Friday, December 15, 2023

Some favorite books this year


 Just a few of my favorite reads this year!  What were some of yours??










Trust by Hernan Diaz (I can see why it won the Pulitzer...)

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
    Hernan Diaz’s 
TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.
    At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, 
TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.

Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea (like so many other historical fiction readers, I am beyond burned out by WWII right now, but I loved this look at the Clubmobile women and their friendships...)

In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.

After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a courageous American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.


The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths, and Their Year of Marvels by Adam Nicolson (because I can't get enough of Romantic poets, and this is a gorgeous book...)

June 1797 to September 1798 is the most famous year in English poetry. Out of it came Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and “Kubla Khan,” as well as his unmatched hymns to friendship and fatherhood, and William Wordsworth’s revolutionary songs in Lyrical Ballads along with “Tintern Abbey,” Wordsworth's paean to the unity of soul and cosmos, love and understanding.

In 
The Making of Poetry, Adam Nicolson embeds himself in the reality of this unique moment, exploring the idea that these poems came from this particular place and time, and that only by experiencing the physical circumstances of the year, in all weathers and all seasons, at night and at dawn, in sunlit reverie and moonlit walks, can the genesis of the poetry start to be understood.

The poetry Wordsworth and Coleridge made was not from settled conclusions but from the adventure on which they embarked, thinking of poetry as a challenge to all received ideas, stripping away the dead matter, looking to shed consciousness and so change the world. What emerges is a portrait of these great figures seen not as literary monuments but as young men, troubled, ambitious, dreaming of a vision of wholeness, knowing they had greatness in them but still in urgent search of the paths toward it.

The artist Tom Hammick accompanied Nicolson for much of the year, making woodcuts from the fallen timber in the park at Alfoxden where the Wordsworths lived. Interspersed throughout the book, his images bridge the centuries, depicting lives at the source of our modern sensibility: a psychic landscape of doubt and possibility, full of beauty and thick with desire for a kind of connectedness that seems permanently at hand and yet always out of reach.


The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland (a vampire book but not really.  Possibly my favorite of the year?  At least, it was until another title swooped in at the end!)

Collette LeSange has been hiding a dark truth: She is immortal. In 1834, Collette’s grandfather granted her the gift of eternal life and since then, she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache.

Now, almost 150 years later, Collette is a lonely artist running an elite fine art school for children in upstate New York. But her life is suddenly upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger for blood.

Combining brilliant prose with breathtaking suspense, Jacqueline Holland's 
The God of Endings serves as a larger exploration of the human condition in all its complexity, asking us the most fundamental question: is life in this world a gift or a curse?


Small Angels by Lauren Owen (technically a 2022 book, but I didn't read it until this year, and woo hoo was it spooky!)

Lucia and her sisters grew up on the edge of Mockbeggar Woods. They knew it well—its danger, but also its beauty. As a lonely teenager, Kate was drawn to these sisters, who were unlike anyone she’d ever met. But when they brought her into the woods, something dark was awakened, and Kate has never been able to escape the terrible truth of what happened there. 

Chloe has been planning her dream wedding for months. She has the dress, the flowers, and the perfect venue: Small Angels, a charming old church set alongside dense, green woods in the village that her fiancé, Sam, and his sister, Kate, grew up in. But days before the ceremony, Chloe starts to learn of unsettling stories about Small Angels and Mockbeggar Woods. And worse, she begins to see, smell, and hear things that couldn’t possibly be real. 

Now, Kate is returning home for the first time in years—for Sam and Chloe’s wedding. But the woods are stirring again, and Kate must reconnect with Lucia, her first love, to protect Chloe, the village, and herself. An unforgettable novel about the memories that hold us back and those that show us the way forward, this is storytelling at its most magical. Enter Small Angels, if you dare.


Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman

London, 1832: Isabelle Lira may be in distress, but she's no damsel. Since her father’s death, his former partners have sought to oust her from their joint equity business. Her only choice is to marry—and fast—to a powerful ally outside the respected Berab family’s sphere of influence. Only finding the right spouse will require casting a wide net. So she’ll host a series of festivals, to which every eligible Jewish man is invited.
 
