Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

 Benjamin Stevenson brings us another in his "Everyone..." mystery series, this time, Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret.

Stevenson has created an entertaining mystery detective voice in the character of Ernest Cunningham, a amateur private investigator, who promises in every novel to make sure the reader is informed of all the clues, no surprises and no secrets.  So as Stevenson moves his detective through the case discovering clues he says he is sharing everything with the reader.  

This time we are meeting Cunningham the week leading up to Christmas. His ex-wife is accused of murder and Ernest will do whatever is necessary to find the real killer.  He is to attend a magic show to find out why the director of the charity sponsoring the show was killed. So armed with a list of suspects, Ernest starts interviewing the potential murderers, among them the magician, his assistant, and an illusionist, all masters of the art of misdirection.

Using the clever prop of an advent calendar, each clue is behind a different window.  Cunningham is sure that he can solve the crime and reveal the true killer, because he says, being a detective is just like being a magician, because "any good murder is just like a magic trick".

The Old Woman With a Knife

 Gu Byeong-mo is the author of The Old Woman With a Knife.  A novel about an older woman who has been an assassin for her career.  She has been doing this for many years and can see she is starting to slow down.  Her reflexes are still quick, and still can move quickly but she is getting tired and maybe a little forgetful. 

Now as Hornclaw contemplates coming to the end of her career and wondering when to retire, we learn about her life and how she came to be an assassin.  In an unusual turn of events for her, it seems, that someone has made her the target.  Hornclaw lives with her rescue dog, Deadweight, in a small understated apartment keeping a very low profile and no personal relationships.  It is easier for a assassin to not make emotional connections.

But after a lifetime of careful withdrawal, she seems to be getting distracted and may be becoming attached to a family in her neighborhood.  As she tries to protect he family and find out who knos too much about her and her personal life, she is encountering the most deadly of all her assignments.  This time the victim could be her.

The English Teacher

 The Engish Teacher by Yiftach Reicher Atir is a fascinating novel about the Mossad and the secret agents. Written by Atir who was a military intelligence officer in Israeli Defense Forces has written this book telling the story of what it is like to be apart of the secret intelligence for a country.  

“The book you are hold­ing in your hands is the true sto­ry of what nev­er hap­pened,”  A story based on facts and strictly reviewed by the Mossad to make sure there were no real facts given away.

This is the story of a young woman, Rachel Goldschmitt who left home to become an undercover operative for Israel.  She works as an English teacher in a small Arab town, leaving every now then to go on a mission.  Her mentor and handler, Ehud watches over her and makes sure she is safe.  But it is a lonely life, not being able to set down roots, make real friends, always lying and keeping to yourself.

Does this life style begin to take a toll on Rachel?  She sends a message to Ehud that her father has died and she is returning to England for the funeral and shiva.  But soon they realize that she is not coming back and she has disappeared.  Ehud and his direct boss Joe go over the facts Ehud remembers of his time working with Rachel as they try to figure out where she could be.  Oncee you are a operative for Mossad, you can never go back to the outside world.  You know too much and must stay within the organization.

This was a fascinating book,  the suspense building as Ehud and Joe are slowly revealing Rachel story and the conflicts she was shouldering.  The risks she was taking and the dangerous life she was living.

American Spy

 American Spy is an exciting suspenseful debut novel written by Lauren Wilkenson.  It has won many awards and was published at a very tense time in American life.  

This is the story of a young woman, Marie Mitchell,  who is looking forward to being a Federal employee, a member of the FBI.  It has been the dream of her sister and herself since childhood, when her sister sid she wanted to be a spy.  Brought up by their policeman father after their mother leaves the family and retreats to her home on Martinique.  Marie looks up to her sister and when her sister is killed while working as a spy, Marie joins the FBI.

Now she is hired by the FBI but is given a position she feels is beneath her.  She is sure she is being overlooked because she is a young woman of color.

In her frustration she is approached by someone recruiting her to the CIA.  He has a special assignment he says she alone can do. Appealing to her pride and seeing that he can use her to his advantage.  Marie takes on the assignment.  She is supposed to try and attract the new young Thomas Sankara, the leftist president of Burkina Faso.  This is a real figure in history, that the CIA was interested in overthrowing.

Marie must decide if she wants to follow through with what the CIA assigned her to do.  Things get heated when Marie starts to feel that the requests being made of her are not morally acceptable.  She must weigh her feelings about right and wrong,  her personal feelings about Sankara as she gets to know him better and her feeling that the CIA and its agents are immoral.

This novel is told in reverse, starting with Marie as a mother to two sons, running to hide in Martinique with her mother after years of separation.  Some of the decisions she has made in her life are starting to catch up to her.  As she decides her next move she writes this book as a letter to her sons telling the story of her life.  

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

 Written by Rivka Galchen, an award winning Canadian American author, Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is an amazing retelling of an historic story of an old "cantankerous, nosy" woman accused of being a witch.

The year is 1610 and the place is a small village in Germany.  The accused witch is Katarina, who in real life was the mother of Johannes Kepler, who was along with Galileo and Newton was a philosopher and scientist.  Interesting though not really relevant to the book, Kepler was laws of planetary motion would pave the way to Newton's revolutionary celestial physics.  Kepler thought the planets move in elliptical orbits not circular ones.  This in itself could get a person hanged at the stake at that time...

But back to the novel..it gets very mixed reviews some people loved it and some found it difficult to follow and confusing.  It is written in an unusual style, in one place described as choral narrative, where there are multiple voices speaking in concert without identifying who is speaking at anyone time.  

So with a plethora of characters all staking turns speaking you must follow the plot carefully.  If you do you will find a jewel of a story comes through.  This book is presented as a trial of a witch but it is really about love, family and allegiance.  It is about mass hysteria and how it can pull people along with the growing tide.  About fear and misunderstanding.

One woman accuses Katarina of making her ill and calls her out as a witch.  The Governor announces that a trial date will be set and starts to gather confessions.  The townspeople come forward and state their grievances with Katarina building a case that she is a witch.  Her family stands by her along with her friend Simon.  We also learn what happens to them.  How their lives are affected by the turn of events.

This is a story of an ancient time but it is still in many ways relevant today.  So many parallels can be drawn between the negative call of witchcraft and the modern calling out of racism and anti-semitism.  All ways of making someone the other, blaming someone else for your problems and short comings. 

Hopefully today we can recognize the untruthfulness of those who try to malign others and stand up for  the rights of those who are accused unjustly.  This book will remind us of how important that can be.

The Grey Wolf

 The Grey Wolf the newest novel in the mystery series by the fabulous author Louise Penny.

I have written here multiply times how much I love Louise Penny and this series about the Canadian Surete Superintendent of Homicide, Armand Gamache.  The writing style is what makes her novels stand out.  These novels are written with beautiful prose and character development.  The mystery is always complicated and in depth keeping the reader guessing as the facts are being revealed.  

It is the characters; their feelings, their needs, likes and dislikes and interrelationships that are intriguing and very well developed that make these novels so compelling.  Jean-Guy Beauvoir, the second in command, who was a broken, angry young man who Armand took under his wing and nurtured, who is now not only his trusted employee, b ut also his son-in-law.  There is Isabelle Lacoste another trusted police officer whoh shares the leadership with Jean-Guy.  

But mostly there are the neighbors who live in Three Pines with Armand and his wife Reine-Marie.  The descriptions of Three Pines is what makes every reader of this series wish they also lived there.  It is serene and quiet.  It is cosy and warm, where everyone is friends and there is safety in their closeness. There is also a bookstore and the inn with an inviting restaurant where the food sounds delicious and the fire is always burning in the fireplace.

All of this works together to create the magic that makes readers wait so patiently for another nmystery novel to arrive on bookshelves.

All That Glitters

 All That Glitters, written by Orlando Whitfield is A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art.  A very interesting story, written in a very readable style that entices the reader into a world of art and crime.  

Orlando Whitfield was young and impressionable when he met Inigo Philbrick at Goldsmiths, University of London.  They become friends and start the company I&O Fine Art.  

They join the glamorous world of art dealing, art galleries and multimillion dollar deals with major famous wealthy clients.  It is a world of travel on private jets, parties and money.  But getting caught up in this world leads to greed and illegal ways of building their bank accounts.  Philbrick gets carried away and eventually the complicated financial schemes he is working start o unravel and he has to run.  

