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This is a Good Book Thursday, January 16, 2025

Really thought I had this one set to post and yet, nope. SORRY.

What did you read this week?

109 Responses

  1. I had a wonderful reading week. First, Freya Marske’s Swordcrossed, an MM fantasy romance which is apparently the first book she wrote, but has only recently been published. A young man trying to keep his family’s struggling business afloat is betrothed to a young woman with money, but falls for the deeply untrustworthy swordsman he has hired to defend the marriage from any challenges at the altar.

    Second, Emily Tesh’s space opera Some Desperate Glory, the story of a young woman Valkyr who has, along with her twin brother and peers, been raised on a small space station to avenge the destruction of planet Earth. It took me a little while to warm to this, as Kyr is quite unlikable at the beginning of the book, but it becomes magnificent and deeply satisfying.

    Third, a reread of T Kingfisher’s Swordheart, which feels like a part of the Paladin series, with that same delightful MF fantasy romance that she does so well. A widow who has just inherited her great uncle’s estate and is being harassed by her awful relatives, discovers that part of her estate is an enchanted sword with an immortal warrior trapped in it. Delicious stuff!

    2. I love Swordheart. I hope she writes more of this series. There are, after all, two more people trapped in swords, and she mentions them both by name.

      1. The edition I read, in the back she says she’s already writing the Angharad book, and I gather she aims to make it a trilogy. But there’s no sign of it yet.

    3. I am in the middle of Swordcrossed right now. Delightful. Especially all the clothing details.

  2. I read The Big Empty by Robert Crais, his 20th Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novel. This one is pretty good. It starts pretty basically, The Bake Next Door is a 23 year muffin maker whose YouTube videos have gone viral and she’s about to hit the big time. Now that she’s finally got some money she wants to hire Elvis to find the father who walked out/disappeared ten years before. She just wants to know what happened to him. Elvis doesn’t have much hope but as he starts to reinvestigate he finds someone who the previous investigators didn’t talk to, and soon there are strange people threatening him, and then things start to get twistier, and more threatening.

  3. •John Scalzi, Starter Villain, 2023.  I read Villain for the third time, on this occasion for the my book club.  The novel has been discussed enough here already that I won’t describe it again.  It’s certainly readable.  But at the meeting, I quoted from the Kirkus review that I found in the Wikipedia, “Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books.”  This turned out to be the meeting’s general sentiment.  One club member—someone more into book-ranking than I am—said that the novel might have made the top15 books that she had read in 2024, but definitely not the top 10. I did suggest that perhaps we were not the target audience, since the other reviews cited in Wikipedia (Booklist, Publisher’s Weeky, and Library Journal) were more favorable than the Kirkus, and since Villain did get a Hugo nomination.  I also mentioned that on this blog, the response to Villain had been highly favorable.

    We still did find things to discuss.

    SPOILERS BELOW!

    Our club is supposed to be one for science fiction, not fantasy.  I said that either Starter Villain failed that test or it just barely met it.  In principle, I could accept cats, dolphins, and whales uplifted to human-level intelligence through genetic engineering, but not in a novel set in the present.  I also thought that some of the depicted inventions were not plausible with the current level of technology.  (On the other hand, in one place Scalzi himself implicitly criticized implausible technology:  an attendee remarked that the novel’s description of a “better than steel” alloy that in practice failed in the market sounded as if Scalzi had taken inspiration from “Reardon metal,” described as fantastically successful in Atlas Shrugged.)   A few other points in Villain strained plausibility regardless of genre.  My understanding from what I’ve read is that black money for covert programs does not work the way described in the novel (although I acknowledged that Scalzi could respond, “That’s what they’d like you to believe!”).  I found it odd that the first-person narrator, Charlie, an American,  consistently refers to the sport played by the Premier League as “football,” never “soccer.”  The latter word never even occurs in the novel.

    I said at the meeting that upon checking a number of references in the novel, I found that either they really existed or were altered from something identifiable.  There really is a trade journal Parking Magazine.  Illinois really does have a prison improbably named the Big Muddy Correctional Center. The styles of architecture and street names in Barrington, Illinois, are correct.  Within the fictional version of Barrington,  McDougal’s Pub seems loosely based on McGonagal’s Pub—which closed at the end of 2023, after the novel was published, and which evidently never had been the fixture that McDougal’s was in the novel, having opened only in 2010.  (However, the former McGonagal’s reportedly will be reopening later in 2025 under a new name, and only a block from its former location.)  The Chesterfield Funeral Home seems to be inspired, cleverly, by the Davenport Family Funeral Home.  Post-meeting, I also established that The Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni in Ballagio, Lombardy, Italy probably served as the model for Scalzi’s Grand Bellagio Hotel.  The original opened in 1873 under the name the Grand Hotel Bellagio and, like McGonagal’s, it did not enjoy quite the storied past of its counterpart in the novel.

    So for me the verdict is:  Good but not great—but, hey, it’s still Scalzi.

