Laurel’s Comments (group member since Dec 30, 2013)

Laurel’s comments from the All About Books group.

#20 The Lions of Fifth Avenue
4.5 blue stars - Mostly enjoyed this, but it occasionally felt a little contrived. A love story to books and libraries, and to the New York City Public Library in particular.

Pages: 8811

#19 Murder With Peacocks
4.5 blue stars rounded up - Reread. Just as good now as it was then.

Pages: 8457

#18 Death at Bishop's Keep
3 green stars - A good-enough first in a series, although some of the stereotypes bordered on cliche. Lots of nice period detail though.

Pages: 8145

Oh, but wait! There are several "Welsh" mysteries I want to read this year. Do I add those to my summer plans, or wait until fall... I guess it depends on whether or not I can keep up with Daniel Boone and Wolf Hall....

But here they are:
Anglesey Blue
The Snowdonia Killings
Crimson Shore
The Chinese Sailor

Every month brings new plans, and the beginning of June seems to invite some all summer long plans. Having just finished Blood and Treasure, I have a couple of other Daniel Boone biographies I want to read:
READ Boone: A Biography
Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
I'll probably stretch those out over the summer at about 10 pages a day.

Another all summer project is the Wolf Hall trilogy. A Librarything group read these this spring. I'm a little late to the party, but this seems like a good time to tackle it.
Wolf Hall will be for June.
Bring Up the Bodies July
The Mirror & the Light August

The Librarything group has also got me interested in Sarah Moss so I requested her first book to read. That arrived via Interlibrary loan so has to be read in the next 3 weeks!
READ Cold Earth

A Good Yarn is finishing up the alphabet with Z this month. So we have a word that begins with a z for one theme and a word with a double z for the second theme. I have several ideas for a z word, but probably won't get to it. My double z book is #4 in Donna Andrews wonderful Meg Langslow series. I read the first three back in 2007 and always intended to read more. The #4 title has a double z word, so here's my excuse to reread the first three first....
READ Murder With Peacocks
READ Murder With Puffins
READ Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
READ Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon

And, if I get to it, my z word title is
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise

My Daytimers book club book this month is
READ The Lions of Fifth Avenue

And I'd better stop there.

#17 Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
4 red stars - how could it not be red, given the title....

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Total pages read in 2021: 7849

#16 The Secrets We Kept
3.5 pink stars - The story of how the CIA recruited women in their efforts to spread propaganda behind the Iron Curtain, and how a subversive Russian novel was smuggled out of Russia to be published in Italy and the US, and then smuggled back into Russia secretly. This also tells about the lives of women, both Eastern and Western, during the 1950s.

Pages: 7466

Only two books behind my goal now. It seems I never did a May update...

Still need to finish
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
READ Death at Bishop's Keep
Queen By Right - long paused
One for Sorrow - even longer paused

This month's book clubs:
READ The Secrets We Kept - Daytimers
READ Murder in a Scottish Shire - A Good Yarn (Y is for Yarn)
Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur - A Good Yarn (Title beginning with Y) and a LONG time leftover....

#15 Troubled Blood
5 purple stars - I never get tired of Robin and Strike. Really, it is their relationship that holds me, more than the mysteries, although I like the complex plotting as well.

Pages: 7098

I read it a couple of years ago. Good book and thought-provoking,

#14 The Chocolatier's Wife
4.5 blue stars - fantasy, mystery, love story - satisfying characters and world building

Pages: 6154

#13 All Creatures Great and Small: The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World's Most Beloved Animal Doctor
4.5 blue stars - Just as delightful as it was 50 years ago.

Pages: 5876

#12 The Book of Boy
5 purple stars. A magical tale, much deeper than it first appears. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pages: 5439

Miss Read is fun if you're looking for gentle fluff, set in small town England.

#11 Under the Wide and Starry Sky
4.5 blue stars - I didn't know anything about Robert Louis Stevenson's life before reading this. Now I really must read Treasure Island. Can't believe I've never read it!

Pages: 5146

Thanks. It arrived, and I am loving it so far! No cover available for it yet....

Well here it is April already! I am now fully vaccinated and eager to visit my parents (over 90). Not going until Mother's Day weekend...

Today, I am eagerly awaiting delivery of my new Nook tablet. Didn't even know until this week that they were coming out with a new one. I love my Nook HD, but it was discontinued several years ago, and will no longer update Overdrive. I can't put Libby on it and I had to go through my library website rather than the Overdrive app to get my latest ebook on the tablet, so I was looking. I hope the new one does well enough that it isn't discontinued in a couple of years. I probably would have bought a Samsung Galaxy something, but the new Nook was a very competitive price, so I'm taking the chance!

Okay. Still reading and hope to finish soon:
Queen By Right (owned)
READ Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier (ARC from Netgalley)
READ The Chocolatier's Wife (ebook owned) - leftover W theme (Wife) for A Good Yarn
READ Under the Wide and Starry Sky (audiobook from library) - leftover U theme for A Good Yarn

Next up:
READ Troubled Blood (Audible purchase) - started this, but it got interrupted by book club books that had to be finished. Will resume this as soon as I finish Under the Wide and Starry Sky.
The Crystal Cave (owned) - this is the current choice of an online group I belong to, and have not reread this since probably college days?
READ The Book of Boy (from the library) - this month's library book club choice.

After that I have way too many choices. Fortunately Blood and Treasure works for this month's A Good Yarn theme. But I am way behind on previous themes.
Aunt Bessie Assumes - another book for this month's X theme - will need to purchase ebook. Not available through the library
Would also like to read
Treasure Island
READ Death at Bishop's Keep - checked out on Overdrive - this is a leftover V (Victorian) theme.

Have also started
Neverhome

No, I won't get all of these read in April....

#10 Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age
4 red stars.

Pages: 4650

#9 Where the Forest Meets the Stars
Definitely 5 purple stars. I will read whatever the author writes next.
Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Pages: 4346

#7 The Dutch House
4 red stars, purely on the strength of the narration by Tom Hanks

#8 Mrs. Everything
3 green stars. I didn't like it, but it did take me on a trip down memory lane.

Pages: 4014