Monday, January 13, 2025

The Saint Laurent Muse

I was lucky to receive an advanced review copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. C. W. Gortner is one of my favorite authors and I have been anxiously awaiting his new novel . The Saint Laurent Muse will be published on March 18, 2025.

The publisher's summary:  

The Paris runways of the 70s come to wild and splashy life in this novel of fashion's “It Girl” Loulou de la Falaise and her life partying and designing with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Halston. Nightlife! Gowns! Cocaine! Glamour!

It’s the 1970s, and from hippie London to Warhol’s Factory in New York, reluctant aristocrat Loulou de la Falaise is desperately seeking adventure. Having escaped an early, unhappy marriage, she arrives on a whim in Paris—the champagne-soaked heart of the fashion world, where the rigid old world of haute couture and the ffast-paced new world of ready-to-wear are vying for supremacy.

Glamour, sex, and cocaine nights fuel the Paris fashion scene. Its crown prince is the soulful and intensely gifted Yves Saint Laurent, whose sexy tuxedos for women and chic Rive Gauche boutiques reflect women’s desire for seductive independence, a desire Loulou knows all too well.

Loulou’s bohemian flair immediately captures Saint Laurent’s attention, and they embark on a glorious intimate friendship as artist and muse. Together they revel in the excesses of high society, decadent parties, and the hedonistic underworld of gay nightclubs, where the young and beautiful become prey, and dangerous rivalries start to emerge. Their course collides with eccentric designer Karl Lagerfeld, intent on his own conquest. Lagerfeld’s bitter professional rivalry with Yves divides Paris even in an era when anything goes. As Yves plunges into a dangerous, secret affair with Karl’s enigmatic young companion, and Loulou finds herself falling in love with a colleague’s handsome boyfriend, evanescent illusion and savage deception will bring them to the brink of ruin.

Intoxicating and unforgettable, The Saint Laurent Muse is the dramatic imagining of a lifelong friendship between two kindred spirits, and of a tumultuous time and place in fashion history that will never be seen again.


I had a difficult time becoming interested in the book. Alot of characters were introduced in the first 40 pages and I couldn't keep them straight. When Loulou began working for St. Laurent, around page 60, the characters were kept to a minimum as the focus was on the shop where the designers worked. The story then took off. However, my confusion over the plot was based upon the main character not being as famous as other women that Gortner has written about, such as Coco Chanel and Lucretia Borgia. I searched Wikipedia to determine whether Loulou was a real life person and she was. She was the second of three muses that Yves Saint Laurent had in his studio. Designers Karl Lagerfeld and Halston are featured prominently for their drug use at parties as well as their competition with Yves.

What was Yves Saint Laurent known for? He was the first haute couture designer to sell a ready to wear collection. He also changed his style of clothing to bohemian. Loulou was the inspiration for these designs. She wanted women to feel comfortable with their clothing. Loulou created jewelry for herself to wear at the parties that she attended. Yves liked them enough to eventually promote her to be the jewelry designer for his brand. Other firsts for him included the creation of the beatnik look, the pea coat, smock tops, and thigh high boots. Saint Laurent is often said to be the designer responsible for the acceptance of women wearing of pants. 

It was fun to read about the suits that Yves was famous for creating. A tuxedo for women, Le Smoking, was one such creation. I remember seeing a lady where one at a party I attended many years ago and was impressed with it. I was lucky though, early in my career, to own one of his suits.

The party scene in Paris was distasteful. Although accurate in its description, I hated to read about all the cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use at the nightly parties that the staff engaged in. I don't know how anyone would be able to work the next day after partying to 2 am, but they did. Also, Loulou was promiscuous and I wondered whether she would contract HIV. 

All in all, The Saint Laurent Muse is a compelling read. 4 out of 5 stars.

Saturday, January 4, 2025

The Verifiers

The Verifiers was one of the Washington Post's best mystery books for 2022. This debut novel follows amateur sleuth Claudia Lin as she verifies people's online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. 

The publisher's summary:  

Claudia is used to disregarding her fractious family’s model-minority expectations: she has no interest in finding either a conventional career or a nice Chinese boy. She’s also used to keeping secrets from them, such as that she prefers girls—and that she's just been stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referrals-only online-dating detective agency. 
 
A lifelong mystery reader who wrote her senior thesis on Jane Austen, Claudia believes she's landed her ideal job. But when a client vanishes, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate—and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit. Part literary mystery, part family story, The Verifiers is a clever and incisive examination of how technology shapes our choices, and the nature of romantic love in the digital age.

I love Claudia's method of investigation. Claudia is inspired by her favorite amateur sleuths and thinks back to the steps they followed in their own investigations. Likewise, when Claudia becomes stumped she thinks about the villains she has read about and how they committed murder. She particularly loves the 'Inspector Yuan' mystery series. The second book in the series, The Rivals, follows these strategies so I expect that future books will continue in this vein. 