    •Stuart A. Herrington, Traitors Among Us:  Inside the Spy Catcher’s World,  1999.  In GBTh for November 7, 2024, I reviewed Navarro’s Three Minutes to Doomsday, 2017, which I described as “A first-person nonfiction account of an investigation, starting in 1988, into one Rod Ramsay, who by then was a former member of a highly effective spy ring working in the early 1980s in the US Army in Germany and selling information to Soviet satellite intelligence services.”  I said there, “Nor, oddly, does there appear to be a full book on the whole larger case centered around Ramsay’s ringleader Clyde Lee Conrad.”  I inserted the qualification “a full book” since I already knew that Herrington’s book existed.  Having now read it, I realize that I had made a distinction without much of a difference.  This volume basically comprises a history built around those aspects of retired Colonel Herrington’s career as a US Army counterintelligence officer that touched upon the Army personnel stationed in Europe, mostly in Germany.  As it happened, most, although not all, of that career slice involved the Conrad case, or its lead-up and aftermath.  I had said that Navarro’s book was sufficiently well written that I had wondered about an uncredited ghost writer, while conceding that some non-professionals just happen to write ablely.  I have no comparable question about Herrington’s style.  It’s adequately readable, but no more.  Herrington is also is more cautious than Navarro about assigning blame, particularly to any US officials, so the responsibility for several wrong moves, and the identity and motives of leakers, remains unclear.  The whole espionage story does not reflect well on the Army of that era, although Herrington probably is correct to blame underfunding for much of it.  The Conrad spy ring and its ramifications represented a spectacular intelligence failure—even though by the time the case was cracked, geopolitical changes from the late 1980s onward had, luckily, defanged some of its dangers.  If this espionage case has been mined in any of its aspects by writers of spy fiction or mystery fiction (or at a stretch, even of genre romance), then that fiction has gone past me. I would think that the case would be worth a look for that reason among others.

    •Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, Very Nice Funerals, 2024. The spoiler-free version:  If anyone here hasn’t read it, by all means do so when possible. (I know that some readers need to wait for an audio version,  for instance.)

    SPOILERS!

    As I’ve already noted, I raced through this the first time for the plot, and later embarked upon a reread at a saner pace.  I noticed various interesting details along the way.  The GN+RM carving caught my attention this time, but that probably was because I vaguely recalled its significance from the first reading. I already mentioned here my pleased discovery that the depicted fake book is a real product. I had been bothered back in Rocky Start by Darius’s failure to listen to Poppy’s urgent warnings, and was glad to see him here suffering the consequences, although arguably not suffering enough.

    It goes without saying that I enjoyed the reread.  Inevitably, on careful reading I noticed a few difficulties as well.  (I have already posted on some oddities in the appended draft chapter of Honey Pot Plot.)  In VNF itself,  I found it a curious that Poppy was 18 and would turn 19 as a high-school senior.  (Without skipping any grades, I graduated HS, and had started college, before I turned even 18.)  True, permissible kindergarten starting ages are older now than in my day.  I can’t remember which state Bearton is in, but in NC the current rule is age 5 by Aug 31, and in TN it’s 5 by Aug 15.  So if Poppy entered kindergarten at 5 and had a birthday during the school year, she should have started her senior year at 17 and graduated at 18. How did she lose a year?  Was that mentioned earlier and I forgot?  Moreover, Max tells Herc that Mei is already 19.  Did Jenny or Bob make an arithmetic error on the normal age of HS seniors?  (Marley is 20, but his background gave him a schooling gap to make up.)  I also wondered why Poppy couldn’t simply graduate after the first semester of senior year, since school officials agreed that she already had enough credits.  Evidently there was some local rule prohibiting this, which could have been made clearer to the reader.

    Finally while checking something else back in the first book, Rocky Start, I noticed that I had flagged Pike’s remark, “Herc told me there was a KGB officer, Alexei Dmitri …”   Dmitri, or Dmitriy in the currently most used US transliteration, is a Russian first name, not a surname.  I suppose the officer could have been posing in the West as an emigé originally named Aleksey Dmitriyev, but who had anglicized his name to Alexei Dmitri.  Either that or Pike misremembered.  As I previously noted about Max’s confusing the Boy Scout and Young Pioneer mottos, I would have expected Cold War covert operatives to be a bit better informed about Russian language and culture than they show themselves in this series.

    •Walter Lord, The Miracle of Dunkirk, 1982, 1998 (unclear why a second date, could be just for reformatting).  A nonfiction account of the Dunkirk evacuation that attempts to combine the big picture with lots of passages from the viewpoint of people who lived through it (mostly but British, but also French, Belgian, German, or from the occasional American or other extraneous national caught up in it).  From Lord’s account, if Dunkirk was a miracle, it was one of the “God helps those who help themselves” sort.  Not to mention a lot of very human bungling and improvisation along the way. None of the governments involved come out looking very good, often because of lack of information, sometimes for plain pig-headednss.  I had not realized that probably the main task of the partcipating civilian-owned and civilian-crewed small craft was not to take soldiers all the way back to England, but to ferry them from shallow water off the beach out to where they could board large ships.  The German bombing and strafing during the evacuation was intermittent but sometimes heavier than I had realized, as was the danger at sea from German bombers, mines, torpedo boats, and occasional U-boats.

    I sometimes skimmed what seemed to me like redundant personal accounts, but a readable account, and one informative even to someone who already knew the outline.

    1. I intend to read Scalzi’s Starter Villain and knowing that part of it is Barrington, IL makes it more appealing as I used to live next door in Schaumburg, IL. However, I left in 2006 so never knew of McGonagal’s.

    2. I graduated at 17 because I was born in September and I skipped kindergarten. My daughter graduated at nineteen because she was born in January and did not skip kindergarten because that was a big mistake. I based Poppy on Mollie and gave her the same birthday.

