The Three-Ring Circus Weekly Link Round-Up

 

 

Things have been in a bit of an uproar here at Casa Kittling. Denis was hospitalized for six days and came home with a severe lack of sleep and a picc line that will rule our lives for the next eight to twelve weeks. I already had experience with a picc line, but Denis had to be special and have two different antibiotics. One line is the type I'm familiar with while the other involves a bag of antibiotics and an attached pump. 

That pump and I don't always get along, but lucky Denis just sits there with his eyes shut and lets me get on with it. 

Now there are drug deliveries three times a week, a nurse coming to check the picc line and dressing and taking blood for lab work. Then there's the physical therapist coming to check on Denis, and I can pretty much tell him that PT ain't happenin' until they get his pain meds sorted out. What we really need is taking the longest to sort out: home help. We need someone who can run errands, and help me a bit with the laundry and cleaning. Somehow, we're winding up with a shipment of fourteen meals, which we don't need since I can have groceries delivered right to the door. I only hope I have room in the refrigerator and freezer for this stuff because I just put away the last delivery!

Hopefully, next week things will have settled down a bit. I'm finding it hard to concentr-- oh look, a squirrel! and still haven't gotten my dead laptop dealt with. I'm looking forward to a few more minutes of peace and quiet so that I can visit everyone's blogs and see what they've been up to as well as what they've been reading. Right now if I get those minutes, I have a tendency to nod off because the schedule for those antibiotics aren't conducive to getting any decent sleep.

But at least Denis is home, and even if he is still experiencing too much pain, I can see improvement being made.

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The biggest family tree ever recorded dates as far back as 100,000 years ago.
• Why librarians should read at their desks.
• Should cookbook authors employ sensitivity/authenticity readers?
• What we can learn from a Bollywood blockbuster about periods.
• How BookTok changed Book of the Month's influencer marketing strategy.
• Why are so many men still resistant to reading women?
• Learning to love really long books.
• What if the FBI required recruits to read paranormal crime thrillers?
• How Peter Baker felt when his novel was stolen. 

 

►Book Banning◄

• Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs.
• A librarian in Texas has lost her job after not removing books.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Melting glaciers have revealed 1,700-year-old weapons used by reindeer hunters.
• A group called the TrowelBlazers unearths the forgotten history of women in archaeology.
• What ancient toilets reveal about the history of the human gut.
• See dazzling photos of a Roman mosaic floor unearthed in London.
• See a stunning, life-like reconstruction of a Stone Age woman.
• A new A.I. can help historians decipher damaged ancient Greek texts.
• A well-preserved 131-year-old shipwreck has been found in Lake Superior.
• A 14th-century sarcophagus has been found in fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral.
• Archaeologists have discovered five tombs in Egypt's Saqqara necropolis.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• For fifty years, dogsled teams have been testing their mettle at the Iditarod.
• Fifty perfectly timed nature photos that will make you laugh.
• Yellowstone tourists encountered one of the park's rarest animals, the wolverine.
• When squirrels were one of America's most popular pets.
• The Secret Service dog that stopped a White House intruder and the SEAL Team 6 K-9 that took part in the raid that took down Usama Bin Laden were among the six American working dogs awarded the Animals in War and Peace Medal of Bravery.
• Musket, the therapy dog who comforted U.S. troops in the Middle East, now needs help continuing his healing work.
• Watch this woman use a wheelbarrow to transport a herd of baby goats back to their nursing mothers.
• Octopuses are reusing human trash as shelters. (Why do I think they're better at recycling than we are?)

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• You know about Artemisia Gentileschi-- now learn about these other Renaissance women artists.
• Harriet Tubman is famous for being an abolitionist and political activist, but she was also a naturalist.
• Josefina Guerrero, the invisible, afflicted spy who led the U.S. Army into occupied Manila.
• How Félicité Niyitegeka saved her Tutsi neighbors from genocide in Rwanda.
• Georgette Heyer was the Agatha Christie of romance novels. You've probably never heard of her.

 

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄

• Can you match the literary animal to its book?
• Fourteen contemporary artists on how reading influences their work.
• These books have gone viral on social media.
• Six narrators with unusual perspectives.
• Six novels about women at work during World War II.
• Ten novels about toxic friendships.
• Twenty-five of the best murder mystery books according to Book Riot.
• The best crime novels set in Ukraine.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!

Sea Storm by Andrew Mayne

 

First Line: The bow of our boat bounces across the crashing waves, sending spray and foam into the night sky.

 

Sloan McPherson of Florida's Underwater Investigation Unit is one of the responders to a distress call from a sinking cruise ship off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. When the explosion seems to be the work of an ecoterrorist and other ships are threatened, it becomes a race against time.

 

A coming tropical storm means valuable clues and evidence could be washed away, and Sloan is concerned about the strange lack of urgency by authorities. She's determined to track down every lead she has, little knowing that she's put herself on a collision course with someone who has every resource imaginable to bury her.

