All The Beauty In The World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me

The Book: When Patrick Bringley's brother died of cancer in his twenties, Patrick quit his job at The New Yorker, where he worked in the public events office, and took a job as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He wanted to assuage his grief and "applied for the most straightforward job I could think of in the most beautiful place I knew".  As he says "My heart is full, my heart is breaking, and I wanted to stand still awhile." This is a beautiful memoir of grief, joy, and love of art. It is also a love letter to the Met. In a world where bad things happen every day, it's nice to know that the Met exists. And it is nice to have books like this.

The Author: Patrick Bringley

Genre: Non-Fiction (Memoir)

Length:  321 pages using my iPad mini as e-reader. But note that the last 13 pages are a bibliography of books about art and the preceding 40 pages are "Art Works Referenced in the Text".  At the beginning of that section is a link to the part of Bringley's web page containing the same list with links you can click that will take you to an image of the art.

One good thing:  Bringley writes in a very accessible way about the art in the museum, so don't be afraid to pick this up even if you know that you have little background in art.

One not-so-great thing:  In later chapters occasionally Bringley does not tie the art he is describing into events in his own life or the lives of the visitors to the Met and he tends to go into "art instructor" mode. I kept waiting for him to get back to his own life. 

Personal Memory: Nancy Pearl's "Four Doorways" are meant for fiction and aren't applicable here. Instead, I want to bring a personal memory. One of my favorite paintings is Jan Van Eyck's "Marriage of Arnolfini". In March 1991 I visited London for the first time. My travel plans were made during the First Gulf War, although the conflict had ended by the time I arrived. Due to that war, there were almost no tourists in London (a rarity). One day I visited the National Gallery by myself. This was before the Sainsbury Wing had opened. It was morning and the museum was almost empty. I either didn't know that the Arnolfini portrait was held by the National Gallery or I had forgotten. I was wandering through various galleries, just me and the guards, when I happened upon that painting. I know my face lit up and I'm pretty sure I said aloud "Mr. Arnolfini!".  Then I stood in front of it for a good ten minutes, knowing I would never get this chance to be alone with it again.  Just me and the guard.  After reading this memoir I regret that I didn't share this with the guard, but I'm sure he watched and knew.  The next time I visited the National Gallery the Sainsbury Wing had opened and Mr. Arnolfini had been moved there. The room was packed with visitors and I missed having him all to myself. 

 

My Beloved: A Mitford Novel

 

The Book: For Christmas, Father Tim's wife Cynthia tells him she wants a letter from him. But after writing a deeply personal love letter from his heart, Father Tim finds that it has somehow gone missing! Through a comedy of errors the letter ends up being passed around (although not necessarily read) by the community, causing unexpected revelations. This is Karon's 15th novel in the Mitford series, which is set in the fictional small mountain town of Mitford, North Carolina. By this time, Father Tim is retired but still active in the community and Cynthia is still creating her children's books. The characters that started as children are now grown with children of their own. Characters that were middle aged to start with are now old. But as usual in a Karon novel, although the characters have (sometimes very bad) problems, they still get through life by believing in the power of "love thy neighbor" and they believe in the power of prayer. 

The Author: Jan Karon

Genre: General Fiction (Christian Fiction, Southern Fiction, Holiday Fiction)

Length:  406 pages in hardback

One good thing:  For those who have read all the Mitford novels, this is like catching up with old friends during the holidays. Reading it is like sitting down for an episode of Gilmore Girls. It is heartwarming without being too saccharine because Karon makes sure that there are enough realistic problems that her characters deal with that are never completely solved (just like in real life). But they make progress in solving them. 

One not-so-great thing:  Even though I have read all the Mitford novels, it has been a while since the last one. I had trouble remembering who many of the "side" characters were and what problems they were dealing with. Karon gives some background without resorting to a lot of exposition but I wonder if someone who just picked up this novel without reading the earlier novels would be lost. 

Nancy Pearl's "Four Doorways":

    Story: As usual in a Mitford novel, the incident that instigates the plot is very mundane and isn't of the type that moves a story along. It is mostly a device to move the story between characters. This is not a page turner by any means. 

    Characters: There are a multitude of characters, most of them introduced in previous novels.  Karon is very good at giving each character an individual "voice" that I find easy to hear in my mind. But even if you like character-driven stories that meander through plots you may be frustrated unless you started with the first book in the series. This book was clearly written with existing fans in mind.

    Setting:  While I think many people read the Mitford novels for the characters I'm convinced most people read them for the setting. While Karon doesn't shy away from showing that rural America has many problems, Mitford is the small town that everyone who ever dreamed of living in a small town wants to move to.  

    Writing:  Nobody buys the Mitford novels for the writing itself but Karon is very good at dialog. And her descriptions of food will make you hungry. (By the way, OMC stands for Orange Marmalade Cake, which should be avoided by anyone diabetic!)

