The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary

Title: The Wake-Up Call
Author: Beth O’Leary
Publication: Berkley Publishing, paperback, 2023
Genre: Romance
Setting: Present-day England

Description: Izzy and Lucas work at a boutique hotel where they are rivals who never stop squabbling. When the hotel owners admit they are struggling financially and may have to shut down, Izzy and Lucas are forced into a temporary truce to save their beloved Forest Manor.

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Title: Meet Me at the Lake
Author: Carley Fortune
Publication: Penguin Random House audiobook / Berkley, hardcover, 2023
Narrator: A.J. Bridel
Genre: Fiction/Romance
Setting: Ontario, Canada

Description: Fern Brookbanks loves the Muskoka resort she grew up in but she also enjoys Toronto, where she went to college, and the big city experience. Just before graduation, when she is reluctant to tell her mother she doesn’t want to return home to help manage the resort, she meets an artist her age, Will Baxter.

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie23

Title: Evil Under the Sun
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication: Dodd, Mead & Company, hardcover, originally published in 1941
Genre: Mystery
Setting: 20th century England

Description: A mansion on a small island off the Devon coast has been turned into the Jolly Roger Hotel where guests can swim, play tennis, take walks, and enjoy the convenience of a causeway to the mainland.

In which Dido Belle followed me through London

Last year, I visited Kenwood House, a 17th century stately home next to Hampstead Heath, which was expanded in the 18th century when it became the home of Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, and is now open to the public (you might also recognize it as a filming location from Notting Hill).

Kenwood House

He and his wife were “childless but from about 1766 they agreed to accommodate their niece, Anne Murray, and two great-nieces, Elizabeth Murray and Dido Elizabeth Belle. Dido was the illegitimate daughter of a formerly enslaved young black woman named Maria Bell and Mansfield's nephew Sir John Lindsay. It was extremely unusual at this time for a mixed-race child to be raised not as a servant, but as part of an aristocratic British family.”

A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie

Title: A Killing of Innocents
Author: Deborah Crombie
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Present-day London

Description: When Sasha Johnson, a young doctor just leaving a pub in Bloomsbury as Duncan Kincaid and Doug Cullen are meeting for a drink, is murdered nearby, the men are called to the scene quickly.

WWW Wednesday – July 19

WWW Wednesday is sponsored 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: I am halfway through The Last Remains, the final Ruth Galloway mystery by Elly Griffiths (2023), and I will be sad to see this series end.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Title: Middlemarch
Author: George Eliot
Publication: 1871
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: English Midlands, 1829-32

Description: Middlemarch is the story of a country neighborhood, two women who live there, and their marriages. Most prominent is Dorothea Brooke, an intense and idealistic young woman, brought up with her sister Celia by their uncle since they were orphaned some seven years ago.

The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer - one of her most amusing

Title: The Unknown Ajax
Author: Georgette Heyer
Publication: Ace paperback, originally published in 1959
Genre: Historical Romance/Regency
Setting: England, 1817

Description: The Darracott family is astonished to learn that cantankerous Lord Darracott’s heir is not his third son Matthew, but a grandson they never knew existed, Hugo.

My June 2023 Reads

I had three short trips in June: New York for a nephew’s graduation, Ontario for a short family trip, and DC for a two-day conference, and these reduced my reading time this month and made what I did read distinctly lighter. Plus, I am still reading Middlemarch, although I am nearly done and very much enjoying it.  Here we are!

Pas de Don't by Chloe Angyal

Title: Pas de Don’t
Author: Chloe Angyal
Publication: Chicago Review Press, paperback, 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Present-day New York City and Australia

Description: Heather Hays has worked for years to become the principal dancer at the New York Ballet and when her boyfriend, Jack Andersen, already established as the biggest star in American ballet, proposes, she thinks she has everything she’s always dreamed about, even if Jack is sometimes condescending about her talent.

The Puritan Princess by Miranda Malins

Title: The Puritan Princess
Author: Miranda Malins
Publication: Orion, paperback, originally published in 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 17th-century 

Description: When Oliver Cromwell is declared Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, his large family joins him at court in London, and Cromwell’s two unmarried daughters become prospects for political alliances.

One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes

Title: One Fine Day
Author: Mollie Panter-Downes
Publication: Virago Modern Classics, paperback, originally published in 1946
Genre: Fiction
Setting: 20th-century English countryside

Description: It is a warm summer day in the village of Wealding, although Victoria is still in school. Her father, Stephen, heads irritably to the train and London job, while her mother, Laura, has an endless day of chores.

Canada 2023 - part 2

We left Niagara-on-the-Lake Sunday morning to visit nearby Niagara Falls, which Andrea and Katherine had never seen. Our friendly waiter the previous evening had suggested we park by the Electric Commission to avoid traffic.  We should have got more precise

instructions as we wound up going through the very commercial town and then had to retrace our steps on foot. But when we saw the Beaux-Arts style Electrical Development Co. building (which operated from 1906 until it was replaced by a newer power station in 1974), we knew it was the right place and snagged a parking place.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Time Shelter to Memory Man

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 Time Shelter by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel. According to the Guardian, “A mysterious therapist, Gaustine, founds a clinic that treats patients with Alzheimer's by recreating the pasts in which they felt most secure.”