Spell the Month in Books — April

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on the second Saturday of each month. This month I chose from books I read in 2013:

My May 2022 Reads

A busy month of reading - I expect June will include more visits to libraries and bookstores and less reading, but those are equally delightful pastimes!

Mystery/Suspense

She Shall Have Murder by Delano Ames (1948) – Everyone tells Jane Hamish she should write a book about the goings-on at her London law firm but when a client is murdered, she finally starts writing and her boyfriend enthusiastically takes on the investigation.  This is the first of a 12-book series; enjoyable but I am not sure I will pursue it because mostly out of print.  My review.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Title: The Lincoln Highway
Author: Amor Towles
Publication: Viking, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 1954, United States

Description: Emmett Watson has just served fifteen months in a juvenile facility for involuntary manslaughter but is released early when his father dies so he can care for his precocious eight-year-old brother Billy.

WWW Wednesday – April 27, 2022

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

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

Tonight I started a book called Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg about four friends who are students (or rivals) at a performing arts high school in New York. It has all the drama of Glee but the characters seem more believable. I enjoyed the author’s Prom & Prejudice several years ago.

I am also reading The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay as I hope to visit Bletchley Park in June.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Civility to Murder

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 Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, published in 2011, exactly one hundred years after last month’s choice, Ethan Frome.  

I enjoyed this book when it first came out.  The author grew up nearby and our mothers were college classmates, although I have never met him.  An obvious comparison is The Great Gatsby so I will go in a less predictable direction.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Ethan Frome to March

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 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911), which involves a love triangle and a fateful sledding accident.

First Degree

A sledding accident with a less tragic outcome begins Louisa May Alcott’s Jack and Jill (1880); you may recall I secured my own copy in June.