The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel

Domestic thrillers are so much fun! I love the suspense of watching a husband and wife circle around each other, hiding secrets, and working out their own agendas. Just like I am glad I don't actually have to solve murder mysteries, I am happy I don't have to live through the drama these couples inflict on themselves. But I do enjoy imagining their anxiety-producing adventures through a good story. 

The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel is a perfect example. It is the story of Kate and Matt, who are making their unconventional marriage work for them. Kate writes erotic fiction and Matt travels a lot for his work as a PR guru. The only thing is, Kate is no longer interested in sex. So they work out a deal that Matt can have one night stands when he goes for work  trips, as long as he tells Kate about his encounters so she can use them in her books. 

I admit, this premise didn't appeal to me. I don't read erotica, or even racy romance books. But Kusel is a masterful storyteller who pulled me into the tale, despite my reservations. And there was nothing too graphic in the sex bits, which were also blunted by being second hand accounts. There are no actual "sex scenes." Instead, there is only Matt telling Kate what happened and Kate considering what to include in her books.

Kate and Matt's marital workaround goes fine until a free-spirited widow moves into the neighborhood with her daughter, who soon becomes best friends with Kate and Matt's daughter. Annie seems like the breath of fresh air the neighborhood, and Kate, needed. But Annie is hiding a secret that could upset the equilibrium Kate and Matt have established between them. The suspense builds to an exciting and unexpected conclusion. 

All in all, The Widow on Dwyer Court is a clever thriller, packed with entertainment. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

[A] sexy psychological thriller that will leave you breathless.

Thirty-six-year-old stay-at-home soccer mom Kate Burke is happily married to Matt Parsons, although their marriage looks very different behind closed doors. Kate is no longer interested in having sex with her husband, so, while they still love each other madly, they make an arrangement: Matt can have one-night stands with other women on work trips, but when he returns home, he has to tell Kate about them--every juicy detail.

Because Kate has a secret life writing erotic romance novels, and Matt's adulterous affairs are her bread and butter.

The family equilibrium is upset, however, when Annie Meyers, an eccentric young widow, moves to town with her daughter. At first, Kate is smitten with this wild, witty woman, who gives her a much-needed break from the other picture-perfect suburban moms, although she's not sure how much of her secret life she's willing to share with her new friend. But, it turns out Annie has secrets too--big ones that could destroy all their lives.

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” Henry kept chanting the line out loud over the roar of the helicopter’s engine.

-- from Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan.

I loved the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, so was excited when my book club picked this for our next discussion. I'm now well into it and have been enjoying it, but not nearly as much as the CRA trilogy. Maybe the shine has worn off Kwan's style, or maybe this one is just a little too much. It's still a ton of fun, and I am very happy to be reading it, but it doesn't feel fresh and exciting like his first books.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Lies and Weddings:

Eden couldn’t fathom what the countess was referring to, but she knew the only appropriate response at this moment was to nod. She had been aware since a very young age that the countess didn’t consider the Tongs as equal to the Greshams —as the family doctor, Thomas Tong was barely a notch above the butler, and Eden merely a playmate for her children when it suited them.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel has a problem: the legendary Gresham Trust has been depleted by decades of profligate spending, and behind all the magazine covers and Instagram stories manors and yachts lies nothing more than a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution, put forth by Rufus’s scheming mother, is for Rufus to attend his sister’s wedding at a luxury eco-resort, a veritable who’s-who of sultans, barons, and oligarchs, and seduce a woman with money.
. . . .
Can the once-great dukedom rise from the ashes? Or will a secret tragedy, hidden for two decades, reveal a shocking twist?

Frances Parkinson Keyes -- FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

Frances Parkinson Keyes

I have a stack of unread (by me) Frances Parkinson Keyes books, which reminded me of how much I used to enjoy her books. Now, looking at this stack makes me want to dive in and read more of them! (Ignore the Mildred Jordan book that snuck into this stack.)

Frances Parkinson Keyes was a prolific American author with an interesting life. She was married to a US Senator between World War I and II and wrote memoirs about her life as a Senator’s wife, as well as several other books. After he died in 1938, she wrote over 40 more books before her death in 1970. Although she grew up in New England, she spent the last 20 years of her life living in New Orleans and many of her novels are set in Louisiana and the Deep South. Several explore Creole history and culture.