 

 

~

 

Andrew Mayne certainly knows how to write a compelling thriller, and I really enjoy this Underwater Investigation Unit series. The underwater scenes are so vivid that I felt as though I were swimming alongside Sloan as she dodged pursuers and raced to bring a James Bond-like villain to justice. 

 

Sloan McPherson is definitely the star of this show. The McPherson clan is filled with scallywags and pirates which means that sometimes all she has to do is ask a relative to get information on a lead she's developing. She has phenomenal instincts and an amazing knack for putting clues together which the other members of her team are learning to rely on more and more. The dashes of humor throughout Sea Storm are usually at her expense but in the spirit of camaraderie which readers will have a greater appreciation of if they've read the other two books in the series. I have read those other two books (The Girl Beneath the Sea and Black Coral), and one of the things I like the most is Sloan's character development. Sloan is growing up as the series progresses. She's learning to control her impulsiveness as well as to rely on her own opinions rather than looking for validation from men.

A main character with a distinctive (and addictive) voice, thrilling underwater scenes, and a compelling mystery all mean that, once again, I'm looking forward to Sloan McPherson's next adventure. Bring it on!

Sea Storm by Andrew Mayne

eISBN: 9781542032230

Thomas & Mercer © 2022

eBook, 300 pages

Thriller, #3 Underwater Investigation Unit

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

April 2022 New Mystery Releases!

 

Spring has sprung with a vengeance here in the Sonoran Desert, and one of the things I love the most about it is that it starts happening in February, a month I always despised growing up in the cold, slushy, blustery Midwest. 

I've been watching birds collecting nesting materials, and one pair of house finches keeps checking out the top of the security camera at the front door. They keep flying away and coming back, flying away and coming back, and I certainly hope they find a better place for their nest!

Of course, birds aren't the only things I've been watching. I've also been keeping an eye peeled for new mysteries. (So what else is new?) The following are my picks of the best new crime fiction being released throughout the month of April. They are grouped according to their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Let's see if I can add any books to your Need-to-Read lists!

=== April 5 ===

Title: The Art of the Decoy

Author: Trish Esden

Series: #1 in the cozy Scandal Mountain Antiques series set in northern Vermont.

336 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling:  Books.

 

Synopsis: "After her mother is sent to prison for art forgery, Edie Brown returns to Northern Vermont to rebuild her family’s fine art and antiques business. She’s certain she can do it now that her mother is gone. After all, butting heads with her mom over bad business practices was what drove Edie away three years ago, including a screwup that landed Edie on probation for selling stolen property.
 
When Edie scores a job appraising a waterfowl decoy collection at a hoarder’s farmhouse, she’s determined to take advantage of the situation to rebuild the business’s tarnished reputation and dwindling coffers. In lieu of payment, Edie intends to cherry-pick an exceptional decoy carved by the client’s renowned Quebecoise folk artist ancestors. Only the tables turn when the collection vanishes.
 
Accused of the theft, Edie’s terrified that the fallout will destroy the business and land her in prison next to her mom. Desperate, she digs into the underbelly of the local antiques and art world. When Edie uncovers a possible link between the decoy theft and a deadly robbery at a Quebec museum, she longs to ask her ex-probation officer, and ex-lover, for help. But she suspects his recent interest in rekindling their romance may hide a darker motive.
 
With the help of her eccentric uncle Tuck and Kala, their enigmatic new employee, Edie must risk all she holds dear to expose the thieves and recover the decoys before the FBI’s Art Crime Team or the ruthless thieves themselves catch up with her." 

Title: The Burning Pages

Author: Paige Shelton

Series: #7 in the Scottish Bookshop cozy series set in Edinburgh, Scotland.

304 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling:  Books.

 

Synopsis: "One winter's night, bookseller Delaney Nichols and her coworker Hamlet are invited to a Burns Night dinner, a traditional Scottish celebration of the poet Robert Burns. She's perplexed by the invitation, but intrigued. The dinner takes place at Burns House itself, a tiny cottage not far from the Cracked Spine bookshop but well hidden. There, it becomes clear that Delaney and Hamlet were summoned in an attempt to make amends between Edwin, Delaney's boss, and one of the other invitees, who suspected Edwin for burning down his own bookshop twenty years ago after a professional disagreement.

But after the dinner, there’s another fire. The Burns House itself is burned to the ground, and this time there’s a body among the ruins. When Hamlet is accused of the crime, Delaney rushes to prove his innocence, only to discover that he might actually have a plausible motive..." 

Title: Knit or Dye Trying

Author: Allie Pleiter

Series: #2 in the Riverbank Knitting cozy series set in Maryland.

