Hi everyone. It's time for my monthly book post. I write this post so I can look back when I can't remember if I read a book or if I can't remember much of what it's about. Ha ha. I don't totally get why some books really stand out in your memory, even when they may not be your most favorite reads, while other books end up being a blur, sometimes even when you reread them. But for those of you who like to read about books, I hope there's something here you may like.
I read quite a bit in May because after doing some yard work it felt good to sit down and read. Add to that we had a lot of raw and wet days too. I also started my summer job where, when there isn't a lot of boats, I read. Plus, while I garden I often listen to a book. The numbers add up.
You might remember how I read the wrong book for book club a couple of months ago. I decided before my book group actually met I should read the right book, so my first listen for May was this one. How to Read a Book by Monica Wood captured my attention right away, and I have to say, it was a much more interesting and enjoyable read than the other book by the same title that I read back in March. (That book was more of a literacy textbook 😏)
This story was set in Maine. The 3 main characters are Harriett, a 64 year old retired English teacher who needs something to fill her time so she runs a book club for women at a state prison. Then there's Violet, who early in the book is in prison because she was the driver in a fatal accident. Of course she was very young when this happened, and when she is released she is only 22 years old. She was part of Harriett's book club, and when they accidentally meet in a bookstore in Portland, you know the story is going to go someplace good. The other main character is Frank Daigle, whose wife was killed in the car crash that Violet caused. Frank now works in that same bookstore.
I enjoyed how these characters came together and all the twists along the way. There's also a well done collection of supporting characters. It's a very good read with decent but not overwhelming depth, nor is it particularly predictable (other than knowing the 3 main characters will connect). This book is all about second chances and about forgiveness with likable characters and interesting events. I did have some questions when the book ended, but the story was nicely wrapped up so I think my questions were more the type that didn't really require answers.
If you're in the mood for a charming and well composed fictional story, then I recommend this book.
My next book was from one of my favorite mystery series. This latest (book 28) in the series, set in the Navajo lands of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, was released in April. Shadow of the Solstice by Anne Hillerman "stars" police officers Jim Chee and his wife Bernie Manuelito. Often these books include the retired Joe Leaphorn, but in this book he is only part of the story right at the end.
There's a lot going on. First there is a bus that picks up people in the Navajo Nation and takes them to Phoenix for "rehab". Of course you know right away that there is something sinister about this bus. Then there is the "celebrity" who is coming to speak in the community of Shiprock that gets the whole department involved with security issues. There's a dead body in a fenced off mining waste dump, and there's also a cult of radical non-conformists who claim to be out to save Mother Earth but of course, aren't really out to save Mother Earth.
I enjoyed this story very much. It's even more interesting when you read the author's notes at the end that discuss where Hillerman found her inspiration for events in this book. She writes quite a bit about the inspiration for the bus that takes people to Phoenix, which is something that actually happened. She also writes quite a bit about mining on Navajo Nation land. She ends this book with some foreshadowing of the next book, or what I am assuming is some foreshadowing. I'm looking forward to that next book in the series even though I'll probably have to wait a year for it.
I know I've read my next book, Agatha Christie's 1932 Peril At End House, at some point in the far past, mainly because there were little bits of it that were very familiar. But I can't say I'd remembered the whole story. Hercule Poirot and his good friend Hastings meet a young woman named Nick (Buckley) while vacationing on the Cornish coast. While talking to her, she brushes away a bee, but Poirot, being the most observant of people, notices that there is a hole in this woman's hat. The hole is the size of a bullet. When he explains that to Nick, she tells them that she has had some bad luck lately. Her brakes failed on her car. A boulder falls close to where is walking one day, and finally, a large oil painting of her grandfather falls off its nail and would have hit her in the head if she hadn't gotten out of bed just a few moments earlier.
Poirot and Hastings go to visit Nick. Poirot is trying to stop her murder from happening, which he says is much more difficult than solving a murder that has been done. Then there is another death, someone who was mistaken to be Nick. There's also a connection to a will that was just scribbled on some paper but that left lots of money to the recipient. And finally there's also a great cast of characters, including Nick's lawyer cousin and the Australian couple who live next door among others.
