Couple of things to share

 I'm posting this with a heavy heart...

As much as I love reading and books, it takes up too much of my time and I am struggling to keep up with the everyday basics such as cleaning and maintaining my home, so something has to give. I will be re-homing my collection.

Please don't ask any questions as I can't handle talking about it.

Below is a list of what's available. All FREE of charge, but to good homes only. Serious inquiries only please.

Thanks for reading and understanding...

1. Dustpan and brush
2. Sponges
3. Dusters
4. Mop and bucket
5. Window cleaner
6. Vacuum cleaner
7. Dishwashing liquid
8. Laundry detergent
9. Fabric softener
10. Laundry baskets
11. Toilet brush
12. Cleaning sprays
13. Scrubbing brushes

As a book lover, did that get you for just a minute? I have seen it on social media and thought it was funny.

Another thing I came across was a post (from a person in one of the online book groups I belong to), about her book subscription box that she had received from Strand Bookstore in New York. She had a picture and it looked so wonderful. Not only did she get some books but also some miscellaneous items and COFFEE. The deal is the contents of the subscription boxes are SURPRISES. You pick out the genre you are interested in and if you want a one time box, a year of boxes (4) or continuing. Here's the scoop:

Strand Bookstore 

https://www.strandbooks.com/

There main location is at Broadway and 12th in NYC. They have new books, vintage books, merchandise, virtual author events etc. etc. 

Under Books and Media, choose Book Hookup. Within the body of the description there is a FAQ link.

https://www.strandbooks.com/books-media/bookhookup/faq

You can choose from 9 different genres.

Fiction, Young Adult, Art/Photography, Feminist Literature, Political Nonfiction, Mystery and Suspense, SciFi and Fantasy, Little Readers, and Classics.

I signed up for one. Guess which one? I am excited. Fun thing to do while the stay at home continues. Ugh. Not that I was out and about so much, but we are still not able to work in the office, which included talks with friends face to face, lunches, celebrations, not able to have face to face book club or genealogy club (glad to have online meetings) or the yearly vacation to visit family out of state. After the early days of ordering toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and cat supplies online, time to order something fun. I think these would make great gifts too.

I will let you know how I like it. 

The Return of the Raven Mocker by Donis Casey

 This is book #9 in the Alafair Tucker mystery series by Donis Casey. I have not read the whole series but was particularly interested in this book because it takes place in 1918 during the (drum roll) Spanish flu epidemic. While it is fiction and there is a mystery to be solved, I found the description of the flu, how it spread in the town where this series takes place and how people dealt with very interesting. Being that we are in the middle of a similar epidemic I wanted to read this book.

About: "World War I is raging in Europe, but as the deadly influenza pandemic of 1918 sweeps like a wildfire through Boynton, Oklahoma, Alafair Tucker is fighting her own war. Her daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Walter Kelley, have both come down with the flu, and Alafair has moved into town to care for them after quarantining her young children at their sister's farm. Boynton as a whole isolates itself like an old English plague village, discouraging anyone from coming into town and the residents from traveling outside. A new doctor applies science to treating the stricken, but Alafair applies all she knows about hygiene, nutrition, and old and trusted country remedies. Unable to aid her sons and sons-inlaw fighting overseas, this is danger she can combat. 

One autumn afternoon, screams coming from next door alert Alafair that Alice's neighbor, Nola Thomason, and her son Lewis have suddenly and unexpectedly succumbed. Yet there is something about the way the pair died that causes Alafair to suspect their deaths were due to poison rather than to influenza. The epidemic is so overwhelming that it is many days before the only doctor left in town can confirm Alafair's suspicions; neither Nola nor Lewis died of the flu. The only witness to their deaths, twelve-year-old Dorothy Thomason, a special friend of Alafair's daughter, Sophronia, is so traumatized that she is rendered mute. Were Nola and her son murdered, and if so, why?

The usual motives for murder are greed, or jealousy, or hatred. Or could it be, as Alafair fears, that the Raven Mocker, the most dreaded of the Cherokee wizards or witches, the evil spirit who takes to the air in a fiery shape to rob the old, the sick, and the dying of their lives, is hunting victims and bringing misery to the innocent?"

I really love the story telling of life in the early 20th century in this series. The songs the little girls sing I remember singing in the '60's. I love the story of the small town, farming community. I lived in one as a small child and many things in the book remind me of that. The mystery is good - what happened to the Thomason's? 

I  reading a true account of the Great Flu Epidemic also. I guess I am looking for signs of an end to this one. Funny how many similarities I am seeing. The symptoms are very similar with the terrible headaches, the fevers and the pneumonia. Because of the time and record keeping of that time, they are not sure how many people actually died of the flu in 1918 but the estimate is 30-50 million worldwide with 600,000 being Americans. There were no antibiotics or vaccines then. Why some people got it and some did not is unknown. Safety measures taken were similar; home made masks were worn,  deliveries were iffy, quarantines were in effect. Houses in those times were marked with a red cross to indicate they had the flu. 