304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "As spring comes to Collinstown, the village launches a food festival to draw a new group of tourists. Libby, proud owner of Y.A.R.N., has planned a yarn event to provide an alternative option to a foodie weekend. Artisan fiber dyer Julie Wilson—known for her work with animal-friendly, plant-based knitting fibers such as bamboo and hemp as well as her brilliant use of color—will hopefully draw a crowd with a special dyeing workshop.

The festival begins, but it draws more than crowds. First a flock of sheep parades down the street, herded by farmers protesting Julie’s antiwool stance. Then Julie’s celebrity chef sister appears, and the siblings resume a long-standing rivalry. Despite all this, Julie’s workshop has sold out. Libby is thrilled, and they’re preparing for a full house. But the night before the event, Julie is found alone in the warehouse event space—dead. The witty “Watch Julie Wilson Dye” workshop title now has a terrible new meaning—and it’s up to Libby to catch a crafty killer."

Title: Mining for Murder

Author: Mary Angela

Series: #3 in the Happy Camper cozy series set in South Dakota.

207 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Zo Jones is enjoying the sunny season at her Happy Camper gift shop in Spirit Canyon, South Dakota--when a murder reminds her all that glitters isn't gold . . .

The South Dakota Gold Rush might be long over, but Zo Jones feels like she's hit the mother lode when she and her friends browse an estate sale, where a rare old book about the history of Spirit Canyon is causing quite a commotion. In addition to local stories and secrets, the book may even contain the location of a famous stash of gold--a treasure worth killing for.

Zo's friend Maynard Cline wins the bid on the book, to the chagrin of many interested parties, including the historical society and college history department. But when Zo and Hattie head to Maynard's mansion to borrow the book for a library event, the only thing they find is Maynard--at the bottom of the mountain. The valuable book is gone. Zo knows this must be murder because there's no way a germophobe like Maynard would have voluntarily dived into a pile of dirt. Now she'll have to dig into a new case, and go prospecting for a perpetrator . . ."

Title: One Last Chance

Author: Jeffrey Siger

Series: #12 in the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis police procedural series set in Greece.

304 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis:

"When Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis's longtime assistant, Maggie, returns to her ancestral home on Ikaria for her 104-year-old grandmother's funeral, she quickly realizes not only was Yiayia likely murdered, but that a series of other long-lived Ikariots had recently died under the same suspicious circumstances. Back in Athens, Andreas and his chief detective Yianni pursue a smuggling and protection ring embedded in the Greek DEA, and its possible involvement in the assassination of an undercover cop.

But then Maggie and Yianni uncover a connection between their respective leads in the elder-killings on Ikaria and the DEA corruption case, and they realize that there are international intrigues far more dangerous at play than anyone had imagined." 

 

Title: Witness for the Persecution

Author: E.J. Copperman

Series: #3 in the cozy Jersey Girl Legal series set in California.

240 pages

 

Synopsis: "Former New Jersey prosecutor Sandy Moss moved to a prestigious Los Angeles law firm to make a new start as a family lawyer. So it seems a little unfair that Seaton, Taylor have created a criminal law division specifically for her. Just because she's successfully defended two murder trials, it doesn't mean she likes them!

But when abrasive Hollywood movie director Robert Reeves is accused of murdering a stuntman on set, Sandy finds she can't say no when he demands her help. Robert might be an unpleasant, egotistical liar, but something tells Sandy that he's innocent - even if no one else can see it.

At least this time, she reassures herself, her charismatic, adorable, and oh-so annoying TV star boyfriend Patrick McNabb isn't involved in the case. He isn't . . . right?" 

Title: Bitter Roots

Author: Ellen Crosby

Series: #12 in the Wine Country amateur sleuth series set in Virginia.

240 pages

 

Synopsis: "In just over a week vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery and winemaker Quinn Santori will be married in a ceremony overlooking what should be acres of lush flowering grapevines. Instead they are confronted by an ugly swathe of slowly dying vines and a nursery owner who denies responsibility for selling the diseased plants. With neighboring vineyards facing the same problem, accusations fly and the ugly stand-off between supplier and growers looks set to escalate into open warfare.

When Eve Kerr, a stunning blonde who works at the nursery, is found dead a few days later, everyone wonders if someone in the winemaking community went too far. What especially troubles Lucie is why Eve secretly arranged to meet Quinn on the day she was murdered - and whether Lucie's soon-to-be husband knows something he's not telling her.

Then a catastrophic storm blows through, destroying everything in its path. With no power, no phones, and no wedding venue, Lucie needs to find out who killed Eve and what her death had to do with Quinn."

 

 

=== April 12 ===

 

 

Title: Fierce Poison

Author: Will Thomas

Series: #13 in the Barker & Llewelyn historical series set in Victorian London.

