Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews, who reveals her Betsy-Tacy fandom

Given the challenges newspapers have experienced, investigative reporter Conley Hawkins is thrilled to have been offered a prestigious job in Washington, DC. Then, during her actual goodbye party, in the sort of nightmare situation that would normally only happen to yours truly, she learns her new employer has gone bankrupt – so no job in DC and her job in Atlanta has already been filled. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Frequently Recommend

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is a freebie, up to each participant. I had just been thinking about some of the books I most enjoy recommending so that seemed like my topic. 

These are all books of which I snap up extra copies for gift giving and general proselytizing:

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

Muriel Blossom is both excited and nervous about her forthcoming vacation and cruise in France, and is charmed when a handsome man at the Baltimore airport befriends her as they are upgraded to first class. Since her husband died, she hasn’t looked at another man, but Allan is outgoing and attentive. When it seems as if she won’t make her connection at Heathrow, he insists she accompany him to London to spend the day, helps her get a hotel room, and book the Eurostar for the next day.

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2025, Part 3

Breakfast in the Banquet Hall followed my quick trip to Mass at St. Peters and Paul Catholic Church (this is not Tacy’s church, which I attended on previous visits but the timing worked out better) with my friend Ethel. I was registered to go on the First Presbyterian Church Christian Endeavor tour, service, and Welsh snacks but had not slept well and somehow stayed to do Pub Trivia led by Michelle Giorlando instead. Our team, the Ladybugs, consisted of Deb, Ethel, and me, and we were in the middle of the pack in skill, alas.

The Blue Earth County Courthouse
where Mr. Hart worked when County Treasurer

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2025, Part 2

Breakfast on Saturday was back in the Convention Center and there were muffins. I had brought two books from home for the book exchange and placed Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson on the table (don’t worry, it was a duplicate copy). I was delighted to run into Cindy Jett and her daughter Shelley, and my respect for Shelley increased when she insisted her mother would like Madensky Square and took it for her. I don’t think Cindy is the sentimental type but you can’t go wrong with Ibbotson!

Betsy's telephone (more or less)

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2025, Part 1

On Friday, I flew to Minnesota for a literary convention – a gathering of nearly 200 Betsy-Tacy fans! I think it was my fifth time visiting Deep Valley, legally known as Mankato, Minnesota. The Betsy-Tacy books are based on Maud Hart Lovelace’s childhood and adolescence, and fans have purchased her home and that of her best friend who lived across the street and turned them into living history museums. While it is great to see these houses and to observe whatever enhancements have taken place since one’s last visit, I now primarily attend these events to see friends from all over the country (I don’t think there were any international participants this time but usually there is at least one Canadian and we’re always hoping Sonja from Germany will make it, as she is a favorite listserv member).

Top Ten Tuesday: Satisfying Book Series

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Satisfying Book Series and it was hard to pick just ten.

Veere

Friday’s destination was Veere.  After we left by bus for Bruges on Thursday morning, the Amadeus left Belgium and cruised to the Netherlands - specifically, Middelburg, where we rejoined the ship in the afternoon.  There was what is called a “Port Talk” before dinner where the cruise directors (we had four: Nani, Fiona, Carine, and Alan, who reminded me of Mr. O’Farrell in Betsy and the Great World) take turns telling us what is in store for the next day, what time we will leave, not to forget our red voice boxes (one day I accidentally unplugged them to use the hair dryer – I barely got them charged in time for our departure), etc.  Carine described Veere as a little paradise so many times I had to hide my smirk.  I am guessing it was simply the most convenient touristy place to dock between Middelburg and Delft but it was not without appeal.

15th century Town Hall

The Last Apple Tree by Claudia Mills

Description: Moving to a new state, a new school, and into a house with family she barely knows is challenging for twelve-year-old Sonnet, especially when she begins to worry about Gramps’ memory issues, in this absorbing story by veteran author Claudia Mills.  Sonnet, her little sister Villie, and their mother moved to Indiana from Colorado recently to live with her grandfather after his wife died. 

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?

Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow, for the #1937Club

Title: Deep Summer
Author: Gwen Bristow
Publication: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., hardcover, 1937
Genre: Historical fiction, late 18th century

Description: Fifteen-year-old Judith Sheramy is traveling by flatboat with her family from Connecticut to Louisiana where they have a royal grant to establish a homestead. When handsome Philip Larne, an adventurer from South Carolina, pulls up alongside on the Mississippi, the inexperienced girl is captivated, although her father and brother Caleb distrust him on sight.

