Books Read in March 2026

 

March was a very good reading month for me. I enjoyed every book I read. There was enough variety to make me happy. A nonfiction graphic novel, an epistolary novel, science fantasy, a book of short stories in the historical fiction genre, a vintage mystery and two contemporary mysteries.

Here are the books I read:

Graphic novel / Nonfiction

Do Admit! (2025) by Mimi Pond (Writer and Artist)

My husband and I both read this graphic nonfiction book in March. It was perfect book for me. I am very interested in reading about the Mitford sisters. Mimi Pond writes about her own obsession with the Mitfords in this book. The full title is Do Admit!: The Mitford Sisters and Me. The art is gorgeous and the information is presented well. The only problem with this book is that it is so full of information that I am sure I missed a lot the first time I read it. I will definitely have to read it again.

Epistolary Fiction

The Correspondent (2025) by Virginia Evans

This is an epistolary novel, made up of the correspondence in letters and emails, etc. of an older retired woman. I have always enjoyed this type of novel, and this one was especially good. The main character is Sybil Van Antwerp and she spends most of her time writing letters to people. Some of her friends and relatives respond and some of the famous people, often authors, respond. Others just email her and she does not like that kind of correspondence very much. She is cranky at times and very outspoken about her views and feelings. 

I loved that Sybil included what she was reading in almost every letter she wrote, and also asked the recipient what they were reading. Occasionally Sybil would give her opinion or thoughts on the books. Over time, the reader discovers more about Sybil and events in her life. Family relationships are a big part of the story, and I always like reading about families. The end of the book was extremely moving, and I was very emotional at times.

Science Fantasy

A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle

This is a classic young adult science fantasy novel about three children who have an adventure in space and time. The main characters are Margaret Murry (called Meg), her younger brother Charles Wallace Murry, and their friend, Calvin. Calvin is two years older than Meg, and Charles Wallace is much younger than either of them, but they make a great team working together. A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in the Time Quintet. I did not know this until after I had read the book and reviewed it, but each book in the Time Quintet is very different and has a different focus. See my review.

Crime Fiction

Contemplation of a Crime (2025) by Susan Juby

Juby is a Canadian author, and the setting is a small island off Vancouver Island. This is the third book in a mystery series about a butler with a Buddhist / contemplative background. Helen Thorpe works for a very rich couple and she ends up having to rescue her boss after he and his son are kidnapped. All of the characters are eccentric. This is the third in a series and I liked the first two also. I like the way that the main character handles unexpected and stressful events. My favorite part of the book is the mindfulness theme. Helen is a very appealing character, who is (almost) never ruffled by anything.

A Brush with Death (1950) by Sheila Pim

Between 1945 and 1952, Sheila Pim, an Irish crime novelist and horticulturist, published four mysteries set in Ireland and with a focus on gardening. A Brush with Death was the third of those mystery novels, published in 1950. The story involves two families. Paul and Hester Fennelly and their daughter Barbara live in Dublin. Hester's brother, Fergus Gandon, is a well-known artist who lives in an isolated rural area with his wife, Nell, and their three young children. They live in the Dower House of Castle Kiskour, and act as caretakers for Lord Kiskour when he is away, which is much of the time. See my review.

Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (2013) by James Runcie

The Grantchester Mysteries is a series of short story collections by James Runcie. The short stories are all connected and follow the criminal investigations of Sidney Chambers, a vicar in Grantchester. This is the second book in the series.  I enjoyed the first book, and this one was even better. See my review.

First Do No Harm (2026) by S.J. Rozan

This is the 16th book in the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith series. They are private investigators. Bill Smith lives in Manhattan; Lydia Chin is an American-born Chinese who lives in New York’s Chinatown with her mother. They are not officially partners but they often work together. The unique element in this series is that the narrator of the books alternates. Usually books centered on Bill's cases are grittier; Lydia's cases are more fun. In this book, Lydia's brother, a doctor who is in charge of the ER department, has asked her to suggest a lawyer for a man who works in the hospital morgue, who has been accused of the murder of a nurse. The lawyer then calls in Lydia and Bill to investigate when the morgue assistant is arrested. This is an eye-opening view of hospital politics and corruption. S.J. Rozan is one of my favorite authors and I have read all of the books in this series. I loved this book.

