Mrs. Porter Calling

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

Mrs. Porter Calling: The Emmy Lake Chronicles, Book Three by AJ Pearce

In London in 1943, Bunty and her friend Emmy are living in a large house belonging to Bunty’s grandmother. Soon they invite Thelma, who works the switchboard with Emmy at the Fire Service, to move in, along with her three lively children, George, Margaret, and Stanley. Thelma’s husband is oversea with the British Navy, while Emmy’s new husband Charles is with the Army in North Africa.

The house has a large yard with a rundown shed where the kids hope to keep a guinea pig, and possibly chickens. Harold, a family friend, helps fix up the shed. Thelma and Emmy hope that Harold and Bunty will become more than friends.

This all sounds like a very cheerful and charming World War II home front novel, and it is, in parts. However, Emmy’s day job, as an advice columnist for Woman’s Friend magazine, where her kind brother-in-law Guy, is the editor, is increasingly stressful. The magazine has a glamorous new owner, the Honourable Cressida Porter, who sweeps into the magazine office with her tiny dog, planning to modernize the magazine and the office to be more fashionable and upbeat. The staff, with one exception, are horrified and try to keep the practical content and advice their faithful readers love.

Then the war again leaves its mark, with a sudden death. A wonderful group of friends and family take care of each other in the aftermath while the magazine staff make a stand. Heartwarming and compelling reading, but sadder than Yours Cheerfully (Book 2), though not as tense as Dear Mrs. Bird (Book 1).

The White Lady

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

This historical novel set in Belgium, France, and England, is not part of the author’s celebrated Maisie Dobbs mystery series. Featuring Elinor White, or Linni DeWitt, this is a story set in three different time periods, all narrated by Elinor. In 1947, Elinor is living in a cottage in Shacklehurst, and has a flat in London. When her neighbors Rose & Jim Mackie and especially their young daughter Susie are threatened by members of a London gang, Elinor draws on her connections from work with the SOE (Special Operations Executive) during World War II, which sent her to Belgium with Steve Warren, now a Detective Chief Inspector. As a girl, Linni and her older sister Cecily, along with their English mother Charlotte, worked with the Resistance in Belgium during World War I, then later escaped to London to live with her grandmother. The Belgium setting during the two world wars made for a very interesting though very dark setting. There are a number of dramatic plot twists and turns, with a few too many coincidences. Elinor is a fascinating character, and this is a compelling read. Readalikes include books by Cara Black and Laurie King, along with The Bookbinder by Pip Williams.

Our Wild Farming Life

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

Our Wild Farming Life: Adventures on a Scottish Highland Croft by Lynn Cassells and Sandra Baer

Two women with no farming experience, one from Northern Ireland and one of Swiss and Scottish heritage, apprentice as Rangers for the National Trust. As a couple, they buy Lynbreck Croft in the Scottish Highlands, with gorgeous, hilly views. At first, they live on the croft and commute to work, but really want to live and work on their 150 acres of land. They plant many, many trees, and acquire some native breeds of chickens, pigs, cattle, bees, and briefly, sheep. Sandra and Lynn plant a large kitchen garden, and apply for grants and loans. It sounds like extremely hard work in a very scenic setting. Selling farm produce shares and later offering farm tours and classes and appearing on the 3rd season of BBC2’s This Farming Life, along with sales of this book, help make their vision a reality. It’s still just the pair of them, continuing the hard work of living close to their land. Inspiring, this was a quick, memorable read

Murder Before Evensong

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

Murder Before Evensong: A Canon Clement Mystery by The Reverence Richard Coles

This English village mystery, the first featuring Canon Daniel Clement, is set in Champton. A reference to Celine Dion winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland establishes the year as 1988. Daniel Clement has been the rector of Champton for 8 years. He shares the rectory with his dachshunds Como and Hilda, and his opinionated and outspoken mother Audrey. She often asks the questions Daniel is too polite to ask. Daniel’s younger brother Theo is visiting, studying up for a television role as a clergyman.

Some members of Daniel’s congregation are upset that Daniel wants to remove two back pews from the church to install a restroom. The Flower Guild ladies want a room with a sink, but not a lavatory. Others claim that that the pews are very old and mustn’t be removed, or perhaps just don’t want to lose their favorite pew.

When a body is discovered in the church, followed by another death, Daniel investigates to discover what secrets have led to the deaths. Daniel and the dogs are very good company, and his mother and brother are entertaining as well. I look forward to Canon Clement’s next mystery. Murder Before Evensong will be published in July in the U.S. and is already a bestseller in Great Britain.

Readalikes include The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood, Isabel Puddles Abroad by M.V. Byrne, and Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder club series.

