Brief Book Review - The Woman in the Library; Sulari Gentill

 

The Woman in the Library; Sulari Gentill

Poison Pen Press - 2022

(library Loan)

This was a book that I passed on initially but, my self-imposed pressure, based on reviews from some who enjoyed it, and the setting of the Boston Public Library held lots of appeal..  Unfortunately, this book was a struggle and ultimately a disappointing read for me.

The setting of the Boston Public Library, a blood-curdling scream early that ultimately ends in the murder of a young woman, makes fast friends of four strangers sitting at the same table who bond after the crime.  The more the group discusses what they recall the plot thickens and suspicions intensify. Hannah Tigone is a mystery writer based in Australia who shares the book she is writing with a Boston based mega fan named Leo who critiques her work it for locale and other accuracies, since the pandemic has preventing Hannah from coming to Boston herself.  Her novel is shared basically through email exchanges at the ends of the chapters and the whole correspondence gets very odd and uncomfortable as well at at times.

I'm not a fan of a story within a story kind of novel and found this one hard to get into and even confusing at times. I think I was expecting more of a traditional mystery. I'm not even sure this can be classified as a traditional mystery as it also seemed heavily character driven. I especially found the correspondence distracting and felt it added very little to the mystery overall. Sorry readers I can't recommend this one.

RATING - 2.5/5 stars

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - The Woman in the Library; Sulari Gentill

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book we are reading or plan to read soon.  

The Woman in the Library; Sulari Gentill

Poison Pen Press - 2022

Chapter One

Writing in the Boston Public Library had been a mistake.  It was too magnificent.  One could spend hours just staring at the ceiling in the Reading Room.  Very few books have been written with the writer's eyes cast upwards.  It judged you, that ceiling, looked down on you in every way. Mocked you with an architectural perfection that couldn't be achieved by simply placing one word after another until a structure took shape.  It made you want to start with grand arcs, to build a magnificent framework into which the artistic detail would be written--a thing of vision and symmetry and cohesion.  But, that sadly, isn't the way I write.

I've been patiently waiting for my library hold to become available and just picked this one up.  What do you think --read more or pass?

Coming Soon to a Book Store Near You - Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries; Martin Edwards

I've been searching for a few Christmas season books (no romance thank you). I came across this British mystery collection that was released last week, and it seems like the perfect type of book to read a store or two in front of the fireplace in the next month or so.

Silent Nights; Martin Edwards

Poison Pen Press - Nov - 2015

(Overview)

Christmas is a mysterious, as well as magical, time of year. Strange things can happen, and this helps to explain the hallowed tradition of telling ghost stories around the fireside as the year draws to a close. Christmas tales of crime and detection have a similar appeal. When television becomes tiresome, and party games pall, the prospect of curling up in the warm with a good mystery is enticing – and much better for the digestion than yet another helping of plum pudding.

Crime writers are just as susceptible as readers to the countless attractions of Christmas. Over the years, many distinguished practitioners of the genre have given one or more of their stories a Yuletide setting. The most memorable Christmas mysteries blend a lively storyline with an atmospheric evocation of the season. Getting the mixture right is much harder than it looks.

This book introduces of readers to some of the finest Christmas detective stories of the past. Martin Edwards’ selection blends festive pieces from much-loved authors with one or two stories which are likely to be unfamiliar even to diehard mystery fans. The result is a collection of crime fiction to savor, whatever the season.

Late Sunday Blatherings and New Books

How is your Sunday going everyone?  The day is quickly slip siding away it seams and I've been up since 5:30 am . We've had a few days of rain and windy conditions here, I almost turned on the heat when I saw 65 degrees in the house, but opted for the gas FP instead.  Today was sunny and near 60, but the next few days we may see sun and 70 so color me happy! On the dinner front this evening is blackened salmon, green beans and corn bread.

Friday we saw the first day release of The Martian in 3-D; it was incredible - I highly recommend it.

Today I took a shorter walk, and I've been catching up on reviews (not posted yet) but, this week I finished reading - The Gates of Evangeline, Hester Young; The Beautiful Bureaucrat; Helen Phillips; and Becoming Ellen; Shari Shattuck - feeling kinda happy about this. Review ratings range from 3.5 stars to 4.5 stars so it was all good reading or listening more or less.

