Wrap-up of the Series Reading Challenge

I read 7 books for the Series Reading Challenge. They include the following:

• 'Til Debt Do Us Part

• Self Employee of the Month

• The Miracle of Creation

• The Concubine's Tattoo

• Death by Disputation

• The Widow's Guild

• Publish and Perish

The first three books listed are graphic novels by Dan Dougherty. They are the final three books in his Beardo series. My plan was to then work on Laura Joh Rowland's Sano Ichiro series from feudal Japan. However, I did not like The Concubine's Tattoo and decided to forego reading the rest of the series. I came across Anna Castle's Francis Bacon Mystery series by chance and loved them all. There are two more books in the series that I need to read and then I will have finished the series.

It is pretty hard to select my top book for the challenge. All of them were good.

My Favorite Book: Publish and Perish

My Least Favorite Book: The Concubine's Tattoo

Wrap-up of the Creativity Reading Challenge

I read 6 books for the Creativity Reading Challenge. They include the following:

• Painting Light with Colored Pencils

• Drawing Comics

• Drawing Birds with Colored Pencils

• Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils

• The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook

• The Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches

Usually in a wrap-up post I pick my top books and least favorite book. With this group of books that is impossible. All of them were fabulous.  Probably the one I keep pulling from the bookshelf most often is the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. It is like an encyclopedia for those who spin fiber into yarn. I seem to need the information contained within its pages more often than the others.

This was a successful challenge.  I am looking forward to participating in the challenge in 2020 with a few weaving books. I am a beginning weaver.  

Reading Challenges Gone Awry

I had a few hits and misses with my reading challenges.

I did not read anything for the Read it Again Sam Challenge or the Memoir Reading Challenge. However, I did purchase some books to read for them. No interest in them is my excuse.

I only read four books for the Christian Reading Challenge instead of the required 12 but I knew when I signed up that I probably wouldn't meet the challenge.

I did not get started with the Series Reading Challenge until November and thought it would be a miss. It has turned out well and I will post a wrap-up for that challenge in a few days.

These challenges will be eliminated from my challenge list next year. Hopefully I can find other challenges that peak my interest.

2020 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

I am rejoining this challenge next year. It has been my favorite reading challenge this past year but in order to not feel the need to push myself, I will sign up at the Medieval Level, which requires me to read 15 books. I know that I will most likely read many more but whenever I have a duty to do something, I no longer want to do it. For reverse psychology reasons I will keep my expectations low. 

What's In a Name 2020

I participated in this challenge the first couple of years it was held. I am coming back to the challenge next year.

The challenge runs the 2020 calendar year. Readers must choose 6 books with titles containing one of the following:

• an ampersand
• an antonym
• 4 letters or less
• a given/first name
• a reference to children
• one of the 4 natural elements, i.e., water, air, fire, earth

Books cannot overlap each other in more than one category. I think it might be difficult  to find a book for the ampersand category. As I write this post I can't recall any book with one in the title. 

2020 Library Love Reading Challenge

I am joining this challenge again next year.  The basic requirement is to read 12 books from your public library which is pretty easy for me.  At this point in 2019 I have read 29 books from the Chicago Public Library, well over the required 12. I have 3 more books on hold to be picked up in December on their publication date. However, I will join the challenge at the Thrifty Reader level which has a 24 book requirement. 

2020 Creativity Reading Challenge

I am joining this challenge next year.  I read five books for the 2019 challenge and am curious what books I will find to meet the challenge next year.  I am interested in weaving, spinning fiber, colored pencil drawing, tapestry, cooking and crochet.  I am fairly new to weaving so I expect that I will be looking at a few books on that subject.

Book of the Month: November

My best books for November include the Hildegard of Bingen duology The Greenest Branch and The Column of Burning Spices as well as Nancy Bilyeau's The Blue and Christine De Melo's Imposter. I could not pick just one book this month. I also considered adding 3 other historical mysteries to this selection: Anna Castle's Death by Disputation, The Widow's Guild and Publish and Perish. November was a great month for reading!

Two authors are new to me. P. K. Adam's wrote the Hildegard series and Christine De Melo wrote Imposter. De Melo has a few other books published that I can read but I will have to wait until 2020 to read the next story from Adams. It always feels good when you find a new author.

Let's see what December brings.

Angels' Share

Angels' Share is the 10th installment of this wine country cozy mystery series featuring amateur sleuth  Lucie Montgomery. Lucie has a mobility impairment and owns a vineyard in Loudoun County, Virginia.

The summary from the inside cover blurb says "When Lucie Montgomery attends a Thanksgiving weekend party for friends and neighbors at Hawthorne Castle, an honest-to-goodness castle owned by the Avery family, the last great newspaper dynasty in America and owner of the Washington Tribune, she doesn't expect the festive occasion to end in death.

