The Return of Ellie Black

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean follows Chelsey Calhoun, a police officer who learns that Ellie Black, a girl who had gone missing years before, has been found. What follows is a twisting plot about what happened to Ellie and how it's entwined in the past of a crumbling sea town.

Did I read this front to back on a plane ride? Yes. Did I find it interesting? Yes. Did I predict the twists? One of them, yes, one of them no. Was that good enough for me? Yes. Is this a book I'm going to remember in ten years and think of as the best book I read in 2025? I doubt it. But I'd read more from this author. 4/5 stars

Line of note:

More than anything, Chelsey wishes there was a way to know when you were experiencing the happiest moments of your life. (location 634)

Right? If only I had known how good it was when I was sixteen. And twenty-six. 

Thing I looked up:

Our substitute English teacher held the whole class captive two minutes past the final bell to finish a poem about a snowman and a moor. (location 344)

This one? What else could it be, right?

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

Another of him and his family at the rodeo—parents and all six kids in jeans and cowboy hats. (location 94)

****************

Did you know you were experiencing some of the happiest times of your life? 

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Heartwood by Amity Gaige was one of Catherine's favorite picks of the year so far on a Sarah's Bookshelves episode. I can't remember what she said that made me pull over on a dog walk to order it from the library, but I have a vivid memory of exactly where I was when I did that.

A woman hiking on the Appalachian Trail goes missing and Beverly, a Maine game warden, must organize the search for her.  We follow Valerie, the missing hiker, Bev, and a woman in a retirement home who is also interested in the case. 

While we follow the investigation, we learn a lot about Valerie, Bev, and Lena alike. We learn how they came to be the way they are and what makes them work. They each have their troubles and pasts and I liked how Gaige wove a tapestry of characterization around each of them. However, this is not universally agreed upon. Consider these back to back Goodreads reviews:

It's as if those two reviewers read two separate books! (I liked the Lena parts, personally.)

I also found the mystery of this propulsive. Would Bev find Valerie? Was it the husband? Why are those military guys acting so shady? I liked it, friends. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

And the moon. Who finds the moon comforting? A big rock with a dead man's face on it? The moon is a bystander who never intervenes. How many people have been silenced or violated underneath its helpful incandescence? (page 134-135)

My husband and I fight about this all the time. The sun is life affirming and life giving. The moon is stealing the sun's glory, as far as I'm concerned. 

The real mother, the mother that you get, you've got to love her, there's no choice. She is the mother you needed. She gave you strength, either because she loved you well or because she loved you poorly. She gave you your mission.

It's the dream mother that you have to let go of. The one you pined for, the one you thought your decency promised you. She's the one you've got to bury.

She's a mirage. She'll only break your heart. (page 273)

Um. Huh. There was a part of this book dealing with a mother on her deathbed. I found it simultaneously hard to read and somehow comforting. 

Things I looked up:

Katahdin (page 67) - the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Maine

strigiform (page 150) - owl-like

Title appearing in the book:

Sometimes, in your lap, I would press my hand against your chest so that I could feel the center of you - your heartwood, your innermost substance, like the core of a tree that keeps it standing. (page 1)

Freya, Atis, and Tim, you are my heartwood. (page 309, in the Acknowledgements)

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He's a plainspoken, unexcitable Mainer, husky in build, large in hat size. (page 16)

He must mean a hat or a helmet. (page 109)

No hat, empty hands. (page 226)

She grabs a floppy hat but brings nothing else with her. (page 233)

...does not try to hide under her hat. (page 235)

At last, she takes off the hat and fans herself with it. (page 236)

She puts her hat back on. (page 236)

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Jenny mentioned Night Film by Marisha Pessl on her blog and I was immediately intrigued. Mixed media? Disgraced journalist? Mystery? I'm in!

What a delightful book. A disgraced journalist starts investigating a suicide. Along the way, he buddies up with two young people and they solve puzzles and go on adventures. Most of the book is a traditional narrative, but there are pages that are recreations of websites, photos, and other documents. I loved that mixed media format and it made every page exciting to turn.

There are some legitimate criticisms of this book. The characters are super flat and don't develop at all, so if you're someone who likes character-driven books, this is not for you. The author's use of italics is confusing and erratic and doesn't make a lot of sense. 

But, oh, what a joy. I was so immersed in this that I stayed up too late reading it. I wanted to escape from the realities of *waves hands at the world* and this book accomplished it. Sure, it was silly and there are random magical/mystical elements that I could have done without, but I was all in on this. 5/5 stars

(Maybe I am becoming an easy grader in my current state. I don't care. I have really thought all the books I've read recently have been fabulous.)

Lines of note:

I'd never heard of Piano Row. It was a splinter of Fifty-eighth Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, where delicate piano stores had tucked themselves between hulking sixties apartment buildings like a few sparrows living among hippos. (page 194) - Awww...you guys, Piano Row was demolished in 2016. Sad news. 

"It sounds like something out of a night film." (page 384) - Title spotting!

Things I looked up:

Teboni (page 287) - an ancient Japanese form of tattooing that often yields large, colorful, and meaningful tattoos

Horimono (page 287) - another type of Japanese tattooing

Irezumi (page 287) - Japanese word for tattoo, is used in English to refer to a distinctive style of Japanese tattooing

Iruma Air Base (page 294) - Air Base is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force base located in the city of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, north of western Tokyo, Japan

Best Director at the 1980 Oscars (page 308) - Robert Benton won for Kramer vs. Kramer

Tyrone Power (page 374) - an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. Had amazing eyebrows.

Tarantino's trunk shot (page 529) - Especially in Tarantino's early films,  at a critical moment in the film, Tarantino starts a shot in pure darkness before revealing our main characters looking down on us as they open a trunk. It should not surprise anyone to learn I've never watched a single Tarantino movie.

first step of a twelve-step program (page 552) - We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. What a blessing it is that I do not know the twelve steps.

Murad cigarettes (page 553) - It was a brand of cigarettes made of pure Turkish tobacco

Hat mentions (why hats?):

...Marlowe reclining poolside surrounded by palm trees, a wide-brimmed black hat on her head...(page 360)

Her hair was longer than I remembered, secured in a ponytail under a black velvet hat. (page 562)

"Drew, you left your hat on the prop table." (page 564)

Cocaine Blues (Phryne Fisher #1) by Kerry Greenwood

Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood was suggested for our book club as a lighter read and boy do we all need lighter reads right now. 

Right after World War I, Phryne, a young heiress, is invited to Australia to figure out what's going on with a young woman whose parents are concerned about her. Along the way, she solves several mysteries, including who is behind the cocaine ring that is causing so much damage in Melbourne. 

Look, it was not my jam. It was stiff and yet there was a lot of promiscuous sex and rampant drug use. It was also under 200 pages, so I was able to finish it without too many issues, but I will not be delving back into this series. 

Split verdict at book club. Two of us were not enamored with it and three people were obsessed. It's not a book for everyone, but it is for some. 2.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

He was wearing a new cigarette. (page 13)

What does this even mean? The verb wearing seems wrong to me. 

She was forty-five if a day...(page 9) 

AND 

For all her age and bulk, Dr. MacMillan was as fit as a bull. (page 41)

I was so insulted on Dr. MacMillan's behalf. Forty-five! Might as well start digging her grave. 

Things I looked up:

halate (page 12) - a salt of chloric, bromic, or iodic acid

threaded a fillet through the shining strands (page 15) - a ribbon or narrow strip of material used especially as a headband

Erté (page 50) - Romain de Tirtoff, known by the pseudonym Erté, was a Russian-born French artist and designer. He worked in several fields, including fashion, jewelry, graphic arts, costume, set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior décor.

Wilfred Owen (page 53) - an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War.

blistered door (page 139) - “Blistering” is the formation of “bubbles” in the exterior decorative paint film, resulting from localized loss of adhesion and subsequent lifting of the existing paint film from the underlying surface

viridian green (page 146) - a blue-green pigment

Gallipoli (page 147) - peninsula in Turkey, site of a WWI battle that was a defining moment in the history of both Australia and New Zealand and also lead to the formation of modern-day Turkey 

cochineal (page 155) - a scale insect from which the natural dye carmine is derived

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

She cut a distractingly fashionable figure in pale straw-coloured cotton and a straw hat...(page 13)

She ascertained that the Block Arcade was still open, it being Saturday, and returned to her room to change into trousers and a silk pullover, stout shoes, and a soft felt hat. (page 15)

She was innocent of gloves, hat or coat and had scuffed house-slippers on her feet. (page 20-21)

...perfectly dressed as to coat and shirt and hat...(page 23)

...dark hat and suit...(page 26)

"We couldn't see his hair because he had his hat on..." (page 28)

She sighted the flat cane hats of the Chinese working among the winter-cabbage and broccoli. (page 116)

Bert took off his hat, wiped his forehead, and replaced it. (page 116)

a dreadful cloche hat (page 126)

"...Bash that appalling hat in and out." (page 126)

"..I've scuffed the shoes and the hat will never be the same again," she added. (page 131)

...dressed in a respectable dark velvet gown and hat...(page 135)

Dot did as she was bid and arrayed Phryne in the damaged dress, the carefully holed stockings, the scuffed shoes and the battered hat. (page 143)

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

I was really on the edge of my seat about The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. Birchie hated it, Stephany, Sarah, and Lisa loved it, and I was convinced I'd never get a copy because I was #200 or something like that on the waitlist. Anyway, it came in! How did it go?

It was so good! I found the first 80 pages or so really confusing with the multiple characters and multiple timelines. I really liked the way the author had the timeline at the beginning of the chapter, though, so you could tell who was the narrator for that chapter and where you were in the story. I found the visual super helpful and think I would have lost my mind if it had been an audiobook. 

What we have here is a mystery. A girl goes missing from a summer camp, a place where her brother had gone missing some years earlier. What's going on? We follow several different characters from the missing girl's bunkmate to the police officer to the mother of the missing children. 

I'm not sure what makes this book so riveting, but I just kept wanting to turn the pages. It felt like every chapter was a mini-cliffhanger and I needed to know how it would be resolved. The writing was good, but not great. I didn't write down any lines of note, for example. There were still loose ends at the end of the book, but that didn't stop me from finding the ending satisfying. I didn't guess the ending at all and was surprised by it, so that's another point in the book's favor. It was really a solid book for me to read while I was in bed for a day when I wasn't feeling well. 

4.5/5 stars

Hat mentions (why hats?):

He wore his hat indoors. (page 83)

Delphine had put on a hat that Alice had never seen before...(page 84)

"Vic?" she said, and he turned, embarrassed, his fisherman's hat in his hands. (page 105)

It was then that Carl remembered his hat, a floppy felt thing his wife had given him several birthdays ago. (page 118)

Louise, in her park and hat, felt like a friendly snowman. (page 253)

...inside she finds several articles of androgynous clothing and a neat row of fishing hats. (page 381)

The women wear small hats. (page 423)

Wearing a fishing hat with a floppy brim...(page 423)

The Face of a Stranger (William Monk #1) by Anne Perry

The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry is the first in her very successful 24-book series William Monk. It's set in Victorian London and police detective William Monk is involved in a carriage accident that leaves him without a memory of who he is. He's assigned to the murder of Joscelin Grey, a Crimean war hero when he gets out of the hospital. We learn more and more about Monk as he tries to unravel what happened to Grey, as well as what happened to him the night of his accident. 

Look, this book is a snooze. I had it for the entire 21-days of my Libby loan because I'd read three paragraphs and fall asleep. It was GREAT as a soporific and if you're having trouble sleeping, might I recommend this book to you?  It was only 345 pages long, but if you had asked me, I would have said it was around 700, so it was that sort of thing. 

I read this book, though, because one of the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompts this year is a book written by an incarcerated or formerly incarcerated person and have any of you heard of Anne Perry? She was a super successful author, who wrote the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series of books, as well as this William Monk series of historical detective fiction.

BUT! When she was sixteen, she helped murder the mother of her best friend in New Zealand. After serving five years for murder, she was released and moved back to the UK where she was originally from and changed her name. It was not widely known that Anne Perry was Juliet Hume the murderer until a 1994 movie came out about the murder. She continued to be a successful author of (imo really boring) murder mysteries. 

What a story. 

2/5 stars

Lines of note:

...he knew nothing. It was a total and paralyzing disadvantage. He did not even know who loved or hated him, whom he had wronged, or helped. (page 6) 

It's kind of crazy to think about what it would be like if you woke up one day and literally had no memory of who you were, what you looked like, or anything. I can't really engage in this type of hypothetical thinking.

It is one of the finest things in life to be truly useful...(page 174)

I feel this deeply in my soul.

...he had ever known the purpose of the war in the Crimea he had forgotten it now. (page 201)

In light of what's going on in Ukraine right now, this seems very on the nose. 

“Sorrows do not wait for one another.” (page 218)

When it rains, it pours, right?

Stuff I looked up:

Monk settled himself into a vacant seat opposite a large woman in black bombazine with a fur tippet around her neck (in spite of the season) and a black hat on at a fierce angle. (page 73) - Bombazine is a type of fabric and a tippet is a piece of clothing worn over the shoulders in the shape of a scarf or cape. 

plain stuff dress (page 80) - In Victorian dressmaking terminology, stuff was used as a generic term for woven fabrics, with cloth generally reserved for woollens (as opposed to worsteds).

redan (page 147) - an arrow-shaped embankment forming part of a fortification

Hat mentions:

He was a big man, or he appeared so in the caped coat and top hat of Peel’s Metropolitan Police Force. (page 5)

Runcorn had left for him his Peeler’s coat and tall hat, carefully dusted off and mended after the accident.