304 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Private Enquiry agent Cyrus Barker has just about seen it all―he's been attacked by assassins, his office has been bombed, and evil-doers have even nearly killed his dog. But never before has a potential client dropped dead in his office. When Roland Fitzhugh, Member of Parliament arrives to consult Barker and his partner Thomas Llewelyn, he falls to the floor, dead, upon entering. As they soon learn, he's been poisoned with a cyanide laced raspberry tart, and the adulterated tarts also take out an entire family in the East End. Labelled the Mad Pie Man by the press, Barker and Llewelyn are hired by former Prime Minister William Gladstone to find out who has targeted the House of Commons's newest member.

But before they can even begin, they find themselves the latest target of this mad poisoner―with Barker's butler poisoned with digitalis and dozens of diabolic traps discovered at their home. On the run from their unseen adversary, Barker and Llewelyn must uncover the threads that connect these seemingly random acts and stop the killer before they and their closest friends and family become the latest casualties." 

=== April 19 ===

Title: Pay Dirt Road

Author: Samantha Jayne Allen

Standalone thriller set in Texas.

304 pages

 

Winner of the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize.

 

Synopsis: "Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas.

Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business―a private investigation firm―by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan’s misgivings.

When a waitress at the café goes missing, Annie and Leroy begin an investigation that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and to the glowing neon of local honky-tonks. As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past―failed romances, a disturbing experience she’d rather forget, and the trick mirror of nostalgia itself―if she wants to survive this homecoming." 

There's quite a variety of choice during the month of April, isn't there? 

Which ones are on your Need-to_read lists? Inquiring minds would love to know!

The Echoes by Jess Montgomery

 

First Line: Esmé nearly escapes.

 

As July 4, 1928 approaches, everyone in the Kinship, Ohio area is looking forward to the opening of an amusement park created by veteran and lumber mill owner Chalmer Fitzpatrick. When Sheriff Lily Ross is alerted to the possible drowning of a girl on Fitzpatrick's property, she goes to investigate and winds up discovering old animosities that go back generations. There's long been a dispute concerning land that the amusement park is built on.

While Lily is involved with events surrounding the amusement park, her entire family is rocked by the news that before Lily's brother died, he had a daughter, Esmé, with a woman in France. Arrangements have been made for Esmé to immigrate to the U.S. to live with them, but the little girl never arrives, and Lily soon learns that she's been kidnapped. 

To further complicate matters, a young woman is indeed found murdered in the pond on Fitzpatrick's land, and a baby is left on the mill owner's doorstep. As the two crimes begin to interweave, Lily must confront some tough questions about what makes family. Can we really trust the people we love? What do we share? What do we keep secret?

~

Jess Montgomery's Kinship historical mystery series is one that all lovers of the genre should read. These books-- and The Echoes is no exception-- are filled with evocative storytelling, intricate plotting, and compelling characters. Small, telling details put readers right into the time period. Who would have believed that there'd be such a thing as a parking lot for automobiles? And that "cardboard fan with a flat wooden handle from the funeral home" made me look for the one that's been in our family since 1909. (Yes, I did find it.) Then there are also aggravating details such as the fact that married women weren't allowed to be schoolteachers, and the derogatory way some folks there in Kinship call Lily Ross "She-riff." 

But it's the people, not the historical details, that are the flesh and bone and blood of The Echoes. Esmé, a little girl kidnapped in a strange land. Lily's mother, Beulah, who keeps too many secrets. Other people "so proud of their hate" that they carry it "like a torch." (Have you ever been able to understand people like that? Neither have I.) And Lily Ross herself. Strong. Indomitable. So sure of herself and her convictions that she tends to scare the people who know her best. 

Montgomery shows us-- and shows us in lyrical, heart-bruising style-- that hurt only needs to find people once for it to echo through the rest of their lives. This is a marvelous series and one that should not be missed.

The Echoes by Jess Montgomery

eISBN: 9781250623430

Minotaur Books © 2022

eBook, 320 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #4 Kinship mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

On My Radar: Martin Walker's To Kill a Troubadour!

 

 

I have to admit that I was surprised to see that Martin Walker has a new Bruno mystery coming this summer. I think my surprise was due to the fact that Walker had had a short story anthology published just this month, but once I learned about this new book, I had a huge smile on my face. Let me tell you more about it because I know several of you readers are big Bruno fans like I am.

Available August 9, 2022!

 

Synopsis:

"Les Troubadours, a folk music group that Bruno has long supported, go viral with their new number, “Song for Catalonia,” when the Spanish government suddenly bans it. The songwriter, Joel Martin, is a local enthusiast for the old Occitan language of Périgord and the medieval troubadours, and he sympathizes with the Catalan bid for independence. The success of his song provokes outrage among extreme Spanish nationalists. Then, in a stolen car found on a Périgord back road, police discover a distinctive bullet for a state-of-the-art sniper's rifle that can kill at two kilometers, and they fear that Joel might be the intended target. 
 
