This is a new author for me. This is the first book in his Leipfold Mystery series. I'm enjoying it so far. Reading this for #serieslove23 and #MarvelousMarch

@Andrew65 @DieAReader @TheSpineView

Great first book in the Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne series. Fergusson is the priest of St. Alban's in an upstate New York town. Van Alstyne is the police chief. They team up to solve the mystery surrounding a newborn boy left at the church. Murder soon follows. As does a blossoming illicit romance between Fergusson and Van Alstyne (he's married).

I'll read more in this series.

@Andrew65 @TheSpineView #FabulousFebruary #SeriesLove2023

Thanks for the Valentine's Day card. @dabbe 💝 It really made my day. 😀

#Valentines

Great second book in the Wexford/Sloane mystery series. A strong historical mystery set in Regency London. Lord Wexford and Charlotte Sloane make a formidable, evenly matched pair. Friends of Raven and Hawk (Charlotte's wards) are a troupe of streetwise urchins who help gather information, similar to Holmes' Baker Street Irregulars.

Good characterization of both primary and secondary characters.

@Andrew65 #FabulousFebruary #SeriesLove2023

Great opener to Tom Fowler's series about CT Ferguson. CT is home from Hong Kong, where he worked as a hacker to help people emigrate from China surreptitiously.

His parents insist he do something to help people. He thinks he can be a detective based on his skills. Alice Fisher calls and CT is on his way.

Good characterization. I'll read more, including the prequel novella about CT's time in Hong Kong.

#serieslove2023 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Hey @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks, if you need a helping hand with book reviews for the #LitsyLove newsletter, I can chip in a review now and then, whenever you need it.

(Do you think I can find your email?! Lost in space, I guess.) 🤣😁

I finished The Drums of War by Michael Ward a few days ago. This is the third book in his Thomas Tallant series. It's a great book for lovers of historical fiction that's mixed with a little romance and a bit of mystery.

This series just keeps getting better.

#readathon #joyousjanuary #serieslove2023
@Andrew65 @TheSpineView @TheBookHippie

So sorry, @cinfhen, I need to back out of participating in #muglove23. Hopefully, I can join the action at the next mug swap. 🥺

My first foray in #serieslove2023 - the first book in the Philo Vance series. I'm only a few pages into it; so, we'll see. 👀

@Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Congratulations, @wanderinglynn, and Happy Birthday.

I'd love to receive Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

#300KBirthdayGiveaway

For the #WinterreadathonDailyChallenge @Andrew65 happened to post a photo of one of my favorite chocolate candies - M&Ms. I also love Cello chocolate-covered cherries (covered in dark chocolate, of course 😁). And almost anything chocolate from Bomboy's on Market St. in Havre de Grace, MD.

#Winterreadathon

Can't wait for spring and summer to arrive. Usually, I don't mind the cold weather too much. But not this year, I guess I'm getting older. 🤣🤪

#winterreadathon #WinterReadathonDailyChallenge
@Andrew65 @GHABI4ROSES

Here's a collage of some of our Christmas 🎄 decorations. #WinterReadathonDailyChallenge

I'm reading the tagged book for the #WinterReadathon

@Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES

Even though I love reading, I sometimes feel my brain is turning into mush. So, I decided to try and learn another language.

I took a few semesters of Spanish classes while in college and French in high school a bazillion years ago. I may try to refresh my memory 😅 and relearn them again in the future.

#winterreadathon @Andrew65

I'm chugging along reading this book for the #Winterreadathon . Interesting insights, but there's quite a bit about age discrimination in the workplace. While I agree with what's being said, I'm already retired (due to caregiver responsibilities) and don't want to go back to work full-time. Still, interesting stuff. As someone who's older and looking to work, I'm more interested in the gig economy (I do mystery shopping sometimes).

@Andrew65

Great book for those of us who are part of an older generation. (Including me 😁)

Even better, possibly, for those who may want to see what's in store for them.

In fact, the global population is trending older because of slowing birth rates worldwide.

Not everyone who is long-lived is a fuddyduddy.

#winterreadathon @Andrew65

Not exactly candles, but lit wreaths on the light poles, looking down the street towards St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Easton, MD.

Not exactly a craft, but I took this picture that I have on my calendar.

Haven't been to Maryland's Eastern Shore in several years, now. Wish I could go again. Maybe someday soon.

