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?

Currently Reading

After several months of waiting, The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson (2024) arrived from the library. I loved his books about WWII (The Splendid and the Vile) and the Lusitania (Dead Wake). This is about the Civil War, which is not one of my favorite periods of history but I am sure I will enjoy it although less sure I will finish it before it is due. I do have my 20 Books of Summer to read, plus other library books.

I am listening the new Nora Roberts book, Mind Games (2024), which is a bit gruesome. The heroine, Thea, and her grandmother, have a sort of telepathy that forces them to witness the murder of Thea’s parents by an angry young man, although they are hundreds of miles away. This skill (or curse) is probably going to ruin Thea’s life until she grows up and can figure out how to turn it off.

Just finished

Invitation to Die by Barbara Cleverly, Soho Press (2019). I’ve been meaning to read this author’s Joe Sandilands series, set against the background of the British Raj, for some time so when I saw this at a used book sale I picked it up. It is from a different series but set in Cambridge in the 1920s and features DI John Redfyre who finds a body while walking his dog. There is a mystery within a mystery going back to the Boer War, and I found the first half of the book very confusing and it was hard to keep the characters straight. The cover and copy promise May Balls, dancing the tango, and punting on the Cam but there was very little of that, although Redfyre is investigating the death of a dancing instructor, among other things. This is number four of my 20 Books of Summer but is not getting its own review.

Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu, Walden Pond Press/Harper (2024). When Violet’s family moves to a new house she gets the ugly attic room which is haunted. Combined with the stress of starting middle school and the inevitable changes to her best friends, Violet becomes ill but her doctors think she is just seeking attention. I especially liked how the busy mother believes her daughter when others do not and how Violet navigates and finds better friends than the ones she had. This is a sensitive and well-told story. Ursu is another author who has been on my radar although I don’t read a lot of middle school fiction.  I am guessing she is a Betsy-Tacy fan because she lives in Minnesota and named three elementary schools in the book, Lovelace, Erdrich, and Barnhill!

Up Next

Magic for Marigold  by L.M. Montgomery (1929) is the next book chosen by the LMM discussion group. This was impossible to find when I was young and I don’t even own a copy, so I had to get it from the library.  I am sure I've read it but don't remember it at all.

Burn It All  by Maggie Auffarth (2004). This is a thriller I don’t even recall putting on hold at the library but here it is! Protagonist Marley is suspected of arson and murdering her best friend (Don't you hate when that happens?  I shouldn't complain about a bad day at work!) so will need to find out the truth to save herself.

Constance and niece

Off the Blog: A sticky night at Fenway with the family!