Once, Aaron Ellenberg longed to have a family of his own. But as the synagogue custodian, he is too poor for wishes and not foolish enough for dreams. Until the bold, beautiful Isabelle Lira presents him with an irresistible offer . . . if he ensures her favored suitors have no hidden loyalties to the Berabs, she will provide him with money for a new life.
 
Yet the transaction provides surprising temptation, as Aaron and Isabelle find caring and passion in the last person they each expected. Only a future for them is impossible—for heiresses don’t marry orphans, and love only conquers in children’s tales. But if Isabelle can find the courage to trust her heart, she'll discover anything is possible, if only she says yes. 


The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

In the middle ages, a famous poet told a story that mocked a strong woman. It became a literary classic. But what if the woman in question had a chance to tell her own version?

England, 1364: When married off at aged twelve to an elderly farmer, brazen redheaded Eleanor quickly realizes it won’t matter what she says or does, God is not on her side—or any poor woman’s for that matter. But then again, Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars, making her both a lover and a fighter.

Aided by a head for business (and a surprisingly kind husband), Eleanor manages to turn her first marriage into success, and she rises through society from a cast-off farm girl to a woman of fortune who becomes a trusted friend of the social-climbing poet Geoffrey Chaucer. But more marriages follow—some happy, some not—several pilgrimages, many lovers, murder, mayhem, and many turns of fortune’s wheel as Eleanor pursues the one thing that all women want: control of their own lives.



The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (I admit, I was a teensy bit disappointed by the last Thursday Murder Club title, it felt a bit like wheel-spinning though was still delightful.  This had a new emotional depth to it all...)

It's rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club.

Shocking news reaches them—an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

The gang's search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters—as well as heartache close to home—Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust.

With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out?


Marry and Bright by Teri Wilson (the whole trilogy was a delight!)

Mixing business with weddings

Both up for the editor-in-chief position at 
Veil magazine, Addison England and Carter Payne are fierce adversaries. But despite their bickering, the pair has to work together and prove themselves before the magazine’s Christmas deadline. Stepping in to pose as the bride and groom for a wedding shoot starts the unexpected change from rivalry to romance…until they discover the “fake” vow exchange was entirely legal. Now the newlyweds have to decide if power really is their ultimate endgame.  


Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl by Renee Rosen

In New York City, you can disappear into the crowd. At least that’s what Gloria Downing desperately hopes as she tries to reinvent herself after a devastating family scandal. She’s ready for a total life makeover and a friend she can lean on—and into her path walks a young, idealistic woman named Estée. Their chance encounter will change Gloria’s life forever.

Estée dreams of success and becoming a household name like Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Revlon. Before Gloria knows it, she is swept up in her new friend’s mission and while Estée rolls up her sleeves, Gloria begins to discover her own talents. After landing a job at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York’s finest luxury department store, Gloria finds her voice, which proves instrumental in opening doors for Estée’s insatiable ambitions.



And my very favorite of the year!  I could NOT put it down.  Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Patchett is such a hit and miss author for me.  I loved Bel Canto and Commonwealth, didn't care for The Dutch House, and love her non-fiction essays, especially "Dog Without End."  This was full of love and hope and sadness and choices in life and paths we don't take)

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

Weekend Links


 Happy weekend, everyone!  I can't believe Christmas is next week, eeekkk.  Wasn't it just August last week??  I am not ready!  (we also just closed on a new house, yay, so I'm trying to pack all these books, boo.  Send me your moving tips!).  To distract us from the season, here's a few things to read.  (And happy birthday tomorrow to Jane Austen!)



Audrey Hepburn's still-legendary fashion moments

Show-stopping tiaras for the Nobel ceremonies

A gingerbread version of "The Holiday" cottage!

Lost Tudor palace found in garden

Medieval-inspired wedding dresses trending now


Wednesday, December 06, 2023

Book Release!



Mysteries swell in London's snowbound Hell

The Other Face of the Christmas Shilling - Kathy L Wheeler
Lady Thomasina Staunton takes refuge in an abandoned house as far from London, her friends, and her family, as she can get. But her ruse of an absent husband fighting the French backfires. Horribly so.