The story opens with Claudia meeting a new client, Sarah Reaves, who has the feeling her latest match may not the wonderful guy that she thinks he is. Claudia's company, Veracity, is a business that performs investigations, both electronic and in-person, for those customers using match-making apps but who are having some doubts about their matches. They are able to access the databases of several dating apps. Claudia determines that Sarah's match, Jude Kalman, has been chatting with three other women. She decides to stake out his home but never finds him coming or going. A week or so later, Sarah's sister Iris visits the Veracity offices to request an investigation into her match. She does not mention that Sarah killed herself. Claudia believes that these are not suicidal deaths but murder and, after being told to close this file, she continues to investigate. 

Author Jane Pek was born and grew up in Singapore. She holds a BA from Yale University, a JD from the New York University School of Law, and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She currently lives in New York, where she works as a lawyer at a global investment company.

This book was a fun read. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars.

Friday, January 3, 2025

Sliced

My second comic of the year is a pizza story. It's appropriate because there is no food I love better than a greasy pizza. Sliced is a Comixology Original 130 page graphic novel that was published in November 2024. The story is about two rival pizzaiolos who are forced to give up their generational rivalry and collaborate against a new high-tech competitor. 

Silvio Zampini and Pietro Pizzuti own restaurants on the same street and both are failing. Both have refused to sell their pizzerias to the Cannoli Mafia crime family. They want to find a way to continue their family pizzerias. When the Cannoli family opens a new pizzeria, Wonder Pizza, across the street they are outpriced by them. Wonder Pizza is selling a slice of pie at a price seemingly more expensive than the ingredients. The ingredients are created from technology and contain a specific ingredient that makes every customer addicted to it. Silvio and Pietro combine their pizzerias into one restaurant in order to fight the Cannolis. 


This is a traditional mafia family story with typical New York City characters. Silvio and Pietro grew up together as friends but a rivalry began when they came of age. At that time both began working in their respective family restaurants. As I read the dialogue I could hear that NYC accent. Don Tommaso heads the Cannoli Mafia family. His character is so realistic that he could have been in the Godfather movie. His goons are likewise realistic. 

The writing has appropriate pacing and dialogue. There isn't much narrative, if any at all. The plot, while not original, is complex with plenty of twists and turns. I must say, though, that the idea of a technology created pizza is creative. I liked the color palette of the artwork which contained alot of different colors. 

4 out of 5 stars.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Sleep in Heavenly Pizza

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Christmas themed cozy mystery while sitting on my couch with some hot chocolate. Christmas is the only time of year that I actually like winter weather and looking outside at the snow with a good book. Sleep in Heavenly Pizza is the fourth book in Mindy Quigley's Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin pizzeria.

In this installment of the series pizza chef Delilah O’Leary and her staff are serving at a private party where the nation’s premier snow sculpting championship is held. On the eve of the festival though, a too-good-to-be-true Chrismukkah catering gig heralds an unexpected visit from Delilah’s high-intensity older sister. Then one of the town’s snowy sculptures is discovered with a dead body inside. CCTV showed the slightly clad deceased woman being pushed off a balcony and sliding downhill. Delilah’s boyfriend Calvin Capone heads the police investigation. His investigation keeps coming back to two of Delilah’s employees and two of her family members. 

Delilah is a control freak who tries to figure out who could have a motive for murder. She questions her people to get information but doesn't always tell Capone her findings. She wants to protect her friends and family. They have been arguing throughout the story which is unusual for the series. They are normally lovey dovey.  

The whydunnit for the murder was a let down for me. I was expecting something more complex. However, after the big reveal Delilah and her family's sit down Christmas dinner was a heartwarming scene. I wish I could be part of this family. As usual, there are recipes at the end of the story. I will be trying the Christmas tree pizza bread recipe.

All in all, this was a fun read. I am rating the book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Death at a Scottish Wedding


I have read the other two installments of this series and loved them. Death at a Scottish Wedding was no different. It is a lovely locked room mystery.

The publisher's summary: 


Dr. Emilia McRoy is back on the case in the second book in the Scottish Isle mystery series, perfect for fans of Sheila Connolly and Charlene O’Connor.

Something old, something new, something borrowed and someone’s blue…

Finally feeling like Sea Isle, Scotland is becoming her new home, American doctor Emilia McRoy is delighted when she is invited to a wedding at Morrigan's Castle. Her friends have warned her that it's a three-day party and it's bound to get wild, not to mention the impending snowstorm. Constable Ewan Campbell, owner of the castle, ensures their safety with the blizzard. What he didn’t ensure, is that all of his guests would survive the night alive. When Emilia explores the impressive castle, she finds a dead man in one of the turrets.

