Krissie sent me the title of a writing book that had been recommended to her by a professional. organization and she asked me what I thought. So I tried to read it, but about twenty pages in, I wanted this guy dead or at least severely injured by good writing books falling on his head. First he dissed Aristotle (“too simple”) and then he started with plot (always start with character) and then he made plot needlessly complicated (trust me, everything there is to be said about plot has been said multiple times; adding a dozen new terms you made up with weird diagrams does not help the situation.) All of which is to say, I did not finish a book this week.
So what did you read?
159 Responses
Ugh, has that guy actually written any books that people have read??
I read Hedesa this week and it was the first book in the Tuyo series that I found tougher going. The culture in the new country was complicated and required a lot of exposition and I wasn’t all that interested. It may have been me being a lazy reader, I freely admit. There was still a lot to keep me engaged, including Tano and his emerging romantic triangle. Now I’m circling back to another book in this series.
I also listened to The Testimony of Mute Things by Lois McMaster Bujold in the Penric and Desdemona world. To continue a theme, not as engaging as other books in this series but still enough to keep me interested.
Mostly I re-read Red Wine Supernova by Donderwalk, an A03 series, which is one of my faves of this year.
I agree. I don’t find the Tarashana all that compelling. Go and read Rihasi 🙂
Agree 100%. I’m not invested in the Tarashana either, but I do want to see Tano continue to grow and develop. And of course I want him to have a romantic HEA, though I’m not at all sure how I want the triangle to be resolved.
Also agree 100% about Rihasi. It’s so good. Then maybe Nikoles (because backstory for Bereket’s book), then Bereket. Those were my re-reads for this week.
But I know how Nikoles’ story ultimately turns out so I’ve been resisting reading his book!
And I thought Berekat was backstory for Rihasi?
I had the same feeling and didn’t read it for ages. But I really liked it, and it’s worth a detour if you decide to read Bereket
Rihasi was published first, and is wonderful.
Bereket is a charismatic secondary character in Rihasi. Later, he got his own book, which was published after Rihasi but takes place before and explains a good deal about his choices and interventions in Rihasi. I like him a lot and hope he pops up again in later books, plus there are still unanswered questions about his identity and early life.
There is also a secondary plot strand in Bereket which involves Siga inTemara, and the long-lasting after-effects of events in Nikoles.
Nikoles is very good but ultimately very sad because indeed we know what happened to him after
I agree, Tammy. Knowing what was going to happen to him made it hard, but it’s also an excellent book. And having learned what we have learned in the first book about Aras adds to the intrigue.
Tammy, any chance you’d be willing to share the link to the Red Wine Supernova series? Tried looking for it, but there’s about a million stories with that title. Thank you in advance!
I think it’s been taken down. Send me an email and I will forward to you. Tammy dot sturge at bwtransformations dot com
Will do thank you Tammy!
Oh my, not many books about writing are good are they? I’d be interested to know which you would actually recommend Jenny, if any!
As for me, I have been marking so I have kept to soothing rereads to keep my brain from frying, Celia Lake mostly.
You know I used to have three that I’d recommend, but it was years ago and I don’t know if they’ve held up. Must look into those again.
Bird by Bird is good.
I liked Stephen King’s book on writing. 🙂
I like both of those! Plus Margaret Atwood’s. Although it’s her usual prickly opinions.
Oh gosh, now I’d like to know the title of this book – you make dnf books interesting 😉
Somehow I never think of mentioning non-fiction books I read in our GBT, hm. Maybe because very often I don’t read those books from start to finish, but pick bits/chapters. Which I did with some Shakespeare books. Once again, a class one of my kids have triggered my interest and made me go on a tangent (with the risk of annoying the kids lol.
So I read the Sparks note “translation” of Twelfth Night and plan on watching the tv adaptation with Imogen Stubbs.
I also got a compendium for re-enactors (I will not become a re-enactor of a time that put women in corsets, but I love the idea of re-enacting, we kind of joined in into a Roman re-enactment at a nearby Roman festival some years ago), plus Neil McGregor’s Restless World, diving deep into various aspects of life in Shakespeare’s time. I’d listened to the BBC audio series back then when I still had access to the audio stuff. I don’t remember why /when that got inaccessible but it’s a pity.
Then I dove into Marjorie Garber’s Invested Interest/Verhülltes Interesse, but sadly into the German translation. This was published in 1993 and wow has the terminology changed. Her topic is transvestism which has strong overlaps to transsexualism: nowadays we would far more clearly define what this all means and have a whole new toolbox of terminology and ideas about transgender folks etc. The first chapters were hard to read, which may partly be due to the translation (if she indeed used such a colloquial style, it came across weirdly in translation), but probably more so because so much got stuffed into the introductory parts. As an historian, I find it difficult to stuff hundreds of years into the same barrel so to speak – the concept of identity, gender, sexuality is not automatically the same in the early modern era as it is in the 19th century and that it’s evolved a lot from the 20th century into the 21st century became also very clear. However, it’s amazing to realize that I’ve lived through such concepts evolving. Which is cool. Yet it’s also sad that this crazy bathroom debate (who may use which bathroom) is rearing its ugly head again. Alexis Hall posted about a strange new law (?) being debated in the UK who may have access to public bathrooms which is all sorts of crazy. but he/they (?) also pointed out the implications: if you’re not allowed to use a place of relief, this can limit one’s movements really effectively. I vividly remember our search for a toilet when kiddo and I were in London a couple of years ago…. not fun.
Reading just for fun:
I finished the Spectral Files series by SE Harmon. I love this series!!
The paranormal suspense is one side (interesting, but the plot is usually not what hooks me), but that the professional AND private life is given enough space is GREAT – I’m in it for the ordinary life bits! Rain, the main narrator, and his patient partner Danny, the side characters (his police team members), the parents – Rain claims to be antisocial but the story proves otherwise. I particularly liked this time around that we see his parents as part of his life. It’s refreshing to see a grown man have a good relationship with his parents who are somewhat involved in his life, and to see him exasperated often enough with his hipster parents and loving them nevertheless.
I’ve listened to book 1 and 2 as freebies and got the rest as audiobooks. I love Kirt Graves’ narration! I’d love to get them as paperbacks but no, not available in English (except on amazon). However, the German translations are available as paperback… I don’t like the cover illus and prefer the originals.
Audiobookwise: Hannah Henry’s Home Ice Disadvantage. I like Felix Berger (HH said she wanted him to sound like Drai lol, a German who has spent so much time in North America that he sounds almost like a Canadian – one of the narrators even manages to do so, the other far less) and Will, the author with writer’s block. Not so much focus is on the hockey part but on the writing which is dealt with interestingly.
I’ll try to wean myself off from hockey very soon, the IIHF championship was really disappointing for our team (goalie Grubi was very fine, but the team didn’t gel for too long and missed the quarterfinals), it’s been fun though seeing Crosby support Celebrini this much. But I could do without Canada facing the USA tonight – I just hate to have one of the most annoying players on Team US.
Similar with the NHL playoffs: I fear the Habs don’t have much of a chance anymore but whoever wins the Eastern Conference better stop the team with that horrendous guy in goal.
Ah, and I’ve made my way through Off Campus (on fast forward) and firmly joined Christina’s camp of “too plastic”. I developped a HUGE dislike for the FMC (i.e. the actress – was she cast to be the poster girl for the lip gloss ad that starts the show on amazon prime or for her lack of depth in acting??) and don’t care for the MMC. Oh and episode 8 it’s sooo cringey in parts (male vs female gaze… the ones behind the camera do not have subtlety at all). The only interesting bit is the side characters (i.e. Allie and Dean whom I disliked in the book…).
Good points on the gender and identity issues as they develop over time. I remember that one of the hysterical arguments against the Equal Rights Amendment was, “Oh no! Then we’d have to have shared M/F bathrooms like in Europe!” Then I went to Italy and experienced those shared bathrooms – each one was an actual room, walls up to the ceiling and down to the floor, with a real, solid wood door that closed properly and locked. In some regular public building they would still be made with marble and have a sink in each one and be perfectly clean. I think people accustomed to that would find our public bathrooms with flimsy stalls quite horrifying.
Bathrooms in Europe vary a great deal, you can find the flimsy stalls as well, but the doors afaik never have those big see-through gaps between door and wall.
Sadly, not all are as fancy as you encountered.
Quite harrowing for me as a young kid /woman were the very oldfashioned ones common in the more Southern regions (Southern Italy, Greece etc.): toilets in more frequented locations often were basically ceramic basins/holes with special foot rests/steps (ie. where you should place your feet) for the user then to crouch down and – if you were lucky – something to grab onto to keep your balance if unused to the set up. Very easy to clean and gastroenterologists would point out that the position is ideal for our gut and delivery system. But very uncommon to us Northerners. And especially tricky when found on a moving ship (I vividly remember contemplating if i really needed to use the bathroom on this ferry to Corfu some 30 years ago…).
Something else about bathrooms:
Garber pointed out that the make-up-brush-up in the restrooms were the ultimate test for what we would today call trans women. That there’s a certain etiquette that makes you stick out if you don’t know how to behave/speak/do whatever.
I fear I would not pass such a test either. It might be a cultural thing: in my experience, there’s no fixing your make-up in the bathrooms here (Southern Germany) – much too intimate. Go in – go wash your hands – get out. Only if it’s someone you know do the eyes meet in the mirror and you might chat a bit.
It might be different in some spaces but usually it wouldn’t be a big deal or “test area”.
I can’t imagine using a public restroom to fix my makeup (if I still wore any). The air in there = a fog of unknown microbes. Gross, no.
I never thought this would be a subject for discussion until I remembered a recent trip to the ladies’ room at the grocery store. I always use the handicapped stall but, in this case, there was no TP so I went to the next stall. When I went to get up, I discovered there wasn’t a handrail to help me. Sitting there contemplating my dilemma I imagined that I was going to have to call for help in a locked stall. I overcame the height of embarrassment and managed to pull myself up. Crises averted.
Dodo, I have only been to Israel, but the TP there was like extra-wide rolls of crepe streamers. The texture was so weird! I think they may have fed us goat meat stew in Jordan, and the chocolate in the airport in the Netherlands was great stuff!
Isn’t it a pity that such details hardly ever make it into history books? Ordinary life stuff – I find it endlessly interesting.
Clip of expats or tourists going places and noticing things that are different to their lives at home – catnip for me.
Totally agree on bathrooms and gender. I think also the whole stupid debate is a proxy for policing women – if you wear your hair short, or have a square jaw, are good at sports or speak your mind, then accusing you of being trans as if that’s a bad thing, is an effective way to harass you. Ugh.
However, a properly fitted corset is a wonderful thing – so comfy and supportive! 🙂
*also* a proxy. I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to be trans and to have everyone debating your right to do the most ordinary normal things.
It’s both a distraction from the real issues facing our nation and a way of policing women. Meanwhile, on rare occasions horrific things happen in public bathrooms and none of the “bathrooms bills” will do anything to help. If it was about safety, we’d get rid of the public bathrooms where such things happen. (How about lots of private bathrooms along a public hallway? That’s too expensive? Oh, so you don’t actually value women and children being safe. Nice to know.)
Llewella, I agree. These bills will cause havoc in restrooms, and will make it very frightening for everyone. A trans male in the women’s restroom? It would make for screams. Also a trans woman in the men’s restroom would put her in grave danger, at times.
The people who advocate for these bills have obviously not thought things through.
Oh, I think they’ve thought them through.
I’ve heard about well fitted corsets being great. For my part, I never even know how a properly fitted bra feels like, sigh. Extremely rare to find an expert to help in shops.
Given the price point, a corset is more likely to be a custom tailored and therefore fitted garment. Lovely but expensive!
There’s a London tour guide I follow on insta, specialising in tours with loads of historical input. She once mentioned to wear a corset – goes well with the historic themes but also helps with being on her feet the whole day, she said.
I agree that well trained bra fitters are a thing of the past. I remember a bunch of elderly ladies with a tape measure around their neck and lipstick that never quite stayed where they put it. They cared about proper fit and comfort, which seems to have taken a back seat to color and decoration these days. I don’t know what I am going to do when the discontinued model I wear finally dies.
If you ever come to the UK, Dodo, try Bravissimo if you’re a D cup or bigger. Their fitters judge your size by eye, and are the best I’ve come across, apart from Rigby & Peller (by appointment to the late Queen, so more expensive).
I might have the chance to go there, JaneB, as I intend to visit kid #1 when he goes to study in the North of GB this autum 🙂
I take it the folks at Bravissimo also fit a B cup?
I’ve been to Rigby & Peller. They sized me up be eye (taking all of 2 seconds) and then brought me 2 perfectly fitting bras, which I promptly bought. I was in and out of the shop in under 10 minutes. Well worth the price. I then had to track down my husband, who had assumed, through previous experience, that bra shopping would take at least an hour and end with my being grumpy. He was in Harrods food court enjoying a glass of wine.
Sorry, Dodo – D cup & larger only. But n.b. most women are wearing cup sizes that are too small for them. I thought I was a D cup – ?38D – but in fact am something like 34G. As Kelly says, Rigby & Peller are also very good – or they were the one time I went there, thirty odd years ago. Their main shop is in Knightsbridge, whereas Bravissimo have branches in most cities.
Jane, that’s a pity! Not sure if I am indeed a B, but certainly no D or more. My kiddo suspected even less than a B. So I clearly have no clue at all when it comes to bras. Consequently, I prefer bustier tops/sports thingies, whatever has no under wire and broad straps. I’m clearly no girlie.
I’m not a girly either, but underwires become more essential, alas, the larger you are. You’re lucky!
Only on Argh would a discussion of books run down a tunnel about bras. I love you all.
I shall add my mite then. I am in the comfy bra camp.
I discovered Albero natur sport bras years ago and I am never going back to the dark side. 95% cotton, lots of colours and the most comfortable I have ever worn.
I believe it’s a German brand, Dodo.
LN, thanks for the rec!
I had to look Albero up – it’s indeeed a German brand from Bremen, available from some online shops I’ve already ordered. Yay for finding underwear lol. Definitely something NOT to be expected on Good Book Thursday lol.
Though I do remember that I was very intrigued by Quinn’s beautiful underwear in Anyone but You (?), just too short on cash to get the pretty bras. And those usually had underwire…
I agree Bravissimo are ace at fitting bras, and the shops and assistants are kind and helpful. They have their own make of bras too which are better than some of the more famous brands. They have shops around the country so it might be worth looking on-line to see if they have a shop near where you are visiting if you are coming over this year.
Yes! All those articles in women’s magazines advising us to go get a professional fitting for a bra — and if you try, you are met by a baffled/embarrassed teenager who has not been warned that anyone would expect this.
(I gave up on women’s magazines over a decade ago)
I remember my mom getting her bras at a tiny shop with a lady who knew her job.
And there used to be another tiny bra shop with great service in one of the inner city streets that was known to cater to other (horizontal) business still in the 60s (I love to join guided tours through my own city), but sadly that’s of the past too.
Correction: the bra shop was found in the same street where you could find specific offers in the 60s. If the bra shop had any business due to that, I don’t know.
I’ve read about corsets being really good for women who were doing heavy lifting. Like lots of laundry. I have no idea if this is true. IIRC it came from a woman who was into historical clothing.
Seems plausible to me – don’t weight lifters also wear some kind of belt to support their backs and have some form of protection against strains?
I’ve never encountered problems in this regard in my corner of the world – I do hope this won’t change anytime soon.
Though the younger generations seems to be much more following global trends making them look alike a lot.
Still, so far both my kids and their circle of friends are relaxed in this regard. Kiddo had a phase where she raided her brother’s and dad’s wardrobe regularly. Kid #1 (son) wears whatever takes his fancy – and if it’s his sister’s jeans, so what? (it helps that th trousers are baggy and indistinguishable from his own pair).
Nail varnish is just for women? Why should it be? Almost all of my son’s class wore black nail polish to the funeral of one of their classmates, the boys included. It was a touching moment, they supported each other as much as they could.
And as a farewell before going abroad, kiddo painted both my and her brother’s nails black (his idea).
He’d have long hair too if he hadn’t got his dad and granddad’s genes. One of his friends has beautiful long hair – his girlfriend agrees.
Why should a woman be required to have long hair? My mother had her hair cut short in the early 60s and never looked back, Both of us got pixie cuts at some point (though a pixie is more high maintenance than my short curls).
I’m rally glad I had very modern minded parents. And an environment where an individualistic approach was nurtered instead of some strange regulations imposed. Maybe also the big advantage of living in a bigger city?
LOL Dodo — “…one of the most annoying players on Team US” I didn’t even have to look at the roster to KNOW who you meant. His presence on the team made the US loss bearable cause it deprives him of bragging rights. 🙂
😉
Well, we’d have loved if our team had had the chance to face Canada (and loose, obviously). All 4 of us are big fans of this team (minus one player) – Mack as C, Sid wearing the A, a discovery in goal, great chemistry.
Poor Cooley – he seems like a nice guy and interesting goalie.
And yes, it’s mainly the toxicity of this one player that all 4 of us were really glad of him not having any more bragging rights.
Pretty sure I would DNF any book that guy wrote or edited. I think I read (ages ago) that Chuck Wendig said “characters poop plot; plot does not poop character,” or something like that.
I like Lisa Cron’s Story Genius. Basically a whole book about character and “make me care.”
A great quote, Jilly!!
Plot-driven books – if I read them at all, are one-time reads. Character driven books, if I connect, are books and stories to revisit.
GooBooThu
In MobiPocket Reader, I’ve resumed rereading Nathan Lowell’s “Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Series” with FULL SHARE
Meanwhile, in the Kindle Ap, I’m reading Michael Dalton’s DEEP DIVE: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Coastal Curves Book 2). It’s annoying that I haven’t read book 1 of the series, but the setting is the ever-mor-familiar Santo Domingo, CA, site of several of Dalton’s series. Here there are Shifter Girls, Bikini Girls, Wizards, Demons, Demon Hunters… it’s sort of a Sunnydale.
Naturally, with excellent stories in the reading aps, I’m raiding the MP3 file directory. I’m listening to Bujold’s THE WARRIOR’S APPRENTICE. A complete Vorkosigan reread – relisten – has jumped the queue.
…and now I’m playing THE VOR GAME.
…and CETAGANDA.
I reread the first three of Jordan L Hawk’s Outfoxing the Paranormal series, which is ghost hunters and horror (but good endings, because I trust Hawk) (though I can’t read them at night). The fourth is out in about 2 weeks.
I’m also toward the end of an online group read of Persuasion by Jane Austen, which is a reread for me. Going a chapter a day really brings home the unedited quality of the book. But it’s also fun watching the critique and speculation by people who haven’t read it before. So much snark!
I’m also rereading some Murderbot. I’m visiting my parents and got my mom to check the first two books out of the library. I’m not sure she loves them, but she’s reading them for me. We’ll see if she gets to the next two before I leave it if she’ll be relieved to not have to read them.
I recently re-read “Persuasion” too. I hadn’t realized it was unedited, or was that usual for the time?
What does your online group think of the book?
I think it would gave been down to the author to edit their work before giving it to the publisher. Pretty sure copy-editors were a C20 development.
If you go to the Maison de Balsac museum in Paris, you will some self edited versions of his manuscripts. His publishers hated him because he would make multiple changes on the proofs. It was very expensive for them!
