"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." (James Bryce)

Friday, January 30, 2015

A DEMON SUMMER (G.M. Malliet)

Father Max Tudor is an Anglican priest and former MI5 agent who is in love with a pagan, Awena Owen.  They are expecting a child in a couple of months and are planning their wedding in just a few weeks.  When Max is summoned to see the bishop he worries that his superior may have gotten wind of Max's unusual nuptial plans, which he has yet to discuss with the bishop.  Instead, Max is asked to go to Monksbury Abbey, a local nunnery.  Lord Lislelivet, a benefactor of the abbey, was recently poisoned (inconveniently, but not fatally) by a fruitcake baked at the abbey and the bishop would like Max to look into the matter.  There is also the question of possibly misdirected funds and, naturally, a murder to solve.

Malliet has created a fascinating cast of characters and wonderfully communicates the ambiance of the abbey.  She manages to trick the reader at every turn with red herrings and secrets.  I have to say that while I enjoyed the mystery, I wasn't as fond of this as I am of the previous three novels in the Max Tudor series.  I think it may have been because I missed Nether Monkslip and its citizens through most of the book.  I did enjoy Max's references to Lousie Penny's novel, How the Light Gets In.  They made the story strangely more real and contemporary!  Also, don't let my lack of enthusiasm convince you to pass by this book.  Malliet is a wonderful novelist and this series is great.  I just hope that for the next one (if there is one), we can get back into life in Nether Monkslip.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP (Donna Leon)

Currently reading (on my Kindle Fire!)...

LET IT SEW (Elizabeth Lynn Casey)

If you have never visited fictional Sweet Briar, South Carolina, you need to give some serious thought to how you are spending your free time!  Casey's wonderful series is full of Southern charm and really endearing characters.  You will fall in love with Sweet Briar librarian Tori and her gang of Southern Sewing Circle ladies as soon as you meet them.

Let It Sew is the 7th in Laura Bradford's (writing as Elizabeth Lynn Casey) Southern Sewing Circle cozy mystery series.  Tori Sinclair, the local librarian, is a transplant from Chicago.  She is engaged to Milo, who teaches third grade, and two of her best friends are 60-something twins Leona and Margaret Louise, who are as different from each other in attitude and appearance as a cougar and a koala.  Also close to Tori are Rose, a sweet elderly woman, and Dixie, Tori's predecessor at the library who was forced into retirement.  With these friends and the other members of the sewing circle, Tori tackles investigations into various crimes that pop up in her quaint Southern town.

In Let It Sew, Margaret Louise is devastated to discover that she has been replaced as head of the town's Christmas Decorating Committee by Councilman Avery Jordan.  Jordan's choice as new head of the committee is a newcomer to town, his own live-in girlfriend, the insufferable Maime Wellington. The sewing circle members, in an effort to save Christmas in Sweet Briar, join the committee, but Maime, anxious to entrench herself in Jordan's heart and in the town of Sweet Briar, is determined to wreak havoc with the town's traditional Christmas activities.  In the midst of Maime's antics, Charlotte Devereaux, a talented artist and one of the sewing circle founders,  passes away.  Charlotte's husband, Parker, reportedly deserted Charlotte and their 2 sons for another woman 5 years before.  Or did he?  When Tori is shown one of Charlotte's drawings she recognizes a tree on the library grounds, a tree that is depicted in the picture as an apparent grave site!

I won't say much more or I'll end up spoiling the book for you.  It's cold outside right now, so it's a great time to spend some quality time relaxing with a cup of tea and a good book.  Try the Southern Sewing Circle mysteries.  I think you'll love them!

Monday, January 5, 2015

SUMMER OF LOVE (Katie FForde)

Katie Fforde always makes me feel happy.  I'm at that stage in life where I don't need or want to encounter the depths of despair in my reading.  Angst is fine, but I have to confess that I like a happy ending, and with Katie Fforde you always get one along with endearing characters, humor, romance, and interesting career choices.

Sian Bishop is the single mother of Rory, a rambunctious 5-year-old and the result of a brief, but  never regretted, relationship with a man who was leaving to travel the world.  After agreeing not to exchange contact information, Sian and Gus parted ways before Sian realized that she was pregnant.  With the help of her parents she raises her son and pursues her artistic career, painting wonderful furniture and murals.  When Rory is unsuccessful at school in London Sian decides, with the help of her eager but horribly boring friend Richard, to move to the country to give Rory a better life.  She loves her damp little rented cottage and her wonderful neighbor, Fiona, whose author son Angus is returning home from his travels soon to finish his book and figure out what's next in his life.  In the meantime, Richard, madly in love with Sian, would love for them to be a family.  The only problem is that Sian isn't in love with Richard.  Her life takes an unexpected turn when Angus arrives home during a dinner party at his mother's home.  Suddenly her idyllic country life is thrown into chaos.

Fforde creates characters with heart and soul.  You want them to be happy because they are, for the most part, nice decent people who are looking to succeed through hard work.  Sian is a wonderful mother and as we watch her deal with the ups and down and misunderstandings and triumphs of life we grow to love her and her spirit.  The only thing I didn't enjoy about this novel is that it ended.  I really want to know what happens to Sian, Angus, Fiona, and Rory down the road, but Fforde doesn't write sequels!  Oh well.  I'm sure that he next book will be just as engaging.  They always are!

PACK UP THE MOON (Anna McPartlin)


This is one of those novels that I picked up while cleaning off the NEW shelf in the library to make room for new acquisitions.  The premise is nothing new: a young woman loses the love of her life suddenly and tragically and has to work her way through her grief to find a new purpose in life and, perhaps, new love.  McPartlin takes an ordinary plot and makes it special by balancing very real, gritty drama with humor and friendship.  One of the professional reviewers commented that it was difficult for the reader to decide whether to pity or envy Emma, the heroine of this novel, but I disagree.  Emma obviously is to be cheered on and encouraged.  Are we surprised by an unexpected ending.  Not really.  Are we appalled at how badly a life can be upset by one bad decision or stupid misstep?  No, we are not.  What we are is carried along on this journey of Emma's, knowing full well that it could just as easily be one of us, that life is, after all, just the luck of the draw and that caring friends can make all the difference.  You'll laugh and you'll cry.  You may not remember this as the another Anna Karenina, but you will remember that you liked it and you'll be glad that you read it!  I'm going to check and see what else she has written!