Keyes (pronounced like “eyes” instead of “keys” although I’ve never heard anyone say it that way), wrote short stories, novels, memoirs, history books, travelogue, children’s books, inspirational fiction, poetry, and even a cookbook. Her novels are mostly family sagas, romance novels, historical fiction, and the like. Most, like Dinner at Antoine’s, are excellent entertainment. A few, like Blue Camelia about the history of rice farming in Louisiana, would bore your socks off. It was hitting the Blue Camelia wall that put a stop to my FPK jag a while back. But seeing this stack on my TBR shelf makes me want to take it up again.

She's fallen off the radar, although she was enormously poplar during her lifetime. Fans of mid-century female authors would love Keyes. I always think that, if Dean Street Press included American authors in its Furrowed Middlebrow series, Keyes would be a perfect fit.

Here is a list of FPK's novels. I will never find and read all of her many books, but I plan to at least try to read her novels. Some may be too hard to find, although I'm sure they will turn up at library sales if I keep looking. 

• The Old Gray Homestead (aka Sylvia Carey) (1919)

• The Career of David Noble (1924)

• Queen Anne's Lace (1930)

• Lady Blanche Farm: A Romance of the Commonplace (1931)

• Senator Marlowe's Daughter (1933) 

• The Safe Bridge (1934)

• Honor Bright (1936)

• Parts Unknown (1938)

• The Great Tradition (1939)

• Fielding's Folly (1940)

• All That Glitters (1941)

• Crescent Carnival (1942)

• Also the Hills (1943)

• The River Road (1945)

• Came a Cavalier (1947)

• Dinner at Antoine's (1948) FINISHED

• Joy Street (1950) TBR SHELF

• Steamboat Gothic (1952) TBR SHELF

• The Ambassadress (1953)

• The Royal Box (1954) TBR SHELF

• Blue Camellia (1957) FINISHED

• The Golden Slippers (aka Victorine) (1958) TBR SHELF

• Station Wagon In Spain (aka The Letter from Spain) (1959) FINISHED

• The Explorer (1964) FINISHED

• The Chess Players: A Novel of New Orleans and Paris (1960)

• The Heritage (1960) TBR SHELF

• Shelter (1961)

• Madame Castel's Lodger (1962) TBR SHELF

• I, the King (1966) TBR SHELF

April 2025 Reading Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

April 2025 Monthly Wrap Up

April was gorgeous here in Portland. We had April showers, but they brought April flowers. The magnolias, cherry trees, camelias, dogwoods, and all the rest seemed particularly stunning this year, maybe because we never got an ice storm or hard freeze. 

As beautiful as the flowers were, they didn’t distract me from reading 14 books last month. Several were fantastic, all were worthwhile. There wasn't a clunker in the mix.

See any here that you’ve read or want to? 

• Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George. This is book 15 of 18 in her Inspector Lynley/Barbara Havers series. I greatly enjoy the books but am determined to finish the series. 

• Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell. My favorite of the month! Harriman was an intriguing person who lived an extraordinary life. She was was married to Winston Churchill's son Randolph during WWII, then Broadway producer Leland Hayward, and finally banker and diplomat Avril Harriman. She had many other love affairs and was quite the jet setter. She was Bill Clinton's Ambassador to France and died in Paris in 1997, just shy of her 77th birthday. My husband gave this to me for Christmas and I included it in my TBR 25 in '25 list. 

• The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with [and by] Nigel Slater. This is the first of four "Kitchen Diaries" books by Slater. I started off intending to read it over the course of the year, but couldn't hack that pace. I bolted it. I love his books, this one included. That said, I am not fond of his baking recipes, which feature a lot -- A LOT -- of candied citrus peel and dried fruit. I am not a fan of either. This was another TBR 25 in '25 for me.

• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim. I've been intending to read this classic for a long time and finally found a beautiful Folio edition (without slipcase) at a friends of the library shop. I waited until April to read it, of course. I know I will reread this one. This could count as my Italy book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge, although I'd like to find and read a book by an Italian author. 

• Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories by D.C. Helmuth. A friend gave me this for Christmas and it is fascinating.

• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller. My book club picked this for our April meeting. It is a sad, sometimes frustrating, story but we all loved the rural gothic vibe.  

