Sunday Salon: Bookish Cozy Mysteries

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.
Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

It's been a while since I've featured cozies. Here a few with bookish themes.

Twice Told Tail: A Black Cat Bookshop Mystery by Ali Brandon, November 1, 2016.
At Pettistone's Fine Books,  an anonymous bidder is offering a suspiciously high price for an antique book—and Darla the owner doesn’t need her cat Hamlet’s special senses to know that something isn’t quite right. (publisher)

A Likely Story: A Library Lover's Mystery by Jenn McKinlay,  November 3, 2016.
Library director Lindsey Norris has befriended two elderly brothers, Stewart and Peter Rosen. She enjoys visiting them in their treasure-filled, ramshackle Victorian on Star Island until she discovers that Peter has been killed and Stewart is missing. (publisher)

I finished The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer, May 3, 2016, St. Martin's Press and was torn between giving it a 4 or a 5. I wasn't very sympathetic to the protagonist toward the end but could understand the conflicts she had, having to choose between her young son's future and her sentimental and demanding former artist lover. 

My next read is a detective novel, 

Diana's Altar by Barbara Cleverly, an Inspector Joe Sandilands, Scotland Yard, mystery, well written with interesting plots. I hope I'll like this one as well as many of her former ones. 
The book: Doctor Adelaide Hartest bears witness to the final moments of a dying stranger. The situation becomes very complex, as Scotland Yard is soon to find out. 

The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayers: Book Beginning

Moving between the London art world and the days of a love affair in a dusty Paris studio, life and art bleed together for now married Kat Lind and her former artist lover, David. 

The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer, May 3, 2016, St. Martin's Press

Book beginning:
Prologue

Entering the front hall, Kat saw it coming, but could not stop it. The swift and silent arc of the sledgehammer came to its own abrupt end as it smashed through the smooth plaster wall. She squeezed her eyes shut, momentarily stunned by the force and the sound of the impact ....

Chapter I: 
Sometime after the arrival of the second builder and the ensuing chorus of intermittent hammering, Kat left the house and made her way through Holland Park, glad for the relative peace of its wooded paths. The tops of the trees strained to catch the low, rose-colored sun....

Page 56:
Jorie spoke French to anyone who was not immediately identifiable as English.

Comments: Half-way through this library book and really liking it so far. 

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

This or That Book Tag

~ RULES ~

Mention the creator of the tag.

Thank the person who tagged you.

Tag other people and spread the love.

Thanks to Pat from Posting For Now and Suko at Suko's Notebook for tagging me in the This or That Book Tag, and to Ayunda from Tea & Paperbacks, the creator of this book tag.

1) Reading on the couch or reading in bed?

    Both!

2) Main character: Male or Female?

Female, for the most part.  

3) Sweet or salty snacks while reading?

Both! Bring on the Snickers and the chips!

4) Trilogies or quartets?

Trilogies, though I have read few.  

5) First Person or Third Person POV?

Both.  

6) Night or morning reader?

Morning, day, and night.

7) Libraries or bookstores?

Bookstores for new books. Library for older books, though I sometimes am lucky and find brand new releases.

8) Books that make you laugh or books that make you cry?

Both, depending on my mood.

9) Black or white book covers?

I prefer colorful and attractive covers. 

10) Character driven or plot driven stories?

Both, though I tend to prefer character driven plots, psychologically complex individuals. 

The Book Bloggers I tag are:

Laurel-Rain at Laurel-Rain Snow Creates

Bookfan Mary at Bookfan

Greg at Greg's Book Haven

Mystica at Mystica

Deb Nance at  ReaderBuzz

If I haven't tagged you but you would like to participate, please do join in!

Sunday Salon: Books from My Shelves

Books from my shelves, revisited. I featured this book on a Waiting on Wednesday post last year and have pulled it to be read this winter!

The Summer of Good Intentions by Wendy Francis, July 7, 2015; Simon and Schuster
Genre: contemporary women's fiction

The Herington girls - Maggie, Jess, and Virgie -  are together again, with their husbands and kids, for another summer in the family’s old Cape Cod house.

When their mother, Gloria, announces she’s coming for an unscheduled visit—with her new boyfriend—no one is more surprised than their father, Arthur, who has not quite gotten over his divorce.  (publisher)

Here's another that I hope to read soon:


Iris and Ruby: A Novel by Rosie Thomas, April 5, 2016 by The Overlook Press
Setting: Cairo

Iris Black's Cairo house is disturbed by the arrival of willful granddaughter Ruby from England. Ruby helps Iris document deteriorating memories of glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo and her WWII one true love, enigmatic Captain Xan Molyneux, who was lost to war. Iris’ early devastation shaped her daughter, granddaughter, and leads them into terrible danger in the Egyptian desert. (publisher)

Any older books from your shelves you are currently reading/hoping to read? 

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.
Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

Book Beginning: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen, October 13, 2009, Penguin.

A woman returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis
Book beginning:

The year I turned forty-three was the year I realized I should never have taken my Mennonite genes for granted. 

Page 56:

My folks insisted that we study and travel abroad. They have done extensive globetrotting except Antartica, which is probably on their list. 

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Sunday Salon: Nonfiction Books

New nonfiction books are on my desk this week:

Moonglow by Michael Chabon, November 22, 2016, Harper.

In 1989, fresh from the publication of his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon traveled to his mother’s home in Oakland, California to visit his terminally ill grandfather. Tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, memory stirred by the imminence of death, Chabon’s grandfather shared recollections and told stories the younger man had never heard before, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried and forgotten. (publisher)

I'll Take You There by Wally Lamb, November 22, 2016, Harper.

...tapestry of one Baby Boomer's life—Felix Funicello, introduced in Wishin’ and Hopin’—and the trio of unforgettable women who have changed it, in this radiant homage to the resiliency, strength, and power of women. (publisher)

I finished reading and reviewed The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan, a novel that moves from the present to the past and recounts the massive flooding of a town in Pennsylvania in 1889.  I've also finished A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny, another five star novel.

My current read is going slowly because of other things I have to do. My reading has slowed down quite a bit.  Murder in the Secret Garden  by Ellery Adams. I really like a lot of things about it - the themes of medieval herbs, healing gardens and their counterparts - poisonous plants ,  the mystery plot,  and the setting. 

What are you reading this week?
Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.
Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date, and Mailbox Monday

Book Review: The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan

The Woman in the Photo, a novel published June 14, 2016, begins on a Memorial Day in present time and flashes back to Memorial Day in 1889. 

The Woman in the Photo

Synopsis: A modern day adoptee tries to find her birth parents and finds only a picture of her 19th century ancestress, the woman in the photo, which she uses to try to trace her family. The opening paragraphs foreshadow the terrible flood that is to wash away the town of Johnstown, Penn. in the as yet unknown future.

My thoughts: The disastrous flooding of Johnstown in 1889 is brought to light with harrowing detail in this historical/modern novel. The story of the flood is told by Elizabeth, a young woman who escaped but took part in helping the victims and survivors. The modern story is told by an adopted woman, a biological descendant of Elizabeth, who researches the flood to find her roots.

The novel was intriguing and so detailed, I felt the disaster happening all around me. The characters are believable and engrossing in their responses to their situations. I recommend the book. 

First chapter:  

The previous day Memorial Day May 30, 1889

"Elizabeth, please!"  Mother looks away from the train window long enough to eye me sharply. "Why do you test me?"

I frown as she grips the gloves in her lap and returns her gaze to the branches flickering past. It's Memorial Day. Yet the weather matches my mood: stormy. It rained all morning. More is on the way. 

Thanks to William Morrow for a galley of this book for review.