It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

 I won this book from Emma at Words and Peace after the end of the July in Paris 2023 Challenge 

L'Origine: The Secret Life of the World's Most Erotic Masterpiece by Lilianne Milgrom

Publisher: The riveting odyssey of one of the world's most scandalous and sexually explicit works of art.

In 1866, maverick French artist Gustave Courbet painted one of the most iconic images in the history of art...

L'Origine is an entertaining and superbly researched work of historical fiction that traces the true story of the painting's unlikely tale of survival, replete with French revolutionaries, Turkish pashas, and nefarious Nazi captains.

 But L'Origine is more than a riveting romp through history-it also sheds light on society's complex relationship with the female body. (publisher)

I had never heard of this work of art by Courbet until now, and looked up the artwork in question online. It is shockingly revealing of the feminine sexual parts of the body and I am curious about the background of this painting and the reason he painted it. 

Bought at the thrift store: 

Musical Chairs: A Novel by Amy Poeppel

Published July 21, 2020; Atria

Genre: contemorary fiction, romance, chick lit

Publisher:

A hilarious and heartfelt new novel about a perfectly imperfect summer of love, secrets, and second chances.

Amy Poeppel crafts a love letter to modern family life with all of its discord and harmony. Musical Chairs is an irresistibly romantic story of role reversals, reinvention, and sweet synchronicity. (publisher)

I bought Musical Chairs as I had really enjoyed the author's most recent book - a very funny romantic comedy and family drama, The Sweet Spot.

The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel, January 31, 2023,  See that review here.

I hope Musical Chairs will be just as good.

Did you get any new books this week?

Memes: It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Mailbox Monday

It's Monday: What Are You Reading? My Nemesis by Charmaine Craig

 Newly Discovered book:

 I was interested in the different versions of what is acceptable femininity.  

My Nemesis by Charmaine Craig

Published February 7, 2023; Grove Press

Publisher information:

An intellectual affair and its reverberations across the lives of two couples

Tessa, a successful writer, develops a friendship with Charlie, a  handsome philosopher and scholar based in Los Angeles. Sparks fly as they exchange intellectual ideas —but there are obstacles to their developing friendship. 

Tessa’s husband Milton enjoys Charlie’s company, while Charlie’s Asian wife Wah’s traditional femininity and subservience strike Tessa as weaknesses. Tessa scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet, once homeless on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. The conflict leads to Tessa’s declaration that Wah is “an insult to womankind.” 

An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal, and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection—and the perils of feminine rivalry—

Charmaine Craig is the author of My Nemesis; Miss Burma, longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction; and The Good Men, a national bestseller. She received her MFA from the University of California at Irvine, and is a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside. 

Memes: It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Mailbox Monday.

Sunday Salon: A Reposting of a 2010 Sunday Salon

March 28, 2010 Sunday Salon Post

Time to reprint this post with its links to reviews of interesting books of then! Click on the titles for my full blog reviews!

In between full time work, I did only two book reviews the past week. I tried to sneak in as many pages of reading as I could during lunch and breaks. I'm on the computer all day but can't blog, of course. It's been a busy but Ho Hum week.

Posted a review of The Writing on My Forehead: A Novel by Nafisa Haji (March 2009) for TLC Book Tours, plus a guest post by the author on writing.

The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett, detective fiction, also got a review, which I changed around a few times as I had a hard time expressing how I felt about the book. There was just so much to it.

I loved The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata, a short novel about the beauty of the old Kyoto, the ancient capital, and about a young girl finding out that she is adopted. Straight forward and easy to read.

I reviewed a new mystery novel, Murder in the Palais Royal (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 10) by Cara Black, set in Paris. One of my favorite mystery series.

Then there is a love story, Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright, a debut novel. 

On the 6-hour drive to and from Canada last weekend, we listened to 8 discs of the 17-disc audio of  The Swan Thieves: A Novel.  My hubby, who loves art and a good mystery, really liked it. Click on the title for my post.

It will rain tomorrow. Later, I'll take down the old robin's nest in the tall bush/tree outside my window. I think robins build new ones each year.

Ho, hum, time to turn in! What did you do last week?

So, this is my post 12 years ago in the Sunday Salon. I'm amazed I read so many books so quickly during that time! Do you have posts from 2010?

