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This is a Good Book Thursday: The ReRead Edition

This week I’m rereading Aaronovitch, Pratchett, Novik, and Crusie-Mayer. It’s a certified comfort week.

What did you read this week?

97 Responses

  1. I’m currently re-reading “Hands of the Emperor” as I too am really feeling the need for comfort (although with far less reason!). Hope rehab goes well and you have a speedy recovery.

    Comfiest read this week was “You Should Be So Lucky” by Cat Sebastian (2024). Really sweet, particularly Eddie, homesick and bewildered by his change in fortunes and yet absolutely certain he wants Mark. Enjoyed the 1960 setting. Lovely.

    Best of the week was probably “The Hymn to Dionysus” by Natasha Pulley (2025), a fantasy historical of post-Trojan war Thebes. It’s a city in the grip of drought and famine, and a protagonist grieving for his commander-husband-mentor, so rather sad, and then Pulley would drop in something brilliant about blue or threeness or the strange ways royalty reflects the identity. Unlike Pulley’s other work this wasn’t particularly romantic, although there is one, and I ended up really enjoying it.

    Re-read “The Touch of Fire” by Linda Howard (1992) – I was really worried this wouldn’t hold up but it does, at least for me. Historical romance, set in 1871 Arizona Territory, between a man on the run and a woman doctor who has moved away from civilization in order to find patients. The MMC kidnaps her and it skirts the line of consent, but the book doesn’t portray those actions as good, so I still was able to enjoy the romance.

    “I Am Not Jessica Chen” by Ann Liang (2025) – a YA body swap story, that was really about envy. The way it was handled was really interesting, as the FMC is swapped into the body of her much more popular and successful cousin. New author for my tbr list.

  2. I’m at the end of Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. It has been an enjoyable read, but not my favorite of hers.

    On the Kindle is Ellie Dwyer’s Great Escape, by Diane Winger. It’s an interesting book, I guess you’d call it Women’s Fiction, since it is about a 61 year old woman whose husband left her without a word a year before and disappeared, not even contacting his only brother, and she has no idea why. She is chased out of her apartment by a hurricane and ends up buying a small travel trailer. It’s mostly about her growth, and there isn’t a lot of story in the story, but it somehow manages to keep your interest anyway. (And apparently is the first in a long series, so I’m not sure how the author pulls that off.) I’m close the the end of this one too, and she accidentally gets the answers about her husband, which I won’t spoil. I first picked up the book as a lark, because my best friend is named Ellen Dwyer, and so it amused me. But it has been pretty good reading, especially at night before bed when I want something quiet.

    1. I just finished listening to Great Big Beautiful Life and enjoyed it very much up until the last 10%, even if I did feel that the romance element between the two leads became the least interesting part of it all.
      But then I reached the moment when the main character ignored the Simple Solution so that the author could have the big emotionally dramatic moment. I’m still feeling annoyed by that, and it’s coloured my enjoyment of the rest of the book.

  3. I fell off the wagon and read the news again, so it’s definitely time for comfort rereading. I listened to Faking it, Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook and then the Fortunate Miss Fortunes.

    I only read short stuff, more webtoons, trying to find a new one that grabs me and some short stories from CM Nascosta’s Patreon.

    And we started watching One Piece. I never read the manga, but I don’t think that you need to. It’s lots of fun with over the top villains and a really colorful and imaginative set. Luffy is great. His undaunted cheerfulness could be annoying, but the actor committed to it so fully that I find it charming. He is in the process of building a found family.

    1. I recommend fixthenews as the antidote to the daily news cycle. Allows one to feel informed without getting too depressed.

  4. Phantasma by Kaylee Smith.
    It was fairly well-written, and the FMC was strong, which is always nice.
    It was engaging enough for me to read when I should have been doing other things.
    The ending was maybe a little flat, but still good!
    4/5.

  5. I’m still working my way through Anglo-Saxon history. I’ve gotten up to Aethylred (the Unready), who once again was a piece of work. We’ve crossed the millennium, so there are only a few more years of well-documented history before 1066. I don’t think I’ll finish this before my trip on Sunday, so I’ll probably put it aside in favor of toting something lighter – both physically and metaphorically.

    1. Hi, Nancy,

      I’ve missed your comments about your research and trip. Aethelstan is one of my favorite Anglo-Saxon kings. Yes, Aethylred the Unready (or, the Ill-Advised, according to some) was a piece of work. Enjoy your trip!

      1. Elizabeth – no physical journey, just mental one through a book called The Anglo Saxons by Marc Morris. The “unready” sobriquet appears to have been applied for the joy of the wordplay.

        1. Unready is from the old English word of “unræd” or ill advised. I imagine that it gets translated into modern English incorrectly due to the aptness as you say.

          My old German teacher said that “ræd” was also the root of the German word “Rathaus” or council house but I’m not sure whether that’s right.

          1. Re-read your wordplay comment, and realized that “Aethylred the Unready” is actually “Noble advisor the ill advised” – which never previously occurred to me. Feeling quite silly now 😉

      2. Ah – I see the reference to a trip now. Nothing exciting, just a week away from home for work. Hopefully, it will be enjoyable.

