Spell the Month in Books - and Merry Christmas!

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on or near the second Saturday of each month:

D - Dead Scared by Sharon Bolton.  This is the second in the Detective Constable Lacey Flint series and was truly unnerving. Lacey is sent undercover to Cambridge University to investigate a series of student suicides that police suspect are linked to a predator manipulating vulnerable young women online.  

Spell the Month in Books - March

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on the second Saturday of each month or maybe the third!

The Midwife by Jennifer Worth (2002). In 2013, I watched a season of Call the Midwife and was drawn to the memoir that inspired the series.

Nonfiction November: My Year in Nonfiction

Nonfiction November is hosted by several different bloggers and has specific categories for each week. Week 1, Your Year in Nonfiction is probably all I can handle (although it is past Week 1), and I was surprised to find I had read seven nonfiction books, all basically biography/memoir or history and all of which I enjoyed. This is about 3% of my total for the year, which seems typical for me. I do have a few more in mind for November but we shall see.

Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess by Frances Parkinson Keyes

Title: Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess
Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885–1970)
Publication: Harper & Brothers, hardcover, 1937
Genre: Memoir
Setting: Washington, DC

Description: Keyes, who became a bestselling author in the first half of the 20th century, was married to a New England politician 22 years her senior. He served in New Hampshire as Selectman, Representative, Senator, and on several state commissions before being elected Governor of New Hampshire from 1917-19, then was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican for three terms from 1919-37. FPK was very conscious of the expense of public service, which she felt ordinary people did not appreciate: the cost for senators of maintaining two homes as well as entertaining and being entertained while raising a family.

WWW Wednesday – March 22, 2023

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

Sometimes a perfectly good book will be sitting there, patiently waiting to be chosen, and it’s the reminder from the library that it is due and cannot be renewed that finally moves it to the top of the TBR pile.

Six Degrees of Separation - from Sorrow and Bliss to Edward Eager's The Time Garden

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 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason about a woman whose marriage disintegrates, seemingly because her depression is misdiagnosed.

Band of Sisters: The Women of Smith College Go to War by Lauren Willig

Title: Band of Sisters: The Women of Smith College Go to War
Author: Lauren Willig
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: World War I France

Description: Based on actual events, this is a novel about a group of Smith College alumnae who traveled to France during the First World War to assist small French villages that had suffered from German destruction.

The Heritage (Book Review)

Title: The Heritage

Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (pronounced to rhyme with size)

Publication Information: Hardcover, McGraw-Hill, 1968

Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot: 1882. Peter Bradford, an indulged member of a prominent Irish-American Boston family, is traveling to Ireland to visit his great-uncle, James O’Toole, the Earl of Cloneen, whose heir he is. On the train en route, he meets a beautiful young woman, falls instantly in love, and they spend the night together. Desperate attempts to find her the next morning are unsuccessful. When Peter reaches Ireland, he has two shocks: his uncle has just died, and his uncle’s much-younger widow is Anne, the woman with whom he just spent the night. Deeply ashamed of her infidelity, Anne will barely speak to Peter, but there is an added complication: if she is pregnant with a son, their child will displace his own father as the new earl!

What I liked: I remembered this book while watching Downton Abbey because of the issue about the heir, and wanted to reread it right away.