During the party, Prescott Avery, the ninety-five year old family patriarch, invites Lucie to his fabulous wine cellar, where he offers to pay any price for a cache of two hundred year old Madiera that her great-uncle, a Prohibition bootlegger, discovered hidden in the U. S. Capitol in the 1920s. Lucie knows nothing about the valuable wine, believing her late father, a notorious gambler and spendthrift, probably sold or drank it. By the end of the party, Lucie and her fiance, winemaker Quinn Santori, discover Prescott's body lying in his wine cellar. Is one of the guests a murderer?

As Lucie searches for the lost Madeira, she learns about Prescott's affiliation with the Freemasons. More investigation hints at a mysterious vault supposedly containing documents hidden by the Founding Fathers and a possible tie to William Shakespeare. If Lucie finds the long-lost documents, the explosive revelations could change history. But will she uncover a three-hundred-year-old secret before a determined killer finds her?"

Angels' Share is the best written book in this series. Author Ellen Crosby has become a fantastic writer over the years since she began writing this series. All of the books are good. However, the writing is awkward in some sections of the earlier books. Crosby has finally hit her stride with this new novel.

I was somewhat surprised that most of the pursuit of mystery concerned the secondary plot around lost treasure. The solving of the crime, Prescott Avery's murder, took second place. The lost treasure hunt was exciting though and kept me reading but I wondered why, or rather how, it fit in with the murder. The choice for the title was interesting. The angel's share is the amount of wine that evaporates from a wine barrel between the time it is bottled and the time it is opened.

I learned quite a bit about Madiera wine from the book. As with all of the books in the series, a particular wine is featured and the reader becomes knowledgeable about that wine. I could use a glass of it right now since I just finished my Thanksgiving dinner. With the story beginning on Thanksgiving weekend it has a holiday feel to it. I picked the best book to read this week!

5 out of 5 stars!

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry

Mary Higgins Clark has completed her 46th novel with this mystery; 56th novel if you count those she has co-written with other authors. Every year she continues to churn out book after book and it amazes me how much she has accomplished in her writing. Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry is another stellar piece of writing. Clark captures the reader's attention on page one and keeps you glued to the pages until the end.

The inside cover blurb summarizes the book as follows: "When investigative journalist Gina Kane receives an email from a 'CRyan' describing her 'terrible experience' while working at REL, a high profile television news network, including the comment, 'and I'm not the only one,' Gina knows that she has to pursue the story. But when Ryan goes silent, Gina is shocked to discover the young woman has died tragically in a Jet Sky accident while on holiday.

Meanwhile, REL counsel Michael Carter finds himself in a tricky spot. Several female employees have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct. Carter approaches the CEO, offering to persuade the victims to accept settlements in exchange for their silence. It's a risky endeavor, but it could well make him rich.

As more allegations emerge and the company's IPO draws near, Carter's attempts to keep the story from making headlines are matched only by Gina Kane's determination to uncover the truth. Was Ryan's death truly an accident? And when another accuser turns up dead, Gina realizes someone-or some people-will go to depraved lengths to keep the story from seeing the light."

I read this book before reading the blurb. I am glad that I didn't because the entire plot, except the denouement, is given in the blurb. It's a little surprising, that's all. Another point that I would like to make is that while Higgins Clark is known as being the Queen of Suspense, there was no suspense here. The book is a well plotted murder mystery but it's not a suspenseful novel. As usual, her protagonist is a female, this time an investigative journalist. I think this was a great job for the sleuth to have and this character, Gina Kane, could be a continuing character in a series. Higgins Clark has never written a series before but this book could be the start of one.

5 out of 5 stars!

Imposter

Imposter is a historical fiction novel set in Naples in 1760. Celeste Carducci is living at the Santa Patrizia convent being mentored by Sister Assunta when she discovers that her uncle Camillo Custozi has betrothed her to Count Ferrante degli Spini. Ferrante has a reputation of having a bad temper and she does not want to marry him. Pursuant to Ferrante's agreement with her uncle, Celeste must undergo a physical examination before the marriage can proceed. The physician examining her determines that she is pregnant. Celeste keeps this a secret, staying in bed for 2 weeks with depression. When her best friend Valentina Gaetani next visits her Celeste and Sister Assunta ask Valentina to take Celeste's place at her wedding so that Celeste can be whisked off to another convent. Valentina is poor. She will not have good marriage prospects so she agrees to this arrangement.  Valentina becomes Celeste and marries Ferrante who is none the wiser since he did not meet Celeste before the wedding.

