This was an interesting reading month, with a diverse cast of books, and more audiobooks than usual for me. What I read:

• Five Strangers by E.V. Adamson – I love discovering a new mystery author, especially a crime writer from England, as their mysteries are just a bit different from American ones. We meet the five strangers when they all witness a murder/suicide in a public park on Valentine’s Day. One of our narrators, Jen, is a journalist who continues to dig into the facts around the case. Her best friend Bex is the other main narrator, who is supporting her friend as she tries to recover from what she witnessed. But both women, and all the other witnesses, have secrets that begin to unfold. By the end of this, I could barely catch my breath waiting for how it would end.
• A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung – I recently found Anderson Cooper’s podcast on grief, called All There Is. Nichole Chung, the author of this memoir and other things, was a guest on the podcast. She is a wife and a mother who has lost both of her parents. She is a Korean-American woman who was adopted by a white couple and raised through their beautiful faith and financial struggles. By the time she is married, expecting her first child, and connecting with her birth family, her father gets ill quickly. This memoir gives us stories from her childhood as well as the very sad decline of her father, without comprehensive medical insurance or quality care, and then the surprise diagnosis of her mother, during COVID. This was very hard to read, as she puts all of her own fears and pain on the page. However, she is a beautiful writer, and as a woman who has lost both of my parents to cancer too young, I appreciate hearing the stories of others who have walked a sad, similar path. This was very cathartic for me, as I cried my way through her grief and my own.
• The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny [Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #19] – I simply adore this series. Louise Penny is a gifted crime writer, who combines serious, propelling mysteries with heart-felt community. These books, while tense as we wait to see if Gamache and Beauvoir and Lacoste will solve the crimes, are full of family, love, joy, and care. In this, we revisit a place we last traveled with Armand and Jean-Guy during darker days, a monestary on an island. We are racing around, trying to figure out who the bad guys are, and how the bad guys are plotting to take down civilization through drinking water. I couldn’t read the end fast enough, even though I knew I would be sad when it was over because now I have to wait at least a year for the next in the series. The good news is that the end says that “The Black Wolf” is the next book.
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier [audiobook] – Each November, the Secret Stuff Book Club I am a member of reads a “Classic”. I have read them, to enhance my own reading experiences, but I have hate-read most of them and not enjoyed them. At the last minute, I decided to download the audiobook version of this from my library and I LOVED the whole experience! The narration was so well done, with wonderful British accents helping the world of Manderley come alive for me. We meet our unnamed narrator in Monte Carlo, where she meets the recently widowned Max de Winter. After just a brief period of time getting to know each other formally, he suddenly proposes to her, and off they go to his mansion, Manderley, in England. Our narrator is many years his junior, and from a very different social caste and background, making her transition challenging. Add to that the fact taht Max’s first wife, the beloved Rebecca, died tragically in a boat accident less than a year ago, and the marriage is frought with tension, as is the house, with all it’s reminders of Rebecca. This was such a well done tale that kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end.
• A Thousand Times Before by Asha Thanki – I often say I prefer plot-driver over character-driven novels. However, I do love a good multigenerational, sweeping saga that takes us across storylines. This story takes us through life in India from the 1940’s through the 1980’s, as the country went through political upheaval (that I had to reserach on my own because not enough specific details were provided for me, who knew next to nothing about the history). During these times, we follow the lives of one family, especially the women, through the tapestry that sews their pictures and connects their memories. This was a beautiful story told slowly and with nods to previous generations, told through the narrator’s perspective, from the current day, looking back to her mother, grandmother and greatgrandmother’s lives.
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho [audiobook] – I read this book, in Spanish, when I was living in Spain 25 years ago. When I was recently looking for a good audiobook for my commute, I decided to listen to this to see if I remember anything, or if I understood anything back then. I had vague memories of a journey through the African desert, and I wasn’t wrong! This is a philosophical journey as much as a physical one. The main character starts out as a sheperd in Spain whose dream is to find his treasure at the pyramids of Egpyt. He takes a long journey from one to another, meeting interesting characters along the way who advise him to follow omens and do what his heart tells him, seeking his destiny. This is all about the mental journey, self discovery, and the good in people.
• Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors – In this family saga we meet the Blue sisters, Avery, Bonnie, Nicky and Lucky. Raised by parents who didn’t know how to parent, Avery, as the eldest, takes on the caretaker role for her sisters. We flash from their early years to the present, as we get to know each of their strengths and their major flaws. We quickly learn that Nicky has passed away, and we follow the family’s grief through the following year. This was beautiful, bittersweet, and full of love.
• Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell [audiobook] – I heard Gladwell interviewed on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast, and remembered how much I loved The Tipping Point. I was excited to listen to his latest book, delving into epidemics and social engineering. The stories he tells, along with the statistics, are fascinating. He explains how superspreaders created the COVID-10 pandemic, as well as the opioid crisis. The Harvard admission stories made me sick, yet were not surprising.
• The Thursday Murder Club (#1) by Richard Osman [1/2 audiobook]- I have heard about this series for years on the Currently Reading podcast, but just finally got a copy from my library (both ebook and audiobook, and I used them both). This is the first mystery, set in a retirement home, where 4 senior citizens set out to solve murders. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are likable, smart, quirky characters who have connections and past knowledge that gets them way more information than they should have, as they try to solve past and current murders. There is humor, friendship, and love mixed in with hijinks and crime. I enjoyed this and look forward to reading more in the series.

Favorite Books

Fiction: The Grey Wolf, Rebecca

Nonfiction: Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering