What are you reading in 2021?

[Cheryl A]

Currently reading A Plague on Both Your Houses by Susanna Gregory. Hunkering down for the icepocalypse here in Central Texas. Should be able to catch up on the Centuries challenge, since it's too cold for this old Texas girl to do anything! My hips have been screaming at me since it dropped below freezing two days ago (with 3 more to come!).

[Peggyzbooksnmusic]

Wow, Cheryl! Looks like here in Southern Calif & Florida are escaping the icy, cold weather. Stay safe & warm!

[Christina]

I’m about three-quarters of the way through The Evening and the Morning, Ken Follett’s latest in the Kingsbridge series. It’s a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth set about two hundred years before.

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Not sure what’s up next. Maybe The Physician by Noah Gordon? I have so many unread books in my queue!

[Renee]

I am readingThe Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop The book is charming. It is a needed breath of lightness for me.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

Finished Alex Cross's Trial and starting Hex Hall

[Dem]

Finished The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

My Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3829616028

[Peggyzbooksnmusic]

Finished Death by Disputation #2 Francis Bacon historical mystery by Anna Castle. Rated 3 stars. Really looking forward to reading #3 The Widows Guild.

Link to my review of #2:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[PattyMacDotComma]

I always love Kate Atkinson's complex stories that ex-detective Jackson Brodie has to untangle while generally making more of a tangle of his own life. Big Sky is the 5th in the series and is terrific!
5★ Link to my Big Sky review

[PattyMacDotComma]

Fluffles: The Brave Koala Who Held Strong Through A Bushfire is a very cute Vita Murrow picture book about the unbelievable 2019 Australian bushfires. Fluffles was rescued in South Australia.
4.5★ Link to my review of Fluffles with several illustrations

[Dem]

Finished: Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty by Catherine Bailey

My Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3775252182

[Bruce]

I finished by

[PattyMacDotComma]

They broke the mould when the Artist Known as Prince came along. This is another of the Little People BIG DREAMS series. Author Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and illustrator Cachetejack have produced a bright, appealing children's book
4.5★ rounded up Link to my Prince review with several illustrations

[PattyMacDotComma]

I do love a good short story, so I'm glad that Amazon is publishing originals from many different authors. In the Empty Quarter by G. Willow Wilson is a scary little cautionary tale I enjoyed.
4★ Link to my review of In the Empty Quarter

[Book Concierge]

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee – 5*****
My all-time favorite novel, which I re-read every few years. This is a singularly powerful novel that had a great impact on me when I first read it at age 13, and has never failed to move and inspire me as I’ve re-read it over the years. It’s a well-paced novel, a fast read with elements of suspense, family drama, humor and moral lessons.
My full review HERE

[CindySR]

Lab Girl I'm only 70 pages in but loved it immediately!

[Peggyzbooksnmusic]

Finished The Widows Guild #3 Francis Bacon historical mystery by Anna Castle. This series takes place in late 16th century England during the reign of Elizabeth I. Witty dialogue plus fascinating historical descriptions. Rated 4 stars.
Link to my brief review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[PattyMacDotComma]

Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World is a bittersweet follow-up to Japanese artist Yutaka Kobayashi's previous two picture books about a little boy who left his war-torn village in Afghanistan.

Kobayashi says we must inspire the children!
4.5★ Link to my Return to ... review with many illustrations

[Dem]

Finished Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag by Monika Zgustová

My Review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3193612316

[Ingrid]

I’m about to finish “Swimming in the Dark” by Tomasz Jedrowski. Beautiful prose, almost poetic depiction despite the hardship of life under communist Poland.

[Annette]

Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft


Well-crafted novel of Mary Wollstonecraft – arguably the world’s first feminist, one of the world’s most influential thinkers and mother of the famous novelist Mary Shelley.

5/5 The combination of two interesting characters, and their stories being presented in such human way and with mesmerizing prose – making this story a very memorable, profound and spellbinding read.

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

[Annette]

The Lost Apothecary


Murder by poison throughout England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was carried mostly by women. Motives ranged widely...

4/5 One of the timelines is set in modern time which is problematic to me as it doesn't represent HF. The strength of the story is in the past story.

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

[Ingrid]

Consequences of Sin

[Dem]

Finished The German House byAnnette Hess

My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3847106520

[Simon]

Finished The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

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

[PattyMacDotComma]

Heartstone is the fourth in the excellent Matthew Shardlake historical mystery series set in King Henry VIII's very bloody England. Author C.J. Sansom seems to know his stuff (excuse the academic terminology) about the wars of the time.
3.5~4★ Link to my Heartstone review

[PattyMacDotComma]

I finally read the first book of the much-loved Monkeewrench mystery series by mother-daughter duo P.J. Tracy. People and plot were every bit as good as I was told. I'm delighted there are more!
5★ Link to my Monkeewrench review

[Joe]

I've started reading "Monet By Himself." What makes this so interesting to me is that it includes letters to his friends. These letters accompany the color plates of his work at the time of the letters. One quote I just read seems particularly appropriate to those of us authors who struggle to maintain our confidence in face of so many rejections by agents and publishers.

