First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - This Little Family; Ines Bayard

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

This Little Family; Ines Bayard

Other Press - 2020

(review copy provided by the publisher)

"Little Thomas didn't have time to finish his stewed apple. His mother hadn't given him the slightest chance.  The speed at which the poison circulated through his blood simply meant he didn't suffer when he died.  Only Marie's body was still upright, securely wedged against the back of her chair, her head tipped back.  She must have struggled to ensure this was noticed.  Laurent had been served first.  Few people stumbling across these three ashen bodies could have imagined the warm laughter filling the room just moments before the tragedy occurred."

What do you think, pass or read more? 

 

Goodbye June

I said this in last month as well, I'm happy to say goodbye to yet another month. Thank goodness I'm a reader and my knee is lot's better, because that news on television is so damn depressing. I still can only walk about a mile right now without pain but I'll take it. 

Our state is still taking it slow with re openings. Some restaurants opened this week for indoor dining at 50% capacity to allow for social distancing. Are state's numbers continue to decline and, our libraries are still only doing curbside. I also have a feeling our senior center (and my yoga classes held there) will not be opening this year but, safety first! I dread the day when bars open indoors as that's when numbers most likely will spike again with people being careless. We don't plan to change our routine back to the old normal even though I am a homebody but, I'm starting to get very sick of spending so much time at home - (4) months now. I did get my first haircut in 4 months (3" off) and, it felt great. I was the first appointment and the only one in the salon except my stylist.  

June was my 12 year blogging anniversary - never expected to reach that milestone but, I finally gave myself permission to post just when I feel like it. Thank you to all of you who take the time to stop by now and then.

Outside…

We were officially in a drought last week but be got a few hours of steady rain yesterday and thunderstorms are in store for the next few days. Sunny now but looks like it's clouding up a bit. It's been hot and humid this past week. 

Watching…

I didn't watch much television last week, except for one movie: My Cousin Vinny  (perhaps my 10th time and still enjoy it). I want to watch The Hate U Give some time this week and would also like to read the book.

Exercise and other highlights…

Regular floor exercises everyday. Most are leg strengthening exercises but also some yoga..

To Do List…

• Depends on the weather really and how fast I get moving.
• Follow up doctor visit for my knee on Tuesday (last visit I suspect).
• This week is the 6th birthday of our other granddaughter so plan to stop by to see her.
• Recall for my car and that I've put off for 4 months, so having that done on Wednesday.

Retail Therapy...

Nothing.

JUNE Reads-  (11) Books  (57-YTD) - (2) NF, (9) fiction. Quite a few were just so so reads unfortunately.

1. The New Husband; D.J. Palmer - 3.5/5 (audio/June)
2. If it Bleeds; Stephen King - 4/5 (audio/June)
3. A Week at the Shore; Barbara Delinsky - 4/5 (eGalley/June)
4. Save Me the Plums: A food memoir  (NF) - 4.5/5 (audio/June)
5. Girls of Summer; Nancy Thayer - 3.5/5 (eGalley/June)
6. Death in Her Hands; Ottessa Moshfegh - 2.5/5 - (audio/June)
7. A Good Marriage; Kimberly McCreight - 3.5/5 (eGalley/June)
8. Malice Aforethought; Francis Iles 4.5/5 (print/June)
9. Saint X; Alexis Schaitkin - 2.5/5 - (eBook/June)
10. The Sea of Lost Girls; Carol Goodman - 3.5/5 (audio/June)
11. Hidden Valley Road; Robert Kolker (NF) - 3.5/5 (eGalley/June)                                                                 

Fave Books of June

 

Reading Plans for July (so far)

• Tomorrow There Will Be Sun; Dana Reinhardt (print - in progress)
• Home Before Dark; Riley Sager (eGalley - really good need to finish today)
• Murder of Roger Ackroyd; Agatha Christie (in progress audio)

How did your week go? What are you doing to stay sane in COVID times?

Any favorite reads in June?

Book Review - Malice Aforethought; Francis Iles

TITLE:  Malice Aforethought: The Story of a Commonplace Crime

AUTHOR:  Francis Iles

PUBLISHER:  Dover Publications (2018)

PUB. YEAR: 1931 (original pub date)

Setting: Wyvern Cross England

Format: print/purchase

Rating - 4.5/5

Dr. Edmund Brickleigh had long been troubled by an inferiority complex. A short man and the son of a shopkeeper, when he meets and marries Julia, a woman 8 years older and of a higher social class, his insecurities live on.  The couple has been married for 10 years and neither appears happy in the relationship.  Julia is unattractive and very domineering.

As the story begins we learn that the doctor has been a bit of a run around throughout the marriage. Tired of being bossed around, it is at a tennis party that he decides he must kill his wife since every woman he has met seems better than Julia.  However, it is Madeleine, who makes he heart skip a beat.  Just thinking about Madeleine makes him realize that doing away with his wife is the only chance he has to win her heart and make her his next wife.  However, even a well-planned murder doesn't always work out as planned.

