I think Elizabeth George is the best mystery writer around today. I‘ve read all her Inspector Lynley books, all 23. Even though they‘re stand alone stories, the characters carry over, so best to read them in order. Who killed Michael Lobb, the owner of a metal jewelry business? His much younger wife, his Lothario of a brother, one of his two employees, ex-wife or her boyfriend, one of his children, one of his employee‘s children, the list is👇

Interesting look into the lives of two couples who are neighbors in the English countryside, a farmer, a doctor and their two wives. So many secrets, some of which come to life over the course of a winter snowstorm and its aftermath. Longlisted for the Booker, these four people and their lives come to feel as if you‘ve known them forever, very real and very sad, as they just try to get through the days.

#EuropaCollective

Hi everyone! We hope you‘ve had time to read Mona‘s Eyes and are ready to discuss. We‘ve only tagged everyone once so scroll down to see all the discussion questions and feel free to ask your own. We hope you‘ll join the discussion even if you‘re only partially through the book. Stay tuned for info about the January read!

#EuropaCollective

#EuropaCollective

#EuropaCollective

#EuropaCollective

Hope everyone had time to read this book for #EuropaCollective! Just a reminder that we‘ll be discussing the book next Saturday, November 1st. We‘ll have lots of provocative questions to get things going and can‘t wait to hear all your thoughts. Special thanks to everyone who posted about this book during the month. Feel free to add your name or request to be dropped from the tagged list. See you Saturday!

Couldn‘t put this one down, the story of three triplet boys who live in an old deserted mansion in 1979 England, with only three shifts of caregivers to take care of them. Who are these boys I wondered as shades of Ishiguro‘s Never Let Me Go kept running through my thoughts. This one‘s really unforgettable, as was that one. I found myself so invested in all the characters, even the minor ones, a sign of a terrific book.

Another incredible book in the Road to Dalton series. If you haven‘t read these three books about a group of average people living in small town Maine, put them on your TBR list. They are so beautifully written, the descriptions of the characters‘ thoughts and feelings magical. Just ordinary people, living their lives, dealing with the hands they‘ve been dealt. These books ring so true. #EuropaCollective actually led me to the first one!

We do not care that our Wordle streak was broken although we complained about it to anyone who would listen. We might have complained about it to strangers if we‘d run into any. We don‘t care that our new streak says a pathetic “1” instead of a nice long number. We now know how many words end with “ound”, way too many. We know Denise feels our pain.

#WDNCW. @dabbe

A beach read in October! One day and night in a famous old residential building in New York, think The Dakota. Everyone‘s rich, everyone‘s feeling protected and anything can happen. We follow three main characters, Chicky the doorman, Emily the ultra rich wife in the penthouse, and Julian, an art dealer whose life appears to be collapsing, every aspect of it. It‘s a gripper, well written and moves along at a fast pace.

I wasn‘t that crazy about this book to begin with. Not much of a story, not that great on character development. But then I started to love this story about a 10 year old girl who might be going blind and her grandfather who takes her once a week to see one piece of art in a Paris museum. Each short chapter discusses a piece of art with grandpa describing its artist and history and Mona describing her feelings about it. ⬇️

This author can really write! I love her stories, the secrets and surprises seep out of the pages and the meanings are never crystal clear. In this book, the narrator lives her quiet, routine life with her family until she starts receiving pages from her diary of 20 years ago, pages she hasn‘t thought about in all this time. It‘s a mystery and a character study, each of equal importance.

We do not care that we saw a very interesting cookie recipe in NYT called Gochujang Caramel Cookies and we rushed out to the Korean grocery store and bought a container of gochujang, only to read the comments section of the recipe where bakers had mentioned not to get the gochujang with onions and garlic, which naturally the one we bought had. Rushed back out to Trader Joe, problem solved.

#WDNCW @dabbe

I‘m about 2/3 of the way through the October read for #EuropaCollective. Each chapter takes only a few minutes to read but I‘m calling up each painting or sculpture to see a big picture of it so I can follow along with the description. This is a story of a young girl who is possibly going blind, and goes each week with her grandfather to see an important piece of art. Grandpa seems to know a lot about art! We started in the Louvre ⬇️

This is book 3 in the Hyperion series, book 1 having won the Hugo back in the 90s. Books 1 & 2 go together, as do books 3 & 4. Such a good story! A young girl, a guy and an android race through space and portals, never sure where they‘re going, but headed somewhere. Lots of bad guys are chasing them from world to world as they make their way. Really terrific sci-fi series! @RamsFan1963 Have you read this series?

Hope everyone had a great summer! We‘re excited to get #EuropaCollective up and running again with Mona‘s Eyes as our October read. Just a reminder to get a copy, feel free to comment anytime, and we‘ll have the general discussion on Saturday, November 1st. Happy reading!