The cabby hesitated, then took one of the sixpences and the halfpenny, tipped his hat and slapped the reins across his horse’s rump, leaving Monk standing on the pavement. (page 10)

“Usual things you might expect to see, stand for coats and things, and hats, rather a nice stand for sticks, umbrellas and so forth, box for boots, a small table for calling cards, nothing else." (page 34)

"A natural night for anyone to ’ave ’is coat turned up an’ ’is ’at drawn down." (page 55)

"Same coat, and ’at, same size, same ’eight. Weren’t no one else like that lives ’ere.” (page 55) 

Runcorn turned from the hat stand and smiled fully at him, his eyes bright. (page 119)

Would hats be larger or smaller? (page 149)

Rosamond spoke with the eldest girl, and took the wide pink ribbon off her own hat and gave it to her, tying it around the child’s hair to her shy delight. (page 175)

...but Monk was outside and going down the stairs for his hat and coat. (page 287)

...in a swirl of agitation, swinging her skirts around as she swept into the hallway and deposited a basket full of linen on the settle at the bottom of the stairs and took off her hat. (page 291)

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

 

All The Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker came on my radar because it was one of Catherine's picks in the Summer Preview episode of Sarah's Bookshelves podcast. 

A young boy saves a girl from being kidnapped and is kidnapped himself. What follows is a decades-long tale of the reverberating effects of that one incident.

Here is where I tell you that I'm a terrible reader. I found myself constantly frustrated by Whitaker's purposefully obtuse writing. It was clear he knew what he was doing, but it was also clear that the style was not for me. I can see why this style of writing would appeal to others and there were some beautiful moments, but I also felt a bit like I was being misled in a mean way. It also felt like sort of reading a very boring textbook that only talked about criminals and disasters in which a lot of people died. 

Eh. 4/5 stars because I'm pretty sure I should have liked this more than I did.

Lines of note:

"When it comes to marriage, love is merely a visitor over a lifetime. Respect and kindness, they are the true foundations." (page 272)

I mean, this is a weird thing to say, isn't it? If you treat someone with respect and kindness, won't love come along? 

He took her to the small public library, surprised that such a reader had not been before.

"So other people have touched these, maybe even read them on the toilet, and then you just go ahead and take them home?" she said. (page 406)

I am not joking when I tell you that this is the reason my SIL doesn't use the library. I do not know how to react to people like this.

"I feel like I'm acting. When I'm being a father, when I'm being a friend. When I make something to eat or take a shower. I'm playing a part in a story deep down you know cannot end well." (page 427)

Ha ha ha. I feel like I'm acting like I'm some sort of adult all the time. How did I get to be in charge of shit?

"Why do some people fall so short?"

"It depends what you measure against." (page 482)

I like this perspective!!

Things I looked up: 

TRAP laws (page 50) - Targeted restrictions on abortion providers. These laws are designed to shut down abortion providers through costly and medically unnecessary requirements. I'd never seen or heard this acronym before. 

Super Outbreak of 1974 (page 56) - From April 3–4, 1974, there were 148 tornadoes confirmed in 13 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario. It was the second-largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, just behind the 2011 Super Outbreak. It was also the most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded, with 30 violent (F4 or F5 rated) tornadoes confirmed. 

Yuba City bus disaster (page 64) - This occurred on May 21, 1976, in Martinez, California. A chartered school bus transporting 52 passengers on an elevated offramp left the roadway, landing on its roof. Of the 52 passengers (not including the driver), 28 students and an adult adviser were killed in the crash.

The Memphis Girl by Addison Lafarge - A painting mentioned in the book. I think maybe it's a fictional painting?

paifang (page 277) - Also known as Pailou, meaning archway in English, is a traditional Chinese gateway with a memorial or decorative nature. 

...massacre in 1933, four lawmen dead at the hands of Adam Richetti and Charles Floyd as Frank Nash was being transferred back to Leavenworth prison. (page 292) - Kansas City Massacre in 1933. Read more about it here. 

...moved on to Ollie Embry...(page 292) - A criminal who was on FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives list, but only for twelve days before he was arrested. He was wanted for the robbery of the Monroe national bank in Columbia, Illinois.

mammatus clouds (page 376) - a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud

Big Bayou Canot Bridge (page 388) - On September 22, 1993, an Amtrak Sunset Limited passenger train derailed on the CSX Transportation Big Bayou Canot Bridge near Mobile, Alabama, United States. Forty-seven people were killed and 103 more were injured. To date, it is the deadliest train wreck in both Amtrak's history and Alabama's railway history.

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

22 hats!! That seems like a lot for a contemporary book. Some of my favorites are:

...her grandmother wore a navy dress with a gorse flower hat, like she could not decide whether to celebrate or mourn. (page 281)

...trussed between layers of blankets and a pink woolen hat. (page 391)

Sammy buried his hands deep in the pockets of his velvet blazer and straightened his rabbit felt hat. (page 481)

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Mossa & Pleiti #2) by Malka Older

Mossa & Pleiti
The Mimicking of Known Successes

Mossa and Pleiti are back! This time, a lot of people are missing from the university where Pleiti works and Mossa needs her help to figure out what's going on. A mystery ensues! Travel around Jupiter and to Io ensues! Woot woot!

Look, this is a lovely series so far. I am enjoying the developing relationship between these two. I feel like the mysteries strike the right balance of important, but not too outrageous. The setting is simply delightful. Who's not interested in what the academic factions will be once humans destroy the Earth and are forced on to other galactic objects?  

Thumbs up. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

It was the sort of lecture I liked: a topic that I knew enough about to follow easily, but little enough to feel like I was learning. (page 5) 

Yes!! It's not repeating something I already know, but not so far above my head that I don't understand what's going on. This is great observational writing.

I found myself humming under my breath - the second aria of Murderbot. (page 133)

Is this an homage to Martha Wells? It has to be, right? There's not a real opera about a Murderbot? I LOVE the cross-pollination of women in science fiction!!

It wasn't until the ceremony was well under way that I recognized that it was no kind of sacrifice to her: immune to the undercurrents of guilt, resentment, and injustice that so perturbed me, she was observing the social rite with a bass note of fascination. (page 144)

Ha ha. Anyone else go to church ceremonies with a bit of a feeling like you an anthropologist studying a foreign culture?

Things I had to look up:

mutatis mutandis (page 2-3) - (used when comparing two or more cases or situations) making necessary alterations while not affecting the main point at issue

herpentine (page 9) - I don't know, everyone. It keeps telling me to look up "serpentine," but I listen to Guns 'n' Roses and know that word. The context is: (describing a building) metal walls beaten into the textured, herpentine patterns popular during the era when much of the university's physical plant was built. 

fallecimiento (page 45) - death

copine (page 78) - girlfriend

bathetic (page 115) - producing an unintentional affect of anticlimax 

acurrucada (page 123) - curled up like a cat or dog

namkaraned (page 133) - to name (seriously, I couldn't figure this out?)

Hat mentions:

None. This is the second book with a hat on the cover and no mentions in the book. I am starting to feel like Older is trolling me.

*******************

What does herpentine mean? Do you think Older is referencing Martha Wells? What do you think a Murderbot aria would be like? Why is Older trolling me with the hats on the covers of this series?

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

Birchie's enthusiasm for Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent was infectious and I was so excited when it came in to the library pretty quickly. 

Within the first couple of chapters, you're going to know if this book is for you. This recap has minor spoilers for the first chapter. Sally Diamond took her father literally when he told her to put him in the trash when he died and now she's in the center of a furor. There are things that come to light that Sally had no real say in, but do directly impact her life. And thus a mystery begins to unravel.

There are some challenging themes and scenes in this book (violence against women and children, including sexual, racism, ableism), so I do not think this book is for everyone. But. I thought it was readable and I didn't guess any of the twists! I think I have to come clean with you and admit that I am not great at figuring out twists in most circumstances, so maybe that's not the best selling point. I just thought the plot was riveting and well done. 

I also would like to say that while Sally does make some unusual decisions and she's portrayed as "strange" (sort of like Eleanor in Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, only Sally isn't an alcoholic jerk, merely immature and unaware of social cues), I found myself nodding in agreement with most things Sally does and says. There was something about the way everyone reacted to Sally that sort of upset me and I think I'm just taking it personally because I am  somewhat a Sally. Fine. I'm strange. I'll own it. I don't think it was strange that she wore a red beret to a funeral, I don't think it's strange that she took her father's "jokes" as literal, and I don't think it's strange that Sally brings to earplugs to loud places, especially concerts and movie theaters.  But, you know. Go ahead and call her strange if you want to.

I liked this a lot. I'm snagging half a star because I felt personally attacked and some of the scenes were a bit too graphic for the likes of me, but if you like a twisty mystery with an unusual main character, this might work for you. 4.5/5 stars

Hat mentions (why hats?):

I counted 16 hat mentions, a lot of them having to do with winter gear (hat and gloves, hats with earflaps, etc.) and so many having to do with Sally's fashion choices. 

Tall and strong in a black coat with a jaunty red hat, at Thomas Diamond's funeral. (page 269) - I like a good use of the word jaunty. 

The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo's Calling
The Silkworm
Career of Evil
Lethal White
Troubled Blood

The Ink Black Heart

The Running Grave is the seventh book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym of JK Rowling. I have really liked these books and thought The Ink Black Heart was a real tour de force.

So, the last book I read was Grave Mercy, so I have read TWO books in a row with the word "Grave" in the title and that seems like a weird coincidence. Will the next book I read also have it in the title? (No, no it will not.)

In this book, Strike and Robin are hired to investigate the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC), which is essentially a cult. Robin goes undercover, as she has been begging for in the last six books. But will Strike and Robin be able to get evidence that the UHC has committed crimes? 

The Good: I'm so glad that Strike is finally taking care of himself and losing weight and trying to get his shit together. Yes, sometimes he eats terribly, but don't we all? He should stop drinking, but you all know that I think there's altogether too much drinking in this world, so I'll just step back from that conversation. I really liked the last part of the book, once Robin has escaped from the compound, and all the repercussions of their activities come crumbling down upon them.

The Bad: The first six hundred pages of this book are a real slog. I thought the very beginning pages, which were correspondence between a father and his son in the cult, were so so so good. And as soon as the epistolary part of the book ended, it was just back to the regular sort of boring stuff around Strike and Robin's agency. Trouble finding contractors, each of them jealous about who the other is dating (*huge sigh*), and so many scenes of Strike thinking and vaping. 

Once Robin infiltrates the cult, it got WORSE. We get one sort of exciting scene when Robin is trying to make it to the drop off for her weekly letter to the crew, but then it's just endless scene of Robin doing chores and trying to eavesdrop. I found myself just snoozing away half the time. There were things that could have been exciting, but the way it was written just made it all seem sort of mundane. 

The Ugly: This book needs an editor. For real. I know JKR has a lot of sway and maybe they just let her do whatever she wants, but this book is just based on exposition dump after exposition dump (let's meet at the office/bar/café to tell each other what we found) and a lot of action happens off page so that we can have Robin telling Strike about it instead of actually reading it happening and then assuming somehow Strike finds out. 

I think this is the worst book in the series, outside of maaaybe the first book. I will read more because I have thought some of these books were brilliant, but I thought this was a disappointing read. I expected more. 3/5 stars

Lines of note:

"What's she like?

"Very polished and chirpy. Perfect teeth - she looks American." (page 125)

Burn, Americans, burn. (Also, my teeth are hardly perfect. Perhaps I look British?)

Viscount Jago Ross, Charlotte's ex-husband, looking as ever like a dissolute arctic fox...(page 512)

I always like to note animal metaphors to describe people. 

"Hearty blondes in pearls all blur into one to me. Dunno how their husbands tell them apart."

"Pheromones?" suggested Robin.

"Maybe. Or some kind of special call. Like penguins." (page 814)

There were glimpses of occasional humor in this book, but, like in this example, that humor often struck me as rather unkind. 

Hat mentions (for more on why I keep track of hats, see here):

Robin could see a couple of teenagers in bee-keeping hats and gloves, tending to the hives. (page 212)

I always thought bee-keeping sounded romantic and we do eat A LOT of honey, but it's gear-intensive, isn't it?

From what Strike could see through the thick black veil on her hat, her once-beautiful features had been severely distorted by what looked like overuse of cosmetic fillers. (page 513)

I would love to talk with someone about JKR's really cruel descriptions of women, particularly from Strike's POV. I get that Robin is perfection to Strike, but he's so mean when he describes women and it is unsettling and I've started to disklike spending time with someone who can't see beyond the one type of person he enjoys. 

All showed different angels of the same woman, who was wearing a beanie hat and baggy jeans, and standing on the corner of Denmark Street nearest the office. (page 514)

Another criticism here was that the word hat didn't actually appear in this book all that often, but here it came up TWICE in TWO PAGES.  

...perhaps Ed would make it a hat trick before she left the house...(page 757)

This is a reference to casual violence against women in this book. I don't know. I found JKR's writing to be terribly off putting in this book. 

The Mimicking of Known Successes (Mossa & Pleiti #1) by Malka Older

CCR sold me on The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older by describing it as a mash of genres: science fiction and mystery. There's also a touch of sapphic romance, if that's your jam, and let's be honest, it very much is my jam. All three of those things appeal, so I was down for this book.

Basically, people have screwed up Earth, so they live on Jupiter. That's the sci-fi part. A dude goes missing on a remote colony and Mossa, an Investigator, has to figure out what happened to him. That's the mystery. Mossa goes to Pleiti, a former flame, to help her out. That's the romance. 

It's good. It's short (less than 200 pages!). It's an interesting world and an interesting relationship. This is a completely satisfying standalone novel, although I heard there's a sequel that's pretty good. My library doesn't have the sequel, so I guess I'll have to remain in the dark on that one.  If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, you'll like this book. 4/5 stars

Lines of note:

...within the cluster dedicated to experimental agriculture and animal husbandry. (page 35)

Not a line of note to anyone else, but I refer to "animal husbandry" whenever we're doing something to the cat or dog that they don't want us to do (cut their nails, brush their teeth, etc.), but that must be done for health or safety reasons. Sometimes I also use it as an excuse to do something they don't want to do, but I do, even if it's just for my own personal pleasure, particularly picking the cat up. She doesn't LOVE to be picked up, but I'll say I'm doing it to train her to be used to me picking her up in case there's an emergency and I need to. This is partly true, but mostly I just want to cuddle with her.

...dressed in a fire-blue coat I instantly coveted. (page 36)

Haven't we all been there?

...being of utility was more than I had expected, and yet one still does not want to be used. Of use, but not used. (page 93)

Lovely distinction.

Minor mystery:

"Ah yes. I study the British Isles, in the mid-twentieth century. At the moment I'm working on a very useful book about rabbits and their adventures. There's a wealth of descriptions of the flora and fauna in a highly circumscribed, clearly identified area. Truly amazing stuff, most astoundingly useful for us. And most incredibly, this book - a storybook, note, perhaps even intended for children - has pages and pages of writing mentioning, oh, different flowers, and tiny beasts, and the author assumes that every organism he mentions is familiar to the readers. He barely describes any of it, because everyone he can imagine reading it already knows." (page 72-73)

I immediately thought of Watership Down. It was written by a man named Richard Adams, published in 1972 and it's set in Hampshire in southern England. My husband suggested The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but it was written by a woman (note the pronoun 'he' in the above passage) named Beatrix Potter and was first published in 1902, which is not mid-twentieth century at all. Any thoughts on this minor mystery?

Things I looked up:

"its details of salvage and bricolage" (page 12): (in art or literature) construction or creation from a diverse range of available things

"tiny cubical qibla astrolabe" (page 12): from Arabic 'qiblah,' the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer

"I was only an unimportant myrmidon among thousands..." (page 153): a follower or subordinate of a powerful person, typically one who is unscrupulous or carries out orders unquestioningly

Hat mentions:

None, although one of the characters is wearing a hat on the cover. 

All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by William Landay

 

All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by William Landay is a family drama.  We follow the Larkin family as the mother, Jane, goes missing. Her husband, Dan, a successful defense attorney, becomes the prime suspect, but no body is found and years go by. Her three children - Alex, Jeff, and Miranda - are left to grow up with no closure about their mother's disappearance and with suspicions about their own father who must continue to raise them. Their mother's sister Kate tries to fill the void left by Jane, but as time goes by, it gets harder and harder for this family to operate with its veils of secrecy and silence.

The book is told through four different points of view. The first is a schoolmate of Jeff's, decades later, who is a writer who decides that the might write about this case; the second is the deceased Jane's perspective; then we hear from Jeff; and the last few chapters are told from an aged Dan's point of view as he slowly declines into dementia. 

I was absolutely riveted by this book and found it impossible to put down. The writing was sharp and crisp and the ambiguity of what happened to Jane was so well done. I changed my mind about it several times before coming to my own conclusion, although I am not certain if I would hold to my opinion if I were on a jury. The family drama and splits seemed so real to me, as if I were reading a true crime book instead of a fictional account.  It was absolutely engrossing and fascinating, although it was, of course, full of challenging themes (sexual assault, harassment, and murder are all prominent in this book, so beware).  

4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

It is one thing to fail, as we all do, and another thing to live with that failure year after year, to carry it around in your pocket and worry it with your fingers. (page 46)

Can a get a big hell yeah from my perseverators? 

Every family is odd, but every family seems normal to a young child born into it, for a while at least. (page 66)

You do not know what's accepted as "normal" until you leave your own home. It's strange to think about what is standard in one household and how strange it would be in another with a different culture and makeup. You think the questions of whether or not to wear shoes in the house or how we do laundry have a variety of answers, just imagine the vast differences in things like cultural celebrations, religion, and how much talk of Congressional politics gets discussed at the table.

Along the way, I pass my old grammar school and playground, the houses of old friends, a meandering tour of my childhood. It is all subtly changed, unfamiliar, dissociating, unsettling - weird. (page 185)

If you move away from the place you grew up and then you return, it's as if someone has taken your memories and put them into a snowglobe and shook them up. Things are sort of there, of course, but it's not quite right. I love hearing authors try to describe this feeling. 

Word I looked up:

Tristesse (page 208) - a state of melancholy sadness (This is not the romantic tristesse you might imagine from movies.)

The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club #1) by Richard Osman

 

The Thursday Murder Club is Richard Osman's debut novel. The British funnyman who I know from his stints as a guest on my beloved Taskmaster (new season starting March 30!!) and as a host on the game show Pointless, has written a handful of non-fiction books, but this is the first in a mystery series set in a retirement community. 

This has been quite well received with its focus on witty octogenarians. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Joyce are trying to figure out who killed one person when suddenly there are multiple crimes to be solved. We are introduced to the Thursday Murder Club as they examine a cold case, but soon we learn that things are not as quiet in this community as we thought.

I wanted to love this book. There are moments of levity and I appreciate the representation of elderly people and their challenges. But I thought it was just okay. The mysteries weren't particularly interesting, although I did like the way the characters developed throughout the book. It looks like the reviews for further books in this series get better and better, so maybe I'll read the next book, although I'm not rushing out to order the next one from the library immediately. 

3.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

I read that if mankind doesn't stop eating meat, there will be mass starvation by 2050. With respect, I am nearly eighty, and this won't be my problem, but I do hope they sort it out. (page 50)

SIX PAGES LATER

He had once read a headline about Diet Coke that was so worrying he had chosen not to read the article. (page 56)

I just felt like this "just read something" twice in very close proximity was kind of lazy writing.

Donna has always been headstrong, always acted quickly and decisively. Which is a fine quality when you are right, but a liability when you are wrong. It's great to be the fastest runner, but now when you're running in the wrong direction. (page 125)

I can't even imagine being the kind of person who acts decisively. What a way to live.

She has a meeting down this way. Something to do with "optimization." If I think back to that girl who would eat her fish fingers and potato waffles but scream blue murder about eating her peas, I didn't imagine she would ever be having meetings about optimization, what it is. (page 125)

Ha! Sometimes I hear people talking about their jobs and I just wonder how come I never learned any specialized jargon.

"Some people love their children more than they love their partner," says Ibrahim, "and some people love their partner more than their children. And no one can admit to either thing." (page 266-267)

Parenthood is impossible, isn't it?

"You know when you look into someone's eyes for the first time and the whole world breaks apart? And you just thinking, 'Of course, of course, this is what I've been waiting for all this time'?" 

Love at first sight in a murder mystery book! I wasn't expecting that. 

Things I looked up:

Mark Duggan (page 11)

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz

Birchie was all about The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz in November and I joined the bandwagon and requested it from my library immediately. Lutz wrote The Spellman Files and a bunch of other books that made me chortle a lot, so I had very high hopes for this one.

Owen and Luna have been good friends since college. Like, really good friends. No, they're not dating or being physically intimate, but it's clear that they are a pair and are loyal to each other above all else. Even when they get married, their spouses are sort of on the outside looking in. This is a dual timeline dealio and we go from current time when Owen's wife is murdered to Owen and Luna in college when one of their classmates is killed.  Why are people always dying around these two?

Look, my friends. This book was so funny. I don't know why, but Lutz's writing really resonates with me and there's something on every page that makes me giggle. There are some Goodreads reviews that are critical of this book for focusing on the friendship between Owen and Luna and call it unrealistic and that just gets my goat. It's perfectly reasonable and plausible for men and women to have friendships that don't veer into sexual attraction. It's even plausible for those to be close friendships! I find the relationship between the two of them to be incredibly interesting and fascinating and would love to read more about them. 

This is loosely a mystery/thriller book in which Lutz wants us to be invested in who killed Owen's wife, but let's be real. The mystery wasn't particularly interesting, but what was interesting was how the death of this woman impacted Luna's relationships, especially with Owen. Who does she really trust? Who does she turn to in times of grief and sadness?  

So many little things I love:

1) Sam, Luna's husband, having the same name as Sam the Dog.

2) The terrible scene when Luna goes to visit her mom on Christmas. I will be thinking about that scene for a long time.

3) How Owen is constantly in a bathrobe. (Paul Sinha on Taskmaster vibes.)

4) The realistic portrayal of how someone with epilepsy deals with their condition.

5) The offhand mention to Kant. 

Tangent you can skip because it has nothing to do with this book:

(There is an inside joke between me and my husband and it's a long story and I'm not sure if it's going to make good reading or if it even has a good payoff for a reader who is not me, but the Kant reference is nowhere else on my blog, so here it goes. In grad school, everyone in our cohort had to take an intro class called Scope and Methods and we talked about all the subfields, even though we were generally only going to be doing further studies in two of the subfields. On weeks when the class covered your subfields, you were generally rolling your eyes because the assigned texts were pretty foundational. However, on weeks that weren't on your subfield, you might be lost because you probably hadn't even taken any undergrad classes in these topics, let along grad classes.

Anyway.

I felt really overwhelmed by the international relations and theory weeks and pored over the texts as if I was going to be interrogated by the FBI over their contents.  After the class we went over the theory texts, I was talking to a theorist about the reading in a bar - I was drinking Sprite, he was drinking beer - and I was honestly really confused about something and at one point I reached into my bag, pulled out the reading, and said, "Kant says blah, blah, blah" and the half-drunk theorist* looked at me dead in the eye and said: "Kant is a tool."

And that's the "joke." Kant is a tool because MN** said so twenty years ago. Whenever one us is wrong, but we refuse to give in and admit it, we just end the conversation by saying that Kant is a tool.)

Minor beef that came up repeatedly in this book:

There are a number of historical anachronisms in this book. Lutz uses the word "square" as in "...Luna appeared normal, reliable, and even a bit square" (page 3 - 2002 timeline) and "I can't decide if you're genuinely square or a closet perv" (page 130 - 2019 timeline) and I will argue that no one has used the word square to mean boring since the 1950s, certainly not unironically. Weird word choice, Lutz.

There's also a bit about Owen finishing a semester remotely in 2004, which was just not a thing. Very strange.  

Lines of note:

"Has anyone every told you that you have the social graces of a mobster?" (page 4)

Ha ha ha. Do mobsters have bad manner? 

Luna thought about it, sighing, exhausted by her own neuroses. "I've got a lot of things, don't I?"
"You do," Owen said. "It's so awesome." (page 34)

Don't we all have things? I love this exchange and how it really shows that what might be a quirk about yourself that you don't really like someone else can find charming and endearing. Like my husband's inability to remember where he put any paperwork anywhere. Bless him.

Sam [the human, not the dog] often offended people. He could never quite figure out what he was doing wrong. (page 191)

This is my entire life. I'm forever apologizing for things without being entirely sure why what I said was offensive. This is one of my things that my husband deals with. 

Receiving something in the mail was such a thrill, he finally understood why Luna continued to use that form of communication. (page 248)

Yes! Getting fun mail is the absolute best.

Over a dinner of pasta Puttanesca, Owen watched Luna pick sardines from her plate and casually toss them onto Griff's dish. Griff, with the same ease of familiarity, plucked olives from his dish and stacked them into a pile on Luna's salad plate. It was like watching them kiss, Owen thought. (page 291)

Nice observational writing about what it's like to be in the presence of a long-standing couple.

Their conflict was based on two different worldviews.
Owen's: Let's say Mom did kill Dad. It sucks, but what are we gonna do about it? Turn her in? Dad was about to die anyway. And maybe she didn't want him to suffer.
Griff's: WTF? If Mom killed Dad, that's not okay. I'm not suggesting we call 911 and have her taken away in cuffs, but we should, at the very least, get to the bottom of it and make sure she knows that offing people isn't okay. (page 309)

Discussions in our household about assisted suicide and euthanasia often come down to this very same argument. It was interesting to see it written out so bluntly.

[Someone was in the hospital.]
"What year is it?"
"It's 2019."
"Who is the president?"
"No."
"I'll accept that answer..." (page 323)

Apparently, some variation of this conversation happened when Dr. BB broke his collarbone and he was in the ambulance. 

4.5/5 stars for this one

*Yes, my husband is a theorist. No, he was not the person I was talking to that day.

**I just reread my 45-word description of this man and I was right. He couldn't handle the politics of academia and he has a job in the non-profit sector now. He's a dear, dear man, though, and his wife and children are lucky to have him.

The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo's Calling
The Silkworm
Career of Evil
Lethal White
Troubled Blood

The Ink Black Heart is the sixth book in the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels by Robert Galbraith, JK Rowling's pseudonym. I have wailed and gnashed my teeth about Rowling as a person, but as a creator, I like her and her writing and this series has been solid. (I am so troubled by whether or not I am being a big giant hypocrite by reading these books, but here we are.)

Look. This book. 

It's so good. 

I mean, it's definitely parallel to Rowling's own life. I mean, a female content creator is harassed online and accused of being racist, ablest, and transphobic and it culminates in her death.  I mean, there was a point when I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get through this (SO ON THE NOSE!), but then it was just so mesmerizing. The book has many chapters that are just conversations that people are having through online chat and chapters about Strike and Robin and their sleuthing and I just really enjoyed reading it and trying to solve the mystery.

But. I'm over the Strike/Robin will they or won't they. They're aren't teenagers and I find their inability to communicate about their relationship to be downright tired and boring. Also, this book is 1012 pages and it's quite a doorstop.  Ha! If you're not into long books, maybe this one won't be for you.

Okay, and this is so nitpicky. The font used in this book has quotation marks with only one apostrophe, as in:

'OK," said Robin coolly moving off. 'That stuff on the dashboard's for you to look at.' (page 283) This is fine in many circumstances, but can be confusing when the person is talking in dialect. Consider:

'No, I was bein' insigh'ful an' profound,' said Josh...'No, it's 'er, really, it's all 'er fault this 'appened. We were talkin' abou' the, you know, the people wha' are buried there --' (page 124). 

I did not like the font, but I did like the book.  

4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Reflecting ruefully that he'd now reached the age where almost everyone he met reminded him of someone else he'd known, Strike continued to scroll through Cardew's list of videos. (page 110)

I so rarely meet someone these days and don't rack my brain trying to figure out who they remind me of. It's incredibly distracting and I wish I could turn that part of my brain off.

"What we're seeing here are sophisticated campaigns of misinformation and harassments which aim in part to turn progressives against their own," said The Times' source. "While we've previously seen "trolling" of liberals originating in spaces like 4chan, the terror group is using social media in a more organised and sophisticated way to incite harassment and campaigns of intimidation."

Singer Gigi Cazenove was subjected to sustained abuse on social media after emails in which she had allegedly used racist language to describe a former backing singer were leaked online. The emails were subsequently found to have been faked. Maya Satterthwaited was revealed to have "misgendered" a prominent trans woman in private messages which were also leaked online, while Edie Ledwell was subject to a prolonged hate campaign for multiple alleged transgressions, particularly against the disabled..." (page 140)

This is the part where I nearly shut the book. I mean, could this be any more transparent?

Things I looked up:

internecine (page 123): destructive to both sides in a conflict (I think I should probably know this word...)

Brown-Sequard syndrome (page 198) - a rare neurological condition characterized by a lesion in the spinal cord that results in weakness or paralysis on one side of the body and a loss of sensation on the other

Cyril Scott (page 228) - An English composer, poet, writer, and occultist alive from 1879 - 1970.

solecism (page 292) - a grammatical mistake in speech or writing (another word I think I should probably already know...)

vegvisir (page 439) - (Icelandic for sign post or wayfarer) an Icelandic magical stave intended to help the bearer through rough weather

The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad #6)

In the Woods
The Likeness
Faithful Place
Broken Harbor
The Secret Place

The Trespasser by Tana French is the sixth (and final?) book in the Dublin Murder Squad series. I feel like I started these books with a bit of a chip on my shoulder because the writing was so overblown for the first 75 pages of In the Woods, but I feel like I honestly did enjoy the first four books, but didn't care much for The Secret Place much at all. Let's see how this one stacks up.

Antoinette Conway has dreamed about being a detective in the Murder Squad, but the experience isn't quite like she hoped it would be. Men are pissing in her locker, stealing important paperwork for her desk, and seem to be sabotaging her work life. Since she doesn't have much of a personal life, this is not a great thing for Conway. She and her partner are assigned what looks like a garden variety domestic violence case, but with every new clue and interview, things get complicated.

Look, I like a good procedural. I like a book about an outsider coming in to shake things up. I like to read about a strong professional woman.

But I hated this book. It was interminable. It was repetitive, going over the same theories over and over again. It was, to my mind, elevating the status of police as though it is somehow *shocking* that there is police corruption. It was not good. 

I think everyone should try to read the first three books of this series, but I totally understand how they might not make it through the slog of the first part of In the Woods, but the latter half of the series is just not that strong.

My reading rut continues.

2/5 stars

Lines of note:

From the outside, my gaff looks a lot like Aislinn Murray's: a one-story Victorian terraced cottage, thick-walled and low-ceilinged. It its me just about right; when I let someone stay over - which isn't often - I'm twitchy by morning, starting to feel the two us banging up against the walls. The 1901 census says back then a couple were raising eight kids in it. (page 138)

This seems about right from what I learned in How to Be a Victorian. 

His writing is tiny and beautiful; it deserves fountain pen and thick yellowing paper, not this. (page 375)

My husband has tiny, cramped writing and he always uses a fountain pen. This line made me think of him and how his pens are definitely not quite right for his actual handwriting.

The Secret Place by Tana French

In the Woods
The Likeness
Faithful Place
Broken Harbor

The Secret Place is the fifth book in The Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. Mostly I read this book because Lisa said the sixth book is her favorite and I couldn't bear to just skip a book.

First up, I think we can all agree that these are the most boring covers in the history of cover art. Combined with the humdrum titles, I just can't imagine that the exterior of these books would ever entice someone to read them or, frankly, remember them.

And then there's the plot of this book, which basically revolves around which teenager told another teenager something and which teenager read another teenager's text messages. Look, here's the truth. I didn't care about teenage drama in high school and I really could have cared less about it in this book. Absolutely the most boring topic imaginable. AND THEN! THEN! Let's discuss French's descriptions of teenage girls, shall we?  Keep in mind that our main character is an male police detective.

"No beauty - no height, no neck and no waist, plenty of nose to make up for it - but she tried. Hard-work straight blond hair, fake tan." (page 71)

"Tall, slim - trying hard for thin, only she didn't have the build for it. Pretty, top end of pretty, but that jaw was going to give her man-face before she was thirty." (page 78)

"Short little thing, scrawny, shoulders curled in. Fidgety fingers, twisting at her skirt. Hard-work straight blond hair, fake tan, skinny eyebrows." (page 82)

"Long dark-brown hair in a ponytail, soft and straggly, no straighteners here. Maybe an inch taller than Holly; skinny, not scary-skinny but definitely could have done with a pizza." (page 103)

I could keep going. Why does French hate teenage girls so much?! I was really turned off by this book and thought it was gross. Misogyny by other women is not a look I care for. Do not recommend.

2/5 stars

Things I looked up:
Keep schtum (page 78) - (also stay schtum) to not say anything about something; to remain silent
Dosh (page 338) - British slang word for money

Line of note:

Conway moved. Said, "You got a boyfriend?"

"No."

Instant. Almost scornful, like it was a stupid question: You got a rocket ship? (page 109)

One time, my nephew was five and I asked him if a decoration on his paper airplane made it go faster. His look of utter disdain for me has haunted my dreams ever since. This exchange made me think about how young people really think adults are idiotic. 

Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad #4) by Tana French

In the Woods
The Likeness
Faithful Place

Broken Harbor by Tana French is the fourth of six books in the Dublin Murder Squad series. I am mixed on these books - I like the idea of setting all of these within the same world with a different main character in each book, but the execution is sometimes a bit dodgy for me.

First up, what a delightfully terrible cover.  Could you imagine anything more boring that this cover?  Me neither.

Mick Kennedy is paired with a rookie murder detective when they are sent to to a half-built "luxury" development that became so prevalent in the 2007-2008 recession.  An entire family has been killed, including the mother, father, and two children. Kennedy is pretty sure he knows what happened, but the case gets more and more complicated. 

I knew what had happened about halfway through, so all the tension from the story was gone for me. Also, the traumatic childhood b-story seemed like a copied version of the first book in this series, so this was a bit disappointing to me.  Eh.  Tana French is beloved to some, so I hope they enjoy her more than I do.

