O Canada 2023

The Shaw Festival is a theater festival located in Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL), Ontario, Canada, and is the second-largest repertory theatre company* in North America. It was founded in 1962 and Queen Elizabeth came in 1973 in honor of its first theater opening at the current location, staying at the charming Prince of Wales Hotel on the corner of King and Queen Streets.

The Prince of Wales Hotel, yards from our temporary home

They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie23

Title: They Do It With Mirrors
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication: Morrow, paperback, originally published in 1952
Genre: Mystery
Setting: British countryside, 20th century

Description: Who knew that our own Miss Marple studied in Florence as a young woman with the two rich Martin girls from America (no relation)!! 

Watch Us Shine by Marisa de los Santos

Title: Watch Us Shine
Author: Marisa de los Santos
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Present day with flashbacks

Description: When her mother is badly injured in an accident, Cornelia Brown drops everything to be with her parents in Virginia.

The Translator by Harriet Crawley, suspense from Bitter Lemon Press

Title: The Translator
Author: Harriet Crawley
Publication: Bitter Lemon Press, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Russia

Description: When the top Russian translator in Britain is knocked off his bicycle into a coma, Clive Franklin gets the call to accompany the Prime Minister to Moscow for top-secret meetings with powerful Russian President Serov.

Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Title: Seventeenth Summer
Author: Maureen Daly
Publication: Simon & Schuster, paperback, originally published in 1942
Genre: Young Adult
Setting: Small town, Wisconsin, 20th century

Description: Angie Morrow has just finished her senior year at a girls’ school and is looking forward to college in the fall when she meets and starts dating Jack Duluth, star of the local high school’s basketball team.

WWW Wednesday - Flag Day, 2023

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

This is exciting: my Capstone from graduate school just got published! I wrote about author/photographer Tana Hoban and her papers, which she left to the de Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. If you are interested, here is the issue of SLIS Connecting with my article. I submitted this research (which served as our thesis) more than a year ago, so it is an odd feeling to reread it.

My May 2023 Reads

The biggest treat this month was the new Jane Casey book about Maeve Kerrigan, The Close, straight from London as my sisters and I could not wait for its US publication. I also really enjoyed The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, the third Thursday Murder Club book, and Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham. June will be a slower reading month due to three short trips and Middlemarch. Hmm, I guess it is no coincidence that all four books have British settings; I am nothing if not consistent.

The Close by Jane Casey: A Maeve Kerrigan Mystery

Title: The Close: A Maeve Kerrigan Mystery
Author: Jane Casey
Publication: HarperCollins, trade paperback, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Great Britain

Description: Detective Sergeant Maeve Kerrigan is in the midst of investigating the mysterious death of a London surgeon, discovered in the parking lot of his hospital in his own car, when she is asked to go undercover on a different case.

Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown

Title: Perfect Escape
Author: Jennifer Brown
Publication: Little, Brown and Company, hardcover, 2012
Genre: YA
Setting: Present-day Midwest

Description: Kendra’s older brother Grayson has such acute OCD that he has been institutionalized and had to leave high school. When he and Kendra’s best friend Zoe got romantically involved, Zoe’s family was so upset they moved to California to separate them. Kendra feels as if she lost her brother and best friend.

The Bullet That Missed: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman

Title: The Bullet That Missed
Author: Richard Osman
Publication: Viking, hardcover, 2022
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Britain

Description: In the third installment of the Thursday Murder Club, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim take on the unexplained death ten years earlier of a talented television reporter, Bethany Waites, while she was investigating a hot story.

Proud Aunt

How it was

Godparents at left and right, with my brother holding the baby

Rome, August 2005

How it's going

Roxbury Latin Graduation, June 2023

It was too bad Nicholas' godfather couldn't make it to graduation or we could have fully recreated the original photo!

Six Degrees of Separation - from Friendaholic to Elizabeth of the Garret Theatre

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 Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day, a nonfiction book about the evolution of friendship. I think her premise is that if you spread yourself too thin, you aren’t being a good friend to others or yourself. I find self-help books quite tedious so am unlikely to read this.

Trying Out for Antiques Roadshow

It began with an email from my local PBS station during the second year of the pandemic. Antiques Roadshow was going to be filming new episodes and invited viewers to submit a photo and short blurb describing items of interest from the proverbial attic. I hesitated and thought about my grandfather’s lute.