Oops Balzac!
You were just role modelling self-editing there, yes LN?
I am actually mortified since Balzac is a giant of French literature, except I found his books really boring when I had to read them at school 🙂
The Maison de Balzac however is a great little museum with a lovely garden and nice tearoom. It’s very close to my mum’s so I like to go there with her.
Jane Austen died after rewriting a couple of chapters and I’m not sure who chose to publish it anyway. Nothing really happens the first half and the characters don’t speak to each other until almost the end. Maybe she would have left it that way if given the chance, but she wasn’t. It feels unfinished.
That makes sense, the romance feels shallow to me – we don’t get the kind of detail we get in P&P for instance. However I like all the details of the little social commonwealths.
I think Cassandra decided perhaps in discussion with Henry?
But my understanding was that it was finished a year before she died and she had moved on to Sanditon.
I think it took her years to write P&P which is probably why it’s so rich. If she’d finished “Persuasion” and hadn’t sent it for publication then I imagine she wasn’t happy with it.
She wrote her niece Fanny that she had something ready for publication that might appear in about a year so I think she did mean to.
Reviews are mixed. Lots of comments on lack of plot and how they don’t talk to each other. The characters are amazing.
We just got to the famous letter today, so we’ll see how people react to how everything is explained.
I had such fun with Comet Weather (Liz Williams) that I bought all four of them and read them happily for two days while I rained. I also had a nice time with Division Bells (Iona Datt Sharma) even though the politics of it were opaque the humans were really lovely, and the descriptions of them were SO on point. I liked Sharma’s work so much I mined the library for more of it, and ended up with two books of short stories (one a COVID lockdown collection of various authors) and another novella which was just lovely – Sing For the Coming of the Longest Night. So two authors new to me that I can follow!
Comet Weather sounds great! I just put it on reserve.
I’m still hoping for another Fallow Sisters book from Liz Williams!
ooh me too!!
Thanks for the recommendation of Sing For the Coming of the Longest Night — I’m off to acquire it now. I also loved Division Bells.
I did not finish anything this week, which I am not proud of but such is life.
We did find another Kdrama that has both me and dh engaged. It’s called Itaewon Class, based on a webtoon. It’s incredibly woke for a Kdrama. An ex con starts a pub as part of his journey of revenge against the wealthy family who killed his father. He forms a band of loveable misfits including a gangster, the illegitimate son of his enemy, a trans character, a young Black man from Guinea searching for his Korean father and a self-acknowledged sociopath. Spoiler alert, I love her. She is fabulous. It’s more serious than Undercover Miss Hong, which I also loved, but has that same thread of steadfastness running through it, with the cozy/slice of life bits as they try to run a small business. Subtitles only again, but I find dubbing weird anyway.
You know, I do, too. I wonder if that’s because we’re readers first, so seeing words on a screen is natural, but seeing the wrong voices come out of people’s mouths is just wrong.
100 percent! I watch everything with subtitles because I need them for French, Italian, Korean, Japanese etc. I think the sound of the original music and actors is such a huge part of the tone of the movie. Plus I get to learn words and phrases. As a kid I watched the Flinstones in Spanish and to this day I prefer it to the English just because Fred has a bass voice and is super grumpy. Versus in English he’s got a Brooklyn accent-ish like Jackie Gleason. Pretty funny.
Finished the Fourth Wing audiobook this week. She remained in daily danger if extinction throughout the rest of the book. I have never seen a book dispense with so many assassins, including 7 in a single attempt. Also had to fast forward through what must have been pages of sex scenes, during which much furniture bit the dust. I wonder if they got their deposit back?
LOL. I’ve never been tempted to read “Fourth Wing” but that sound hilarious!
I had the same thought (about the furniture) in the 3rd Psy/Changling book from Nalini Singh (Brenna and Judd’s story). Surely it’s expensive to replace your furniture weekly; better to have sex in the field.
There’s a scene in Buffy where she’s just become the head of the household and she looks around at the destroyed furniture and wails something along the lines of “How did my mother ever manage?!”
Finally made it through to the end of Hell’s Heart and though I am a huge Alexis Hall fan, I did not like this book. The sex was all so depressing and did not move the plot that I could see. Alexis can write M/M BDSM sex and make me believe in these characters and that their relationship works and the sex scenes do move the plot forward. In HH, none of it worked. Also the MC had a self-described major trait of self-sabotage, not something that appeals to me.
One reviewer described the book as a “death march’, as we are told right at the beginning that almost no one survives this great adventure. A tremendous downer. Clearly a lot of work went into this book but I do not recommend it even though I consider AH as one of the English language’s greatest living writers.
Then I read a couple of other things that were pretty good though I have already forgotten the titles.
Now I reading an extremely fun book called Why Do We Exist by a brilliant physicist, Hakeem Oluseyi. My spouse heard this guy talking in NPR and told me I’d probably like his book. He is an immensely engaging writer. His style is humorous and accessible. (Did you know that bits of RNA, in fact all the building blocks of life, can be found in meteorites!?)
This book has made me laugh out loud several times. I often exclaim, “Wait! No one ever told me that before!” The author takes on common misconceptions and explains how things really work. This is changing my view of existence and I’d say that existence is something I had given quite a bit of thought to. Marvelous!
I haven’t tried Hell’s Heart, but I stalled out hard on his latest historical, Never After, which I was very disappointed about. Like you, I am a huge fan in general but I don’t think I have liked anything of his since Ten Things That Never Happened, which was good but not my very most favorite. Odd that I like him less and less as he gathers steam to become a recognized name. Maybe my tastes are more niche than most readers? People seem to like his new work, but for me it’s all about his earlier stuff.
Same here, Lupe.
Maybe he veers more away from romance these days?
I read that Hell’s Heart is a sort-of-retelling of Moby Dick, a book I never connected with (I’m strongly pro-whale).
The “something” books were far too much farcical for my taste, I only tried one audio and loathed the story.
However, just like you, I usually love his earlier titles (The Oxford series, the London Material titles). They’ve got such a good mix of psychology, humour and kindness – the latter to balance out the realistic and harsh bits. For me, romance and the certainty of a HEA or at least HFN is important.
If a books is not a romance but marketed as such (like NA), it’s a huge disservice to reader and author alike. In his newsletter, Hall mentioned that he had intended NA to be a tragedy, struggled with the ending and eventually settled on what seemingly has many readers reeling. I’ll steer clear from those books but will watch out for his Father Material title to be out later in June.
Once I grasped what Hall was doing with ‘Never After,’ I could appreciate it, but I hate that genre, so … . On his website he described it as a romance and I still don’t think so. It’s a love story, but not a romance.