• Ripley Underground and Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith, books two and three in her Ripley series. I read The Talented Mr. Ripley a while back, but wasn't moved to read the sequels right away. The first one left me cold. I like the bad guys to get caught in the mystery books I read, not crime fiction about bad guys getting away with murder. But I had these two in the same omnibus edition, and I'm a completist, so I read them. Interesting stories, but not my favorite. I think there are two or three more in the series, but I've had enough. 

• Penmarric by Susan Howatch was thoroughly engrossing. I love a big, shaggy, family saga and those written in the 1970s are the best of the. I didn’t know going into it that it is a retelling King Henry II’s family history. Clever!

• Literary Feasts: Inspired Eating from Classic Fiction by Sean Brand. I wanted to like this one more, but found it a little too fluffy. Still, it was a fun, quick read. It was one of the three little pipsqueak books I read.

• Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why It Matters Today by Christina Hoff Sommers. This was another pipsqueak in size, but it packed a punch in content. It includes the history of an overlooked side of early feminist efforts and argues for a more inclusive definition of feminism today.  

• I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano. This was the third pipsqueak I read last month. It was funnier than I thought it would be.

NOT PICTURED -- AUDIOBOOKS

• The Body in the Castle Well by Martin Walker. This is book 12 of 18 in his Bruno, Chief of Police series of mysteries set in a small French village. This is another series I am focusing on finishing. 

• The People We Keep by Allison Larkin. This is my book club's pick to discuss in May. Found family stories about teen agers are not my favorite cup of tea, but this one was well done and kept my attention.

How was your reading month? Any knockouts? What are you looking forward to reading in May?

The Trespasser by Tana French -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Trespasser by Tana French

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment.

I blew it again last week, completely forgetting to post Book Beginnings until Sunday. I figured it was too late by then. I visited my mom over Easter weekend and came back Thursday with such an airplane cold that I was completely out of it. I slept through posting on Thursday or even a late post on Friday. Sorry! And thanks for sticking with me.  

MY BOOK BEGINNING

My ma used to tell me stories about my da.

-- from the prologue to The Trespasser by Tana French.

The case comes in, or any way it comes in to us, on a frozen dawn in the kind of closed-down January that makes you think the sun’s never going to drag itself back above the horizon. 

-- from Chapter 1of The Trespasser.

The Trespasser  the sixth and final book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. Unlike other mystery series, most of the books feature a different detective or pair of detectives from the homicide department, with some overlap to connect the stories.

I'm ambivalent about the series. I think the writing is magnificent (that opening sentence!) and the atmosphere is heavy and thick, which I love. I also like that the stories are tense, but not gory or sexually creepy. 

On the other hand, there is always some fundamental flaw (for me) that makes the books almost unbearable. In a couple, the detective personally knew the victim but never disclosed that fact during the entire investigation. In one, the detective looked so much like the victim that she was able to move in with the victims roommates without them realizing she was a cop, not their roommate. Really? I almost gave up when book four delivered two flaws. First, the detective's sister was involved, but he covered it up. Second, the detective did no basic crime scene work throughout the case, only to solve the case through basic crime scene work. Don't drag me through 450 pages for a mystery that could have been solved by page 100. I persevered through book five, even though the story took place in a boarding school and 90% of the characters were teenagers. This is a personal flaw of my own, but I don't like stories about teenagers.

But I am a completist, so I want to finish the series. I'm about halfway through The Trespasser and, so far, there is no major flaw! I like this one. Unreservedly, so far. No ambiguity. Go figure.    

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Trespasser:

The first few games, you have a blast, get your guy panting along after you like a puppy chasing his chew toy. Then you play one game too many, and you’ve got a house full of Murder Ds.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

[B]eing on the Murder Squad is nothing like Detective Antoinette Conway dreamed it would be. Her partner, Stephen Moran, is the only person who seems glad she’s there. The rest of her working life is a stream of thankless cases, vicious pranks, and harassment. Antoinette is savagely tough, but she’s getting close to the breaking point.

Their new case looks like yet another by-the-numbers lovers’ quarrel gone bad. Aislinn Murray is blond, pretty, groomed-to-a-shine, and dead in her catalog-perfect living room, next to a table set for a romantic dinner. There’s nothing unusual about her—except that Antoinette’s seen her somewhere before.