For the past month and a half we have been working on cleaning up and redoing the two garden beds we have at the front of our condominium. We still are working on potting a lot of new plants, mostly geraniums and succulents. We have been to the nearby plant nursery multiple times to get plants, bark, and potting soil. The photos at the top and bottom of the post were taken by my husband at the nursery. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday: USA Noir

 

I have had a copy of USA Noir for nearly 10 years, and this is the first time I have read any stories from the book. It contains stories selected from 37 USA-based original noir anthologies published by Akashic. The series started in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. I do recognize a large percentage of the authors with stories in this book, but there are some that I don't recognize. Today I stuck with authors I have read before. 

There are Six Sections. Some of them sound pretty dark and unwelcoming, others are ambiguous.

• True Grit
• American Values
• Road Rage
• Homeland Security
• Under the Influence
• Street Justice  

I liked all three of the stories that I read and they are all different. They illustrate the variety of stories found in the Akashic Noir anthologies.

From the Road Rage section:

"Our Eyes Couldn’t Stop Opening" by Megan Abbott is a suspense-filled story about high school girls wanting to escape their boundaries. It is told in first person by a member of a clique; the setting is Grosse Pointe in Detroit, where the author grew up. The narrator follows around a former friend who is getting wilder and wilder in her behavior. It is beautifully written and very dark.

First published in Detroit Noir, in 2007. Megan Abbott has written twelve crime fiction novels, all of them standalone thrillers. 

From the Under the Influence section:

"Lighthouse" by S.J. Rozan is about a thief who is troubled by voices in his head. The voices urge him to rob various locations to get money to buy drugs. He thinks of the voices as aliens who have taken residence in his brain. I have read lots of stories by Rozan and most of them are lighter than this one. Very sad, although the ending is not a total downer.

First published in Staten Island Noir in 2012. S.J. Rozan writes the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith mystery series, mostly set in New York City's Chinatown.

From the Homeland Security section:

"Loot" by Julie Smith is set in the Garden District of New Orleans.  It is a very convoluted story about the devastation in New Orleans after Katrina and the looting that resulted. Smith packed a lot of story into 11 pages. It did not seem very noir to me; for such a serious subject, it was surprisingly light and in some ways uplifting.

First published in New Orleans Noir in 2007. Julie Smith was also the editor of that anthology. She has written two mystery series, the Skip Langdon series set in New Orleans and the Rebecca Schwartz series set in San Francisco.

Books Read in November and December 2025

 

I had some very good reading in both November and December of 2025. Seven books per month. I completed two short story books, which is unusual. I usually read a few stories from a collection and take forever to finish the book. Plus two nonfiction books! And a book from my Classics Club list. I managed to complete my goal of reading six books by Elizabeth Strout in 2025.

So here are the 14 books I read...

Nonfiction

Eight Days in May (2020) by Volker Ullrich, translated by Jefferson Chase

The subtitle of this book is "The Final Collapse of the Third Reich." My husband suggested this book to me. It was a perfect nonfiction read for me and the text was very readable, not dry at all. It covers the events that took place in Germany in the eight days following Hitler's death by suicide on April 30, 1945. May 8th, 1945 was the day when Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces. I learned so much about the events in Germany at that time. The book was a good length, 271 pages of text, plus a section of notes citing the author's sources. Volker Ullrich is a German historian and journalist.

Dear California (2023), edited by David Kipen

I borrowed this book from my husband; he read it in 2024 and liked it a lot. I read it off and on throughout 2025. For the most part I found this to be a very interesting book, but it had its highs and lows. Some of the entries are over a page long, but many are only a few sentences. The entries for each day may cover several years, sometimes as early as the 1600s or the 1800s, and others as late as 2020, during the height of Covid. That can be confusing at times. 

Examples of events covered:  For April 18 there are two entries for 1906, immediately after the San Francisco Earthquake. The third entry is from Dylan Thomas, while in Hollywood, to his wife back in Laugharne, a town on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales. The entries from various famous writers who spent some time in Hollywood were especially interesting; same for the entries from people who were interned in the American internment camps during World War II.

