Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet

Title: Death of a Cozy Writer
Author: G. M. Malliet
Publication: Chivers, paperback, 2008
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Present-day England, near Cambridge

Description: When Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk, a bestselling mystery author, writes to each of his adult children and his ex-wife, inviting them to his wedding, no one thinks he is planning a pleasant family reunion.

Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd

Title: Time at the Top
Author: Edward Ormondroyd
Illustrator: Peggie Bach
Publication: Bantam Skylark paperback, originally published by Parnassus Press, 1963, now available from Purple House Press
Genre: Juvenile fantasy
Setting: 20th century, United States, probably New York

Description: One Wednesday in March, late in the afternoon, Susan Shaw vanished from the Ward Street apartment house in which she lived with her father.

WWW Wednesday – February 23, 2022

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

I just started Mercy by David Baldacci (2021) about FBI agent, Atlee Pine, who has been searching through three previous books for her twin sister, Mercy, abducted at the age of six and never seen again.

Child Life Mystery-Adventure Book: Stories for Boys and Girls

Title: Child Life Mystery-Adventure Book
Author: Compiled by Marjorie Barrows and Frances Cavanah
Publication: Rand McNally & Company, hardcover, 1936
Genre: Children’s Short Story Collection

Description: Child Life was an illustrated American children's magazine that began in 1922 and contained stories, games, people profiles, and other columns. It was incorporated into Children’s Digest in the 1960s, which stopped publishing in 2009. I can’t tell if this volume of adventure stories was specially commissioned or was a compilation from that year’s issues. There are some prominent names included: writer-illustrators Genevieve Foster (a Newbery Honor recipient four times) and Marguerite de Angeli (Newbery Award winner in 1950 for The Door in the Wall).

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

Title: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Author: Erik Larson
Narrator: Scott Brick
Publication: Random House, audiobook, 2015
Genre: History

Description: The Lusitania was a British-owned luxury ocean liner that departed from New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915, carrying nearly 2000 individuals, of whom 1,265 were passengers.

Bluebird by Sharon Cameron – a German teen comes to post-war NYC on a revenge mission

Title: Bluebird
Author: Sharon Cameron
Publication: Scholastic, hardcover, 2021
Genre: YA historical fiction
Setting: WWII II Germany, Post WWII America

Description: Arriving in New York from Germany in 1946 with her friend Brigit under her wing, seventeen-year-old Eva has a deadly mission.

Death of a Valentine: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by M.C. Beaton

Title: Death of a Valentine: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery
Author: M.C. Beaton
Publication: Grand Central Publishing, hardcover, 2010
Genre: Mystery
Setting: 21st century Scotland

Description: Hamish Macbeth is a comically unambitious police sergeant in the small town of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands, where he is surrounded by eccentric locals who know nearly everything about each other’s business and clearly invent the rest.

The Light Heart by Elswyth Thane, one of the Williamsburg Novels

Title: The Light Heart
Author: Elswyth Thane
Publication: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, hardcover, 1947
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: America, Great Britain, Germany

Description: The fourth Williamsburg novel is about Phoebe Sprague, daughter of Sedgwick from Yankee Stranger and great-great-granddaughter of Julian Day, hero of Dawn’s Early Light. An aspiring writer, she has just turned 21 and is invited to travel to London with her Murray cousins for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902. 

Book Bingo Reading Challenge 2022

I have decided to join the Book Bingo Reading Challenge at Unruly Reader. I learned about this challenge from Cath at Read-warbler and Tracy at Bitter Tea and Mystery who are very ambitious/adventurous in their reading while I tend to alternate between my library books and my TBR (now on a cart to help me prioritize, although there are piles everywhere). Then I realized I had the perfect book to start me off next week, so here we are!

How to Play Book Bingo 2022:

The Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd

Title: The Cardboard Crown
Author: Martin Boyd (1893-1972)
Publication: Text Publishing, trade paperback, originally published in 1952
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: England and Australia

Description: Guy Langton, the narrator and author’s alter ego, is a writer who fought in WWI and became a published author in England. When he returns to Australia in 1949, he tries to restore his grandparents’ home, Westhill, about 30 miles from Melbourne, but he realizes this project isn’t really helping him reestablish his roots.

Midnight in Everwood by M. A. Kuzniar

Title: Midnight in Everwood
Author: M.A. Kuzniar
Publication: HarperCollins, 2022, hardcover
Genre: Historical fiction/fantasy
Setting: Nottingham, England 1906

Description: Marietta Stelle longs to be a ballerina but as Christmas draws nearer, her dancing days are numbered because her father has decreed that she must give up ballet when she turns 21.

Six Degrees of Separation – from No One is Talking About This to Rachel's Holiday

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (2021). It's a Booker Award Finalist novel about manipulation, human interdependence, and social media which I haven’t read.

My January 2022 Reads

I only read fiction last month (not counting books used for graduate school research) and my favorites were Love at First Spite, The Lost Love Song, and The Girls I’ve Been (see below). Hmm, maybe I should have saved some of this love for February 14th!

Fiction

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke (2021) – A quirky, appealing story about a song that is passed from musician to musician around the world, building bridges and reuniting lost souls, until it returns to the grieving boyfriend of the woman who wrote it.

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Title: Prince Caspian
Author: C.S. Lewis
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Publication: Puffin paperback, originally published in 1951
Genre: Juvenile Fantasy/Series
Setting: Narnia

Description: In the second Narnia book, the four Pevensie children are on their way back to boarding school when they are catapulted back to Narnia. Unfortunately, Narnia has changed since they left it as Kings and Queens and they are horrified to realize they are in the ruins of their former palace of Cair Paravel – with nothing to eat but apples.