November Wrapup - Art Thievery, Post-WWII Shenanigans, News from Three Pines, Holiday Schmaltz

We finally had our first snow last night and now it is cold. Didn't get above 20 degrees F today, but that didn't stop us from picking out the perfect Christmas tree. Holiday decorating is in full swing, and my first puzzle of the season is underway. I'm having my first hot chocolate of the season and looking forward to turkey sandwiches with leftover fixin's for dinner tonight.

John Forti, the Heirloom Gardener, shared this poem on Facebook this morning, and I fell in love with it.

November Comes and November Goes 

by Elizabeth Coatsworth

     Here's what I read in November:

The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel - everybody seems to be reading this right now, which is how I found out about it, and it is a compelling story. However, I came to loathe Stéphane Breitwieser, his girlfriend and accomplice, and his idiot of a mother who destroyed much of the art her son stole in order to save her skin.

What an arrogant twit of a human to steal art from not only museums, but castles, churches, and galleries all because the piece "moved" him. What about the rest of us who also are moved by art, who plan trips around visits to museums that house the works we want to see in person? 

I was also so frustrated by the incredibly light sentences all three of these poor excuses for human beings received. And my annoyance with all involved in this book didn't end with the culprits or the lack of justice, but Michael Finkel, the author, also fell in my estimation when in the notes at the end he confessed that he was present when Stéphane stole a book out of the museum they visited together. Why Finkel didn't say, "go put it back" I will never know. He almost seemed to think it was funny. I didn't.

If I ever find out that Stéphane was compensated in any way for his participation in the creation of the book, I think my head will explode. All that said, it was an interesting book.

The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair - my JASNA friend, Pam, recommended this book, and I loved it. First in a series (Sparks and Bainbridge #1), the setting (post-WWII London) was terrific and the characters were so fun. Iris Sparks is a former trained spy who cannot talk about what she did in the war and Gwen Bainbridge is a war widow whose son is heir to a title. They meet at a wedding and decide to open a marriage brokerage (I guess before the advent of online dating there really were marriage brokers). One of their clients is murdered and another of their clients is charged with the crime--Sparks and Gwen don't think the police got the right man and so resolve to solve the case. I'm eager to read the next in the series, and it will be interesting to see if they remain in the marriage business or morph into detectives. One of the things that I really liked about this book is that both main characters grew and developed and learned stuff about themselves--they were real, multi-faceted people with baggage and a lot of heart.

The Grey Wolf, by Louise Penny - #19 in the fabulous Armand Gamache series, once again the stakes are sky high as Armand and his team race against time to find out who is behind the plot to poison Montreal's drinking water and how they can be stopped. We armchair travel to monasteries in Canada and France, and we spend quality time (never enough) in Three Pines. Be forewarned, however, this book ends with a cliffhanger, and the story is picked up in Penny's latest, The Black Wolf.

The Christmas Shoppe, by Melody Carlson - this was a yawner, at best a 3-star book but in actually more like 2.5. Mysterious woman comes to town, everybody is against her because she has a witchy vibe, she opens a thrift store, everyone who goes there finds an object that heals whatever wound has been festering inside. She disappears at the end. I wanted a great holiday read, but this was just same-old, same-old. 

Now I am reading The Autobiography of Santa Claus, which is turning out to be much better!

Mysteries -- Quebec, Dublin, and London

The Paston Treasure, circa 1670 - featured in A World of Curiosities

I do love a good mystery and a good mystery series and a good mystery-series author. In the midst of a couple of super long books, I managed to fit in a few that meet all three criteria to add extra zest to my summer reading.

A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny is book 18 in Penny's fabulous Armand Gamache series, set in Quebec. I absolutely loved this mystery and think it among the best of the series. It hits all the right notes for me--mostly taking place in the wonderful village of Three Pines and featuring Armand, his family, his neighbors, his dogs, it tells the backstory of Armand and his second-in-command and son-in-law Jean Guy. It features art (i.e., The Paston Treasure), the struggle between good and evil, DNA, puzzles, witches, and traditions.  The mystery was absolutely first-rate and kept me guessing as to how it would all work out until the end. Clocking in at exactly 400 pages, it counts as my 3rd book in the Big Book Summer Challenge 2023.

A Man With One of Those Faces, Caimh McDonnell - this is a new series for me, book 1 of the author's Dublin Trilogy. McDonnell was apparently a stand-up comedian before becoming an author, and the book is very funny as well as a great mystery chock full of interesting, quirky characters. I loved the setting and the main character and the overall premise (i.e., the fact that Paul Mulchrone has one of those faces and keeps on being mistaken for someone else...with dire consequences).

The White Lady, by Jacqueline Winspear - as a devoted fan of the author's Maisie Dobbs series, I was eager to read this new book in what I expect will be a new series. It was quite good, but the main character, Elinor White, is an awful lot like Maisie. Both survived WWI, with Elinor being slightly younger than Maisie was during that war, but with significant emotional scarring. Both are mentored by strong individuals who recognize their innate abilities, and both work in clandestine roles during WWII. Both school themselves to be steady, strong, capable, and moral. Both love suppers of soup and bread and cheese. I'm not sure if Winspear felt that Maisie's story was winding up, and Elinor was a way she could move into the post-war world. I guess I'm okay with that since I enjoy reading Winspear's novels.

March Madness - finally another roundup

February is always a long month and this year's was no exception. But, we are just over 3 weeks away from the equinox and I can already feel my equilibrium being restored and my fingers have beeen itching to tell you about what I've been reading.

Mysteries

Black Diamond, by Martin Walker - #3 in this marvelous mystery series set in the Dordogne in France and featuring the lovely Bruno as police force of one in a little village in France where he cooks for his friends, hangs out with his dog, and tries his best to keep the peace. In this story, we get a glimpse of the rival Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who compete for business, both the legal and the illegal kind. I love these books because they aren't just edge-of-your seat stories but provide historical, cultural, and regional sidestories that I like as much, if not more, than the actual mystery plot.

The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny - I enjoyed State of Terror (the co-authored thriller by Hillary Rodham and Louise Penny) so much that I just wanted more of Penny and Armand Gamache and Three Pines, so I read #17 in her wonderful series. It was excellent, of course, and delved with the aftermath of Covid and the ethics involved in medical decisions. This is the first novel I've read that references Covid, and I thought Penny handled the subject deftly.

Raven Black, by Ann Cleeves - I've been enjoying this prolific author's Matthew Venn series so much that I thought I would read some of her other series. My library had this one handy, so now I am reading her Shetland series. It was absolutely excellent with many of my favorite elements: small, tight community with secrets, harsh but compelling environment (the Shetland islands are not for the feeble), and well-written plot that kept me guessing until the end.

The Lost Man, by Jane Harper - I've enjoyed Harper's Aaron Falk series, but this was head and shoulders above them. An absolutely outstanding thriller about life in the outback of Australia. Again, love those harsh environments with a closed, tight community carrying a load of baggage and secrets. Harper did an outstanding job painting a stiflingly hot, pressure-cooker story that had a glorious ending. 

Not Mysteries

A Civil Contract, by Georgette Heyer - my JASNA bookclub is reading Heyer for our March meeting, and my friend Maxene recommended this Regency Romance as a bit atypical with a hero and heroine cut from different cloths than the usual Heyer fare. I loved it--absolutely loved it. Adam is a spare whose older brother manages to die, making him the heir, and then his father dies leaving him a mountain of debt. The solution? That's right--accept the civil contract offered by a parevenu who wants his plain daughter to marry a lord. I loved practical, sweet Jenny who tries hard to make Adam happy, and I especially loved her dad, Mr. Chawleigh, who is the definitive bull in a chinashop but with a heart as big as his bank account. The side characters were interesting and added zest to the story. All in all, a wonderful way to get through the doldrums of February.

The Maid, by Nita Prose - another out-of-the-park novel. Loved it so much. Molly Gray, the hotel maid cum detective, has a very literal approach to life, not unlike Elizabeth Zott in Lesssons in Chemistry and Elinor Oliphant. It's frustrating to watch her not "get it" but then marvelous when the penny finally drops and she sees her way clear. Her moral compass is finely polished and this was a fun, interesting read. I believe this is Prose's debut novel, so I am eager to see what she does next.

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen's Masterpiece, by Susannah Fullerton - I gave this 3 stars on GoodReads mostly because I loved the first half and was bored to skimming in the second half. The first half retold the tale as old as time of how P&P came to be published and the impact its publication made on the oh-so-short life of Austen, and then she dived into commentary about all the major and minor characters, which was fun to read, insightful, and just like a JASNA meeting. The second half explored the various translations, adaptations, sequels, prequels, and Austenmania ad nauseum. I think the book would have garnered another star had it been shorter. Short books can still be good and sell...just saying.

White Teeth, by Zadie Smith - I've heard of this book for years but wouldn't have picked it up and read it without it being the selection of  the GoodReads True Book Talk group. It is a story of life in London during the 1970s to the turn of the millenium, focusing on the lives of Archie and his Jamaican-born wife, Clare, and Samad (an immigrant from Bangladesh) and his wife Alsana, and their children. I just found out that there is a four-part mini-series available on Amazon, so I might watch it. The book was excellent and thought-provoking.

Hope you are all well, discovering great books to explore, and finding your own equilibrium as we approach the equinox. That's something we can all celebrate, worldwide.

Reading and Playing in January

What I've Been Reading...

Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus - this was an audio book that I finished on December 31, and it was an absolute treat. I had read a few reviews and really loved the premise of a female scientist struggling to do her life's work in the pre-feminine mystique 1950s. 

I thought the character of Elizabeth Zot was terrific--in fact, she reminded me somewhat of Eleanor Oliphant in that she saw the world through a crystal clear lens without the fog of conventions, norms, and expectations. I absolutely loved her relationship with her dog, Six-Thirty, and his perspective and take on the course of events was both refreshing and insightful and very touching.  I also really loved the cooking show aspect of the novel and Elizabeth's explanations of why certain cooking techniques work. Kind of like an Elton Brown episode of Good Eats!

Not entirely sure why I didn't give this 5 stars on GoodReads instead of 4, but I loved it and would reread it. Actually, I think my stinginess with that 5th star comes from the fact that I was a child in the 1960s and while I wasn't a prodigy in the way daughter Mad was, nor was my mom a scientist trying to make it in a man's world, but I shad a hard time believing that so many of the people Elizabeth and Mad encountered were so rigid and limited in their acceptance of this unconventional mother/daughter pair. Yes, the world was less open for women to work in certain professions 50 years ago and competing for spots in academic programs was tougher, but it was by no means as closed as the author painted it.

Winds of War, by Herman Wouk - this is the first part of a two-part series on WWII, following the lives of a family from 1938 though 1941. I thought it was absolutely compelling, particularly the story of Pug Henry, a navy captain who is assigned first to the German embassy and then war production in Washington, DC, meeting Hitler, FDR, and Stalin along the way. He has a front-row seat during the Blitz in London, the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany, and Pearl Harbor, and his family and appendages are witnesses to many other key events as the war becomes global. One particularly interesting aspect of the novel was that it included an account of the war from the German perspective as written by one of the characters after the war, and then Pug (again, after the war) provides his commentary on this perspective. The layering and analysis was really masterful and enhanced the story tremendously.

State of Terror, by Hilary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny - OMG, this was so good! Literally kept me on edge until the very end. Definitely a first-rate thriller. Penny is the consummate storyteller, and Clinton has the inside view of politics, world affairs, and Washington D.C.--definitely a powerhouse combo. I also loved how we got to visit Three Pines near the end of the book, and the main character (Secretary of State Ellen Adams) reads Ruth Zardo! 

The Girls on the Shore, by Ann Cleves - this was a short story in Cleves's Matthew Venn series. The premise and writing were both excellent, but I have no idea why this isn't a full-length novel. Maybe it is a tease for a future book, but I was left hanging, not believing the story really had that nice, neat wrap it appeared to.

What I've Been Playing...

Wingspan - my son got this card-based game for Christmas and we've played it a few times as a family. It is super fun, for birders and non-birders, and you get points for laying eggs, procuring food, building nests, etc. It took a round to get comfortable with how the game works and to develop a winning strategy, but I look forward to playing it again on snowy Sunday evenings.

(Disney) Villainess - this is the other board game we've playing while waiting for Spring (aka enduring Winter), and it is also super fun. The version we have is the Disney version, so I naturally gravitated to the Queen of Hearts as my alter ego for the first round, and won!

What I've Been Watching...

All Creatures Great and Small - season 3 is now airing on PBS, but we decided to renew our Sunday night All Creatures ritual and started over with season 1 of the new version. The original series is near and dear to my heart, but I am really enjoying the new version, especially the expanded role for Mrs. Hall (Audrey!) and glimpses of James's former life in Glasgow.

Veronica Mars - my kids have been saying for years how great this series is, so we finally started it. Just finished season 1, which was amazingly good. I really didn't believe I could get so caught up in high-school drama, but the acting is solid and the stories excellent and the character of Veronica is perfect (smart, sassy, and not perfect!).

New Amsterdam - it's been a long time since I watched a doctor/hospital series, so trolling Netflix looking for something to watch before commencing with season 2 of Veronica Mars, I found this. We've watched two episodes of season 1 and am loving it.

Abbot Elementary - watching season 2 as it slowly (I prefer not to wait a week or more between episodes) comes out. Loving all the characters (and loving to hate Ava) set in a poorly-funded public elementary school in Philadelphia. 

Playing Catchup - December Books

It's that time again, when I provide a quickie overview of the books I read recently but didn't find time to post about. They were all great and deserve to be remembered, recommended, and maybe even reread.

Code Name Helene, by Ariel Lawhon - I read a few reviews from other bloggers and felt this would be good. WWII, set in Marseille and the Dordogne region of France, French resistance - premise great! To be honest, during the first half I was not sure I would love it--the main character, Nancy, was a bit too perfect (beautiful, brilliant, brave, etc) but I was totally engrossed in the second half and couldn't put it down. Then, I read the afterword and learned that it was based on a real person who did all these extraordinary things.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson - this was a audio book for me, and given the amount of dialect, I was glad to listen instead of read. It was another fascinating story--learned about two major things--the WPA's Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and the rare blue-skinned people of which the main character, Cussy Carter, is one of the last. At times, I wished that the story was about one of these fascinating things instead of both as they seemed to compete with each for theme, but still a good book.

The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie - last year was the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Agatha Christie mystery, so I decided to read them all in order. This was the second book and the first featuring Tommy and Tuppence. I hadn't met Tommy Beresford and Prudence (aka Tuppence) Cowley before, but I fell in love with them and look forward to spending more time with them. It was a great mystery with a bit of WWI thrown in, some wonderful red herrings, and a great deal of fun.

All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny - the latest in the Armand Gamache series. Mostly set in Paris, which I completely loved, and a first rate story. Actually I think this is one of the best in the series. Much as I like visiting Three Pines, Quebec, visiting Paris with the Gamache family was wonderful. I especially liked the opening scene at the Rodin Museum garden, which was one of my absolutely favorite spots when we visited Paris in 2018. 

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

Normally I am a stickler for reading series in order. However, much as I loved Still Life and A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny's first and second books in her Armand Gamache/Three Pines mystery series, set in rural Quebec near Montreal, I never read any of the others...until I was searching my library's audio collection for something to listen to and spotted A Great Reckoning, #12 in the series.

Throwing caution to the winds, I downloaded it and never looked back. Penny does a fabulous job of filling me in on what happened between #3 and #11, and this really is a stand-alone novel.

And, let me tell, it was absolutely fabulous. The whole time I kept on thinking of Harry Potter--not sure whether it was the setting (the Sûreté Academy, aka police academy), the supporting characters (students and professors), the mysterious map that figures prominently in the whodunit, or all of the above.

It was enormously fun to read--I adore the inhabitants of Three Pines, starting with Armand and his lovely wife Reine-Marie, but also Gabri and Olivier, Myrna, Ruth, and Clara--and the mystery was good, with sufficient red herrings, snatches of poetry  (ancient and modern), philosophical and ethical quandaries and musings, and just the right amount of danger.

It wasn't an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but I quite enjoyed the forays into orienteering, map-making, and WWI from the Canadian perspective.

Now, I'm thinking rather than back-tracking and reading #3-#11, I will just plunge forward since Penny has also published #13 and #14.

Kicking off the New Year...

Welcome to 2016!  Now that the holidays are officially over, it's time to enjoy winter.  I know that sounds crazy, but I like winter sports.  My son and older daughter and I went skating last week at our town's outdoor rink and had a blast.  My son left this morning for New York, heading back to college, and my two daughters leave for California this Thursday, driving the older one back to resume life and work in San Francisco.  They're all (fingers crossed) planning on spending the summer in Colorado, but meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy the snow and freezing temps and start an indoor herb garden.

Now on to books...

I love mysteries but haven't read many lately, so one of my mini, informal challenges of the year is to read from my TBR mystery shelf (bottom of the bookcase, mostly filled with next in series by many different authors).

I finished the year by reading the second in Louise Penny's series about Three Pines, Quebec, a small village near Montreal, Fatal Grace.  It was absolutely wonderful and fit in nicely with the Christmas reading I did in December.  There really are very few books with curling at the center, and having grown up in Colorado Springs, spending most of my time at the Broadmoor World Arena, I'm actually familiar with the sport!  Now, I'm already itching to get a copy of her third in the series.

I then went straight to Jacqueline Winspear's Birds of a Feather, which is the second in her Maisie Dobbs mystery series, set between WWI and WWII.  Also fabulous and so interesting.  Really loving Maisie as a private detective--her backstory is poignant and her approach to solving crimes and to finding her way in this crazy world is admirable.  I now find myself putting my right hand on my solar plexus and my left hand on my heart to calm myself when stressed.  I love her combo of intuition and common sense and her ongoing relationship with her mentor.

Late last week I had some outpatient medical stuff to deal with and needed a very distracting book to take my mind off of things, so I chose Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions, which is a journal of the first year of her son's life.  I expected to give this 5 stars as I loved the other two Lamott books I've read (Bird by Bird, and Traveling Mercies), but ended up giving it only 4.  I like Lamott's irreverence and insights and her descriptions of her baby's journey was so nostalgic for me, but I felt she got pretty repetitive in her whining and her hyperbole got a bit old.  But the book did what I wanted it to do.  I easily lost myself in her writing and it helped me not think about feeling crummy.  Ah, the power of books.

BTW, Operating Instructions is on my TBR Pile Challenge, so that's one down!

Now, I'm determined to finish up a few books I started all the way back in November--namely Ghostly, Paris, Book by Book, and All the Light We Cannot See.  Stay tuned and happy reading.