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My Progress:


9 / 30 books. 30% done!

2024 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama
- Alaska
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- Arkansas
- California (3)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho (2)
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
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- Louisiana (1)
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- Maryland
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- New York (1)
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- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (1)
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- Virginia (1)
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
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- Washington, D.C.*

International:
- Australia (1)
- Canada (1)
- England (5)
- France (1)
- Ireland (1)
- Scotland (1)
- The Netherlands (1)

My Progress:


12 / 51 states. 24% done!

2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


10 / 50 words. 20% done!

2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge


15 / 50 books. 30% done!

Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


32 / 50 books. 64% done!

2024 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


27 / 52 books. 52% done!

2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


21 / 40 books. 53% done!

2024 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge


13 / 40 books. 33% done!

2024 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


5 / 25 books. 20% done!

2024 Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge

2024 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


17 / 26.2 miles. 65% done!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


15 / 100 books. 15% done!

2024 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


34 / 104 books. 33% done!

Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


31 / 52 books. 60% done!

Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge

My Progress


32 / 165 books. 19% done!
Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: TBR Books Are Springing Up Everywhere!


March has already been a busy month for me and it's barely even started. Whew! I'm heading to the U.K. on Sunday for a two-week sightseeing/family history trip (mostly the latter), so this is the only TTT you'll see here this month, sadly. I'll get back into it in April, I promise. In the meantime, I'll leave you with my Spring TBR list (next week's topic) since I'm not feeling this week's prompt, which is: Top Ten Books I'm Worried I Might Not Love As Much the Second Time Around

This fun, weekly blog event is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Be sure to click on over to her blog and give it some love.

Top Ten Books On My Spring 2024 TBR List


1. Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong (available May 7, 2024)—I'm a huge fan of Armstrong's Rockton/Haven's Rock series, but her A Rip in Time books are actually my favorites. This one is the third installment in the series, which features a modern-day homicide detective who gets thrust back in time to Victorian Scotland, where she helps solve crimes while trying to figure out how to return to her own time. In this book, Mallory and her undertaker landlord investigate a murder that occurs during a mummy unwrapping.

Since this series is set in Edinburgh, the city I will be flying in and out of, it will be the perfect read for my airplane ride. Maybe I'll save it for the trip home, after I do a ghost tour in the city!


2. Where There's Smoke by E.B. Vickers—This YA novel concerns Calli, an 18-year-old girl who has graduated from high school and lost her father, all in the last week and a half. Grieving the only parent she had left, she finds purpose in helping a young girl who shows up at her house bruised, beaten, and scared out of her mind. When the police come knocking, asking about a missing child from a neighboring town, Calli finds herself caught up in a quest for truth and justice that will expose shocking secrets about her small community and people she's known all her life who she maybe doesn't really know at all.


3. The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin—When an enslaved girl stumbles upon a secret society of spies run by a free Black woman, she finds purpose in helping to undermine the Confederacy. At the same time, she is on a journey to reunite with her beloved mother, an enslaved woman from whom she has been tragically separated.


4. The Hunter by Tana French—I'm a big Tana French fan and I'm always excited when a new book from her is announced. This is the second book in her Cal Hooper series. In this installment, Cal is immediately put on alert when the absent father of a teenager he's been mentoring shows up in town with suspicious motives. How far will Cal go to protect the people he cares about?


5. What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan—McTiernan is another of my favorite crime writers. Her newest is a standalone mystery featuring a young couple—Simon and Nina—who go on a Vermont vacation together, from which only Nina returns. Desperate to find out what happened to their daughter, Nina's family plies the police for answers, while Simon's wealthy family rushes in to protect him from suspicion. What happened to Nina? Is Simon to blame? Finding the truth might just tear them all apart.

 
6. Swimming in a Sea of Stars by Julie Wright—In this YA novel, a teen girl is attending school for the first time since she tried to kill herself. Everyone thinks they know what happened. They don't. As she floats through the halls, keeping her secrets to herself, she encounters several other students who are hiding their own doubts and insecurities. As painful as it might be, sharing their truths might be the first step to all of them finding the courage and understanding they all need to move forward.


7. A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen—The first installment in a new historical mystery series, this one introduces Miss Tiffany Woodall, a spinster who's pretending to be her dead half-brother in order to find the diamond pin that could save her from financial ruin. Things get complicated when a body is found, among other puzzling mysteries. It's up to Tiffany to figure out what in the world is going on in hers.


8. In the Lonely Hours by Shannon Morgan (available July 23, 2024)—This gothic mystery doesn't come out until the summer, but I have an e-ARC I can't wait to read. Also set in Scotland, it's about a woman who is shocked to discover she's inherited an old castle from a relative she's never heard of. When she and her teen daughter move in, they're quite unsettled to find out that it's full of ghosts and mysteries aplenty. As they dig into the edifice's dark past, they unwittingly put themselves in danger, especially as trapped as they are on a remote island...


9. Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson—I enjoyed Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, so I'm excited to read this sequel. Our intrepid author of how-to guides for mystery novelists has been invited to a writing conference via a train packed with other authors. When one of them is murdered, it's up to him to find out whodunit.


10. The Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie (available April 2, 2024)—This middle-grade puzzler sounds like tons of fun. It's about three kids who are determined to find a treasure that is rumored to be hidden inside an old, abandoned funhouse. As they solve riddles and other clues, they start to feel as if they're in the ultimate escape room, one that has been set up just for them. It's impossible, isn't it? What exactly is going on and how are they going to win this game that is getting gradually more unnerving?

There you go, ten books I hope to read this summer. Have you read any of them? What did you think? How about you? What's on your Spring TBR list? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on yours.

Happy TTT!

Sunday, March 03, 2024

The Bookish Books Reading Challenge: March Book Ideas and Link-Up for Reviews


I'm a couple days late with this post, but better late than never, right? February whizzed by for me, full as it was with a family vacation, preparation for a genealogy class I'm teaching at a conference next weekend, grandbaby sitting, and more. Phew! I did manage to read three bookish books in February, though:


My Imaginary Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows—I've had so much fun listening to the Lady Janies/Marys series on audio. These YA books mix alternate history with fantasy, humor, romance, and adventure. I've enjoyed all the novels.

My Imaginary Mary stars three teenagers: Mary Wollstonecraft (of Frankenstein fame), Ada Byron (Lord Byron's daughter, who became a well-known scientist, better known by her married name, Ada Lovelace), and the automaton the two bring to life through a combination of science and magic. As the three have adventures together, they interact with several literary giants, including Percy Bysse Shelley and Lord Byron. 


My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows—Even though this is the second to last book I've read in the series, My Lady Jane is actually the debut installment. It features another trio of teens: Lady Jane Grey; her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley; and her cousin, Edward Tudor, king of England. The novel is mostly about the three of them working together to keep their thrones secure from usurpers. It's bookish for one reason: the authors' Lady Jane Grey is a bibliophile of the highest order. Although she's breathtakingly beautiful, no one knows it because her face is always hidden in a book! It's another fun entry in an always entertaining series.


Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead—Books aren't the main theme of this dark Southern thriller, but they are the thing that brings the two main characters together. Ruth Cornier, now a librarian, has always used reading as an escape from her strict, smothering life as the daughter of a fanatical preacher. The town bad boy, with whom she falls in love, devours poetry as a way to infuse beauty into his ugly life. They bond over their shared affinity for literature, quoting lines of verse to each other and spending long hours reading together. 

Out of these three books, I enjoyed My Lady Jane the most. My Imaginary Mary was also enjoyable. While I liked aspects of Midnight is the Darkest Hour, others rubbed me the wrong way. The ending made me want to throw the book against the wall in frustration! Gah. It made the whole novel feel dissatisfying.

How about you? What bookish books did you read in February? Which are you planning to get to in March?


I've actually already read my first bookish book for this month. Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson was my book club's pick for February. It's a cute, clean rom com set in a Nashville publishing house. I read the majority of the novel in February, but I didn't finish it until March 1, so I'm counting it for this month. I'll talk about it more in April.


End of Story by A.J. Finn—Finn's newest thriller has a premise that seems to be popular lately (think The Last One Left by Riley Sager, The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor, and The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James): a dying person who became famous for being accused (but not convicted) of a crime invites a writer to their home in order to finally reveal what really happened. In this case, it's a reclusive mystery novelist whose first wife and youngest child mysteriously disappeared twenty years ago, never to be heard from again. Nicky Hunter, a creative writing teacher, is summoned to the home of Sebastian Trapp to write down his memories for posterity. She doesn't believe he killed his wife and son, but the more he unburdens himself, the more unsure she becomes...

The novel is off to a bit of a slow start, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. 

This one, which comes out on March 19, looks promising:


The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes—Emmy Clarke is an American librarian who is sent by the Library of Congress to Germany in 1946. Her job is to help the Monuments Men find and catalog books that were stolen by the Nazis. An intriguing message scrawled inside one volume sends Emmy on a quest to return the precious tome to its rightful owner. As she researches the book's provenance, she discovers a remarkable story about a brave group of Jewish women in Berlin who risked their lives to stand up to the Nazis. 

Have you read any of these? What did you think? What bookish books are next on your list?

If you are participating in the 2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge, please use the widget below to link-up your March reviews. If you're not signed up for the challenge yet, what are you waiting for? Click here to join the party.