It still amazes me how many plots Agatha Christie could come up with. She wrote 66 mysteries (among other things), and for the most part, they are all really clever. This one certainly is, with a twist at the end that I didn't see coming or remember. I really liked this mystery from the Queen of Crime fiction.
I was looking for something different from my usual reading, and this novel, City of Night Birds, was definitely that. Briefly, it's all about a Russian ballerina and her return to St. Petersburg after a serious injury. It's fiction, and it definitely captured my attention right away.
When Natalia Leonova returns to St. Petersburg, she believes she is done dancing due to that injury that has kept her off the stage for a couple of years. However it takes quite a while for you as the reader to discover what that injury is all about. I kept wondering if it was more than an actual bodily injury, and if there was some personal scandal involved in it too. It's that mysterious injury that winds through the story and doesn't explain itself until you get to the end.
In the book you flashback and follow Natalia's career from her school days until the present when she is a world famous ballerina. You meet many people who are part of Natalia's life and how they interact with her. The book begins when Natalia has just returned to her hometown after the accident. When another dancer, now someone running the ballet named Dmitri, asks her to take a starring role in his latest production, Natalia must decide if she wants this past life back and if she wants to actually dance again.
The writing was great and took me into the setting and plot. I definitely felt the competition, relationships and effort that it takes to be a top notch ballerina. I also wanted to see where the story took me. But on the other hand, I just wasn't that interested in ballet and in this book there's a lot of ballet and dancers with prima dona egos. The story was definitely interesting, but I wished it was a bit shorter because by the time I reached the 80% read mark, I was ready to move on to something new. I did want to know about Natalia's injury and I wanted to see how the story wrapped up so I didn't stop reading. I'm glad I finished it. Overall, City of Night Birds was a good read, but for me, it could have been just a tad bit shorter.
Last month I read the book The Kind Worth Killing, which is book 1 of the Henry Kimball mystery series by Peter Swanson. My next book, The Kind Worth Saving, is book 2. Book 1 ended with a cliffhanger, so I had to find out how the story continued.
Henry Kimball is now working as a private investigator. (In book 1 he worked for the Boston Police Department, and I don't want to give too much a way so if your curious, you'll have to read book 1.😉) He is hired by Joan, who believes her husband Richard is having an affair. She just wants to know for certain. While investigating this situation, there's a twist. Well actually several twists. And not everyone is who they first appear to be.
Like book 1, this novel is broken down into 3 parts. In each section the chapters alternate between 2 narrators. In part 1 it is Henry and Joan. In part 2 it is Henry and Richard and in part 3 it is Lily and Joan.
I was also curious about Lily Kitner, who is the other major character from book 1. The author does connect her into the story also. As you can see, it just takes just a while before you get to her. I actually liked how the author doesn’t start with Lily but takes you into Henry Kimball's life. Book one was more about Lily, and this book not only finishes with her story but takes you deeper into Henry's life too.
I enjoyed this story and was glad to wrap up the cliffhanger, although I think I enjoyed book 1 a bit more. And there is a book 3, which I already read before I knew this was a series, and it is the story that inspired me to read these other 2 books. I can see why book 3 could be read as a stand alone book because even though it has these 2 main characters in it, book 3 doesn't connect directly to either book 1 or book 2. I think I need to read even more Peter Swanson (than I already have) as he writes a fast paced story with lots of twists.
It's fun to read vintage mysteries, and this one, The Honjin Murders, was first published in 1946. The story is set in 1937. Not only is this a vintage mystery, but it is also a translation of a Japanese mystery, the first of this series by Seishi Yokomizo that I have read. This is also the first novel with detective Kosuke Kindaichi, and from what I read online, is one of the many locked room style mysteries by this author.
There is a family wedding one night, and after the event wraps up, there is a double death in the second home on the family compound. That second house is completely locked from the inside. In fact, when screaming is heard, people have to break in in order to help. People also hear the koto (a Japanese stringed instrument) playing from inside the house, but who could have gotten in there? And if someone went in earlier in the evening, where would they be hiding? There is also a 3 fingered man who appears in town and who also appears at the kitchen door of the main house in the compound right before the wedding. He is the initial obvious suspect, but did he do it?