"... I've been in a state of utter despair and I'm discussed with all that I've done. ... My work belongs to the public, and people can say what they like about it....

[PattyMacDotComma]

Six Word Story: Stories, Memoirs, Poems and Jokes all written in only six words. is the second book of clever, quirky "stories" by Doug Weller. There's a competition you can enter, too. Fun to try making them up.
4★ Link to my Six Word Story review with a few stories included

[PattyMacDotComma]

Hello Friend We Missed You won The Guardian's 2020 Not the Booker Prize competition. I liked the real Booker winner better this year - Shuggie Bain - but Richard Owain Roberts IS a good writer, and it's nice to see Wales represented.
3.4★ Link to my Hello Friend review

[Sandra]

Annette wrote: "The Note Through the Wire: The Incredible True Story of a Prisoner of War and a Resistance Heroine
[bookcover:The Note Through the Wire: The Incredible True Story of a Prisoner of W..."
Looking forward to reading this one. It sounds so interesting.

[Peggyzbooksnmusic]

Finished Murder at the Brightwell #1 Amory Ames historical mystery by Ashley Weaver. Set in 1930's England. Rated 3 stars. Found it entertaining so will most likely continue the series.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

Finished The Innby James Patterson

[Chris]

Not historical fiction but nonfiction. Recently finished Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" which is a bio of one of the last Africans transported to the U.S to be sold into slavery. Zora Neal Hurston interviewed 86 y/oKossula/ Cudjo Lewis in 1927 but was unable to get the book published. Barracoon was finally published in 2018. A relatively short but interesting read!

[Sandra]

Alice wrote: "I am tired of reading about WWI or WWII so I started
Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters by Jennifer Chiaverini. I am finding it very interesting. I k..."

Sometimes we get so involved in the lives of our Presidents and their wives, we forget they had extended family that played an important part of their lives.

[Sandy]

Hi

[Sandra]

Well, Hi back to you! LOL

[PattyMacDotComma]

I love mysteries based in Ireland. Strange Flowers is a curious, intriguing story by the talented Donal Ryan.
4.5★ Link to my Strange Flowers review

[Ashley Marie]

I have one book left in Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey series, but I jumped ship to her Veronica Speedwell series instead and started A Curious Beginning a few nights ago. I'll get back to The Dark Enquiry sometime this year, no worries, but I already owned a copy of Curious Beginning so it got the priority slot :)

[Polly]

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "I love mysteries based in Ireland. Strange Flowers is a curious, intriguing story by the talented Donal Ryan.
4.5★ Link to my ..."

Hi Patty -
What other Irish authors do you read?

[Sandra]

I love this book. It's so deep on so many levels and so tender and tragic.

[Eric]

I'm about half way through The Name of the Rose. An interesting look at power struggles within "The Church" in the 14th century. The icing on the cake is there is a mystery to be solved. Love the descriptions of the scriptorium within the monastery.

[Ashley Marie]

Eric wrote: "I'm about half way through The Name of the Rose. An interesting look at power struggles within "The Church" in the 14th century. The icing on t..."

I tried this one a few years ago and got distracted, but I'm determined to try it again. A mystery in a monastery feels like something I would love. Glad you're enjoying it!

[Eric]

Ashley Marie wrote: "I tried this one a few years ago and got distracted, but I'm determined to try it again. A mystery in a monastery feels like something I would love. Glad you're enjoying it!"

Thanks! The side bars on religious history can be distracting unless you have an interest in such things. I discovered they made a movie based on the book starring Sean Connery in 1966. I may look for that after I finish the tale.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Polly wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "I love mysteries based in Ireland. Strange Flowers is a curious, intriguing story by the talented Donal Ryan.

Tana French
Jon McGregor
Dervla McTiernan (who lives in Australia now but still writes about Dublin)
Colum McCann
Emma Donoghue
Maggie O'Farrell
Anna Burns

There are some lists on Goodreads, too!

[PattyMacDotComma]

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot is a brand new favourite! It's hard to believe this is Marianne Cronin's first novel. Wonderful characters and story.
5★ Link to my review of One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

[PattyMacDotComma]

I just enjoyed Aussie author B Michael Radburn's second Taylor Bridges mystery, The Falls. Creepy murders in the Victorian bush.
4★ Link to my review of The Falls

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

Finished Hex Hall and reading Cross Fire

[Book Concierge]

A Bookshop In Berlin – Françoise Frenkel – 4****
Subtitle: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman’s Harrowing Escape From the Nazis. Originally titled ”No Place To Lay One’s Head”, this is an interesting first-hand account of the author’s ultimately successful journey to safety in Switzerland.
My full review HERE

[W.M.]

Just about to start reading The Secret Messenger by Mandy Robotham.

[W.M.]

The Secret Messenger