When Florentine Comier, former Duc of Bouchard, returns unexpectedly from months of travel, he is shocked to find a stranger living in his home, claiming to be his wife.

Despite the deception, Florentine cannot help being drawn to the beautiful and rebellious Lady Thomasina, and soon discovers a love he never believed possible. But danger looms on the horizon as not everyone believes decent Frenchmen exist on England’s shores.

A Christmas Ha'penny's Worth of Love - Amanda McCabe
Lady Elizabeth Rathburn hates being apart from her Miss Greensley's Girls and being forced to stay at her bullying father's cold, lonely estate. She hopes she might at least find her old friend, a handsome young man she only knew as "Mick," but he no longer appears in their old meeting spot by the river.

Until she finds out "Mick" is actually Lord Michael Hamilton, the son of her family's old enemy! Worse—her father insists she must marry Lord Michael to seal a new business deal and end the enmity. Feeling betrayed, Eliza runs to her beloved La Sous Rose at Christmas time, only to be trapped in a snowstorm with Michael, the one man she despises—and desires. The man who declares he has loved her all this time, but how can she trust him now? 


2.99 Today Only!


Buy Link

Sunday, December 03, 2023

Weekend Links


 Just a few more hours left this weekend!  And I'm going a little crazy, hoping to close on my own mojo dojo casa house this week (and start moving, eeek).  So here's some fun reads...







Happy 100th birthday, Maria Callas

Also, happy birthday to Louisa May Alcott! (I remember when my grandmother gave me a copy of "Little Women" when I was a kid, because I luvvvved stories of writerly girls in olden tymes.  I didn't like it quite as much as she thought I would, but I did like it.  Also, #justiceforamy)

Also, also, happy birthday to Frances Hodgson Burnett!  (I read "The Secret Garden" to pieces when I was a kid)

Exploring Canyon Road



Saturday, November 25, 2023

Book Sales and Giveaways


 



Weekend Links


 Happy post-Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!  I hope you had a lovely day, with lots of pie.  (my holiday was quiet, since my mother just got out of hospital, but we had a yummy lunch and watched the parade and "Doc Martin" marathon on PBS...)  Now back to writing! (hopefully!  The fourth of my Santa Fe 1920s mysteries was turned in, now I'm contemplating my next project and starting to pack for a move)

In the meantime, here's a bit of distraction reading for you...

The return of the Strathmore Rose tiara

You can buy costumes and props from "The Crown"!!! (I'd love the coronation robes for washing dishes and walking the dogs)

"Wolf Hall" will return for part 3

And a Tudor gatehouse is for sale

A.S. Byatt passed away ("Possession" is one of my favorite books of all time)

The oldest bookshops in London

400 years of Shakespeare's First Folio


Monday, November 20, 2023

Heroine of the (slightly-post) Weekend: Queen Alexandra

 Sorry I'm late!!!  This week's Heroine is Queen Alexandra, who died on November 20, 1925...


Born December 1, 1844 in Copenhagen, she had a surprisingly humble start in life!  One of 6 children to Prince Christian of Schelswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel, she was of a cadet branch of the Danish royal family.  With only a small income, the family lived a small-scale but very happy family life at their Yellow Palace grace-and-favor home.  The girls made their own clothes, and Alix shared a room with her sister Dagmar (future Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia).  They were very close, and loved games and family dinners, which showed in her future desire to build just such a close family for herself.

In 1861, after a "scandal" involving a music-hall actress, Prince Albert Edward turned 20 and his parents decided it was high time he got married and settled down.  With the help of eldest daughter Princess Vicky, Crown Princess of Prussia, Victoria scoured the Almanach Gotha for suitable German princess, but they all had one problem--they were not pretty.  And "pretty" was the number one requirement for the prince.  The undisputed loveliest princess of them all was Alix of Denmark, "the only one to be chosen".  Victoria reluctantly agreed, and the young couple "accidentally" met while touring the cathedral at Speyer on September 24, 1862.  


In March 1863, Alix traveled to England with her family, and was married on March 10 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.  It was a controversial choice of venue--not close to London, small, not much room for a grand guest list, not many suitable places to stay (only her immediate family was there from Denmark, and Queen Victoria, widowed, watched and wept from a balcony).  At the end of 1864, her father became King of Denmark, and Prussia invaded the Danish territory of Holstein, instilling a lifelong hatred of Germany in Princess (now) Alexandra and creating a source of fiction between her and Queen Victoria.

Her first child, Prince Albert Victor, was born prematurely in early 1864, starting Alexandra on a devoted (not always happily) motherhood.  Eventually she would have 6 children--"Eddie" was joined by George, Louise, Victoria, Maud, and a boy who died soon after birth.  "She was in her glory when she could run up the nursery, put on a flannel apron, wash the children herself and see them asleep in their little beds."  But the birth of her third child in 1867 left her with rheumatic fever, resulting in a permanent limp and exacerbating her deafness.  It also meant she couldn't keep up with her husband's constant whirl of social life as much, and she started to retreat into her own world of family and dogs, her own friends and charity work, at their homes of Marlborough House in London and Sandringham House in the country.


Her marriage, though a success in many ways (Alexandra was a very popular princess and queen, and they worked well in partnership) was also marred by Edward's constant and blatant infidelities and Alexandra's hearing loss.  But her appeal for the public never waned, she was always considered beautiful and charming, and devoted to her charitable works, especially her interest in nursing and healthcare (Alexandra Rose Day is still an ongoing fundraiser).

in 1901, she finally became Queen!  She increased her charities, but otherwise continued as she had been, doting on her grandchildren.  In 1910, she traveled to Corfu (she often visited her family around the Continent, and her brother was now King of Greece; she had also purchased a holiday home in Denmark with her sister, where Empress Marie lived after the Russian Revolution), but was quickly summoned back to London when her husband collapsed.  After his death, she wrote "I feel as if I have been turned to stone, unable to cry, unable to grasp the meaning of it all."  She moved from Buckingham Palace back to Marlborough House.

She suffered from ill health for the last few years of her life, and died of a heart attack at Sandringham.  She was buried at St. George's, site of her "inconvenient" wedding, with her husband.

Sources:

Georgina Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra (1969)

David Duff, Alexandra, Princess and Queen (1980)

Richard Hough, Edward and Alexandra (1998)

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Heroine of the Weekend: Vivien Leigh


 I used to maintain a list of historical women here I called "Heroine of the Weekend" (since I posted them on weekend).  I love discovering new-to-me extraordinary women in history and delving a bit into their lives and times, but life got in the way and I didn't have the time to continue for a while.  I'm eager to start this feature again, even sporadically, and see who we can discover.  Let me know if you have any ideas for future features!  And take a look at past essays in the side panel...


Today's heroine is one of my very favorite actresses, the complex, wonderfully beautiful, immensely talented Vivien Leigh, who was born November 5, 1913 and died July 8, 1967.  The winner of 2 Oscars (Gone With the Wind and Streetcar Names Desire) and a Tony for Tovarich, she had a 30 year career,  Despite her great film successes, she considered herself mainly a stage actress.   "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Being a film star—just a film star—is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvellous parts to play," she said.  She faced many challenges ub ger short life, roles she longed for and lost, a serious battled with bi-polar disorder abd TB (which led to her early death), as well as the collapse of her great love for Laurence Olivier.  Always, she was tough, hard-working, never giving up.


She was born in India, where she had her first stage role as Little Bo Peep at 3, and at age 6 was sent to Catholic school in England.  After her schooling, she was accepted at RADA, but dropped out soon after meeting and marrying conventional, older barrister Leigh Holman in 1932 and having her one child, Suzanne, 1in 1933.  She went back to study part-time, and managed to get a role in in the play The Mask of Virtue (1935).  She got good reviews and lots of notice (except grumblings that her voice was too small for the large space!)  Later Leigh said 
 "some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said for those first notices.[29] I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well and have never forgiven him"


In 1935, she first met Olivier at the Savoy Grill, and despite their current marriages were instantly drawn to each other and embarked on a passionate affair..  She played Ophelia to his Hamlet at a famous production at Ellsionore, where the weather was stormy and Vivien was worse, having her first major breakdown.


