WWW Wednesday – August 17, 2022

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: I am nearly done with The Wedding Plot (2022), which sounds like a romance but is actually the fourth mystery by Paula Munier about Mercy and her dog Elvis. This book introduces some new characters: Mercy’s brother, aunts, and a mysterious uncle. My younger sister thinks there is too much dog in this series but apart from one slapstick scene where Elvis wreaks havoc at a hotel, I enjoy Elvis and Susie Bear.

I am listening to Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson (2022) about an editor at an upscale publishing company trying to write a romance in her off-hours and struggling with her rewrites.  Having worked in publishing for 17 years, I always enjoy books with that setting.  I am also in the middle of What You Wish For by Katherine Center (2020). I like the concept of the librarian whose former crush turns up as the new principal of her school, changed for the worse, but the heroine acts like an idiotic, pugnacious 13-year-old which I became weary of quickly. But I am persevering!

Recently Finished: Author Joan Lingard died last month, best known for her five-book YA series about a Catholic boy and Protestant girl who fall in love during the Troubles in Belfast. I reread The Twelfth Day of July in May (1970) (my review) and just got the second and third books from InterLibrary Loan.

In Across the Barricades (1973), three years have passed and when Kevin and Sadie meet again they are old enough to become romantically involved, to the horror of their families and nosy neighbors. In Into Exile (1972), they realize being together in Belfast is not workable so they run away to London and get married. Lack of funds, Sadie’s temper, and missing their home put an enormous strain on their relationship. These are vividly depicted stories and I am looking forward to the last two in the series.

I also just finished Miss Austen by Gill Hornby (2020) as part of Austen in August. See my review for the giveaway.

Next: A reread of The Phantom Tollbooth (1961) (which I first read in the fourth grade) for the de Grummond Book Group on Thursday. Later this month, I am leading a discussion of Rebecca (1938) for a group of lawyers and the judge for whom we clerked, so hope to reread it although I know it fairly well. My copy is missing, which is annoying.

And I am looking forward to The Foundling by Stacey Halls (2020), a historical novel I bought in London after reading a review from She Reads Novels.  I also have Manna from Hades by Carola Dunn (2009) which Jerri Chase recommended as being set in Cornwall.  Now I see that I read the fourth in the series.

What are you reading?