      1. Jenny, Respectfully, Huh?

        K – Poppy enters at 5, finishes at 6
        1 – 6, 7
        2 – 7, 8
        3 – 8, 9
        4 – 9, 10
        5 – 10, 11
        6 – 11, 12
        7 – 12. 13
        8 – 13, 14
        9 – 14, 15
        10 – 15, 16
        11 – 16 17
        12 – 17, 18

        1. I’m 99% sure Mollie graduated at 19, but I am often wrong. Poppy definitely will. (Respectfully, my ass (g).

          1. Where and how Poppy and Mei (the latter unless Max misspoke) lost a year could be left to the reader to head-canon (as, analogously, with so many aspects of the Sherlockian canon), but if anything occurs to you or Bob, it could still be mentioned in HPP. Nothing very traumatic happened, or we would know by now. Problems with transportation to Bearton? Both were born in Rocky Start (or with parent residing there; hospital might have been Bearton) and would not need fake birth certificates unless the real ones revealed too much about their mothers’ real identities. But some issue with fake paperwork not resolved in time?

          2. I graduated at 19 because I was born in February. My husband also, (by our best guess. He is adopted) because he was put in remedial classes for a year because he couldn’t speak English when he arrived in the US. And my neighbor’s son repeated Kindergarten because he wasn’t ready to move on yet

            Grades are not hard and fast by age. Now if we could get rid of the stigma attached to repeating a grade we would be getting somewhere.

          3. Lupe, Undoubtedly, a significant number of HS students graduate at 19 for one reason or another. Or even older, like Marley in the novel. But at least by the current rules in both NC and TN, even you would have graduated at 18 if you’d started kindergarten at the first opportunity. See my above table for Poppy and substitute yourself.

          4. Yes, Patrick. I saw your chart. The point that I was trying to make is that it is an oversimplification of a more complex question, and thus, inaccurate. I did in fact start kindergarten at the first opportunity, but because of the way the school year is structured in regards to my birthday, I graduated at 19. No special circumstances necessary.

          5. Lupe, And my point, which I thought I had made clear, was that whatever was going on in other states, given at least the current laws in TN and NC (which for lack of other information I take to be the laws already 14 years before story time when Poppy and Mei ordinarily would have started school) the typical age at HS graduation should be 18, so it is peculiar, and probably in need of special explanation (since fiction can not afford to be as implausible as is reality) that *every* HS senior in Rocky Start whose age is stated will be 19 or older at graduation.

            I am not trying to state any general law or impose some arbitrary standard of normality. There are plenty of times when I wonder if my life would have been more comfortable if I’d started kindergarten a year later, and I took a year longer than a lot of my fellow students to finish my dissertation, with further delay until I actually officially graduated.

          6. Clarification to my last comment to Lupe: And not merely as a general trend, but specifically to Mei and Poppy, if an observer were told their ages, that that they had been born locally and not had transferred in, and that both had been honors students who appear socially fairly well adjusted, and that even at the time of Poppy’s PTSD no remark was made about an earlier period of prolonged illness or psychological difficulty, then that observer would *predict* that they both had graduated at age 18. That this is not true seems to me to require explanation or at least head-canoning.

        2. Patrick, respectfully, while we all stand in awe of your extremely thorough approach to fact-checking the fiction you read, I don’t think it’s helpful – or respectful – to go past fact-checking into nit-picking on the author’s own site.

          If pinpointing the exact chronology of a character’s education is essential to your enjoyment of a book, you *might* want to step back and ask yourself why.

          2. Chachal, this appeared while I was writing my last comment, which not in response to it. I’m not trying to engage in a flame war, and while not presently accepting the justice of your interpretation that I was nitpicking, will stop here.

        3. Doesn’t the US school system allow an extra year of Kindergarten for kids who are ‘young for their age’ and not ready to start school yet?
          If a child turns 5 and starts Kindergarten late in the school year it may be considered better for their development to give them a year and a bit in Kindergarten, instead of just a few months.
          That isn’t generally considered the same as being held back for a year later in their school career, just ensuring they get a good start – i.e. not something to remark about.

          1. There is no US school system. There are 50 state school systems for some things and 23,253 school district systems for others. Age at entrance seems to be a state thing with county exceptions.

        4. Where I live in Canada we have 2 years of Kindergarten, so my youngest who is born in December started school at 3 and graduated at 17. We also used to have a grade 13 for those going into University instead of College.

          1. Julie, One of the folks that I knew in grad school was a Canadian who had been through grade 13. His explanation was that Canadians had to know a lot about the US as a matter of survival, plus about Canada’s own history and culture.

  4. I thought that maybe the Wednesday post, which had the words “Good Book” made you think you’d already posted this. I read The Utterly Uninteresting and Adventurous Tales of Fred the Vampire Accountant, which was humorous, and taught me a lot about various paranormal beings that I had not met before. It was recommended by Gary + Hayenga and Michael Mock.

    Then I read Dangerously Charming, Broken Rider book 1, by Deborah Blake, because I read the sample to see where this series was going, and was hooked and had to finish it. I met a lot more unusual creatures in that book. It’s a romance and a quest, and features a curse, as well. It was intriguing and suspenseful.

    Then I read The Teller of Small Fortunes, by Julie Leong, which is about a traveling woman who does not fit in, being an immigrant in the country. She meets people on the road, and they become a found family, and as they have adventures along the way, we learn why they are traveling, and what drives their lives. Eventually, the thing the fortune teller is running from catches up with her, and it changes lives. It was a satisfying read. Recommended By Gary + Hayenga, and Jeanine, and maybe others.