I wonder if it’s an English thing? I don’t know if this is still the case but in the 1990s all sorts of British books with depressing endings were labelled “romance” because they had a love story even though it was tragic. I think it was the USA that made the HEA part of the definition (which is why I avoided the British books back then!)
Ok, now I am really glad I didn’t finish it. That is not what I look for at all and I would have been pretty distressed. Sigh. I feel like I am getting rug pulled by a lot of my go-to authors these days. I understand the need to grow as an artist, but I am not interested. Isn’t that terrible?
I think I want them to develop, but not go in a different direction entirely. I get fed up with authors who are telling exactly the same story over and over. The same but different is what I’m after.
This makes me think of Julia Quinn’s duology The Two Dukes of Wyndham. I thought they stretched her in really interesting ways and explored things like what is it like to be engaged to someone from birth who ignores you? To be an impoverished companion to a nasty woman? To learn you are not the duke you were bred to be? Or that you must become a duke when you were not bred to it and lack a critical skill? Also it tells the same story twice with two different main couples. I really like them but apparently most of her readers didn’t and so back she went to books that clearly didn’t interest her much any more.
It’s a fine line. I would have thought those books were well within the general area of interest of her readers but nope.
I never read Moby Dick, in part because I too am strongly pro whale. But I do think it’s worth noting that while some whales die, the big white whale wins (and probably although not definitely survives).
I’m not much of a non-fiction buff but that one sounds really interesting. Thank you.
I’ve been reading Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies. It’s taken me a while to get into it, partly because the main character is a bit off-putting, and partly because I read before bed and have fallen asleep before getting totally engrossed. I’ll give it a little more time, now that another character is on hand to call the FMC out on her behavior. (She’s so focused on her research that she offends nearly everyone, not necessarily meaning to but through a lack of understanding the society she’s visiting.)
I had the same initial reaction, but she really grew on me, especially because she was very aware of her social shortcomings.
Its also very true to life as she really doesn’t understand what she’s done that so offensive, and often what is offensive differs so much from culture to culture.
I’d be interested to know the author of this craft book so I can avoid him. I’m not a fan of plot-driven books.
This week I read and absolutely loved The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening. Thanks to everyone here who recommended it. I ordered the second book in the series and can’t wait to dive in.
I’m currently reading Dolly All The Time the latest by Anabel Monaghan. I’m enjoying it so far but I find her books are a little hit or miss with me.
My husband came across that book and got it for me. Such a fun read! The second one is now on my nightstand, and I expect the third will soon be, as well.
Yes, I’m sure I’ll order the third as soon as it’s available.
Oh, yeah. The Retired Assassin is lovely, both books. I can’t wait for the third one.
Best read this week was Stella Riley’s “Under a Dark Moon” (2021), m/f Georgian set historical, with smugglers and espionage on Romney Marsh. Solidly enjoyable romance with sensible MCs – at least once the FMC gets out of her own way, which doesn’t take long. Just thinking about it makes me smile.
Finished up the Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde trilogy with “Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales” (2025) – m/f historical fantasy with the MCs in Faerie. Enjoyable but I still think the first had the best banter. I really appreciated the relationship the FMC had with her aging hound – lovely. (Also would rather like the m/m love story of Uncle Taran.)
Mary Robinette Kowal’s novella “Apprehension” (2025) was a solid planetary adventure with a 78-year-old FMC going back to visit, decades after the war where she was held as a POW, and getting caught up in local politics. I’d really like more in this world and with these characters.
“Red Star Hustle” by Sam J. Miller (2025) was paired in the same book and was also really good. Gloriously queer, with three MCs caught up in galactic fight between Intelligence and Security and lots of consideration of addiction and sobriety. Solid novella, and will look for more by Miller.
Best of the short fiction this week was “Min Zemerin’s Plan” by Katherine Addison (2022), in which Celehar appears as a side character. Sweet and a little sad. Free at https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/min-zemerins-plan
Thank you for Mon Zemerin’s Plan
It was nice wasn’t it. I liked it that she did the absolute best she could even if she didn’t have much she could offer.
I read The Last Lady B by Eloisa James. This didn’t feel like an Eloisa James romance, instead it felt like a twisty mystery a la Agatha Christie with a romance sprinkled in. The tone was upbeat and tongue-in cheek. Genevieve wasn’t in love and, after participating in several Marriage Mart Seasons, she decided to marry a much older man for money for a dowry for her younger sister. She was a docile and decorative wife until they headed up to Scotland to the haunted family Abbey for Christmas. Then she discovered that she’s expected to take a back seat to her husband’s long-time mistress. Everything unravels from there. The romantic couple doesn’t really get together until after the denouement and it’s not quite up to EJ’s usual level of spicyness (for anyone who wants to skip it, the story is already told). It was an enjoyable and quick read.
This is definitely plot driven, as opposed to Eloisa James’ usual in depth characterizations. Still fun but probably not a re-read.
I used to buy books on how to write, but never read them because I was too busy writing to read them. Finally decided I probably knew what I was doing and stopped getting them. Mind you, if there was a Jenny Crusie book on writing, I’d buy that in a heartbeat.
I ran out of newer books (finally got Platform Decay from the library, so that’s up next) so I did some rereads of old favorites I hadn’t read in years. Started with three of Simon Brett’s Mrs. Pargeter mysteries, then read The Marseille Caper by Peter Mayle (he wrote A Year in Provence). All very satisfying. It will be interesting to see what I think of Platform Decay, after everything I’ve read here.
Also reread a bit of my Cranky Crone book that’s out on submission, and it still cracks me up, so that’s good.
I loved (and have reread several times) his book Brilliant about a female jewel thief. I’ll have to check this one out!
I have started rereading the 28 Angela Thirkell Barsetshire novels based on Anthony Trollope’s nineteenth century English country setting. They are very witty, and she has a wonderful eye for human foibles and humorous weaknesses. Nothing bad ever happens, and most books end in lovers coming together, but she is best known as a wonderful social historian. She wrote from the early 1930s to 1961 (died in 1960 and the last book was partially written by her and finished by her friend C. A. Lejeune). Her books about about the Home Front during World War II are particularly revered by historians, although overall she is quite conservative, which many readers like (even bleeding heart liberals like me!), because the books show what the times were like. She is considered one of the “heirs of Jane Austen,” and despite being several times Book of the Month Club in the U. S., has fallen somewhat into obscurity, although in recent years, there are many more reprints available.
In my career as a used book dealer, I always picked up her books (esp in dust jacket.)