This was touted a one of the "Eight Perfect Murders" in Peter Swanson's latest novel.  Written originally in 1931, the story started out slow, but quickly picked up pace and hooked me.  The mystery is well-plotted, had me smiling at times and, the story had such a surprise ending as well, one that I could have never anticipated. Well worth reading if you like good old-fashioned murder mysteries. Such a nice change of pace.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Tomorrow There Will Be Sun; Dana Reinhardt

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

Tomorrow There Will be Sun; Dana Reinhardt

Pamela Dorman Books - 2019

SATURDAY

"A perfectly prepared margarita (rocks, salt, subtle with the triple sec, less so with the tequila) placed in your hand when you didn't even ask, with an itty-bitty half lime floating up top. something local grown just down the street where the patchy pavement gives way to dirt, which then surrenders to jungle, can almost take the edge off a day of truly shitty airport mishaps.  Let's not recount them. Airport mishaps are dull.  They're like dreams.  We convince ourselves that ours are potboilers, cliffhangers, whodunits.  They're not.  And yet, despite the entirely predictable debacle that was our direct flight from LAX to PVR, in business class no less because those were the only seats left for which we could use miles and so drained our entire account, we still managed to arrive at Villa Azul Paraiso before the Solomons."

What do you think - read more or pass?  

Book Review - A Good Marriage; Kimberly McCreight

TITLE:  A Good Marriage

AUTHOR:  Kimberly McCreight

PUBLISHER:  Harper

PUB. YEAR: 2020

Setting: NY

Format: eGalley

Rating - 3.5/5

Lizzie Kitsakis is a lawyer at a prestigious law firm in NY and once was an underpaid federal prosecutor, but that was a job she enjoyed. She's married to Sam, he's smart, devoted (or so she thought) but, now she is beginning to see trouble in the relationship.

While working late one night Lizzie gets a call call from Zach Grayson, an old law school friend, now in prison at Rikers, accused of murdering his wife Amanda.  He want's Lizzies help in proving his innocence. 

This is a book with quite a few characters, most are wealthy people behaving badly with something to hide. Told mostly from the point of view of Lizzie and the deceased Amanda a week before she was killed, it's a dark, psychological thriller that kept me guessing. The story has multiple layers of deception to unravel. It's not just a story about one bad marriage but, a look at multiple marriages and their dirty little secrets.

This book started out very slow for me, I wasn't sure whether I'd like it but, after about 50 pages or so things became a bit more interesting.  Definitely not the best in psychological thrillers but, you still might want to try this one.

2 somewhat disappointing reads from 2020

TITLE: Death in Her Hands

AUTHOR:  Ottessa Moshfegh

PUBLISHER:  Penguin Press

PUB. YEAR: 2020

SETTING: ?? cabin in the woods

Format: audio download (Ann Marie Lee, Narrator)

Rating - 2.5/5

As the story opens Vesta, a recent widow in her 70s, is taking a walk in the woods with her dog Charlie when she finds a note on the ground held in place by stones. The note read "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body."

Vesta moved to a cabin in the woods on the lake after her husband died.  Since she is new to the area, and doesn't know anyone she finds herself obsessing over the note in the woods, imagining the life that Magda might have lived. As she ponders the life of Magda, we get some insight into Vesta's mindset and her unhappiness about how her own life has played out.

I've read several books by the this author which I really enjoyed but, this one was not one of them.  Told in a stream of consciousness style from the imaginings of a lonely old woman living an isolated life, I kept waiting for a revelation but, I ended up disappointed overall. I found that I couldn't even feel sorry for this lonely, isolated woman, if I was able to, I think my rating would have been a bit higher.

TITLE: Saint X

AUTHOR:  Alexis Schaitkin

PUBLISHER:  Celadon Books

PUB. YEAR: 2020

Setting: NY and Caribbean

Format: eBook purchase

Rating - 2.5/5

In 1990 a family from NY is vacationing on Saint X, a fictional 5 star resort in the Caribbean.  It's a vacation that ends in tragedy for their college freshman daughter, Allison.  Although there were (2) suspects in Allison's death, they were released when authorities decided there just wasn't enough evidence to hold the young men. As a result, the husband, wife and Claire, their 7 year old daughter, are forced to leave the island and attempt to rebuild their lives in NY.

This is not a story about one brilliant young woman's death but, how the younger sister is affected by the loss of the much older sister she had idolized.  Once the family returns home, the story fast forwards pretty quickly to Claire as a young woman who has now become obsessed with her sister's death and how her life has been affected.

As I read this story I immediately thought of the Natalee Holloway case (2005) who disappeared from Aruba on her senior high school trip and although she was never found, she has since been declared dead.

Although I was immediately drawn into this story, I had a problem with the writing style, quite often I found I never knew who was speaking. I also thought that the the ending was a disappointing.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Home Before Dark; Riley Sager

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

Home Before Dark; Riley Sager

Dutton - 2020

PROLOGUE

July 1

"DADDY, YOU NEED TO CHECK FOR GHOSTS."

I paused in the doorway of my daughter's bedroom, startled in the way that all parents get when their child says something confounding.  Since Maggie was five, I suppose I should have been used to it.  I wasn't. Especially with a request so unexpectedly odd.

"I do?"

"Yes, Maggie said, insistent. I don't want them in my room."

What do you think, pass or read more?