  5. The standout for me this week was far and away Yield to Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland. I am a bit in awe of her range. Tammy said that it was funny, so I was expecting something along the lines of Flying Close to the Wind, but it’s much less flamboyant and rompy than that. It’s actually pretty profound, or at least I found it so, watching the main character actively try to change himself for the better. I really need this in audio form, so I can revisit it regularly.

    Then two dnfs in audiobooks. Meh.

    And then I started listening to Kingfisher’s latest Paladin book. These aren’t favorites of mine and the last one got a little dark and gory, but I enjoy a lot about them.

    I am not sure what I want to try for my reading book next. Four Kings is calling my name again, or maybe something light and fluffy and silly. I am going to need some comfort for this weekend.

    1. I’m glad you liked Yield Unto Great Persuasion. Yes, girlfriend indeed has some range. I did think a lot of it was funny – especially the last chapter. It was funny/smutty/profound – that’s a thing yes?

      2. Yes, she has a very sharp, smart turn of phrase. I especially like the scene where Tam is walking in spirals, talking himself into the marriage proposal. It’s hysterical.

  6. Still in the midst of my Heyer re-read marathon. Had decided that I didn’t enjoy “Bath Tangle” as much as I’d remembered, but just finished “Civil Contract”, which I liked more than I’d expected to. I really liked the gradualness of Jenny’s study of her betrothed, and the ways in which she endeavored to make his life better and better after their ‘Save-the-estate-by-marrying a Rich heiress’ marriage. And the girl he’d been in love with before discovering the mess his father had left behind? She was really an irritating and entitled wispy beauty, and I was very glad she lost the poor besotted soldier and had to settle.

    And by the way, sometimes I find that a re-read tends to make me less credulous of those implied assumptions that torment the MC. It’s not that I recall the full details of the story, but it may be that my final viewpoint of the characters is more durable than my conscious memory of the plot.

    And man, Georgette Heyer is so observant and such an excellent plotter, plus weaving the events from history into her stories of people living that history! I know that intellectually, but doing a systematic read of an author’s work really clarifies the things I love about her.

      2. I cannot see the H and H in Bath Tangle living happily ever after. I am however deeply grateful to have met Mrs. Floore.

    2. Civil Contract is one of my absolute favorite Heyers. It’s a constant reread. Am with you on Bath Tangle too – too slow and sort of hard-to-like MCs…

  7. Sally Kilpatrick’s Nobody’s Perfect wasn’t as good as I expected. I disliked the protagonist and I disliked most of the secondary characters as well. Besides, everyone in the novel, including the heroine, was drinking all the time, and getting drunk too. I hate drunks. I’m not a prude and I drink a glass of wine now and again, but I’d had a few unpleasant encounters with drunkards in my youth, and those events have colored my attitude towards drunken people ever since. I don’t like reading about tipsy people doing stupid or mean things, as if their drunken state excused their stupidity or meanness. I don’t feel any sympathy for those people, only disgust. That was what the protagonist of this novel mainly inspired in me: a disgust for her. Of course, I disliked her story.
    On the other hand, Jayne Ann Krentz’s Sweet Starfire was a great read. It is one of her earlier books, a sort-of sci-fi romance published in 1986. The hero behaved somewhat like a jerk, honorable but thick-headed, a rough alpha male with a chauvinistic attitude, and the heroine was a bit more naive than I could believe, but that was JAK’s staple in most of her earlier books. Fortunately, the writing was excellent, the pacing furious, and the tension high from the first page on. And despite their fictional attributes of a hulk and a maiden, both protagonists were deeply sympathetic. Overall, it was a gripping adventure. Its sci-fi aspect might be sketchy, but its sizzling love scenes, sprinkled throughout the story, surely satisfied most romance readers. I really enjoyed it. My review of it on GoodReads is dated 2019, so obviously, I’ve read it before, but I didn’t remember a thing. It read new and fresh.
    Now I’m reading Bath Tangle. I wonder if it is a coincidence that so often several of us here read the same book at the same time. I don’t feel it is one of Heyer’s best, but I had the mood for it, and she never disappoints.

    1. I too like a glass of wine, and dislike habitual drunkenness in characters – particularly if it reads like they’re self-medicating in a way that the author doesn’t address (which come to think of it makes me wonder if the author is OK.)

    2. I agree that alcohol, especially drunkenness, is overused in fiction, although I can see some plot reasons why authors are tempted in that direction. I’m currently reading a fantasy detective series playing off 1930s noir, and hence featuring a hard-drinking PI. But the author is LDS (the church is now discouraging the term Mormon), likely doesn’t have a lot of first-hand experience, and amusingly gets some things wrong about alcoholic beverages. (He’s OK so far, however, on the effects of heavy drinking.) I may discuss the first book in future if it holds up, minor flaws notwithstanding.

    3. Same here about the alcohol!

      I never understood why one might need it to have fun.
      Just to embarrass myself and ruin my health.
      A small amount to relish, yes, but hard stuff? No!
      Hate the taste, hate the sensation.
      Plus control freak here – I don’t enjoy giving up control over basic functions of my body/life.

    4. Sweet Starfire is an old favorite of mine. I like it better than her more recent works, and despite its somewhat outdated Alpha/loner MMC I found both protaganists sympathetic.

  8. I’m reading Believe, that book about Ted Lasso. It’s heartwarming, as one would expect. Rather downplays how season three went rather wonky, but also tries to account for it a bit.

    I’m listening to Cher’s autobiography on audiobook and enjoying it, but uck, Sonny.

    I read The Love Haters on NetGalley and enjoyed it, though I think the name doesn’t really fit the book. The romance is very sweet, though it gets really weird once Forced Lying is thrown into the plot in the middle. Then it gets into environmental disaster… But overall, good.

    2. I’m rewatching Ted Lasso and I’m considering just skipping season 3.
      I remember reading that Jason Sudeikis didn’t want a third season, so my thoughts are it was phoned in.

  9. I had a VERY slow week. Wanting to stick with books I already own, I’ve started Off-ice behavior by Hannah Henry and like it quite a bit.
    I’ve also started listening to Goaltender Interference by Ari Baran but had less time to spend focused on this than I’d wished. Not far in – it’s definitely not a liht rom-com. Love the characters already.

    Also, I’m having severe KU withdrawal symptoms.
    Quite a number of books came out since my subscription ended and the reading samples read sooooo good. Do they really or is it me, not being able to read on?

    Latest: the new JJ Mulder. I didn’t like the first title samples by her that I tried, but either my taste buds have changed or she’s got much better – I would sooooo love to continue with this new one From Coast to Coast.
    I’m soooo tempted to buy the ebooks, but just getting 2 of x titles of those latest book candies cost the same or more than a month’s subscription. I’m very likely not wantimg to actually keep all of the titles on my January tbr pile.
    Aaaargh.

    Aaaah, and one of my very fav books is about to be shot as a film: filming for Heated Rivalry starts around Toronto in early April.
    Tammy, could you act as scout and detect the crew and cast??? Or not…
    On imdb there’s the name /actress for Amanda but the rest is a big secret.
    Otoh I don’t really want to watch the film. Nor probably know who they cast. I better stick to the illustrations/fan pics I like. Real people will not do my imaginative MCs justice.

    1. Heated Rivalry is being shot as a film??!! That’s awesome. I’m happy to go scout out the sets. Must do some research…

      2. Oh and I’ll try the new JJ Mulder based on your review. The first few were kinda meh but this sounds like an improvement.

        1. Same here – I tried the first ones and just couldn’t be bothered. Then a slight improvement with Shots on Net (dnf nevertheless), loved Save the Game (was pleasantly suprised even if I have to agree on ChaCha1’s points of critique).
          This one hasn’t got the clunkiness of the first titles in the first two chapters, but I don’t know if it’ll turn out meh in the end.

    2. Vaguely related: Only twice in my life have I come upon filming for screen, unknowingly both times. Once was just for a sample of a documentary that never got funded and was never completed. The other time (as I might have already mentioned on this blog) was in Moscow. I was sitting in my dormitory room with the window open, since it was warm out. I could vaguely hear that outside and eight stories below, a couple were having a heated discussion. Then I realized a few minutes later that they were still discussing, *using the same words*. I looked out the window, and sure enough, a film crew was doing location shooting below. This would have been for some movie or TV drama set at Moscow State University in the mid-1970s, but I don’t know what. Perhaps by now the internet could help. (Well, on a third occasion I was also once I’d the large audience for a speech by a US President where there were news crews filming or videotaping, but he said nothing they considered reportable.)

      1. I was walking around Queen Vic market in Melbourne years ago and a woman popped out of a rubbish bin in front of me and began to sing. It took me a couple of minutes to realise that she was being recorded for a comedy show.

        1. In my one trip to Oz, nothing eventful happened at Queen Victoria Market except that I bought two sweaters, one of which I still wear frequently. (The other, ironically, cost more but seems too good for routine wear; I may have to rethink that.) Nothing directly screen related happened elsewhere either, but I’m sure that at one point I stood in the exact spot in Melbourne overlooking the Yarra from which a shot was taken that appeared in Miss Fisher.

          1. I’m sorry that you missed the woman in the rubbish bin, Patrick. Mind you, Queen Vic market doesn’t really need anything extra to be interesting.

      2. One thing about living in Wellington, you do tend to happen across filming locations…
        My favourite one was in civic square with a giant box trap full of tinsel and shiny things (I thought it would be for a christmas episode of something but it turned out to be the Birdwoman episode of Wellington Paranormal)

      3. They were filming Patch Adams on the UNC campus while I was there. We had to detour around to get to classes, as they’d set up giant legs outside one of the buildings. It was exciting.

    3. Oh yikes. I am pretty sure a film version of Heated Rivalry will never live up to my imagination…I will wait to hear from others before I watch it. I love the book (along with TheLong Game) so much and cannot bear the idea of it being ruined for me…

      2. Same hete, Christina.
        I love that RR gets the recognition for her much beloved book, but one 2 hr film cannot be the same than thr internal movie the reading provided me.
        Plus: how on earth will they proceed with the spicy scenes which drove the character development and weren’t just an add on?

      3. I’m going to watch it no matter what even if it’s only to be able to express my disappointment deeply about how they screwed it up. Plus am hoping for at least one or two spicy scenes.

  10. I read the Nightmare Before Kissmuss, which was a great end to my Christmas reading for the season. I enjoyed the relationship between the two MC’s – the Prince of Christmas and the Prince of Halloween, as well as the politics of the holidays.