Whitfield has a mental breakdown and changes his life. He feels betrayed by Philbrick who he has always thought was his friend even as things go under.  Whitfield wants to stay in touch with Philbrick even as he is on the run with his girlfriend until he is caught hiding on the Pacific Island, Vanuata and sent to United States by the FBI for trial.  

Whitefield leaves the art world for good.  He gathers all the information and writes this book looking back on the whole story after the fact.

Vanishing Treasures

Katherine Rundell has done the serious research and written definitive book on extraordinary endangered creatures, Vanishing Treasures.  This is a book about awe-inspiring animals that are in danger of extinction.

Each animal gets a short chapter about its history, its way of life and why it is in danger of becoming extinct.  There are some animals that are very unusual like the Lemur, the Wombat, and the Narwhal.  These are animals that live in small areas of the world and their lives are endangered because of eithher the environment changing or being killed faster than they are having babies.

There are also some surprising animals in the endangered list.  These are animals that are very common in our lives and this reader never realized that these animals were not prolific.  Crows, Raccoons, and Bears.  These animals have been hunted, captured and their food sources and living areas are being changed and disappearing as humans are building homes and taking away the forests and places the animals live.

This book is written in a very readable interesting style.  Some of the information about the animals is quite interesting and surprising.   Giraffes have purple tongues, to help protect it from the sun.  The seahorse mates for life and the male carries and births the babies.  Thee Narwhal has one long horn that could be where the design and idea of Unicorn's horn comes from.  

She also adds one last animal at the end of the book that Rundell says could be in in danger of extinction if things do not change, the human.  Rundell points out that though we think the Earth is at our disposal, it is not true and if we do not respect nature, it could destroy us. It can still be saved and that is our challenge.

The Examiner

 The Examiner a mystery novel by Janice Hallett is one of the most confusing novels I have ever read.

I pushed so hard to work my way through it but in the end I did not really enjoy the book.  It was not a satisfying read.

Written as a series of text messages, email chains and private messages.  I found it extremely slow reading and even if you try to skim and read quickly it bogs the reader down.  

The premise is a graduate school design program, students have been recruited to thee program, hand picked it turns out by the professor.  They are mostly older working on a second career, having worked in other art fields.  Now they are tasked with working together to promote a company and their new launch as the assignment.  They are all on a Doodle share group talking to each other about the projects they are doing.  There are also private chat groups for different groups of the students and then private chats between the professor and certain students.  Somehow all these chains are saved and are being investigated and that is how the reader is privy to this story as it develops.  

A crime of some sort has taken place and there are hints of many mysterious circumstances have taken place.  But to this reader so much of this seems so obtuse that I could not get excited about what was being uncovered and could not relate to any characters.  

A very frustrating read and time wasted

We Solve Murders

Richard Osman takes on a new detective and mystery series with We Solve Murders, his newest book. 

Stepping away from the elderly detectives and the assisted living community of The Thursday Murder Club. Osman takes the reader on another kind of mystery adventure. This time we are globe traveling with Amy a private security officer who is assigned to protect a famous author who has been targeted.  They are on a secluded island when there is a threat to their lives.  This sends them traveling from country to country trying to avoid being assassinated.  

The Thursday Murder Club series was delightful, light and entertaining mysteries. A bit fanciful but the characters were interesting.  This time there so many characters coming and going it is hard to keep them straight.  Amy is in danger and it is hard to keep track of who she can trust and who she cannot.  Then her father-in-law becomes her wing man.  Where is her husband in all of this? 

Maybe if we get to book two of this series the many parts will start to make more sense and fall into place.  So far I am not counting this on my list of favorites for this year, but ruling out reading what comes next.

Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder

 This novel blew me away.  It was quite unexpected.  I thought I was picking up another fun light entertaining mystery novel.  This time I have read an amazing fun entertaining but emotionally impactful book that I could not put down.

Yes this a fun mystery novel that pulls you in as the mystery is revealed along the way.  But also you become attached to the characters in a way that is heartwarming and I was crying as the details of the main character';s life and hard times become evident.  So unusual for a mystery novel.

Lenny Marks is an almost forty year old woman with obvious issues around interacting in social situations.  Though she may already be on the spectrum, which seems to be a new character trait being used in books lately, she also has suffered trauma in her youth.  This trauma is referred to and slowly uncovered as the plot progresses.  She is a school teacher, living in her own small house, near her foster mom, who she sees weekly for a meal and advice.  She likes routine and has a strict routine that she follows until the memories she has suppressed for years start to come back to her.

Also she is trying to negotiate making friends, and we watch as she piccks some of the wrong teachers to to try and befriend missing the social cues that would set her up for success with another teacher who wants to be friends.  Of course there is an awkward love interest also.  All these different plot lines are running alongside each other building your attachment to Lenny as you root for her to succeed.

Such a perfect mystery novel and it si author Kerryn Mayne's debut novel.  I look forward to future writing from this author.

Peggy

 Peggy; A Novel written by Rebecca Godfrey is another novel in the line of great historical fiction I ave read.  Taking a a little known figure from history and developing a plot that incorporates facts we know aboout her life and building out the rest of the story with fictionalized details to fill in the missing pieces.

This book takes the reader on a journey with Peggy Guggenheim from her childhood to becoming an adult.  Starting as a teenager living with here parents in New York City as one of the wealthiest families in America.  Her family had built its wealth on the backs of workers who went down into the mines.  She is unhappy with owh her familly earned their money and about how her parents repeatedly remind her and her siblings to keep a low profile and not attract attention to the fact that their family is Jewish.

Then her father is lost at sea when the Titanic goes down.  Peggy's world abruptly changes.  Family secrets are disclosed and the money disappears. As soon as she can leave Peggy moves to Paris for a new life with many artists.  She marries and starts a new life.  Over her life she supports many artists and authors in their careers.  Using a special talent she has had since childhood when she would go to museums with her father and analyze paintings, finding the meaning behind the artwork.  This is all very useful to Peggy's future lifestyle and career.

Her marriages, her friends, her children such an interesting life.

Magical Meets Cute

 Magical Meets Cute by Jean Meltzer is the third novel by this romance writer. Each of her novels is about a romantic couple that faces some obstacle and overcomes the trouble that is brewing.  All focused aroung Judaism without getting involved in any real religious discussion.  They are entertaining and well written. 

I was not a romance fan before reading Meltzer.  But she has won my heart with her kooky lovable characters and plots. 

This time we meet Faye Kaplan who has given up her law practice and her engagement and moved to Woodstock NY and opened a pottery business.  She's throwing pots and creating art out of clay.  One night she creates a golem out of clay and buries it out in the back garden.  She writes all the things she would love to have in the man of her dreams on his body and forgets him in the garden.

Soon she rescues a man who has been hit by a car and seems to have amnesia.  She names him Greg.  She takes him to the hospital and the she agrees to take him home when they cannot find out who he is.  While she is taking care of him he decides to also take care of her.  He is extremely solicitous of her and anticipates her every need.  When she runs into trouble in town Greg comes to her defense.  Is he too good to be true? 

Faye wonders if Greg is real or if maybe her golem has really come to life. As things get out of hand when some non Jewish town members get angry at Faye and want to attack her store front, she is worried that the golem may go too far in her defense.  She wants to stop him, but how can she tell if she is in control or if he is just too good to be true?

The Violin Conspiracy

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb was a fast moving plot like the fingers across the strings of a violin.
A story of family dynamics, the music business and the high level of competition
in music amplified by the discussion of race.

Another theme of the book was the history of slaves and the treatment of current free black people in our society... with touching moments and descriptions of horrific violence toward people you do not know or understand.

When we meet Ray he is a young black musician with a incredible talent playing classic music on the violin. He is heading off to the Tchaikovsky competition, the coveted position of most famous violinist in the world.  He has been playing violin from a young age on a rental instrument at great disadvantage compared to his fellow classmates.  But he inate talent has come through and he wins an all state competition.  There his talent is recognized by a college talent scout and he recruited .  Janice becomes his mentor and advocate.  His talent reaches new heights .  His grandmother gives him a family heirloom of a violin played by his great grandfather as a slave in the south.  