My grandparents were children during that time. I knew them all and they never spoke of that flu epidemic. As an amateur genealogist, I have not seen any of their parents or siblings that appear to have died from it, except maybe one. A great uncle was in WWI in England and died of pneumonia in 1918. I had that information for years but now I wonder if he had the Spanish flu. 

No one knows why it went away. One theory is that all of the people that were vulnerable got it. When "it" had no other good hosts to replicate, it died out. Hmmm

Well I recommend this book for not only a good story and mystery but to read about what that pandemic was like. 

Here is the title of the nonfiction book I am also purusing: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry. (I wonder if they will have to change that title.) t is much drier reading of course but has great pictures of everyone in masks in 1918, hospital wards, military camps etc. 

Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison

 If you like locked room mysteries and classic mysteries, I think you would like this book. It reminded me of a Victoria Holt book.

This is the first in a new series for Hannah Dennison and I really liked it.

About:  "In the first installment in the delightful Island Sisters series, two sisters inherit an old hotel in the remote Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall and find it full of intrigue, danger, and romance." 

When Evie Mead's husband, Robert, suddenly drops dead of a heart attack, a mysterious note is found among his possessions. It indicates that Evie may own the rights to an old hotel on Tregarrick Rock, one of the Isles of Scilly. Still grieving, Evie is inclined to leave the matter to the accountant to sort out. Her sister Margot, however, flown in from her glamorous career in LA, has other plans. Envisioning a luxurious weekend getaway, she goes right ahead and buys two tickets--one way--to Tregarrick. Once at the hotel--used in its heyday to house detective novelists, and more fixer-upper than spa resort, after all--Evie and Margot attempt to get to the bottom of things. But the foul-tempered hotel owner claims he's never met the late Robert, even after Evie finds framed photos of them--alongside Robert's first wife--in his office. The rest of the island inhabitants, ranging from an ex-con receptionist to a vicar who communicates with cats, aren't any easier to read. But when a murder occurs at the hotel, and then another soon follows, frustration turns to desperation. There's no getting off the island at high tide. And Evie and Margot, the only current visitors to Tregarrick, are suspects one and two. It falls to them to unravel secrets spanning generations--and several of their own--if they want to make it back alive. "

I would call this a locked island mystery. It is a very engrossing and suspenseful story. The wonderful descriptions of the island; weather, mists, rain, cold, add to the suspense as Evie tries to tweeze out if she owns the hotel on Tregarrick Rock. I got the feeling of those old spooky house on the cliff all by itself movies and books. Evie's sister Margot has told an elaborate tale of who they are and why they are on the island in the middle of November. Then it appears Margot disappears after acting very strangely since they left for the island. The owners of the hotel, Jago and Tegan are rude and suspicious of Evie. Vanessa the cook is very strange. The only normal person seems to be Cador, Jago's son. A tale of inheritance, families with secrets, small villages and pasts. I didn't see the ending coming.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series. This book comes out 8/18/20. 

I haven't read any of Hannah Dennison's other books. Actually I am not familiar with her, but this book was so well written, I do want to take a look at her other books. She writes The Vicky Hill Mysteries with five books in the series and The Honeychurch Hall Mysteries with six books in that series.

About Hannah Dennison: "British born, Hannah Dennison originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. She has been an obituary reporter, antique dealer, private jet flight attendant and Hollywood story analyst. Hannah continues to teach mystery writing workshops at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program in Los Angeles, California and wherever she is invited! After twenty-five years living on the West Coast, Hannah returned to the UK where she shares her life with Draco and Athena, two energetic Hungarian Vizslas. She enjoys all country pursuits, movies, and theatre, reading and seriously good chocolate."

Here is her website: https://www.hannahdennison.com/index.htm

I received an Advanced Reader Copy and voluntarily provided this review.

New releases from a few of my favorites and other recommendations

Here are a few releases from favorite authors that I really want to read and I would recommend.

August 4, 2020

The First to Lie by Hank Phillipi Ryan

This came out last week. I have read a couple of books by this author and really like the suspense and twists in Hank Phillipi Ryan's books.

About: "We all have our reasons for being who we are―but what if being someone else could get you what you want?

After a devastating betrayal, a young woman sets off on an obsessive path to justice, no matter what dark family secrets are revealed. What she doesn't know―she isn't the only one plotting revenge.
An affluent daughter of privilege. A glamorous manipulative wannabe. A determined reporter, in too deep. A grieving widow who has to choose her new reality. Who will be the first to lie? And when the stakes are life and death, do a few lies really matter?
Bestselling and award-winning author and investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan delivers another twisty, thrilling cat and mouse novel of suspense that will have you guessing, and second-guessing, and then gasping with surprise."

