I was on holiday and spending time with my daughter, sightseeing and volunteering. BUT does a bookworm ever NOT read? In my case, there had to be a book or two, even if I was only reading in bed! Surely, it’s one of life’s great pleasures, to lounge in a comfy bed with a good book. We also browsed in a few charity shops for pre-loved cashmere ( sadly I didn’t find any) and books.
You may think murder might not be a good choice of bedtime reading , but Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, manages to be both intriguing and relaxing. Five books in and the characters are like old friends.
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
Who’s got time to think about murder when there’s a wedding to plan?
It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.
But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who’s in trouble, kidnap and death are hot on their heels once more. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into action once more, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time? Joyce’s daughter, Joanna, jumps into the fray to help the gang as they seek answers: Has someone kidnapped Nick? And what’s this uncrackable code they keep hearing about? Plunged back into action once more, can the four friends solve the puzzle and a murder in time?
My Review.
Perhaps it was because I was visiting my daughter, but I enjoyed the relationship between Joyce and her daughter Joanna. Ibrahim seems to have mellowed but is still oblivious to some of what goes on. The ‘crime’ itself involves high finance and high rollers, which was interesting to me, but not compelling. An elegant solution.
Maggie Dove By Susan Breen
Susan Breen introduces a charming new series heroine in this poignant and absorbing cozy mystery with a bite. Maggie Dove thinks everyone in her small Westchester County community knows everyone else’s secrets. Then murder comes to town.
When Sunday School teacher Maggie Dove finds her hateful next-door neighbor Marcus Bender lying dead under her beloved oak tree—the one he demanded she cut down—she figures the man dropped dead of a mean heart. But Marcus was murdered, and the prime suspect is a young man Maggie loves like a son. Peter Nelson was the worst of Maggie’s Sunday School students; he was also her late daughter’s fiancé, and he’s been a devoted friend to Maggie in the years since her daughter’s death.
Maggie can’t lose Peter, too. So she sets out to find the real murderer. To do that, she must move past the grief that has immobilized her all these years. She must probe the hidden corners of her little village on the Hudson River. And, when another death strikes even closer to home, Maggie must find the courage to defend the people and the town she loves—even if it kills her.
Genres .Mystery. Cosy Mystery. Fiction Contemporary.E – Book
236 pages, e book First published June 14, 2016
My Review.
An easy enough read and quite outside of my life experience. Its set-in small-town America, where religion is part and parcel of everyday lives. Maggie teaches Sunday school and tries to embody Christian principles. There was enough to keep me interested , but I doubt I will continue with the series.
Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives by Lucy Mangan
As a child, Lucy Mangan was reading all the time, using books to navigate the challenges and complexities of this world and many others. As an adult, she usesher new relationship with literature to seize upon the most important (how) do books prepare us for life?
Bookish picks up where Bookworm left at the cusp of teenage, when everything – including the way we read – undergoes a not-so-subtle transformation. Here, Mangan vividly recounts her metamorphosis from bookworm to bookish adult, from the way GCSE curricula can impact our relationship with literature to the growing pains of swapping the pleasures of re-reading for those of book-hoarding. Revisiting the specific stories that ferried her through navigating various important stages of life – first love, first job, marriage, motherhood, and grief – Bookish maps the author’s coming-of-age in books and life lessons and sheds valuable light on how a love for reading can be nurtured intergenerationally.
Genres.Non Fiction Books about Books.Memoir. Autobiography Audiobook
291 pages, Kindle Edition First published March 13, 2025
My Review.
I picked up a copy in a charity shop, sensing that this was likely to be a book I would enjoy and I did. Reminders of long forgotten books, recommendations for books to look out for and just a general enthusiasm and enjoyment of reading. it ticked all my boxes. Must look out for Bookworm!
Now back to reality, and finishing work on the memoir.
Sonia Bellhouse- Author. 