Re Jenny’s topic, I do like Stephen King’s book on writing, as well as Janet Evanovich’s . . . both interesting, easy reading with some thoughtful comments.
I liked “Telling Lies for Fun and Profit” by Lawrence Block. It’s a light and quick read and completely resolved my struggles with writing dialogue way back when.
He said in that book that he never re-writes, he just writes it right the first time. Ha ha. It does kind of show in his Bernie Rhodenbarr books— they have a looseness that is appealing because he has a knack for dialogue, but the most recent one I read had a denouement like a ball of tangled yarn!
I agree Penelope. Stephen Kings book on writing taught me & entertained me at the same time. It is my favorite with Evanovich’s being a close second.
I was thinking I hadn’t read as much this week, but … .
1. ‘Kiss Me Like A Stranger: My Search for Love and Art’ by Gene Wilder. A decent memoir in the sense of telling his life story illuminated by significant personal and professional relationships, but feels oddly detached, as if filtered through the lens of his long psychiatric relationship. Planning to watch the GW documentary on Netflix in hopes of a higher creative joy quotient.
2. ‘Slavery and the African American Story’ by Patricia Williams Dockery, in the ‘Race to the Truth’ series for teen readers. A great little book with voluminous bibliography.
3. ‘The Greening of Thaddeus Grey’ by Jay Hogan. A solid New Zealand-set MM kicking off with a terrible breakup. Slowish burn, a reasonable amount of sex, character-true mistakes & conflicts. Part of the plot turns on a small community being seduced by a tech company that wants to build a data center, and I’ll happily spoil that plot: the techies are foiled in favor of saving a river.
4. ‘Felix and the Prince’ by Lucy Lennox. Picked this up free from BookBub promo, enticed by description of nonroyal MC as a glass artist/scholar and the setup at a Renaissance castle on a North Sea island, but found the royal MC mostly a dick.
DNF at 3% ‘Van Alone’ by Patrick Doyle, MM rare books romantic suspense. I mean, rare books! But the POV character, tone, and abundant word-choice errors turned me off long before I started to care about the plot, which was supposed to involve inheriting his father’s house … no.
5. ‘The Lost Lovelies’ by Vanora Lawless. Similar world to her WWI duology, this one’s set in the last months of WWII; magic is a known thing and used in the wars, but practitioners are considered suspicious and if they’re queer, doubly so. MC1 is a war journalist, MC2 a private investigator in Halifax; they were teenage lovers but parted badly. 17 yrs on, second chance via trying to locate MC1’s brother and sister-in-law who’ve gone missing in scary circumstances. High conflict, high angst, considerable mayhem, not super fun, alas.
6. ‘That Rat, Carter Janson’ by Amy Spector. Novelette, art crimes, MM set in Chicago. Second-chancer. MC1 as a young man was reluctantly involved in his father’s art fraud capers (dad is now in prison) has changed his name and runs a legit antiquities gallery. MC2, coerced forger and former lover, is in a different line of art-related business, also legit, except he does a job to get the money to pay for medical care for a friend … and they meet again. Quite a bit of what they need to actually do to achieve HEA is left up in the air, but the caper is a success. Could happily have read a lot more of their story.
7. [re-read] my own MM novel ‘A Little Turn,’ the one about the LA sports agent who realizes, at the age of 36, that he’s gay; and the Hollywood stylist who coaches him through resetting his entire picture of his life. My newsletter featured/discounted title for June. 🙂
8. ‘Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong’ (2nd ed) by James W. Loewen. What a great / infuriating book. Looks huge but don’t be scared, 30% is notes.
I read Abbi Waxman “Christa Comes Out Of Her Shell” which I found quite entertaining. The hero was too good to be true, but her turns of phrase made me laugh and read out loud to my (thankfully patient) co- vacationers.
Also read “Bottle Shock”. If the main character had been female, I would have probably been turned off by the downright stupid decisions but for some reason I found it tolerable in a guy whose life was in a state of flux. Would be interested in opinions of others who have read it.
The wine element read me to a re-read of Dick Francis “Proof”. A favorite even though gruesome. Which lead to “10 Pound Penalty”, another favorite.
Vacation is wonderful and I will see what I read next after being dragged out to walk in the woods.
I liked ‘Bottle Shock’ but agree completely about behavior that seems not *quite* as ‘omg WHY’ in a male protagonist as it would have in a female. I thought it was the flux capacitor, as it were – this guy was completely off kilter, so failure to engage his brain felt true. 🙂
I never cared for PROOF, possibly because the deaths were so awful but mostly I think because the protagonist was in mourning for his young wife and I just needed a happy ending. 10 POUND PENALTY, though, I loved. Right up there with HOT MONEY, my fave.
I gave up on two different authors this week. Both were credited as the inspirations for British detective series I liked. Both were awful.
I’ve already blanked on the first one, but the second was a big disappointment. The series was about an erudite, sophisticated, charming couple in Provence, solving crimes together. The book I tried used them as tertiary characters, with the story being driven by a curmudgeon and his memories of moving into a haunted house. The actual mystery hadn’t shown up by the time I gave up.
The characters shared a passionate love of cigars, which kills a book or movie for me. Instead of thinking about the story, I’m thinking, “Oh, gross! How disgusting! What a horrible human being!”
Such a disappointment.
I read Bob’s Rocky Road. I started by listening to it, (can’t remember why I have both), but the audio version is AI narration, and it sucks. The actual book is a pleasure, it’s nice to catch up with friends. It’s all from Max’s point of view, as he finishes the Appalachian Trail, and tries to interact with the people he meets instead of moving off the trail to avoid every other human being. Also, suspense.
I read and loved Finder, by Suzanne Palmer. Recommeded here, so thanks to that person I’m too lazy to look up. Space “opera”, but there are excellent characters and a plot that rarely lets the characters rest/eat/reflect, which is right up my alley. Plus, always welcome, there’s humor and one element I won’t spoil regarding *cubes* that cracked me up so much I had to put the book down. And send a couple of emails to recommend the book to others. (note: not everyone would find the *cube* thing amusing, but…it got me good.)
I love the Finder series too—glad you enjoyed the first one! Suzanne Palmer has a new (unrelated to Finder) book out this week, and I’m excited to read it too: An Ode to the Half-Broken.
Palmer’s Bot9 stories, up for free on Clarkesworld, are also favorites of mine—I think I read them based on Yuri’s recommendation?
Probably 🙂 I love those stories! Glad you enjoyed them. I also liked Ode – hope you enjoy it too.