The French and Spanish governments agree to mount a joint operation to stop the assailants, and Bruno is the local man on the spot who mobilizes his resources to track them down. While Bruno tries to keep the peace, his friend Florence reaches out for help. Her abusive ex-husband is about to be paroled from prison and she fears he will return to reclaim their children. Will they be able to thwart this unwanted visit? Despite the pressures, there is always time for Bruno to savor les plaisirs of the Dordogne around the table with friends."

Walker always enlightens his readers about the culture and history of the Périgord region of France, and I'm looking forward to learning more about the troubadours.

How about you? Are you going to be snapping up a copy of this book in August?

A Hurry Up and Wait Weekly Link Round-Up

 

It's Tuesday, and this isn't going to be much of an intro to this week's links. First, my laptop has died, so I'm in here at the desktop, wondering why my laptop decided to give up the ghost.

But most importantly, when the doctors weren't happy with the progress Denis was making, they ordered an MRI. When the results of that came back, they told him to get to the hospital, and that's where he's been since late last Wednesday afternoon. They've now isolated exactly what the infection around his spinal column is and are attacking it with a targeted spectrum of antibiotics. A picc line has been put in place, and he'll be on those antibiotics for about twelve weeks.

Right now, we're waiting for the doctors to show up and release him to come home. Anyone who's ever had anything to do with hospitals knows the name of the tune I'm about to sing...

 

 

Hurry up and wait!

 

He is on the mend, though, and it's a relief to know exactly what's going on.

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• How audiobooks helped a reader overcome her fear of long books.
• A rare manuscript is revealing a massive lost world of sixteenth-century books.
• The future of recycling may be in microbes.
• Major book statistics about readers: pandemic edition. Also, on reading pandemic fiction during a pandemic.
  
• How Ukrainians are using literature to fight back. Ukraine's libraries are offering bomb shelters and camouflage classes as well as books.
  
• #representationmatters: disability and crime fiction.
• New Dr. Seuss-inspired books will feature diverse creators. Also, five animated shows based on Dr. Seuss books are headed to Netflix.
  
• What classic mystery author should you read, based on your zodiac sign?
• What happened the last time the U.S. tried to make Daylight Saving Time permanent?
  

 

►Book Banning◄

• The Texas Library Association has formed a coalition to battle book bans.
• Why didn't the New York State Education Department defend its state librarian?
• Brad Meltzer's book was banned. Here's how he fought back.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Researchers have deciphered the glyphs on a 1,300-year-old frieze in Mexico.
• How much medieval literature has been lost over the centuries?
• Shackleton's lost ship, the Endurance, has been discovered beneath the Antarctic sea. The shipwreck is teeming with bizarre ocean life.
  
• Emperor Hadrian's palatial breakfast chamber.
• A rare stone with Pictish symbols has been discovered in Scotland.
• The immortal armor of China's jade burial suits.
• Underwater archaeologists are excavating a Byzantine shipwreck near Samos. 
• Archaeologists have uncovered two pre-Hispanic temples in the Tehuacán el Viejo archaeological zone in Mexico.
• A new cosmic-ray scan of the Great Pyramid of Giza could reveal a hidden burial chamber.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Watch a determined tabby cat do crunches at the gym.
• Watch a happy duck playing a hand drum with its feet.
• To protect bighorn sheep, authorities have killed 58 mountain goats in Grand Teton National Park.
• African wild dogs survive by living in the cracks of a landscape.
• A study has found that large parachuting spiders could invade the East Coast.
• An adopted lone narwhal traveling with beluga whales could produce narluga calves.
• Before seeing Turning Red, learn these amazing red panda facts.
• A man caught at the Mexican border allegedly had more than 50 reptiles stuffed into his clothes.

 

►Man's Best Friend◄

• Watch this diligent border collie herd his ducklings to water.
• Arnie, the hero dog who saved over 80 canines by donating blood, has retired.
• When dogs bark, are they using words to communicate?
• Smoky, the dog who helped build an airbase during World War II, is the first to receive the Distinguished Service Medal. (I reviewed a book written about Smoky.)
• Ruby, the shelter dog turned K-9 hero, has inspired a Netflix movie.
• Therapy dogs can help relieve pain in the ER.
• A cute yellow Labrador retriever puppy named Holiday will be Maine's first official courthouse therapy dog.
• A man who fell from his wheelchair into a lake was saved from drowning by his little beagle named Sarah Jane.

 

►Craftsmanship & Artistry◄

• Vibrant hoop embroidery animals. 
• Alejandro Lopez is a talented hairstylist who elevates hair braids to look like complex woven art.
• Making a needle felted cappuccino.
• Bookish cross stitch and embroidery patterns to download and make.
• This Depression-Era "magic cake" has a secret ingredient.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Detailed floor plan drawings of popular TV and film homes.
• Here are the world's 25 most endangered cultural heritage sites.
• Six books that explain the history and culture of Ukraine.
• Cozy mystery towns to visit.
• Crime & the City: Birmingham.
• Open Shutters uses the spycam epidemic to address the woeful state of women's rights in South Korea.
  

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• John von Neumann, the scientist who inspired Dr. Strangelove.
• Michèle Mouton raced the boys and took their trophies.
• Meet the "Top Gun" heroines of World War II.
• Marie-Madeleine Fourcade's story is a real-life Handmaid's Tale.
• When sixteen-year-old Emma Tenayuca disturbed the peace.
• The only all-Black women's unit sent to Europe during World War II has been awarded a Congressional medal.
• How Black men changed the world.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Thirteen histories about the lives of aristocrats.
• Seven World War II spy memoirs to augment your historical fiction shelf.
• Bookish goods for your kitchen and pantry.
• The owner of Bold Fork Books is a cookbook obsessive. Here are her favorites.
• Fifteen readers share the books they re-read the most.
• Fifteen modern mysteries for fans of Golden Age detective novels.
• Twelve of the funniest women in literature.
• Fourteen incredible Brazilian books available in English translation.
• Eleven (fortunately) retired Girl Scout badges.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths

First Line from Prologue: At first, she thinks that he'll be coming back.

Clearing out her mother's belongings in London raises questions for Ruth Galloway. Why did her mother keep a photograph of Ruth's cottage that was taken long before Ruth lived there? She always hated the place, so it doesn't make sense. Although Ruth's determined to find answers to her questions, all that is put aside when Covid rears its ugly head. Ruth and her young daughter Kate are in lockdown in the cottage, Ruth trying to teach her university courses online while home-schooling Kate. Fortunately, their new next-door neighbor Zoe is quite nice, and they become friendly.

Meanwhile, Nelson is investigating the deaths of women that may or may not be suicides. When he links the deaths to an archaeological discovery, he breaks curfew to visit Ruth-- where he finds Ruth chatting to her neighbor. A neighbor whom he recognizes as someone who was once tried for murder...

~

The only bad thing about turning the last page on a Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery by Elly Griffiths is knowing that you have an interminable wait for the next one, and The Locked Room is no exception. 

While some readers wish to avoid books that deal with the pandemic, I like seeing how different parts of the world cope. For instance, I wasn't aware that during lockdown the British would stand on their doorsteps at a certain day and time each week to clap and show their support for carers. And that's not the only thing I learned, which is par for the course in an Elly Griffith mystery. I learned the background of the "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" nursery rhyme and was reminded once again that I really want to read more about the historical figure, Julian of Norwich.

There are some serious things happening to the cast members that fans of this series have come to know and love, and the mystery itself is a humdinger, filled with such excellent misdirection that I was led straight down the garden path. (I love it when that happens.) Nelson is investigating a series of deaths that, although initially thought to be suicides, just don't add up. For instance, why was one woman's room locked from the outside? And why would someone kill themselves right after putting dinner in the microwave to heat?

For me, the most chilling aspect of The Locked Room was something that I'd never considered-- how poisons within relationships can rise to the surface during something like lockdown. How fortunate I am to be highly compatible with-- and happily married to-- my husband!

Even if you're new to this series, don't be surprised if you read The Locked Room and have a tear in your eye at the overuse of exclamation points at the end. Among her fans, Elly Griffiths is well known for working her very special kind of magic.

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths

ISBN: 9781529409659

Quercus © 2022

Hardcover, 384 pages

 

Police Procedural, #14 Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon UK.

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

 

First Line from Prologue: The scientist had forgotten all about the radium.

 

During the years of World War I, one element was the Be All and End All of modern life: radium. From body lotion to tonic water, it was the fresh face of beauty and the wonder drug of the age. In addition, the huge demand for illuminated faces on watches and instruments made dial-painting the best-paid job for young women, and they lined up by the hundreds to work at the radium-dial factories, some of them as young as fourteen and fifteen. 

The women were quickly taught that the best way to paint the dials was to lip point the brushes that had been dipped in the radium mixture. Radium dust floated freely in the factories, and the girls loved how they glowed like fireflies at night. Life was a lark... until they began to fall mysteriously ill.

When the women began to step forward and speak out about what was happening to them, they found themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals in early twentieth-century America-- and in a ground-breaking battle for workers' rights.

~

After reading Moore's The Woman They Could Not Silence and having it be one of my Best Reads of the Year, I remembered that I had a copy of Radium Girls, so I had to read it, too. Guess what? Radium Girls is also one of my Best Reads of the Year, which means that whenever Kate Moore has a new book published, I'm buying it.

Moore's writing style brings all the people involved, all the facts, to life. Reading from today's more enlightened perspective, what people were doing with radium in the early twentieth century was not only nauseating but horrifying. (For example, the radium waste from the dial-painting factories looked like sand, so it was offloaded to schools for their playground sandboxes.) But, you have to cut them some slack. These people didn't realize the time bomb they were treating so cavalierly. That all changed once it became known how deadly radium is.

 

The corporate greed shown boggled the mind as well as the legal wranglings to avoid having their profits cut into. The unbridled greed wasn't surprising, and neither was the difference in the companies' reactions to what was done when it was discovered male lab workers were becoming ill versus what was done when the female dial painters became ill. 

 

Moore outlines just what these young women had to endure, both physically and mentally, as they fought for justice. And what a group of women! Knowing it was already too late for them, they continued to fight their legal battles for those who would follow after them. What makes this piece of history even more poignant is how Moore brings each woman to life. These women weren't just court cases with gruesome physical wounds; Moore reminds readers how pretty they were. How they liked to spend those high wages they were making. The clothes and hats they liked to wear. How they loved parties and planned for their weddings and dreamed of the children they would have. How they laughed and loved and found strength they didn't even know they had. In showing how they lived, not just how they died, Moore puts the heart and soul into this chapter of history-- and makes it a chapter we should all know and remember.

 

Kate Moore, thank you for bringing Catherine Wolfe Donohue, Katherine Schaub, Grace Fryer, Margaret Looney, Pearl Payne, and the other Radium Girls back into the spotlight. Their stories should never be forgotten.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

eISBN: 9781492649366

Sourcebooks © 2017

eBook, 404 pages

 

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With an Adjective in the Title

 

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and I couldn't resist this week's topic: Books With an Adjective in the Title. I decided to choose books with a decidedly feminine angle since I've been celebrating International Women's Day well past the one day it's been given. (I'm thrilled that more and more information is becoming available about remarkable women around the world.)

Let's take a look at my list...

Good women, bad women, hidden genius women, dangerous women, all colors of the rainbow women, indomitable women... and all sorts of covers, too. I had fun picking and choosing for this week's topic, and I hope all of you who participated did, too.

If you want to take part in this fun meme, head over to That Artsy Reader Girl to take a look at the list of subjects and how it all works.

On My Radar: Allison Montclair's The Unkept Woman!

 

Allison Montclair's Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series has rapidly become one of my favorites, so you know I did a little jig around the house when I learned that the fourth book in the series, The Unkept Woman, will be released this summer. 

But before I share more about this new book, did you know that Allison Montclair is a pseudonym for talented mystery writer Alan Gordon? It's true. I've known about his medieval Fools' Guild series for a long time, and I have friends who love it. I could kick myself for not having read any of them yet, but that's how it goes sometimes-- no matter how hard I try, I can't read 'em all.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Let's find out more about the upcoming Sparks & Bainbridge mystery!

Available July 26, 2022!

Here's the synopsis:

"The Right Sort Marriage Bureau was founded in 1946 by two disparate individuals - Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge (whose husband was killed in the recent World War) and Miss Iris Sparks who worked as an intelligence agent during the recent conflict, though this is not discussed. While the agency flourishes in the post-war climate, both founders have to deal with some of the fallout that conflict created in their personal lives. Miss Sparks finds herself followed, then approached, by a young woman who has a very personal connection to a former paramour of Sparks. But something is amiss and it seems that Iris's past may well cause something far more deadly than mere disruption in her personal life. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn is struggling to regain full legal control of her life, her finances, and her son - a legal path strewn with traps and pitfalls.

Together these indomitable two are determined and capable and not just of making the perfect marriage match."

Sounds like another winner, doesn't it? If you've become a fan of this series, like me, you're undoubtedly rooting for Gwendolyn to regain legal control of her life and that of her young son. And as for Iris, you'd have to expect her World War II service to rear its head at some point, and it looks as though the time is now. I'm really looking forward to reading The Unkept Woman!

Have you historical mystery lovers fallen under Sparks & Bainbridge's spell yet? For cryin' out loud, what seems to be the hold-up?!? (If you're about to take the plunge-- and I hope you are-- I would recommend that you begin with the first book in the series, The Right Sort of Man.)

A Channeling Katie Weekly Link Round-Up

 

It's been an interesting week here at Casa Kittling. Denis pulled a muscle along his ribs doing something that he shouldn't have done, although I know why he did. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but we've had big plastic bins of Christmas ornaments stacked in the craft room, but neither one of us has been in any real shape to get them hauled out of the house and into the shed. Well, I figured out how to get it done in such a way that Denis didn't need to help. Even though I told him my plan, the poor guy's been feeling so useless that he decided to ignore me. He went out, opened the shed door, and hauled out a big hand truck and wheeled it into the house. I'd forgotten we had one and was going to use the mini-shopping cart I'd recently purchased.

Let me tell you, that hand truck more than -halved the time it took me to get all those bins out to the shed. The next hurdle was getting them into the shed. Don't forget, I'm doing this while seated on an electric scooter. Since Denis's back ailments, I've been getting my upper body and arm strength back with a vengeance because I can't use my legs as I have done all my life. Denis came out (drat that carport security camera!) when I was finishing up. I made him sit down because there was no way on earth I was going to let him try to pick up one of those fully loaded bins. Denis couldn't figure out how I was getting the bins into the shed. One at a time, up and over the front of the scooter, and down on the shed floor just inside the door. In stacks of three. Now, since I couldn't get into the shed, how did I finish up? 