1. Santa Fe-Margarita swirled with sangria at Tomasita‘s, goat cheese, figs and honey drizzled crepes at Mille bakery
2. Los Alamos-Bradbury Science Center
3. Cerillos-Origami in the Garden. This one‘s rock, scissors, paper
4. Taos-Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and Taos Pueblo.
5. Santa Fe-puppets at Museum of International Folk Art
6. Painted Desert in Arizona, truly magnificent!

#5JoysFriday

We do not care that the bed in our hotel *suite* in Santa Fe is pushed up against the wall so one person (not me) has to climb out of there and of course wakes up the other person (me). Or that the one umbrella at the pool that provides shade is broken. Or that the Georgia O‘Keeffe museum took a total of 7 minutes to see. We have made the executive decision to leave early and head for The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.

@dabbe #WDNCW

Having read these four novellas already, I felt like rereading them all at one time to keep the thread of characters clearly in my mind. This is by far the best way to read these stories, Water, Earth, Fire and Air. Four terrific stand alone stories, stories of childhood traumas, survival, hope. Don‘t miss this book if you haven‘t read the novellas already.

Bailed on both of these books, although I gave Nesting about 75 pages. Flesh did not speak to me in the slightest, and after I read the mediocre reviews on Litsy I quickly gave up. I‘m all for women getting away from abusive husbands, but I‘ve read a lot better books on the subject than Nesting. Off to pick up The Elements so I can read the fourth book in that series.

My very favorite snack with a so very sad book. Ash narrates this story of her best friend‘s last weeks in hospice, surrounded by everyone who loves both of them, “my people” as she refers to them. I‘ve always loved that phrase “my people” because it‘s a phrase that everyone gets instinctively. Lots of humor and love in this book, not one false note. A lot to reflect on.

Read this in one day, couldn‘t put it down. Glad I had already finished my extremely difficult Klimt puzzle (pieces were cut in hard way to match up!) It‘s a mystery, woman claims to have gotten pregnant with no male involved. Is it possible? Nobody really thinks so but one woman at a newspaper is willing to follow this lead. As she gets more and more involved with this woman‘s family, her life is dramatically altered. Unexpected ending! ⬇️

Months ago I filled out a questionnaire in the New York Times that would pick out a perfect book for me and this is the one I got. It‘s a short story collection, interconnected in odd ways, telling a futuristic story about mankind, AI, cloning and survival. I really liked the way the stories tied together at the end, hopeful and thought-provoking.

Almost bailed on this book after pages and pages of the narrator whining about infertility. But then a stunner. And then a nice little love story. Lots of annoying mouthy characters, a cute little boy, a mother from France, a narrator with a sense of humor, a main character who you want to constantly strangle. A soft pick.

This one‘s a gripper! Who‘s responsible for the car accident that killed two people? The teenager who was driving? The dad in the passenger seat who narrates the book? The automatic driving system that was running the car? As the details of the accident unfold, we come closer to grasping the details of what happened along with the secrets that keep this family rolling along. Family dynamics play a big part here all the way to the end.

Didn‘t love this story about a Succession type family where dad dies and the family members have to jump through some hoops to inherit his money. I didn‘t feel like I knew this cast of characters any better at the end than I did at the beginning. Some secrets, but nothing earth shattering. Cardboard characters and no big surprises make this book skippable.

#EuropaCollective

Welcome to #EuropaCollective! We‘ll be reading one book every three months, beginning with October. Feel free to read our book anytime in September or October, comment as you go along or wait for the general discussion. This will happen on the last Saturday of the month, which in this case will be October 25th. Want to be tagged or untagged, just let us know. So excited to get this going again! ⬇️

Another beautifully written book by the author of Wild Dark Shore. We meet our narrator as she is trying to join a boat‘s crew so she can track the migration of a group of terns. As the story goes back and forth in time, we find out so much about her life and what has led up to this moment in time. It‘s a love story, a book of mysteries, a story about obsessions. Well worth reading and I loved meeting so very many interesting people.

A beautifully written small book about one day in one flight in space and the six astronauts who inhabit this space ship. In 24 hours, there will be 16 sunrises, 16 sunsets, a typhoon, a death. We read about their dreams, their lives on earth, their thoughts at seeing all the beauty of life from outer space. A very special book.

We do not care that we volunteered to help a friend pack up to move. We do not care about two broken nails, a sore back and pain in too many other places to mention. We also do not care that we broke two tiny serving dishes as there were at least 10 more (maybe 20 as we lost track after hours of bubble wrapping).

#WDNCW @dabbe

Just couldn‘t get into this book about an Asian woman during the pandemic, listening constantly to disparaging remarks, cleaning apartments of murdered women, seeing ghosts and footprints and bite marks. I gave it a hundred pages, but it felt like more of the same.