WWW Wednesday – March 27, 2024

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 reading Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford (2024), a fun story about a woman about to celebrate her 60th wedding anniversary who decides to try out for a British Baking Show.

The Good Ones by Polly Stewart, and the ways in which it annoyed me

Title: The Good Ones
Author: Polly Stewart
Publication: HarperCollins, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Rural Virginia

Description: Lauren Ballard disappeared nearly 20 years ago, leaving a husband and six-month-old baby, after spending a carefree afternoon with Nicola Bennett. She was never found. Everyone who knew her was questioned and those close to her were traumatized by her loss. Now, Nicola’s mother has died and she returns to Tyndall County to go through her mother’s possessions and ask Lauren’s realtor husband Warren to sell the house she grew up in. Yet once Nicola is back in her hometown, she is so strongly reminded of her friend that she decides to stay and investigate her disappearance. Taking a temporary position at the high school both attended, Nicola begins to ask questions about Lauren, not realizing her obsessive curiosity could be very dangerous or that everyone in Tyndall kept secrets she never knew.

My Impression: The most surprising part of the book was when Warren’s grandmother (a Radcliffe alumna) leaves Nicola some children’s books in her will:

Mrs. Ballard had left me a bunch of old children’s books I’d never heard of: Betsy-Tacy, Elsie Dinsmore, plus a few Brontës and some paperback mysteries by Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. The Betsy-Tacy books were all right, but Elsie Dinsmore was god-awful. I read ten pages and shoved the whole box in my closet.

The bequest had nothing to do with the plot but (a) maybe a little more time with Betsy-Tacy would have improved Nicola's personality and (b) I doubt Warren and Sean Ballard’s mother wanted her son to date her mother-in-law’s cleaning lady’s daughter, even if she was a reader!

There were so many things that bothered me about this book, beginning with the unlikable protagonist. The author says it “is not a story about a murder. It’s not the story of what happened to Lauren Ballard in the early-morning hours of August 10, 2001,” so I suppose you could say it is a story about a woman who had a love-hate relationship with a charismatic older girl whose disappearance left her with unresolved guilt.  Admittedly, I read until the end; I wanted to know how it would end.  What annoyed me was that there were so many inconsistencies, unanswered questions, and just plain illogical aspects of the plot, some of which I have outlined below:

Many Spoilers:

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Title: Tom Lake
Author: Ann Patchett
Publication: HarperCollins, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Michigan

Description: During the pandemic, Lara’s adult children came home, as many did, and as her daughters help out with the family business, they ask her to tell them about her long-ago relationship with famous actor Peter Duke.

WWW Wednesday – July 19, 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: I am halfway through The Last Remains, the final Ruth Galloway mystery by Elly Griffiths (2023), and I will be sad to see this series end.

My April 2023 Reads

April was a busy and varied month that I nearly forgot to share (I guess I did forget my March summary!). One book, in particular, stayed in my mind. I did not have a chance to review Wrong Place, Wrong Time, which I listened to while commuting and found somewhat compelling as the heroine finds herself reliving previous days in her life in a desperate attempt to change something that happened. My sister Clare read it about the same time (unplanned, as sometimes happens) but did not like it much. However, this is one that grew on me and I decided it was well done.

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace – for the #1940Club

Title: Betsy-Tacy
Author: Maud Hart Lovelace
Publication: Thomas Y. Crowell, hardcover, 1940
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: 1900s Deep Valley, Minnesota

This week, Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon of Stuck in a Book hosted the 1940 Club in which we all read and write about books published that year.  Naturally, I could not ignore a book by one of my favorite authors, however many times I may have read it.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Passages to House of Sand and Fog

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 Passages by Gail Sheehy, which was a huge self-help book in its day.

However, even when I worked in publishing and had to sell such books, I didn’t have much patience with them. The only one I ever found convincing was:

A Burns Night Supper

Robert Burns, the poet born in Scotland in 1759, is probably best known for these verses:

O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss, historical fiction set in WWII Holland

Title: The Upstairs Room
Author: Johanna Reiss
Publication: HarperCollins, paperback, originally published in 1972
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction
Setting: Holland, WWII

Description: Annie de Leeuw is the youngest of three sisters, living in Holland, not far from the German border. Her father is a cattle dealer, her mother an invalid, her sister Rachel teaches at a nursery school, and sister Sini is studying farming. But Annie’s family is Jewish and everyone is worried about the news from Poland where Hitler has invaded.