Fiction

The Women (2024) by Kristin Hannah

One of the author's goals in writing this book was to recognize the contribution of the women in the armed forces who went to Vietnam and worked as nurses in the hospitals which were near to the fighting. I don't think the book was perfect, but I learned so much about the Vietnam War between 1966 - 1968, and the role of the nurses in the hospitals there, that it eliminated all quibbles that I had with the book. I was born in 1948, and I felt like I should have known much more about the events that took place there. About half of the book is about the years that the protagonist was in Vietnam, and the second half is about her return to the US and the difficulties of adjusting to normal life and dealing with the traumas that she experienced in Vietnam. Not a fun book but an important one, for me.

Lucy by the Sea (2022) and Tell Me Everything (2024) by Elizabeth Strout

I read Oh, William! by Strout in early October. I read Lucy by the Sea and Tell Me Everything in November. I have loved all the books that feature Lucy Barton. But I find it almost impossible to review them. Personally, I would not have enjoyed reading them if I had known much about the books in advance. In My Name is Lucy Barton, Lucy tells of one event in her life while she is married to William, and I really disliked him in that story. In each succeeding novel about their relationship I grew to understand him and Lucy more. Lucy by the Sea takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Tell Me Everything, Olive Kitteridge meets Lucy, and Bob Burgess plays a bigger part. I loved all of those books.

Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood 

This book was on my Classics Club List. I did not particularly enjoy reading it, I found it too depressing, but I think I am in the minority. Before reading it, I did not realize that it is a series of six connected short stories. "Sally Bowles" is about one of the characters in the film, Cabaret, although I did not see many similarities between the story and the film. I liked the connections between the stories, although it took me a while to pick up on some of them. "On Ruegen Island" is about three young men spending the summer on an island.  "The Nowaks" is about a strange and impoverished family that Christopher lives with; Otto Nowak was one of the characters in the previous story. In "The Nowaks", they talk about the Landauer family, which is the subject of the fifth story.

Anxious People (2019) by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith

This is another book that is really impossible for me to describe. This is only the second book I read by Backman. I was very impressed by this book; it is very humorous, but it also has its sad moments and talks about some serious subjects, such as suicide, divorce, losing a spouse to an illness. A person decides to rob a bank, but they don't really know what they are doing and it ends up turning into a hostage situation. I found the book very confusing at times, but still very readable and uplifting. My favorite characters are the two policemen.

Mystery / Time Travel / Science Fiction

The Frozen People (2025) by Elly Griffiths

This is the start of a new time travel/mystery series. Ali Dawson is a detective in a Cold Case department, and the group attempts to solve crimes by going back in time for clues. I liked the premise, the characters, and the story was good. The level of tension was just right. Some of the story strains disbelief, but the story is enough fun that I was not bothered by that.

Crime Fiction

El Dorado Drive (2025) by Megan Abbott

The first book I read by Megan Abbott was Queenpin, which won an Edgar award. It was a great book, beautifully written, but also very, very tense. I knew I would like the setting of El Dorado Drive (Detroit, Grosse Point, in 2008-2009, when the economy was in such bad shape) and it was not as tense as I expected. It is a thriller; I found it to be fast-paced, a page turner. And it is about a family of three sisters, and their money problems. The family relationships pulled me in. Some reviewers talked about it being too slow but I did not see that at all. So I will be reading more by Abbott. I have three of her novels, including Turnout, Beware the Woman, and You Will Know Me.

The Guest List (2020) by Lucy Foley

I was surprised that I ended up reading two thrillers in December. They were both entertaining, but El Dorado Drive had more depth. The Guest List is set on a tiny isolated island off the coast of Ireland; the characters are on the island to attend the wedding of a TV star and the publisher of a well-known magazine. Many of the characters have baggage from their childhoods; most are unlikeable and/or superficial. 

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (2012) by James Runcie

The Grantchester Mysteries is a series of short story collections by James Runcie. The stories are all connected and follow the investigations of Sidney Chambers, a vicar in Grantchester. There were only six short stories in the collection, and they are all novella length. I covered two of the short stories HERE and HERE.

