Waiting on Wednesday: The Queens of Crime

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature where I highlight a soon to be released novel I can't wait to read.

 

This week's pick: The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

Publication Date: February 11, 2025

Synopsis taken from Amazon:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie returns with a thrilling story of Christie’s legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women.

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.

May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.

Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.

Monday Mini-Reviews: A Little Bit of Everything

I've been reading a bit of everything, although the nonfiction that I'm getting through takes a little more time and ultimately has decreased the fiction I'm getting through.

Over the weekend I finished up The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana Chambers.  Long, long ago I read Julie and Julia which is really the only connection/book I've ever read about Julia Child.  So I had no idea about the very interesting life she led being a part of the secrets trade in WWII. As a thirty year old single woman, Julia moves from California to Washington, D.C., and then to Asia where she meets Paul Child and works with him to help the Allies.  I liked this book, but I was interrupted so many times during the week that this one fell by the wayside a few times.  Once I was able to devote a little bit of time to it, I really did enjoy 

The Last One At The Wedding by Jason Rekulak was a Book of the Month selection and a pleasant surprise. I still haven't read Rekuak's first book, but I will definitely need to change that. This one was hard to put down. It's not a mystery, exactly...I would call it a novel of suspense. Frank is ecstatic when his estranged daughter Maggie calls him and invites him to her wedding.  But upon meeting Maggie's fiance, Frank sees a few red flags and when he and his sister and her foster care placement actually arrive at the wedding venue (Maggie is marrying into an uber-wealthy family), there are plenty of suspicious things going on.  This didn't go where I thought it was going to, but I absolutely enjoyed every page of this one.

And a recent romance I enjoyed was Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Sophie Cousens.  This is an author I don't normally read, but I will need to start.  Anna is recently divorced and perfectly fine being on her own, but when she and her colleague are vying for writing a weekly column and a stable income, she proposes that her children set her up on dates and she will write about them.  There are some interesting and awkward dates, but it appears that true love might be right under Anna's nose.  I loved this one.  It absolutely hit the spot at the perfect time.

A romance, historical fiction novel and novel of suspense provided a little bit of a everything for me.  I'm working on some middle grade and young adult books right now that I'm also enjoying.  

Friday Five: Less Than A Week Away

 

Friday Five is late....we are at just five days away from Big Sister's wedding and this past weekend we spent helping her and her fiance moving into their new house.  They moved in on Friday and on Saturday morning we headed down to help with cleaning, mowing and raking and bagging leaves.  Middle Sister and some college friends were also in town to watch an XC meet and we ended up all getting pizza together for lunch. We are still trying to get the wedding dress altered (this is due to the fact that Big Sister is tiny - like 4'11" so everything is just too big) and are so lucky that my friend, Heidi, is flexible and willing to work around when the bride is in town.  She will actually be doing one more last minute alteration on Thursday night.  

So, lots of exciting things are going on in our house right now, and I'm still trying to read and be productive at work each day.

I found several things I wouldn't mind wearing or adding to my closet this week:

1.  Lost Trail Cardigan

2.  Women's Tasman Alpine

3.  Fair Isle Crewneck Sweater

4.  Mixed Fair Isle Sweater

5. Tie Neck Blouse

6.  Ruffle Puff Sleeve Peplum Sleeve in Windowpane

7.  Kiana Corduroy Floral Jacket

8.  Sequined A-Line Dress

9.   Barefoot Dreams CozyChic Directional Ribbed Cardigan

10.  Netflix Unsolved Crimes: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey

That's it for me this week.  What's caught your eye?

Waiting on Wednesday: Penitence

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature where I highlight a soon to be released novel I can't wait to read.

This week's pick: Penitence by Kristin Koval

Due out: February 18, 2025

Synopsis taken from Amazon:

For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a poignant exploration of love and forgiveness. It’s a suspenseful, addictive page-turner filled with literary insight that compels readers to consider whether the worst thing we’ve ever done is all that defines us.

When a shocking murder occurs in the home of Angie and David Sheehan, their lives are shattered. Desperate to defend their family, they turn to small-town lawyer Martine Dumont for help, but Martine isn’t just legal counsel―she’s also the mother of Angie’s first love, Julian, a now-successful New York City criminal defense attorney. As Julian and Angie confront their shared past and long-buried guilt from a tragic accident years ago, they must navigate their own culpability and the unresolved feelings between them.

Spanning decades, from the ski slopes of rural Colorado to the streets of post-9/11 New York City and back again, Kristin Koval’s debut novel Penitence is an examination of the complexities of familial loyalty, the journey of redemption, and the profound experience of true forgiveness.

Nonfiction November: Pairing Up

 

I've been looking forward to Nonfiction November since last year, and yet here it is nearly halfway through the month and I have yet to post.  

