Things are looking up. I didn’t feel the need to exercise my newfound book-not-finishing powers this month even once. Maybe the planets are getting back into alignment for me. Or out of alignment. Whatever the good thing is for planets and outlooks on life and reading!
The Change by Kirsten Miller. OMG, loved this book. The three main characters, all distinctive vibrant smart successful women in mid-life, all going through The Change. And in this case, the change is not only referring to the physical/hormonal implications of perimenopause and menopause. It’s the change that happens when you aren’t going to put up with bullshit conventions or restrictions imposed by career or family or society at large and you embrace your natural – or, in the case of these women, supernatural – powers. It is magnificent.
The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey. I enjoyed this, the second Perveen Mistry novel, as much as I did the first. In some ways it’s a more conventional genre cosy than the first because all the work of establishing the main character and her back story were done already, but it was another delightful visit to early 20th century India.
Ducks by Kate Beaton. Dave and I are huge fans of Kate Beaton’s work. Her comics are hysterical, charming and often utterly absurd. This is not a book of comics; it is a non-fiction memoir of her time spent working in the Alberta oil sands told primarily through comic-strip style graphics. It’s visually rich and emotionally devastating. Very, very real. Brilliant.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. An unscrupulous developer wants to expand his posh retirement community on the grounds of a former convent and makes plans to to bulldoze a graveyard full of nuns, he is murdered, an extra unaccounted skeleton turns up, and hijinks ensue. I do enjoy novels that show older people (people of all ages, really) with wit, personality and agency over their own lives. Speaking of which –
The Golden Girls’ Getaway by Judy Leigh. A sweet, fun, utterly low stakes novel of three elderly ladies who embark on a roadtrip together after coming through the isolation and loneliness of the pandemic in London. An actress, a retired nurse and an opera singer drive a giant RV through the English countryside, walk into a pub in Wales (among other adventures)… and I am soothed.
It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover. This entire novel exists to provide the main characters of It Ends with Us with a well-deserved happy ending. Though I felt like the previous novel ended on an up note that signalled things would turn out, it was still quite nice to read through it to be sure. No one can call me a cynic, I guess, because turns out I’m fine that the author 100% pandered to the petition launched by her online fandom.
Anxious People by Fredrik Bachman. I started this novel with a little trepidation, due mostly to the fact that I knew nothing about it other than the title and that it was reported “quirky” and “so funny.” Over the last while I have found myself becoming more and more of an anxious person, and it’s a decidedly unfunny experience. So. But anyway, once I began to meet the characters I settled in. The events unfold in a looping manner, with bits and pieces being told from different perspectives so the reader (and each individual character) never has a fully omniscient perspective. It really is quirky, and funny, and warm, and lovely. And also maybe my Paxil prescription is kicking in. Either way, I recommend it!
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. Awww, a love story involving good people that turns out exactly how it should with lots of entertaining twists along the way. A really wonderful vacation book.
Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns. As you can guess from the typical cosy genre-style title, this is a typical cosy mystery. Perhaps – no, definitely – a cut above some of the cosies I’ve read over the last few months. It is a fun fish out of water story, with a recently single socialite heroine who inherits a bakery from her great aunt with the condition that she needs to keep the bakery running for at least a year. Murder and “sleuthing” (has anyone ever said that word aloud in casual conversation in real life?) unfold.
Hypnosis is for Hacks by Tamara Berry. Another entertaining cosy featuring a medium, a hypnotist who’s her ex-partner in crime, her current boyfriend, his rich mother, assorted other colourful characters, and several ghosts, some real (in the story) and some not (in the story). Whether ghosts are real in real-life or not, well I couldn’t say for sure either way.
The Love Wager by Lynn Painter. If I was a book jacket blurb writer, I would be very tempted to strap line this novel, “A fizzy fun romp with likeable characters, believable chemistry… A perfect sexy beach read!” So there you go. Review complete.
Have a wonderful summer!