9/1/20 20

All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny

Inspector Gamach series #16

About: "On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life. 

When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.

It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades.

A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.

Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.

For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide."

Whoa!

9/17/2020 

Daylight  by David Baldacci; Atlee Pine series #3 

About: "FBI Agent Atlee Pine's search for her sister Mercy clashes with military investigator John Puller's high-stakes case, leading them both deep into a global conspiracy -- from which neither of them will escape unscathed. 

For many long years, Atlee Pine was tormented by uncertainty after her twin sister, Mercy, was abducted at the age of six and never seen again. Now, just as Atlee is pressured to end her investigation into Mercy's disappearance, she finally gets her most promising breakthrough yet: the identity of her sister's kidnapper, Ito Vincenzo.

With time running out, Atlee and her assistant Carol Blum race to Vincenzo's last known location in Trenton, New Jersey -- and unknowingly stumble straight into John Puller's case, blowing his arrest during a drug ring investigation involving a military installation.

Stunningly, Pine and Puller's joint investigation uncovers a connection between Vincenzo's family and a breathtaking scheme that strikes at the very heart of global democracy. Peeling back the layers of deceit, lies and cover-ups, Atlee finally discovers the truth about what happened to Mercy. And that truth will shock Pine to her very core."

Oh oh.

I talked about book #1 a couple of weeks ago, (Long Road to Mercy) - we read it for our Mystery Book Club (MBC) selection for August and everyone really liked it. Many of the book club members already read book #2 - A Minute to Midnight and really liked it also.  It came out 11/19/2019. I need to get this one soon. 

About: "FBI Agent Atlee Pine returns to her Georgia hometown to reopen the investigation of her twin sister's abduction, only to encounter a serial killer beginning a reign of terror, in this page-turning thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.

FBI Agent Atlee Pine's life was never the same after her twin sister Mercy was kidnapped--and likely killed--thirty years ago. After a lifetime of torturous uncertainty, Atlee's unresolved anger finally gets the better of her on the job, and she finds she has to deal with the demons of her past if she wants to remain with the FBI.

Atlee and her assistant Carol Blum head back to Atlee's rural hometown in Georgia to see what they can uncover about the traumatic night Mercy was taken and Pine was almost killed. But soon after Atlee begins her investigation, a local woman is found ritualistically murdered, her face covered with a wedding veil--and the first killing is quickly followed by a second bizarre murder.

Atlee is determined to continue her search for answers, but now she must also set her sights on finding a potential serial killer before another victim is claimed. But in a small town full of secrets--some of which could answer the questions that have plagued Atlee her entire life--digging deeper into the past could be more dangerous than she realizes . ."

Here are a couple of recommendations of other books coming up that I found out about at MBC and sound really good to me.

11/10/2020

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz - sequel to The Magpie Murders, which PBS is making into a 6 part mini-series.

About: "Farlingaye Hall is a beautiful hotel in Suffolk on the east coast of England. Unfortunately, it is also the site of the brutal murder of Frank Parris, a retired advertising executive. Stefan Codrescu, a Romanian maintenance man, is arrested after police discover blood spatter on his clothes and bed linen. He is found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison. It appears to be an open-and-shut case, but there is more to it than meets the eye.

Alan Conway, the late author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew Frank Parris and once visited Farlingaye Hall. Also, the third book in Conway’s detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, was based on the hotel. Cecily Treherne, the daughter of Farlingaye Hall’s owner, has read the book and believes the proof of Stefan’s innocence can be found in its pages.

But now . . . Cecily Treherne has disappeared. So Conway’s former editor, Susan Ryeland, leaves her own hotel in Crete and travels to Suffolk to investigate the murder and Treherne’s disappearance.

Masterfully intriguing, brilliantly clever and relentlessly suspenseful, Moonflower Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective."

Sounds like I need to check out Magpie Murders...

3/09/2021

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

About: "The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.

940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger--and their true enemy--closer..."

I like historical fiction and these code breaker stories.

Last but not least, here is a vintage author that I want to check out.

Have you ever heard of Mary Roberts Rhinehart? One of the book club members recommended her. She is considered the "American Agatha Christie."

You can read about her in Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Roberts_Rinehart.

Here is the introduction in Wiki about her:  " (August 12, 1876 – September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie,^[1] although her first mystery novel was published 12 years before Christie's first novel in 1920.^[2]

Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it" from her novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase. Rinehart is also considered to have invented the "Had-I-but-Known" school of mystery writing, with the publication of The Circular Staircase (1908)."