Controversy ensues when the violin is discovered to be extremely valuable.  Now his aunts and uncles don't want Ray to have it and another family comes forward to lay claim to it.  Ray stands firm spending all his waking hours practicing for the competition.  

Wonderfully told with a little bit of mystery thrown in. So many more themes and ideas are covered in this story..it makes for a lively book discussion.

The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone

 I love Randy Susan Meyers...she is one of my favorite authors.  This is her newest novel. One that a woman of my age can really relate to .. especially coming to Boston for college in the 1970s ..a novel about trying to make a difference as the world was changing.  Vietnam, school busing, women's rights.  It was the time of commune living and getting back to nature, eating healthy and finding yourself.  Meyers writes about it so clearly and perfectly.

This is the story of Ivy , who is born into a house on Mission Hill Boston to parents who are sharing child care and everything else with three other couples.  Growing up with so many parents taking care of the many children living together as their parents work in a variety of charitable jobs that they all feel are going to help save the world.  Working on intergrating the schools, the neighborhoods and trying to help with getting black citizens voting rights.  Helping people with food and always ready to go to a protest march. 

A well paced novel that brings back memories of recent history with a twisty well written plot that moves the story along.

Knife Skills for Beginners

 A first novel for Orlando Murrin, Knife Skills for Beginners, was a quick entertaining mystery novel. 

When Paul loses his partner he is depressed and goes into hiding.  But one day an old friend Christian runs into him on the street and asks a favor.  This leads to Paul taking over the teaching job Christian cannot do while he recovers from a broken arm.

Paul show up at the Chester Square Cookery School.  There in the kitchen are the students for the week's session ready to learn the basics of being a chef.  Along with the unusual group of students we meet Rose, who owns the school and Suzie who is the new helper, running errands, washing up the dishes and serving the meals.  

Following all the characters and their strange habits keeps the reader guessing as to who the killer could be.  In their own way each of the students could be the guilty party.  Thrown in are recipes which always make a mystery novel more fun

To Die In Secret

 To Die in Secret, is the newest work of Haviva ner David.  Reading this novel after October 7th makes me wonder how it would be different if the author, an American Israeli, would have changed things with the information she has now.

This novel brings us to the home of Jude, dead with her son in their large farmhouse in a town outside of Salem Massachusetts.  Nomi the younger sister is flying home from a kibbutz for the first time in forty years.  She ran away from home after fighting with her parents and never came back.

Nomi has lost her Israeli husband and her mother is a dementia patient in a local nursing home. Jude left everything to Nomi.  She comes "home" to settle affairs, thinking she will return to the kibbutz.  Though she has never really felt at home there, she is cautious about coming back to Massachusetts.

As she finds out what her sister has been doing for the last forty years, helping others and making amends with the mother who was so unkind, Nomi starts to see that she could also make a difference for others and maybe come to terms with the anger, fear and unhappiness that has followed for her adult life.

This is a story of finding yourself, doing mitzvot and forgiveness, and finding a way to closure and moving forward.  Hope and faith can be wonderful ways to find peace.

Western Lane

 Western Lane, by Chetna Maroo, a short quick read.  A coming of age novel about a young girl who losses her mother at a young age.  Her mother's dath leaves behind a father who cannot get over his grief and three young daughters.  

The father at a loss takes his daughters to the squash court and teaches them to play.  Gopi shows the most promise on the court.  She starts to train for a competition going to practice everyday after school. She starts to practice with a young man at the club, Ged.  They are both training for the tournament.  

This is a story of family relationships, love, innocence and the closeness of sisters. Beautifully told in a slim novel that covers so much in a few words.

The Storyteller's Death

 The Storyteller's Death woke me up last night and as I thought about what the ending could possibly be, I had to get out of bed and go finish the book before I could fall back asleep.

This is the story of a young girl who lives between New Jersey and Puerto Rico.  Every summer she and her mother go back to her mother's family in Puerto Rico though her mother never seems to enjoy the trip. When her father is dying her mother starts to leave her with the family for the summer alone.  After her father's death she is sent by plane to spend summers with her relatives by herself.  She never feels at home in either location.

There is a very large extended family in Puerto Rico and when she reaches eighteen she starts to see visions of the elderly relatives as they pass on.  She realizes that she is a keeper of their stories.  Her relationship with her mother has been strained for years and she has no one to discuss her visions with.

As she starts to try and play detective and find out more about the family history, she encounters a handsome young man who works for the family, and some of the older men who had worked for the family in the past.  

A coming of age novel, learning about family, love, and the difference in status between those with and those without. Coming to understand who she is and what she feels is important in life.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

 If you are looking for an entertaining novel to pass some time between all the stresses of the day try The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  This is another book I even enjoyed as a re-read a few years apart.  

Evelyn Hugo is an old world Hollywood movie star.  Once the glamorous star of Hollywood, now a recluse in her dotage she decides she is ready to write her tell all biography.  She chooses Monique Grant,  a new young up and coming, unknown magazine reporter just starting out.  Grant arrives thinking she will get a n exclusive magazine article to launch her career, instead Hugo tells her she wants her to write her life story.  She will share just with Grant the story of her career, all the husbands she married along the way and why. 

Grant is surprised and shocked, why her? Each day Monique listens to Evelyn weave her tale of ambition, fame, unexpected friendships and great love.   Monique grows close to Evelyn as she spins her story out. The mystery of why she was selected to write the book and their connection intensifies as the book progresses.

The reader gets a great feel for the lives of such great movie icons as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland.  Childhood and innocence lost to the tough, competitive world of Hollywood.

Assassins Anonymous

 What happens when you have signed up for a life of crime and now you have a twinge of conscience?  

Assassins Anonymous is an entertaining new novel by mystery author , Robert Hart. The story of where assassins go when they have decided that killing for a living is not how they want to live anymore.  

Mark has been working for a secret agency under the nickname Pale Horse for years.  But now he decides he wants to change his life so he finds a self help, 12 step program because it may be that he is addicted to the adrenaline rush he gets from killing another human being.  Though he has justified the lives lost as other lives that have been saved by his actions.

As he goes through the program getting closer to his goal of staying clean for a year, an unknown assassin steps in and tries to kill him.  Can he make it to the year mark without incident or will this attack and his search for the perpetrator ruin his record and bring him back to th feelings he actually used to enjoy?

It is a little like smoking and drinking, the memory of the feeling and the taste are hard to forget. Hard for your body to resist and if you sli, just one reminder could send you on a spiral backwards.

Veridian Sterling Fakes It

 Jennifer Gooch Hummer brings us the entertaining novel, Veridian Sterling Fakes It.

A fun colorful painting of how the art world works seen through the eyes of recent RISD student Veridian Sterling.  Living with her single mother in Hoboken NJ she is pounding the pavement in NYC after graduating with honors from RISD.  Trying to get a gallery show she goes from art gallery to gallery with her portfolio.  Finally hired by a former graduate who runs a gallery, she gets caught up in a series of high jinks that having her flirting with the underground world of art theft and art heists and reproductions of the masters.

Also discusses the world of cryptocurrency and UTFs.  It was very entertaining but did not seem realistic, really a bit farfetched.  A few twists and turns but not really in-depth.  Kept my attention for a beach read.

The Curse of Pietro Houdini

There are so many different angles an author can explore when writing about the horrific events of World War II and the Holocaust.  Author Derek Miller has found an unusual and very interesting path to follow as he presents the Nazis attack on Italy and its historic art and architecture. 

The setting is a Benedictine Abbey near Montecassino, Italy.  It is 1944 as the Allied Forces are trying to push back the German army.  The story Miller tells in this novel is about a major military operation that has gone mostly unnoticed.  It is not a heroic story, like the attack at Normandy Beach. In this instance, the Americans mistakenly believed the monastery to be occupied by Nazi forces.  Their pilots dropped more bombs on this building than any other single building during the war.  Many people were killed as the battle raged on for months.  There had been a large influx of thousands of irreplaceable manuscripts, paintings and other art hidden in the abbey for safekeeping the year before. But two officers, a German and an Austrian, worked with the monks to load much of the art onto carts and move it out to Rome ahead of the invasion.

