Month: December 2024

The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson (Fiction)

A light, funny, and heartwarming story of a small village’s beleaguered community center and the small book club of troubled souls that transforms into an effective investigative group solving a convoluted mystery consisting of a large amount of missing money and a dead body (or two). A cranky old bat that nevertheless is quite relatable (what does that say about me, I wonder?); a gentle, older man, caring for his badly ailing, adored wife; a shy teenager who has the confidence of a peanut; and the chair of the group — a lovely woman just days away from her wedding who suddenly seems to be making a lot of memory related mistakes. Plenty of good book references — both about loving them and the life lessons that can be gleaned from them. A pretty amusing diatribe about the superiority of Miss Marple as compared to Poirot. Overall an uplifting, if somewhat predictable, read for the season.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 7th, 2025.

Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith (Literary Fiction)

I’m loving this new McCall Smith series about the Perfect Passion Company — an old fashioned matchmaking service based in Edinburgh. This is book number two. On the surface, it is a story about a variety of characters and how the matchmaker — Katie — works to find the perfect match for them. But as with all McCall Smith books, it’s teeming with hidden depth as it explores life, love, and the pursuit of happiness (liberty isn’t really an issue here).

The writing is lovely — McCall Smith never condescends and he can make the most exquisite sentence out of utter mundanity. I couldn’t exactly explain why, but he is the only male writer whose female characters I absolutely love. He explores individuals, relationships, and various social and cultural milieus with a process that seems to incorporate detailed observation, in-depth reflection, multi-faceted synthesis with an output of clear and tender explanatory prose. He has written over 40 books and still manages to include “musings” that either teach me more or brings me fresh insight. What appear to most to be light and accessible novels, are for me books of rich meaning.

In this episode, the relationships barriers explored include missed opportunities, poor timing, external expectations, and reevaluation of one’s own criteria. So many different forms of love, so many different people trying to understand their own relationship to happiness. As always, we are treated to many interesting asides on poetry, music, art, and other intellectually spicy aspects of life.

Some Quotes:

“She cherished this too, the place in which she lived and worked, and the land beyond its bounds, because love spilled over from one person, one object, to embrace so much else. Love spread.”

“This is an achingly, beautiful city, he thought, and I fall more in love with it every single day. I still love, Melbourne, of course, but the heart is large enough, has enough chambers, to allow for more than one love. Not everybody knew that, he said to himself, but he did.”

“What a strange, frustrating, mysterious thing was love. In a world in which there would never be enough of everything, in which not all desires could be met, love was rationed, just as happiness was. Some were perfectly happy with the share they were allocated; others felt they got too little And then there were some who failed to grasp a fundamental truth about the way love worked, which was that you got back roughly the amount you put in. That was so basic that you would think that everybody would understand it, But they did not, for some reason, and had to learn the lesson — if they ever learned it — the hard way.”

Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 11th, 2025.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (Fiction)

Madeline Hill and her mother have run the farm on their own for decades — ever since Mad’s beloved father left suddenly one day and was never heard from again. Then suddenly, a complete stranger shows up on her doorstep to say that they were half-siblings and that his beloved (shared) father abandoned his family in the same way before creating a new family with Mad’s mother. And! There are two more half siblings spawned in similar situations. Thus begins a road trip to gather the others and confront this missing patriarch once and for all.

An interesting premise with some of the madcappery Wilson is know for, but it kind of fell flat for me. Some decent messages about family and relationships, but I didn’t really “feel” any of it and thought it went on too long for the amount of content and / or insight contained within. I also did not particularly like the ending which didn’t provide the kind of closure I wanted. Maybe that was the point. Certainly easy to read and other experiences may vary from my own.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 13th, 2025

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman (Literary Fiction)

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 3.5/5 Characters: 5/5

A surprisingly engaging book about a set of bottom of the ladder retail workers and their hopes for more hours and some hope of upward mobility. They have a lot working against them — their hours are minimized to avoid having to pay benefits; each character faces his or her own limitations — a learning disability; a thick accent; trying to go straight when drug dealing is SO much more lucrative; false arrests; mental illness; single parenthood; transportation issues; and even lack of generational wealth. The characters have a lot of depth — none of the above is dealt with in any kind of stereotyped way.

But the book doesn’t take the easy way out — there is no blaming of corporate policies or resentment of management. Instead we get a pretty in-depth view of the situation through the eyes of different workers — each with his or her own thoughts, skills, goals, regrets, and fears. And — again through the voice of individual characters — some pretty interesting (and varied) analyses of the how things got to be the way they are.

The book description calls it “incisive and very funny” — I agree with the incisive part but although the story resisted the slide into depressing territory, I wouldn’t exactly call it funny. However, it is very well written and boasts excellent characterization, and after an initial irritation at what promised to be a stupid (IMHO) plot (but then wasn’t), I ended up enjoying it a lot.

The Edge of the Crazies by Jamie Harrison (Mystery)

I quite enjoyed this new (to me) mystery series taking place in small town Blue Deer, Montana. This is book one of what is currently a set of five books, but I believe it is a recent release of the audio book (I liked the narrator, Justin Price, a lot — had a real Montana sound to him).

The independently minded characters gave off a real Montana vibe, without straying too far into stereotype (and not terribly accurate) portrayal of the Montana resident.

Jules Clement was born and raised in Blue Deer, escaped to the East Coast for education and adventure, and then in a surprising move (even to himself) went back to Blue Deer to take up the usually straightforward position of Sheriff. Not so straightforward during this story, though. What starts as someone taking a potshot at a local screenwriter, turns into something else completely as the bodies start piling up and seem to connect in some way to a 20-year old accident.

While I would not say that many of the characters were likeable, they were all interesting and had their own kind of depth. The story was slow paced, but not overwhelmed by filler, and I never got bored (which is saying a lot). I loved the character of Jules, whose personality contained many contradictory elements. I’ll definitely be pursuing books 2-5.

Thank you to Highbridge Audio and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on November 5th, 2024.

Who Will Remember by C. S. Harris (Historical Mystery)

Number 20 in the historical mystery series featuring Sebastian St. Cyr, Lord Devlin. Throughout the series, Harris has successfully embedded each volume in an historically accurate period — this one is no exception. It is set in London in August, 1816, the year that “had no summer.” Later historians promoted the cause as a large volcano explosion that blocked the sun causing weather abnormalities, floods, and massive crop failures leading inevitably to riots, strikes, apocalyptic fears, and the potential for revolution.

In this milieu, the body of a Lord is found in an abandoned chapel, hanging upside down with legs posed as depicted on a rare set of tarot cards (Le Pendu — the Fool). From here connections are made to French assassins, the Prince of Wales, friends made during the 1808-9 British retreat across Northern Spain (Battle of Corunna), and a particular (nasty) society called the Society for the Suppression of Vice.

I always like the characters in these books — representing multiple walks of life and varied ideas of morality. I particularly like the depiction of the members of the “ton” — a term for the fashionable members of upper class English society during the Regency period. As one might expect, those characters run the gamut from utterly selfish, corrupt, and “above the law” to considerate, moral, and obsessed with a fair justice. Always fun to guess which is which upon the first “meeting.”

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 25th, 2025.