    And for you hockey lovers, I read Ari Baran’s latest, Goal Tender Interference, which I think is their best book to date. Such a thoughtful exploration of post retirement depression, while reuniting with an ex from ten years past who is still playing for another team. Not a ton of hockey but enough. I also appreciate Ari’s inclusion of non white MC’s. Trigger warnings galore.

    I also read Jesse Reign’s first hockey book, Poetry on Ice. Mixed review here. She may not be deft with hockey, but didn’t write any egregious gaffs. Her usual over the top writing still produces fun and smutty (bordering on kinky) effects. I think she lost an opportunity for a better and even more humourous book because she alternated both the first person narrators. She uses one of the narrators about two thirds of the time, and most of the humour comes from his perspective of the other MC – she could have had an even more fun book with just his perspective alone.

  11. I finished the last Pratchett “The Shepherd’s Crown” – it’s been an enjoyable two years slowly making my way through the Discworld, some of which I’d read and some of which I hadn’t. “Shepherd’s Crown” isn’t my favorite but still a worthy end to the series and for Tiffany Aching. I particularly liked seeing some of the old characters again, and a really nice farewell for Magrat. Just don’t start in twenty minutes before bedtime!

    I’ve also been slowly re-reading Mary Balogh’s Bedwyn series, with #3 “Slightly Scandalous”, Freyja’s book. I love the deceptively frivolous Hallmere and the way the haughty Freyja comes to appreciate him. I also like that Freyja isn’t softened – she is inimitably herself. A fake engagement story with lots of humor and sweetness.

    Unexpectedly the most affecting thing I read this week was “Honeytrap” by Aster Glenn Gray, which I thought was going to be a fun queered Man from U.N.C.L.E., but the premise is taken seriously and it turns heartbreaking, if ultimately hopeful. The 1959 mystery was gentle and gives the MMCs months to get to know eachother criss-crossing middle America, falling in love and exploring their differences. I think personally I would have liked a sweeter epilogue to top it off but it definitely worked as is. Very much recommend.

    1. I loved ‘Honeytrap’ – if you want that sweet epilogue (though with different MCs), I *really* loved AGG’s ‘Deck the Halls with Secret Agents.’

      (note, Kindle has it listed as Deck the Halls *in* Secret Agents, but the title on the actual cover is *with*)

      1. Sounds good – this was my first book by Aster Glenn and I’ll definitely be seeking them out again!

  12. I’ve been reading / re-reading the Verity Kent mysteries by Anna Lee Huber, which are set in Britain at the end of WW I. The first book is This Side of Murder and it should definitely be read first. I like the fact that the series, while being a little bit mystery and a little bit romance, it presents the war years in a way that I have not seen in other stories. I also like the fact that Verity is competent and a fully defined character, as are the other players in the story.

    I initially read the last book in the series when it came out a few weeks (months?) ago and didn’t really like it, but then I re-read the series again from the beginning and liked the last book much better — so that last book doesn’t necessarily stand well on it’s own. I’ve re-read the series (7 books) twice recently because I enjoyed the characters and wasn’t ready to put them back on the shelf just yet.

  14. Apparently I have not finished anything new this week, although I’m in the middle of three things besides Swordcrossed, mentioned above. I have been rereading Hands of the Emperor and At the Feet of the Sun, which take up quite a lot of reading space and also drag my attention away from anything new I have at the moment. Every time I read them I just drown in the richness of detail.

  15. Signed off work and now have four days off in a row thanks to a vacation day + a work holiday. Aahh.

    This week’s reading: not as much as usual!

    1. ‘Wisecracker’ by William J. Mann, a gossipy, well paced and thoroughly researched biography of silent-film star turned Hollywood decorator William Haines, with a focus on Haines’ almost 50-year “marriage” to Jimmie Shields, in the context of gay visibility & rights over Haines’ life 1900-1974. This one is out of print, and it was so full of usefulness that I’m keeping the trade paperback acquired for reading.

    2. ‘The Butterfly Hunter Trilogy’ by Julie Bozza, M/M, three short novels plus a short story, and definitely best read all of a piece. Book one is the bi-awakening falling-in-love of an Australian bush tour guide and an English Earl’s second son, who’s on the hunt for a very rare butterfly that they’re not sure even exists, as most of the evidence for it is in Dreamsong. Book two finds the MCs in England, getting hitched, and having an adventure during their Cornish honeymoon. The short story is them back in Australia on their way to a Valentine’s weekend when a storm grounds their flight. The final novel, set years later, beautifully wraps up the butterfly story while also resolving the deep tension of the Englishman’s at-risk brain: he finally suffers the burst aneurysm they’ve dreaded all along, but recovers in all essential ways. I got the package from Smashwords and give it 5 stars.

    3. [re-read] my own M/M novellas ‘Make Me’ and ‘Our Revels Now.’

    4. [re-read] my own M/M novel ‘Liberty.’

    5. ‘Too Much is Not Enough’ by Andrew Rannells, memoir by a Broadway star, extremely engaging. Rannells originated one of the roles in ‘The Book of Mormon,’ but I first discovered him in a film of ‘Falsettos,’ with Christian Borle, which is fantastic and heartbreaking.

    6. ‘Playing to Win’ by Avery Cockburn, M/M Glasgow Lads novel that is quite similar in framework to its predecessor, in that the university-age MCs have a serious philosophical conflict. This time, rather than it being Protestant vs Catholic, it’s Scots Independence vs Unionist. Plus the independent is from the projects and the unionist is the younger son of a Scottish Marquess. Intelligent, mature, and yet realistically clueless MCs, the necessary relationship work is done on the page, and an action / suspense climax ties up a thread quite nicely. Rounded up to 5 stars.

      1. It’s difficult to do in a romance, because a conflict of sincerely-held beliefs is often irreconcilable, and it seems many people aren’t truly able to “agree to disagree.”

        1. Partially I think that’s why it makes an interesting conflict – more so than a big Mis or the perennial disbelief in love. My parents came from differing political traditions and I’m friends with quite a number of people who vote differently to me, or who hold beliefs I don’t share – it makes for interesting conversations.

          I think there’s also a middle ground between different and irreconcilable – at least I hope so!

  16. The ever on-going word opera, Grey Wolf’s VARIATION ON A THEME, Book 6. This week was Chapters 7 and 8, in which our main characters, having toured England and Scotland, toured Ireland and kissed the Blarney Stone. Chapter 8 ends with their return to Houston.

    I finished rereading QUARTER SHARE and moved on to HALF SHARE, FULL SHARE, and DOUBLE SHARE. Ishmael Horatio Wang has progressed from lowly spacer to Third Officer. The latter two books are re-listeners on Audible.

    I watched several episodes of ELIMENTARY and some other stuff.

  17. Turns out I re-read “What a Difference a Duke Makes” by Lenora Bell. I had read it back in 2018. It’s sweet. I found the female protagonist to be a bit like Mary Poppins given how quickly everyone loved her and how she solved everyone’s problems.

    I then read the sequel, “For the Duke’s Eyes Only.” I liked it less because it was trying to be a friends to enemies to lovers trope but really was an intentional (because I must protect you) big misunderstanding. I don’t like it when the conflict between characters could easily be solved by simply talking and telling each other the truth. Grr. However, the last quarter or so of the story picked up the archeological plot of the missing artifact and got the villains involved and that was much better than the “hero” whining about how he can’t tell the woman he loves he’s a spy. I also thought the author tried a bit too hard to make it Indiana Jones like even to the extent that the female protagonist is named “India” and is called Indy. There is also a lot of feminist view points here and our hero is amazingly enlightened.

    I’m trying to finish listening to “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Daily Life” a Great Courses course. It’s been alright. I have 1.5 hours to go.

  18. The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter – loved it! FMC thinks exactly like I do, but funnier.
    The Hunter by Tana French – wish I had reread the previous Cal Hooper book(s) before I read it, but enjoyed this one as a stand-alone.
    Hum by Helen Phillips – made me think, and I’ve talked about it with several people, but maybe hit a little too close to home (near future sci-fi.)

  19. I read Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood and loved it. It’s a F/M romance about a young woman who dies and meets her soulmate in the afterlife but only briefly because he goes back to the land of the living. The heroine gets a week to go back to earth, find him and get him to kiss her; if she is successful she can remain on earth. If she fails she has to go back to the afterlife. I don’t want to include spoilers but there is play with a bunch of romance tropes and the story has both amusing parts and is touching as well. There is a moral to the story which maybe is conveyed a bit heavy handedly but I really enjoyed this one! Thank you to the Argher who recommended it!

    I’m also very grateful to the Argher who recommended Elly Griffiths! I listened to two of her Detective Harbinder Kaur series: “The Stranger Diaries” and “ Postscript Murders”. Nice light, fun stories.
    I also read the first of her series with detective Ruth Galloway “The Crossing Places” which I loved. I’m also enjoying the very light (so far) romance arc in the latter series.

    And because no week is complete without at least one reread of a good M/M hockey romance, I reread You Could Make a Life by Taylor Fitzpatrick. A lovely story and not as heart wrenching as her other works.

  20. Forgot to mention that I also read a most excellent thriller, ’The Gatekeeper’ by James Byrne. Not just exciting, but funny, too. The violence level is quite high, but it was one of those books where it didn’t bother me because the villains are so thoroughly villainous. Did someone here recommend this?

  21. After the intensity of ‘Goaltender Interference’ from last week ‘The Amazing Alpha Tau Boyfriend Project’, Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey was a fluffy palate cleanser. Before starting I hadn’t realised it was set in a Frat House (blindingly obvious from the title, I know!) and might not have read it if I’d known, but it was sweet and fun and I got over the setting. I will read more of the series when I am looking for light relief. Thanks to Jane for that recommendation.

    Based on Yuri’s recommendation last week I read Alexandra Rowland’s ‘A Taste of Gold and Iron’ and really enjoyed it. Fantasy with nice world building, I liked the politics and economics, though wanted a bit more of both (those elements of the plot tied up quite quickly). The MCs were great and the relationship pacing was well done, so I’ll be reading the next one in that world.

    Then I read ‘This Ain’t No Gay Romance’ Sasha Avice, which I loved. It is a bit different to the usual romance in terms of style. It is set in Australia and both MCs are criminals but it is a character driven plot. It is a mix of serious and funny which I like a lot. I will be reading more of this author who is new to me.

    Finally, on audio, having started David Grann’s ‘The Wager’ on paper a couple of times and fallen asleep (in part as I kept starting it too late in the evening), I switched to audio. The reader was very good and kept me interested. I was on a book club deadline so I spent much of last weekend, whenever I was doing something (e.g. chopping onions) listening. I enjoyed it and it reminded me I should go back to Patrick O’Brian as he tells similar stories in fiction.

