I read the first Louise Penny and thought it was just meh. But I’m not actually a huge mystery person. The only current mystery series I read is C. S. Harris’s Sebastian St. Cyr. They are all set in Regency England, but it’s a much seamier world than that of Georgette Heyer (or Bridgerton). Harris has a Ph.D. in history and it really shows. I like her characters and the overall story arc as well as the individual mysteries.
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I am zipping through the Inspector Gamache series. So far I am enjoying the characters and Three Pines setting! It is definitely an escape from our current Covid reality.
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I just finished Mexican Gothic. I enjoyed it. It’s an anti-colonialist, feminist twist on the classic English Gothic novel. There is a creepy old house, a young naïve female protagonist, and a suitably mysterious yet alluring Byronic antihero. “Virgil” is not dark, but blond, and represents the allure of European cultural hegemony. The fungus-infested house does not “understand” Spanish, only English. It’s of course confused because the heroine/narrator is herself an elite Mexican, mostly European (although she has an indigenous grandmother). “Noemi” is a brittle 50s Mexico City socialite who saves her cousin, and her passive love interest, from the ties of the Old Country. Yet the war here is not between indigene and Euro-colonial, but rather between Spanish colonial and English colonial. Spanish is a European language, a derivative of Latin, the Virgilian master language of European colonialism. The book is not very aware of its own contradictions. It is, however, a fun read.
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I just finished “Less”, a unique book that won a Pulitzer. An almost 50 year-old gay man accepts invitations to minor literary events around the world to avoid the wedding of a former lover. I actually cried at the end. Love the writing.
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I liked “Less” also, thought it got better the more I read.
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I’m a big mystery reader and very much enjoyed Louise Penny’s Gamache series. If you like Louis Penny, you might also like Donna Leon’s series featuring Commissaro Guido Brunetti, which is set in Venice.
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i like when we collided
Finished “the Growing Season” by Sarah Frey last night. Her account of growing up in poverty and turning a failing family farm into a successful business. Well written, at times funny and she admits that there were people along the way who helped her rise up. Much, much better book than “Hillbilly Elegy” IMHO.
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I’ve been enjoying the Anna Pigeon mysteries by Nevada Barr. Each one is set in a different national park. Anna is an appealing protagonist and the account of the ins and outs of the National Park Service bureaucracy and the descriptions of the gorgeous natural landscapes are compelling. Of course you have to suspend disbelief because Anna always finds herself in the middle of a crime wherever she goes, but that’s a feature of every long-running mystery series. Anna is a widow with a drinking problem who nonetheless has a deep love and appreciation for the lands she’s entrusted with, leading her to place herself in peril. An interesting character. The books are humorous and suspenseful.
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A friend of my daughter’s, who owns a bookstore, did an online interview with Patricia Cornwell (best known for her Scarpetta series). I have read all of the books in the series and liked them. If you don’t like creepy, you won’t like these (The main character is the medical examiner for the state of Virginia).
Back to the interview–I really enjoyed listening to Cornwall as she described some of research she did for her new series. It features Dr. Callie Chase, a young NASA pilot, physicist, and cyber crime investigator. I’m not really into space stuff, but after listening to Cornwell, I decided to give it a try. The first book in the series is Quantum and the new one is Spin.
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I like the Anna Pigeon books too—seems like there hasn’t been a new one lately,but there are lots to read if you’ve started them recently.
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I was a faithful reader of the Scarpetta books until they got too creepy for me. Maybe I’ll try the new character.
Patricia Cornwell is…odd. I had a few issues with some of her character portrayals and stopped reading her some years ago. I did enjoy her first few books, though.
Some of my better 2020 reads:
Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black
8 Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
The Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (Initially I wasn’t sure about this book, but i found it really stuck with me, so here it is)
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. (It made me laugh a lot. Touching and funny, it doesn’t get much better)
The Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn
Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer Fleming
The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan
I am an unapologetic genre reader.
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I just finished The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow. I highly recommend it, especially if you like re-imaginations of fairy tales.
What faity tale would it be?
Always so many good recommendations here!
Brothers Grimm - if they were LGBTQ women of color
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Thanks!
It draws a mix of legends, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales. The concept is that women hid powerful words in way that men might ignore (such as in children’s tales) in order to save the knowledge for future generations. It’s set in an alternate 1890s in New Salem.
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I just loved “This is how it always is” The book tells the tale of a family with a trans child. It is beautifully written. My oldest was reading it for school so it went onto my Kindle.
I highly suggest this book esp if you are not familiar with some of the struggles facing trans kids. I laughed, I cried and I learned a lot. My kid liked it too.
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I just read Set My Heart to Five by Stephenson, Simon. A story set in the future about a bot who starts to develop feelings. A funny, delightful book with lots of social commentary. I highly recommend it.