Ceelee's "June Is Busting out With Good Reads" (mostly)

[Ceelee]

Greetings everyone! I cannot believe this year is already half over! 2021 has seemed so slow, yet here we are in the second half! Summer has been a pleasant one so far. A couple 99s in June but July has been a little cooler and we have actually had a few rain showers and a big thunderstorm the other early morning so not bad for a Texas summer.

I am also happy to say I have read FIVE books in June! I probably could have read more if one book hadn't slowed me down. So here goes!

First up is Murder In Belgrave Square by Catherine Coles.



This is the third book I have reviewed for this author and I think it is her best yet. These are cozy novels but this particular book has a more dark story and more family members that had secrets. that made the story even more interesting.

Next is I'll Be Gone in The Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara



This book is Zodiac 50.5! It is an incredible work by a women who dedicated her life to finding this horrific rapist and murderer. Unfortunately, Michelle died before her work was done and she never saw the real killer apprehended and sentenced. Luckily I saw the terrifying HBO series which is scarier than any ghost story! I highly recommend the series and I highly recommend this book! My copy has an introduction by Gillian Flynn and Michelle's husband Patton Oswalt finished the book and wrote the afterword.

My next read is totally in the opposite direction of anything I have read in a long time. Little House in The Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.



I know it raises a lot of eyebrows when they find out I am reading a children's book among all the mystery and thrillers I read. Scribd has the whole series plus other books about Wilder and related books. So I am time traveling hack to my tweenhood reading these books! I remember a lot of this book because I was so excited to read it as a kid becuase this series was one of the most popular among the tweens in Brigham City Utah and you were on a waiting list at the library and seemed like FOREVER before I sat proudly in our car holding the book in my hands. I know a lot of it is corny and old fashioned but it is also interesting to read how they did things back then too which I probably didn't pay much attention to at that age. Apparently, girls had to wear their hoops even when working in the field! I have worn hoops once and I could hardly move for the fear of tipping over!

Next up is The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury by Marc Levy



I found this on Scribd too! It is a wonderful story about a women who searches for her destiny after visiting a fortune teller and being persuaded by her gripey upstairs neighbor. It had humor, mystery, romance and good feels! I loved it! A perfect summer read!

Finally I finished Silver Girl by Elin Hildebrand.



I am a fan of this author but I absolutely detested the book! It is about a woman whose husband was in prison for stealing his clients' investment in his company. She was also under scrutiny b the Feds because they think she was involved in the scheme. So she runs off to Nantucket to stay with her friend she hadn't even talked to in years and where some of her husband's clients lived. Yeh, this is going to go really well. It didn't and neither did the book. I disliked the two women and it was hard to decide who was worse. I applaud Hildebrand for getting that emotion out of me. She is a great writer and I appreciate her work but this was by far one of the worst books she ever wrote. She said herself it was a hard book to write. And I am not the only reader who felt this way becuase many Good reads members felt the same.

That's it for this month! It has been a great reading experience for me and it is still going! But i still haven't gotten my copy of the Laura Lippman book!!!!! AAUGH!!!!!

[Bonnie]

I also saw a TV special about the Golden Gate killer and found it fascinating. And heard the author's husband talk about her work on it.

The Little House books were childhood favorites of mine which led me to read something else (I forget what) about her life - it may have been about/by her daughter now that I think about it.

[Melodie]

Read I'll Be Gone in the Dark a couple years ago when it came out. Great book! Made my top reads for the year list!

[Ann]

Nice list Ceelee! I also read and was impressed by I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer. The author’s untimely death was sad. If you watched and enjoyed the mini-series, there was a new seventh update episode recently released following up on the sentencing.

[Ceelee]

Thanks everyone! I think I'll Be Gone In The Dark is right up there with In Cold Blood and Helter Skelter as some of the hest true crime ever written. I will have to check out the 7th episode of the HBO series. I saw the Netflix Night Stalker too. It was good but I think the HBO series was better.
Bonnie.... the Little House books were so popular in my town it was almost like a competition to get any of the books. I thought when I started reading these as an adult it might be too "kidish" but there is so much detail about how they lived back then, I find it fascinating.
I think the biography you are thinking of is called Prairie Girl. I think Scribd has it. I know they have Little Author In The Big Woods, biography for children and I have never seen it before but delighted to find it.