 

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: The Birds and the Bees

 


It's been a hot minute since I posted on my blog, even for my favorite weekly meme. February turned into a busy month and some things had to fall by the wayside (although I did manage to post my first review of the year last week). Besides regular life busy-ness, we did a fun family road trip to Las Vegas and California. We surprised our two youngest kids (the only ones living at home these days) with tickets to see U2 in Vegas. After two days there, they flew home (poor suckers had to work and go to school) and my husband and I continued on to California for a few days. I barely cracked open the book I took with me, but that's okay. It was a wonderful vacay. Highlights included:

  • Rocking out to U2 in Las Vegas at The Sphere—between the band's iconic music and the incredible special effects, it was amazing and different than any other concert I've ever been to. 
  • Watching the Postcard from Earth video at The Sphere the next day. It was interesting to compare/contrast our two Sphere experiences. Both were phenomenal, but my husband and I enjoyed the concert more and our kids (15 and 19) preferred the movie.
  • A surprising conversation with two Las Vegas showgirls on The Strip because of the BYU jacket I was wearing
  • Surviving (in spite of a little throwing up/peeing my pants situation) a nerve-wracking drive over a surprisingly snowy mountain pass 
  • Visiting live family members in Central California and Santa Barbara and dead ones at San Bernardino's Pioneer Memorial Cemetery
We actually did do some bookish things, come to think of it. On our way to Santa Barbara, we stopped in Solvang, a charming Danish-style tourist town. There's a bookshop there that houses a small, but informative Hans Christian Andersen museum. They also have a cute Little Mermaid statue in the center of town in homage to the beloved author. In Santa Barbara, we stayed with my husband's cousin and his family. They have five very energetic kids, who love to listen to books read aloud. It was sweet to have them draped all over us while we read them stories. I won't post the pictures to protect the children's privacy, but it was super cute.

I actually broke the book-buying ban I started in January in California as well (although I didn't even realize it until hours later). My great-great grandfather was an early settler of San Bernardino. I bought this postcard history of the city at their Historical and Railroad Museum:


My husband says that purchasing it doesn't really count against my ban because (1) It was more of a donation to the museum than a book purchase, (2) The book is for research purposes, not entertainment value, and (3) He's the one who handed over the cash, so technically, he bought it, not me! LOL. 

At any rate, we had a great time on our trip. Between that and being busy with other things, I just haven't had a lot of hours to devote to my blog. I do appreciate those of you who dropped in to check on me during my absence. It's nice to be missed.

After that TL;DR intro, let's (finally) dive into TTT (hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl). This week's prompt is: Top Ten Book Covers Featuring Things Found in Nature. I'm always up for a nice, easy topic, although I did change it up just a wee bit. While scrolling through my TBR list on Goodreads, I was surprised to see how many of the book titles on there feature animal names, specifically birds and insects. It was a cinch to find ten for this nature-y prompt.

Top Ten Books On My TBR List With Bird and Insect Names in the Titles
- in no particular order - 


1. Peking Duck and Cover by Vivien Chien—This is the tenth installment in one of my favorite cozy mystery series. As Chinese New Year approaches, Lana Lee and her fellow business owners at Cleveland's Asia Village are getting ready for a big holiday celebration to bring in customers and good luck for all. The festivities take a dark turn when a lion dancer is murdered. Lana once again calls on her inner Nancy Drew to solve a crime.


2. Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce—Set in 1950, this historical novel features a spinster schoolteacher who decides to shuck off the gloominess of post-World War II London and set out on a grand expedition. Determined to fulfill her childhood dream of finding the mythical Golden Beetle of New Caledonia, she and an unlikely companion discover the freedom and joy of travel, friendship, and adventure.


3. The Call of the Wrens by Jenni L. Walsh—With timelines in both World War I and II, this historical novel pays tribute to the brave British women who served as motorcycle dispatch riders on the Western Front during both conflicts. Our fictional heroines learn about courage, sacrifice, love, and resilience through their life-changing war experiences. 


4. He Should Have Told the Bees by Amanda Cox—Beekeeper Beckett Walsh loves working with her father in their family's apiary. When he dies unexpectedly, naming a woman Beckett doesn't know as a new part owner in the business, she's shocked and angry. Callie Peterson is just as flummoxed, but she needs the money selling the apiary could bring in. As the two women clash over the odd situation they suddenly find themselves in, they will untangle a knot of family secrets that will change everything for both of them.


5. The Night Raven by Sarah Painter—Urban fantasy really isn't my thing, but the Crow Investigations series sounds promising, so I'm going to give it a whirl. In this first installment, private investigator Lydia Crow is called in to head up an investigation into her cousin's disappearance. The incident is causing tension between four magical families who have been abiding by a tentative truce for almost 100 years. Can Lydia find her cousin before all hell breaks loose?


6. The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang—This historical novel features two women—a soprano in need of a career boost and a Chinatown seamstress who's desperate to flee an arranged marriage—whose lives intersect when they are brought together by a railroad baron who owns a valuable collection of Chinese antiques. The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 rocks all of their worlds, leaving an intriguing mystery behind for the women to solve.