    

    

The Rest of Our Lives

The Book:  Tom Layward lives in Westchester, New York with his wife Amy. His life may look outwardly good but Tom is dealing with some major issues. He has health problems that his doctor has diagnosed as Long Covid. He has been put on leave from his job as a law professor but he hasn't told his family. An old friend is pressuring him to get involved in a class action case for race discrimination against white people. But mainly he is dealing with a big decision about his marriage. Twelve years ago Amy had an affair and Tom decided that he would leave Amy as soon as their youngest child left for college. Now it is time to drive his daughter to school in Pennsylvania but after dropping her off Tom decides to keep going rather than returning home. He visits his brother in Indiana, an old friend in Denver, an old girlfriend in Las Vegas and his son in Los Angeles. Along the way he thinks about the rest of his life, both what came before and what will come next. This novel was a finalist for the 2025 Booker Prize. 

The Author: Ben Markovits

Genre: Literary Fiction

Length: 256 pages using ipad mini as e-reader

One good thing:  This is a very accessible novel, written in the first person almost as if Tom is having a conversation with the reader. This made me want to "keep the conversation going" and keep reading. 

One not-so-great thing:  The physical structure of the novel may be off-putting for some readers. The dialog does not use quotation marks, which I know annoys some people more than me. There are, also, only three very long chapters so there aren't many natural stopping points.

Nancy Pearl's "Four Doorways":

    Story:  This is not what I would call a plot-driven novel. If you are looking for a typical "page turner" with a high action plot, this is not the novel for you. While there is a plot, most of the action takes place in Tom's head.   

    Characters: I would call this a one-character driven novel. The main character is, of course, Tom and we are in his head for the whole novel. Even though the novel is not plot-driven, I found it hard to put down. I felt a little bereft when the novel ended and I wanted to know more about what happened to Tom after we leave him. We see the other characters through Tom's eyes and we seem to discover things about them as Tom has realizations about them. 

    Setting: Although Tom is driving cross country this isn't a travelog. There are descriptions of places but "place" isn't really a big part of the story. 

    Writing:  Well written but written in every-day language. No sentence made me want to re-read it because it was so beautiful. On the other hand, Markovitz knew how to fill in back story without it seeming like exposition and there were a couple of moments of foreshadowing that were so subtle that I had to read them twice.  

    

    

2026 Blog Ideas

I don't usually set New Year's resolutions, but the beginning of a year is always a good time to take stock and come up with ideas for the coming year. One of the things that I wanted to do when I retired was to return to regular posting on this blog. I've been somewhat successful. Over the last couple of years I've been good about posting end-of-the-month summaries of my reading. This year I even managed a few posts about operas I had seen. 

The thing that I haven't done is create many long posts about the books that I've read. I always intend to write more about the books I read but, with the exception of Stone Yard Devotional, I did not manage to do that in 2025. Part of the problem is that I find I have little interest in spending time writing about a book unless there is something about that book that really captures my attention, even if I enjoyed it. (I could never be a professional book reviewer!) I found 2025 so distracting that most books didn't capture my attention enough to make me want to write a long post about them.  

Of course the other thing is that this is a little blog I mostly keep for myself. I don't have a lot of readers, which is fine. But writing a long analysis of a book takes time. If I'm not excited about a book (or puzzled by a book) I don't have any incentive to write about it when I know few people will read what I write. (This isn't a complaint, I've never had any desire to do the things required to gain a large readership.)

On the other hand, back when I used to write more long book posts I found that I retained what I read better. And sometimes I found things to think about that didn't automatically occur to me when I was reading. So I'd like to write more about books for those reasons. What I don't want to do is post a long summary of the plot of a book and conclude with a short statement of why I did or didn't like it. That seems more like a book report of the type I had to write in Elementary School to prove I read the book. 

I've been giving it some thought. One blogger that I follow is Jan Simpson, a theater critic who publishes the Broadway and Me blog. At some point last year she recognized that she was seeing a lot of shows that she didn't have time to fully blog about, or that people weren't interested in enough to read a long blog post about, and so she started a separate blog called Broadway & Me Quickies. These are, in her words, short takes on shows currently playing in New York for people too busy for longer reviews. The idea was that it would give the reader a quick sense of the show without having to write a full review.

I've enjoyed her short takes and it occurred to me that I could do something similar for books that I read. Her short takes always follow the same format: First a summary of what the play is about, then identification of the playwright and director and then, most importantly, "One Good Thing" about the play and "One Not So Great Thing" about the play. 

I'm thinking of borrowing this format (with full credit to Jan) for some of the books that I read in 2026 and seeing how it goes. Part of me wonders how it will really differ from my end-of-the-month summaries (which I will continue).  But having to think specifically of a good thing and a not-so-great thing might be helpful. I'm also thinking that I might be able to incorporate Nancy Pearl's "Four Doorways" concept into the quick takes. I can't guaranty that I will stick with it, but it seems like something I could try out for 2026.

By the way, if you like Broadway you should follow Jan who also appears regularly on the Broadway Radio podcasts with a podcast that looks in depth at Pulitzer Prize winning plays (called All The Drama) and a podcast in which she does interviews with playwrights (called Stagecraft).  She is also on BlueSky under Broadway and Me. 