Kosuke Kindaichi is an interesting detective too. He is quirky and made me think of Hercule Poirot from some of Agatha Christie's books. However, Kosuke is young, wears a wildly printed and wrinkled kimono as well as other traditional Japanese clothes, and instead of his moustaches, he has crazy wild hair. He isn't from the police either, but uses his insight and thoughts to solve crimes.
I enjoyed this novel. I did have to look up a few Japanese item names that I didn't know, but that only enhanced the reading experience because it felt very authentic. I especially learned what the koto was and how it played a big role in this mystery. I didn't expect the book to end like it did; it was an interesting twist where the author purposely lead us on to think the ending was something different.
My next book was another reread off my bookshelf. The Janus Stone is book 2 in the Dr. Ruth Galloway archaeological/police mysteries. As I mentioned last month, this is one of my favorite series which I finished up a couple of years ago. However it's been several years since I read book 2. This time there is a Roman excavation going on, as well as at another site, a former children's home being partially torn down and renovated as new apartments/condos.
In the former children's home the body of a headless child is found buried. So is the body of a headless cat, which means Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, known just as Nelson, is called in to work with Ruth. Is this child one of the 2 who went missing in the early 1970s or is the body decades older? And where is the head? Also how does the cat relate to this mystery? Ruth has a budding relationship with the head archaeologist on the Roman site named Max, tying the 2 archaeological digs together. (Although the Roman dig also has some creepy events too.)
This book was as good a read as it was when I originally read it. In fact, it's been awhile so I didn't remember all the details of a tense and exciting ending to the story. I knew it had to do with an abduction, but I couldn't remember the who, what, when and why. You do have to read this series in order as relationships develop and characters continue to grow. If like British mysteries set in the Norfolk region, then you may enjoy this series.
My next listen was this short book called The Wisdom of Sheep, written by Rosamund Young. Young grew up and and has lived all her life on farms. The stories in this book set at Kite's Nest Farm, which is in the Cotswold area in England. This farm is not only organic, but their animals are free ranging and respected and loved.
Several years ago I read this author's book The Secret Lives of Cows, which is one of my favorite all time books. A lot of people rolled their eyes at me when I recommended it. That book, set also at Kite's Nest Farm, talked about life on a dairy farm and how cows not only had distinct personalities but how they communicated with the farmers. Of course they didn't have English language conversations, but body language is important not only for humans. Those of you with cats or dogs in the house know exactly what I mean.
In this book, Young explains how she was once told by a local reporter that she should keep a journal of farm life. She ended up doing that. This book is many of those journal entries, not dated, and I'm not sure if they were rewritten to be in book form. They are about the cows, the sheep that later joined the farm, family life, farm life, and even about other examples from classic literature.
I enjoyed listening to these stories. I especially liked listening to someone who has so much respect for other living things and who shows that you can farm without treating your herds merely as profit making commodities. Plus, I was reminded of how much work it is to run a farm, but how we all need them. Some of the stories in this book are very short, and some are longer, but they all work together to show the story of a life dedicated to raising animals.
My next read was the third in this series of unusual architecture Japanese mysteries. In the first 2 books of this series (The Decagon House Murders and The Mill House Murders) the reader was taken to a 10 sided house on an isolated island and then in in the later an unusual house with 3 water mills attached to it that belonged to the son of a famous but now deceased artist. This newest book is set in an underground house whose interior hallways are a giant maze and relates to the Greek myth of the Minotaur. Other than the unusual homes and the locked room mysteries that all of these books are about, they are connected to each other by the name of the architect (who is not a character in the stories), and that the "detective" who solves the mysteries is named Kiyoshi Shimada. These don’t need to be read in any specific order.
In The Labyrinth House Murders, a famous mystery writer who lives in this unique structure invites some other mystery writers to his 60th birthday party. It is not a surprise party, but there are some big surprises anyhow. And since this is a locked room murder mystery, before you know it there are dead bodies popping up. Who is the killer this time? And why?