Miller presents two protagonists, Pietro Houdini and the young person he rescues who was left beaten in a gutter, as they approach the Montecassino Abbey.  As his name implies Pietro is a master of illusion. He is a larger than life character, who by his own description claims to be, “master artist and confidant of the Vatican.”   His assistant is Massimo, a fourteen year old orphan whose parents were killed during a bombing in Rome.  Both of these characters along with the many others they encounter have something to hide.  

Massimo is the narrator of this story, recounting the tale that brought them to Montecassino and the experiences that led Houdini to perform the stunts he did and what he taught Massimo along the way.  Houdini educates Massimo in the art of misdirection and sleight of hand to save the artwork hidden in the monastery.  Through a variety of experiences and tribulations they are joined by a monk, a cafe owner who will murder to protect her family, a nurse with a past to conceal and a wounded German soldier who does not want to return to battle. The group becomes in the author's words, “a posse of misfits who had nothing in common but a generic and shared compulsion to keep on living.”  Together they will try to thwart the Nazis and save others.

The plot uncovers a rich historical story propelled by intrigue, drama and high stakes risks that explores the horrors of life during World War II.  The characters learn that heroes and powerful bonds can grow as relationships are created and love can grow as tragic situations are faced together.  Massimo matures and changes through all their encounters.  

Though the artwork in this novel is fictitious, the author brings to life this amazing little known history by exposing a real masterpiece covered by layers of confusion and misdirection.

The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson

 Written by Ellen Baker this novel, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is full of love, heartache and family connections.  

Cecily is left behind at the orphanage when her young mother marries again to a husband that doesn't want someone else child. Though she waits three long years for her mother to come back and get her, Cecily is finally sold to a traveling circus.  She learns to be a bareback rider and spends the next many years traveling back and forth across the country.  She always looks out into the audience hoping to see her mother.

Now at the age of 93 after falling and breaking her hip, she is in rehab with her daughter and granddaughter looking after her.  She can tell they each have secrets they are hiding and she knows that she should be sharing her secrets, but she just cannot bring herself to bring them to light.

Her grandson is working on a family tree project for his final grade in high school.  Everyone spits into a test tube.  They take Cecily's saliva in secret and off they all go to Ancestry.  The answers will surprise everyone.  

Finding out a secret from a lifetime ago can be like falling off the trapeze. You are very shaken up and it takes awhile to trust the safety net again. This is a story of family, security and trust. It is a very engaging tale.

I Need You to Read This

 I Need You to Read This is the newest novel of author Jessa Maxwell.  Her first mystery The Golden Spoon was an light and entertaining mystery based on the idea of the Great British Baking Show.

This time Maxwell takes on the busy newsroom and newspaper advice column as the backbone of this murder mystery.  Alex Marks has left the small town life behind.  She is trying to forget her past and get lost in the hustle and bustle of New York City.  Then she is a want ad in the newspaper that changes her life.

When her role model advice columnist Francis Keen is murdered, the newspaper puts out an ad looking for her replacement. On a lark Alex answers the ad and is surprised when she is offered the job.

Coming into the spotlight is difficult for Alex but she finds she loves the job and is excited to be the newspaper's new advice columnist. Though strange things seem to be going on at the office, Alex gives the job her all, spending long hours alone in her secluded office with her assistant answering the many letters asking for her advice.  There are eerie moments, when her boss, editor-in-chief Howard Dimitri, is discovered staying late at the office and drinking too much.  Then there are some threatening letters.  She decides to try to figure out why Francis was murdered which takes her to her predecessor 's lake house in search of answers.

She has a skill for solving other people's problems, but can she save herself?

The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

 Tonight I turned on Netflix and there it was as a mini series, The Good Girls Guide to Murder.  What a surprise, I had just read the book . The TV series is not bad, a good replica of the book.  The book is also a very good read.  Holly Jackson is the author.

The story of a group of high school kids who take things  a little too far. When a girl goes missing from the gang, another boy, Sal Singh, who was her latest boyfriend is targeted for possibly killing her. Feeling he has no alibi and his friends seem to have turned against him, he confesses and then takes his own life. The town continues to ostracize his family.

But there is one young girl, Pip,  who remembers the boy as kind and thinks he was innocent. Now five years alter as she is graduating from high school she decides to investigate and prove the young man’s innocence to clear his name, as her senior project.

Pip enlists Sal’s brother to help her figure out all the facts and put together all the clues. Through many twists and turns, threats and secrets, Pip figures out what happened that evening five years ago.

This book is a well written intriguing novel. Written for teen readers, but also good for adult readers.

The Last Murder at the End of the World

 The Last Murder at the End of the World, was on and off my to read list before I settled in and followed through.  Boy am I glad I did!  It started out slowly and definitely has that sci fi feel that is not my favorite genre, but I kept at it and it turns out to be a great novel with mystery, intrigue, and social commentary.

The plot follows a small group of people who inhabit an island off the coast of Greece after we humans have destroyed the planet.  These are the last survivors who have managed to keep back the dark fog that enveloped the earth and killed all living life forms.  Now there are three scientists and one and twenty villagers living a life of harmony and peace.  New children are brought to parents and everyone dies at age sixty celebrating their lives the night before they die.  There is a nightly curfew and everyone goes to sleep at the same time. During the day people farm, fish and celebrate.  The young people go to school and become apprentices. 

It is a utopia until one of the scientists is killed and now everyone is trying to figure out who among them could be the killer.  The security system surrounding the island has been triggered and now the fog around the island is starting to close in.  The world could be coming to the end if the killer is not identified and killed within the allotted time.

The Last Word

 Written by Elly Griffiths, this is a delightful entertaining mystery story with a elderly gentleman as a detective and his young friends.  The Last Word brings us back to the team of Edwin an eighty year old man who is looking for excitement and things that give his life meaning, Benedict, a former monk who has given up his life of religion to be in relationship with Natlaka, a young woman who is a Ukrainian refugee in England.  Edwin and Natlaka run the amateur detective agency and they get a good juicy murder case.  Benedict runs the local coffee cafe.

When authors start dying, they question becomes are deaths are from natural causes or murder.  This book takes our characters through a series of experiences as they try to find connections between the authors and their deaths.  Where have their lives overlapped and who might know all the victims.

The plot is very current and refers to both Covid and the Ukraine war.  Natlaka has brought her mother out of Ukraine but her brother has gone back to fight so they are always worrying about him.  So that adds a more complicated plot.  Also it distracts and teases the reader as they try to discover the killer.

Sandwich

 Sandwich, by Catherine Newman is a short sweet novel that was about just what I thought it would be about...and that is not food.   I am now going through the true meaning of the sandwich generation... needing to help your parent on one side and wanting to help and spend time with your grown children on the other side.  you are squeezed in the middle.

This book did not tell the story to the extreme that I am feeling lately, but it was a delightful read.  A simple story of a family on summer vacation on The Cape.  The son and daughter are now young adults, the mother is reminiscing as they spend the week on vacation about the previous years they have spent at this same rental. Flash backs to their childhood.  The children also have certain traditions they still like to do together that repeat year after year.  The grandparents also come to visit for a night and the family becomes more aware of the passing time and how they are all aging.  There is suggestions of the end of life and how we all struggle with the changing dynamics.

There are a few wonderful quotes in the book that I want to remember:

Talking about how much fun it is to sepend time with grown kids...  "But this? These grown kids, after your own life has grown so quiet?...The kids who shake cocktails and fry squid and drive to the corn stand and tell funny stories about the kombucha tap at work? I had no idea it would be this good. If you'd shown us videos of this while we were still squatting on the beach comforting a crying someone about the sand having a shrimp smell? We would never have believed you."

another quick one.. about the way kids remember the past...  Remember the year you told me to stop worrying about my flip flops?  ..You told me to leave them at the bottom of the path, you said, Nobody's going to steal your flip flops."  "Yes, I did say that."  "And what happened?"  "Someone stole your flip flops."    We call this style of childhood nostalgia the catalogue of grievances.

Judaism is About Love

 The timing of this new book, Judaism is About Love is perfect.  In the book,  Rabbi Held explains it is time for people to put down their weapons whether they are physical or psychological. It is time to come back to one of the most basic commandments of both Judaism and Christianity, love your neighbor as yourself.  The perfect way to help change your way of thinking is to read this fabulous book by philosopher, theologian, Bible scholar, and of course author, Rabbi Shai Held. 

Held explores in depth the concept of love.  In each chapter Held calls on us all to reexamine our behavior and thinking to embrace the stranger, the widow, the orphan and the downtrodden.

Jewish belief has altered over the years to thinking of Judaism as the religion of law and Christianity as the religion of love.  Held argues that Judaism is about love, that GD has implanted in us the capacity to love. GD believes in us and wants us to love.  We have individual agency though and he will not force us to love.  To quote Held, “To return to where we started, all this talk about divine love may strike some readers as…well, unJewish. And, that’s precisely why I’ve written this book: to help us overcome impoverished and distorted understandings of the Jewish tradition. Judaism tells us of a GD of love who summons us to lead lives of love; both for one another and for GD”.

The philosopher Midge Midgley is quoted in the book saying, “We are not self contained and self-sufficient, either as a species or as individuals, but live naturally in deep mutual dependence.”  Therefore, Held concludes, if GD loves us unconditionally, and we are created in the image of a relational GD, then we are always in need of relationships.  We need one another, family, friends, and the greater community and all humanity.  We need to work to overcome our yetzer hara, our evil inclination. Held asserts that we all have the capacity for love but also have the opposite ability that can be fostered by fear and unhealed hurts.  

Take a step toward a better understanding of love in Jewish thinking both through Torah and tradition to live a good life.  The author is hoping that Judaism is About Love will be inspiring to non Jewish readers as well, learning about Judaism and its relationship to Christianity.

In That Sleep of Death

 

Author Jonathan Dunsky takes the reader back in history to the early days of Israel’s statehood.   With each book in this mystery series Dunsky becomes more impressive as an author, with the plots getting more sophisticated and his detective ‘s character developing more depth and personality.

Once again we meet Adam Lapid, In That Sleep of Death, book eight in the series.  This time he is walking the streets of Tel Aviv late at night unable to sleep, when he spots another man who reminds him of himself.  An unhappy soul going through the motions in the aftermath of World War II.  When the mysterious man is found murdered Lapid feels a connection to the man and takes a special interest in the case.  

The trail of the killer leads all the way back to pre-war Poland.  The plot presents the historical story of how people looking to escape Poland tried to find a way to travel to Israel.  They came with hope for a better future. As Lapid gets closer to the truth his life may be in danger.  He must work quickly before anyone else, including himself dies.

This series is interesting for its historical content and for its quick moving, twisty, suspenseful plots.  The story is well written and the reader will become attached to the characters in Adam Lapid’s life who recur in every book.  Jonathan Dunsky does extensive research and uses many out of the ordinary, unusual details in his novels.   He draws upon fascinating real events and experiences that took place in the early days of life in Israel including them in these captivating page turners.

Displaced Persons: Stories

Displaced Persons: Stories are prize winning short stories gathered together here for the reader.  Some stories set in Israel showing the life of Israeli citizens and immigrants from a variety of countries. Some stories are. set in the United States.  All the stories have in common that people everywhere are going through similar life experiences and traumas.  The stories will speak to readers, because we are all going through personal encounters and occurrences that are similar to people all over the world.

Our personal adventures and life experiences are important to us individually and though we may think we are unique, in the end I was able to find some personal similarities in many of the short stories.  

Though the stories seem to show the sadder side of life there were some lighter moments, a few positive moments,  a effort for levity among the problems and challenges.

Twisted Allies

 OK here on this blog I can admit out loud that I am jealous of my friend Ben Garber.  I have known him for 30 years and over that time we have talked of wanting to write a book.  It has always been a thought in the back of my mind that it would be fun to leave the legacy behind with a published book on the shelves of book stores. 

Well, Ben took the bull by the horns and has reached his goal first with this twisty, tangled novel.  If you are into gaming it will be even more entertaining, but without the knowledge of the world of gaming, this was an intriguing and compelling mystery to follow.

Twisted Allies is a novel about family dynamics, divorce and parent /child relationships. A mother found dead, a son found later in a neighbor’s garage with bloodied clothes.  The press is calling him the “Mommy Murderer” and his father, a psychologist, claims the mother was abusive and the son is now suffering from traumatic shock.  True crime writer Ted Bennett involves himself, when he requests to write a book about the case.  Hoping to expose the true story he becomes embroiled in the complicated, digital world of gaming. 

As the plot thickens we learn about Ted Bennet’s relationship with a divorcee with a young daughter.   As Bennett is interviewing Samuel Abrams about his marriage to Suki Kohler and how he thinks it all affected their son and led to murder, we watch Bennett negotiate his own relationship.  The two stories converge as the reader watches Bennett's relationship become similar to Abrams' spiraling, crazy relationships. 

All this makes for a fast moving, disturbing, always twisting look at how far a parent will go to protect what they decide is the best interest of their child. 

This book has many layers and will be a great book discussion read.  So many topics to discuss embedded in this fun mystery, who do you believe, are they telling you the truth or leading you down the garden path???

Two Tribes

Two Tribes is a fun graphic novel by Emily Bowen Cohen inspired by her own life.

The two tribes in this novel refer to the Jewish people and the Muscogee Nation.  She is Jewish Native American.  This book is written based on her own experience growing a part of two tribes.

Mia is living with her mothre and her stepfather, but misses her father who has moved far away with his new family.  As she is feeling out of place in her Jewish Day school and her mother refuses to talk about her father with her, Mia hatches a plan to visit her father in Oklahoma.  

In this novel we learn the origin story of the Muscogee story, the traditional account of the creation of the Muscogee clan from Mia's grandmother.  We also learn the Jewish text shared by Mia's Rabbi Goldfarb.  Both of these stories are sacred and important to each tribe.

After Mia travels to visit and meet her father's family, her mother realizes that it is important to bring everyone together.  Mia can share both of her family traditions and everyon can learn from each other wheen they share Shabbat dinner. 

Colorful drawings and well defined characters in an easy to read graphic novel style with well laid out pages and simple font.

My Last Innocent Year

 Daisy Alpert Florin has written an incredible coming of age story about the life of a college student.  We are watching the life of Isabel Rosen as she traverses life as a student in her last year of college.  We are there with her in her mind seeing the experience from her viewpoint.

My Last Innocent Year was a great novel.  It brings back the to mind the college years and how we had to navigate so many things at the same time.  There were the classes and studying, balanced with time to party and socialize.  Dating and finding the right social circle to be apart of.

Then there are always the dangerous pitfalls, that this book deals with, goin g back to a dorm room with a guy and what to expect.  Is it a date, or just friends?  How far should you take the relationship sexually and today is saying no good enough.  Is the sex consensual or forced.  Then there are the professor student complications of sexual relationships.  There are so many nuances to work through.

Florian puts inside th mind of Isabel Rosen as she navigates all these different relationships and feelings in her head and heart.  Balancing her desire to find love and her need to fit in with her girlfriends.  

She comes from a very different background than many of the other student at her New Hampshire college and she is trying to work out the logistics of fitting in.  Her New York City, Lower East Side childhood living and working in a Appetizing store and growing up Jewish, makes her a minority at this school.

Well written and very entertaining.

Ferris

 Kate DiCamillo has written another engaging and important novel for young people in Ferris.

This the story of a young girl nicknamed Ferris, younger sister Pinky and their family.  Ferris is very close to her grandmother , Charisse, who is living with the family.  Now Uncle Ted has moved into the basement after having a disagreement with his wife, Aunt Shirley.  Charisse is staying in her room more and more, not feeling well.  She also keeps telling Ferris she can see a ghost standing on the threshold of the room. Little sister Pinky is looking for attention and starts getting in trouble calling herself an outlaw.

Ferris and her best friend will work hard to fulfill the wishes of the Charisse and the ghost and bring the family together.  This story is delightful even as it deals with serious subjects including sibling rivalry and death of a grandparent.  

Kate DiCamillo writes with expression and deals with these difficult topics in a soothing way for young readers.

The Effects of Pickled Herring

 The Effects of Pickled Herring is the newest graphic novel by author and cartoonist, Alex Schumacher.