We first meet Margaret as a child, followed by meeting her again as a divorced mother of two little girls. This book accomplishes so much, bringing her childhood trauma into the light as a mother, grownup, sibling, daughter. Her life is determined by this event, she can never seem to get a grip on it, she constantly reacts to events coming from that place in her life as a child. Not to mention her mother…yikes!

We do not care that the New York Times has added yet another fun puzzle to their daily games page. It‘s called Pips and it‘s a good logic problem. We do not care that doing those puzzles every day takes a good hour, it‘s so fun.

@dabbe #WDNCW

I never read this kind of book, but it was only a couple hundred pages so I persevered. Henry, who is married to pregnant Lily, creates William in the attic, his very own AI robot. It doesn‘t take long for William to take over, etc etc. Bodies pile up and then a big twist, and then finito. A short horror story if you‘re looking for one.

Sophie and Alex are sent by their London newspaper to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a three week show of non-stop performances, the biggest fringe festival of its kind anywhere. Alex picks up a girl who he meets in a bar and brings her back to their flat for the night, not long after he‘s seen her show and given it one star. When she finds out she changes her show to be about bad Alex and it takes off. A weakish ending, soft pick.

A strange little book about a woman who is left stranded with a dog when a glass wall comes down out of nowhere and kills everything on the other side. Apparently. She writes down the first two years of her life there and that‘s all we know. And she has to take full responsibility for every aspect of her life as she‘s out in the hills somewhere. There‘s no conversation because there‘s nobody to talk to. Imagine living like that?

I loved this book that came so highly recommended. Written by a Croatian author, and taking place in a small town in Croatia, we follow Ivona through her relationship with the love of her life, Vlaho. Beautifully written about characters who come alive on page after page through their personal journeys and their connections to each other. ⬇️

We do not care that our credit card was stolen this week as we cancelled our card and caught the thieves before any merchandise was shipped. We do not care that our fridge started making an EXTREMELY LOUD HUM and we got a new one at Costco and had it promptly installed so we didn‘t lose any food. And we do not care about any other of life‘s annoyances as we‘re off to Seattle to visit our son.

#WDNCW @dabbe

Well, this book went some unexpected places. Three women, interconnected, all trying to find their true selves. It shouldn‘t have worked, but the humor and realistic situations turned this into a really good read. Lots of thoughts about motherhood, parents, husbands, careers, the whole of life, messy as it is.

A good story! A New Zealand family goes off on a holiday vacation where there there are lots of mysteries: a missing child, a weird neighbor, possibly one of the parents is having an affair. Narrated by the ten year old daughter, the story unfolds slowly with just the right amount of tension and childhood angst.

Here‘s the follow up to Assassins Anonymous of about a year ago. Same cast of characters who are trying to find and rescue a member of their group. We go back and forth between what they‘re doing and what the captured person is doing to save herself. More light reading, fun characters, but a soft pick.

Such a good book. I didn‘t think I‘d enjoy a story told entirely through letters, but this one really worked. The narrator, her family, her friends, her boyfriends, all came to life in beautiful ways. And their stories, all told so very believably. Very special, highly recommend.

I wasn‘t sure about this best seller, a love story about two astronauts during the early 80s when women were new to the space program. We go back and forth between a flight that runs into big, big trouble and the history behind the two women connected by their love of outer space. This book got better and better and it was all I could do not to skip ahead to see what happens at the end. Tears in my eyes on the last two pages.

A powerful 87 page novella. When Anna‘s friend asks if her teenage daughter can stay with her for a year, Anna agrees having no idea of the impact this will have on her husband, two children and the girl herself. This decision will turn their lives upside down, and not in a good way. Poor Anna, and poor everyone else as well.

Breakfast: chai tea and fresh fruit salad
Lunch: grilled cheese
Dinner: Ben & Jerry Phish Food ice cream

#serenesaturdays

We do not care that two old friends each cancelled lunch dates this week. Or that the electric bill was humongous. Or that we drove 45 minutes for lunch to a restaurant that was closed on Mondays. Or that we stopped on the way there at our favorite bakery and it was also closed on Mondays. Or that our hair dresser cut our hair too short. Or that our husband left the sprinkler on ALL NIGHT. We could go on and on, as can you, right?

#WDNCW

I had no idea this book had different endings until I started to read Litsy reviews! I have version A which I felt like had a very natural ending. A geologist, poet wife and snappy comeback daughter are all living a happy ordinary life. Until the daughter is diagnosed with a disease of deterioration. It‘s pretty depressing. Concurrently, the dad follows up on a lead to free some kidnapped women. Well written but not for everyone.

A good story with multiple points of view about a hiker who goes missing while walking the Appalachian Trail in Maine. In addition to the hiker we hear from the warden on the ground who‘s trying to find her and an elderly lady in a nursing facility who‘s following the national coverage. Well drawn characters and a mystery about what really happened there added to my race to finish this one. I wish it had made me feel more than it did.