      3. In modern English, un- always or nearly always means not or non-. In German it can also mean “a bad sort of,” as in Unwetter, “bad weather.” It looks like un- still has that additional meaning in Anglo-Saxon.

    2. One of my profs at university (way back when…) was a preeminent scholar of Anglo Saxon History at the time and Aethylred the Unready came up all the time even when he was lecturing on something else! It was before the time of drinking games but it would have made a very good one. 🙂

    3. I haven’t read any biography about Aethylred but Ithe two biographies about Queen Emma I found enthralling. I shall now look for something on Aethylred. Thanks for the heads up.

    4. Funnily enough, I didn’t realize Aethylred the Unready was a real historical figure. A music professor at my college wrote a very modern/contemporary/atonal opera about him that I watched. I didn’t really get it, but it was kind of funny from what I could gather. He was dissatisfied with his epitaph and so appealed to the Muse of History for a change.

  6. I did comfort rereads too. And I just got two books to Beta read from my friend Aleksandr Voinov. Two M/M stories, Touching Fire and Touching Shadow. Looking forward to diving into those.

  7. I listened to NR Walker’s The Weight of It All – recommended here by Dodo and Chacha1 – about an overweight actuary whose partner has dumped him because he’s old and fat. The MC starts working with a personal trainer who is fit and gorgeous and…cue meet cute. What sets this book above many others is the humour for one thing, especially from the MC. I don’t find very many writers funny – Jenny and Alexandra Rowland and…that’s about it. The other thing is the careful examination of what it is to be a certain body type – either fat or fit and how other people relate to you and what your own expectations of yourself are inside this body type. I also loved listening to the Aussie accent. And Chacha1, you’re right, the follow-on short story of A Very Henry Christmas is unnecessary.

    I listened to another Penric and Desdemona book, Demon Daughter. Again, I would have liked more action and less theology, but I did enjoy the argument between Pen and Des that results in them ‘not speaking’ for several days.

    1. But Tammy, 35 is not old?? That’s Henry’s age in The Weight of it All.
      I found his thoughts (in slight panic mode) on why he needs to get his life on track very poignant – wanting to get healthy, so as not to shorten his life.

      1. His boyfriend said he was dumping him because he was old and fat, that’s all I meant. And I agree with you, as he shifts his motivation for working out and losing weight to overall health and confidence, it’s moving without being unrealistic.

  8. I bought and dipped into the second edition of William Sieghart’s The Poetry Pharmacy. Poems selected, with commentary, as medicine for what ails you. I liked this one, for general overload (in my case, of the news). (this should be a saturday post)

    The Orange

    At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
    The size of it made us all laugh.
    I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
    They got quarters and I had a half.

    And that orange, it made me so happy,
    As ordinary things often do
    Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
    This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

    The rest of the day was quite easy.
    I did all the jobs on my list
    And enjoyed them and had some time over.
    I love you. I’m glad I exist.

    — Wendy Cope

  9. Oh wait, re poetry, I am very much enjoying Vona Groarke, like this sonnet, on daughters growing up and so much more – I have been reading this poem for months. I also like Stansted to Knock, December 21st.

    And for anyone interested in Irish poetry, there is an excellent podcast series from RTE called Say a Song, where they discuss and then sing a Sean Nos song, then a contemporary Irish poet writes a version (not a translation) in English. I accidentally listened to ep 6 first, and honestly I’d start there again.

    Going out

    for Eve
    My daughter, heading out on the town in her glad rags,
    laughs a laugh like a floribunda rose pinned in her hair.
    She has so much beauty in her, more than this summer
    evening, in all its frippery. More, even, than the sound
    of her heels the length of the road, her phone voice
    dipping into company, the pooled high talk of her
    and her friends slipping through the city’s open door.
    Do me a favour, daughter: sometime, in time, wear for me
    a sweetheart neckline, slingback sandals, my good ring
    and howsoever many of your necklaces and bracelets.
    Walk your walk through ten thousand doorways
    so the music of you is one and the same as the music
    of starlings and new moons and traffic lights and weirs,
    only in a new arrangement arranged by, and for, you.

  10. First comment on a blog or to an author. directly in my life (other than Heather Cox Richardson, which is another matter entirely)!

    Jennifer Crusie, I discovered your books a few months ago — not sure how i missed them until now? Better late than never! Think I’ve purchased all of them on Amazon — and I want to tell you how much I enjoyed spending time with them — they are smart, witty, well-constructed and while lots of personal growth happens, they are happy underneath. I loved reading through your evolution as an author. Your books make me want more! And, while it’s clear from your various written sources that your life is not always sunshine and roses, I hope and believe that your underlying core embodies the same characteristics!

    Back to your question of the day — currently reading an Ellie Alexander cozy mystery about Jules and Torte in the town of Ashland Oregon — always a fun read. I want to recommend an author that crossed my path a few weeks ago — Sangu Mandanna — she has recently crossed from YA to A fiction. I loved her Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and the more recent Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping. In addition, her Celestial Trilogy was a fun journey! Her underlying stories are also smart, fun and founded in love — and the interweaving of the Indian mythology is great!

    Please keep writing — there are many of us out here who greet each new book with quiet joy — signed a friend in German Village.

    2. I just read The very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and loved it. Thanks for mentioning it. I just read it a week ago but could not think of any books to add to the discussion.

  11. My best read this week was a reread of Ao3’s TheUndiagnosable’s “Here There be Dragons” (Thank you JaneB for the idea to go back to this author!) It’s an M/M story between a hockey goalie who is slightly on the spectrum and a newly traded forward who has issues living up to his father’s hockey fame. I liked it even better on the second reading. This one will definitely stay on the reread loop.

    I then read “Summer Skate” – by Sean Avery and Leslie Cohen. It’s an
    M/F romance between an NHL rookie and a married romance writer who meet while they find themselves to be neighbors when vacationing in the Hamptons. I am torn about this book: on the one hand it fed some of my need for a new hockey book, on the other hand the MCs were both self centered and sort of unpleasant. There was lots about the glitz in the Hamptons and it provided a glimpse into the lifestyle available to NY Rangers players in NYC. Avery is a former NY Ranger Sean Avery who had a checkered NHL experience and after reading up about him I can see that there is a lot of his own life experience (and attitude) in here. The FMC is carried away by lust (she’s married with 2 small children…) and I was annoyed by the fact that she didn’t seem to consider the consequences of her actions on her kids, much less on her nice husband and her up-till-then happy marriage. I can understand the affair happening, but I wanted her to at least have a passing thought for her family and I wanted a better “why” then just lust. Also their reckless behavior just irritated me. I won’t provide spoilers but the door is left open for a sequel. I think I’ll pass.

    I finished Val McDermid’s “Grave Tatoo” which was wonderful. Wordsworth scholar, Lake District atmospherics, a historical aspect dealing with Fletcher Christian — made for an excellent free standing mystery story.

    Pre-season hockey starts this weekend!!

    1. Wow, Christina, the hockey romance sound awful. Awfully close to reality if the MCs are reckless people who don’t think twice about consequences. Yes, this certainly happens, but in my reading I prefer not to stick that close to reality…

      Yuk.
      But thanks for pointing out which book I don’t want to read.

    2. I’ve just downloaded three new hockey books – haven’t read any good new ones in months – so stay tuned.

        1. Jesse Reign’s “Flagrant Foul – don’t think you liked her last one. Marina Vivancos’ “Full Body Hit” which is in the a/b/o ‘verse and hella hockey – I love this series but it’s not everyone’s jam. And the last one is The Fall by Tal Bauer. It’s another hockey amnesia trope but hey you can’t have too many of those. I find Bauer typically too dramatically written plus the last one of his I read made it clear he’d never seen a hockey game in his life – thinks an offensive player is paired up with a d-partner – what?? – but going to give him another try because hockey.

          1. Oh, I’ve heard of all of them!
            Actually, I’ve already downloaded the Reign – a looongtime pen pal of mine spoke highly of the book, of it’s tone though she mentioned it’s very lighg on ghe hockey, or so my not-hockey-crazy friend said. Saud friend wasn’t too keen on book 2 in the trilogy, so I’ll givd it a try (you femember correctly that I wasn’t too leen on book 2, especially thd secon half lost me).
            On insta, I’ve seen many go completely crazy for The Fall. I’ll await your verdict .
            Iirc, I’ve downloaded sample of Vivancos’ books. Just didn’t come round to trying any.
            I’ll keep my fingers crossed for your three titles.
            In warly October, ghe new AL Heard is due, as us a new one by Hannah Henry and JJ Mulder. Both might be light on the hockey but by ghen, the season should have started over the pond. It slready has here. My team has won once and lost once, grr.

    3. I’ve never read any Val McDermid, assuming she’d be too grim, though she seems very interesting as a person. This story sounds my kind of thing, but is it violent/depressing?

      1. I think it is hard to gauge another’s tolerance for violence so ymmv: I remember a friend exclaiming about the violence in a book she’d read and when I read it it seemed okay. So taking that into account: Val McDermid’s most violent ones (imho) are the ones with the cop/shrink protagonists (Carol Jordan/Tony Hill) which they made into a tv show (Wire in the Blood) which I did NOT like. I found those books (they are more psychological thrillers than procedurals) to be violent and disturbing at times. I’d stay away from those.
        The one I just read “The Grave Tattoo” is a stand alone and I didn’t find it violent (except of course there is a murder…) In general her stand alones are in the same vein.
        She has a protagonist who is a PI called Kate Brannigan which I really enjoyed and which I wouldn’t classify as particularly violent either. Kate does get herself into the occasional situation she has to figure her way out of which leads to a bit of suspense but it’s not the scary-can’t-sleep-afterwards type.
        Finally, my favorites are the Karen Pirie series which do have murders in them but I didn’t feel they were too violent (again, keeping in mind that there are murders in these books!) and the body count isn’t off the charts at all. The Karen Pirie books are being televised and series 1 came out a few years ago. It was pretty true to the first book in the series and that might give you an idea of the type of violence and whether it goes beyond your threshold for this.
        I devour almost everything this author writes except the Carol Jordan/Tony Hill ones.

        1. Thank you very much, Christina, for your thoughtful reply. I’ll definitely give her a go. I do fancy the one with Wordsworth connections, so will probably start there – I’ll see what the library has.

        2. I found the Carol Jordan/Tony Hill books to be so disturbing that it put me off her entirely. I didn’t realise that some of her books weren’t so violent. Maybe I should try her again.

  12. I’m still reading that Word Opera. Chapter 110 yesterday. It’s just habit now. VARIATION ON A THEME book 6 by Grey Wolf. I also diverted back to Book 4, where boatloads of interesting content lives. Book 4 was senior year of high school, victory in state/national/tournament of champions debate, Steve enlarged the circle of people in the know about the time travel secret from two to six, rescued his gay debate partner from her parents’ attempt to send her to a “pray-the-gay-away” facility, his sister and her girlfriend attended their prom together, he placed some sports bets that paid outrageously (one of the benefits of being a time traveller) he bought into Dell Computers at its infancy… an amazing year.

    I finished Michael Dalton’s BIKINI MAGIC, book 5 of the series, to be concluded in BIKINIS FOREVER. Although there is so far no magic nor supernatural elements, this series intersects with his other series.

    Note that the “recommended” order is just that. Other than Demon Hunter/Shifter Girls, these series can all be read as stand-alones and reading one is not necessary to understand another.
    The Santo Domingo Novels

    Demon Hunter 1-5
    Shifter Girls 1-3
    Demon Hunter 6
    Chronicles of Empyrea (related, not essential)
    The Bikini Days series
    Isekai Emperor 1-3
    Red Elf Ranch 1
    Dark City Girls 1
    Red Elf Ranch 2
    Dark City Girls 2
    Red Elf Ranch 3
    Trailer Park Elves 1-6
    Dark City Girls 3 (forthcoming)

    I finished season 2 of WEDNESDAY on Netflix. There so has to be a season 3.

  13. I’m still running behind on writing up my reading, but here’s a start, with one more coming.

    •Jill Paton Walsh. The Late Scholar, 2013.  Audiobook read by Mathew Brenher.  (A little confusingly,  Paton Walsh is a double surname but is written without a hyphen.)  Possibly I had started this novel once before, since parts of it seemed slightly familiar, but it was basically new to me.  The novel is the last of the Peter Wimsey continuations, this time with a plot formulated entirely by Paton Walsh, although largely using characters created by Sayers.  As established in earlier continuations, Peter Wimsey, in his sixties, had unexpectedly become the Duke of Denver. It is now 1953.  The author pretty successfully evokes the period’s politics and culture, including the films playing in the theaters and Tolkien and Lewis still teaching in Oxford but already mildly notable.

    Thanks to a substantial donation by an early ancestor, one of Wimsey’s duties in his ducal capacity turns out to involve the governance of a (fictional) Oxford college, St. Severin’s.  There are several saints by that name, of which the only one rating an article in The Penguin Dictionary of Saints is Severinus of Noricum, but he turns out not to be the patron of the college.  The right Severin is Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, more commonly known simply as as Boethius, author of the famous (in some circles) On the Consolation of Philosophy and of other works.  (Boethius was long venerated as a saint near his place of death in Pavia and this status was finally confirmed by the Vatican in 1883, but I am not sure that he really would have been known in England as a saint, as opposed to as a philosopher, long enough ago to plausibly get an Oxford college named after him.  There is only local tradition in Pavia, with no early documented confirmation, that King Theodoric, an Arian, had had him killed at least in part as an orthodox Catholic, thus qualifying him for martyrdom, rather than for strictly political reasons.) 

    Anyway, it seems that Wimsey will have to break a deadlock to decide whether to sell a valuable copy of The Consolation of Philosophy, one that may have been glossed by King Alfred himself.   The money would be to purchase a tract of land on the edge of expanding Oxford at a suspiciously attractive price. Wimsey and Harriet find evidence that a series of recent deaths among the college faculty that could affect the vote were actually murders.  Moreover, the murders were committed by methods used in Harriet Vane’s mystery novels—which in turn were based on methods in actual cases solved by Lord Peter (meaning that we have read about them in Sayers novels).  Murders continue after Peter and Harriet start investigating. The high body count is more like some of Agatha Christie’s work than in any Sayers novel that I recall.  However, on the whole the plot strikes me as better than some Sayers, if by no means up to her best.  One last flaw: Toward the end, Peter and Harriet have taken one trip to the Continent and are planning others, with no reference to the strict limits on foreign exchange that Britons were permitted for travel abroad until 1959.  I understand that there were ways for the rich to evade the restrictions, but earlier in the novel Harriet was having twinges of conscience about her now-privileged position and I think that for consistency she should have been shown having some here as well. Matthew Brenher’s voice narration was competent.  Enjoyable reading, recommended.

  14. I would have bet you anything that I’d spend every possible minute reading during the last push of the Big Move, but I actually haven’t read a thing (not even email) since 9/13 till today! Got the Chromebook out of the truck when we arrived in Oklahoma City so I could hose it down. Anyway, my reading week:

    1. ‘The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy’ by Roan Parrish. M/M set in modern-day New Orleans. MC1 is 25-ish and can see ghosts (as can others in his family) and is terrorized by them because of past trauma. This understandably amplifies what might have been a mild case of social anxiety. MC2 is a little older, trans & nonbinary, and is a professional haunt designer. As in, a person who designs and builds haunted houses. Yeah, that’s an obstacle. Everything about this was good, 5 stars.

    2. [re-read] Faking It by Jennifer Crusie. 🙂
    2. [re-read] Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie. 🙂

    1. Ha ha! I enjoy your optimism about moving. The last time I moved I wore the same pair of pants for three days and used a large wooden spoon to eat my oatmeal. I simply couldn’t find anything. I remember crying over the pants.

  15. •Donna Andrews,  For Duck’s Sake, 2025.  Several folks on the site have mentioned this light mystery novel already.  I will only bring up a few particular points that struck me. Jenny mentioned once undertaking to edit a dog into a completed manuscript because the publisher had put one on the cover.  Here, by contrast, we have a book that is more about dogs than any about any other nonhuman animal, but where dogs appear nowhere on the cover.  Granted, to conform with the avian theme of this book series, the title is a bird pun and Andrews threw some ducks in.  For that matter, arguably the ducks represent an essential element, since digging a pond for them leads to the discovery of a skeleton.  But it’s an unemphasized element, and dogs are far more prominent. But not one single dog makes it onto the cover or or title-page illustration, not even in the background.  Art locked in before the novel had even been written?

    The book also takes a decidedly unenlightened view of “carpetbaggers,” the Southern pejorative for Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction, at least ostensibly with the intention of helping freed slaves and other black people to take a full place in Southern society and of otherwise helping to nudge the region into the 19th century. (The process was soon largely undone by political trends, including Northern ones, too complicated to get into here.)  The corrupt Pruitt family who used to run Caerphilly are here twice described by Meg as having originated as “carpetbaggers.” (The second time, unblushingly in the presence of the town’s black police chief.) It seems to me on the contrary that even if the Pruitts arrived as Northerners, the more important fact is that they quickly adapted to the same homegrown norms that Andrews describes as still dominant in neighboring Clay County.  (This issue probably actually arose first in an earlier novel where the Pruitts were first mentioned.)  Nonetheless recommended. I thought the novel exceeded Andrews’s high average.

    1. As a Southerner, I have never heard that carpetbaggers’ intention for coming south was to help Blacks integrate into society. No surprise as history can be presented subjectively.

      “Carpetbagger” has always been synonymous with “opportunist with questionable morals who exploits the disadvantaged for profit and power”. An good description of the Pruitts in the Meg Langslow series.

      1. Lisa, See the Wikipedia article “Carpetbagger.” I think the extended meaning you cite was likely part of the “Lost Cause” mythology that even many or most white Northerners bought into for a while. (And it’s explicitly said that the Pruits arrived in the 1870s, hence during Reconstruction.) I am a bit offended by the fact that Meg somehow thinks it worse that the Pruitts started out as factory owners who happened to be Northerners, as if the resident Southern ruling class has been any better, or still was any better next door in Clay County. It certainly runs contrary to the generally enlightened tenor of the series.

      2. It’s a highly politicized term. It also was used for northerners who came to teach freedmen and women to read and write.
        It’s worth noting for example how it was used in the sign commemorating the Colfax “riot” where somewhere between 62 and 130 black men were killed while surrendering to former confederate soldiers and the Ku Klux Klan .
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colfax_massacre

  16. My reading week was plenty good:

    Shots on Net by JJ Mulder, audiobook. I was charmed by the narrators (in spite of one botching the German accent of one side character). Plus a nice demi representation.
    Had tried the reading sample before and couldn’t get into it, this time round I was totally charmed. Yes, not perfect at all, but I connected and that’s what’s important for me.

    Prince Material by Nora Phoenix. After The Prince and the Player, I was very excited about this second installment. It delivered. Not perfect by a long shot, but I appreciated how well the MCs communicated. Not perfect: The Dutch accent is so much less pronounced than the Norwegian in book 1. Plus, the prince’s parts of the story were cut a bit too short for me in the second half, the US commoner took over the story a bit too much – understandably but since I love the prince’s narrator and just like the other one, I noticed. Also: Inconsistencies! In book 1, Floris, the Dutch prince, is 19 iirc, Now he seems 21, the other mc is 24 but feels much younger. Well, the only thing he did was study, so that’s not too far off. Anyway: I’ll watch out for book 3 which is announced for March. With the Swedish prince as mmc, so I expect the narrator to use an even more correct accent – all the Swedes seem to have such a good grasp of English! In book 4 at least I get posh British (not usually my fav, but the mc seems very nice in books 1 and 2). And yes, the Swedish prince will be an assistant hockey coach, because these days, if you have an athlete, he must be doing hockey (at least this one is coaching instead of playing).

    Then I stuck to fictional British princes: The Unlikely Spare was good, really good. Yes, a bit too sweet at the end/epilogue, but for quite a long stretch, the noble mc was nicely prickly and the Northern Irish one nicely manly lol. They got on their respective nerves for quite a long time which was fun to follow.
    Also: a tour through the Northern Island of New Zealand – what’s more to like?
    And the bonus novella actually added to the story. And didn’t leave me unsatisfied after reading.

    In between I listend to some lesser mini-audiobooks, purchased for free via Eargasm promo: I don’t seem to be one for novellas – it’s harder to connect for me in the shorter format.

    Now I have to chose from an overflowing KU-tbr-folder and some nice promos made me buy too many books that are now stored in my tolino and kobo-folder. Which makes keeping track not so easy. Can’t say which title might be next, sigh.

    I’ve also read in KJ Charles’ newsletter that the audiobook of Copper Script is almost ready, narrated by Cornell Collins. Christina, you mentioned that you like his work a lot, didn’t you? I listened to a sample and he seems to fit the main character perfectly.
    Usually I don’t connect with his voice – can’t pinpoint why, but I’m always open to be presently surprised.

    1. You know I absolutely didn’t remember his name but I see that he was the narrator for Alex Hall’s “Pansies” and I really liked the job he did on that. Not sure I’ve heard anything else he’s done.

      1. He’s narrated most of KJ Charles’s books, but maybe you know him by his second name Matthew Lloyd Davies?
        He’s quite prolific.

  17. My husband and I recently finished listening to Lady’s Knight, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Very funny and fast-moving F/F romance, involving knights in armor, a tournament, dragons, etc. Totally escapist entertainment.

  18. Currently reading Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. Finding it engrossing, as usual. Her voice just draws the reader in.

    Reread The Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening and enjoyed it all over again, especially now I could see how the author dropped in the clues now that I know how it all ends. Still love Dante’s voice. So much like Murderbot.

    We’ve been watching the new season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds and loving it. Also rewatched some early Midsomer Murders back in the early days of Barnaby and Troy.

    1. Isn’t SNW good!

      We have now gone back to Discovery, which I bounced off when it first came out, as we knew Pike et all appeared in it at some point. Very weird to see him with less outre hair 😉

  20. Still re-reading (via the dramatized audiobooks) the entire Kate Daniels series (by Ilona Andrews). Nice antidote to the news, following the adventures of a bunch of folks determined to protect people from bullies (and other monsters), regardless of the cost to themselves.

  21. I’m currently reading Book Ten of the Lord Julian series and I’m enjoying much more that the last book about cheating at horse racing. Book Ten includes more family which is my preference.

    And speaking of family, I recently read Limelight by Amy Poeppel, the story of a mom and former high school teacher who takes on the task of salvaging an off-the-rails pop star. Humorous and warm. Poeppel writes lovely multi-generational families.

  22. I read “The Magician of Tiger Castle” by Louis Sachar which is about a court magician in a medieval European country which had been tasked to turn sand into gold. When the princess of the country falls in love with an apprentice scribe, the magician is re-tasked to make the princess forget all about her love. I love how the magician goes through the process of creating his potions. He doesn’t use spells, he uses potions which he creates using the scientific process. It’s a pretty bittersweet story, more on the sweet side than the bitter, though. I throughly enjoyed it.

    I am currently trying to read “The Maiden and Her Monster” by Maddie Martinez which is about a girl, a golem and other people attempting to save their religious leader from a regime attempting to crush and destroy these people. It’s rather depressing so I haven’t progressed very far, especially in these days.

    I am also reading “The Formidable Miss Cassidy” by Meihan Boey which is about a Scottish governess coming to Singapore to take charge of an English girl teenager. The family is living in a haunted house with a malicious ghost so Miss Cassidy has her work cut out for her. I really liked the story and read way past my bedtime, but the book is only halfway through and the inciting event seems to have been resolved.

    1. The alchemy reminds of real life Johann Friedrich Böttger, who was imprisoned and ordered to convert metal into gold he ended up working on another scientist’s attempts to produce porcelain, which was also quite profitable

  23. Re-reading seems to be the flavor of the day. Lisa Kleypas’s Devil in Winter was a re-read, a historical f/m romance from 2006. Not bad, although a bit too much sex on the page for my taste. I read it years ago, but didn’t remember a thing from my first read.

    Then I tried a new for me book, Joan Hess’s Strangled Prose. Someone here recommended it, but I didn’t finish the book. What I dislike most about mysteries nowadays is the plot twist when the hero/heroine are suspected of murder and must investigate to lift the unjust accusation. That’s what happened in this book, and as soon as it happened, I stopped reading. Pity. From the first page, I had such hopes for this book. It is written very well, the author’s humor and wit sparkle, and I liked its protagonist, Claire, a lot. She is snarky and irreverent. She loves books: reading them and selling them. She is a bookseller. And her opinion of men coincides with mine:

    “I tried men once. It was not an untenable arrangement, but when Carlton terminated the relationship in a car wreck, I vowed not to find a replacement. Prose filled the gap admirably.”

    What is not to like? Besides, when Claire started mocking the mandatory sex scenes in romance novels, I agreed wholeheartedly. I couldn’t stop smiling. I’m so sorry she was the main suspect in a murder investigation, but I couldn’t read about it.

    And then, there was Georgette Heyer, The Reluctant Widow this time. A re-read, of course, and nice as ever.

  24. Jennie, i’m so sorry you cracked your pelvis. I know how fun rehabilitation is because I did it about 25 years ago. You are due for a run of good luck. And I for one and praying you get it
    I’m thinking of doing aHeyer reread. I’ve been reading Jayne Castle. I was on a romance podcast on Monday called the modern romantic and they mentioned how much they loved Jennie and Bob and I’m sure they’re planning to be in touch with them.
    I’m also thinking of rereading Jane of lantern Hill by LM Montgomery.
    I’m trying to stay focused on my own book and doing some editing.
    I don’t know what is going on right now, but I receive about 3 to 5 queries a day about my book Irish magic, occasionally about one of the others, talking about how good it is, actually mentioning plot, points and characters and and explaining how they could share me to a whole bunch of other readers for a nominal fee. I wanna know how they targeted Irish magic. I mean, it’s always delightful to hear how much somebody loved your book, but this isn’t real. Last night I started a new book called the house between Sea and sky. It looks interesting. But I’m not far enough in to know whether it’s going to be truly magical.
    I wish you lots of happy reading

    1. I love Jane of Lantern Hill. I actually haven’t read any of Montgomery’s other books. The library had Jane on audio cassette when I was a kid.

    2. For the last month or so, there’s been a whole barrage of scammers offering authors access to reader reviews, along the lines you describe, the gist of which is that the book obviously deserves more reviews. Seems to be the latest iteration of scams targeting authors. They frequently have errors in them indicating their far-from-personal creation — Ursula Vernon got one that still had the mail-merge code, “[Insert Author First Name here]” in it (apparently the scammer or the system couldn’t figure out how to handle T Kingfisher’s first name).

      They’re written by AI, with scammers feeding the book descriptions into an LLM, so they seem (somewhat) personalized, and the prompt asks the AI to praise the work, so they’re all different but effusive in their praise. Major authors are receiving them — I wouldn’t be surprised if Jenny and Bob had received a few — and are putting up warnings on social media. Heck, I’ve even received two or three.

      I don’t know exactly how they’re choosing the books, probably by some sort of chatbot looking for low numbers of reviews in popular genres. Courtney Milan, whose books get lots of reviews, got one of these scam letters for a foreign translation that had fewer reviews than most of her books.

      Best thing to do with these is to report the senders to your email service and then block.

      1. An author friend of mine is getting emails like this. The most recent one was signed ‘Brandley Georgina’. So apparently AI is struggling to work out which is the first name and which is the surname. 🙂

      1. I’ve been getting those emails too. I didn’t realize they were AI generated, but they automatically go to my SPAM file anyway and are immediately deleted without reading.

  25. Last week I reread my first Crusie, Welcome to Temptation, always a treat. The first sex-positive, explicit enough, matter of fact, non-rapey romance I ever encountered. So while you recover, I hope you will allow yourself every now and then to rest, very gently, on your laurels.

    I am really enjoying Grace Lord Burrowes’ Lord Julian series, recommended here. I also dipped in to the Lady Violet books, which I enjoy, but not quite as much, at least yet.

  27. I finished “My Imaginary Mary” by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows, and even though I felt it slowed down a bit at around 70 %, it had a sweet ending. Very nice read. These three authors are doing a very relaxing, fun and enjoyable thing with their Jane- and Mary-books. Wonder if any other names will be in it eventually…
    Then, while recording the video mentioned yesterday, I read Faking It. Well, I started reading it during recording, and it helped so much. Thank you so, so much, Jenny. This book always does me good. Right now, I needed this positive outlook on art, and what some might perceive as “art by a child” really is art made through joy and love. You are great at shifting my perspective. Thank you, forever. <3
    Have a whole bunch of books lined up, but really, all I've been able to do since Monday night is rewatch the first three seasons of Somebody Feed Phil. Just before tonight's event, I finished those, and can now start on seasons four, five and six, which I haven't seen yet. Easy, scare-free watching with happy people, yummy food and travel-stories. Yes please.
    As for the event: I find it incredibly hard to be any sort of judge on my own performance, so I will take Sven's word for it and say it went well. I will give a shout if/when the video we made for the event goes live. If I decide NOT to put it on Youtube, I will share it with you anyway. But first I need a break. Thanks everyone for the hearts and support! <3

  28. I found a wonderful new crime writer this week. The downside is that she really is new and this is her first book, but I gather there’s a new one either already out or very close. Sally Smith’s A Case of Mice and Murder is set in the Inner Temple law offices in London, where the Lord Chief Justice has just been murdered, and brilliant, reclusive barrister Sir Gabriel Ward is set to investigate. Did someone here recommend it? I know I got the recommendation from somewhere, but I’ve no idea where.

    I also read Robert Harris’s Pompeii, which is told mostly from the point of view of a young water engineer who is trying to work out why the aqueduct has suddenly stopped flowing. Obviously we know what’s going to happen, but the characters are fascinating and it’s a great story.

    Now I’m re-reading Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword, which is one of my all-time favourite books.

    1. Lian, I remember teading a glowing review by KJ Charles. I’d downloaded the sample to my ever growing tbr pile…

    3. I may have been the one to mention A Case of Mice and Murder a couple of months ago. It’s quite good with an OCD hero and the details about Temple Bar. Glad you found it and enjoyed it too.

  29. I’m reading Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale. The MC is a young woman who grows up in her father’s antiquarian bookshop, adores books and has a small reputation as a biographer of minor writers. She’s invited to write the bio of a reclusive famous living author. Said author is known for never telling the truth. So far, I am really enjoying it. Setterfield is a gifted writer.

  30. I’ve recently discovered Melanie Shawn, who writes M/F romance, and am streaking through various series. I love the interconnectedness either by the location or a family group. Like in the Whisper Lake-Savage Brothers series, three brothers and a male cousin who was raised with them by a single mom. I’ve read Stay with You, Had to be You, Crashing into You, and now I’m on Because of You.

  31. So sorry to hear about your fall. My Mom broke her pelvis last August which is when we started reading aloud together each evening. Stick with your physical therapy, Jennie–a year later and my Mom is back to normal!

    I finished a nice F/F “Cozy Fantasy” Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, about a royal bodyguard and a mage who set out to build a life together creating a bookstore/tea shop. The writing was engaging, and I enjoyed the characters and settings. The story touches on a lot of intriguing threads—shopkeeping, dragons, magical illness, and a quest for dragon eggs—but I found myself wishing some of these themes had been explored more deeply. Since this is the first in a series, I’m looking forward to seeing how the author develops the world and characters further in the next installment.

    Next I read Chaos Terminal, the second of Mur Lafferty’s Mid-Solar Mysteries. I liked the first one, Station Eternity, better, but this was an enjoyable sequel set in that world.

    And I just finished reading aloud The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year – I love Aly Carter! The developing relationship of the MCs and the roots of their antagonism are well developed and resolved while they chase around solving the mystery. Great bedtime reading.

    1. I agree about “Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea” – it felt oddly shallow. I think maybe because underneath the coziness was that one of the MCs is from a thoroughly dystopic Queendom where asking for help with dragon attacks is liable to be answered with your execution. Still enjoyable though.

      Although I absolutely disagree with her method for making tea (she prefers single serve infusions rather than teapots!) 🙂

      1. I also found it a bit shallow and wished the characters had more depth and felt more engaging. I do enjoy a good cozy fantasy, it just didn’t quite grab me as much as some do. I found myself thinking wistfully of Dealing With Dragons, where all the characters feel like such individuals, even when we only meet them briefly. I still enjoyed it, but I didn’t feel the need to rush out and get the rest of the series.

  33. Mostly just read Welcome To Temptation and Faking It! A wonderful time as always 🙂 I think this week I should see about getting some Heyer. I’ll also reread Aria, a manga series that’s all about enjoying the small things in life and living in the moment. I’m trying to focus on the small joys now more than ever.

  34. I am doing another re-read of Anne Bishop’s series on the Others — a community of sentient animals who can shift into human shape and interact with humans. This is about the fifth or sixth time I’ve read this series, and somehow it never gets old or boring.

    There are wolf-humans, Bear-humans, crow-humans, and others who coexist in their community, which is located in a park-like setting in a city somewhere in North America. The main group of characters work in or around a bookstore in the middle of the city, and while many humans around them are mistrustful, some are friends and colleagues of the shifters.

    The first book in the series is titled “Written in Red.” Any other fans of this series out there in Argh-land?

  35. I listened to A Pocket Full of Rye after finishing 4.50 From Paddington. I really do prefer Miss Marple to Poirot, although I think the Poirot tv adaptations were better. None of the Miss Marple actors quite captured her for me.

  36. Has anyone experienced a synesthetic reaction to a book?
    I teied to reas Firs-Time caller today. Brought back the physical copy from canada in April, only got to read it today.
    Thd story should have worked for me, but the writing style was so samey, bland and unexciting. A totally “beige” book for me.

    1. I think books are too complex for me to view them like that. My synaesthesia only extends to seeing letters, numbers & days of the week in tones of black, white & grey. I guess I visualize stories as vignettes – sort of a glimpse of the characters & setting. If a story’s dull, I’m liable to see it as the vaguest outline sketch, I think.

      1. It’s been the first time thag I exd a book as a colour. I experience certain letters in colour and some moments in life, but usually that’s it.
        On GR, I found a couple of reviews that shared my impression- one called the book bland, which is the equivalent of beige to me.

  37. I have been re-listening to Fast Women, Agnes and the Hitman, and Welcome to Temptation by one Jennifer Crusie… 😉
    I confess I came here specifically to write you a little fan letter, Jenny. In these dark times, we need comfort lit, and I have weeks in which I just plough through my favourite Crusies for the n-th time. Absolute life-savers. For me, it’s the humour, the lightness of touch, the men (ha!), the prose, but also the intelligence and the wisdom that shows in your novels. I particularly admire Fast Women. It is so neatly plotted, with the three friends and the two McKenna guys interlacing seamlessly. (Also, I’m Capricorn, so I vibe with the Virgo and the Taurus :-))
    Shout-out to Sandra Burr and Aasne Vigesaa, too. It is a pleasure to listen to their readings of the three novels.
    To bring people joy and comfort with your stories must be wonderful. It is the job I would choose, if I had the talent! Thank you very much! <3

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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