With early morning birding and late night NHL playoff games I didn’t get much time to read anything new this week. So I reread the Josh Lanyon “Art of Murder” series which I love every single time. It still amazes me that after so many rereads I find something new to feel every time I read them.
While some how-to-write books may be terrible for everyone, I think different brains benefit from different approaches, so if someone is having trouble with some aspect of writing, it can help to check out not just one but several approaches and toss the ones that don’t click. Lots of people love Deb Dixon’s Goal, Motivation & Conflict, and they’ve been able to use it to understand conflict in fiction, and I even recommend it to people who are struggling with that concept (along with Bickham’s Scene & Sequel or Scene & Structure, can never remember the title), but GMC never clicked with me the way that Jenny’s explanations of conflict in fiction finally made it make sense.
A few years ago, I went to a workshop given by the then-current darling of how-to-write-fiction books, and while it was an entertaining presentation, and lots of people have attributed their writing success to insights from this author, I thought it was more entertainment than actual insights. (It was a very polished and oftentimes amusing presentation.) It seemed overly simplistic and none of the advice meshed with either my stories or how my brain works. On the other hand, I’m sure that the how-to author who helped me the most (besides Jenny), Jack Bickham, isn’t as helpful to some other authors. There’s even a divide between people who recommend Dwight Swain (Bickham’s mentor) and those who recommend Bickham.
Anyway, just meant to say that too many authors think they’ll find all the solutions in a single how-to book, when what’s really needed is to read a variety of them until one clicks. And sometimes it’s useful to go through the process again a few years later, since different things click at different levels of experience.
As to my own reading, I’m still re-reading (in audio) CS Harris’s Sebastian St. Cyr series, and I keep thinking I’ve hit the last book I read the first time through (in ebook format), only to get the next one and realize that I read that one too. But I think I’m really, truly at the last one I read before, so the rest will be new to me.
I reread How to Catch a Duke, by Grace Burrowes. The main characters are multi-faceted, and begin to learn that they are well-suited for each other. It’s fun to see them grow and change. There’s a surprise ending, and a HEA.
I saw the eye surgeon on Tuesday, and I will say more about that on Sunday. There is a solution to my double vision. Now it’s down to waiting for the insurance to decide to support it. It was so strange to be in a children’s hospital for that appointment!
I’ve started 7 or 8 books this week and DNFed all of them. I think perhaps it’s me and not the books?
Zero new books. I did start an Alice Hoffman book, not engaged in story yet. Maybe in the future. I did download several books from BookPub, new authors. So far zip, still going back to proven writers and stories I love.
Rereading and listening to The Goblin Emperor. Interesting hearing and reading the same passages. Reading in the middle of the night bc sleep is illusive after four nights of hitting my seven hours goal. Or it could have been the muscle relaxant helping me sleep a couple of nights.
Craig Johnson has a new Walt Longmire book out called The Brothers McKay. It’s an okay mystery but not one of the better Longmire books, more of an interlude, but of course a chance to spend more time with Walt, Vic and Henry is always welcome.
Mark Hayden has published two new volumes in his King’s Watch (Conrad Clarke) series. Second Nature part 1: Cry Havoc and Second Nature part 2: Let Slip the Dogs of War. They were released two weeks apart, May 1st and May 15th, so I waited to read the first one until the second was released, and now that I’ve got both of them I seem to be still stuck in waiting to read them mode. But I am going to get to them real soon now.
I enjoyed another reread of Naomi Kuttner’s first two Retired Assassin’s Guide books (third due to come out in December!). I decided to check out her website and signed up for her newsletter. After getting the confirmation, I then devoured two additional short stories. One is a prequel before the events in Country Gardening. The other happens right about the end of Gardening and before Orchid Hunting. Since I don’t have an ereader or a phone capable for book downloads, I read them off my browser. I prefer dead tree versions of the books I read but it looks like I’ll have to arrange for new technology now.
I was thinking of signing up for her newsletter in order to get access to the short stories.
Mimi Matthews’s The Marriage Method is #2 in the author’s Crinoline Academy series. I usually enjoy Matthews’s novels. I have read all of them and liked them, but this series is an exception. It doesn’t really work for me. I tried reading the first book, Rules for Ruin and couldn’t finish it. I finished this one, but I’m not a fan. The problem I have with both books: I dislike crusaders, and the heroines in both books are crusaders for the cause of feminism.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a woman, I’m all for women’s rights and equality. But more often than not, crusaders (zealots of any kind) don’t see individual people – complex and contradictory – behind their black & white principles. The needs of living women, which are all different, frequently get disregarded for the shining doctrine of Feminism, which is the same for everyone, and I truly hate that. That’s why I couldn’t enjoy this book and this series. I doubt I’ll read the next book in the series, if it ever gets published.
Kate Ellis’s Deadly Remains was the latest novel in her long running series about Wesley Peterson, a police detective in Devon, England. I read this mystery author before, years ago, and I remember liking her stories, so when I saw this book at the library, I picked it up. It was a decent murder mystery – a quiet police procedural. Actually, it was several mysteries intertwined, like all the other books in this series. A couple of murders happened now, while the others dated to the times of the WWII. I’m not a big fan of mysteries, but this book and its hero worked for me.
I finished The Swerve. It really is a good book but it is far more about the guy that found the poem On the Nature of Things than it is about either Lucretius who wrote it or a history of how the poem changed the world. I may try to read the poem and see if there is a history of how in fact it changed ideas.
Still trying to read one or two Jane Austen letters a night. Her voice is delicious z
I have been doing some rereading (mostly Heyer) and need to pull something enticing from my paper TBR. Maybe the Atlas of Countries that don’t Exist? I am also skimming all my downloaded samples to see what is calling me now.
Oh and working my way through the voters guide and websites for our June primary.
That’s a shame about “The Swerve”. I hate it when marketing is misleading – hopefully you find a better book actually on topic!
Debbie, that’s my next task working through the voters guide. Last week I read the borrowed life of Edward Fife and really loved it. I don’t remember whether somebody here recommended to me or not or whether it was just on sale on BookBub. But it was thoroughly enjoyable. Then I read the first dungeon crawler Carl Book.
I plan to read the rest of them, but not now I have to go onto something else from it, but I already bought the second book on Kindle. I loved the retired assassins books and I need to go and sign onto our website too.
I also read two LM Montgomery books Jane of lantern Hill and the blue castle. I have one on my Kindle called the shape of dragons breath and it’s either that tonight or. georgette Heyer’s Frederica, which I haven’t reread in a long time.
Thanks for all the recommendations here. No way I’m even interested in knowing the title of that book Jennie read.
“The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife” looks very intriguing, although I’m always a little wary of nursing home stories in case they’re triggering.