2.5/5 stars

UK things I looked up:

Lucozale, Alsatian, Val Doonican, "strafed hope"

The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

The Second Mrs. Hockaday is an epistolary novel told through letters and court documents. In it, Placidia is a young bride of a Confederate officer during the Civil War. When her husband returns from his time fighting and as a prisoner of war, he hears a rumor that Placidia had given birth to a baby and it had died while he was gone. What happened to her and what will happen to their marriage?

This book is based on true events that took place. I have very mixed feelings about this whole book.

On one hand, it's hard to read about a spoiled white southern lady relying entirely on black slave labor to survive, but still never truly acknowledges the inhumanity of slavery. On the other hand, it's a gripping mystery. I was drawn in almost immediately and I wanted answers and even as some answers rolled out slowly, there was still so much ambiguity that I was very satisfied with it as a mystery. 

This book won't be for everybody. There are descriptions of abuse, sexual and otherwise, animal abuse, and child abuse. There are descriptions about some of the degradations associated with slavery, including scenes of families being separated. Since it is told from the perspective of a Confederate sympathizer, it's awful blasé about some of the atrocities of the American Civil War. 

But it is an interesting case and situation. I was really riveting by the storytelling. I was fascinated by the old-timey rumor mill and I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the novel. I imagine I'll be thinking about this story for quite some time because something about it just struck the right chord with me.  

4.5/5 stars

Lines of note (I read this on my Kindle and the page numbers aren't synced, so I gave the Kindle locations):

Women like to think the worst of women more admired than they... (location 96)

I think this is a harsh reality. We do always compare ourselves to others and it's hard when you don't come out on top. Sometimes it's easier to criticize than admire.

Seeing how easily I can be physically overpowered has sapped a great deal of my fighting spirit. (location 1681)

The trauma of abuse has long-lasting consequences.

He showed me what a fine line divides love from misery. Sometimes, in fact, there's no line at all. (location 2676)

It's sad. One of my friends just closed on her divorce and she sways from emotion to emotion with regard to her former partner. 

Things I looked up:

Delaine (location 122, among others) - A kind of mixed cloth with cotton warp and wool in the weft. Originally a high quality women's wear dress material.

Pignut trees (location 355, among others) - A type of hickory tree.

Judas tree (location 359) - Cercis siliquastrum, commonly known as the Judas tree, is a small deciduous tree from Southern Europe and Western Asia which is noted for its prolific display of deep pink flowers in the spring.  

Jeremiad (location 1857) -  A long, mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes

Pertinacious (location 2579) - Holding firmly to an opinion or course of action

Syllabub (location 2723) - A sweet dish from Cornish cuisine, made by curdling sweet cream or milk with an acid like wine or cider.

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo's Calling
The Silkworm
Career of Evil
Lethal White

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith is the fifth book in the Cormoran Strike series. I like these books, have very mixed feelings about JK Rowling as a creator, and find myself in constant indecision about whether or not to continue reading these books.  This one is a definite mixed bag - some of the character development of Strike and Robin is really good, but the actual nuts and bolts of the crime reminded me of the dreaded book The Luminaries in that the zodiac material went over my head big time. This book is slightly different than previous Strike books because it's a cold case, not a current case. The thing is, Rowling is an excellent author and her style is exactly what I want in a book and I don't know what to do here with my issues with Rowling as a person.

There are some criticisms of this book that it really shows how Rowling dislikes trans folks, aging folks, and people with disabilities. I do not read it that way, I really don't. There is a brief mention of a bad guy who dresses like a woman as a disguise, but that is not really about trans people at all. As for the rest of those criticisms, I guess I don't see it that way, either. She seems nervous about death, perhaps isn't excited about being a caretaker, and, in the end, the disabled people were kind of heroes, or at least partially responsible for helping solve the crime. I don't read into the book the hatred that other people do, but maybe that's because that hate isn't targeted at me.

Read my review of Lethal White if you want more of me gnashing my teeth about this topic of how to not be an asshole to the trans community while still reading novels written by a TERF. 

4/5 stars

Lines of note:
Her insistence on the smooth passing of counterfeit social coin from hand to hand, while uncomfortable truths were ignored and denied, wore him out. (page 14)
Don't we all know someone like this?

The truth was that his feelings contained nuances and complications that he preferred not to examine. (page 14)
Denial about our own emotions is a constant thing, isn't it?

Several barbed comments about the infrequency of Strike's visits had already dropped from his sister's lips during their week of enforced proximity. He'd bitten back all irritable retorts. His primary aim was to leave the house without rowing with anyone. (page 33)
When we do anything, from grocery shopping to visiting family, the number one household rule is not to murder anyone. 

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate people remembering: indeed, he tending to be far more touched when they did than he ever let show, but he had an innate dislike of scheduled celebration and forced joviality, and of all inane practices, having "Happy Birthday" sung to him was one of his least favorites. (page 198)
Does anyone really like to be sung to? What expression should you have on your face? What do you do with your hands?  Why is this a thing that happens?

...all made her want to clutch some kind of fig leaf to her threadbare dignity. (page 339)
Ha!

"People who insist on opening cans of worms, Anna," said Roy, "shouldn't complain when they get covered in slime." (page 424)
Ha ha!

Things I looked up:

St. Piran (page 3) - Patron saint of tin-miners and Cornwall, the latter of which is relevant in this context.

pocket don (page 6) - Oh. This took someone really explaining that pocket = small, diminutive, and don = similar to a mafia boss, as in bossing folks around. 

shufti (page 123) - A look or reconnoiter especially a quick one.

von Willebrand Disease (page 140) - A blood disorder in which the blood doesn't properly clot.

Jane Birkin (page 266) - English-French singer and actress. Incidentally, the Birkin bag is named after her.

The Other Side of Midnight (page 287) - 1973 novel written by Sidney Sheldon that was adapted into a movie in 1977. It's a thriller about a bad lady.

locum (page 288) - British term for somebody who who stands in temporarily for someone of the same profession, especially a cleric or a doctor. It's such a perfect word for the situation in the book!

rota (page 157) - Another British term for a list showing when each of a number of people has to do a job.

tuberose (page 160) - It's a plant. The smell is relevant in the book and I guess it smells like crème brulee! Who knew? 

Macmillian nurse (page 166) - Cancer care nurse specialists in the UK.

ormolu mantel clock (page 421) - Over the top gilt bronze clock. Ormulu is perhaps the most popular material employed by clock makers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Pallas Athena (page 421) - Pallas is an epithet sometimes given to Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.

Asclepius (page 422) - A hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology.

jobsworth (page 426) - A person who uses the typically minor degree of authority of their job in a deliberately uncooperative way.

Fragile X syndrome (page 503) - A genetic condition that causes a range of development problems including learning disabilities and cognitive impairment.

fulsome (page 547) - complimentary or flattering to an excessive degree

bestridden (page 656) - Past participle of bestride (to have or put a leg on either side).  I swear I have never seen this before.

cheongsam (page 711)  - A straight, close-fitting silk dress with a high neck, short sleeves, and a slit skirt, worn traditionally by Chinese and Indonesian women. I had no idea that's what this dress is called.