Book of the Month: March

Animal Pound is my favorite book for this month. It is a 4 part comic series where the dogs, cats and rabbits of an animal pound remove the employees and take over. Led by a cat called Fifi and dog Titan the doors to all of the cages are unlocked and all of the cats, dogs and rabbits roam freely throughout the building and grounds. After enjoying free reign for several weeks they realize that they will need to find a new source of food in order to survive on their own. Enter politics. A campaign to elect representatives begins. There are 2 additional releases coming soon and I cannot wait to finish reading this adorable story.

Book of the Month: February

Lunar New Year Love Story is my best book for this month. It is a graphic novel written by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by Leuyen Pham. As the title suggests, the story is about a couple who cannot get together as a couple during their senior year of high school. They are part of a dance troupe who perform as lions and dragons at lunar new year festivals and other Chinese events. While the two kids can dance together beautifully the girl, Val, doesn't know who she wants as a boyfriend. This book is clean reading, no sex or foul language, perfect for young adults.

Book of the Month: January

The year started off with five fantastic reads:  Manner of Death, The Blue Monsoon, The Vintage Village Bake Off, The Waitress, and Her Every Fear. I read a whopping eighteen books due to being laid up with the flu for half the month. It wasn't all that hard to select a favorite though. Her Every Fear scared the daylights out of me and I have to pick it as my favorite book for January. The Waitress is a close second.

The story has a jaw dropping plot that turns into an awful tale of horror. The plot becomes more and more scary and disturbing as the story unravels and it kept me sitting on the edge of my seat. It also made me get up out of bed and check my door multiple times during the night that I finished reading the book. I can say so much more about why this book is good but basically it scared me to death. 

This book will make you second guess every odd sound you hear in your home and I believe that the "her" in the title "Her Every Fear" includes the reader.  Fans of psychological mysteries will love it.

Book of the Month: November

It should come as no surprise that my best book for November is Ken Follett's The Armor of Light.  Armor is the 5th book in the Knightsbridge series and it is fantastic.

I cannot begin to talk about how good this book is.  The story spans thirty years. It opens with the sad story of a man who gets injured at work and later dies. His wife Sal and son Kit are part of this scene and they continue with the story until the very end. Sal is a strong female character and I would say she's the main character. As other characters are brought into the story Sal is always there. Her struggles are typical of those who lived during the start of the Industrial Revolution and it is she who came up with idea of unionizing the weavers of Knightsbridge. 

With the Knightsbridge series now set in the early 1800s Armor is probably the last book. This makes me sad but how lucky we all have been for the opportunity to read these books.

Book of the Month: October

My best book for this month is Kevin Butler's House Aretoli.  This book is a wonderful journey back to fourteenth century Venice where the reader is introduced to the Aretoli family. They are a merchant family of five. The story, though, is primarily about the relationships between the two eldest brothers Flavio and Niccolo.  The decisions that they make and the consequences of those decisions affect the entire family.  The sibling rivalry between the two brothers goes beyond the simple and also extends to Venetian government officials. Medieval Venice is one of my favorite settings. I love the intrigue of the era as well as the dresses that the rich ladies wore. It makes me jealous that I am sitting here in jeans when I  could be in satin and velvet. 

The book is in the running for the 2023 Chaucer book award short list.  I highly recommend it to historical fiction fans.

Book of the Month: September

Banyan Moon is my favorite read for this month. It is a 3 generation family saga about 3 Vietnamese women. It spans several decades from 1960s Vietnam to the present day in Florida and Michigan. The story alternates between grandmother Minh in Vietnam, her daughter Huong in Florida and granddaughter Ann in Michigan. I am always a sucker for family sagas and this one captured my heart. It always amazes me how people assimilate into new cultures. For every one of these sagas that I have read the second and third generation always makes the same decisions. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to feel that you are an American. Check the book out. It is fantastic.

Book of the Month: August

Lady Tan's Circle of Women is my best book for August. Amy Tan wrote a lovely novel based on the life of Tan Yunxian, a real-life woman who lived in China during the Ming dynasty. She went on to become a famous women's doctor. The story begins in the year 1469 when Tan Yunxian is 8 years old and ends when she is quite old. Her best friend Meiling grew up to be a midwife and occasionally they worked together. For the most part Meiling felt inferior to Yunxian because Yunxian came from a wealthy family.  Yunxian threw her weight around because of that financial security but over the years they worked through their conflicts. The novel is definitely a women's book. It's not just about female relationships but female medicine too. Highly recommended.

Book of the Month: July

I had a hard time selecting the book of the month for July. There were three contenders:  Alex Lake's Final Call, Heather Atkinson's Evil at Alardyce House and J. M. Cannon's Blood Oranges. I am going to have to go with Final Call though. This pulsating mystery takes place on an airplane and the mystery had to be solved before the plane ran out of gas and crashed. It was an intense read. 

When the plane, carrying corporate executives, begins heading in the wrong direction, the pilot informs the passengers that one of them must confess to murder or the aircraft will crash into the ocean. There is a dual narrative that jumps back to 2018 as the reader learns the reason why someone would hold a grudge after tragic circumstances.

As I said above, this was an intense read and I loved it.

Book of the Month: June

I loved Where Waters Meet. In fact, I read it twice. This family saga is the exquisite story that it is advertised as being. While the story begins in the present day in Toronto, most of the action takes place in the past in China.

The family originated in China. Chunyu, now known as Rain, and her sister Mei lived through three wars there: WWII, the Japanese War and the Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists. They suffered severe hunger and bombing raids, as did everyone else in China. Rain and Mei's parents died in a bombing of their village East End. The sisters were later captured by Japanese soldiers and forced to be prostitutes. Rain handled it better than Mei who was unable to eat or even get up off her mattress. With her sister's help Mei escaped and joined the communists and fought alongside Mao's warriors. Rain eventually made her way to Hong Kong and then Toronto where she and her daughter lived.

This book captured my heart and I highly recommend it, especially to historical fiction fans.

Book of the month: May

Weyward is a spectacular story. Three generations of Wayward women are featured in the story.  Each of the Weyward ladies were beguiling. They were healers who used elements from the natural world in their potions. Of course, the men of their worlds did not approve of what they were doing. I loved these characters and couldn't stop reading about their lives. I hated for the book to come to an end. The eras is which they lived, while different, affected what happened to them and how society would or would not allow them to respond to their challenges. This is very much a feminist novel as we see the Weyward women rising above their circumstances and defeating the men who oppressed them. 

There is a touch of magical realism in the story which was OK for me. While I don't particularly care for magical realism, it made sense here because the women used items from nature in their healing careers.

Book of the Month: April

The Paris Notebook was the best book that I read this month. While there were two other books that I rated 5 out of 5 stars, the premise for The Paris Notebook intrigued me the most. In this story we have a young Adolf Hitler being treated for a psychiatric disorder during WWI. When he later came to power in Germany, Hitler tried to prevent those records from coming to light. The book is based on real events.  Hitler did receive treatment for psychological issues while he served in the first world war, hysterical blindness, and he also attempted to locate those records so that they could be destroyed. As our main character Katja Heinz traveled back and forth from Germany to Paris in order to get these medical records published, I felt just as scared and paranoid as she was. This was a tense thriller that keeps you hoping that she does not get caught. Not only does she have top secret documents but Katja is also Jewish.

Book of the Month: March

My favorite read for March is Janie Chang's The Porcelain Moon. It is a historical novel from the early to mid twentieth century that takes place in Hong Kong. Chang previously wrote The Library of Legends and Dragon Springs Road. The story follows the travails of two young women in France as the country is torn apart by war.  The main character, Pauline Deng, is Chinese and is living in France with her cousin in order to support the family's porcelain trade. She is able to avoid an arranged marriage in Shanghai by living in Paris. Before reading this book, I knew next to nothing about the Chinese laborers who came to France during WW1. I learned so much about this little part of history. The chapters alternated between Pauline's story and the story of Camille Roussel. Camille is planning her escape from an abusive marriage and is trying to end a love affair that can no longer continue. Toward the end of the book, their stories merged.

Book of the Month: February

I had a difficult time deciding which book was my best read for the month. Four books that I read were excellent: The Godmother's Secret, Cor Rotto, The Orchard and Hide. The deciding factor was innovation in genre. The Orchard, by Amish fiction writer Beverly Lewis, combines the modern world into the Amish world in a new and shocking way. The main thrust of the story was an Amish character's participation in the Vietnam War.

The main character, Ellie Hostettler, grew up near an apple orchard that her father owned. Twin brother Evan was expected to take over the business but Evan's interest in the ways of the Englischers has been disconcerting to his family. Evan got caught attending the funeral of an English friend, Jack Herr, who died in Vietnam. Evan has been highly influenced by his friendship with Jack. He is considering joining the army to fight in Vietnam and when he fails to register as a conscientious objector the Hostettler family is devastated. Meanwhile, the ladies are all trying to find husbands which, of course, they find or it wouldn't be Amish fiction.

Book of the Month: January

I read alot of books this month thanks to a staycation so I had quite a few books to consider for my best of the month. Keeper of the Queen's Jewels is an obvious choice because its one of the only two books I rated 5 out of 5 stars. Keeper is Adrienne Dillard's most recent novel, which was published in 2022. It is about Jane Seymour and her lady in waiting Margery Horsman. Each chapter alternates between the points of view of Jane and Margery. Margery was one of the ladies in waiting for Anne Boleyn who stayed on at Henry VIII's behest after Anne's beheading. For some reason he kept on all of Anne's attendants. At first Margery handled the wardrobe but later became in charge of the jewelry. She was adept at picking out the right jewels for the right gown. She also had her own drama to deal with, not just Jane's.

I learned alot about Jane's political ability. Yes, she did have some ability. I was not aware that she was terrified of ending up like her predecessor but I probably should have known that she would be afraid. Any woman would mistrust Henry VIII considering how he disposed of two prior wives. The court attendants were likewise terrified of Henry, including Margery. Everyone tiptoed around him so as not to set off his temper.

I loved reading about the dresses that the ladies wore, and the jewels of course, as well as descriptions of the food offered at these lavish Tudor feasts. Keeper is a feast for the eyes.

Book of the Month: November

My best book for November is Mike Rinder's A Billion Years.  I learned alot about the scientology religion although none of it was positive. This autobiography follows Rinder's life from childhood to the present in chronological format, concentrating on his adult life in scientology. He held a top management position and writes about the problems the religion faced, particularly after the death of founder L. Ron Hubbard. Rinder makes his case that scientology is a cult which I agree with. His writing style is engaging and the book is unputdownable. I highly recommend it.

Book of the Month: October

My best read for last month is, hands down, The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart.  The novel takes place in Louisiana where there are plenty of good places to stash a dead body. They can be hidden in tall grass by the water's edge or next to exposed tree roots. The variety of these places provide different decomposition times which could confuse a medical examiner not as experienced as Dr. Wren Muller.

The book is a serial killer story and we read more about the serial killer's background than Wren's, who is the protagonist. While featuring the killer more might normally be a bad idea, it works here because he is such a nut. He leaves different calling cards at his murder scenes to confuse the police which adds a new dimension to this genre.  Wren is the perfect sleuth though. She has an educational background in forensics and plenty of work experience.  She would make a great series sleuth.  

I hope that Urquhart decides to make this a series. I loved the Louisiana setting with its plethora of good dumping grounds.  Check the book out if you haven't already.

Book of the Month: September

The Apple Creek Announcement by Wanda Brunstetter was my favorite read for September. Brunstetter wrote what I believe is her best book to date. She added to the plot a character's quest to find her birth mother. It read more like a mystery than the typical Amish fiction novel and for that reason I have selected the book as my favorite for the month. 

The book is the third installment of a trilogy. Andrea Wagner is engaged to veterinarian Brandon Prentice. When she finds out that she is adopted Andrea puts her wedding plans on hold until she can find her birth mother. This is a clean romance novel so we read more about the characters' emotions and their relationship with God than how they might act when together. 

I don't believe that I have ever read an Amish fiction novel with such a complex plot. For that reason, it is my best book for the month.

Book of the Month: July

I have a four way tie for book of the month.  I could not choose just one book from among Kaikeyi, Beasts of a Little Land, My Wife is Missing and The Good Wife of Bath. All of these novels are rated way over 5 out of 5 stars. With the exception of My Wife is Missing, all of the books are historical fiction. 

The story of Kaikeyi expands on the character's life that is mentioned in the Hindu script Ramayana. Likewise, The Good Wife of Bath expands on the story in the The Canterbury Tales. Beasts of a Little Land is different in that it gives the history of Korea in the entire 20th century through the eyes of 4 main characters. My Wife is Missing is a gripping suspense novel that had me guessing throughout the story.

Instead of repeating what I wrote in the reviews, check out the review links above if you haven't read them yet.

Book of the Month: May

My best book for this month is, hands down, The Fugitive Colours. It's a sequel to The Blue, a novel about Genevieve Planche. After fleeing England for France, she met and married Thomas Sturbridge. Six years later they are back in Spitalfields for this installment of the series. It is 1764 and since men control the arts, sciences, politics and law, Genevieve is struggling to keep her silk design business afloat. Both Thomas and Genevieve are Huguenots, Protestants from Catholic France, which further makes them suspicious in the eyes of their associates in England. When Genevieve receives a surprise visit from an important artist, she begins to hope that, as a woman, she can be accepted as an artist. However, she soon learns that portrait painters have the world at their feet. Rivalries among them lead to sabotage, blackmail and murder and Genevieve gets caught up in their antics. She fears being exposed for her conspiracy and betrayal at the Derby Porcelain Factory several years back. The Blue novel is about that betrayal.

Book of the Month: May

I absolutely loved this archeological thriller.  Here we have Cleopatra's burial place and treasures sought by two opposing groups. One is from academia and the other is from a crime syndicate called the Daughters of Cleopatra. Both groups are present at a Languages and Antiquity Conference in Rome. Sebastian Rossi has given a lecture on the various languages of Ptolemac Egypt. While always a popular lecture, the recent finding of Cleopatra's treasures one week prior to the conference made his lecture a must to hear. Sebastian's friend Adrian West is also in attendance at the conference and soon after Sebastian's lecture has ended, she receives a call from her former FBI partner Nick Harper. Nick tells her that Sebastian has been abducted. The hunt is on to not only locate him but to find out why he was abducted. The novel was highly entertaining.