Every year we look forward to the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, which was held between September 12 – 21, 2025. We go to the sale five times, and the last day the books are half price. So, two months after the book sale, I am listing seven of the many books that I purchased at the sale. I have not read any of these yet, but I will read the first one on the list before the end of the year.
These are listed in no particular order, although I started with books that were not mysteries, and ended with mysteries.
Tell Me Everything (2024) by Elizabeth Strout
Why did I buy this book? It was on my list of books to look for at the sale. I just finished reading Oh, William! by the same author in October. I will be reading Lucy by the Sea this month (November). And I want to read Tell Me Everything by the end of 2025. All of those novels have some of the same characters. So I was happy to find a copy.
I don't know much about Tell Me Everything (and I don't want to at this point), but it is set in the fictional town of Crosby, Maine, and features several characters from previous books by Strout: Lucy Barton, Bob Burgess, Olive Kitteridge and more.
Pearly Everlasting (2024) by Tammy Armstrong
Why did I buy this book? It was another book on my list that I had hoped to find. The author is Canadian and the setting is New Brunswick during the Great Depression. If I hadn't found a copy I would have been buying a copy soon, probably for much more than I spent at the sale.
I don't know much about this story. The Goodreads description notes that it is about a cook in a logging camp who rescues an orphaned bear and brings it home. The bear lives with him and his wife and daughter. Years later the bear is sold and the teenaged daughter goes to rescue it. I have seen Pearly Everlasting classified as a fantasy. I don't think it fits well into my definition of a fantasy, but I think the basic story of a bear bonding with a girl is not based on realistic bear behavior. So it sounds more like a folktale to me. See Susan's review at The Cue Card. In that same post, Susan also reviews Tell Me Everything (above).
The Grammarians (2019) by Cathleen Schine
Why did I buy this book? I saw the cover, read the description, and was intrigued by the book. The author is new to me. I don't focus on grammar so much but I love words, so it sounded good.
From the dust jacket on the book:
The grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret “twin” tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but, lo and behold, this love, which has always bound them together, begins to push them apart.
Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk (2017) by Kathleen Rooney
Why did I buy this book? It was pretty much the cover that decided me. I had heard of the author vaguely but had seen this cover here and there. The description sounded good, AND the book has a map of New York on the end papers.
From the dust jacket of the book:
Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier now―her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl―but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak...
The Spy Coast (2023) by Tess Gerritsen
Why did I buy this book? I like espionage books, and this one is by an author who I am familiar with. The ratings are good. I have read five books in the Rizzoli and Isles series.
From the back of the book:
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.
But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her.
Invisible Helix (2021) by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray
Why did I buy this book? My husband introduced me to this author and I have read as many books by him as we can find. This is the fifth book in the Detective Galileo series that has been translated to English, and I have read the four previous books.
From the description at Goodreads:
Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino's best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in a case where hidden history, and impossible crime, are linked by nearly invisible threads in surprising ways.
The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident-Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi, but when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found.
To Fetch a Thief (2010) by Spencer Quinn
Why did I buy this book? This was another one I bought for the cover. I have read the first book in the Chet and Bernie series and enjoyed it. I like books about the circus, although I haven't read that many. It was too good to pass up.
The books in the Chet and Bernie series are narrated by a dog named Chet. Chet is not a superdog; he flunked out of K-9 training, but still has the heart of a detective. His owner, private investigator Bernie Little, is not perfect either but never gives up on the case. The setting seems to be Arizona.
