Some light reading:
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez (2025)
When Samantha Diaz brings a stray kitten to the neighborhood vet, she is shocked to be told it needs expensive surgery and should be put to sleep. Annoyed with the unfairly handsome vet, she vows to raise the $10,000, which she does on social media.
My favorite August books were the two historical fiction novels - Niccolò Rising, which I had carried unread to Bruges and back in May (I suppose it was too layered for airplane or train reading but how I wished I had read it before our trip) and the fourth Emmy Lake book. I am sorry to see that series come to an end, although I am sure the author has other projects in mind. I read a few more of my 20 Books of Summer but still have five left. I would have completed more except for a host of library books all appearing at once with non-renewable deadlines. I’m sure these five can wait a little longer but I need to impose one of my occasional moratoriums on library books so I can read some of the books piled around my house. The (poor) books are always with us . . . . Speaking of poor, the worst book of the summer was The Great Misfortune of Stella Sedgwick (see below). Thank goodness I got this from the library!
When Griffiths concluded her Ruth Galloway mystery series (of which I am a big fan), I expected she would concentrate on characters already introduced in her other books. Instead, she has launched an intriguing new series with another quirky, outspoken heroine, a police detective who finds herself in the midst of several mysteries.
Sometimes even Miss Marple needs a break from St. Mary Mead, and when her nephew, Raymond West, and his wife offer to treat her to a holiday, Miss Marple asks them to send her for a week or two to Bertram’s Hotel in London. She had stayed there as a child and heard from friends who’d stayed there recently it was like stepping back into an Edwardian idyll.
Last week, I participated in a focus group on “Financial Attitudes,” and spent an interesting two hours with a small group of women, all single and all contemplating how to finance their retirement. Due to some of the questions from the two moderators, the pessimism was contagious – we all began to think we’d never be able to afford to retire and read all day – so I was in a very suitable mood to begin this book and deeply sympathize with its heroine.
1460: The second in The House of Niccolò series begins with the youngest de Charetty: Catherine, who has been sent to Brussels to stay with family friends and acquire some polish. Big mistake, Marian! Catherine immediately falls for a handsome entrepreneurial-type, Pagano Doria, who is no better than he should be (but has very nice teeth). We know this because he persuades this child to elope with him; presumably he knows she is an heiress.
This debut mystery, set at the turn of the 20th century at London’s Inner Temple, brings to life the arcane, fascinating world of Britain’s legal elite. Sir Gabriel Ward is a quiet but brilliant barrister, sometimes overlooked by his colleagues because he spends all his time in his Temple rooms or his professional chambers, just yards apart. His routine is upended one morning when he finds a dead body on the threshold of his chambers - the Lord Chief Justice, whom he has known since childhood.
It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. This month’s starting point is Ghost Cities by Siang Lu, a satirical novel that begins with a Chinese-Australian character being fired from his job at the Chinese consulate in Sydney because he misrepresented his language skills and only speaks English.
The Pringle Players are down on their luck and decide to head north from London for new opportunities. Inspired by the train that will take them to the small market town of Uncaster, Pa Pringle gives the theatrical troupe a new name for their new venture: The Steam Whistle Theatre Company.