Several new books made in mysteriously into my house over the last (2) weeks - just how does this happen? PLUS, I am hooked on audio downloads from the library now as well - no more books on cd for me thank you! Audio downloads to my phone are so easy and I can listen on the phone or through bluetooth in the car as well - love.

• Beastly Bones; William Ritter (Algonquin)
• Jackaby; William Ritter (Algonquin)
• A Winter's Night; Valerio Massimo Manfredi (Europa purchase)
• Silent Nights; Martin Edwards (Poison Pen Press)

• The Improbability of Love; Hannah Rothschild (Knopf)
• After You; JoJo Moyes (Pamela Dorman Books)
• A Strangeness in My Mind; Orhan Pamuk (Knopf)
• The Drowning Lesson; Jane Shemilt (Penguin)
• Hunters in the Dark; Lawrence Osborne (Hogarth)

Up Next - After You; JoJo Moyes; In the Unlikely Event; Judy Blume (started this one but had to return it to library but it's back again as an audio download) and Purity; Jonathan Franzen

Have a Great Week  Everyone!

New Books

Yup, another week of new books. Just when I donate a bag of books more seem to find their way back inside.  The top picture are ones that arrived by mail, and the bottom picture is $3.50 worth from a library booksale yesterday~~ how could I resist?

• The Santa Claus Murder; Mavis Doriel Hay - Poison Pen Press (sent by publisher)
• Small Blessings; Martha Woodroof - St. Martin's Press (sent by publisher)
• An Accident in August; Lawrence Cosse - Europa Edition (purchase)
• Off Shore; Penelope Fitzgerald - booksale - Mariner Books
• The Tooth Fairy; Graham Joyce - booksale - Tor Books
• Indigo; Graham Joyce - booksale - Washington Square Press
• Red Leaves; Paulina Simons - booksale - St. Martin's Press

Have you read any of these titles or authors?

Mailbox Monday - New Books

A nice week in new books thanks to various publishers. I have no idea which to read first, have you read any of these yet?

• The Night Sister; Jennifer McMahon (Doubleday) --The latest novel from New York Times best-selling author Jennifer McMahon is an atmospheric, gripping, and suspenseful tale that probes the bond between sisters and the peril of keeping secrets.
       Once the thriving attraction of rural Vermont, the Tower Motel now stands in disrepair, alive only in the memories of Amy, Piper, and Piper's kid sister, Margot. The three played there as girls until the day that their games uncovered something dark and twisted in the motel's past, something that ruined their friendship forever. 
       Now adult, Piper and Margot have tried to forget what they found that fateful summer, but their lives are upended when Piper receives a panicked midnight call from Margot, with news of a horrific crime for which Amy stands accused. Suddenly, Margot and Piper are forced to relive the time that they found the suitcase that once belonged to Silvie Slater, the aunt that Amy claimed had run away to Hollywood to live out her dream of becoming Hitchcock's next blonde bombshell leading lady. As Margot and Piper investigate, a cleverly woven plot unfolds—revealing the story of Sylvie and Rose, two other sisters who lived at the motel during its 1950s heyday. Each believed the other to be something truly monstrous, but only one carries the secret that would haunt the generations to come.
• Bright Lines; Tanwi Nandini Islam (Penguin) --• Long-listed for the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize •
  
  “A wonderful debut. . . . The beauty of this novel is that it perfectly merges fascinating narrative, honest characters, and the rich history and culture of Bangladesh with the juxtaposition of Bangladesh’s past and future and of that country with America, adding to the reading pleasure.” —Library Journal (starred review)
  
  A vibrant debut novel, set in Brooklyn and Bangladesh, follows three young women and one family struggling to make peace with secrets and their past
  
  For as long as she can remember, Ella has longed to feel at home. Orphaned as a child after her parents’ murder, and afflicted with hallucinations at dusk, she’s always felt more at ease in nature than with people. She traveled from Bangladesh to Brooklyn to live with the Saleems: her uncle Anwar, aunt Hashi, and their beautiful daughter, Charu, her complete opposite. One summer, when Ella returns home from college, she discovers Charu’s friend Maya—an Islamic cleric’s runaway daughter—asleep in her bedroom. 
   