I’m really enjoying the Tuyo series. So far I still think the first book is the best one, that’s the one that has gone into my Favourite Favourites folder. Nikoles, Suelen and Tarashana have gone into the plain old Favourites folder. 🙂
Apart from those, I have had a stack of DNFs this week. The only other book I actually managed to get through was The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa. It’s about a woman who goes to work for a man who used to be a maths professor, but after a serious accident now only remembers things that happened in the last 90 minutes. But he still loves maths, and gets both the housekeeper and her young son intrigued by it. It’s a very sweet natured book about the growth of a friendship. I skipped most of the maths, but the story around it is beautiful.
You have a Favourite Favourites folder?? Ha! I love that.
Tammy, I have only just realised that I needed it. Because there are books that I really like, that go into the favourites folder, but then there are some that I REALLY like, which need to be differentiated from the previous group. There will probably come a time when I realise that I need a Favourites Favourites Favourites folder. 🙂
I’ve thought about having any kind of Favourites folder but am so annoyed at the Kindle interface where I can’t just star it that I haven’t bothered. I do really like your stratification though. May have to borrow it.
That annoys me too – I’d like to be able to rank books as I do my photographs, or at least flag my favourites. I have Keepers and Rejects collections, but I think Lian’s right – I probably need a Favourite Keepers category too, especially since I’ve got 455 Keepers. (Then there are genres, which would be useful. And it’s frustrating that on my iPad & iPhone collections won’t sort by ‘most recent’, which is what I use on the Kindle.)
My book lets me make categories or sort by recent—but the books in categories are not “shelved” so they are also in my main collection.
I would like to shelve them and be able to see what I have left that I haven’t read or sorted.
That was supposed to be Nook
Not book!
Debbie, the Kindle has an ‘Uncollected’ category, where all the downloads – samples or books – go first. I transfer them to Keeper/Reject/Non-fiction once I’ve read them. (Just saying in case the Nook works in a similar way.)
This is where I come in and wonder where you are going to put Rihasi 😁
LN, I’m still several books away from Rihasi, and I’m trying not to binge them because I’m loving the world so much. But I shall let you know when I come to it!
I have been re-reading the Miss Fortune humerous mystery series by Jana DeLeon. Still love the camaraderie between ex-CIA agent Fortune, and her older friends, Ida Belle and Gertie both of whom also know their way around a gun and a one-liner! Also read Death Meets Cute by J. Penner which is a light and cozy fantasy about a wanna be wicked witch who meets and resurrects a cute, and nice, ogre. Our wicked witch has conflicted feelings about it all and, naturally, hijinks ensue.
Humerous? Ugh! I I meant humorous, of course. No humeruses involved here, lol.
Bob Mayer released the first book in a new series; The Green Beret Survival Series. The book is Slow Fall. I had it preordered so it is in my kindle. I will start it soon.
Back on the twelfth I bought a little steam cleaner. Gin and Jeanine requested a review when I use it. The review is that the User Manual was a DNF and I still haven’t used it. Sorry.
I did pick the manual back up and finished it. I hope to use it tonight. Maybe.
Oh, that’s where I got stuck too. I looked at the manual and felt overwhelmed by the absolute jumble of information without any plot (so to speak) and set it down and haven’t been able to make myself look at it again. There are all sorts of attachments, not all of which are intuitively obvious, and there doesn’t even seem to be a diagram of what goes where or what it’s used for. I’m guessing I should go to youtube instead, but haven’t been inspired yet.
I’ll be watching for your next update!
You guys are way ahead of me. I haven’t even opened the box yet. Maybe this weekend?
Grandkinder Justice observed mine, still in the box, and offered that rumor said they don’t work very well. In my defense, I offered that I had read all the reviews, good and especially bad and that my chosen unit had low history of returns. In my offense, I did choose one of the cheapest models.
I read the first chapter of Platform Decay this morning and I was really disappointed. And confused. And annoyed by the (constant, sometimes with one (inside another), use of parentheses. Argh. I mean, I love a good parenthesis, but this is just abusive. I know it’s only the first chapter, but the story is confusing and not very interesting. If it wasn’t Murderbot, I’d put it down now. As it is, I’ll continue and hope it gets better.
I know I’m not the most objective, but it will pull together. And on the second read, I saw so much I’d missed the first time as I was wondering wth was going on, who was where why….
Re writing books, I liked the Stephen King book, but I also found Save The Cat Writes a Novel to be very useful in describing the beats in a variety of story arcs. There’s a chapter devoted to each of the most common fiction story types using popular movies to show the inner workings.
Late to the show here, but finished my Josephine Tey Inspector Alan Grant series with The Singing Sand. Again I am struck with the bizarre opinions she throws in with utter confidence, for instance any humans that immigrate to North America eventually have a look of the ‘Red Indian’. In the same paragraph, if another nation than Britain had seeded Australia with Europeans, they would still inevitably have ended up brash, nasal and cynical. OK.
Also Britain doesn’t really have an aristocracy, duchesses are just regular folk, and the only ones looking down their noses at their neighbors are the lower middle class.
I think Ngaio Marsh has become my favourite Grande Dame, now that I am reading them more critically. Margery Allingham second best.
UPDATE
I also keep reading emails that the PA for DH’s friend with early Alzheimer’s found from the friend’s (ex)wife about the disabled adult daughter. She is now temporarily in the custody of Protective
Services and a court appointed evaluator is supposed to determine whether she is competent to decide she wants to return to the care of her mother. DH and I talked to the evaluator for over an hour, I sent her lots of emails, I connected her to many potential witnesses, and I keep looking for more stuff that may be helpful. It’s incredibly stressful. I spent over 2 hours talking to one of the mom’s sisters on Wednesday night because she is stressed too. The emotional challenge is that both protective services and the evaluator (and the detective too) can ask us questions and get information from us but there is very little they can tell us because of various privacy laws. Which I respect but dammit I want to know how the daughter is doing, which way the evaluator is tilting …
Btw, for those who didn’t want to shell out 13 Euro: Cat Sebastian’s Star Shipped is available for 2,99 Euro now – I got it from kobo, not Amazon. Yes, I already have the paperback, but read mainly ebooks these days.
Maybe now I find the energy to read the last ca 21 % (God, was the audiobook awful – ytmv- but for ince Isince I was able to return it to audible.
I really am disappointed when books are just racing through plot twists hence I don’t care about the characters. They are usually DNF.
I am listening to Abby Jimenez’ The night we met, I can only listening a chapter at a time in the morning because although interesting, the FMC Has so many issues it gets me down.