The Shanghai Moon (2009) by S.J. Rozan

This was a reread of the ninth book in the Lydia Chin & Bill Smith series. I read it about 15 years ago, and I remember at the time I did not enjoy the story, even though Rozan is one of my favorite authors. I have no idea why I did not like it originally, because the subject matter is something I am currently interested in. Lydia is working on a job to help recover stolen jewels that once belonged to a Jewish refugee who fled from Austria to Shanghai in 1938, so it includes some history from that pre-WWII time. For me, the biggest attraction of this series are the characters. Not only are the main characters interesting, but Lydia's family members who have recurring roles in the books are well done, and many of the secondary characters are fully developed. After this reread, I rank this book as a favorite in the series.

The Big Four (1927) by Agatha Christie

I have read many negative comments on The Big Four, but in my opinion it is not that bad. It is sort of spy fiction and adventure. I certainly would not recommend this one as anyone's first Poirot book; it is not representative of the series. I mostly enjoyed the interplay between Captain Hastings and Poirot, and did not take the plot all that seriously. I read that the novel was a mashup of several short stories that Christie wrote earlier, and that explains why it feels disjointed and disorganized at times.

Christmas Stalkings (1991) edited by Charlotte Macleod

This was the second Christmas short story anthology edited by Charlotte MacLeod. All of the stories in the book appeared in print for the first time in this book. I covered all of the stories in this book in three posts in December. My favorite short story in the book was "A Political Necessity" by Robert Barnard (reviewed here), although all of them were good.

End of Year notes

I read 78 books in 2025, compared to 89 in 2024. The longest book I read was 800 pages: The Charm School by Nelson DeMille. The average number of pages for the books I read was 323. In 2024, that number was 302, which means I must have read more longer books in 2025.

• I read less mysteries than last year, 40 as compared to 48 in 2023. Only 6 of the mysteries published were before 1970, which is a big change from my early blogging years, but in line with last year's reading.
• I read 6 nonfiction books.
• My reading included 13 books in the science fiction or fantasy genres, which is higher than last year.
• I read 16 novels that I categorize as general fiction.

• I completed 8 short story books, and read 16 books by authors from Japan, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, Argentina, Australia, and Germany.

Spell the Month in Books — August 2025

 

Spell the Month in Books is a monthly meme hosted by Jana at Reviews from the Stacks. The link up post is posted on the first Saturday of each month. Each month one or two themes are suggested for the books that are chosen. The theme for August is “favorite authors.”

Once again, I am getting this post in very late in the month. 

A is for And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This is one of Agatha Christie's most well-known mysteries. I have read at least 50 of Christie's mystery novels, but I did not read this one until 2020. I knew the general setup but had not watched any film adaptations, and was wondering how it all ends. Could it live up to the acclaim it has always gotten? It did for me. The writing is very suspenseful. I could not help trying to figure out not only who was the killer but how it was all managed. I did at one time suspect the actual culprit but Christie is very competent at making you second guess your deductions.

U is for Unruly Son by Robert Barnard

This book was published in the UK as Death of a Mystery Writer. The main character is an obnoxious and overbearing mystery author who has made many enemies and insulted just about everyone he encounters. His wife and daughter love him, or at least tolerate him, but his two sons don't have much good to say about him. Of course, all of his children would like to inherit his money. So when he dies by poisoning they are the first persons the police consider as suspects. This was a very good read, which I expected because Robert Barnard is one of my favorite authors. He rarely disappoints me. 

G is for Gambit by Rex Stout

Rex Stout is my favorite author of all. He wrote 33 novels and 41 novellas about the private detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The books are narrated by Archie. The series began in 1934 and the last book in the series, A Family Affair, was published in 1975, shortly before Stout's death. The Nero Wolfe series is fun to read because Wolfe has so many quirks. He hates to leave his home, thus he needs Archie Goodwin to do the legwork for him. He raises orchids and spends four hours each day in the plant rooms.  Eating and good food are very important to him and he never discusses business when eating. And those are just a few of his quirks. However, Gambit has one of the most straightforward plots of the 33 novels that Rex Stout wrote. Less of the quirks are evident or emphasized. The plotting is intricate and the mystery is especially challenging.

