WWW Wednesday – March 22, 2023

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

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Sometimes a perfectly good book will be sitting there, patiently waiting to be chosen, and it’s the reminder from the library that it is due and cannot be renewed that finally moves it to the top of the TBR pile. That is what happened with Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman (2023). I regret the delay as it is an amusing story about a protagonist who misbehaved on the roof of her NYC apartment and has now been sentenced to six months of home confinement.  Lipman never disappoints.

Continuing Reading Ireland Month, I am nearly done with Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (2022), a very noir novel set in and near Belfast during the Troubles. All I can say is that having an affair with a married man is rarely a good idea! And if you think it sometimes works out for people, try reading The Other Woman by Joy Fielding.

I’d heard good things about Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal but it started out slow so I moved on to the audiobook of Camino Island by John Grisham, which begins with the heist of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original manuscripts from the Princeton Library. So far very different from his legal thrillers but quite entertaining.

Recently Finished

I just read Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac (2021). This is a delightful book written in verse by an award-winning writer who is part of the Abenaki tribe. Malian is stranded during the pandemic with her grandparents on their reservation. Not only does she miss her parents, she has a hard time participating in virtual school back in Boston because internet access on the reservation is so erratic, but she tries to make the best of the situation. Her relationship with her grandparents and her love of their stories (even the ones she has heard before) is part of what makes this story so appealing. This was the March selection for the de Grummond Book Group.

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie (1941) describes the turmoil in an English village when Jerry and Joanna Burton move in so Jerry can recuperate but instead find themselves in the midst of a poison pen letter campaign. It seems unpleasant but harmless – until someone dies. My review.

Up Next

I have been a Frances Parkinson Keyes fan for many years, although her books are very dated. She was a big bestselling author in her day, setting her books primarily in New England, New Orleans, or DC, which she knew well because her husband was a US senator (following two years as Governor of New Hampshire). My friend Dewena recently mentioned Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess (1937) which I had never read but was able to borrow from the Harvard Library and look forward to. Interestingly, this book appears to have been donated to Widener Library by Arthur M. Schlesinger (probably Sr.)

My library finally produced An English Murder by Cyril Hare (1951), which I had planned to read in December. It takes place during the Christmas holidays in a stately English country house where the guests are promptly snowed in and cut off from the outside world. When a murder takes place at midnight, there is more than one suspect – and no one can escape.

Giving Up

My book group is reading The Years by 2022 Nobel prizewinner Annie Ernaux, which is the author’s memoir, and I am finding it very tedious. I tried it from the beginning and I even tried it in the middle (I found the previous reader’s bookmark at page 150) but given that I have a stack of library books waiting and my taxes to do, I am closing it for the last time. Next month we are reading Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum (1929), a classic I have never read.

Query: if your book group has been meeting virtually during the pandemic, do you still sip wine if you are alone? People are always telling me to go home and have a glass of wine but I guess I don't like drinking alone.