The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry: Book Feature

The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry, July 11, 2017, Berkley
Genre: contemporary, women's fiction

Description: The women who spent their childhood summers in a small southern town discover it harbors secrets as lush as the marshes that surround it...

Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Water's End, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Until the night that Lainey's mother disappeared.

Now, in her early fifties, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career and her marriage crumbles. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. They reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide. (Goodreads)

My take: A book for summer -  an idyllic setting, with mysteries from the past to unravel and problems of the present to resolve. 

Sunday Salon: Downsizing

Thanks to Meryl Zegarek and Rachel Hundert for a review copy of Salt Creek, a debut novel by Lucy Treloar, published February 28, 2017 by Picador Australia. This is an historical novel about the Finch family who move from Adelaide, Australia during hard times to a remote part of the South Australian coast. The award-winning book covers "colonialism, race relations, social expectations on women, love, family, and duty."

My recent five-star reads, ebooks in different genres:

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, August 23, 2016, Random House. A novel of a Cameroon immigrant family to Harlem and their search for a place to call home. See my goodreads comments/review.

The Runaway Wife by Elizabeth Birklund, a dreamy tale of a runaway wife, told in poetic language and set in a magical and often dangerous place, the high, rocky Swiss Alps in autumn-winter. 

Woof and Arf, two Bowser and Birdie novels by Spencer Quinn, feature an 11-year-old girl and her dog Bowser who have adventures while solving mysteries in the swampy lands of Louisiana. 

I am now reading a lucky find at the library:

Skeleton God by Eliot Pattison is the 9th in the Inspector Shan mystery series set in remote Tibet. It depicts Tibetans under Chinese rule, the cultural and political clashes that can occur, and also has an intriguing murder mystery plot. Unusual places and circumstances. 

I have been giving dozens of my books to charity and a box of them to my neighbor! I am trying to downsize without feeling as if I am giving away my most cherished possessions.  

The weather is wonderful today, but we are prepping for four days of storms next week! 

What are you reading this week?

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It's Monday: Here's What I'm Reading

Visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date 

Today feels like a Friday, as I know we have another holiday tomorrow! Happy Fourth of July!

I finished reading Murder in Saint-Germaine by Cara Black and have a brief review/commentary on goodreads. I also finished Betrayal at Iga by Susan Spann, an historical mystery set in 16th century Japan. I will have a review on an online book tour the end of this month.

E-books: Reading Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, a borrow from the library.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, August 23, 2016, Random House.
This is a timely novel about a Cameroon immigrant in New York trying to get his green card for himself and his wife and child. He is lucky enough to get a job as a chauffeur to a Wall Street bigwig, but this is just before the stock market and banking crash that could affect his employer. down the road. It's an easy and interesting read so far.

 Three Souls by Janie Chang is also on my ereader. A young woman, recently deceased, returns to memories of her life to reach an understanding that will ease her into the afterlife. With the help of three souls - scholarly, romantic, and wise - she relives the past. I am eager to learn more about 1935 Shanghai, a time of turmoil and war that changed China forever. 

Also on my ereader is The Runaway Wife by Elizabeth Birklund, a lighter read.

"Three beautiful French sisters entrust an American hiker with the mission of rescuing their mother high in the Alps." But no one is sure she wants to be found! Sounds like a fun novel.

What's on your reading list this week?

Sunday Salon: Weeding and Reading

Slow reading last week as I finished only two short books:

Arf (Bowser and Birdie #2)

April 26, 2016, Scholastic Press

by Spencer Quinn 

A very cute mystery for young readers and not so young readers as well, anyone who loves dogs. The story is narrated by the dog Bowser who is the faithful companion and protector, as he styles himself, of eleven-year-old Birdie, who lives with her mom and grandma near a bayou in Louisiana.

When someone breaks into their house under very mysterious circumstances, Bowser is on the alert.

A Separation by Katie Kitamura, published February  7, 2017.

A psychological study, character-oriented, in a slow moving novel of decision and resolve, and finally indecision. 

A young woman is sent by her mother-in-law to find the woman's husband who has gone to a remote corner of Greece on business. He seems to have disappeared, but the young woman does not inform her mother-in-law that she agrees to find her son in order to ask for a divorce. 

No new books came in the mail, but I have downloaded ebooks and borrowed hardcovers from the library.

Other books:
I am almost finished with Murder in Saint-Germaine by Cara Black, a mystery set in Paris, one of  the best so far in the series, I think.

The weather was so good yesterday, we spent time relaxing in the backyard, weeding, reading, and drinking iced tea and that new coffee I found recently. 

Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date 

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams: Book Beginning

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams

published June 28, 2016, a book of romance and scandal in the Roaring Twenties of New 

York.

.

Book beginning:

At last, it's the day we've been waiting for, dear readers: the opening of the greatest Trial of the Century, and I don't mind telling you it's as hot as blazes inside this undersized Connecticut courtroom. You're much better off reading about it from the comfort of your own armchair, believe me. Oh, the suffering  I endue on the sacred altar of journalism. 

And now after all these months of fuss and hysteria and delectable details - the Patent King, his beautiful heiress daughters, the downstairs tenant, the kitchen-maid-cum-tearful-Scarsdale- housewife and her munificent husband, the turret window, the missing gardener, the exact length and serration of the blade used to murder the victim - here we all sit, waving our makeshift fans before our perspiring faces, and it turns out these mythical figures are humans after all! The Patent King is smaller than you'd think. He doesn't say a word, sitting stiff as a wire beside the side of the defense counsel, and the daughters huddle next to each other in the front row, so pale and haggard that their much ballyhooed beauty is, I'm afraid, much conjecture.  

Page 56:

Fortescue. Something's fishy. Why would a man that rich live in a rinky-dink brownstone so far south and east? It doesn't make sense. 

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.

Book Feature: Kiss Carlo by Adriana Trigiani

Kiss Carlo by Adriana Trigiani, June 20, 2017, Harper Collins.
From the dreamy mountaintop village of Roseto Valfortore in Italy, to the vibrant streets of South Philly, to the close-knit enclave of Roseto, Pennsylvania, to New York City during the birth of the golden age of television, Kiss Carlo is a powerful, inter-generational story that celebrates the ties that bind, while staying true to oneself when all hope seems lost.

Told against the backdrop of some of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, this novel brims with romance as long buried secrets are revealed, mistaken identities are unmasked, scores are settled, broken hearts are mended and true love reigns.  (publisher)

Can't wait to read this one!

Sunday Salon: A Few Good Books

It got cooler this morning after a few days of really hot and muggy weather. No more 90s heat for now!

I have reached more than the half-way point in the mystery novel in French, Mourir Sur Seine by Michel Bussi. Amazon has offered me another of the author's books, in French, Ne lache-pas ma main. They would send me the paper copy from Book Deposit. I am half-way tempted and may do that once I near the end of this book.

There are a few new books to share:

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, June 6, 2017, Harper.

The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry, July 11, 2017, Berkley

The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwo, July 4, 2017, HarperCollins.

The Longevity Plan by Dr. John Day and Jane Day, July 4, 2017, Harper.

This ebook buy is turning out to be quite a good read:

The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter, June 6, 2017, Lake Union Publishing. I'm hoping to read her 2016 book later on, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls. 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

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