    1. Glad you liked the Rowland. If you want more politics her “A Conspiracy of Truths” is also good, albeit sans the romance.

      2022 was a good year for the political m/m fantasy romance – there was Rowland’s ATOGAI, “A Strange and Stubborn Endurance” by Foz Meadows and I tend to think of “Winter’s Orbit” by Everina Maxwell in the same set even though its 2021 science fiction romance 😉

      1. Thanks for those recommendations will check them out. I enjoyed ‘Winter’s Orbit’ but haven’t come across Foz Meadows.

  22. I finished the Alpha Tau series, which I really enjoyed. Then reread Fearne Hill’s Dipped in Sunshine, which was so-so (I dislike age-gap romances), and finally reread theundiagnosable’s Irish Exit (on AO3), which is brilliant – m/m ice hockey friends-to-lovers: funny and emotional and surprising.

    1. Thanks for the Alpha Tau recommendation, I probably wouldn’t have tried it otherwise, and I look forward to reading the next ones when I need some fun.

      1. I’ve tried so many things I wouldn’t normally have gone near, due to Good Book Thursdays! (Gay frat-boy romances definitely being one.)

  23. PS – a Washington Post study confirmed that most ‘super readers’, i.e., people who’ve read more than 50 books in a year, which I suspect lines up with many people on this blog, are: Women, White, 50+, higher earners with advanced education.

      1. Well, this made me look at the study.
        Which had graphs so I had to guesstimate but roughly, in households with incomes under $50,000 about 8 % read 20 books a year and 2% read 50; incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 it’s 10% and 3%; over $100,000 its 18% and 6%.

    2. I was begging around to my IRL local friends this week for gently loved books for me to wrap up for my Blind Date with a Book, which have been selling really well for Valentines day at my consignment space, and the number of people I know who actually read fiction is very low. It makes me sad, actually because how do these people survive?

      1. No clue how someone can live without reading.
        But obviously MANY do.
        Just the other week, the husband of my dh’s colleague protested that he has to read so much for work (lawyer) he simply cannot stand to read for leisure too. Though this imho are two types of shoes. Yet to some degree I’m sympathetic – for the body doing something else than being immobile ’cause reading is not the best. So I listen to audiobooks, too 😉

        1. I think a lot of them watch movies / TV. And others listen to a lot of music. I think my brother in law does both. I would not want to live like that but I do think it meets some of the same needs.

          And then there are the ones I can’t understand at all

  24. I finished off the last book for the Bridgerton famiy and randomly picked up the book on the top of the pile, which happened to be the Unfortunate Miss Fortunes. It was a little hard to get into, most likely because I was steeped in the 18th century and exceedingly tired. But it is now hitting its stride.

  25. Other than KJ Charles rereads, the best things I was this week was The Mystery of Locked Rooms, a YA about escape rooms (a group of 3 kids in an old house set up as an escape room that allegedly has a treasure). It was imperfect but fun.

    And I abandoned a couple of books, including a regency with what was supposed to be banter, but fell flat and so much backstory in the first 25%. “now here’s what happened 5 years ago from the heros POV, not adding anything we don’t already know…”

    Or I’m just cranky?

    I have JAK’s new book on audio from the library, so maybe that will be my next listen.

  26. I haven’t finished anything this week, mainly because I get bored with whatever the current book is and start another. So right now, I have several books in progress, including: A Pirate’s Life for Tea by Rebecca Thorne (about 37% through), The House Witch by Delemhach (11% through), Sword Dance by A.J. Demas (47%through) and a reread of One Night in Boukos by A.J. Demas (34% through). When I am not in the mood for one, I switch to another. My plan is to have finished all of the books listed before starting the library books that are sitting in a pile waiting to be read before they are due.

    1. I do a lot of multibooking too, so depending on how many I actually finish,, some weeks I have little to report and on others, so much that I carry some over to the future.

  27. I read Becoming Crone by Lydia Hawke. I think it was Jeanne who recommended it here (thanks, Jeanne!) Then, I read the first four books in the Amber Ferrell series by Mark Henwick. There are 8 books in the series but I think I may stop here. Perhaps, I’ll go back to read the next Crone. I still haven’t read VGF but I’m saving it for an upcoming 11-hour flight to Johannesburg.

  28. Just finished “A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter.” by William Deresiewicz. It’s combined memoire and literary criticism, connecting each novel to a time in his life when reading and studying an Austen novel helped push him to maturity. Since I love Austen’s books, it was a chance to talk about old friends and acquaintances, and learning more about them than I knew before.

  29. I’m reading a non fiction book about the Granada Sherlock Holmes series that featured Jeremy Brett. “Granada’s Greatest Detective.”

    Plus a couple of the Jesse Stone series by Robert Parker.

  30. I am slowly working my way through The Patriarchs. A lot of interesting factoids but I am half way through and I still don’t know what her explanation is for “How Men Came to Rule”.

    I am intrigued that Chingis (Gengis) Khan is the ancestor of 1 out of every 200 men—but since she then gives examples of how women in his culture were considered equals to men in many ways it doesn’t explain the rise of patriarchy.

    I’m also working on the Physics and Dance book and the book on medieval women (which is more than just biographies of the four women and more interesting to me as a result since I had read a lot of all four’s work).

    Basically I’m trying to read up to my family’s exalted expectations of me.

    I’m also rereading The Fifth Elephant since DS insists it’s one of Pratchett’s best, I don’t remember it at all, and it has Vimes .

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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