Final Book Report of 2023

I realized that I never told you what I read during October, November, and December of last year, and so figured today was as good a time as any. Here is what I read and how I felt about it, in no particular order.

O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker. This is the story of Janet, a young girl growing up in a run down castle In Scotland. She is a unique individual,  preferring reading and animals to typical girlish pursuits,  and puzzling her fairly indifferent parents, siblings, and schoolmates. 

As the book begins, Janet lies dead in the stairwell of the house. As we read the book, we see how her being "different" left her alone even when surrounded by others. Though she is quite dramatic and can be off-putting, the reader recognizes her as a sensitive soul surrounded by others following society's rules blindly. 

I found this book interesting and also in parts quite sad. Sometimes I wished Janet could go along to get along, but the few times she did, things didn't go well anyway. This was a modern Gothic tale, and I really liked it.

A Little Ray of Sunshine, by Kristan Higgins. Harlow Smith leads a quiet but pleasant enough life, as part owner of her family's bookstore, Open Page, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. She sees her siblings and parents regularly, loves living on Cape Cod, lives in an apartment upstairs from her business, and belongs to a local trivia team. That changes abruptly one day when she hears a long-ago familiar voice and sees a very familiar face: her son and his adoptive father are in her bookstore!

Once over the initial shock, she learns that unknown to his adoptive father, her son had planned this encounter. Nearly eighteen years ago when she herself was a college freshman, Harlow had given her son to a wonderful couple minutes after his birth for them to raise, so that he would have a family around him. She thought of him often during the years, but always told herself she had done the right thing for all involved.

His appearance sends ripples of effect through everyone - Harlow and his adoptive parents of course, but also his younger sister and Harlow's large extended family. The book details the rest of that summer into the fall, as things develop and change almost daily.

I think the author does a good job of showing us how each of the main characters goes through so many feelings and emotions while this is happening - there's convincing happiness, disbelief, anger, jealousy, often all at once.

I enjoyed this read.

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett. I actually listened to this book, read by Tom Hanks. I generally enjoy him, so I think he did a wonderful job with this story.

The story is first and foremost the story of Maeve and Danny Conroy, and their family. At the end of World War II, their father purchased the Dutch House, a huge house in Elkins Park, a suburb of Philadelphia. The house has its own story, but it sets the background for Danny and Maeve's life. Abandoned by their mother when young, they have always counted on each other. After their father dies, they are thrown out of the only house they've ever known, left to figure things out for themselves. 

The book is one of those "sweeping family stories" that takes you through the siblings' lives and makes them feel familiar to the reader. You're not necessarily surprised by how Danny's story ends, and you're always ready for one of Maeve's comments.

But I wasn't really expecting the ending. In some ways though, it made perfect sense and brought the story full circle.

I also enjoyed the references to places in and near Philadelphia,  and had no problem imagining the Dutch House, as many large, beautiful, and stately houses line some of the streets in Elkins Park.

I liked this book a lot, and was sorry for it to end.

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes, by Kate Strasdin. I saw a social media post by the author of this book, and really wanted to read this. It took a while until my turn came up at the library, but it was worth the wait!

An acquaintance of the author gave her a book that had been found in a thrift shop, knowing her interest in textile and fashion history.  A homemade journal of types, but filled with fabric swatches from the Victorian Era in England, rather than written entries. The fabrics have caption like "Mary's dress for Helen's wedding" and a date, but not much else. 

Finally, into the book, the author discovers that it belonged to Anne Sykes, which allows her to not only trace her life through the fabrics, but some of the others mentioned throughout.

This was a fascinating story, or groups of stories, giving insights into time, place, and lives of mostly the industrialist class as it develops in England. What the author was able to learn about Anne, her family, and their social milieu was fascinating.  The book is written in a very readable way, though it is a research project report. 

I thought it was a good read.