  As the girls have a summer of clandestine adventure and sexual awakenings, Anwar—owner of a popular botanical apothecary—has his own secrets, threatening his thirty-year marriage. But when tragedy strikes, the Saleems find themselves blamed. To keep his family from unraveling, Anwar takes them on a fated trip to Bangladesh, to reckon with the past, their extended family, and each other.
• The Last Pilot; Benjamin Johncock (Picador) --"Harrison sat very still. On the screen was the surface of the moon."

• Jim Harrison is a test pilot in the United States Air Force, one of the exalted few. He spends his days cheating death in the skies above the Mojave Desert and his nights at his friend Pancho's bar, often with his wife, Grace. She and Harrison are secretly desperate for a child-and when, against all odds, Grace learns that she is pregnant, the two are overcome with joy.
  While America becomes swept up in the fervor of the Space Race, Harrison turns his attention home, passing up the chance to become an astronaut to welcome his daughter, Florence, into the world. Together, he and Grace confront the thrills and challenges of raising a child head-on. Fatherhood is different than flying planes-less controlled, more anxious-however the pleasures of watching Florence grow are incomparable. But when his family is faced with a sudden and inexplicable tragedy, Harrison's instincts as a father and a pilot are put to test. As a pilot, he feels compelled to lead them through it-and as a father, he fears that he has fallen short.
  The aftermath will haunt the Harrisons and strain their marriage as Jim struggles under the weight of his decisions. Beginning when the dust of the Second World War has only just begun to settle and rushing onward into the Sixties, Benjamin Johncock traces the path of this young couple as they are uprooted by events much larger than themselves. The turns the Harrisons take together are at once astonishing and recognizable; their journey, both frightening and full of hope. Set against the backdrop of one of the most emotionally charged periods in American history, The Last Pilot is a mesmerizing debut novel of loss and finding courage in the face of it from an extraordinary new talent.
• Unprocessed; Megan Kimble (William Morrow) --In the tradition of Michael Pollan’s bestselling In Defense of Food comes this remarkable chronicle, from a founding editor of Edible Baja Arizona, of a young woman’s year-long journey of eating only whole, unprocessed foods—intertwined with a journalistic exploration of what “unprocessed” really means, why it matters, and how to afford it.

• In January of 2012, Megan Kimble was a twenty-six-year-old living in a small apartment without even a garden plot to her name. But she cared about where food came from, how it was made, and what it did to her body: so she decided to go an entire year without eating processed foods. Unprocessed is the narrative of Megan’s extraordinary year, in which she milled wheat, extracted salt from the sea, milked a goat, slaughtered a sheep, and more—all while earning an income that fell well below the federal poverty line.
  What makes a food processed? As Megan would soon realize, the answer to that question went far beyond cutting out snacks and sodas, and became a fascinating journey through America’s food system, past and present. She learned how wheat became white; how fresh produce was globalized and animals industrialized. But she also discovered that in daily life, as she attempted to balance her project with a normal social life—which included dating—the question of what made a food processed was inextricably tied to gender and economy, politics and money, work and play.
  Backed by extensive research and wide-ranging interviews—and including tips on how to ditch processed food and transition to a real-food lifestyle—Unprocessed offers provocative insights not only on the process of food, but also the processes that shape our habits, communities, and day-to-day lives.
• Thirteen Guests; J. Farjeon  (Poison Pen Press) --“No observer, ignorant of the situation, would have guessed that death lurked nearby, and that only a little distance from the glitter of silver and glass and the hum of voices, two victims lay silent on a studio floor.” On a fine autumn weekend, Lord Aveling hosts a hunting party at his country house, Bragley Court. Among the guests are an actress, a journalist, an artist, and a mystery novelist. The unlucky thirteenth is John Foss, injured at the local train station and brought to the house to recuperate – but John is nursing a secret of his own. Soon events take a sinister turn when a painting is mutilated, a dog stabbed, and a man strangled. Death strikes more than one of the house guests, and the police are called. Detective Inspector Kendall’s skills are tested to the utmost as he tries to uncover the hidden past of everyone at Bragley Court. This country-house mystery is a forgotten classic of 1930s crime fiction by one of the most undeservedly neglected of golden age detective novelists.
• Orphan # 8; Kim van Alkemade (William Morrow) --A stunning debut novel in the vein of Sarah Waters’ historical fiction and inspired by true events, it tells the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage.