This looks like a good way to read some of her work. Includes 25 titles by her, on Amazon as an ebook. I like classic mysteries so adding this to me TBR stack. I mean mountain.

This should keep everyone busy as we continue to "stay at home."

Some things are looking up: Masterpiece new shows for fall

I saw something about murder cicadas now? I didn't even read that one. Too much. 

On a positive note, Masterpiece's line up for fall looks promising.

First, you probably know Endeavor Season 7 starts this weekend, Sunday August 9. Only three episodes though. I guess we should be lucky we are getting any, since so much filming was stopped and still has not started up.

Here are some new shows coming up in the fall that look good.

Van der Valk  September 13, 2020

About: "Amsterdam—city of bikes, boats, and bodies. At least, that’s the way steely-eyed cop Piet van der Valk sees his murder-infested beat. Marc Warren (Beecham House, The Good Wife) stars as the title character in Van der Valk an all-new, three-part series based on Nicolas Freeling’s legendary crime thrillers.

Co-starring are Maimie McCoy (Wallander) as Van der Valk’s right-hand woman, Lucienne Hassell; Luke Allen-Gale (Dominion) as the scruffy sergeant, Brad de Vries; and Elliot Barnes-Worrell (Jericho) as the squad’s brainy new guy, Job Cloovers. The recurring cast also includes Emma Fielding (Les Misérables) as Van der Valk’s incorruptible but indulgent boss, Julia Dahlman; and Darrell D’Silva (Game of Thrones) as the team’s hard-living, virtuoso pathologist, Hendrik Davie."

Three episodes

Flesh and Blood October 4, 2020

About: "Get ready to hit the beach, find romance, sniff out lies, cringe at mistakes, and suspect everyone in Flesh and Blood, a family drama/thriller that will have you guessing and obsessing through all four episodes.

When glamorous widow Vivien (Francesca Annis, Home Fires, Cranford) finds unexpected romance with retired surgeon Mark (Stephen Rea, The Crying Game, V for Vendetta), her adult children have mixed reactions—just another complication heaped onto the mounting problems of their own, be it money troubles for debt-ridden Jake (Russell Tovey, Little Dorrit, Years and Years, Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville); professional troubles for executive Helen (Claudie Blakley, Cranford, Pride & Prejudice, Gosford Park); or relationship troubles for other-woman Natalie (Lydia Leonard, Gentleman Jack). And what does desperately lonely, unnervingly nosy neighbor/amateur sleuth, Mary (Imelda Staunton, Harry Potter, Vera Drake, and slated to play Queen Elizabeth II in Season 5 of The Crown), think? You’ll delight in finding out. But right now, all you need to know is that the series opens with a body, bloodstained rocks beneath a broken balcony, and the flashing lights marking the start of a police inquiry! Who did what to whom?"

I don't always watch the drama/romance series but this has the word "thiller" in it. lol

Four episodes

 Roadkill November 1, 2020

About: "Hugh Laurie (House, Veep, The Night Manager) stars as a scheming politician in Roadkill, a taut, propulsive drama scripted by Sir David Hare (the Worriker trilogy, The Hours). Laurie plays Peter Laurence, a self-made former salesman who has risen to the heights of the British government thanks to a natural gift for populism, all while walking the tightrope of Machiavellian party politics. He’s shamelessly untroubled as revelations about his personal life are laid bare. But beset by enemies who want to take him down, ambitious colleagues who want to overtake him, family and lovers who want what he can’t—or won’t—give, and a past that he can’t outrun, will he be able to claim the ultimate political prize? And at what cost? 

Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders) plays the savvy, calculating Prime Minister, Saskia Reeves (Wolf Hall, Belgravia) plays his wife, and Sarah Greene (Normal People) and Pip Torrens (Poldark) play a reporter and her editor at the paper fighting Laurence’s libel suit."

They don't say how many episodes. I like Hugh Laurie. I watched House when it was on. Now we will hear his normal British accent instead of his American accent when he was in House.

There are some new shows after the New Year it looks like but we will wait and see.

I did see an announcement that PBS  "will co-produce and broadcast Magpie Murders, a new drama based on the bestselling novel written by Anthony Horowitz OBE. The six-part series is produced by Jill Green and Eleventh Hour Films. Lauded as “a magnificent piece of crime fiction” and “an ingenious novel within a novel” by the Sunday Times (London), Magpie Murders topped multiple best-seller lists including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and appeared on the year-end Best Books lists of NPR, USA Today and others. Its international awards include the prestigious Macavity Award for Best Novel."

That sounds good too. So while we continue to be pretty much at home, and I think that will continue through winter, PBS has some good entertainment coming our way. :)