7. A Hundred Crickets Singing by Cathy Gohlke—The title of this book is enough to give me nightmares (I hate crickets!), but the story sounds like one I'd like. It's a dual-timeline novel that features two women living in the same home 83 years apart. When a vicious storm rips through her Appalachian estate, revealing a hidden room and an old trunk, Celia Percy opens a Pandora's box of secrets and lies that stretch back to the Civil War and the people—both free and enslaved—who lived at the home at that time. 


8. Olive Bright, Pigeoneer by Stephanie Graves—This series debut introduces 22-year-old Olive Bright, who raises pigeons in a quiet English village. World War II is raging and she's desperate to do her bit to help. When a covert intelligence operation comes calling, asking for her pigeons, Olive gets her wish. As she does her secret work, a woman in her town is murdered near Olive's pigeon loft. Does the killing have something to do with Olive's clandestine job? Is she in danger? Olive must find the answers before she becomes the next victim.


9. Dragonfly by Leila Meacham—World War II novels are hard for me to resist. Obviously. In this one, a group of very different Americans are brought together to form an elite spy ring. Secret identities intact, they are dropped into Nazi-occupied Paris, where they are not to be in contact with one another. When one of them ends up in front of a firing squad, the others are left to question what is real and what is simply another subterfuge.


10. Locust Lane by Stephen Amidon—Emerson, Massachusetts, is a wealthy suburb full of influential families. When a teenage girl dies after a night of partying with three other local kids, a police investigation is launched. The authorities pry into their families' lives, revealing secrets, suspicions, and, finally, the shocking truth. 

Have you read any of these? What did you think? What are your favorite books that fit this theme? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Sharon Cameron's Newest YA Historical Another Glittering Gem

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Growing up in her family's art gallery surrounded by bohemian creatives has given 18-year-old Isa de Smit a colorful, open-minded view of the world. Amsterdam has always felt alive for her, bursting with beauty and vibrancy. All of that is being leached out by the Nazis who have invaded The Netherlands, crowding her hometown with their bland khaki uniforms and narrow-minded ideals. The city has become a tense, dangerous place for everyone. It's wisest to stay far under the Nazis' radar, but Isa is out of money to buy food, let alone purchase new painting supplies for her reclusive artist father or pay the taxes needed to keep their gallery home. Out of options, she decides to take an enormous risk: sell one of her father's brilliant Old Masters forgeries to Hitler's personal art agent. 

That successful transaction earns her the attention of Michel Lange, a Nazi soldier who claims he longs to desert. He'll help her sell more forgeries if she'll use her connections with the Resistance to get him safe passage to Switzerland. Isa needs his cooperation in order to raise funds to help her best friend smuggle Jewish babies out of Amsterdam. Does she dare trust a Nazi? Does she really have a choice? As Isa's plans get more daring, her every movement becomes increasingly scrutinized, her life growing more dangerous by the hour. Can she accomplish her purposes without getting caught by her deadly foe? Or being informed on by her "friends?" Will the counterfeit paintings pass muster? Or will Isa be the next to face a Nazi firing squad? Desperate to save as many babies as she can, she has to take the risk, no matter the consequences. Even if it means sacrificing her own life, which it just might...

I'm a huge Sharon Cameron fan, so it's no surprise that I loved Artifice. Bluebird is still my favorite of the author's novels, but this one—her newest—has many of the same elements that made Bluebird such a winner for me. To begin with, it features complex, interesting characters. Isa is especially easy to root for. She's wholly sympathetic, but she's also brave, compassionate, determined, and devoted to the people and the country she loves. Plotwise, Artifice starts off a bit slowly. It gains momentum as it goes, though, and quickly turns into a tense, engrossing read that kept me racing through its pages until after one in the morning. I couldn't put it down because I had so much concern for Isa, her friends, and what was going to happen to them all. Cameron always makes me care! It's true that I found the whole subject of art a little off-putting since I know nothing about that world. Most of the references to specific artists and paintings went right over my ignorant head and I found Isa's constant references to color a tad annoying. Still, I enjoyed learning about how paintings are forged, especially in relation to its collection by the Nazis. I'd never read a book on the subject before and it really is fascinating. All things considered, I very much enjoyed this beautiful, moving book, another gem from Cameron. Even if you're not an art lover, I recommend Artifice to anyone who enjoys absorbing historical fiction.

(Readalikes: Reminds me of YA historical fiction by Ruta Sepetys, Monica Hesse, Julie Berry, etc.)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for brief, mild language (no F-bombs); violence; blood/gore; and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love: I received an e-ARC of Artifice from the generous folks at Scholastic Press via those at NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

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End of Story by A.J. Finn

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My Contrary Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows



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