#winterreadaton #winterreadathondailychallenge
@Andrew65 @GHABI4ROSES @DieAReader

Four murders in a few months, all from the same software development company. Could it have anything to do with the software being developed for the National Security Agency?

The suspense starts early and ramps up. Characters are well drawn, and the sleuths become a tight-knit group by the end.

Although this is fiction, the premise is true to life. Remember Edward Snowden??!

@Andrew65 #winterreadathon @GHABI4ROSES @DieAReader #mystery

Read several more stories in this doorstop of a book plus a few magazines for last weekend's #20in4 #readathon. Still not finished yet! I'll keep plugging along reading a story or two here and there between my other book and magazine reads.

@Andrew65

My final read for the #OutstandingOctober #readathon.

I've made it about halfway through this monster.

Interesting stories by such folks as Edward D. Hoch, David Stuart Davies, and H. R. F. Keating, among others.

@Andrew65

So-so. Read about three-quarters of the way through. Then bailed.

#readathon #OutstandingOctober @Andrew65

Fabulous collection of short stories. 👌

Bought this book because I'd read her first story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, several years ago.

This collection did not disappoint. Excellent.

#readathon #OutstandingOctober @Andrew65 #shortstories

This is my second (or possibly third) reading of this book. Enjoyed the book but didn't like the ending and the way the author summed things up as much as during previous readings.

In the past, I've listened to some of her podcast posts of the same name (Speaking of Faith, renamed On Being). The podcast was very informative and interesting.

I'll read more of her books. And try to locate the podcast, again.

#OutstandingOctober @Andrew65

Very interesting take on where our country is and where it's headed. Essays by a number of leaders, scholars, journalists and activists.

Very much a pick.

If you read this book, you might want to also consider reading The Power of Awareness (the book in my previous post).

#readathon #OutstandingOctober @Andrew65

Great book about staying safe. Advice we can all use.

@Andrew65 #readathon #OutstandingOctober

This was between so-so and a pick. Liked Steve Winslow, the lawyer who's the narrator.

Hated Sheila Benton, his first client. She was manipulative and a liar. Plus she came from a strange family situation.

Won't say anything more in order to avoid spoilers. I'll read further in this series.

Parnell Hall uses J. P. Hailey as a pseudonym. I have yet to read anything else by Hall. I'll check out his books.

@Andrew65 #OutstandingOctober

Reading a past issue of the NY Review of Books (July 21). I have a subscription to this review but do I read it when I get it? No, I don't. It sits on my TBR pile along with everything else. 🤪🤣

Enjoyed this. I'll read her other book - Murder at Half Moon Gate.

#20in4 #readathon @Andrew65

Meh. Both novels are sluggish and wordy. But The League of Frightened Men is the better of the two novels.

Meh. My first book by James Patterson. Will I read others of his vast oeuvre? Maybe, but maybe not.

Thanks so much Misty Malone for the great Halloween gift 🎁.

I am recuperating from bilateral knee replacement surgery and this surprise package 📦 certainly lifted my spirits.

#litsylove

Great fictional read about space travel and Earth in the near future. A spaceship sets off for the Alpha Centauri galaxy on a 10-year mission, but doesn't return for 40 years. What happens to the crew when they make such a surprising return?

A little slow at times, but a great read and good characterization. I recommend this book and look forward to reading Two Roads to Paradise, the second book in the series.

#jubilantjuly @Andrew65

Meh. An investigation into the death of Jason Jardine focuses on Lucy Freeman. Jardine was a member of the band, Dr Sweet, of which Daniel Freeman is a founder. Narration alternates between Lucy and Neil Slater, one of the detectives on the case. From the get-go it's evident that Lucy probably didn't commit the crime. Rather sluggish and slow-moving plot. Rather bland but happy-ever-after type ending.

#jubilantjuly readathon @Andrew65

What would it be like if everyone thought you were dead? What if people walked by you and didn't notice you? A few people, like your ex-girlfriend, Jolene, and her new boyfriend can see you. But Isabella, the medium, can‘t. You are solid enough to yourself—you can eat, drink and wear clothes. You swear you are alive and well. One moment you're at the ocean and the next you're in the Midwest. And no idea how you got there. This is Daniel's world.

