July 2025 Reading

The Kitchen Front and The Demon of Unrest turned out to be my favorite books this month and, as always, I enjoyed a Vera Stanhope mystery by Ann Cleeves. This detective has really grown on me. I listened to four audiobooks in July and am now in the middle of a very long one – 23 hours – which Hoopla will reclaim before I am done (luckily, I have an actual book as well).

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson

In The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson looks at the months leading up to the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, starting with the gallantry of Southern life (for the ruling class only) and the election of Lincoln, which agitated slave owners who assumed he would challenge their way of life and their prosperity.  As revealed in this narrative, the months leading to the attack on Sumter seem like a train careening off the tracks but with many moments when it seems someone should have been able to stop it.

WWW Wednesday – June 18

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 Two New Books

I am listening to Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (2025), which starts with a bang. It’s Camilla’s first day back at work after her maternity leave (do women usually get nine months in Britain or is her employer very generous?) but, before she’s even had time for coffee,

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson #NonfictionNovember

Isaac's Storm details the events leading up to and following the infamous 1900 Galveston hurricane. At the time, Galveston was a bustling port in Texas, a rival of Houston in its importance to the area’s economy. Isaac Cline was the chief meteorologist at Galveston’s office of the US Weather Bureau from 1889 to 1901 and warned about the hurricane too late for residents to evacuate, so thousands were drowned. By total coincidence, I checked this out of the library and started listening to this at exactly the same time Hurricane Helene was causing terrible damage to North Carolina and Florida, adding to the poignancy of the narrative.

My October 2024 Reading

My favorite books this month were Northern Spy, a thriller about an innocent young woman, dragged into an IRA conspiracy, and Abigail, an unusual boarding school story with a distant background of WWII intrigue. Abigail was one of several books I enjoyed for the 1970 Club.

Suspense

The Unwedding by Ally Condie (2024) (audio). Ellery Wainwright is despondent after her husband demands a divorce so her best friend persuades her to go on what was supposed to be an anniversary trip to Big Sur - and was already paid for (otherwise the ex and his new girlfriend would go and that would be even worse!).

WWW Wednesday – June 26

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?

Favorite Reads of 2022

Here are my favorite books from the past year:

Best Nonfiction Read of the Year: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (2015) (audio read by talented Scott Brick). I was mesmerized listening to the audio of the Lusitania’s last and tragic voyage in 1915. Larson weaves together stories about the passengers and crew, bringing them all to life.

My Year in Nonfiction

Nonfiction November is an opportunity to look back at the nonfiction read in the past year, and out of the 168 books I have read this year just eleven were nonfiction, about 15%. Unless the topic really interests me, the pace is usually too slow. However, when I find one I really like, everyone hears about it. I recommended Dead Wake to everyone I encountered while I was listening to the audio, especially Elswyth Thane fans. Earlier this month, I encountered the author’s editor at a JV soccer game and told her everything I especially appreciated about the book (her son is also a promising goalkeeper). Books about books seems to be the genre I read most, along with history and sports. 

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.

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.

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. 

WWW Wednesday – January 26, 2022

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

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

I just started The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe (2021). This is a young adult novel recommended by uber-high school librarian, Barb Fecteau, in which the daughter of a con artist is taken hostage in a bank heist.