Category: Uncategorized

The latest Maisie Dobbs book (the 12th in the series) is every bit as captivating as the earlier books, after a couple of somewhat disappointing titles.  Maisie is back on her home turf, tackling a set of disturbing murders that are rooted in events from the first world war even as England declares itself at war with Germany on the eve of the second world war.  Winspear perfectly captures the mood of the time – children being evacuated, schools converted to hospitals and barracks, gas masks always at the ready, and the younger generation excited about enlisting while the older generation, still recovering from the losses of the first war, despair.  I love the way the series has progressed through history, drawing from historical events to provide the motivations for crimes and I love her characters who feel like old friends.

A perfect book. The story of a family – a real family – and the gentle unfolding of all of their lives. There are no major traumatic plot devices, just the very real and sometimes  intentional events in anyone’s life. Their characters are drawn out in great detail with particular care to elaborate on their relationships with each other.   I appreciated the lack of heavy handed messages – I could extract my own learning and make my own judgement based on my own values and perceptions.  Each character had their own, presented in their own sections.  We get to see, hear, and feel them all. Takes place in Portola Valley which was an extra bit of fun for me!

It’s so hot these days that I couldn’t handle anything that required thought so I picked up a cozy mystery from my ALA haul.  Deadly Desires at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison. Readable, ok characters, a little stupid.  It’s a little irritating that much is being made of a kind of connection to “Downton Abbey” but it’s really a tenuous connection at best.  A manor house figures not too prominently in the story and a young girl takes a position as a maid in the house in order to better prepare herself for an audition for the Downton Abbey series.  That’s it! Pleasant enough read if you like cozies.  Didn’t stress me out before bedtime 🙂

I’ve owned this blog for multiple years now and am only now managing to make an entry – always hard to get started but perhaps it will come fast and furious now that I’m going! Fresh from two days of the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in San Francisco.  My shelf freshly stocked with ARCs and new titles. Already finished the first one:  Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans.  I loved it!  Grabbed me right away with an opening scene of a ten-year-old boy in pre-WWII London worrying over his elderly godmother and guardian who was slowly losing her cognitive faculties.  The novel meanders from there – as life tends to do – exploring characters as they wander down surprising tracks, learning about themselves as they make do with what they have and the opportunities they create for themselves in their chaotic world. I hadn’t heard of Lissa Evans before – she has written books for both adults and children, some of which have been shortlisted for various prizes, but this is her first book to be published in the U.S. Thank you Harper Collins!