Her first major movie Yank at Oxford (1938) and it gained her attention in America.  Soon after the pair embarked for the US, Oiliver to stare in Wuthering Heights, Vivie convinced she could bag THE part of Scarlett O'Hara.  She did, of course, and embarked on a long, grueling shooting schedule, with her favorite director replaced, illness, feuds with the likes of Leslie Howard.  Worst of all, she was separated from Olivier.  
"Puss, my puss, how I hate film acting! Hate, hate, and never want to do another film again!"  she wrote to him in anguish.


After GWTW her career was never the same.  She became a phenomonon, garnering all acclaim, including the Oscar.  But it wasn't entirely what she wanted.   "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Being a film star—just a film star—is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvellous parts to play."



On May 31, 1940, finally free, the pair married , and headed off to mount a production of Romeo and Juliet in New York.  (after Vivien being disappointed in losing the role of Rebecca opposite Olivie).  The play was terrible flop and huge financial disaster for the could.  Their follow-up was luckier, a film version of That Hamilton Woman.    They returned to England on the eve of war, where Leigh performed for the troops in North Africa (where she probablu first contracted TB), and Olivier made his great, and very patriotiocally stirring Henry V.


Leigh sufferered miscarriages, and the mental troubles increased.  The couple went ton tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1948 (soon after Olivier gained knighthood, making Vivien Lady Olivier).  It went on for many gruelling months, and though a great success Vivien's health broke down further.  Olivier said he "lost Vivien in Australia"


Throughout the '40s and '50s there were many movies and stage prductions (including Ceaser and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra together).  "The reviews there were also mostly positive, but film critic Kenneth Tynan  angered them when he suggested that Leigh's was a mediocre talent that forced Olivier to compromise his own"


She performed Blanch in Streetcar... in the West End in 1949 (326 performances) which led to the film version and her second Oscar.  In 1953, her marriage rocky, she went to Ceylon to film Elephant Walk, where she threw herself into an affair with actor Peter Finch, and feel deeper into mental illness.  She was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor, and Olivier took Vivien home to the US for treatment.  Later, after partial recovery, there were more plays, especially Shaw and Shakespeare, as well as a few films, such as Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Ship of Fools.  After parting with Olivier (how went on to marry actress Joan Plowright) she entered a long, stable relationship with actor Jack Merivale, settling into life on a country estate with lots of cats.  She died at her London flat of TB on July 7, 1967


 When asked if she believed her beauty had been an impediment to being taken seriously as an actress, she said, "People think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can't possibly act, and as I only care about acting, I think beauty can be a great handicap, if you really want to look like the part you're playing, which isn't necessarily like you."

Director George Cukor described Leigh as a "consummate actress, hampered by beauty", and Laurence Olivier said that critics should "give her credit for being an actress and not go on forever letting their judgments be distorted by her great beauty." Garson Kanin shared their viewpoint and described Leigh as "a stunner whose ravishing beauty often tended to obscure her staggering achievements as an actress. Great beauties are infrequently great actresses—simply because they don't need to be. Vivien was different; ambitious, persevering, serious, often inspired"


Some sources:

Bean, Kendra. Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press

Coleman, Terry. Olivier, The Authorised Biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005

Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography. London: Coronet Books, 1978 edition

Spoto, Donald. Laurence Olivier: A Biography. London: Cooper Square Press, 2001

Strachan, Alan. Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2018.

Vickers, Hugo. Vivien Leigh: A Biography. London: Little, Brown and Company, 1988 editionyg

Weekend Links

 


Happy middle of the month!  Thanksgiving is just week after next (and I need to start my pies--my holiday assignment), and Christmas looms ahead, along with my birthday and the stress of moving house.  (Fingers crossed, we will close on our new house Dec. 10!).  I also just turn in one book (the 4th 1920s Santa Fe mystery), and am starting on another (the second Matchmakers of Bath story).  Whew!!  This is always a wild time of year, but I think it will be doubly do this year.  Any time management advice??


