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.