• In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City’s Lower Eastside. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother Sam and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other orphans. But when she turns fifteen, she runs away to Colorado hoping to find the brother she lost and discovers a family she never knew she had.
  Though Rachel believes she’s shut out her painful childhood memories, years later she is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrews Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancer-stricken Dr. Solomon. Rachel becomes obsessed with making Dr. Solomon acknowledge, and pay for, her wrongdoing. But each passing hour Rachel spends with the old doctor reveal to Rachel the complexities of her own nature. She realizes that a person’s fate—to be one who inflicts harm or one who heals—is not always set in stone.
  Lush in historical detail, rich in atmosphere and based on true events, Orphan #8 is a powerful, affecting novel of the unexpected choices we are compelled to make that can shape our destinies.
• Newport; Jill Morrow (William Morrow) -- Following in the steps of Beatriz Williams and Amor Towles, this richly atmospheric, spellbinding novel transports readers to the dazzling, glamorous world of Newport during the Roaring Twenties and to a mansion filled with secrets as a debonair lawyer must separate truth from deception.

• Spring 1921. The Great War is over, Prohibition is in full swing, the Depression still years away, and Newport, Rhode Island's glittering “summer cottages” are inhabited by the gloriously rich families who built them.
  Attorney Adrian De la Noye is no stranger to Newport, having sheltered there during his misspent youth. Though he’d prefer to forget the place, he returns to revise the will of a well-heeled client. Bennett Chapman's offspring have the usual concerns about their father's much-younger fiancée. But when they learn of the old widower’s firm belief that his first late wife, who “communicates” via séance, has chosen the beautiful Catherine Walsh for him, they’re shocked. And for Adrian, encountering Catherine in the last place he saw her decades ago proves to be a far greater surprise.
  Still, De la Noye is here to handle a will, and he fully intends to do so—just as soon as he unearths every last secret, otherworldly or not, about the Chapmans, Catherine Walsh . . . and his own very fraught history.
  A skillful alchemy of social satire, dark humor, and finely drawn characters, Newport vividly brings to life the glitzy era of the 1920s.
• The World is a Wedding; Wendy Jones (Europa) --Set in 1926, two years after the end of The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals, Wendy Jones’ The World is a Wedding finds Wilfred Price married to Flora Myfanwy and trying to be the perfect husband. His efforts only intensify when he learns that Flora is expecting. But something doesn’t feel right to Flora: she doesn’t feel at home. Meanwhile, Grace (to whom Wilfred was very briefly married before he met Flora) has fled Narberth for London, trying to escape what has happened to her and the secret she carries because of it. But secrets are not so easily escaped—and Grace’s will affect Wilfred and Flora, too.
   
  A sophisticated comedy of manners, The World is a Wedding captures life in a small town in Wales and explores the complexities of marriage, motherhood, and masculinity and femininity with equal wit and insight.

Sunday Batherings and New Books

I'm in an official reading slump,  I have 3 reviews to write, I've started about 5 books and I when I sit down to read, I seem to grab my iPhone after reading a few pages and play Scrabble or surf  websites instead.   I'm going to try some non fiction next to see if that helps (it has in the past).

Of course, there may be a very good reason I'm a bit preoccupied ----

Yes, I gave my notice, it's official, I'm Retiring in July, and have just about 30 work days left. Can't wait. I've been dreaming about retirement since I was 35, and always new I would retire a bit early while I could still enjoy life.   I've had (2) exciting careers, human resource management (20 years) and libraries (13 years), however, I always enjoyed NOT working days most of all. The countdown is on.

Of course, the slump hasn't stopped me from accumulating a few more books (hey, some day I hope to feel like reading once again).  What is your remedy for getting your reading mojo back?

Here's the new books that arrived by mail recently.

• The Wasp Factory; Iain Banks (Simon & Schuster) - purchase
• Three Women in a Mirror; -Emmanuel Schmitt (Europa Edition) (purchase)
• Grapes of Wrath - 75th Anniversary Edition (Viking) (paperbackswap)
• Hair of the Dog; Susan Slater  (Poison Pen Press)
• Rupture; Simon Leleic (Picador) (purchase)
• The Girl in the Polka-Dot-Dress; Beryl Bainbridge (Europa Rdition) (purchase)
• Radiant Angel; Nelson DeMille (Hachette Audio)
• Memory Man; David Baldacci (Hachette Audio)

Sunday Plans - Today we are off to my son and DIL's house for a cookout. All (3) little granddaughters will be together as well --fun day. Hoping everyone has a lovely day.