Tiny Vices by Linda Dahl -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Tiny Vices by Linda Dahl

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Spring break in Mexico at Rincón Bay began predictably enough.

-- from the prologue, "Sometime in the Spring of 1986," to Tiny Vices by Linda Dahl.

The call, the kind Kathy had learned to dread, came that morning when, for once, she had a chunk of time free to paint or just putter. 

-- from Chapter 1, "Spring 2016."

Tiny Vices is a family drama about four siblings facing middle age and all its challenges. The four decide to go on a beach vacation together, not appreciating how such a trip would stir up memories and their shared history. The book has drawn comparisons to Anne Tyler, the queen of the family drama and a favorite of mine, so I am all in for this one. 

Tiny Vices launches July 22 and is available for pre-order. I was lucky to get an early review copy and plan to read it right away. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Tiny Vices:

Just two years apart, Carina and Kathy shared everything about each other growing up —until boys came into the picture. Kathy couldn't understand what she called Carina's “taste" in men and vice versa.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The Talley siblings are planning a family beach vacation—all four of them together for the first time in years. They suspect it will be their last. And God knows they all need a vacation. But wait, is it really such a good idea? Corina, with her recently diagnosed Alzheimer’s, can hardly manage to get through a day without a debacle. Pete is a just-barely-walking catalog of medical calamities stemming from his longtime addictions. Becca is reeling from her teenage son’s latest misadventure. And then there is Kathy, the eldest. After firmly avoiding going back to Rincón Bay, the beach town just a few hours south of the Arizona–Mexico border that has haunted her since a college spring break trip three decades ago, she’s determined to go back and face her ghosts—though she might be better off facing the fact that her marriage is in serious trouble.

When the Talley siblings and their entourage (two spouses, added on at the last minute, and Corina’s Mexican housekeeper/caregiver) finally land in Rincón Bay, they all encounter unexpected consequences from the wounds inflicted by careless loving—but maybe, too, the seeds of healing and hope.

México: Exploring México’s Quality Wines and Phenomenal Cuisine by Michael C. Higgins -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Exploring Wine Regions -- México: Exploring México’s Quality Wines and Phenomenal Cuisine by Michael C. Higgins, PhD.

Michael Higgins continues his winning streak with México, the fourth book in his Exploring Wine Regions series. México: Exploring México’s Quality Wines and Phenomenal Cuisine, follows his books on Bordeaux, Argentina, and California's Central Coast, matching their high quality and enticing content.

I know that I (and maybe most people) think of tequila and beer, not wine, when considering México’s alcoholic offerings. Higgins is out to change that perception with his insiders’ guide to México’s wineries, vineyards, and wine-related restaurants and accommodations. In a beautiful, coffee-table book format, Higgins provides all the information you need to explore México’s wine regions, enjoying incredible food, specialty lodging, and side adventures along the way.

Higgins concentrates on the three main wine regions in México – Valle de Guadalupe, Guanajuato, and Queretaro – and their sub-regions. He features wineries that are open to the public, make excellent wines, and offer tourism experiences beyond what he calls “step-up-to-the-bar-to-taste.” These experiences are primarily food-related (everyone has to eat and food and wine go together), from restaurants to food and wine parings to cooking classes, but extend to wine-making lessons, horseback riding, water sports, whale watching, shopping, museums, and more. Even teetotalers can appreciate the incredible descriptions of the food and luxury accommodations the book offers.

Like the other books in his series, Higgin’s México book is crammed with gorgeous photographs, tidbits, and asides, making it a perfect armchair travel book for any wine lover as well as an indispensable resource for planning a wine tour of the region. I can't imagine visiting México’s wine country without Higgins's book!


NOTES

You can read my review of Higgins's France and Argentina books here and his California book here. Go to the Exploring Wine Regions website for more information about this book, the series, and Michael Higgins.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Tourism in México is outstanding, we all know it. And the Méxican wine regions are no exception. Wine regions are always very beautiful places. Here, the mountains and valleys are ever so enchanting. The wineries are engaging, have lots of tourism activities available, and are especially inviting and friendly with their warm Méxican hospitality. Both connoisseurs and novices turn to this book series for insider information and inspiration. It is a must-have book for expanding your knowledge of México and its wines. With 340 full-color pages and over 600 photographic images, this fourth edition explores México's regions of Valle de Guadalupe (including Ensenada), Guanajuato (including San Miguel de Allende) and Querétaro (with its rich history).