Although I vaguely suspected who was doing the killing, I did not expect where this story went. Nor did I expect the postscript, but not to give anything away, there was another twist (or 2) here. This is another clever and well mystery read in this series.
I was a little concerned that Kingmaker, my last listen for May, would read a lot like A Woman of No Importance, which was this author's previous book. I tried to read that biography last year, and I couldn't get into it. Happily this latest book by this author was an overall interesting biography that I mostly enjoyed listening to.
I didn't know exactly who Pamela Harriman was to start with (well before I read the book blurb telling me about the book), but if a book is called Kingmaker, you know she had to be someone with connections. Pamela Harriman ended up marrying Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchill's son who was (pardon my bluntness) a total loser. I have read a couple of biographies about the Churchill family in the past, so it all clicked with me once I realized that, and that's why I decided to read this biography.
However I didn't know much about Harriman's life, and for someone who married at 19 during a time when a woman's job was to marry and be a good wife, she certainly managed to make her life much much more than even she probably expected. It helped that both Winston and his wife Clementine were both very fond of her, and that she became an integral part of their lives during the second world war. That "training" made her realize that she had a talent for politics and people, especially the men who were the prime political movers during her lifetime.
When Harriman and Randolph Churchill's marriage unwound during the war, Harriman still played a big part of the Churchill family. In fact, once the war wound down. Harriman was a bit at lose ends. Now as a single woman again, but also a woman who had been privy to so many war details in real time, she was looking to get into politics. In the present time, she would have just gone into that area. However, in the late 1940's right up until the 1980's, Harriman had to play by the rules, marrying someone with connections. It was only towards the end of her life that she was able to have the career that she inspired to have ever since she was privy to Churchill's time as leader during the Second World War.
Harriman had an interesting life. I'm not sure I liked her though. I think it wasn't actually Harriman that I disliked, but more the life she ended up having. I'm not interested in the political lifestyle of fancy dinner parties and other events which are really not for fun but for meeting people and moving up in the ranks. However, it was eye opening to read about. Plus it was very interesting in the later part of the book when Harriman finally found her own political footing and started Pam Pact. At that point she became a mover and shaker in the US National Democratic Party during the 1980's. (She became a citizen while married to one of her American husbands.) I think the party could use someone like her now.
I really enjoyed the two ends of the book. The middle was not as interesting to me, but then, if you're reading someone's biography, you need to get through it all, not just the parts that speak to you as the reader.
When I finished The Labyrinth House Murders, I was thinking about the other 2 Inspector Shimada books and how I wanted to read another one of these mysteries. Since there are only 3 of these mysteries and I have now read all 3, I decided to go back to book 2, The Mill House Murders. I originally read this book in June of 2023, so enough time had passed that reading it again meant I remembered bits and pieces but overall there was enough I didn't remember (including who the killer was) to make it an enjoyable murder mystery reread.
In this book the unique house is owned by the son of a very famous painter. The painter has passed, and the son has a collection of the paintings on display in the house. Except for once a year, no one other than those living in the house can view them. And one painting, the painter's final piece, has never been seen by anyone other than those in the house. Of course, those coming to view the collection want to see it, and even want to buy some of the paintings.
This book is set between 2 years. The back story is in 1985, when during this viewing period, there is a typhoon, a woman falls to her death and a man went missing. The other part of story is set on the anniversary of that viewing in 1986. The "viewers" arrive to see the painting, and this time, there is an uninvited guest. Just to add to that suspense you have some nice Gothic details like the son (who owns the home and paintings) who wears a mask, his wife who is basically locked away in the house's tower, and another typhoon happens to hit.
I chose this one of Ayatsuji's books to read because I remembered I liked it a little bit better than his first one. Plus, when I tried to remember more of the story, it wasn't all coming to me. The story was just as good reading it second time. And what a twist at the end. How could I possibly have forgotten that? 😉And if you’re interested, here is my link (
June Books) for the first time I read this mystery.
That's it for me this month. I know it was another long post, so I'll keep my ending very short.
