Home » Posts tagged 'Books' (Page 2)
Tag Archives: Books
Reflections on Reading
Like singer Jimmy Buffett who “took off for a weekend last month, just to try and recall the whole year,” I spent some time this week reflecting on books and reading. I had decided this year not to get so wrapped up in Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) that I felt limited in my reading choices. To start this process I began requesting fewer ARCs thus limiting the self-imposed pressure of commitments to authors and publishers. Initially difficult to do, I can now visually see in my book lists that I have requested about half of the number of books I normally applied for in the past from ARC sources. The result is that I am enjoying my book club reads more, occasionally reading library books and books that have been waiting patiently on my physical bookshelves, and reprioritizing my non-reading time.
“To everything there is a season.” I enjoy reading as much as ever, but I am happy with the gradual rebalancing of my time as I make these subtle changes.
HAPPY READING TO ALL! 📚💜📚
Songs of Wine and Murder–band competition
Songs of Wine and Murder
by Lynn Cahoon
Every good cozy mystery has a focus and a crime to be solved. The plot in Songs of Wine and Murder centers around a band competition as part of the Moonstone Beach festival to be held in South Cove, a town which has both commuters and businesses that depend on tourists. Jill owns a combo coffee shop and bookstore; her fiancé Greg is the police chief. In this book, a band member that no one likes is found dead. There are many suspects after it is determined that the death is a homicide, not a drug overdose or a suicide.
Jill has to put in a lot of work hours during the festival as she supervises both the coffee shop and a food truck. Jill is a great boss, giving her workers full benefits and treating them with respect. During the festival she takes orders and provides her staff with meals from the town’s only full-service restaurant. Greg has to put in extra long hours along with his officers as they interview suspects and others who might have information about the murder. Jill tries to stay out of the investigation, but she stumbles across clues and conversations that help Greg.
The mayor’s wife can be over-the-top mean if she doesn’t get her way. She gets very angry when she thinks her nephew is being treated unfairly in the competition, and she blames that and everything else she can think of on Jill and Greg. Jill has a number of friends who are involved in this story, and the reader gets to know them well. My favorite of her employees is Deek. He is a good looking young man with blond dreadlocks and violet eyes who has really grown over the course of the series. He is an aspiring writer who takes the bookstore seriously and also has lots of very good ideas for managing events and pushing the coffee shop/bookstore through PR efforts. He is somewhat intimidated by Greg referring to him as “Police Dude.” Her staff member, Toby, works as a cop and a barista. An attractive guy, he can’t understand why Tilly, a new hire at the shop, says she has never met him. He claims hey were an “item” in high school. Which one of them is lying?
The murder is solved…until new information comes to light opening the investigation up again. It was a great twist to the story; just as Greg and Jill think they can relax and resume planning for their wedding, they are thrown back into the chaos of “whodunit?”
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #15 in the Tourist Trap Mystery Series. It includes some humor, some mystery, and some relationships—new and old. Songs of Wine and Murder was fun for me, but not Cahoon’s best work. I am not recommending it as a standalone, but if you are a fan of the Tourist Trap Mystery Series, you will probably enjoy it.
2. Includes a recipe for “Jill’s Neptune Salad Wrap” as a healthy replacement for all the fish and chips Jill devours in this book.
Publication: June 6, 2023—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
The fight was over. Neither participant looked victorious, which was what happened most times when people were in love. Everyone felt the pain of the fight, not just the loser.
“The one thing I can promise you about relationships is that as soon as you start thinking the other person can read your mind, you’re in trouble.”
I delivered Harrold and Aunt Jackie’s meals and noticed Lille had put in two slices of cherry pie that I hadn’t ordered. She’d known that this order would be given to Harrold, and she loved him like a grandfather. I suspected that Lille had a heart; it was just hidden under all that snark.
Authentically, Izzy–love of books
Authentically, Izzy
by Pepper Basham
There are many enjoyable, bookish novels that have a bookshop or library setting or feature a writer, book club, or writer’s retreat. That kind of book appeals to me, and I have read a lot of them. Authentically, Izzy, however, is the most delightful and thoroughly bookish story I have encountered; and because it is epistolary (emails and texts), the reader finds that words, quotes, and puns play a major role.
I smiled and laughed my way through the tale of shy library assistant Isabelle in the Appalachians who, despite having her heart truly and fully broken two times, is convinced by her cousin Josie into going on blind dates and using an online dating service. An added complication is that Izzy grew up with her cousins after the untimely death of her parents. They are wonderful people, but Izzy has never been quite sure of her role as a cousin/sister.
Brodie, whose family has a chain of bookstores on the island kingdom of Skymar near Great Britain, signs on to the same service. His initial goal is to entice someone to come work in his country. Brodie is single, good looking, speaks English with an adorable accent, and is a book aficionado. His family could use the financial stipend their country offers to citizens who hire employees from outside the country to fund his little sister’s much needed surgery and to shore up their bookstore chain. Employment would be the incentive, but could romance be an added bonus?
Reading the interactions of these two total book nerds is an absolute delight, but there are many barriers to a happily ever after. They include a fear of flying, a long distance courtship, and a professor/author in the U.S. who is also pursuing Izzy. There are hints that certain potentially disastrous situations will catch up with the couple. One reveal happens fairly soon, but then the reader is left waiting for the other shoe to drop. What a pleasurable suspense! It is impossible to read this book without hoping for all to work out well in the end!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance, Christian Fiction
Notes: This book is considered a standalone, but another epistolary novel will be published in August 2023, that focuses on Izzy’s cousin/sister: Positively, Penelope. I can’t wait to read it!
Publication: November 15, 2022—Thomas Nelson
Memorable Lines:
I have found fiction to meet me at the most poignant of times in my life. I learned the power of imagination through Narnia and the intimacy of true friendship in The Lord of the Rings. I found courage from Atticus Finch and an unexpected camaraderie with Emma’s Knightley…Fiction, at its best, speaks to the heart.
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” Can you believe Charles Dickens wrote that? I always thought of him as a dreary sort of fellow since he seemed to spend so much time thinking about ghosts and orphans and women who wear wedding gowns for much too long.
(Why do I keep renewing my passport if I’ve never used it? I think something needs to change. After all, Josephine says flying is the safest way to travel, though I’d prefer a magical wardrobe or even a portkey.)
The Book of Lost Friends–unforgettable
The Book of Lost Friends
by Lisa Wingate
Slavery and the Civil War tore families apart—especially Black families. Some of their stories appeared in the newspaper Southwestern Christian Advocate as desperate appeals to locate or discover news of long lost family members. Pastors were encouraged to read them to their congregations, and optimism sprang up in the hearts of many former slaves as they hoped and prayed to be united many years later with family who in countless cases were only a name passed down from parent to child. I can’t imagine the pain parents suffered at having their children ripped away from them and sold often never to be heard from again. The Black slaves were people, but they were regarded as disposable property.
The Book of Lost Friends begins with the story of Hannie Gossett who misses her family desperately. Unable to read or write, she has all of their names recorded in her memory. In 1875, Hannie and Tati who raised her are close to completing a ten year period of working a piece of land that belongs to her former slave owners. Just as the contract’s transfer should be completed, the former master disappears and the contract is put in jeopardy. Hannie begins a journey with great risks to find him. A black woman traveling alone is a dangerous undertaking, and her departure could annul the very contract she is trying to locate.
This novel has a dual timeline. Every other chapter alternates to tell the story of Benny Silva, a young teacher who has a past with secrets but a heart to make a difference for her students growing up in poverty in Augustine, Louisiana, in 1987. Constantly bombarded with negative messages about their worth, these students go to a different school from those who have more prosperous parents. The school building is in bad shape, the students’ attendance and behavior are abysmal, and parent support is almost non-existent.
When Benny discovers and obtains access to a private library of books, she thinks she may have found a motivator for her students. She wins support from some local women the students respect, and the teens become excited about a school project.
As both timelines move forward, it is difficult for the reader to leave one timeline to see where the story is going in the other timeline. In a good dual timeline novel, the reader is equally interested in both timelines and in discovering where they cross or overlap. Lisa Wingate is an expert at storytelling and at weaving her tales together. There are many other fascinating characters, and The Book of Lost Friends quickly became a book I didn’t want to put down. It is so well told that I could put myself in the story imagining vividly the struggles of the former slaves and of the students captive to poverty and dysfunctional families.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Historical Fiction
Notes: 1. All of the Hannie chapters include a letter to the editor of the Lost Friends column so you can read for yourself this part of history.
2. At the author’s website, lisawingate.com there are valuable resources listed under the heading “for book clubs” that include discussion questions and pictures and information the author gathered by visiting plantations and national parks. There are also links to pertinent interviews and podcasts as well as a database that has been created based on the Lost Friends letters.
Publication: 2020—Ballantine Books (Random House)
Memorable Lines:
Few things are more life affirming than watching an idea that was fledgling and frail in its infancy, seemingly destined for birth and death in almost the same breath, stretch its lungs and curl its fingers around the threads of life, and hang on with a determination that can’t be understood, only felt.