In the meantime, a few fun things to read and distract ourselves:

9 signs you're a complex thinker whose mind works differently

The oldest bookstores in London

400 Years of Shakespear's Folio

Tiara of the Month: The Danish Ruby Wreath

Sofia Coppola's Stymied Attempt to Bring Undine Spragg to the Screen

Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius

Researcher uncovers possible new works from Louisa May Alcott

 Two very different tiaras at a state banquet

26 Christmas recipes from the 1920s

First look at Agatha Christie's "Murder is Easy"


Saturday, November 04, 2023

Weekend Links


 Happy autumn, everyone!  Don't forget to turn your clocks back this weekend.  I confess I sometimes have a tough time with the early darkness and cold, but I do love cozy quilts, cashmere shawls, and holiday lights, so it's hygge time!  Also reading and writing time.  I have a deadline this week (book 4 of the 1920s Santa Fe mysteries), and finally got the top of my library's holds for Tom Lake.  What are you reading this week??

In the meantime, some fun tidbits...



First look at Agatha Christie's "Murder is Easy" cast

How Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group Unbuttoned Britain

Maria Tallchief quarter released

An early Charlotte Bronte story

The war of the opera houses in The Gilded Age

How you can protect your local library

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Book Release!!!

 Do you feel ready for snow, cocoa, presents?  Romance???  Do you love the opulent sopa opera-ness of "The Gilded Age"??  I have the book for you!  My new Christmas anthology, "A Gilded Age Christmas" is out now!  (I have an enormous love for all those things, too, as well as Edith Wharton books, so I loved writing this story)



Two festive romances set in the glamorous Gilded Age

Two short romances

Celebrate a Gilded Age Christmas!

In Amanda McCabe’s 
A Convenient Winter Wedding: marrying Connor O’Neill is about survival for penniless heiress May Van Der Berg. The distant self-made millionaire is far from the passionate husband she’d once dreamed of…except for that scorching kiss! In Lauri Robinson’s The Railroad Baron's Mistletoe Bride: after years of estrangement, romance blooms when Kurt invites store clerk Harper and their shared niece to spend Christmas at his mansion. But are they just a family for the holidays? 



"Amanda McCabe's historical romances never disappoint and A Convenient Winter Wedding is a superb Gilded Age novella full of wit, passion and emotion written with plenty of style and flair. With characters readers will love and plenty of drama and intensity to keep them hooked, A Convenient Winter Wedding is an enjoyable historical novella from Amanda McCabe's very gifted pen."  --Amazon Review, 5 stars

Buy Link


Weekend Links


 Happy Saturday, everyone!  It's my favorite time of year--almost Halloween!  I love the crisp leaves, the cooler nights, the lovely apples (and apple pies) at farmers market, getting out my (copious) collection of scarves.  And watching spooky (not gory!) movies and reading creepy books (just finished "Small Angels," it was delightfully creepy...).  What are some of your favorites?  Let me know in the comments, and in the meantime here's a few things to read...

(I'm also hoping to have some more "Heroine of the Week" posts soon!  Let me know who you might like to see profiled)





The opulent film locations of "The Gilded Age"

How protect your local library (from Ask a Manager, a wonderful advice site!)

A designer lover's guide to Venice

The British Library digitizes its collection of Chaucer 

Yesterday was the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt (how did films get the battle right or wrong?)

Birthplace of the Bronte sisters goes up for sale

12 best things to do in Santa Fe

They said it was a masterpiece...when they thought a man painted it

The Francophile gift guide (for the Francophile in the your life, cough cough, me)


Sunday, September 24, 2023

Weekend Links

 Happy (sniffle, cough) weekend!  Or not so much around here--after over 3 years of good luck, I have covid!!!  Luckily, it just feels like a no-fun cold and is getting better, but my writing was set back for a few days and I spent far too much time watching videos of dogs and cats pretending to talk (that Penny the cat, hilarious!).  But here are a few other reads I found, and happy autumn!  I love this time of year.  Crisp breezes!  Beautiful colors!  Apple cider!  Striped sweaters!  Best of all...Halloween



Shop once owned by Anne Boleyn's father up for sale

The art of the aperitif

Marie Antoinette's Wardrobe Book

A new museum here in Santa Fe

The home science labs of 18th century English noblewomen

Hercule Poirot actors ranked

What Oppenheimer's Los Alamos looked like

Bridgerton Funko Pop figures

Friday, September 15, 2023

Weekend Links

 


Happy almost-autumn!  It's finally cooling down here after a scorching dry summer, and I'm so excited!  It was also Fiestas time here, and Kate got very into it.    Here are a few fun reads to take us through the weekend...


