the dog is not harmed(even the author doesn’t consider that a spoiler!). I find the premise intriguing so far and haven’t indulged in a page tuning thrill ride like this in awhile:

I paired that with Christina Lauren’s latest, The True Love Experiment. It’s a follow up to The Soulmate Equation and focuses on Felicity aka Fizzy Chen, a romance writer looking for love in more ways than one.

Feeling the need to revive her spirits, Fizzy decides to work with Connor Prince, a reality show producer, to find her real life love via a dating show. As long as her list of demands are met, Fizzy is willing to tackle any challenges thrown her way yet things get more difficult when it appears that her real meant-to-be is the guy behind the scenes instead on camera with her.

The duo of Christina Lauren (yes, this is a writing partnership) are great at creating engaging and nuanced characters, making Fizzy’s chance to be in the storytelling spotlight all the more fun. 

If these books haven’t been optioned for film adaptation yet, that is such a crime and I nominate Liza Lapira to play Fizzy at some point in the future!

Meanwhile, there was a bit of belated birthday book shopping done at an actual bookstore (again!) and I chose a couple of fantasy books that have gotten quite a lot of good word on Booktube lately.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is being heralded as “cozy fantasy “ or as the author puts it “high fantasy with low stakes”. The premise for this book alone defines this genre nicely: a warrior orc decides to retire from her adventurer for hire life and open up a coffeehouse.

Viv has some of the usual problems in starting up a new business in Thune, a small town that doesn’t know her well. Finding the right staff, adjusting the menu to local tastes and hoping for a good opening day are par for course but when most people in Thune don’t even know what coffee is in the first place makes things ever so more tricky.

Plus, Viv has to pay off the local magical gangster on a regular basis and an elf who used to be part of her former gang comes into town to claim what he believes is due to him from a previous job. Turns out that she may require the magic of friendship rather than a battle ax to save the day here.

This does sound like gentle fun and I love that the name of Viv”s shop is Calamity Coffee. Just imagine Gilmore Girls in cottage core mode:

The other fantasy novel I picked up is practically on the opposite end of L&L’s scale.

Fonda Lee’s Jade City is the first entry in a trilogy known as The Green Bone Saga, set in Hong Kong where two rival forces use jade stones to power their magic.

Leadership of one of the clans, No Peak, has changed hands but the new Pillar is not as strong as his predecessor, giving his female counterpart in the Mountain clan an opportunity to take his whole family operation down. 

Her ruthlessness appears to hold no bounds but there may be a member of No Peak’s younger generation that can rise to the formidable occasion when push comes to shove.

I’ve heard many great things about this series, including that this first book is inspired by the iconic Godfather movies, which is a plus for me. If this book works for me, I can get the other two volumes later on but right now, this entrance point promises to be royally entertaining to say the least:

Putting my book buying on pause is a necessary thing to do but not a real hardship at all.

 Between the summer TV hiatus and the current writers strike (which I fully support because we wouldn’t be readers/viewers without writers and they deserve to be fairly compensated), there’s going to be plenty of reading time to enjoy.

Also, I have a couple of readathons to take part in such as Sci-Fi Summer next month and next week, my contribution to the book tour for The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Grey-the sequel to late year’s The Murder of Mr. Wickham-will be posted! For those who like Jane Austen and old school mysteries, this should be your particular cup of literary tea.

Plus, I have other bookish blog plans for this summer that will include a library haul at some point (have a stack of those borrowed books to tackle too!). Yes, this ought to be a great season for books indeed.

Speaking of great seasons, I did dive into Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story this past weekend and that was infinitely more edifying than a certain coronation taking place elsewhere. 

While I am eagerly awaiting season three of the regular Bridgerton series. this bonus insight into the strong women in this fictional world was a true dance of delight and those who insist otherwise are much mistaken indeed. Let folks have fun, people! These days, a staycation is looking to be the better option and a good book on hand or a binge worthy show can make that option all the more enticing in the best sense:

 

Stirring up a cup of Spring Into Horror sleuthing tea

This year I have to say my progress with the first two readathons from Seasons of Reading has gone very well in that I was able to finish my small sets of TBR selections on time!

Granted, the books that I chose for Spring Into Horror were not lengthy reads(I did give myself a brief pause over Easter weekend) but there is still joy to be found in achieving such a fun goal nonetheless.

My old fashioned mystery theme began with The Maid by Nita Prose, with the title character being the type of person who takes pleasure in her work as a hotel maid yet is easily taken advantage of by those mistaking her lack of social nuance as a weakness to be exploited than  a trait to be respected.

Molly does have trouble recognizing the precarious situations that others have put in her(particularly since her beloved grandmother died) and when she’s framed for the murder of a brutal businessman, none of those “friends “ are there to help her.

Fortunately, Molly does have some unexpected allies to lend her a hand but when all is said and done, finding the real killer is more complicated than it seems.

This is a wonderful debut novel that more than lived up to the hype there. Smart, engaging and a few touches of humor and heartbreak abound on the pages, much like a good episode of Molly’s favorite mystery show, Columbo:

After that, I dove into Marie Benedict’s The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and what a wicked treat that was!

The story is told in two parts, one through the eyes of Archie Christie, who is planning to leave his celebrity author wife Agatha for a younger woman that will cater more to his particular needs.

Agatha’s suspicious disappearance makes that rather difficult for him and thanks to a mysterious note that she left for Archie(which he quickly destroys before the police can read it), his agony over being in the spotlight becomes a slow motion torment.

Agatha gets her viewpoint in as a “manuscript “ written by her details her relationship with Archie, who grows controlling and cold towards her over the course of their marriage. Her reasons for why things have happened this way become clear but not without that clever twist of the proverbial knife that her best mystery stories are known for.

While I do know that Agatha Christie emerged from her eleven day disappearance just fine, claiming to have no memory of what occurred, this fictional version of that event was a thrilling suspense ride well worth taking.

Benedict gave this story a Gone Girl energy that was very justified (Archie was a total creep) and eerily entertaining indeed:

Finally, I wrapped things up with a Miss Marple mystery, At Bertram’s Hotel. It was good but not great, I have to say.

The main setting is a seemingly old style hotel in London that Jane Marple visits to do a little shopping and recall some fond memories from the past.

However, the disappearance of a confused clergyman and the schemes of a long estranged mother and daughter shake the place up to say the least. Miss Marple does lend a hand with the authorities via her keen observations but her role in these matters is rather minor for the most part, sad to say.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent read for a rainy weekend (which I finished the book during) but not one of the better Agatha Christie/Miss Marple books out there. Then again, a little Miss Marple can go a long way:

My thanks to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for giving everyone who took part here a good opportunity to whittle down those looming TBR piles! I also hope that those who joined in here had a good time with their books as well.

While I am happy to have completed two readathon stacks in a row, my chances of doing that in June for the next challenge, Sci-Fi Summer , are slim to be sure. At least two of the books I plan on reading for that are quite hefty when it comes to page count. Since one of them is an out and out science fiction book, I really can’t switch it out for a smaller one(nor do I want to, actually).

The other pair of books are fantasy (which is allowed) and one of them is the third in a fairytale themed trilogy that ought to be a real show stopper in the best sense of the term. Well, at least they’re big enough to offer plenty of shade this summer!: