The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas -- book 4 in The Lady
Sherlock Series; nice book featuring these clever characters! I just
wish I could always remember what happened in previous books so I could
enjoy the story more, but that's my fault for not retaining the
information as well as I should. Charlotte, her sister Olivia, and Mrs.
Watson along with a crew of men agree to help recover letters being used
to blackmail Mrs. Watson's old friend, a maharani (
Definition of maharani. 1 : the wife of a maharaja. 2 : a Hindu princess ranking above a rani.)
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection
by Alexander McCall Smith -- Maybe it was because this book was a few
pages longer than the previous books, but I had more causes to chuckle
out loud (which I rarely do when reading). Mma Makutsi and Mma
Ramotswe's discussion about airplanes and the government's control of
the air was humorous especially when Mma M said pilots could see each
other well enough to control the air by themselves and they would not
fly through clouds, but drive around them. Cute conversation! Also,
Chlorine...I mean Clovis Andersen visits the detective agency, Fanwell
gets arrested, Charlie pulls a pretty good stunt (though it is criminal,
but funny), the lady at the orphan farm fights for her job, and Phuti
Radiphuti builds a house. Lots happening in this book!
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict -- an interesting story about
Mileva Marić, who studied alongside Albert Einstein and a
handful of male students in Switzerland and eventually married Albert.
If he's anything like the book portrays him, he is not an admirable man
IMO.
The Christmas Boutique by Jennifer Chiaverini -- Elm Creek
Quilts novel; I recently read all of these books, but they were written
over the course of 20 years (!), and the author had been contacted by
readers missing the Elm Creek quilters. So...she wrote one for
Christmas! Much of this book was a summary of the stories of the ladies -
Sylvia, Gwen, Diane, Sarah, and so forth, but there were little bits of
new things and it was a comfortable read. Like visiting old friends.
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon
by Alexander McCall Smith -- Mma Ramotswe had to do some detecting
on her own because Mma Makutsi (the new Mma Radiphuti) had a baby boy
which they named Itumelang Clovis Radiphuti in case you were wondering.
The Flight Girls
by Noelle Salazar -- pretty interesting story about American women
doing their parts during World War II as they flew planes to bases; I
enjoyed the characters Audrey Coltrane and her fellow pilots - Ruby,
Nola, Carol Ann, and so forth.
All the Forgivenesses
by Elizabeth Hardinger -- the story of life first in Kentucky then
Missouri (I think) and Kansas as told from the perspective of Albertina
"Bertie" Winslow, the oldest daughter and keeper-of-the-children after
her mom just sort of gave up on life and her father was a mostly useless
drunk. A good story.
No Ocean Too Wide
by Carrie Turansky -- I've read a few novels about orphan trains where
US children in the east were taken west to families who either desired
children for work on farms or other business, or to welcome as loved
family members. This book is similar, only the poor and/or orphaned
children were sent from England to Canada with varying degrees of
success. This book followed Katie, Garth, and Grace as their mom was
sick and they were sent to a children's home - and somehow ended up in
Canada although their mom recovered from her hospitalization. Their
older sister Laura, who heard about their departure too late, heads to
Canada to find her siblings.
Never Have I Ever
by Joshilyn Jackson -- When the new-lady-in-the-hood Roux shows up at
the neighborhood bookclub, she takes over the house, the drinks, the
conversation, and eventually starts a game where each person reveals the
worst thing she did that day, the previous day, week, month, and so on.
If you lose, you drink. Roux collects secrets and Amy is on to her
rather quickly. And then the blackmail begins. An interesting story;
enjoyed it!
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
by Kelly Harms -- Three years go Amy's husband left for a business trip
to Hong Kong and stayed gone. Now he's back asking for a week with the
children, and Amy reluctantly agrees. She sees that there is a library
conference in New York City, a place she loved as a young adult, so she
texts an old friend about staying with her. Talia is part of a fashion
magazine and Amy gets sucked into a story about #momspringa, and finds
out what all she'd been missing since being a single mom (and having
children since that really limited her nights out as well.)
Diamond in the Rough
by Jen Turano -- second in the American Heiresses series; eh, not the
best book I've read; Poppy is just too accident-waiting-to-happen
(unrealistically) for my taste and the whole story was just OK.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory
by Caitlin Doughty -- I wasn't sure if I wanted to read stories about a
young adult working the Cremulator at her first job at a funeral home
in California. The author shares her story as well as interesting
tidbits about the funeral home industry, her wishes for Americans to not
look away from death quite so much, some interesting stuff from other
cultures, and why she became preoccupied with death at age 8. I'll
quote one bit here:
"What is most
surprising about this story is not that an eight-year-old witnessed a
death, but that it took her eight whole years to do so. A child who had
never seen a death would have been unheard-of only a hundred years ago.
North
America is built on death. When the first European settlers arrived,
all they did was die.If it wasn't starvation, the freezing cold, or
battles with the Native people, it was influenza, diphtheria, dysentery,
or smallpox that did them in. At the end of the first three years of
the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, 440 of the original 500 settlers
were dead. Children, especially, died all the time. If you were a mother with five children, you were lucky to have two of them live past the age of ten." (pg. 30)
Also,
do you know when embalming became a big thing here in the United
States? during the Civil War ; families wanted their soldiers' bodies
brought home and folks would "perform a new preservative procedure
called embalming - right there on the battlefield." Also they placed
"advertisements in local papers reading, 'Bodies Embalmed by Us NEVER
TURN BLACK.'" (pg. 78)
The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café
by Alexander McCall Smith -- Mma Makutsi is thrilled when the building
she wants to rent comes through, and she makes plans to open a unique
café. Meanwhile Charlie is fired from his job due to lack of funds so
Mma Ramotswe finds some funds so she can hire him as an assistant
detective or ... assistant secretary. Hmm.
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett -- A riches-to-rags story of sorts as told through
Danny's point of view. Danny is young when his mother leaves the family,
yet he has a loving, nurturing older sister, Maeve, whom he loves. When
the siblings' father remarries, and then he dies, and the house and his
company go to their father's new wife, they are stunned to find
themselves homeless and mostly penniless, except for a educational
trust. Maeve urges Danny to go to medical school despite the fact he
doesn't want to be a doctor. Later he follows his dream (doing pretty
much what his father did to get rich) and the siblings visit the Dutch
House (well, they sit in the car and look at it from the street) to
relive their childhood there. A pretty good story.
Blood Sisters
by Jane Corry -- Alison and Kitty are half-sisters with a complicated
relationship. Alison ends up teaching art at a community college and
later gets a job in a prison system where she meets interesting
characters (of course). Kitty meanwhile is in a home for people with
traumatic brain injuries. A pretty good story.
My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding
by Wendy Wax -- Lauren and Bree were BFFs from the time they were
little girls. Only the forever part of BFF didn't last past Bree's
change of mind when the two planned to travel together to New York City
to live. Lauren went on her own while Bree stayed in her safe place on
the Outer Banks. Years pass, both women are turning 40, and Lauren
returns home because of her recent engagement and she figures her fiancé
ought to meet her mother. Pretty cute story, and easy read, and I often
find it interesting to learn more about the publishing world through
this author (as I recall her books often touch on her characters writing
novels and trying to get published.)