What Oppenheimer's Los Alamos looked liked

Bridgerton Funko Pops!

New Agatha Christie statue unveiled in Torquay!

Royal Jewelry Collection Up For Auction

Authors who work as booksellers


European Cities That Appear Most in Literature

One Year On: Queen Elizabeth II's most elegant ensembles

The Age of Innocence (one of my favorite movies)

Virginia Woolfe and the Philosophy of Fashion

Favorite Lunch Salad Recipes

Book Release!

 Flora and Cho-Chou are back for another adventure!



1889
With the wild chase for the late unlamented duke's diamonds finally over, business is booming for Flora Flowerdew's seance society, but she's bored with summoning ghosts with the help of her psychic Pomeranian Chou-Chou. She longs for adventure, like what she had with Benedict, and her Cockney maid Mary and journalist Evie as they chased across England and France in search of the diamonds. A late night visit from Benedict, Duke of Everton changes that. He was the last man she ever wanted to see again, with his frosty green eyes and rough laughter. But he needs her help. His great-aunt Imogen is being blackmailed--and it might turn London politics upside-down! Not to mention Ben's own matrimonial prospects.

Lady Imogen begs Flora to help her hide her naughty past. She insists they attend a country house party at Windermere Abbey, where all the thieving suspects will be gathered. A tangle of politics, passion, fear hang heavy in those lavish corridors, and Flora must sort it out before it's too late! And before her heart is lost, too...


"​I fell in love with Flora Flowerdew in the first book: Flora Flowerdew and Mystery of the Duke's Diamonds. So, of course, I absolutely had to read Flora Flowerdew and the Mystery of the Purloined Papers as soon as I could get my hands on it.

I was right.

A wonderful Novella, it is light, easy to read, and full of mystery (and even some mayhem!). It was so wonderful to spend time with characters from the first book. Especially our reluctant duke: Benedict.

I sincerely hope we will be seeing more of Flora, Benedict, Chou Chou the psychic Pomeranian, and Mary the best friend any music-hall-dancer-turned-medium(ish) could have!"  Goodreads Review



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Thursday, August 03, 2023

Book Release Day!!!

 


The third in my 1920s Santa Fe mysteries is out NOW!!!  I am so excited about this book.  I put so much of my love of this place, my love of Maddie and her quest to find herself, into these stories, I love having them out in the world...


Former New York darling turned amateur sleuth Madeline Vaughn-Alwin is once again thrown into a colourful yet deadly web of secrets, lies and soirees to die for!

It's the week of Fiesta in Santa Fe and Maddie is looking forward to enjoying the celebrations. But as 'Old Man Gloom' Zozobra goes up in flames, so too do Maddie's hopes for a carefree life . . . Human remains are found in the dying embers of Zozobra, and then Maddie and her dashing beau Dr David Cole find a body washed up in the arroyo at the edge of town.

Soon identified as Ricardo Montoya, a wealthy businessman and head of one of the most affluent families in Santa Fe . . . the plot starts to thicken. While his beautiful wife Catalina and her complicated children seem less than heartbroken at his untimely demise, and with many disgruntled locals crawling out of the woodwork, Maddie is surrounded by suspects.

With the celebrations of Fiesta continuing around them, Maddie and her 'Detection Posse' get busy infiltrating the best parties and hobnobbing with old and new faces - but can they bring the murderer to justice before they strike again?


Santa Fe, a place of beauty and artistic inspiration, provides the perfect backdrop for the sympathetic sleuth. --Kirkus Reviews


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