100 Morning Treats

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

100 Morning Treats by Sarah Kieffer

Sarah Kieffer’s first cookbook, 100 Cookies, is a favorite of mine, and I especially like her recipes for Neapolitan Cookies and Cinnamon Roll Blondies. I’ve been in more of a savory baking mode than sweet lately. I’ve made and can easily recommend four recipes from her brand-new cookbook, 100 Morning Treats: Ginger Orange Carrot Bread, Toasting Bread, Crème Fraîche, and especially the Overnight Crème Fraîche Waffles. This recipe makes quite a few waffles, and there are still some in my freezer.
Next up are probably Chocolate Pudding Bundt Cake and Cinnamon Scones. There are quite a few other recipes I’d like to try, including Milk Chocolate Rye Bread and Popovers with Fig Butter. Sarah’s recipe directions are clearly written, and there are one or more color photos for most of the recipes. Many of her delicious recipes, including the Ginger Orange Carrot Bread, can be found at Vanilla Bean Blog.

Happy Baking!
Brenda

Life on the Mississippi

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck

Perfect reading for armchair travel and history buffs, by the author of the entertaining The Oregon Trail. With lots of help and plenty of advice, both good and bad, Rinker takes a year to build the flatboat Patience. With a varied crew, Rinker spent four months in 2016 traveling the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Many people told Rinker that it couldn’t be done, especially navigating the mouth of the Wabash River and dealing with the commercial barge traffic on the Mississippi. Chapters about the Ohio River portion of the journey show his fondness for the journey, especially the kind folks he meets in Newburgh, Indiana, and other river towns. There are broken ribs and other mishaps, but Rinker is most worried about keeping the boat and its crew supplied with fuel and water. The Mississippi River is certainly more challenging to travel, including the rip rap embankments, but even there Rinker encounters helpful tug and barge captains. This is a compelling, memorable, and sometimes lighthearted tale.

Brenda

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson

Maggie has a boring job selling tickets with three awful coworkers at an amazing place – The Tower of London. Occasionally she has to take the day’s ticket sales to a safe in a basement that’s almost certainly haunted. Running out of the basement one evening, Maggie runs straight into what feels like a lamp post, but is really Freddie, one of the King’s Guards, holding a wooden box. It is not a meet cute moment, though it is memorable. One day when Maggie’s ex-boyfriend Bran shows up at the Tower to try to persuade her to take him back, Freddie frightens Bran away.

Maggie actually lives in the Tower of London, as her father is a Yeoman Warder. She meets Freddie’s mates, fellow Grenadier Guards. The guys overserve Maggie and persuade her to go on five dates through a popular dating app (though not with them). Most of the dates are pretty awful. Occasionally Maggie has a hangover after these dates and runs through the Tower grounds on her way to work, with her unruly red hair, clumsiness, and tendency to blush captured on security cameras, to her chagrin. I intensely disliked Maggie’s ex and her coworkers but really like her dad and the other Yeoman Warders and the Grenadier Guards. Fun fact: the author has red hair and lives in the Tower of London. Readalikes include Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler and Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston.

Brenda

The Mountain in the Sea

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

This near-future science fiction novel is about first contact, and artificial intelligence. Evrim is the first true android, and is exiled to Con Do, a remote Vietnamese island, whose population had been relocated earlier. Dr. Ha Nguyen is a marine biologist who’s arrived on Con Dao to study a colony of long-lived octopuses. Shapesinger is an octopus, who may be a tool user, and might even write symbols. The octopuses are not entirely benign, and can defend themselves.

Corporations seem to have a lot of control in this future Earth. Artificial intelligence of all types and sizes can pilot a fishing vessel as well as deliver poison darts. There are auto monks who help sea turtles on the beach, and artificial online friends. Eiko and Son are forced labor on one of the fishing vessels, and Son tells stories about creatures from the sea. In real life, octopuses show intelligence but have fairly short, mostly solitary lives. It’s fascinating to read about what might be different if they develop a culture.

This book was not at all a quick read, and rather dark in parts, but I was fascinated by the various characters, and gradually drawn into an immersive, compelling story.

Kim Stanley Robinson also writes cli-fi, or climate fiction, but isn’t as character-focused. There are a number of recent novels featuring octopuses, but I’d suggest the non-fiction The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery.

Brenda

The Road to Roswell

/ Book Girl / Leave a comment

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis

This is an engaging, witty romantic comedy with UFOs and an alien nicknamed Indy. Francie is on her way from the Albuquerque airport to Roswell, New Mexico, where her friend Serena is planning a wedding. This is Serena’s fourth fiancé, and Francie has talked her out of the other weddings. The wedding is delayed by a possible UFO sighting. Francie, in an unfortunate glow-in-the dark bridesmaid dress, has a close encounter with Indy, and is forced to drive an SUB out of town and into the desert. Fortunately for her, Indy collects other passengers, beginning with charming con man Wade. The others include a UFO chaser, elderly Eula Mae, who likes to gamble, and a retiree with a luxury RV. While Indy is looking for something, or perhaps someone, the group ends up in, of course, Las Vegas, then in the middle of a spectacular thunderstorm.

Francie, Wade and the others have the unexpected journey of a lifetime, full of heart and humor in this funny and heartwarming story. I’m so happy to read a new novel from the award-winning author of time-travel and screwball comedy novels such as The Winds of Marble Arch, Crosstalk, and The Doomsday Book. This is perfect for fans of Men in Black who want less violence and more humor and witty dialogue. Indy will win many hearts; I won’t attempt any description so as not to spoil the fun for readers. This will be published on June 27.

Brenda