Sunday Salon: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

I was able to finish this book in two days due to the scathing hot temperatures outside that allowed me to stay indoors and read.

The Dutch House

The Dutch House, a novel by Ann Patchett, September 24, 2019, Harper

Genre: family drama, domestic drama, fiction

The plight of two children, Danny and Maeve, grabbed me from the beginning - the story of a sister and her young brother whose mother disappeared from their gilded mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs and left them and their father in the care of a cook, a nursemaid, and a housekeeper. 

The house in which they lived, called the Dutch house because of the previous owners, seems to be the center of the novel. The Dutch house is a large impressive mansion bought by the father, Cyril, for his family, but its opulence and size overwhelmed the mother, Elna, so much that she deserted it along with her husband and children. The house is later taken over by a stepmother, Andrea, who loves the house but not the children, Danny and Maeve. She banishes them from their home after Cyril's sudden death, leaving them impoverished and alone.

The house and their past family life continue to influence Maeve and Danny as they make their own future without the benefit of their father's house or fortune. 

Intense and forceful, the story narrated by Danny, held on to me till the very end. The characters Elna and the stepmother Andrea are two opposites, distinct in their response to and relationship to the Dutch house. 

A five-star recommendation. This was an ebook borrowed through NetGalley. 

Two new books:

The Butterfly Girl

The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld, October 1, 2019, Harper

Genre: thriller, suspense

An investigator tracks down a missing girl. Setting: Portland, Oregon

The House of Brides

The House of Brides by Jane Cockram, October 22, 2019, Harper

Genre: psychological suspense

A young  woman flees to a family estate in England, but finds not safety, but only danger, there.

Memes: 

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

Book Beginning: All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy

All the Lives We Never Lived

All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy,  November 2018, Atria 

Set in India during World War II and the present,  the novel is about a man's attempt to discover the truth about his mother.

Book beginning:

In my childhood, I was known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman. The man was in fact German, but in small‑town India in those days, all white foreigners were largely thought of as British. This concern for accuracy annoyed my scholarly father even in circumstances as dire as losing his wife to another man. 

Page 56:

Dinu was older than me, at school he was my protector.

Do these excerpts grab you as a reader?
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 Review: The Heart Keeper by Alex Dahl

The Heart Keeper

The Heart Keeper by Alex Dahl, July 16, 2019, Berkley

Genre: thriller

Themes: heart transplant, obsession, mothers and daughters
Objective review: 4.5/5

My review: This thriller deals with mothers and their daughters and the volatile and contradictory feelings mothers can have. In the case of one woman losing her child, whose heart was donated to another child, feelings change, develop, and the loss might be almost too much to bear.

Intriguing, suspenseful, and heart breaking all at once.

This review is part of a book tour sponsored by Berkley, Penguin Random House, which provided the review copy. 

Sunday Salon: Exotic Environments for Three New Mystery Novels

Mysteries and cozies are more and more using exotic environments and atmosphere to appeal to readers who may want something different from the traditional settings - bookstore, library, specialty and candy shops, local tea and coffee shops, bed and breakfasts, or hotels, etc.

I  have three new mysteries with an African safari theme, a Singapore setting, and a Budapest-style, Hungarian tea house.


Love and Death Among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen, August 6, 2019, Berkley Books
Setting: 1930s England and Kenya
Georgie and Darcy are finally on their honeymoon in Kenya's Happy Valley, but murder intervenes (publisher)

Death in a Budapest Butterfly by Julia Buckley is the first Hungarian Tea House Mystery, publication July 30, 2019, Berkley Books. Hanna Keller runs her family's Tea House,  but when a customer keels over from a poisoned cuppa, Hanna and her tea-leaf reading grandma will have to catch a killer. (publisher)

Singapore Sapphire by A.M. Stuart is the first Harriet Gordon Mystery, August 6, 2019, Berkley, Harriet Gordon stumbles into a web of stolen gems and cutthroat thieves as she runs from her tragic past in a new historical mystery series set in early 20th century Singapore.  (publisher)

Memes: 

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

It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

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

The Pawful Truth by Miranda James, July 16, 2019, Berkley

Genre: mystery series

When Charlie Harris decides to go back to school, he and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, find themselves entangled in a deadly lovers quarrel on campus (publisher)

The Ditch by Herman Koch, June 11, 2017, Hogarth Press

Genre: family drama, suspense

The bracing and inventive new novel of suspicions and secrecy from Herman Koch (publisher)

This was the only book that grabbed my interest the last time I visited the bookstore. That might change the next time I go, but for now this is my new read. It's different to me as I've never read any of Koch's books. Told by what seems an unreliable narrator, a man full of jealousy, who suspects his wife of having affairs with every other man she is in contact with. I can't wait to finish the book to see if he was right or just paranoid!

What are you reading this week?

Thriller: The Heart Keeper by Alex Dahl

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

The Heart Keeper

The Heart Keeper by Alex Dahl, July 16, 2019, Berkley

Genre: thriller

Themes: heart transplant, obsession, mothers and daughters

Book beginning:

ALISON 

I wake all the time; that is, if I sleep at all. The alarm clock projects the time onto the wall on Sindre's side of the bed and I lie staring at the pulsating dots separating the numbers. It's just after two o'clock in the morning and Sindre isn't here. He was here when I fell asleep. At least I think he was. I pull my hand out from underneath the warm duvet and stroke the cool, empty space where my husband should be. 

A few nights ago, the same thing happened....

Page 56:

ISELIN

I get up because I can't fall asleep in case the school rings, which I think they probably will - Kaia isn't used to being away from me, or to be around other children. 

I can't wait to read this new book. What do you think? 

Sunday Salon: Cozies and a Thriller

Booking the Crook by Laurie Cass, July 2, 2019, Berkley

Booking the Crook

Theme:
Librarian Minnie and her rescue cat, Eddie, solve crimes while they cruise around in a bookmobile in a town in Michigan. (publisher)

Bewitched and Betrothed

Bewitched and Betrothed by Juliet Blackwell, June 25, 2019, Berkley

Theme: In San Francisco, a family reunion keeps witch and vintage storeowner Lily Ivory on her toes as she prepares to walk down the aisle. (publisher)

Harry's Trees

Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen, June 12, 2019, Mira Books

Theme:  When his wife dies suddenly, Harry leaves his job and his old life behind and makes his way to the remote woods of northeastern Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains, determined to lose himself. But some people he meets there change his life for the better. 

Red Metal

Red Metal by H. Ripley Rawlings IV, July 16, 2019, Berkley Books

Theme: A Russian military strike against Europe could change the balance of power in the West. A stunningly realistic view of modern warfare from a battlefield commander  (publisher)

What books are on your reading list this week?

Memes: 

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