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, Stacking the Shelves

Sunday Salon: Suspense in Colorado and in Morocco

 

The Guide by Peter Heller, August 24, 2021, Knopf

Genre: thriller set in Colorado

Source: library book 

My comments: 

A thriller set in modern days, in an isolated area of Colorado, where the very wealthy go for R & R and for fly fishing. Our main character, Jack, is the assigned guide for a famous young singer, Alison, whose only interest is in enjoying the lodge and its amenities for fishing during her week-long stay. 

The two get into deep waters, however, when they suspect there is something more sinister going on at the lodge than harmless outdoor recreation, and they risk their lives trying to find out the problem, and to fix it.  

Nature lovers will enjoy the author's prose and descriptions of the surroundings, the canyon, river, forests, and fly fishing itself. They will also get pulled into the story that becomes more complex and compelling, as time goes on, than a leisurely time on the river. 

Next on my reading list:

Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews, Matrch 2, 2021, Little, Brown & Co.   Genre: suspense   Source: library book 

I almost didn't borrow this book because I thought the title was unimaginative and the cover too subtle. But then I glanced at the book blurb and thought the novel was just up my alley. A case of an assistant assuming an author's identity during a trip to Morocco. Just enough suspense to get my attention. 

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: Novels with Widows and a CIA Agent

 New reads from the library:

An Ambush of Widows by Jeff Abbott,  July 6, 2021, Grand Central Publishing

Genre: psychological suspense

About: two widows delve into their husbands’ deadly and dangerous secrets—as they try to protect their own.

The women, who know each other only because their husbands were killed in the same location, join to find the secrets behind the murders and to protect their families. 

The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer, March 24, 2020, Minotaur Books

Genre: political thriller

About: This is the fourth book in the CIA agent's, Milo Weaver, series. Milo is hiding out in Western Sahara when a young CIA analyst arrives to question him about a series of suspicious deaths and terrorist chatter linked to him.

This detailed, complex book takes some time to get into and to read, but seems worth it. 

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

I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin: Sunday Salon

 The title of this book  made me choose it, and I'm not disappointed so far.

I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin

Published May 1, 2021, Lake Union Publishing

Genre: contemporary fiction, humor

Source: ebook 

Three women are off in a broken down camper, driving cross country on an errand for their friend Karen, who is undergoing cancer treatment. The goal? Bring back Karen's beloved diabetic Great Pyrenees dog from LA to her bedside in Wisconsin. Karen's ex has already shipped the unwanted giant dog to a rescue center in Utah and the three women must travel to Utah, find the dog and bring him to Karen, who needs him as her therapy pet. The dog needs insulin shots regularly, so putting him in a crate in the belly of a plane, to fly to Wisconsin, is out of the question. 

What's the novel's interest besides this unusual quest? The three women are not compatible, two of them are barely talking to each other, and the third is a new LA friend who has hopped on for the ride. But their getting along is crucial on the trip. The situation calls for either comedy or tragedy and the book is hilarious so far.

What book is keeping you up this week? 

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

Sunday Salon: Books Published in 1941

 Reading Books published 1941

I found on my shelves a first edition of The End is Not Yet: China at War by Herrymon Maurer, printed 1941 by Robert M. McBride & Company, NY

A withdrawn library book that I've had for umpteen years, it's description on Goodreads:

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.

The book begins with the August 1937 attack on Shanghai, China by Japanese forces, starting a years' long occupation of several major cities and an attempt at complete subjugation of China at the beginnings of WWII. This period of time is known as the Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese did not give up their attempts or withdraw from China until their defeat in WWII in 1945. Thus the title, The End Is Not Yet, as this book was printed in 1941, four years before the defeat. 

The book describes the surprise attacks and takeover of major cities by the Japanese troops, and the unrelenting Chinese resistance, with what amounts to mainly guerilla warfare to counter the superior tanks and armored vehicles and the bombs of the invading country. The Chinese resistance continued for about eight years, from 1937 to 1945,  and was successful because of their numbers, the mountainous nature of the landscape, the unforgiving and uncontrollable great rivers of the Yellow River and the Yangtze, the Chinese guerilla tactics, and their determination to keep their country free. 