This was just the beginning to a well plotted love story. The pace was quick so it was a fast read. With its captivating plot, I was able to read this book in one sitting.  Most of the drama involved the relationship between Ferrante and the new Celeste. He avoided her and she was afraid to upset him. However, everything she did seemed to upset him. She would play with his daughter from his first marriage outdoors, walk the grounds of the property and go into rooms that he forbade her to enter such as the library. While he married her to get a male heir, Ferrante never touches Celeste. They had many hits and misses early in their marriage. Then the real conflict between them begins.

I usually don't like romance stories but this one was enjoyable. I couldn't put the book down.  The Valentina character was an awe inspiring woman. While her husband was ignoring her, she began performing science experiments in her studio to find the philosopher's stone. She read many books on chemistry and other sciences as well.  Ferrante on the other hand was damaged goods. Raised by an abusive father, he became unable to communicate with others. As for the real Celeste, she was described as this devout girl in a convent but I thought that she was ugly personality wise. Who asks a friend to marry their betrothed so you don't have to? That put a lot of pressure on Valentina to know Celeste's family history and to act meek and mild as though she grew up in a convent.

Christine De Melo is now one of my favorite authors. Check this book out.

Silent Water

Silent Water is a historical fiction novel set in Krakow, Poland in the 1500s. It is the first novel in author P. K. Adams' Jagiellon Mystery series. Members of the Jagiellion Dynasty included the kings of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Bohemia. The dynasty ruled from the 1300s through the 1500s.  The story is told from the point of view of Caterina Sanseverino, Queen Bona's Lady of the Queen's Chamber.

Lady Bona Sforza of Bari has traveled from Italy to Krakow in April, 1518 with a contingent of ladies in waiting to assist her. She was married by proxy to King Zygmunt while in Bari and was crowned queen of Poland 2 days after her arrival. The marriage is a good one but the courtiers do not like Bona. She cannot handle the Polish foods, preferring the cooks make Italian meals which are lighter in fare. She brought with her the fashions and social mores of Italy which shocked the Polish court. In addition, Bona brought furniture from Italy to furnish her rooms which the courtiers did not approve of either. All seems to be well until the Christmas ball when an aristocrat is found dead in the castle. 2 weeks later during the feast of Epiphany dinner another aristocrat is found dead in the castle. Queen Bona has become involved in the investigations but needs the assistance of Caterina due to the political backlash her husband is receiving from her involvement.

It was refreshing to read a historical mystery novel that did not take place in England or France. The choice of Poland as a setting was a brilliant one. Readers tend to get bored with the same old thing. I learned much about the political climate and culture in Poland. The royal court had a new (to me) activity called the sanna. The sanna is a huge sleigh ride where all of the sleighs are attached. It is held annually on the day before new year's eve. The whodunnit was easy to figure out but the why surprised me.  I googled Queen Bona to determine whether she was accurately portrayed in the book. She was. King Zygmunt 1 was not that interested in ruling but Queen Bona was. Her proposal for agricultural reforms were true to history. The author deftly worked that into the story. I am looking forward to the next book in this series. With 4 countries in this dynasty there are many approaches that the author can take.

5 out of 5 stars.

A Column of Fire

Ken Follett's latest novel takes place primarily in England between 1558 and 1620. The story stretches to Scotland, Paris, Seville, the Caribbean, Cadiz, Geneva and Antwerp.  It is the third book in the author's Kingsbridge series which began with The Pillars of the Earth and continued with World Without End.  The story is not about building as its prequels were. This one concerns the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in England and on the European continent but mostly in England. The two groups viciously battle for political power to make their religion the state religion. Then there are those who favor religious tolerance.

I started the book in August and put it down three times before finishing it yesterday. Its 900 pages did not deter me but some of the characters and their stories did not interest me as much as others. Ned Willard was the main character and the most sympathetic. His family and the Fitzgerald family were the two main families in the book. Ned fell in love with Margery Fitzgerald as a teen but her parents betrothed her to an aristocratic family. He was not a legitimate match for her. Ned ends up working for Princess Elizabeth, later Queen, as a spymaster and his life story is unique. His brother Barney became a sailor, traveled to Spain and the Caribbean. His story did not interest me as much nor did the characters that supported him. Margery's brother, husband and father-in-law were some of the nasty characters who took advantage of the Willards whenever possible. The Fitzgeralds were Catholic and the Willards were Protestant. The French connection provided a lot of political drama and added suspense to the plot.

The plot moved all over the place. It wasn't just the Willards versus the Fitzgeralds. There were many characters to keep track of. I think some were only present for 50 pages. Perhaps there were too many for one book. Do I really need the life story of every one of them? I guess that's why I got bored from time to time. For that reason I can only rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.