This week Nonfiction November is hosted by Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home and is focused on book pairs.  

Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title (or whatever you want to pair up). Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or (because I’m doing this myself) two books on two different areas have chimed and have a link. You can be as creative as you like! 

At various points while reading I can think of tons of books that would make a good fiction/nonfiction pairing, or adult/YA pair, or nonfiction/nonfiction pair, and yet I find it hard to do when put on the spot.  

I love reading books about the First Ladies and this past year I've found a fictionalized version of Edith Wilson's life as well as a biography.

Edith Wilson's life was interesting to read about - both as a biography and fictionalized.  While I know Wood's book was not entirely factual, I liked that it fleshed things out.  No matter which version, Edith Wilson was remarkable.

One of my favorite memoirs of this year is One Day I'll Grow Up And Be A Beautiful Woman by Abi Maxwell who writes of her child who was born a boy, but transitioned to being a girl. I felt like her viewpoint was so honest and heartfelt- and that she is someone who I would enjoy knowing.

The fiction book by Laurie Frankel, This Is How It Always Is was a novel I read several years ago now, but still think about and also was so impressed with at the time I read it. It makes a very hot-button topic more understandable and provided readers with the ability to see families going through a child's transition as just like the rest of us.  

My third pairing is a nonfiction memoir by Amanda Jones who as a school librarian faced a great deal of public outrage (as well as threatening emails and hate on social media) as she defended the right to leave library books on the shelves and worked hard to stand against book bans. As a school librarian this is a topic that is timely as many of us are also watching our states pass laws to ban books.

Shortly after reading That Librarian, I read the middle grade novel Not Another Banned Book by Dana Alison Levy.  This one really hit home as I lead student book clubs every day at school.  When Ms. Lewiston's gets in trouble for reading Ghost Boys with her students and put on leave by the district, I could envision this happening to me.  This would be a great book to read with my students who are hearing about book bans for the first time and luckily have not been personally affected by them.

I could certainly come up with more book pairings.  If I were thinking ahead I'd make sure to jot them down as the year goes by.  We'll see if I can get that organized in 2025?!

Friday Five: Counting Down to the Big Day

XC Season is over and now I can turn my attention (and worry) to the fact that my oldest daughter is getting married just two weeks from today.  Luckily this is just a small family wedding - followed up with a trip to St. George, Utah, for all of us.  It's all exciting, but we are definitely not close to having everything figured out.  I need to book hair appointments for us before pictures, find a place to eat a nice meal (and make reservations), and finish up with the lady doing alterations on the dresses...one of which hasn't yet arrived for Little Sister.  And figure out how to get everything we need to Utah since that is where we are taking pictures.  I feel like we have basically crammed everything possible into November. 

And yet,  I am still finding some time to read and shop online. Here is the finds from this week:

1.  Multi Stripe Wide Sleeve Sweater

2.  Lou and Grey Hooded Active Puffer Vest

3.  Cropped Fringe-Trim Lady Jacket in Marled Yarn

4.  Arli Cord Shirting

5.  Women's Air Max SC Sneaker

6.  English Factory Fuzzy Argyle Crew-Neck Sweater

7.  Madrid Low Top Sneaker 

8. Frankie Cable Cotton Sweater

9.  Space Dyed Crewneck Sweater

10.  High Waisted Silver Shine OG Loose Jeans

That's it for me this week.  What's caught your eye?

Waiting on Wednesday: Three Days In June

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature where I highlight a soon to be released novel I can't wait to read.

This week's pick: Three Days In June by Anne Tyler

Due out February 11, 2025

Synopsis taken from Amazon:

A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter Debbie is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband Max arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband-to-be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer at the height of her powers.

Friday Five: November is a Busy Month

November has barely begun and we are already starting with plenty of things on our calendar.  The Friday Five was all ready to go but for whatever reason it was saved as a draft and never published.  Every time I thought I might have a moment to look at it on Friday, I was interrupted. And yesterday was spent at the state XC meet watching Little Sister run. It was her last meet of her high school career, and our last meet as high school XC parents (we've spent eleven years cheering our daughters on).  

Little Sister had an excellent freshman year, but followed it up with some real struggles her sophomore year until about midway through this season.  And she finished up her high school career on a high note: running a season best time (cutting 35 seconds off her season PR) at the state meet, placing 12th and medaling.

 

1.  Nocturnal Stripe Cardi

2.  Blackbird Cardi

3.  By Together American Flag Crewneck

4.  Striped Fair Isle Everyday Sweater

5.  AE Festive Feels Sweater

6.  Emilia Pullover

7.  Old Navy High Waisted Silver Shine OG Loose Jeans

8.  Meg Velvet High Rise Wide Leg Pants

9.  Ski Destination Vintage Sunday Crew

10.  The Diplomat Season 2 on Netflix

That's it for me this week.  What's caught your eye?