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| Redbud |
April, as we know, is the cruelest month. It was truly exhausting, capped at the end by a 20-minute storm that caused a two-day-seemed-like-fifty-days power outage. The power outage broke the camel’s back – the schedule I was hurtling through came to a screeching halt. For several days now I haven’t been able to concentrate on reading any book.
There were some good things about April. I was cheered/challenged to be able to sing in two worship services for Holy Week. Our Passover seder was wonderful - our son invited several friends, and our daughter and son-in-law were there too. The pastor preached her sunrise service Easter sermon -- about birds -- as the birds chirped around us. The local grassroots groups had a well-attended Empty Seat Town Hall, and our own grassroots group held a successful and joy-producing sidewalk rally, on my dear departed aunt’s birthday. But all along there is the fascist shit show, and then the power outage just depleted me.
Thank goodness for cozy mysteries and short books. There were also two DNFs but I forgot to record the opening lines.
The opening lines, without further ado:
Book 1
“Give it back,” muttered Isabel Dalhousie.
Book 2
December 1981
I stood on the lacquered floor—a small woman in black with a rectangular name badge on my chest.
Book 3
The green school bus shuddered while it hugged the curve leading to the main entrance of The Abbey: Senior Living.
Book 4
More and more people each year are going abroad for Christmas. To celebrate the season of goodwill towards men, British Airways slams an extra one hundred and four pounds on each air ticket. But the airports are still jammed.
The titles and authors revealed:
Book 1
The Novel Habits of Happiness (Isabel Dalhousie #10)
Alexander McCall Smith
272 pages • first pub 2015
fiction mystery philosophy
Book 2
The Lion Women of Tehran
Marjan Kamali
327 pages • first pub 2024
fiction historical literary
I rated this as “very good” although the reading of it was fraught with anxiety. Everything that happens in this book to these Iranian women seems possible now in the US. It is not a spoiler to say that it’s mostly not positive. I kept reading because the characters and the plot are lively and realistic, as real as I can imagine them from my American point of view. This book is very popular - it took ages for the Kindle version from the library to be available. All kinds of content warnings - rape, sexual abuse, sex discrimination, and more. I read it for book club at the end of April.
Book 3
Old Habits Die Hard (Nun the Wiser Mysteries Book 1)
By Melissa Westemeier
Great characters, fun to read. Review here.
Book 4
A Highland Christmas (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 16)
By M.C. Beaton
160 pages • first pub 1999
fiction mystery
I decided to give M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth series another try, choosing an earlier book in the series. This one is quite short, which was just what I needed. This is the second book I have read this year containing a character named Morag, a name I am not sure how to pronounce. And I just realized that both books are by M.C. Beaton. The mysteries in this book involved stolen Christmas lights and a missing cat. Charming and light.
DNF #1
Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne
by Wilda C. Gafney
302 Print Pages. 2017
Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
More difficult to read than I had imagined it would be. It’s a scholarly work. But I loved the opening! Which you can’t read because I forgot to note it down.
DNF #2
The Guncle (The Guncle #1)
By Steven Rowley
326 pages • first pub 2021
fiction contemporary lgbtqia+
I got a third of the way through before the library snatched back the kindle version. But I was not that interested, tbh. A lot of talk about show business. I liked the portrayal of relationships lost, but couldn’t keep track of who was whose sibling. That is probably more me than the writing.
2 comments:
Oh, I loved Guncle! I thought it was so endearing and charming and sweet. Not at all the book I expected to read, but in a good way.
THANK YOU for the generous review!
I really hope May is more pleasant than April was!
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