Reading this graphic novel for middle school and high school students will help any teenager who is grappling with the changes that are happening to them and the changes that happen to our grandparents as they age.  

Micah Gadsky and his sister, Alana are preparing for their B'nai Mitzvah.  As they are learning their prayers, Torah and Haftorah portions, they are also learning many life lessons. This story follows Micah as his voice cracks while practicing his Hebrew prayers, as he worries about not remembering what to say when he gets up on the bima and as he struggles to get up the courage to ask a girl he likes to his Bar Mitzvah.

Drawn with colorful exaggerated comic characters we follow Micah as he goes to school and negotiates  the trials of adolescence.  While Micah finds the social scene in Middle school difficult, his sister is working hard to fit in, joining the cheerleading team and be careful to stay thin and wear the right clothes.  Micah has one close friend who is encouraging and supportive.  Omar is Mexican and together they stand up to anti-Semitic taunts from the bullies at the school.

At home things are getting serious when Micah's grandmother, who he is close to, is starting to experience signs of dementia.   As Micah and Alana are getting closer to the B'nai Mitzvah date, Grams is getting more forgetful.  The novel shows how the family learns that staying strong is easier together rather than divided.

The characters are drawn in colorful exaggerated cartoon style. There are easy to read fonts and well laid out pages.  Big sound effects and bold backgrounds add a pop to the story.  There is even a dramatic dream scene similar to Tevye's dream scene with Fruma Sarah in Fiddler on the Roof.

This graphic novel covers the discussion about what a Bar Mitzvah is and why Jewish children have one at thirteen.  Other Jewish holidays are discussed also as the family goes through the year before the Bnai Mitzvah.  The family has a Passover Seder and tells the story of Passover.  

Long After We are Gone

 What a wonderfully written story about family dynamics, friendships and love.  Long After We Are Gone is written by Torah Sheldon Harris.

When their father dies, the siblings come home to save the family home and land.  It brings four siblings who have gone in many different directions back together to work as a unit and fight  a company that wants to buy them out.  The house and five acres are already sold and large amounts of money are being offered for the rest of their land.  Each sibling has a secret .  The money is very tempting to help each out of trouble.  

The characters are wonderfully developed , they have complexity and depth.  The scenery is described in detail that brings the reader to Digg.  The reader can feel the difficulty each character has letting go of the money, finding themselves and becoming true to themselves in the end.

Woman on Fire

 Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr is another fabulous novel about the artwork confiscated by the Nazis during World War II.  

Using  fictional characters , Barr sets up the situation that a young ambitious journalist becomes embroiled in an international art scandal as she searches for the missing Woman on Fire portrait painted by a new impressionist artist during the war.  

Jules Roth the young journalist pushes her way into the newsroom of Dan Mansfield, editor for the paper.  He hires her to help him find a famous painting,  missing since the war, for his long time friend, Elias Baum, a famous shoe designer.  Baum was a small child when his mother posed for the artist.  Elias remembers the day the Nazis came, took the painting and then killed his mother.  All these years later he wants retrieve the painting for his family.  

There is another person who also thinks the painting belongs to them, Marguerite de Laurent, a provocative and powerful art gallery owner.  She grew up working for her grandfather’s art gallery and he always spoke about the Woman on Fire painting and its importance to him.  She feels she is the rightful owner and wants the painting for her art collection.  She will go to great lengths to get it and is used to getting everything she wants.  This is an entertaining mystery novel set around the premise of being the first to find the painting and Jules is determined to prove her prowess as a reporter and get there first.

There are many twist and turns as the characters struggle to find and hold onto the painting .  

Ella Minnow Pea

 OK I realize this is another middle school or maybe young adult book, but this is a great story.  I love this book!  I read it when it first was published and enjoyed it just for its writing style and the uniqueness of the plot.  But now when I reread it for my book group, I was amazed at how timely and relevant it still is.

This is the story of a small,  fictional island of Nollop, off the state of South Carolina.  Ella Minnow Pea lives on the island, her name is a play on the in the alphabet, “L M N O P “ .  The island is named after Nevin Nollop who wrote the famous pangram, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”.

On this island because they worship Nollop, when a letter under the statue of Nollop drops and breaks they town leaders decide it is Nollop speaking to them from the beyond.  They pass a law that each letter that drops from the statue must not be spoken or written anymore.  As the story continues author Mark Dunn drops letters from the story script.  The book written all in correspondence between Ella and others gets more and more interesting to read as letters cannot be used at the risk of public embarrassment in the stocks or banishment from the island.

So much fun to read!

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island's Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl's fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.

*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet

The Dearly Beloved

 Cara Wall has written a very complicated and intense novel about so many topics.

Definitely not a novel I would normally pick up and read.. but it did turn out to be a great book discussion book. 

There were a few too many themes for the characters to balance in their lives ..but it was rich with topics to discuss in the group... 

It is about two ministers and their wives. It follows their relationships and interactions through dating and marriage from college to careers. It is the question of faith , love, friendship, parenting, and those are only a few . It definitely got my attention...

Charles and Lily and James and Nan are the main characters. It took me a little while to remember who was who and who was mated with which.  But then you see that each of the men have different relationships to their faith and each of the wives are opposites.  Lily lost her faith after her parents were killed in a car accident when she was a child.  Nan grew up the child of a minister and spent her youth joining her father as he ministered to his congregation. Charles found his faith after a college lecture and James grew up with an angry alcoholic father who treated him terribly.  

As the story progresses each of the characters face certain obstacles and experiences that help them grow as people, learning empathy and how approach their beliefs and those of their spouse.

It turned out to be a very complex and compulsive read. 

The Keeper of Lost Things

 Ruth Hogan has created an entertaining plot line in The Keeper of Lost Things.  I am sure so many of us have been walking along and spot something on the ground and wonder how someone could have lost it.  Many times it seems that they would have noticed and retrieved it right way or missed it and come back retracing their foot steps to find the item.

Interestingly as I was reading this book, I read in the Talmud that the rule is if you find a lost object you need to take care of it and bring it to the public square until you find the owner, or until you determine that the owner has despaired of finding it again and then you can keep it .

In this book we meet four people who are also lost and as they find each other their lives improve and they find happiness.  Anthony lost the love of his life many years ago and also the religious charm she gave him.  To fill the void he has been collecting lost objects hopping one to reunite the objects with their owners. Laura comes to work for Anthony and inherits the library full of lost items.  She has left a disgust marriage and is a little lost herself.  Eunice found an object and does not know who it belongs to … as all their lives run along in parallel we lean more about each character.  

It is a sweet story of loss and the finding of  love in many different ways.  My favorite character is Sunshine, a young girl with Down syndrome who is looking for friends and love.  She is a delightful breath of fresh air in the book and has some of the best quotes.

Stitches

 Moving into graphic novels when visiting my father…. Stitches by David Small is a memoir written and drawn by the children’s illustrator.  Using the comic medium to share the scary story of a troubled childhood that leads to an early diagnosis of cancer and then to running away from home at 16 years old This is the story of his life.  

The child of a a family physician who vented his anger on a punching bag in the basement and a mother who was stingy with both the family pocketbook and her emotions. She kept her feelings hidden and was excessively strict.

Small was a sickly child who loved to read and draw.  His father gave him large amounts of radiation to cure him. At fourteen he has surgery on his neck but is never told it is to remove a cancerous growth.

Drawn in haunting black and white comic illustrations, there is a threatening feeling to the work.  Drawing the viewpoint from above looking down on the child makes him seem even smaller and vulnerable.

The Main Character

Check out this author Jaclyn Gordis, she has a very vivid immagination.  Her novel The Chateau was an interesting twisting plot with a mysterious thread running through it. Now Gordis has captured the imagination again with this new novel, The Main Character.  

Have you ever wondered if there are things about those closest to you that you do not know? How would you react if their secrets came out and affected your life? This mysterious novel shows how characters react to the secrets as they come to light.  

One of the interesting themes in this novel is sibling rivalry, a topic close to my heart. Always in competition with a younger smarter sister, always wondering who Mom loved best.  This is a novel that examines how the relationship between siblings can fester and grow into love and or resentment.  How a parent responds to each child can have an affect on both children and their relationship.  Reader, you may want to watch your back after reading this story, you never know what your sibling might be planning.

Following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, we meet our characters on the famous train ride along Italy’s Mediterranean coast, the renovated Orient Express. Rory is the main character in Ginevra Ex’s new novel.  Ginevra Ex is a prolific author who studies people and writes mystery novels based on their lives.  She learned early on in her career to write what you know sells the most books, but she cannot bring herself to really delve into her own life for a book. 

Rory is the newest character that Ex is writing about.  She has interviewed her for hours about her life and also the people closest to Rory, her brother, Caroline, her best friend, and her ex fiance, Nate.  When they all turn up on the train Rory begins to wonder if real life will start to imitate fiction and that Ginevra is manipulating her life into a mystery novel.  She is concerned that this may lead to someone’s death.

Riding the train and stopping at various tourist locations builds suspense.  Learning about each character’s lives through alternating chapters, we become privy to the secrets each person is hiding and how that information will affect the group.  Even the author Ginevra Ex has an agenda and secrets she is haboring.

On a more serious note this book also discusses the topic of the refusnicks, Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union who escaped and came to America.  The author bases the character of Rory’s father, Ansel, on her father and his parents' experience.  The author’s father was born in Ukraine and his identification card stated he was Jewish. He took the perilous parth to freedom in 1976.  The author describes life in the Soviet Union and refusnicks situation beautifully.  She also paints the picture of the scenery of Italy’s Mediteranian coast with a rich palette. 

The Lioness of Boston

 The Lioness of Boston is a fascinating historical novel about the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Bella or Mrs Jack.  

Emily Franklin has captured Boston and its snowy winters and hot summers beautifully.  If she has done so well with describing the city I have assume that her retelling of Bella Gardner's life is also percise and accurate also.  

This is a sort of slow moving novel, but then I guess that is how the real life of any famous person really is. There is so much to learn and it is an intriguing story but nothing earth shattering happens that moves a plot along quickly or with any suspense.  It is interesting to see that she was a woman who did not fit into the rules upper class society expected of her.  She was always looking to stretch the box that women were supposed to live in.  She had trouble making friends, though she did make good friends with those who also found themselves struggling with the behaviors expected of them in their social circles.  So she became good friends with artists and writers and even scientists who were on the fringes.

Her husband tolerated her antics and amazingly they stayed married throughout their lives.  He even assisted her and encouraged many of her purchases and ideas.  The most fun for me was reading about Boston at the turn of the last century and the  artists and artwork.  I took extra time while reading to look up many of the artists and their paintings.  

I also went to Emerson College when it was housed on Beacon Street.  We went to classes in 130 Beacon Street.  The cafeteria and the administrative offices were all at 150 Beacon Street. then I read that Isabella requested that her house number 152 never be used again after she moved out.  After Gardner moved to the Fenway where her house is now a museum, Eben Sumner Draper was the next owner and then Alvan Tufts Fuller also lived in the house.  Both men were later governors of Massachusetts.  It became known as the Governors Mansion.

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel

 I cannot believe I have already reviewed this novel by Elise Friedland, Last Summer at the Golden Hotel.  

This novel a fun look back at the history of the Catskill Mountains, a piece of especially Jewish nostalgia. This novel can be read for the simple entertainment and/or for a deeper dive into the family dynamics and drama. 

The Golden Hotel has been a family run business for generations.  Two families have come together every summer to open the hotel to the guests who return on a regular basis expecting a certain standard of service that is renown in the Catskills.  This book is based on the historical hotels that attracted so many families who summered in the Catskills from New York City.  The families would drive up and mothers and children would stay while fathers would commute back and forth to the city between work and leisure.  

But times have changed and the hotels are not as popular as they once were. The clientele is not returning and those who are seeing the decline of the facilities. The owners cannot keep the hotel running.  There are of course also secrets that have been kept over the years and relationships are on edge.  it is time to sell and move on.  But not everyone is in agreement about how to move forward.

The issues of the generational divide and the hard decisions to live in the past or to embrace the future.  How to memorialize the past and not lose the memories of fun times had.  This plot also examines family secrets and how much you know about people even when you live with them.

I interviewed the author about this book and we had a wonderful exchange about her reasons for writing this book and how she met a member of the Grossinger family, from the Grossinger Hotel, one of the most famous of the Catskill establishments.

The Stolen Lady

 The Stolen Lady written by Laura Morelli explores another little known topic of World War II.

Morelli builds a beautiful novel around the artwork hidden during the war to save it from Nazi hands.

I have read and reviewed a few different books here about the Mona Lisa painting.  Like her famous smile the story of the Mona Lisa and who she was has been a unresolved mystery for years.  This book introduces us to who the famous unknown lady might have been and how her painting ended up in the Louvre in Paris, then how it was saved from the Nazis, as they took Paris and tried to steal the art.

In alternating chapters the story of Lisa Gherardini, and her maid servant, Bellini Sardi who accompanies Lisa as she marries a prosperous silk merchant.  We see the closed world of women at this time in society. As we learn about the government of Medici that Lisa's husband follows the Florentines are preparing to  rise up against the Medici and a young monk convinces Bellini to join their efforts.  

Then in the later story, at the dawn of WWII, Anne Guichard, is a young archivist employed at the Louvre.  Anne joins the effort helping move artwork including the Mona Lisa to the Castle of Chambord, where the Louvre’s most precious artworks are being transferred to ensure their safety.   

This book was fast paced with intrigue and suspense, but also so interesting in the historical events it covers and so much new information to me.

Mastering the Art of French Murder

Warm, right out of the oven, Mastering the Art of French Murder, is the the amazingly perfect entertaining mystery for anyone viewer of the Great British Baking Show.  Written by Colleen Cambridge, it brings the reader right into the tent, under the lights and behind the cameras.

As I read this delightfully delicious mystery, I could hear the voices of the real TV show in my head.  I could picture the tent and the chefs all trying to bake or prepare the recipes for the contest, and the heat of the competition was palatable .

Such a clever idea to use the British Baking Show as a backdrop for a murder mystery, I cannot believe I did not think of it myself..  As we read this novel, we are introduced to each of the cooking contestants, learning a little of their background and how and why they wanted to enter the contest.  

Each chapter releases a little more of their stories and then some background connections to each other or to the mansion that houses this baking show set.  The only thing missing from this fun, delectable are some recipes that you could sink your teeth into after finishing the book and solving the mystery.

The Bookstore Sisters

 Ann Hoffman does not disappoint int his new novella, The Bookstore Sisters.

Though this is a short story, it packs a big punch.  Two sisters grow up together with their father, running a small bookstore in Brinkey's Island,  Maine.  Their father is so nice that he almost has turned his bookstore into a lending library, allowing people to read the books and return them.  When he dies one sister, Isabel, decides that she is ready to leave the small town and head off on her own.  She goes and builds a life in New York and tries to forget the past. 

Sophie, the other sister stays and keeps the promise they made to their father to keep the store open. She marries a local young man and is pregnant when he dies.  She brings up her daughter on her own.  But when Sophie breaks a leg and cannot take care ofher daughter or the book store, her daughter takes matters into her own hands.

Writing to her aunt she summons her home to help out.  The two sisters must face each other and their past to work together to save the bookstore and take care of family.  They need to work through their feelings of anger and distrust to reach a close sister relationship again.

A sweet story of the love that is hidden bewtween two sisters that can be covered up but never really lost.

Pineapple Street

If you know NYC and Brooklyn you will feel right at home reading this novel. If you know the area of the fruit streets even better.  Author, Jenny Jackson has beautifully described the world of the ultra wealthy and how they see the world.  Also how others perceive them from the other side of the tracks.

This is the story of the Stockton family, which even the name sounds stuffy and sounds like old money and the family originally came over on the Mayflower.  The parents, Chip and Tilda have moved out of the family home on Pineapple Street and moved into a smaller home on Orange Street.  The three children who are now adults grew up in the family home and now the son, Cord brings his new wife, Sasha to live there.  Cord's sisters have also left the house and his sister Darcy is married to Malcolm, and their are parents to Poppy and Hatcher.  The youngest Stockton is Georgiana, still single and working in a not for profit to help solve world hunger.  Cord is working with his father in the family real estate business and Darcy is a stay at home mom, with Malcom working in finance.