Do humans, especially women, internalize the subliminal messages found in most fairy tales? Anne E. Beall, PhD, thinks so. Males are also fed covert messages. According to Beall, in Cinderella Didn‘t Live Happily Ever After, women bring beauty and men bring intelligence, status and wealth to most situations within fairy tales. Beall and her team analyzed 169 of the Grimm Brothers fairy tales and dig deep into who has beauty and who has power, etc.

Noah Grady, narrator of The Bones of Amoret, is the typical town doctor. Or not so typical. Noah helps immigrants who cross the southern border illegally. Two of those immigrants were Angelica, whom he marries, and her son. And he's good at keeping secrets. Like his 20-year affair with Blaine Beckett‘s wife. Now he's focused on finding out how Beckett has disappeared and why. And who killed his adopted son. Or so he says. Enjoyed this immensely.

Thanks again for the birthday wishes from @Lovesbooks87 - one of my @Litsylove friends.

Cupcakes and bookmarks - two of my favorite things. Besides books, of course. 😆 ❤️ 🍰

#litsylove

Read 15 chapters in Grace Among Thieves

I should be able to complete at least 5 chapters in An Irregular Life: Being the Adventures & Memoirs of a Fortunate Sherlockian by Mark F. McPherson OR Solomon's Concubine by S. A. Jewell.

@Andrew65 #20in4 #Readathon

This is the third book in the Grace Michelle Mystery series by Kari Bovee. I've read the first book and this one. Doubt I'll read the second book in the series.

Grace faces challenges and overcomes them with the help of the ghost of her sister. REALLY??

Enjoyed this book more than the first one. There is growth in Grace Michelle as a character. And the supporting characters are well rounded. Otherwise, too many strange plot twists.

#mystery

Thanks for the birthday wishes from all my friends at #Litsylove.

I've been negligent with posting in the past few months.

Promise to get better with that.

And better at renewing my letter writing with my #litsylove friends.

#LL

Such a nice surprise came in the mail this morning. Robin Brock @robinb sent this to me unexpectedly as she was attempting to divest herself of some books ?. If she's anything like me, not many books would "disappear." ???

So thoughtful. ??

I love book mail.

Enjoyed this one. The tagged book is the third in the On the Rocks series by Cathi Stoler. It can be read as a stand-alone novel, which is what I did. There are references in the plot to things that happened previously in the first two novels, but that didn't dim my enjoyment. I'll probably go back and read the first two books in the series at some point soon. Anyway, good pacing and great characterization.
4⭐️

Finished the tagged book 📖 a few days ago. Great read. Good pacing and characterization. Murder at a Napa Valley winery leads to a lot of mayhem for investigative journalist and wine columnist Dante Rath. 4⭐️s

Second book in a series. Blackie, a streetwise cat, narrates. He solves mysteries with Care, his human friend. Tough urban scenario. Fair to good read.

"In my time, like so many others, I have faced losses."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

I'll be doing a reading binge of Sherlock Holmes pastiches for the #NovelNovember readathon. First up is finishing up Sherlock Holmes and the Eye of Heka by David Marcum, probably by tomorrow. Look for a review on my blog (see link in profile) on Monday. Next up is Beasts of London by Janina Woods. Got both of these books free from reedsy.com/discovery in exchange for a review on their website.

@Andrew65

Read 📚 4 hours yesterday. Magazines, though, not this Holmes pastiche. Today it's back to David Marcum's great story.

This book gives Dr. Watson a larger role. Great portrait of the doctor that doesn't make him look like a fool as some of the older movies do (think Nigel Bruce's portrayal alongside Basil Rathbone).

I'm about halfway through this book. I'll review it once I'm finished.

@Andrew65 #Halloween #20in4 #readathon

Got a good start on the tagged book 📖 for the #20in4 #readathon. Forgot to track my reading 📚 time ⏲ today (duh!), but read at least 4 hours.

Will do better at keeping track over the rest of the readathon, I hope. 😊

#Halloween @Andrew65

Great book swap gifts from @Laughterhp for the #llfs exchange. Love everything. The books sound very interesting. Can always use bookmarks as I usually have several books going at once.

Thank you.

@rsteve388 @Bookgoil

My #LLFS swap package 📦 was mailed out this morning to @Laughterhp .

@rsteve388 @Bookgoil