Kathryn Seger Brookshier

 

By channeling my Great-Grandmother Brookshier, that's how. Grandma Brookshier was four foot eight, and all the local farm families knew that when they needed any sort of doctoring, all they had to do was "Go get Katie."

In her later years, she had to use two canes to walk. (Lordy, what she could've done with my scooter!) One day, my mother went to visit her and found her out back planting her garden. Grandma Brookshier was using one cane to make a hole in the soil, and the other cane to move the seed into the hole and tamp the soil down. Well, I just so happen to have a purple cane, and I used it to find the sweet spot on each stack of bins and push them back into the shed exactly where I wanted them. Right out of Katie Brookshier's playbook. I think Denis was rather impressed even though he didn't say anything.

So I'd like to thank Grandma Brookshier for that shed-loading pointer. Never underestimate the power of a good cane! As the years advance and joints you've greatly abused in the past decide they no longer want to work, do not despair-- there's usually a work-around that will get just the results you were looking for. I'm fortunate that I had inspiration from an expert ancestor.

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary has won Audiobook of the Year, and I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly.  
• Before envelopes, people protected messages with letterlocking.
• The confessions of a former slow reader.
• The strange history of the oddest title of the year.
• How poetry soothed a nation in mourning for John F. Kennedy.
• Why Neha Patel no longer reads physical books.
• The science and recent history of bookstore design.
• The unexpected gifts of writing about grief.
• The reading statistic that changed Danika Ellis's life.
• Olivia Laing: "I'm sorry, but Jane Eyre is a horrendous little hysteric."  (Tell us how you really feel, Olivia...)
• Good riddance to Amazon's terrible bookstores.

 

►Book Banning◄

• Texas students are pushing back against book bans for censoring LGBTQ and racial justice issues.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Eleven fascinating facts about Fabergé eggs.
• Amelia Earhart's leather flying cap sold at auction for $825,000.
• A tantalizing clue has emerged in the unsolved Gardner museum art heist.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• A bat falcon has been spotted for the first time in the United States.
• A man in Oakland created a custom handheld feeder for a hummingbird that keeps returning to his yard.
• Sneaky magpies are outwitting scientists by removing their tracking devices. (If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Dumb animals, eh?)
• A disabled opossum named Kewpie is learning to walk again thanks to a custom wheelchair.
• Do birds have language?
• A 500-lb. bear known as Hank the Tank was blamed for numerous break-ins in the Lake Tahoe area. DNA evidence says otherwise.
• Should we kill every mosquito on earth?
• Dogs may mourn the deaths of other household pets.
  

 

►The Black Experience◄

• The Black record label that introduced the Beatles to America.
• How film ads were part of the fight against segregation. 
• A new plaque tells the story of enslaved people who helped build the White House.
• Black dolls tell a story of play-- and resistance-- in America.
• Bass Reeves: the "greatest frontier hero in American history" was formerly enslaved.
• A new column called Archives Unbound offers an inside look at the work of the digital archivist while highlighting forgotten figures in Black print culture and public life.
• Elizabeth Freeman demanded her freedom-- and helped end slavery in Massachusetts. 
• Augusta Fells Savage, the sculptor who persisted.
• Belle da Costa Greene, the Black librarian who could equal America's most powerful man.
  

 

►International Women's Day◄

• Maria Prymachenko, Ukraine's folk art heroine.
  
• The women who became sex radicals and changed the course of American history.
• The unsung heroes who ended a deadly plague.
• Time Magazine's Women of the Year.
• The forgotten female revolutionaries behind Latin American independence.
• You've probably never heard of Camille du Gast, the most fascinating woman of the Belle Epoque.
• A brief compendium of historical Karens.
• Why are women still fighting for their chance to compete in the Tour de France?
• Clarice Cliff, the factory girl who became an Art Deco ceramics sensation.
• Nancy Cunard wasn't just a scandalous heiress, she's a forgotten early ally of Black Lives Matter. 
• Marion Mahony Griffin was the world's first female architect, but no one really cared.
• Even with a name like Aloha Wanderwell, you've probably never heard of her.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Thirteen books that became TV shows that you can watch now.
• Twelve mysteries and thrillers set in hotels and apartments.
• Eight great speculative fiction novels written by women.
• Seven striking character voices in coming-of-age novels.
• The 25 best Spanish crime and thriller TV shows on Netflix.
• Four new adaptations to watch in March.
• Eight Mardi Gras mysteries to let the good times thrill.
• Thirteen empowering memoirs written by women.

Whew! There's a bumper crop of links this week, isn't there? Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch for your surfing pleasure.

 Stay safe. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!