Sunday Salon: Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay

I have never appreciated books so much as this year, a difficult year on so many counts. I've finished re-reading 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

for our book club next week, and I got so much more from reading the novel the second time around. I'm looking forward to our discussion as there are so many topics to cover from this one book.

Themes include dealing with forced isolation or self-isolation. "Mastering your circumstances" instead of having them master you. I thought that's appropriate for these days, though the book was written several years ago.

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A less serious novel caught my attention. Paris is always a good idea, I'd agree! This is one of my current reads. 

 Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay

Published July 21, 2020, Berkley

Genre; romance, contemporary fiction

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: A Theory of Everything Else: Essays by Laura Pedersen

Re-reading

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

March 26, 2019, Penguin

This, for a book club meeting early August. A reader on FB admitted to reading the novel four times!  I might go for three, but I doubt four times!

Books to be finished

I have too many of these. I must be having attention deficit when it comes to reading, as I'm tempted by new Netgalley and Kindle Unlimited books very quickly. And I'm not always in the mood for a specific genre. How about you?

In the mail 

A Theory of Everything Else: Essays by Laura Pedersen

She Writes Press (September 1, 2020)

In A Theory of Everything Else, Pedersen vividly demonstrates how life can appear to grind us down while it’s actually polishing us up―and why everyone wants to live a long time but no one wants to grow old. (publisher)

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: Amor Towles and Dee Ernst

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

March 26, 2019, Penguin
I'm re-reading this for a book club discussion next month. I am getting all the details I missed or forgot, which makes the novel even more interesting. On facebook, a reader confessed to reading A Gentleman in Moscow four times! She said the writing was exquisite. I agree.
Think about practicalities, and master any difficulties so they don't master you. Great advice from a man confined to one location because of politics, and relevant to us in the days of coronavirus. 

Maggie Finds Her Muse by Dee Ernst, April 20, 2021, St. Martin's Griffin  Genre: romance, contemporary fiction Source: Netgalley 

I loved this book, the surprise of where Maggie takes us when she needs to find her muse in order to finish writing the final book in her romantic trilogy. Her ex, Alan, is interested in getting back together, and their daughter Nicole is all for it. But Maggie finds her muse in an unexpected and different way.

I won't tell where all this takes place, but it involves lots of wine, cheese, bread, pastries, and fresh fruit. The setting makes the book even more romantic. 

Rules of Civility

Next on my reading list will be Amor Towles' first novel, Rules of Civility.  If the writing is like his second book, A Gentleman in Moscow, it will be worth reading. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: Weeks of Very Hot Weather Produce Flowers

Getting ready for more hot weather: It's been high 80s into the 90s the past 10 days or so and seems this will continue another week, with temps going up to 100 degrees midweek. Thank heavens for our central air, which we put in last year. 

The garden is going great, however, due to the rain in spring.  This picture of delphinium was taken before the explosion of pink cone flowers in the same flower bed. 

A galley from Netgalley:

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Nov. 10, 2020 publication by HarperCollins

Description: a brilliantly complex literary thriller, the follow-up to Magpie Murders.
Susan Ryeland is asked to return to England from her home in Crete to solve the murder of a man whose death was solved in a book she edited and published some years ago. 

Book club selection for August:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

March 26, 2019, Penguin

Description: In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

It's Monday: Contemporary Fiction

I have gone back to a monthly subscription for ebooks, Kindle Unlimited, a wide selection of books that suit my reading tastes just fine. I've found books I would not normally have chosen to read, ones outside of my usual genres.

Just finished a contemporary fiction/romance, Sorry I Missed You by Suzy Krause,  recently published. Enjoyed it. 

Sorry I Missed You 

Next, I'll be reading Krause's first book, Valencia and Valentine, published June 2019.

Valencia and Valentine

This one is about a 35-year-old Valencia who's afraid of flying, and Mrs. Valentine, a lonely, elderly woman desperate for company.  I'm interested to see how their stories intersect. 

For more serious subject matter, I'm reading historical fiction, 

The Library of Legends by Janie Chang, set in China 1937

The Night Tiger by Yangtze Choo, set in 1930s Malaysia

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: Lantern Men and Three Souls

Weather

The humidity at 4 a.m. this morning was 94 degrees outside. My bad knee complained and woke me up! I haven't been back to sleep, trying this and that to calm my agitated knee and have just applied a rub that heats up the muscles.

Books

I am now reading Elly Griffith's latest in the Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist, series set in Norfolk and Cambridge, U.K. It's excellent reading for mystery lovers.

The Lantern Men, June 16, 2020

I'm also reading Three Souls, a novel set in the Shanghai of 1935 during the war with Japan, as told by a woman who has just died and remains a ghost with a mission to be completed before she can enter the afterlife.  

 Three Souls by Janie Chang , August 2013

All my current reads are e-books, since the libraries have not yet fully reopened. I am also now into audiobooks! 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: Virtual Romance and Adventure

Audiobooks

I see on FB that lots of women readers lighten their chores by listening to audiobooks while they do housework, gardening, cooking, laundry, or even driving. As a result, I've decided to give it a try and get my house spic and span effortlessly, lol. 

Just finished Lucky Suit by Lauren Blakely, a light and lively romance set in Miami and NYC. Though I confess I didn't do more than empty the dishwasher and wash some pots and pans while listening.

Lucky Suit, January 2019 audiobook, is an enjoyable story about a long-distance romance that is brought about by a grandmother Lulu, who thinks she has found the perfect match for her granddaughter Kristen. 

Lulu plots to get Kristen in touch with her online poker playing friend, Cameron, and goes out of her way to make the meeting happen, though Kristen lives in Miami and Cameron in NYC. A fun book to listen to, well narrated and plotted.   

Next on my audiobook list:

Dumped, Actually by Nick Spalding, July 2019, Audible Audio

Genre: romance 
About: Journalist Ollie asks the subscribers of his website: how did they get over their failed relationships? Chaos ensues when he follows their advice.

Finished reading:

Killing Maine by Mike Bond, December 2019

Genre: suspense, environmental thriller 

Another fast paced book by Mike Bond, this one on the wind industry's deleterious effects on people and the environment - noise pollution and the destruction of birds, bats, and other animals by giant wind turbines. This time it's in Maine. Crooked politicians and officials are paid off by a wind industry corporation to look the other way in return for hefty financial rewards and backing.

Suspenseful thriller with an environmental theme, similar to Bond's other environmental book, The Last Savannah. 

Also finished Mike Bond's Tibetan Cross, published October 2014, a thriller involving the CIA helping the Tibetans against the Chinese. Full of action and atmosphere. Set in Tibet and Nepal, of course. 

As you see, I enjoy action and adventure novels. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon