I said the other week that December was short on new releases, so for the second time this month I’m mentioning a series I haven’t read by an author that I’ve read other books by and this time it’s Kathi Daley whose T J Jensen series I’ve writen about before and who also writes the Zoe Donovan series that I’ve read a couple of it the last few weeks. This is a new entry in her Cottage on Gooseberry Bay series. This is a mystery series set around holidays in a small town by the seaside. Christmas Bells is the twentieth in the series, so I have a lot of catching up to do. It’s promising a mystery set around a Christmas tree lot that’s ten years in the making. These are in Kindle Unlimited, and I’m trying not to hold the covers against them!
Last year I did a post of Christmas-themed new releases in series, this year I thought I would do a follow up to a 2022 post and look at some of the not-new Christmas-themed entries in series. Does that make sense? They’re Christmas books, they’re in series, they’re not new releases and I didn’t mention them in that post year years ago. Boom.
Forbidden Fruit by Kerry Greenwood
I’m starting with Kerry Greenwood because she was one of the female authors we have lost this year that I really enjoyed reading. I reread the entire Corinna Chapman series after she died and Forbidden Fruit (which I read in June!) is the fifth (of seven) and the Christmas-set instalment. Corinna is fairly agnostic about the season and portrays the exasperations and annoyances of it well – the shoppers drive her mad and the heat is oppressive. Instead of being able to relax she finds herself dealing with a reapeat offender runaway donkey and a host of minor inconveniences. On top of all this, her partner Daniel is investigating two teenage runaways, one of whom is very pregnant. Brigid and Manny are determined not to be found, and Daniel and Corinna find themselves dealing with a religious cult (and others) on the quest to help them.
The Dead of Winter by Nicola Upson
The Dead of Winter is the ninth in the Josephine Tey series, and another book I read in June this year (clearly a month for Christmas reading!) when I was filling in gaps in the series after they were all on offer. It’s 1938 and Josephine and Archie have been invited to spend Christmas on St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. In case you’re not familiar, this is a tidal island, and so when a murder happens it’s a closed group and Archie needs to solve the murder and keep the island’s residents safe from the killer. As always with this series, it’s darker than you expect and it’s a bit unusual for reasons that are spoilery, but it’s very much in the tradition of Golden Age mysteries as well as mixing real people and events with the fictional. I’m not gonig to say that this is the best place to start the series, but it is possible to read as a standalone and would give you a good sense of what the series is about.
Shakespeare’s Christmas by Charlaine Harris
This is the third in the Lily Bard series sees her heading away from Shakespeare for her sister’s Christmas wedding. As I said in my post about the series, Lily isn’t a cozy crime heroine – there’s too much darkness and trauma for that. And the mysteries can be pretty dark too – and this one is because it is the one where you learn the full scope of Lily’s backstory. And this is why I think it works quite well as a standalone – because Lily has a reason to snoop around in this but also because often the criticism of the series is that it’s dark and Lily isn’t likeable, but when you read this you understand why she always takes a pessimistic view on the world.
And I realise that the recommendations in this have got progressively darker, but sometimes you’ve already had enough saccharine and sugar at Christmas and you want a palate cleanser right? And if you do want something lighter, I have plenty of other Christmas posts for you including my recent Meg Langslow at Christmas, but also Classic Christmas mysteries and Christmas is All Around as well as the ones I linked at the top.
A very busy week, and increasing numbers of Christmas books on the list, despite the fact that I still have a couple of states still to go. Two more ticked off this week though. Nearly there.
Read:
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
The start of December was cold and sometimes wet, but the Christmas lights are making everything a bit more cheerful, so that’s good. On the reading front, I’m another state down and two more started. But almost more importantly, I got one book off the long runners list. So I’m proud of me, even if I didn’t stick to my goal of finishing off the 50 states before I bought the first in the Last Ditch series and not only have I bought it bt I’ve already read it. I will try and do better this week…
Favourite book: hard to pick – the Phryne Fisher was bittersweet but lovely, the Helen Ellis was fun and I still really, really love Romantic Comedy even if I didn’t love the audiobook narrator’s rendering of the male characters!
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 802
I wrote a whole list of books that I was going to read in November at the start of the month, and then about a week later I did an audit of the 50 states challenge and realised that I needed to throw the original list out of the window. And so my major achievement for the month is ticking 16 (!) states off the list. Eight of those were already on either the virtual pile or the physical pile and another four came from Kindle Unlimited, so that was pretty good too. Now I just need to keep the momentum going and tick the last states off – we’re into single figures now so it’s very, very doable…
Bonus picture: I finished the beat the to read shelf bookcase in my journal. All of those green colours are mysteries of various types so you can see a bit of a pattern there…
*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 3 this month!
Happy Monday everyone – it’s December and the end of the year is hurtling towards us in a blur of festive events and things to get done before The Big Day. It’s definitely feeling pretty wet and wintery now too, so curling up with a good book feels ever more appealing, even as the to-do lists continue to grow. This week I have plenty of train journeys to do, which usually means for solid reading time, although it does always depend on whether I get a seat or not…
Happy Sunday everyone. I’ve got another film for you this week and I’ve picked it for today because Bette Midler is 80 tomorrow (December 1) but obviously Diane Keaton died back in October.
Firstly, I apologise for the rubbish print of that trailer video, but it does give you the sort of vibe that (most of) the movie has going on. The First Wives Club is based on a book of the same name, and is the story of three college friends and new divorcées who are seeking revenge on their husbands who have left them for younger women. I remember the first time I saw the movie I actually didn’t see the start of it, so when I watched it again – in full for the first time – I was surprised that it has quite a bleak start where a fourth friend commits suicide because of her ex-husband has just remarried a much younger woman and that the three protagonists had lost touch and only reconnected at her funeral. But given that part of the plot needs the ex-husbands to not know the other husbands, it does make sense even if it is a bit bleak. But lets skip over that because the joy of this movie is the comedy of the women working together to get their revenge.
As well as Bette Midler and Diane Keaton it’s got Goldie Hawn completing the trio but also Maggie Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Victor Garber and a whole host faces that you’ll have seen in loads of other things too. Because I’m the age I am, and I first saw this so long ago (we’re talking more than 20 years) it’s kind of hard for me to work out how it will land now with with a first time viewer, but it’s a total comfort movie for me. I have been known to record it anytime I see it on the TV so that I can watch it again. I don’t have it handy at the moment – but that’s only because we had an “upgrade” on the TiVo box a few weeks back and it deleted everything that was on there and I’m still rebuilding the collection (don’t get me started).
Anyway it’s currently available on streaming service but I’m hoping it will pop up on TV again soon. And because clips of it are in the trailer, I feel like it’s ok for me to leave you today with the end sequence of the film – the performance of Leslie Gore’s You Don’t Own Me by the trio – it doesn’t spoil any of plot for you and it’s just wonderful. Although there are a few continuity errors in there if you know where to look but for me that’s just part of the fun!
Happy Sunday – and happy birthday to Ms Midler tomorrow!
Another week, another four states ticked of the 50 states list. It’s almost looking doable now, but I’m not relaxing too fast because that’s what gets me into trouble. That’s especially true as it’s starting to get proper busy in the run-up to Christmas now, which usually means less free time for reading because I’m out and about having fun – or doing Christmas shopping!
I said last week that I have started my panic for the Fifty States Challenge early this year – and everything I finished this week except Gaudy Night is ticking off one of my missing states! If I can keep this rate up, I’ll be finished before Christmas, but my record on keeping this up is not great so I could still be in a panic on New Year’s Eve like every previous year!
Just a quick post today to say that the National Theatre’s new version of Ballet Shoes is back from tomorrow (17 November). I saw it back in February and loved it, and I’m so pleased they’ve decided to bring it back for Christmas. I’ve been recommending it to people as a family show that’s not a panto for the holidays. And of course if you haven’t read the original book, I re-read it after seeing the show and it’s still a joy.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 