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The morning sky lightens, and snow falls on the cottage.

-- from Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller.

That is a peaceful opening sentence for what quickly becomes a dark story. Claire Fuller won the Costa Novel of the Year award in 2021 for Unsettled Ground. File that away as a future trivia answer because 2021 was the last year for the Costa Book Awards.   

I'm reading this for book club, am only about a quarter of the way into it, and like it a lot. Slow build, but it is already making me tense. I recently read another of her books, Bitter Orange, and it had the same, deceptively sleepy pace.

See the Publisher's Description below for more details. If you go for a rural gothic vibe, this one is right up your alley! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Unsettled Ground:

Before Maude, all she’d have asked for was another dog – the one they’d had died of old age when Jeanie was fifteen – but Dot had always refused, saying they were too much trouble, too expensive. They’d managed with very little money, and Jeanie has always assumed this was because years ago Rawson had agreed not to charge them rent for the cottage.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

At fifty-one years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world around them. Inside its walls, they make music, and in its garden, they grow everything they need to survive. To an outsider, it looks like poverty; to them, it is home.

But when Dot dies unexpectedly, the world they’ve so carefully created begins to fall apart. The cottage they love, and the security it offered, is taken back by their landlord, exposing the twins to harsh truths and even harsher realities. Seeing a new future, Julius becomes torn between the loyalty he feels towards his sister and his desire for independence, while Jeanie struggles to find work and a home for them both. And just when it seems there might be a way forward, a series of startling secrets from their mother’s past come to the surface, forcing the twins to question who they are, and everything they know of their family’s history.

49 Penguins -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 BOOK THOUGHTS

49 Penguins

Wowza! Nothing could make this bookworm’s heart pitter patter like the direct message I got last week from the Book Corner, the Beaverton Library's friends shop:

“Hi Gilion! We recently got these in and I know you are a vintage Penguin lover, so wanted to send you this in case you haven’t been in recently ☺️”

Um, yes! 

Here's the picture that accompanied this tantalizing message:

Needless to say, I raced over the very next day. They had kindly boxed them all up for me to go through. Several of the green tribands were duplicates of books I already have. (See here for more on my obsession with collecting green Penguin tribands, the "crime fiction" series.)  There were a few orange ones I either already have or really wasn't interested in, so I also set those aside. There was a nice young kid shopping for books who immediately snapped up Madame Bovary. 

All in all, I found 49 I didn’t have and wanted to add to my collection. Forty-nine! I can't believe it. 

Penguin Random House is now one of the "Big Five" mega-publishers. But Penguin Books started in 1935, in London, as a publisher of cheap, mass market paperbacks. They were usually reprints of earlier-published books. For reasons I don't remember, or never knew, most of the Penguin paperbacks from the 1930s and 1940s were not available in the US. As a result, these now-vintage books are hard to find over here. 

The earlier books had the now-iconic covers with a color band at the top and bottom and a white band in the middle with the title and author's name, no illustration. Contemporary readers may be more familiar with the coffee mugs with these color stripes than the original books. These covers became known as "tribands" for the three bands. Green was for mysteries, thrillers, espionage books, and true crime, collectively referred to as crime fiction. Orange was for general fiction, red for drama, pink for travel and adventure, blue for biographies, purple for essays, grey for current events, and yellow for miscellaneous. The standard triband was supplemented in 1949 by "vertical tribands" with the color strips on the left and right and the title, author's name, and illustration on the middle white strip. These are not as iconic, but are easier to find, so I have many of those. 

I kickstarted my collection of vintage Penguins during the pandemic lockdown when I (like so many others) sought retail therapy. I found a job lot of 425 green tribands for sale, bought them, and had them shipped over from England. I had to build new shelves in my home office to hold them all. I have only barely begun to read them. Since then, I buy the old ones when I find them, which isn't often. I have very few of the original tribands -- a handful of orange ones, a few red, one pink, and one yellow. I have never even seen a purple or grey one. I have quite a few of the orange vertical tribands. I like them because they have illustrations on the covers. Most of the illustrations are black and white line drawings, but some are color drawings. 