The thing about so many of the kids here—country kids, town kids, a sad majority of these kids—is that their norm is constant drama, constant escalation. Conversations start, grow louder, get ugly, get personal. Insults fly and then lead to pushing, shoving, hair pulling, scratching, throwing punches, you name it…All too often children in Augustine grow up in a pressure cooker.
When you’re a kid in a tough family situation, you’re painfully vulnerable to trying to fill the void with peers. As much as I’m in favor of young love in theory, I’m also aware of the potential fallout. I can’t help feeling that Lil’ Ray and LaJuna need a teenage relationship about as much as I need five-inch stilettos.
My Elephant Is Blue–sadness
My Elephant Is Blue
written by Melinda Szymanik
illustrated by Vasanti Unka
Children sometimes have trouble verbalizing their feelings and managing them. My Elephant Is Blue was written to help children deal with sadness. “Big, heavy feelings” are represented by the crushing weight of the elephant Blue. The child’s family members try to help in various ways, and gradually the child does feel the weight of sadness lifting. This is Mental Health Awareness month, and My Elephant Is Blue is one of many picture books published by Flyaway Books to help young children and their families deal with emotions.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Children’s Fiction, Health
Notes: 1. Ages 3-7
2. Supporting resources linked to this book are found at http://www.flyawaybooks.com/resources. There is a Discussion and Activity Guide that helps the reader understand the symbolism in the book. This guide includes Discussion Starters, Activities, a list with links of organizations that offer support, and a coloring sheet. There is also a book trailer if you would like a preview of the book.
Publication: April 11, 2023—Flyaway Books
Memorable Lines:
They said, “Perhaps if you cheered up a bit…or smiled at it.” But it’s hard to cheer up or smile with an elephant sitting on your chest.
“It’s an elephant,” Mom and Dad said. “Surely it can’t stay forever. It’s bound to move on sometime.” I hoped sometime was soon.
Deadly Delights–too many characters
Deadly Delights
by Laura Jensen Walker
I expected a bookish mystery since Deadly Delights is part of the Bookish Baker Mystery Series. In all fairness, the main character Teddie is an author, but she is taking a break from writing. Her good friend owns a bookshop, and her boyfriend, currently via Skype, is a famous British suspense author. So, on the surface it is bookish, but the book is really more about baking, another of Teddie’s talents, as the focus is on a baking contest at which there is a murder.
One of my main problems with this cozy mystery is the large number of characters. I actually reread the first chapter and took notes on the characters and added more as the story progressed. The author did a good job in the first chapter of introducing characters that were in the first book in the series, but there were just too many for my taste. Most of them were important to the story; there were a number that were mentioned in passing, but the reader would not know that.
On a positive note, the plot was very complex with a lot going on. As you might expect, there were a lot of suspects, and the murderer and motivation were a surprise. As underlying stories, there were wild accusations, gossip, embezzlement, mother-daughter conflicts, and even a little romance.
A theme that appealed to me was that of characters reinventing themselves at critical times in their lives. I also liked the honesty in discussing Teddie’s battle with cancer and how it affected her decisions going forward. The friendship of The Three Musketeers (Teddie and her two best friends since third grade) and their support of each other was another positive theme.
In spite of laboring through the first part, I did enjoy the book. My memory is not bad, but perhaps it would be an easier read for those with better retention of details. The conclusion focuses on a relationship, and you will end the book with a smile.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 3/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #2 in the Bookish Baker Mystery Series, but could be read as a standalone.
2. Includes 9 recipes, all related to items baked by characters in the book.
Publication: June 8, 2021—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
Perfect is overrated. My small kitchen is colorful and kitschy. Like me.
I’d noticed Colleen Murphy arrive and open up Colleen’s Twisted Yarns. Time to pay a visit to the knitting lady and see what kind of a twisted yarn she might spin.
…the writing is sublime in literary fiction. I marvel over the gorgeousness of the language the authors use and find myself highlighting entire sections…When I come upon a perfect sentence, I stop and revel in the beauty of the author’s words.
Reserved for Murder–mystery with a nod to spies
Reserved for Murder
by Victoria Gilbert
As mysteries go, this cozy, Reserved for Murder, has a plot with its share of suspicious characters and motivations for murder that bubble to the surface. In keeping with its bookish nature, Charlotte’s B&B is called Chapters as a tribute to Isabella, the great-aunt she inherited it from. Isabella collected rare books. Although not a spy like her aunt, Charlotte has a nose for sniffing out clues and it gets put to the test when one of her guests is murdered.