The author received first hand information for this partial history from friends, foreign and Chinese, in Szechwan and primarily in Chengtu.

I am in the middle of reading The End is Not Yet, and am totally captivated, as I've always been fascinated by this period of Chinese history.  I'm so glad I finally noticed this book on my shelves!

From the Library: 

The title of this small green hardcover on the mystery shelves of our library caught my eye. This title was new to me, and I believed I had read all of Du Maurier's novels. 

I'll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier was first printed in 1932. This edition is a 1941 publication by the Sun Dial Press, New York. 

It's a coming-of-age story, with  a 20-year-old who was rescued from self-destruction by a slightly older man, who takes him on journeys far away from the stifling and loveless home life and family in London which had led him to near suicide.

I'm in the middle of the book and curious about the final outcome, as the young man, Dick, reacts to his new environments and meeting and interacting with new people his own age, far from home.  It seems a little different from her previous novels and is relatively unknown, it appears. 

These are my current books. 

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: The Last Flight by Julie Clark

 Last thriller read: 

The Last Flight by Julie Clark, June 23, 2020, Sourcebooks Landmark

Genre: thriller, mystery

Source; library book

Two women at the airport, running away from unbearable lives, find each other in line and decide to swap plane tickets, purses, suitcases and coats, thus discarding their own identities, hoping to disappear on reaching their new destinations. Will their plan work?

I read this book nonstop and seemed to finish it in a day! It was that suspenseful and riveting. The plot and characters were unique and their dilemmas grabbed me as a reader. A little twist at the end too didn't hurt the interest of the novel. 

And now for an historical novel: 

 China: The Novel by Edward Rutherford, May 11, 2021, Doubleday

Genre: historical novel

Source: library book

The cover grabbed my attention, together with the single word title. It promised a history of modern China in novel form, easier, in my opinion, to read and grasp the complex history. The book description helped: 

The story begins in 1839, at the dawn of the First Opium War, and follows Chinese history through Mao's Cultural Revolution and up to the present day. Rutherfurd chronicles the rising and falling fortunes of members of Chinese, British, and American families, as they negotiate the tides of history.....a deeply researched portrait of Chinese history and society, its ancient traditions and great upheavals, and China's emergence as a rising global power.

I plan to start this soon, at the same time finishing a new literary novel, My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee. 

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

Tender Is the Bite by Spencer Quinn: It's Monday

 Meme: It's Monday: What Are You Reading

Tender Is the Bite by Spencer Quinn, Chet and Bernie Mystery #11

Publication: June 1, 2021. 

Source: NetGalley

I'm enjoying another Chet and Bernie mystery, narrated by the clever PI dog, Chet, in his limited but very smart and observant  way.  Chet rescues Bernie in more than one instance while the detecting duo solve murders and find missing persons. Another entertaining and suspenseful read.

Description: Chet the dog and his partner in solving crimes, PI Bernie, are contacted by a terribly scared young woman who seems to want their help. Before she can even tell them her name, she flees in panic. But in that brief meeting Chet sniffs out an important secret about her, a secret at the heart of the mystery he and Bernie set out to solve.

Also still reading: 

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Hidden Treasure by Jane Cleland

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim

You can see I have several books by Asian and Asian Pacific authors! And they are quite good!

What are you reading this week? 

It's Monday: New Novels by Asian Americans

 More Asian-American and Asian-Canadian authors are surfacing with light romantic comedies and cozy mysteries. On my TBR list:  

 

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim, August 4, 2020, Berkley

Genre: romance, comedy

Setting: Paris

Ever since she can remember, Vanessa Yu has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottom of their teacups.... To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai. 

Mimi Lee Reads Between the Lines by Jennifer J. Chow, November 10, 2020, Berkely
Genre: light mystery, cozy    Setting: Los Angeles

When a local teacher is found dead, LA’s newest pet groomer Mimi Lee finds herself in a pawful predicament—with her younger sister’s livelihood on the line. She sets out to solve the crime and save her sister. 

(See my review of the author's first Mimi Lee mystery, Mimi Lee Gets a Clue.) 

Meme: It's Monday: What Are You Reading? 

Sunday Salon: the Humorous and the Serious

 Asian rom-com, set in Southern California, with the Chinese-Indonesian community. 

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto, April 27, 2021, Berkley Books 

Genre: romance, contemporary Asian American fiction

Setting: Southern California

Source: library

Five stars for inventiveness in character and plot and for a humorous and entertaining book about a Chinese-Indonesian young woman who must fend off her "interfering" but loving aunts in order to find true love in her choice of career and love life. When Meddelin later becomes entangled in an accident that looks like a murder, the aunties come to the rescue to save their niece. Their antics carry the day. 

No surprise that the book is slated to be made into a Netflix movie!

#####

On a much more serious note, here is a book from Saichek Publicity, a very candid memoir that comes with a warning that it contains possible triggers as it describes violence, childhood abuse, rape, etc. 

Brain Storm by Shelley Kolton, MD, January 2, 2021, FLR Press

Genre: memoir

Brain Storm is the heartbreaking account of a mind, fragmented and broken, ultimately made whole by one woman's incomparable strength and courage. (publisher)


"You will not emerge unchanged from Brain Storm. It is a harrowing, hallowing experience and a triumph of the human spirit" - Robin Morgan, bestselling author of Sisterhood is Powerful, former Editor-in-Chief of Ms. Magazine.

#####

On the mystery side, I am re-reading Of Mutts and Men, a quirky but fun novel about Chet, a canine, and his companion in crime solving, Bernie Little, who comprise the Little Detective Agency.

Of Mutts and Men makes for light humorous reading as we follow Chet's thoughts and observations, a dog's point of view,  as he helps Bernie solve mysteries and find and bring "perps" to justice. 

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: Singapore, India, and Southern Italy

 My latest books have come from the library, which is welcoming patrons into the building once again. This means I'm ignoring my ereader, for the time being, and going with paper books!

Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho, published June 9, 2020, Putnam

Genre: contemporary women's fiction, romance

My goodreads review:

Refreshing take on career, romance and marriage, pulling the main character in two directions at once. Andrea Tang is a successful corporate lawyer in Singapore, working overtime to achieve her goal of making partner in the firm.

However, her relatives, in particular her mother, are after her to find a husband and to provide grandchildren. How Andrea manages these two conflicting, for her,  goals are the main theme. The novel is written with humor and interesting insights into  women and careers, especially among the well-to-do in Singapore. Last Tang Standing was fun to read and more than a great beach read.

Recently arrived in the mail: 

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey, June 1, 2021, courtesy of Soho Crime

Genre: historical mystery set in India, 1920s

Description: India’s only female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is compelled to bring justice to the family of a murdered female Parsi student just as Bombay’s streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule. 

The Measure of Time by Gianrico Carofiglio, April 8, 2021, from Bitter Lemon Press
Genre: legal thriller set in Southern Italy

Description: The setting is Bari in Southern Italy. Defense attorney Guido Guerrieri takes on an appeal against what looks like an unassailable murder conviction. The alleged perpetrator is the son of a former lover. A taut legal thriller and a meditation on the ravages of time.

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

The Bitter Taste of Murder by Camilla Trinchieri: A Taste of Tuscany

It's already Tuesday at 2:15 a.m. and I'm late for It's Monday! 

I have a box of library books, recently borrowed, but am still reading 

The Bitter Taste of Murder: A Tuscan Mystery by Camilla Trinchieri

The setting and characters are delightfully interesting. There is a murder mystery and a love interest as well as clever minor characters, in a Tuscan setting. I am reading in fits and starts, what with better weather to entice me into the garden, or out into the parks. 

What are you reading this week? 

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

It's Monday: Books Set in Cleveland and Tuscany, Italy

 New books from publishers/publicists

2207 South Green Road by Janice C. Spector, 

Two Bairns Press (June 22, 2021)

Source: Saichek Publicity 

Description: A poignant and humorous story of love despite dysfunction among an assimilating extended Jewish family riddled with secrets in suburban Cleveland during 1961.

The Bitter Taste of Murder: A Tuscan Mystery by Camilla Trinchieri

Genre: mystery series

Publication: August 10, 2021, Soho Crime

Description: The follow-up to Murder in Chianti. Ex-NYPD detective Nico Doyle is recruited by Italian authorities to investigate the murder of a prominent wine critic.

What are you reading this week? 

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