Darcy describes herself as an orange, a tough outer shell to protect the sweet though vulnerable fruit on the inside.  Her sister was always the Cranberry, a little sour, and Cord was the Pineapple, fun, thrilled to be the center of attention and always made a gathering more festive. 

As the family closes rank to protect itself from the outside world, each family member needs to learn how to welcome in the new spouses and not shut them out.  There are so many secrets that each member of the family is keeping to maintain face that it gets to be too overwhelming.

Also it is current day and these one percenters are struggling with having so much at the expense of others having so little.  How to balance your wealth, live a happy life and share with others is a theme throughout.  So many series topics in what seems on the surface to be a lighthearted entertainment.

The Ghost Writer

 The Ghost Writer written by the infamous Philip Roth.   A oldie but a goodie was brought back to my attention by a book discussion group and I jumped in to read and discuss it.

This for me a book that requires a good discussion afterwards otherwise, not one of my favorite of Roth's books I would have re-shelved it before the end.  Of course the end is the probably the whole point of the book so I would have missed the entire meaning of the plot.

SO if you do pick up this novel keep reading all the way to the end.

Also the book seemed so confusing and was not grabbing my interest, but I soldiered on because there was going to be a discussion.  Once again I must say that talking to others about the book made it so much better.  It will not sit on my favorite book list, but now I do find it a fancinating read.

So if you want to discuss it ..I am in!

This is the story of Zuckerman, a consistent Roth character, who is a young writer starting out and looking for a mentor.  He goes through a few authors and settles on Lanoff who he decides is the type of author he wants to work with.  He is invited to Lanoff's house.  There he meets Hope, Lanoff's wife and Amy a young woman who is staying with them as a house guest.

The book focuses on the ideas of fathers and children, their relationships.  The idea of writing and revealing family secrets.  Of course Judaism and how it perceived by other Jews and by "outsiders".

It is set in the 1950s and written and published int he 1970s, but it is still a relevant topic to what is happening today. There are historic conversations and current discussions around these topics.

The Lost Library

 Rebecca Stead has written a delightful middle grade book in The Lost Library.  

I picked this up because I thought it might be about banning books, which is my current obsession.

This is a entertaining read that will keep those young readers, and even this old one, intrigued throughout.

It is the story of a small town where the library burned down years ago and was never rebuilt.  When the remaining books from the library are put outside in a little free library, young Evan comes by and takes two books.  He is surprised to discover his father had checked out one of them as a child.  The other was checked out by a famous author, about how to write a mystery novel.  Evan uses the book to start his investigation.  He father, who grew up in town, is being very secretive about his relationship to the library.

We meet three ghosts, a cat, and some daredevil mice.  There is the mystery of how the fire started and even a famous author, who uses a pseudonym who might have once lived in town.  Evan will use all the clues he can find to figure out the mystery.

Tom Lake

 Tom Lake is Ann Patchett's newest novel.  Patchett is one of all time incredible writers.  Her books are always heart felt and having incite into the human condition.  

Tom Lake is again a novel about family, love and relationships.  She calmly takes three grown daughters brings them home during the covid pandemic and sets them up with their parents alone in the house for multiple weeks.  The family owns a fruit farm and it is cherry picking season.

As they spend their days again bringing in the harvest alone because their helpers cannot come to work, the mother tells the story of her youth.  Bringing back the days when she wanted to become an actress and played the part of Emily in Our Town.  She tells the story of her playing the part at a summer stock theatre  called Tom Lake.  She acted opposite and fell in love with the actor Peter Duke, who later becomes famous.  The girls have grown up watching Peter Duke movies.  As their mother spins her tale the girls are forced to reconsider the picture they have always had of their parents.

This is a story of family dynamics. Mother, daughter relationships.  Young love and long lasting love. Realizing what is really important and what it means to be happy.  Written with a quiet subtle message that packs a big punch.

The Last Mona Lisa

 The Last Mona Lisa written by Jonathan Santloffer is an adult novel version of the same story that I reviewed earlier.. The Mona Lisa Vanishes, a young adult non fiction book.

Interestingly both of these books were required reading at the same time.  I read the non fiction account first and judged this fictionalized story against the facts I had just learned.  This historical fiction version holds up quite well and adds a little mystery and suspense to the story.

We bring in a modern day young man, Luke Perrone, the great grandson of Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum back in 1911.  The book takes us back and forth between the actual series of events that led to Peruggia stealing the painting and how it altered his life and the modern day intrigue around a diary that may have been left by Vincenzo that Luke is trying to trace and the story of whether the painting hanging in the Louvre today is the original or a fake.  There are others who also are interested in finding out the same information and Luke is in a race to get the information first before too many die, including himself.

As I said it is an entertaining mystery story and does stick quite close to the facts of history.

Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies

 Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies another entertaining mystery novel with a very long title. This novel is written by Catherine Mack.  

Thsi novel also is about a mystery author on a book tour interacting with her fans and readers. Along on the tour is her ex boyfriend who starts complaining that there have been murderous attempts on his life. As they travel along the Amalfi coast.  As a few murders of people involved in the tour party start to make author Eleanor Dash begin to wonder if her ex's accusations are real, she starts to work out the truth around the deaths following her book tour.  

So many different ways to approach mystery novels and so many different ways to present a new amateur detective.  

How To Solve Your Own Murder

 How to Solve Your Own Murder, written by Kristen Perrin first in what seems to be the beginning of a new mystery series.  Annie Adams comes to the country estate of her Great Aunt Frances to finally meet her.  But when she finally arrives she finds her aunt already dead.  

Annie has come to the small village of Castle Knoll, summoned by an aunt she never met.  She is brought the estate along with the solicitor,  Walter and Oliver Gordon and Saxon Gravesdown , Frances nephew, who grew up at the estate and his wife Elva.

When they arrive Frances has been murdered.  She has lived her whole life afraid that dwas going to be her end.  Her last will states that Saxon and Annie are in a competition to uncover her killer and the one that solves the mystery will inherit her estate.  

As Annie learns more about the aunt she never met she works hard to solve the mystery of her death and bring her murderer to justice.  Working with the handsome Detective Crane find the answers before someone stops her by killing her..

Everyone on This Train is a Suspect

 Everyone on This Train is a Suspect, written by Benjamin Stevenson,  is the second novel that follows the same characters, after Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.  Definitely could win awards for mystery novels with the longest titles.  

In each of these mysteries, the author writes as a first person narrator.  Ernest Cunningham survived at the end of the last adventure and wrote the story of his experience.  The book had great sales and now his publisher has given him an advance for another novel.  As he and his girlfriend, Erin,  board a train with other authors for a special Writer's Festival, he is worried that he cannot come through with another book.

But when a dead body is discovered on the train, it is clear the next book is all set.  Again this time Ernest promises the reader that he is following the rules of of writing a murder mystery.  As you reading the book the narrator continues to make sure you are getting all the facts he is getting and sharing the facts even down to how many times killer's name is mentioned in the book and when a character should be killed off.

Though he promises to be a reliable narrator, when you get to the end of the book the twist is still surprising.  Probably all the facts that being offered are just another red herring.

Cleverly written and very entertaining style.

A Murder of Crows

 A Murder of Crows by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett is the start of another entertaining mystery series.  This time we meet a young woman with a secret who is working as an environmentalist studying bats and their habitat. There is of course a murder, a few romances and then the amateur detective accused as a suspect who though law enforcement won't listen tries to solve the case herself.

This was an interesting mystery that explores the varieties of bats and where their natural environments. We also learn about a rare type of bat and how character, Nell Ward nurses the bat back to health.

So all the elements of a good mystery are there and they do not disappoint.  There is already a follow up and I will be reading that next.

Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe

 

Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe, by Steve Sheinkin is another great book for teens and young adults to read about the Holocaust.  

Clearly explained, this is the story of a teenage young man who survived the atrocities Auschwitz and escaped to tell the world what was happening there.  This is a straight forward account of his experience.  Also the experience of his childhood friend Gerta who with her parents escaped to Hungary and survived the war in a very different way.  

There is no mistaking the serious consequences of anti-semitism and not standing up for people of other ethnic backgrounds.  What happened then could happen again.