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin. AJ Fikry is a widower who owns a small independent bookstore on Alice Island off the coast of Massachusetts. Since his wife died he has become more isolated,but he doesn't really care.  When a publisher's rep visits, he goes through the motions of the business call but she leaves feeling it was a complete waste of time.  

The next day, AJ notices that a valuable book from his personal collection has gone missing. When he files a police report, he realizes it's the same police officer (who is actually the Chief of Police) who spoke to him after his wife's accident. They form a sort of connection. But wait - next someoneleaves a baby in his bookshop, with a note saying they wanted to give her a better life.

This series of events lead to major changes in AJ's life and outlook. By the end of the book, his life is a different existence altogether.  And though the ending is not what you may expect or hope for, it's also not completely sad. You might say things even end hopefully.

Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz. Alice Lee is an 18 year old girl from Wisconsin who leaves for a life New York City. Arriving there on the same day from Australia is 36 year old Ruby Jones. In a short time, they will be connected forever.

I don't want to ruin the story, but I can say that there are parts of this book that are hard to read (it makes you angry, what happens to Alice). But it is so well-written and the language so beautiful that it is well worth your time. I highly recommend this book.

Scared Off, by Barbara Ross. This was out of order for me in this series, but I couldn't resist reading a Halloween story at Halloween time.

When Julia Snowden's young niece calls her from a Halloween sleepover to please come get her, she never imagines to be at a crime scene. But her niece Page and two friends were at one of the girls' houses, and once the girl's parents left, they texted some friends to come over. The problem was that those friends invited others they didn't even know, and things got terribly out of hand.

Then the woman who also lived in the house as a tenant is nowhere to be found when the girls go to ask her for help. That is, until she suddenly appears as a "flying ghost " - her body later found in the backyard shed.

As the investigation moves forward, it turns out that the murdered tenant had a long history ... none of it good.

The Good Turn, by Dervla McTiernan. Cormac Reilly faces off with the Garda force in this book, wanting to flush out corruption but getting a lot of pushback. He's also dealing with one of his junior officers being accused of being trigger happy and shooting an innocent suspect. And on top of everything, his personal life seems to be crumbling.

This book has a lot happening, but it was a fascinating look into the inner workings of the police force in Ireland. And the story of the possibly disgraced officer was both interesting and fit nicely into the overall plot without seeming too contrived.

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, by Joanna Cannon. I really wanted to like this book. I read so many good reviews. But after making myself read about half of it, I decided life was too short to keep going.

Normal People, by Sally Rooney. I've been waiting to read this for so long, and ... nope. I got a third of the way in and just didn't care. So onto something else.

The Night Hawks, by Elly Griffiths. This installment in the series deals with a possible murder-suicide and the discovery of a Bronze Age treasure site.

A group of metal detectorists called the Night Hawks locates a treasure site during one of their nighttime outings along the Norfolk coast - but the body of a young man washes ashore as well. 

Dr. Ruth Galloway - now head of her university department - is called in to help the investigation of the skeleton found with the buried treasure. It turns out that one of her new colleagues is friends with some of the Night Hawks, and he inserts himself into the whole situation,  much to Ruth's dismay.

Meanwhile, in the midst of trying to find out what happened to the young man whose body washed ashore, DCI Nelson is called to an isolated farm where a murder-suicide appears to have occurred. Bug further investigation shows a link between the farm and the dead young man. And some of the Night Hawks are also found to have a link.

This was a good story overall,though I found a lot about the ending and how we arrived there to be weaker than usual.

Overkilt, by Kaitlyn Dunnett. This was a pretty enjoyable read, and it takes place between Halloween and Thanksgiving.  

Lisa MacCrimmon Ruskin is busy with her Scottish Emporium in western Maine, where fall is underway and people are preparing for the upcoming holiday season. Her father-in-law is promoting a couples' only Thanksgiving event at the inn he owns, and Liss expects that she will get a little boost in sales from those visitors. 