The book focuses on a whole week set up as part of a promotional event and also intended to be a short break for famous romance author Amanda Nobel. It includes accommodations for the three winners of a fan contest, a book signing, a tea party, and a cocktail party. Several locals play important roles including Charlotte’s very private neighbor Ellen who used to be Isabella’s handler. Ellen also has a charming but mysterious “cousin” Gavin staying with her.
I enjoyed this mystery. The murderer is revealed in a dramatic scene. Charlotte has a finale party after her her last guest leaves and explains the details to the locals exposing the secrets and putting everything in order. It was a nice wrap-up for the book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #2 in the Booklover’s B&B Mystery Series
2. I enjoyed this not-quite-spy, but all mystery, story. Background from the first book in the series would be helpful but is not essential.
Publication: June 8, 2021—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
“It is astonishing, isn’t it? Books, I mean. All the books by so many authors. You’d think all the ideas would be used up, but somehow they’re not.”
If there was anything likely to toughen someone up and teach them how to play a long game, dealing with a classroom full of high-energy, hormonal, sometimes oppositional, teenagers was definitely it.
While there are many well-written bestsellers, there are some that aren’t, and yet are still inexplicably popular. And you know, trends come and go. What’s popular one day can change the next.”
Summer in the Scottish Highlands–finding what’s important
Summer in the Scottish Highlands
by Donna Ashcroft
Paige Dougall was raised in the small Scottish town of Lockton, but left it behind when Carl, an event planner, swept her off her feet with his charming good looks. They eloped and moved to London where she also worked events and gave birth to an adorable daughter Grace. Unfortunately, Carl spread his charisma around London with little time for Paige whom he criticized constantly and no time at all for his daughter. Everything fell apart for Paige when she and Carl were in a car accident and he died. When Summer in the Scottish Highlands begins, Paige has spent the last year struggling to establish her career and make a home for Grace. Experiencing stress to succeed has made her work long hours, turn to pills, lose her appetite and cut drastically into time with her darling daughter.
John, a very successful chef who owned his own restaurant in New York, has moved to Lockton to escape his own high stress career. He is currently working as a chef at his twin brother Davey’s pub. John has certainly dropped his standards by serving basic pub food and canned soup. His brother encourages him to up his game saying, “I know you’re trying to keep your life stress-free, John, but there’s a difference between being relaxed and imitating the dead—I think you might have strayed too far in the wrong direction.”
Paige’s employer gives her time to destress while waiting for her house sale to go through. Paige and John establish a tentative relationship and work together to fix up the beloved Book Barn where she used to work. John is encouraged to cook again to get Davey’s pub listed in the yearly book Best Pubs. The two help and encourage each other in their respective projects drawing closer despite knowing Paige will be leaving.
John is drawn to little Grace who is nearly four years old almost as much as he is to her mother. He calls her “princess” and she calls him “prince.” Paige’s mum and da are delighted to have Paige and Grace in Lockton. Their relationship had been strained as they did not approve of Carl.
There are two minor but charming romances and an interesting group of women who welcome and support Paige as she realizes she actually had no friends in the “life” she thinks she has established in London. It’s not hard to predict the conclusion but the pleasure is in watching the relationships unfold and blossom. An added bonus is The Book Barn where Paige follows in her mentor’s footsteps with a gift for finding just the right book for each patron.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Women’s Fiction, Romance
Notes: There is one passage with a little steam, but no graphic descriptions.
Publication: June 4, 2021—Bookouture
Memorable Lines:
Coming home—let’s just say it was the equivalent of taking a can opener to the emotions she worked so hard to contain.
There wasn’t a person alive who the librarian could’t find the perfect book for—she’d often said the right choice had the power to change someone’s life.
“I think it’s one of the things kids are so good at—living in the moment, understanding what’s important. Finding pleasure isn’t about being good or bad at something, it’s about taking time to experience it.”
Picture Perfect Frame–art with a twist
Picture Perfect Frame
by Lynn Cahoon
Spring has arrived in South Cove, a small coastal town in California. Tourists are showing up, and businesses are gearing up for the St. Patrick’s Day Street Fair and the many festivals that will follow. Jill, avid reader and owner of Coffee, Books, and More, stays busy juggling her personal life centered around Emma her Pomeranian and Greg her boyfriend who heads up the police department. Her staff, including a new member Evie, work well together sharing responsibilities and functioning as a family. Jill’s best friend Amy is a bit of a bridezilla as she sets ups a second attempt at the perfect wedding; her fiancée’s family cancelled on the first scheduled ceremony.
Despite Jill’s acclaimed lack of creativity, she and Greg attend a painting event at the new Drunken Art Studio. Jill is unable to follow the directions that should result in a seascape, but her strengths as a nosey informal investigator are in full display when one of the guests shows up dead at the studio the next day.
Esmeralda, who handles administrative tasks for Greg, is a self-proclaimed psychic and also Jill’s neighbor; she is accused of the murder. Jill is convinced that the laid back Esmeralda, who catches flies and drives them to the mountains to release them, is innocent. Jill devotes herself to finding the real killer. In the process she discovers that some of her suspects have pasts they want to keep hidden as well as motives for killing the victim. Clearly, one of them is a murderer, and the identity is a surprise. There is also a happy personal twist at the end of Picture Perfect Frame that both provides closure and segues into the next book in the series.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #12 in the Tourist Trap Mystery Series. Lynn Cahoon is good at providing background so it could be read as a standalone, but there are a lot of references to characters in previous books. My advice: Go back and read some of the earlier books in the series first. It is worth the time and effort.
2. Includes a delicious sounding recipe for “Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake.”
Publication: March 16, 2021—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
“As a lawyer, a lot of times the decisions the courts made weren’t about the truth. I don’t want someone to die and have the wrong person in jail for it. Or worse, for no one to be brought to justice. It doesn’t seem right.”
“I’ve always heard you can’t run from your problems because everywhere you go, you’re still there.”
“Of course we’ll schedule that lunch.” And then she opened the book and started reading. As a reader, I knew a dismissal when I saw it. I’d done it to others before too.
Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop–home and business in a van
Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop
by Rebecca Raisin
Personal Note: Fall is bringing glorious temps in my area along with some hints of winter to come. Days are too short and dark is uncomfortably extended. It’s the perfect time to mix up my stringent standards of reading books, excepting book club tomes, in the order in which they were published. It’s also a good time to again acknowledge that I am fearfully behind in my reading queue, but I am gradually catching up, mainly because I am requesting about half the number of Advanced Reader Copies that I did when I lived in Mexico. What does my sudden free-spiritedness have to do with this review?
I just finished reading Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop, a fun romance and the first in a series that focuses on some nomadic souls. I’m going to jump into the next one tomorrow, soon to be followed by the third, which has a Christmas theme—perfect!
My Review: It’s Rosie’s birthday and she just turned 32. Her husband Callum has a surprise for her, but it is not a pleasant one. As the sous chef at a famous London restaurant, she works long hours, has almost total independence in creative decisions, but gets no credit for her contributions to the restaurant’s fame.
Can she be successful personally and financially as a Van Lifer, someone who lives out of a van, travelling with no schedule, following fairs and special events or his or her personal whim? Does she have what it takes to strike out on her own, preparing and selling special teas and comfort food in her tiny kitchen at these events? Can she recover from Callum’s betrayal and find love with either sensitive Ollie whom she met on the Internet or with hunky nomadic Max who draws her outside her cocoon of contentment with adventures?
I obviously enjoyed this book. Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop has romantic themes, but it also addresses the serious events that the main characters have experienced that make them the way they are. Rosie is a really nice person and all through the book I wanted only the best for her, although life doesn’t always work out that way. Rosie is a planner with OCD tendencies. She has not had much time for friendships so interacting with romance book loving, free-spirited, kind hearted Aria is a challenge. I can’t forget to mention Poppy, Rosie’s fuchsia pink van; Poppy is as important to Rosie and to the plot as any flesh and bones character! The next book in the series will focus on Aria and her Travelling Bookshop; I’m hoping for a very bookish romance with some adventure and fun thrown in as Rosie and Aria continue their Van Life travels.
I would like to extend my thanks to Edelweiss and to HarperCollins for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #1 in The Travelling Shops Series 2. When I posted my review on Amazon on 12/6/2021, the Kindle version of this book was on sale for $.99.
Publication: February 16, 2021—Harper Collins
Memorable Lines:
“The right person is out there, you just have to take the leap and find him. But first you need to figure out what makes you happy, and then have it in spades.”
“Anomaly is just another word for extraordinary, and who wants to be ordinary, anyway? To me you’re a shining light in a crowd of beige.”
And now I see with such life-altering clarity, that all those material things did the exact opposite of fulfilling me, they held me back, kept me in debt, kept me working to maintain a lifestyle that didn’t satisfy me at all.
education pathways 