As the years went on, Penguin changed its cover designs and added other series. The original Penguin Classics was a big series that has continued, with different covers, until today. I have a few of those, but that's a whole different obsession. There are others, like "Marber Grid" covers originally designed by Polish emigré Romek Marber, which Penguin started using in 1961. Graham Greene books with covers illustrated by Paul Hogarth and P.G. Wodehouse book with covers illustrated by "Iconicus" are examples of smaller rabbit holes Penguin collectors can go down. 

I spend a lot of time playing with my Penguin collection. I should spend as much time reading the books as collecting and reading about them. 

I'll post more about my 49 new-to-me vintage Penguins in the next weeks. Check back! 

From Tuscany with Love by Lauretta Avina -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

From Tuscany with Love by Lauretta Avina

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In the tapestry of my life, there exists a thread of duality, a delicate interplay between the old world and the new, the familiar and the foreign.

-- from From Tuscany with Love by Lauretta Avina. Memoir cookbooks are my favorite! Especially one highlighting Italian food. Yum! 

Lauretta Avina was born in Tuscany and emigrated to the USA when she was a child. Her father wanted to leave the relative poverty of Italy and memories of WWII behind, so moved his family to Gilroy, California in 1972.

In From Tuscany with Love, Avina discusses her childhood and family history in Italy and her challenges as a young immigrant in a time when Italians were still looked down on in America. Her stories are intwined with family recipes aimed at the home chef, as well as many photographs. The book isn't a slick production, but it is warmhearted and engaging. I love it and can't wait to try the recipes.   

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from From Tuscany with Love:

Like many other Italian towns during WWII, my hometown in Tuscany was occupied by the Germans. Today, various monuments in my small town and surrounding villages remember those innocent civilians who were murdered by the Nazi Germans.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

From Tuscany with Love is an emotional memoir capturing the heartfelt journey of a scared, little girl from the rolling hills of Lucca to the bustling life in America. Through evocative stories and cherished family recipes, the author pays tribute to the rich culture, love, and flavors that shaped her life. This memoir beautifully blends personal reflections on family, resilience, and the timeless traditions of Tuscan cuisine, offering readers a deeply personal and flavorful look at an immigrant's path to finding a home and a sense of belonging in a new world.

The Secret Place by Tana French -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Secret Place by Tana French

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

She came looking for me.

-- from The Secret Place by Tana French. That's sure an enigmatic opening sentence. It could go about anywhere after that. 

The Secret Place is the fifth of six mystery books in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. In a twist from a typical series, there is no one specific protagonist. The main detective in each book is a different detective from the homicide department in Dublin. 

I'm determined to finish the six books. But I admit it has been more of a chore than I anticipated. French's books, and this series in particular, are incredibly popular. They just do not work for me. The first four bothered me because each story was based on an enormous coincidence that were hard to swallow. In three of them, the lead detective had a personal connection to the crime that, inexplicably, he fails to disclose. In one, the female detective is sent in undercover because she looks EXACTLY like the murder victim. They keep the murder quiet and send the detective to live with the victim's former housemates. Yeah, right. 

The fourth one, Broken Harbor, irritated me so much, I almost gave up on the series for good. It is massively long and full of suspense, but the detective never does any detecting. It goes along for over 450 pages without any basic forensic work before the big resolution based on . . . you guessed it . . . basic forensic work! All the time with the lead detective hiding the fact that his sister is involved. 

It's been three years since I read Broken Harbor because I couldn't face another book that made me want to throw it across the room. But I'm a completist and The Secret Place has been hogging space on my TBR shelf for too long. So I am going to read this one and the last one in the series and wrap this up. The good news is The Secret Place does not involve an unbelievable coincidence. The bad news is that it involves teenagers after a murder at a girls' boarding school. Another of my unpopular opinions is that I do not like books about teenagers. I just can't win with Tana French.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Secret Place:

"Basically, there was no reason anyone would want to kill Chris Harper. Good kid, by all accounts."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

Book Beginnings on Fridays

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

I woke up this morning, realizing I forgot to post Book Beginnings! What a dolt!

Thanks to the few of you who might see this Book Beginnings on Fridays posted so late on Saturday. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I'll skip this week so I can get this up a smidge faster. Then I'll get to work getting next week's post scheduled! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

Same! I'll skip and get back to you next week. Thanks for bearing with me. 