But Hadley Spinner and his group called the New Pilgrims send out flyers saying that the couples only event is evil,because childlessness is wrong, the couples may not even be married and staying at the inn, or they could be same sex! At first the local shop owners aren't too worried, but when a bus load of tourists drives away rather than deal with the protesters,  and it looks like someone has killed Hadley Spinner, things get serious, fast. 

As Liss tries to figure out what happened,  and find the killer - since her Aunt Margaret is a primary suspect - a lot of things come out about the New Pilgrims, their leader, and past events. 

I liked this book because there was something to be figured out, but not fifty red herrings to toss you in every direction.  It was a good description of a small town where not everyone was friends, but could work together. And so few cozy mysteries take place at Thanksgiving,  it was a nice seasonal treat.

Duck the Halls, by Meg Andrews. Meg Langslow has a lot to do before Christmas - purchase and wrap gifts, get her twin boys ready for a couple of holiday-themed performances, support her husband for a performance he is doing, and deal with her mother and mother-in-law and their plans. 

So when pranksters put several skunks into the choir loft of the local Baptist church, then ducks in the Episcopal church, and Meg is tasked with rescheduling things and locations, itlooks lijethingswill get even more complicated. But then a member of the Episcopal church's vestry is found dead in the church basement, and Meg decides she needs to figure out what happened. 

I enjoyed this book and thought it was a good story.

Lovelight Farms, by B.K. Borison. OK, so maybe this is on me since I am not the biggest fan of romance stories, but I had high expectations for this book, based on what other friends with similar tastes said after they read it.

In a nutshell, Stella bought a Christmas tree farm, and is realizing that due to several setbacks over the past year, she may have to close it down and let go of her employees. Then a social media influencer has a promotion where the winner gets a huge cash prize when the influencer visits and chooses your business as most emblematic if the holiday season. One little thing though: Stella has said that she bought the farm and is in business with her boyfriend. When the farm is chosen as a finalist, she has to ask her very best friend Luka to pretend to be her boyfriend for the week the influencer is visiting.

OK, that's fine and not an uncommon twist in a romance story. But the rest of the book is primarily describing Stella's longing for Luka and her fight within herself to admit that they are in love with each other. To the point where at least 90 percent of the story is descriptions of her feelings, longings, and how he makes her feel. I mean, the whole background story is treated as an afterthought. The book could have been about half as long (and it's already not that long of a book) if an editor somewhere had been more thorough with the manuscript.

And frankly, I don't think it's just me being mean about it. I read the whole book because the premise was entertaining and I wanted to see how things ended up working. But after the tenth time Stella described Luka's freckles or the way the light hit his amber eyes, I really stopped caring because even in person I would say to a friend that we should move on to another topic.

So I didn't like the characters really, and it didn't seem at all like a holiday story to me. I am almost a hundred percent sure a lot of others absolutely LOVE this book, but I'm not one of them.

Murder in the First Edition, by Lauren Elliott. Addie Greyborne is looking forward to the holiday season, znd is especially excited because she has donated a first edition if Charles Dickens "Christmas Carol" to the local hospital's charity auction. When she receives information from her former colleague saying thebook is even more valuable than thought, due decides to take the certificate of authenticity to the woman running the auction.

But when she arrives at the hospital, the woman's not in her office, and the valuable book is not in the case ... even worse, shefinds the woman dead in the stairwell. 

On top of it all, the man who was nearly her father-in-law shows up, which makes Addie suspicious because she thinks he's a shady character. And, she is being forced to decide which of the men in her life she really cares about. 

This was a pretty interesting mystery, with tons of red herrings and various suspects. The characters are fairly well done, so you go back and forth trying to figure things out. And even though there are romantic entanglements, they are part of the story, not the whole story.

I'd read another in this series.

A December to Remember, by Jenny Bayliss. This is a lovely book, containing interesting characters, a bit of magical holiday feeling, and some funny moments.

Maggie, Simone, and Star are all daughters of Augustus North, the quirky and unusual owner of North's Curios, held by someone in the North family since the1700s. They each have a different mother, but always spent a month with their father each summer, making them "Summer Sisters."