The snowstorm hits and the local police can’t reach the castle until it lets up. With no one able to leave, the family insists they carry on with the wedding, which makes Emilia's job as the coroner a bit easier—the suspects are in one place­––and complicated because the killer has Emilia in his sights. The fact no one claims to know the victim isn't helping. Why would someone no one knows be murdered at a castle in the middle of nowhere?

It’s up to Emilia to uncover the mystery who the victim is, so the killer doesn’t get away Scot free.


I love the setting for this series. While I am enjoying reading about Sea Isle, I am also enjoying the castle setting. The rooms where events take place are meticulously described and add to that "locked castle" backdrop. The mystery itself wasn't as fast paced as it should have been. There was alot of pointless dialogue that slowed things down. That said, the twists in the plot kept me guessing at the identity of the whodunnit. I also love the two main characters: Emilia and Ewan. They are complete opposites but work together well. Ewen has an air of mystery about him as his character's identity is slowly being revealed throughout the series. In each installment we have read about him performing some bizarre activity which points to another aspect of his personality. It is fun to read about his exploits. Concerning Emilia, I like that she gave up the rat race for a job in the middle of nowhere. This new job is challenging but primarily because she needs to adjust to a different environment. In each novel the reader sees Emilia continuing to learn about the area that she moved to. and it always has something to do with the mystery.

This novel was not as entertaining as the first in the series. There is a 3rd book in the series which I read and reviewed last year. It too was fantastic. I will definitely continue reading this series but Death at a Scottish Wedding is only 3 out of 5 stars.

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Two Tribes

After a late night yesterday I wanted easy reading this morning. I found this full length graphic novel by Emily Cohen. The story is based upon her own life and dissects her two ethnic nationalities:  Native American and Jewish.

The publisher's summary:  

In her poignant debut graphic novel inspired by her own life, Emily Bowen Cohen embraces the complexity, meaning, and deep love that comes from being part of two vibrant tribes.

Mia is still getting used to living with her mom and stepfather, and to the new role their Jewish identity plays in their home. Feeling out of place at home and at her Jewish day school, Mia finds herself thinking more and more about her Muscogee father, who lives with his new family in Oklahoma. Her mother doesn’t want to talk about him, but Mia can’t help but feel like she’s missing a part of herself without him in her life.
Soon, Mia makes a plan to use the gifts from her bat mitzvah to take a bus to Oklahoma—without telling her mom—to visit her dad and find the connection to her Muscogee side she knows is just as important as her Jewish side.


I enjoyed reading about the Jewish and Muskogee customs. It was fascinating to see how the author wrote into the story Mia's punishment for running away by having to spend time with a rabbi. The rabbi used a study of the Bible story of Jonah to teach Mia a lesson. Jonah ran away from God after refusing to preach gloom and doom and ended up inside a whale. There was also an element of mystery in the story. While Mia was making strides in making her dream come true, I knew that her deception was going to catch up with her soon. Each chapter ending provided enough action to make me think that Mia was finally about to get caught. When she did get caught, Mia admitted her deception. She owned it. You don't see that every day. 

While this book was written for kids aged 8 to 12, there are lessons for adults as well. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars. This is an educational  story for everyone.

Happy New Year


Monday, December 30, 2024

2025 What’s in a Name Challenge


It's time again to sign up for the 18th annual What’s in a Name reading challenge! In years past, this challenge was hosted by Charlie at The Worm Hole. The Carolina Book Nook blog has been hosting this challenge since 2019 and is once again handling the challenge.

Rules 

1)  The challenge runs from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025. You can sign up any time, but only count books that you read between those dates.

2) Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.

3) Don’t use the same book for more than one category.

4)  Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!

5)  You can choose your books as you go or make a list ahead of time.

5)  Sign up using the Mr Linky at the WIAN challenge post.

6)  Add a link to your book reviews for each category at the WIAN challenge page.

7)  Choose 6 books that have titles that contain:

Cardinal direction
Wanderlust
First & last name
Alliteration
Deity
Crime

Sunday, December 29, 2024

End of Year Book Memes

I found both of these memes on Librarything. They both were posted approximately 9 years ago but I just found them last Christmas during a search. Just fill in the answers with books you've read this year. Here are my answers:

Meme #1

Describe yourself: Public Anchovy #1 (Mindy Quigley)

Describe how you feel: She's Running on Fumes (Dennis Hopeless)

Describe where you currently live: Happiness Falls (Angie Kim)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Vintage Village Bake-Off (Jennifer Ryan)

Your favorite form of transportation:  South of Sepharad (Eric Weintraub)

Your best friend is: The Body in the Boot (Patrick Walsh)

What’s the weather like: The Blue Monsoon (Dimyanti Biswas)

You fear: The Butcher Game (Alaina Urquhart)

What is the best advice you have to give:  Two Steps Forward (Luana Erhlich)

