April Books

I don't think I'll finish another book before the end of the month so here are the books I finished in April. Kind of hard to believe we are finishing another month of 2020. What a year!

The First Mistake by Sandie Jones -- I enjoyed this fast-pace, easy-to-read book about best friends Alice and Beth with their questionable relationships. It was a nice read while I'm also plodding through a thick non-fiction book.

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson -- When Ted and Lily happen to meet in an airport bar, Ted reveals that his wife has been cheating on him, and he'd really like to kill her. Surprisingly, Lily offers to help him do that. What?! An exciting - if not, different - tale of a sordid cast of characters. What a world!

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg -- I saw this book last October when we were at a Barnes & Noble in Myrtle Beach. I often jot down interesting-looking books to see if my library system has them. This one was rather large, so when the library was getting ready to close for the coronavirus, I decided to tackle it during this time. Class has been with us from the beginning with England sending over its undesirables and often those who were forced to work off debts. It's only continued over the years. This book acknowledges this fact, and, well, it was a pretty interesting read (especially if you break it up with some fast-paced fiction.)

Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson -- This book was OK, I didn't really love the main character's back and forth with her almost-ex husband, but I appreciate the "between"-ness of her life (the Deaf world and the hearing world; her bio family and her adoptive family; her living between two bigger Georgia cities.) I'm not a huge fan of this author though I think many do like her. Still, I grabbed this book in my Get All the Books sessions before the library closed for COVID-19 so I read it.

An Arabian Journey by Levison Wood -- "One man's quest through the heart of the Middle East." I didn't enjoy this as much as Tony Horwitz's book from years ago when he traveled through this region, but I enjoyed this tale and reading about places in the news, and even a place I went to back before Syria was changed so much by their civil war. I finished reading it last night (4/8) in the near-dark because straight-line winds knocked out power on my street. This morning I thought about that and how many people in these regions have intermittent power. Even during the visit we took to Damascus years ago, in peaceful times, we had power outages that were unrelated to trees knocking out power. 

Dirty Blonde by Lisa Scottoline -- Cate Fante is appointed a federal judge, but after she rules from the bench two people end up dead. Also, her secret nightly activities come to light and the chief judge wants to remove her from the bench. The nerve!  Cate vows to fight for her job!

The Road from Chapel Hill by Joanna Catherine Scott -- this book follows the lives of three young people in the South at the outbreak of the Civil War. Eugenia's family is of recently-reduced circumstances and she travels with her father where he works in a mine. Tom, is an enslaved man, who is given to Eugenia by her father. They become friends. Clyde is connected to Tom in that Tom's mother, Old Mary, works for Clyde's family. A decent book; nothing special, but not bad.

Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman -- a new author for me, and a mystery of sorts. Maddie Schwartz decides to leave her marriage at the ripe old age of almost 37. After living the good life, Maddie is in need of a job and wants a newspaper columnist to put in a good word for her so she can become a reporter. Maddie becomes the assistant (letter opener) to the guy who does the "help me" advice column, and answers a query that leads to a dead Negro body in a fountain.  Pretty good story

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty -- I had this book on a list of books to read, but never got around to it until I saw that curbside pick up was closing at my library last month. I hurriedly put a few books on hold that I saw online were not checked out. This was a fun read. I like the author's sense of humor which came out in several of her characters. These folks - Frances (romance novelist), Ben and Jessica (married couple), Tony (former sports player), Napoleon (teacher) and Heather (midwife) with their daughter Zoe; Carmel (single mother of four daughters); Lars (extremely handsome divorce lawyer) all meet at a health retreat center run by a Russian immigrant to Australia named Masha. Along with Yao, a former paramedic, and Delilah, she runs Tranquillium House. What an experience for these guests!

The Reluctant Midwife by Patricia Harman -- this is the second I've read in this Hope River series, and it was out of order, and still not the first in the series, but I liked it very much! The characters are adorable, it's fast-paced and interesting, and I just really like her books. This one focused on Becky Myers as she returns to West Virginia with the doctor she worked for for the last seven years, Isaac Blum. After Dr. Blum's wife dies in an accident and is rendered mute or catatonic (they aren't quite sure what is going on), Becky believes they can go back to his hometown where she plans to take care of him in his family home. Only...it's been auctioned off for back taxes or some such thing, and Becky is trying to figure out how to survive during those difficult days. I love the addition of the CCC in this book. Andrew and I love hiking in the mountains and so often the CCC is referenced; my hat is off to you fine folks who worked hard to make things wonderful for us to enjoy today. And my thanks to the American taxpayers who funded this project when so many of you were in dire straits!

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout -- I really wanted to read another book of hers, but it's been checked out for awhile so I got this one to read during the library shutdown, and it was decent. Nothing special, but not terrible. It had a rather good message, I think, about families sticking together. Twins Bob and Susan, and their idolized big brother, hot-shot lawyer Jim. Jim's wife Helen features heavily in this book as does Susan's son, Zach. An OK read.

Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline -- Eric Parrish is the Chief doctor of psychiatry at his hospital, and he is introduced to a teenage boy taking care of his dying grandmother. A few things about Max's story ring alarm bells, but not enough for Dr. Parrish to break patient confidentiality. Later, however, he second guesses this as Max disappears and a teenager is killed. An interesting, fast-paced book.

Emma by Alexander McCall Smith -- ever since I read his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, I wondered what his other books were like. I'd noticed another series or two in the library as well as this book about Emma which is "a modern retelling." I didn't like it as much as I enjoyed the tales about Mma Ramotswe and her sidekicks in the detective agency and attached garage, but it was a decent story. To be fair, I'm not a great fan of modern retellings, but this one was OK!

Gone Too Long by Lori Roy -- this book deals with Imogene soon after her dad dies and she's exploring an abandoned house on the property. She is amazed to discover a young boy living in the basement, and later finds out how the boy came to live there. This book deals with the KKK in more recent times. A decent story. 

The Watchmaker's Daughter by Sonia Taitz -- as the author puts it "this book is a love letter and a tribute" to her parents, both concentration camp survivors. I enjoyed the author's tale of her life in New York City with her parents and grandmother and brother. My mom checked this book out from the library before it closed so I'm now reading some of her books!

The Crimson Rooms by Katharine McMahon -- another book that my mom had checked out before the library closed down; a good story about Evelyn, trained as a lawyer, but mostly not taken seriously in this role in England a few years after the Great War. She works on a couple of cases - one involving the murder of newly-married Stella and another in the case of Leah Marchant who sent her children to live in a home, but cannot get them back. I enjoyed this book pretty well!