Finished Mount Vernon Love Story

It was really quite a lovely read, especially if you like historical romance.  This was written early in her career and was well researched.  You need to understand that the copyright date was 1968, though. an be aware that the story nearly ignores the elephant in the room--slavery.  The word "slave" is mentioned twice.  Every other time they are "servants." and are, as was typical in that time (and before), portrayed as devoted and happy.  Read it for the romance---

I have now started People of the Thunder, by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear.  The is the second half of the story started in the last of their books I read, People of the Weeping Eye.  It starts right where it left off, and gives enough exposition to help me remember the last book.  This story may included some of their most fascinating characters yet.

Finished SKIN GAME

Stayed up late last night finishing this.  Page 1 through page 600 non-stop action.  Whew!  I slept until 10:00 this morning.  This 15th book in the series may be the best so far.  LOVE this series.

I'll be picking up a new book from the top of my Mary Higgins Clark pile tonight.  Out of the frying pan into the fire.  ⤗

Well, not frying pan to fire after all.  The next book on my Mary Higgins Clark pile is Mount Vernon Love Story, a biographical story of George Washington's relationship with Martha (known by her loved ones as Patsy.)  Turns out they were not as stiff or perfect as the legend says.  The technique she is using to tell the story keeps it moving and emphasizes how amazing our first peaceful turnover of leadership was.

Finished PICTURE MISS SEETON

Very British--vocabulary.  So that takes some work as does the author's tendency to report dreams, musings, and gossip in the same font as the action and without quotation marks.  Add to that the copyright date of 1969, and you just have to take some time to get used to the style.  Once you have, it is hysterical (in the very funny sense) as well as being both plot and character driven.  Loved it.

I am now about to start the 15th book in the Dresden series by Jim Butcher, Skin Game.  Harry Dresden was the only practicing wizard in the Chicago phone book (or maybe listed on line for Chicago to bring it up to date.)  Now he is the Winter Knight (subject to Mab) and has a demon growing in his head that will break out in three days killing him.  Mab will cure him, but only after he has completed an impossible mission with some of the worst beings in the universe....

Finished FLIRT

A short, fast read book, but even so, it was not innocuous.  Mayhem abounds, kicked off by what had appeared to be perfectly innocent flirting.  Fun.

Have just started Picture Miss Seeton, by Heron Carvic.  Set in England, it is pretty old (c 1968) and is the first of at least ten books in the series.  Miss Seeton is not (at least yet) a Miss Marple type character since she is quite conservative and does not look for or appreciate interaction with the law or controversy.  It was just a coincidence that she was walking past a man who appeared to be hitting his girlfriend, and she, considering such behavior rude, quite naturally poked him with her umbrella.  It was just a coincidence that she got a good look at his face and that, when it was discovered that he had just stabbed the woman to death, Miss Seeton, being a retired art teacher, was quite capable to drawing his face.  Now she is the only witness and the murderer is known to police as criminal, but still at large.

Finished DEMELZA by Winston Graham

It pretty well followed season 2 of Poldark on PBS.  There were other stories, though, and far better explained stories.  I'm glad I read it an am looking forward to book 3 of the series.

I have now started reading Flirt, the 18th novel in Laurel. K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series.  It opens with her consulting with a difficult client who seems seriously unwilling to take "No" for an answer.  And he is surprising worldly as well as intelligent.

This is the shortest of Laurell K. Hamilton's books that I have encountered.

Stopped about 1/4 through THE WITCHES

I will come back to it.  Sometimes it is quite readable and a few pages fly by, but then it becomes prodigious with unnecessarily large words and odd phrasing.  There are times I read sentences two and three times to try to understand them--sometimes I gave up.  At this point, less than twenty people have been accused (one a five year old girl) and no one has been executed, but, I've seen that jail.  I don't know how anyone could live in it long.

I have now begun Demelza by Winston Graham, the second book in the Poldark series.  However, after seeing Sunday's episode on PBS, I'm disgusted with the story and am considering quitting!  I'll see how this goes...

Finished Dick Van Dyke's Autobiography

The character we saw on the screen (large and small) is the same person who wrote this book--warm, funny, caring, gentle, family man.  A very fun read with lots of information about the shows as well as the family.  A joy to read.

I have just started The Witches:  Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem by Stacy Schiff.  I can't find it listed on Goodreads, and when I tried to add it manually, it disappeared immediately after I added it--it had taken me awhile to add, so I'm not going to try again.  Not sure I was going to find it interesting since I have gone to Salem and saw reenacted witch trials there, saw the prison the accused were kept in (being hung would have been a relief), taught The Crucible, and read a number of novels and one non-fiction piece about this already.  But this non-fiction work starts by explaining the difficulting in digging out what happened from sparse and contradictory records and I find I am already interested.  That said, I may read this in four sections just because of the smallness of the print and the fairly dryness of the material.



I went back to Goodreads today (one day after posting the above) and found it--perhaps because I had added it?