Margery Allingham -- FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

Margery Allingham

Marjory Allingham was one of the four Queens of Crime from the Golden Age of mystery fiction, reigning alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh. Born in 1904, Allingham wrote dozens of mysteries and other books before her death in 1966. Her most famous body of work is a series featuring Albert Campion, gentleman sleuth.

ALBERT CAMPION BOOKS IN ORDER

• The Crime at Black Dudley (1929) TBR SHELF

• Mystery Mile (1930) TBR SHELF

• Look to the Lady (1931) TBR SHELF

• Police at the Funeral (1931) TBR SHELF

• Sweet Danger (1933) TBR SHELF

• Death of a Ghost (1934) TBR SHELF

• Flowers for the Judge (1936) TBR SHELF

• The Case of the Late Pig (1937) TBR SHELF

• Dancers in Mourning (1937) TBR SHELF

• Mr. Campion: Criminologist (1937) (short stories)

• The Fashion in Shrouds (1938) TBR SHELF

• Mr. Campion and Others (1939) (short stories) TBR SHELF

• Traitor's Purse (1941) TBR SHELF

• Coroner's Pidgin (1945) TBR SHELF

• The Casebook of Mr. Campion (1947) (short stories; I can't find on line)

• More Work for the Undertaker (1948) TBR SHELF

• The Tiger in the Smoke (1952) TBR SHELF

• The Beckoning Lady (1955) TBR SHELF

• Hide My Eyes (1958) TBR SHELF

• The China Governess (1962)

• The Mind Readers (1965) TBR SHELF

• Cargo of Eagles (1968) (completed by her husband)

• The Allingham Casebook (1969) (short stories)

• The Allingham Minibus (1973) (short stories) TBR SHELF

• The Return of Mr. Campion (1989) (short stories)

Allingham's husband, Philip Youngman Carter, finished her last Campion novel, Cargo of Eagles, after her death. He went on to write three more Campion novels under his own name. The last of these was completed after Carter's death by Mike Ripley, who continued the series under his own name. 

Allingham also wrote plays for stage and radio, nonfiction, mysteries without Campion, and other fiction. The mystery and fiction books are:

• Blackkerchief Dick (1923) (historical fiction)

• The White Cottage Mystery (1928)

• Rogues' Holiday (1933) (as Maxwell March)

• The Shadow in the House, aka The Devil and Her Son (1935) (as Maxwell March)

• Black Plumes (1940) TBR SHELF

• The Oaken Heart (1941) (autobiographical fiction) ON LIBBY & SPOTIFY

• Dance of the Years (1943) (autobiographical, historical fiction)

• Wanted: Someone Innocent (1946) (novella and short stories)

• Take Two at Bedtime (1950) (two novellas) TBR SHELF

• No Love Lost (1954) (two novellas) TBR SHELF

• The Darings of the Red Rose (1995) (serialized anonymously in 1930)

• Other Man's Danger, aka The Man of Dangerous Secrets (1931) (as Maxwell March)

My goal is to read all of the Albert Campion novels and short stories. I'm not going to try to read all of her books, although I will read the non-Campion short stories included in the collections I read and the two non-Campion books I already own. 

NOTES

Created on March 19, 2025. 

The e-book editions are available and are usually not very expensive.

Most of the Allingham books I have are part of my collection of vintage, green triband, Penguin Books. I plan to read all my Penguin books and hers come first alphabetically. A good place to start!

WINNER! 2024 European Reading Challenge

 

2024 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

THIS IS THE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT POST FOR 2024

TO FIND THE 2024 REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO FIND THE 2024 WRAP UP POSTS, GO TO THIS PAGE

THE 2025 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE SIGN UP IS AT THIS PAGE

2024 was the 12th year of the European Reading Challenge! The challenge involves reading books set in different European countries or written by authors from different European countries.

My big thanks go to all the participants who joined me for the Grand Tour last year!

JET SETTER GRAND PRIZE WINNER

The 2024 Jet Setter prize goes to Sabine at sabines.literary.world who participated on Instagram. 2024 is the fourth year in a row that this intrepid armchair traveler won the challenge. In 2021, Sabine visited all 50 European states -- TWICE! In 2022, she hit another grand slam, but only one time around the continent. In 2023, she slowed down and "only" visited 35 of the 50 European states. In 2024, she hit her stride again, visited all 50 European states, and reviewed the books she read. Her wrap up post discusses her reading journey. 