U is for The Unfortunate Englishman by John Lawton

I have been a fan of John Lawton's writing for years. His Inspector Frederick Troy series consists of eight novels published between 1995 and 2017. Those novels are a mix of police procedural and espionage, and are set between 1934 and 1963, with many of them covering multiple timelines. The Unfortunate Englishman is the second novel in the Joe Wilderness series. That series (so far) has focused on English / Russian / German relations in Berlin following World War II. The books in this series are really good spy fiction, but also complex and confusing. I love the focus on Berlin and the wall. This second novel in the series doesn't make as much sense if you have not read the first book.

S is for SS-GB by Len Deighton

SS-GB is an alternate history in which England has been invaded by Germany. The protagonist in this story is Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer of Scotland Yard, working under Gruppenführer Fritz Kellerman of the SS. The story is very complex. Len Deighton is one of my favorite authors, and I especially enjoy his spy fiction novels. I love his writing. This book, which is both a whodunit and a spy story, is no exception.

T is for A Tale about a Tiger and Other Mysterious Events by S.J. Rozan

S.J. Rozan is the author of the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith mystery series, one of my favorite contemporary mystery series. Lydia Chin is an American-born Chinese private investigator in her late twenties who lives in New York’s Chinatown with her mother. Bill Smith is a private investigator in his forties who lives in Manhattan. They are not partners but they often work together on cases. The element that I have always liked about this series is that the narrator of the books alternates. The first book was narrated by Lydia; the second book was narrated by Bill; and so on.

In A Tale about a Tiger and Other Mysterious Events, published by Crippen & Landru in 2009, there are nine stories by Rozan; six of the stories feature either Lydia Chin or Bill Smith or both. 

Books Read in July 2025

 

Another month where every book was a very good read. I finished seven books in July. Two were short story books; that is unusual. Four were crime fiction, including one espionage thriller. And one science fiction story in a military setting. At the end of July I had only read 12 books for my 20 Books of Summer list. It is now mid-August (unbelievable!) and I have only read two more. So I don't think I will finish all 20 books for the challenge. We'll see.

Fiction

Five Tuesdays in Winter (2021) by Lily King

I started this book of short stories in December 2024. I read the first four stories and I liked them all; you can check out my thoughts on those stories here. In July, I read the remaining six stories in the book. Many of those stories are slice-of-life stories. I especially liked the characterizations; the stories were serious but ended on an upbeat note. Check here for my thoughts on the last six stories.

Olive, Again (2019) by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again is the follow-up book to Olive Kitteridge.  It is a very good book but not an easy read. Olive is in her seventies in this book. She is widowed and has a tenuous, troubled relationship with her son and his family. This is described as a novel composed of interrelated short stories. Only seven of the thirteen stories are directly about Olive and her life in Crosby, Maine. The other stories take place in the same area or nearby but Olive is not the main focus. See my thoughts here.

Science Fiction

Ninefox Gambit (2016) by Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit is a military science fiction/science fantasy/space opera novel. I did not know a lot about the book going in, although I assumed it was a space opera because of the cover illustration. The world building was very complex and confusing for me, but the writing was very good and pulled me into the story. I loved the ending. See my thoughts here.

Crime Fiction

At Bertram's Hotel (1965) by Agatha Christie

This is a Miss Marple mystery with a huge cast; the plot can be confusing, but it is an entertaining story set at a lovely hotel. Chief Inspector Fred Davy is a Scotland Yard detective who does most of the detecting. See my thoughts here.

The Amateur (1981) by Robert Littell

Charlie Heller is a cryptographer for the CIA. When his fiancée, Sarah Diamond, is murdered by terrorists at the American Embassy in West Germany, the CIA decides not to pursue her killers. Heller is determined to find them and kill them himself. So this is a revenge thriller. Heller has none of the necessary skills, but he forces the CIA to train him. Nothing in this book is predictable; the story was compelling and I enjoyed it very much.

The novel has an interesting history; the story was first written by Littell as a screenplay, and was made into a Canadian film released in 1981. Shortly after that, the novel was written based on the screenplay. Recently another film adaptation was released starring Ramie Malek.

The Murder of Mr. Ma (2024) by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan

Reading this book was a no-brainer for me. I will try anything written by S.J. Rozan. I was a bit uncertain about a book that she co-authored but still, it seemed like a safe bet. 