When Augustus dies, he leaves instructions for his business, and additional important things with a solicitor. The instructions require the sisters to work together, or their inheritance will be withheld. 

Throwing the sisters together as adults after years with only slight contact makes for an interesting series of events.  Throughout the book, we learn more about all of them, their family history, and Rowan Thorp, the town where the North family originally settled. Even the formulaic aspects of the story are made more enjoyable with the way the story unfolds.

This was a fun and very festive read.

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic, by Breanne Randall. I gave this a good try, but just couldn't care enough about the characters to continue.

Mistletoe, Malice, and Murder, by Bruce Hammack. This was a really enjoyable read - granted, I may have enjoyed it more if I had read previous titles in the series (which I now plan to do), but I liked it nonetheless. 

When Heather McBlythe and Steve Smiley are contacted by one of the richest men in Houston in their role as private investigators, things get interesting. The man who called them, Sid, is in serious failing health, and is sure someone in his family will be dead by Christmas. In fact, during the initial interview,  the body of Sid's daughter-in-law is found in her bedroom.

The investigation involves a feud with the next-door neighbors, cheated in a business deal years before, family members wanting to get their hands on the fortune, and Sid's grandson's wedding to the feuding family's granddaughter on a cruise ship on Christmas Day.

A good read with interesting characters.

A Chapter on Murder, by Sue Minix. I've not read any  of the previous books in this series, but this one works fine as a standalone. 

Jen Dawson has inherited Ravenous Readers, a bookstore in small South Carolina town, and she is hoping the holiday season will boost business.  Unfortunately,  she gets the kind of attention she doesn't want when the body of an ex-con is discovered behind the bookstore. In his pocket is a piece of paper with her name on it. 

It turns out that the victim was seen having a heated argument the day before with a cook at the local diner, also an ex-con, but now an important community member, having turned his life around.

As the circumstantial evidence piles up, Jen is faced with proving her friend's innocence,  trying to get people to return to the bookstore, and figuring out her love life.

I enjoyed this book, and kinda figured out who the murderer was but not why.

The White Priory Murders, by Carter Dickson. This is a book in the tradition of British closed door mysteries.

Sir Henry Merrivale (H.M. to those who know him) meets hus American nephew Carter Bennett for the first time at the beginning of the book. He is in London for a sort of diplomatic purpose, and wanted to both meet his uncle and discuss a situation with him. H.M. is well known for his expertise in solving cases off murder,  and Carter is uneasy about something that happened.  

Marcia Tait, a famous English actress who had left for Hollywood,  has returned and is looking for a patron to provide funding for a play she wants to produce. The evening before the visit to H.M., Carter had been with friends at Marcia Tait's flat, and someone sent her a box of poisoned chocolates. Fortunately, no one died. But one of Carter's acquaintances there begged him to join all of them, including the actress, at his family's estate (White  Priory) for the holidays. H.M. encourages his nephew to go, and to contact him as needed. 

Carter arrives, only to find that Marcia Tait has been murdered in a small pavilion on the grounds, and there are only one set of footprints in the snow - going in, but not coming out. And so yhe murder mystery begins.

The few characters present are all of course very quirky, very British, and suspicious in their own way. Eventually Carter asks H.M. to help solve the murder mystery,  and so we get to see him in action.

This was enjoyable enough,  but way more convoluted than it needed to be. There were some things I feel could have been left out and would not in any way ruin the story.

***

Now it's your turn - let  me know what you have read lately, and if you recommend it, or recommend avoiding it at all costs!

Have a wonderful weekend. We'll be recycling our Christmas tree, and working on putting things away for the most part. Since time is limited until late next week, we'll have to do things in stages. Which is fine, since it's not like we have lots of other plans. And of course, we'll find time to relax and just enjoy the weekend. I hope you will enjoy yours as well. Take care!