Thought for the day: Oath and Honor (Elizabeth Cheney)

How I would like to die: Under Water (Rachel Callaghan)

My soul’s present condition: Girl in the Dark (J. M. Cannon)



Meme #2

Shortest book title? Ice (Kevin Tinto)

How many re-reads? 0

Most books read by one author this year? 6 by Luana Erhlich

Any in translation? No

How many books were borrowed from the library? 12

Name a book you’ve read this year which was recommended by a blogger?  The Wartime Book Club (Kate Thompson)




Saturday, December 28, 2024

My Life in Books Meme

Shellyrae at the Book'd Out blog came up with this cool meme two years ago.  To participate all you have to do is complete the prompts using titles from the books you have read in 2024.


2024 was the year of: My Husband's Affair (Ruth Heald)

In 2024 I wanted to be: Under Water (Rachel Callaghan)

In 2024 I was: Her Every Fear (Peter Swanson)

In 2024 I gained: Japanese Dolls (Alan Scott Pate)

In 2024 I lost: The Champaign Letters (Kate MacIntosh)

In 2024 I loved: The Black Ghost (Alex Segura)

In 2024 I hated: The President's Wife (Tracey Wood)

In 2024 I learned: The Importance of Sons (Keira Morgan)

In 2024 I was surprised by: The Comfort of Ghosts (Jacqueline Winspear)

In 2024 I went to:  Salt House Place (Jamie Sohn)

In 2024 I missed out on: Three Weeks in Washington (Luana Erhlich)

 In 2024 my family were:  The Sins of Our Fathers (Jody Vorra)

In 2025

I hope (for a): A Lunar New Year Love Story (Gene Luen Yang)

Friday, December 27, 2024

My Life in 2024 Meme

Karen from the Booker Talk blog publishes a similar post every year. I first learned about it two years ago and I am going to answer her questions from last year today. There are links in the titles below that will take you to my reviews.

In high school I was: The Fox Maiden  (Robin Ha)

People might be surprised by: The Atlas Maneuver (Steve Berry}

I will never be: The Amish Wife  (Gregg Olsen)

My life post-lockdown was: Ruined (Sarah Vaughn)

My fantasy job is: Arkangel (James Rollins} 

At the end of a long day I need: Peach Tea Smash (Laura Childs)

I hate being: The Black Ghost (Alex Segura) 

I wish I had: Ice  (Kevin Tinto)

My family reunions are: A Nest of Vipers (Harini Nagendra) 

At a party you’d find me: Where the Body Was (Ed Brubaker)

I’ve never been to: Animal Pound (Tom King)

A happy day includes: A Death at a Scottish Wedding (Lucy Connelly)

Motto I live by: Capture or Kill (Vince Flynn)

On my bucket list is: Five Days in Yemen (Luana Erhlich)

In my next life, I want to have: Yellowface (R. F. Kuang)


Thursday, December 26, 2024

Top Ten Books of 2024


I read 123 books in 2024! It is always hard to determine what my best ten books are for any year. This year is a little different in that I knew off the top of my head what the top ten five books were going to be. Please note that I am choosing books from among different genres for this list. The list includes mysteries, historical fiction and graphic novels. Among the genres, I read 59 mysteries, 22 historical fiction/historical mysteries, 26 graphic novels, and 10 nonfiction books. There were 6 additional books where I did not classify a genre. 5 of them were Amish fiction novels. In addition, 54 of the books that I read were new releases and 29 were written by new (to me) authors.

Now, for my top books of 2024:

10) The Champaign Letters by Kate McIntosh (historical fiction)

9)  The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel (historical fiction)

8)  Agony in Amethyst by A. M. Stuart (historical mystery)

7) Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel)

6)  Tender by Beth Hetland (graphic novel)

5)  The Merchant's Tale by PK Adams (historical fiction)

4)  Twice on Christmas by McGarvey Black (mystery)

3). Such a Lovely Couple by Hayley Smith (psychological thriller)

2)  Under Water by Rachel Callaghan (historical mystery)

And my Number 1 book of the year is:

1)  Animal Pound by Tom King (graphic novel)


I have had a goal during the past two years to reduce the number of books that I read in a year. I think most years I have been reading over 200 books. With my recent retirement I am spending more time on my art and I have joined a senior group that offers lots of classes. I am trying to re-learn French, which I haven't studied in 50 years. I also am taking classes in art history and drawing. Also, I have begun taking more vacations and spent the month of October in Japan. In addition, I took up card making as well as collage. I have had many people ask if I was selling the cards and collages, which wasn't my intent. However, it's easy for me to create them so this will probably be a side hustle for me.  I am enjoying making art and reading in a more balanced manner than before.

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Top Ten Books I Want in 2025

There are a number of books that I would love to read in 2025. Here are a few of them in no apparent order.