Honorary Mention (but no prizes) go to the other nine participants who completed the challenge and posted wrap up posts about the countries they visited and the books they read. Here they are, with the number of different countries visited in parenthesis:

• Alexis Drake on Goodreads (8)

• All About Cosy (10)

• Avid Series Reader (15)

• Cinzia at Quattro passi sulle nuvole (21)

• Maphead's Book Blog (30)

• Mark at Carstairs Considers (4)

• Me, Myself, I Read (and Write) (3)

• Reese at Typings (15)

• Tess at tessreadslibri (6)

My own wrap-up post is here. I read books from 14 different European countries, and four were translations. I didn't even try to review the books I read, which is more than I can handle as long as I am running my own law firm.

Congratulations to all the readers who completed the 2024 challenge!

There is still plenty of time to join us in 2025.

JOIN THE 2025 CHALLENGE! SIGN UP HERE!

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

Sign up HERE for the 2025 Challenge.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

-- from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. 

The opening sentence from Pride and Prejudice is so famous, I could type it in from memory. But it is a good one, no matter how hackneyed it has become. 

Because 2025 is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, I am rereading her six main books in publication order. Now up is her most popular book. I am reading it as an audiobook this time around. I plan to start this weekend. My only question is whether to go with a British reader for the traditional experience, or this delightful version read in an American Southern accent. Which would you choose?

The book cover, above, is not the cover on my copy. But it is so pretty that I wanted to share it. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Pride and Prejudice:

Allowing for the common demands of the game, Mr. Wickham was therefore at leisure to talk to Elizabeth, and she was very willing to hear him, though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be told, the history of his acquaintance with Mr. Darcy. She dared not even mention that gentleman.

 

The Lady of the Mine by Sergei Lebedev -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

The Lady of the Mine by Sergei Lebedev, translated by Antonina W. Bouis

The Lady of the Mine is not an easy read, but it is a powerful one. Set in 2014 when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine, it is the tragic story of a Ukrainian mining village that suffered invaders throughout the 20th Century. There is an abandoned mine shaft in the village filled with the bodies of war victims dating back to the Russian Revolution. More recently, the Nazis executed thousands of Jews and and threw the bodies down the mine during World War II. As much as the Russians would like to expose the crimes of the Nazis, they keep the mine quiet because exposing the Nazis would also expose crimes committed by the Russians during their civil war and by Soviets later. 

That is the grisly backdrop to the 2014 story. When the Russians return to the village, the current conflict revives past miseries, especially when a passenger plan is shot down over the village. 

The book is told from multiple points of view, including a young soldier in the Russian occupying forces, a young woman with generational ties to the mine and people of the village, the former manager of the mine under prior Soviet occupation, and the original mine engineer, speaking from the grave because he is one of the bodies buried in the mine. Because the story is told by so many people and skips around in time, I had a hard time engaging with the book. I had to remind myself who the different narrators were and what their connection was to the historical events in the village. I also missed some of the many references to people, places, and events that are unfamiliar to non-European readers. 

Although I struggled with these aspects of the book, I ended up admiring it very much. It made me think about how dark times in history repeat themselves and the role of ordinary individuals in tumultuous times. Now that Ukraine is again fighting off the Russians, The Lady of the Mine is a particularly moving and significant story.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The mystical laundress at the center of this novel is obsessed with purity. Her task is formidable as she stands guard over a sealed shaft at a Ukrainian coal mine that hides terrible truths. The bodies of dead Jews lying in its depths seem to attract still more present-day crimes. Acclaimed Russian author Sergei Lebedev portrays a ghostly realm riven by lust and fear just as the Kremlin invades the same part of Ukraine occupied by the Wehrmacht in World War II. Then corpses rain from the sky when a jetliner is shot down overhead, scattering luxury goods along with the mortal remains. Eerie coincidences and gruesome discoveries fill this riveting exploration of an uncanny place where the geography exudes violence, and where the sins of the past are never all that in the past. Lebedev, who has won international praise for his soul-searching prose and unflinching examination of history’s evils, shines light on the fault line where Nazism met Soviet communism, evolving into the new fascism of today’s Russia.

NOTES

The Lady of the Mine was one of my TBR 25 in '25 books and counts as my Ukraine book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. I got my copy in a LibraryThing Early Reviewer giveaway.