The two protagonists of the book are fictionalized versions of Judge Dee Ren Zie and Lao She, a Chinese academic and author. I have never read any of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries, but my husband has. The story focuses on their investigation into the deaths of Chinese immigrants in 1924 London.

I was very happy with this book. It felt like an adventure story as much as a mystery, and was a lot of fun to read. John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan have come together in a great writing partnership and you can read about that at CrimeReads and Mystery Fanfare. The second book in the series is already out and I will be reading it.

A Death in Tokyo (2011) by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray

This is the third book in the Tokyo Police Detective Kaga series to be translated to English from Japanese. I have read the two previous books that are available in English, and they all work well as standalones. Detective Kaga is not part of the homicide division, but he often works with the homicide detectives when the case in in his district. He works in an intuitive way, and follows up painstakingly on every detail. In this case a prominent business man has been murdered; he is found at the base of a statue on a bridge, but that is not where the murder took place. His wife and two teenage children don't know why he was in that area of town. It is a very complex case, and has an interesting and complex resolution. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken by my husband at the garden center during our last visit. We enjoy both buying plants and supplies and viewing the variety of plants and pots and decorations on display. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

A Summer Challenge: 20 Books of Summer 2025

It's almost time for 20 Books of Summer. This is my tenth year of participating in this reading challenge. The event was previously hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. When she decided to stop hosting last year, Annabel from AnnaBookbel and Emma from Words and Peace took up the mantle.

The challenge is very flexible. You don't have to aim for 20 book but can also opt for 15 or 10. Here are some of the rules...

• The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.
• Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from your TBR.

For more information and the place to sign up, check out this post at AnnaBookBel. There is also a book bingo card, which is new.

I love to make lists of books to read, so I would start with a list whether I plan to stick with it or not. However, I do plan to stick with my list, and here it is...

At Bertram's Hotel | Agatha Christie   (mystery)

The '44 Vintage | Anthony Price   (spy fiction)

State of Wonder | Ann Patchett    (fiction)

Before Your Memory Fades | Toshikazu Kawaguchi   (fantasy / time travel)

The Burgess Boys | Elizabeth Strout   (fiction)

Olive Again | Elizabeth Strout   (fiction)

Table for Two | Amor Towles    (short stories)

The Murder of Mr. Ma | John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan   (mystery)

A Death in Tokyo | Keigo Higashino   (mystery)

A Death in Summer | Benjamin Black   (mystery)

Death by Accident | Bill Crider   (mystery) 

The Amateur | Robert Littell   (spy fiction)

The Killing of the Tinkers | Ken Bruen    (mystery)

Mrs. Dalloway | Virginia Woolf    (classic, fiction)

Oona Out of Order | Margarita Montimore   (time-loop fiction)

Pesticide | Kim Hayes   (mystery)

The Day the World Came to Town | Jim DeFede (nonfiction)

Perplexing Plots | David Bordwell   (nonfiction)

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone | Benjamin Stevenson   (mystery)

Ninefox Gambit | Yoon Ha Lee   (science fiction)

Books Read in September and October 2024

I read 12 books in September and October. I enjoyed all of them. Seven of the books were mysteries; five were in other genres.

Humor / Cartoon Collection

A Wealth of Pigeons: A Cartoon Collection (2020) by Harry Bliss and Steve Martin

In this book, Steve Martin partnered with the cartoonist Harry Bliss to create a collection of cartoons and comic strips. Steve provided caption and cartoon ideas, and Harry created the artwork. It was a fun read.

Fiction

My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather

The story, which is narrated by Jim Burden, focuses primarily on Ántonia Shimerda, the daughter of Bohemian immigrant parents who have settled on a farm on the Nebraska prairies. Jim and Ántonia were both children when they arrived in Nebraska, on the same train. See my review here.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) by Maria Semple

Bernadette Fox and Elgin Branch have promised their daughter a trip to Antarctica if she makes excellent grades. She succeeds, but unfortunately Bernadette get so mired down in the preparations that everything falls to pieces in their already precarious marriage. This is a real mishmash of a book, and there were many times that I was totally lost. Fortunately, it was worth the effort getting to the end. Bee Branch, their daughter, was my favorite character. The story is told partially through emails and documents.

Orbital (2023) by Samantha Harvey

Although I did have a few nitpicks when reading this book, I loved it. I was very pleased and surprised when it won the Booker Prize. It depicts one day in the life of six astronauts on the space station, watching the sunrises and sunsets and monitoring a typhoon threatening inhabited islands. The reader is privy to their thoughts, and watches their activities and their regimen. It is short, about 200 pages, and very meditative. It inspired me to read more about the space station, and I wish it had been longer.

Fiction / Short Stories

Ladies' Lunch: and Other Stories (2017) by Lore Segal

This book of short stories was published by Lore Segal in 2023 on her 95th birthday. Ten of the sixteen stories in the book are about a group of older women, now in their 90s, who have been meeting for lunch for thirty years or more. See my review here.

Crime Fiction

The White Lioness (1993) by Henning Mankell

This is the third book in the acclaimed Kurt Wallander series. Henning Mankell is a Swedish author. This book is set mostly in Sweden but there are also sections of the book set in South Africa. See my review here.

Silent Voices (2011) by Ann Cleeves

This is the fourth book in the Vera Stanhope series. DI Vera Stanhope is relaxing in the spa of a health club, after swimming laps in the pool. I know this doesn't sound like Vera at all but her doctor has strongly recommended some exercise, and this is what she can manage. She discovers the dead body of a woman in the spa with her. This series has great characters; I like Vera's relationship with Sergeant Joe Ashworth, her 2nd in command, and the way she works with her team of investigators. The setting is very nice too.

The Mayors of New York (2023) by S.J. Rozan

I am a big fan of Rozan's Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series, totaling 15 books; this is the newest one. The first book was published in 1994. I started reading the books in 2008; since then I have read all the books in the series. See my review here.

Winter Work (2022) by Dan Fesperman

I regret not having the time to review Winter Work. This is the third book to feature Claire Saylor, an agent for the CIA. Safe Houses was the first book in the series, set in 1979 (Berlin)and 2014 (US), and it was fantastic. The second book, The Cover Wife is set in 1999. This book goes back to 1990; it is set in Berlin after the fall of Berlin Wall. The trilogy features strong female characters and intelligent plots.

The Hamlet Trap (1987) by Kate Wilhelm

Kate Wilhelm, who wrote both science fiction and mysteries, published her first novels in the 1960s and published her last novel in 2017. She was married to Damon Knight, a well-known science fiction author. This book is the first one in the Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn mystery series. The story is set in Ashland, Oregon and the story revolves around preparation for a play to be performed there, and the people involved in creating it, the author, director, set designers, etc. The story is excellent, very complex, with lots of characters. I have two more books in the series to read.

Then We Take Berlin (2013) by John Lawton

This is the first book in the Joe Wilderness series. Wilderness's real name is John Holderness; he is sometimes an agent for MI6 and sometimes a con-man and thief. I learned a lot about Berlin during the time immediately following World War II, when the city was divided up into four sectors. It was a good, although very confusing, story up until the end, which was a cliffhanger. I will be reading book 2 in the series.

Big Sky (2019) by Kate Atkinson

This is the 5th book in the Jackson Brodie series. Reading mysteries by Atkinson can be confounding. They just seem to meander along and several unrelated threads come together to resolve themselves. Nevertheless, I love them. The fourth books in the series, Started Early, Took My Dog, was published in 2010, and I read it in 2011. Big Sky did not come out until 2019, and I just read it this year, so after 14 years I had forgotten a lot about the series. But I settled into Atkinson's quirky approach very easily, and was certain that I would be satisfied with the experience and the ending. It was a wonderful book full of eccentric characters and I have bought the 6th book, Death at the Sign of the Rook, to read sometime in 2025.

Currently reading

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid, the second book in the Inspector Karen Pirie series. Karen Pirie investigates cold cases. I am about a third of the way in, and I am loving the book. It grabbed me immediately. In 2007, a woman reports that her father has been missing for over 20 years, from the time of the Miner’s Strike of 1984. At the time he left, the family thought that he had deserted the family and did not look for him, but now she needs to find him desperately because her son is dying. 

The three photos at the beginning and end of this post are ones my husband took while we were walking around in downtown Santa Barbara. The ones directly above are from a bridal shop in 2014. The top photo was taken in 2010. Click on the images for best viewing quality.