My 2025 Reading Wrap Up

It's that time of year again. Time to count up the books I read in 2025 and try to make some sense of my reading year. These tend to be long posts, maybe too long for a reader. But part of the reason I do these is to help myself remember each year.

Except for specific categories (explained below) I do not set myself a yearly goal of a total number of books to read, I just look for books that I think I will enjoy or that I feel I should read at some time in my life. 

Goals and Statistics

Each of the past couple of years, since I retired, I set a goal to read more non-fiction and poetry. I arbitrarily set a goal for each of 6 books. That's a book every two months which seemed manageable. I also have had the goal to read more classic novels but I didn't set any particular number for myself. I, in general, wanted to re-visit some favorite books by re-reading them but didn't have any particular list. Finally, I wanted to reduce the number of mysteries that I read as a percentage of all the fiction I read. But mysteries are my comfort read and 2025 was a year in which I needed a whole lot of comfort reads! So I decided early in the year to ignore that goal.  

This year I read a total of 130 books which is more than my total of 100 books in 2024 and my total of 73 books in 2023. Of those, six (6) were nonfiction (4.6%), four (4) were poetry (3%) and the remainder was fiction (92.4%). Of the fiction I read, 72 books were mysteries (60%) which is much higher than the 42% I read in 2024. Within the category of fiction, 54 books (45%) were historical (either historical mysteries or historical fiction). My fiction also included 7 classics (5.8%). I appear to have only re-read one book this year.  

87 of the books (67%) were books I borrowed from a library. According to my libraries I saved $2,231.80 this year by using their libraries. We should all support public libraries!

I have already posted a list of my favorite books of 2025 so I won't repeat myself here, I encourage you to read that post separately. In putting together this post I did not worry about including every book I read. If I didn't really enjoy a book and didn't feel it was a book that would interest many people I omitted it from this post. (Admittedly there were only a few books that fell into this category.) I have linked each book to the post in which I originally wrote about it. 

Poetry

I read four books of poetry this year, which was fewer than the six I intended to read (one collection every other month). Unlike in previous years, I didn't particularly enjoy some of the poetry I chose this year and none of them really stood out to me in thinking about them at the end of the year. Water, Water by Billy Collins was how I started the year and although I usually like Collins I did not think this was one of his best collections. In March I finished Frank: Sonnets by Dianne Seuss which I found depressing. In April I read Double Negative by Vona Groarke, which contained many poems about aging which I related to. But, in the end, none of them stayed with me. In August, on vacation, I read Poems by Ann Michaels, a Canadian poet who had written a novel that I enjoyed last year. I liked her work the best of the poetry I read this year but was not blown away by it. At that point I think I just gave up for the year and didn't read any more poetry collections. 

Non-Fiction

I read six works of non-fiction this year, which met my goal for the year (surprisingly, I forgot I had read that many). In January I finished How Sondheim Can Change Your Life by Richard Schoch which I was very disappointed in. I read two books by the historian Michael John Witgen about native American history. The first, Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America, I very much enjoyed. The second, Great Lakes Creoles: A French Indian Community on the Northern Borderlands, was almost as interesting. However, unless you are really into the history of Great Lakes Indian tribes you probably wouldn't rush out to get either of them. It's Easier Than You Think was recommended on a podcast I listen to. It turned out to be, basically, a beginner book about Buddhism and while I enjoyed it I didn't think it was really worth my time. 

The highlight of my year in non-fiction was Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Air we Breathe by Carl Zimmer, which made my list of favorites. My most unexpected find was Parallel Lives: A Love Story from a Lost Continent by Iain Pears, the unlikely story of how two art historians met, fell in love and married despite one of them being in the Soviet Union. I truly enjoyed reading about them. 

Mysteries

I read 72 mysteries this year which was 55% of my total reads and 60% of my fiction reads. As I said above, this was a year in which I needed a lot of comfort reads. 

Mystery Series (New to me)

I love a good mystery series so, first, let's talk about a few new (to me) mystery series that I discovered this year. The best thing about this annus horribilis was that it made me search out many new authors in search of a new mystery series to distract me. Fortunately most are by authors who are still writing, so we will hopefully get more books in these series in the future. 

A friend on BlueSky recommended the Rowland Sinclair historical mystery series by Sulari Gentill and I raced through all the available books, truly enjoying them. Set (mostly) in Australia in the years before WWII, Rowland is a wealthy artistic type with non-wealthy, very liberal, artistic friends. And, yes, they solve murder mysteries. Gentill sets her stories amongst the growth of fascism in Australia and in Germany and other countries where Rowland and his friends travel to. Sometimes the fascism part hit a little too close to home. But despite that, I enjoyed this series and hope for more books. The series begins with A Few Right Thinking Men and goes on from there for many volumes, all of which I read. 

I've enjoyed Vaseem Kahn's Baby Ganesh Agency mysteries and this year I read the most recent book published in that series, A Bad Day at the Vulture Club. I always enjoy that series which features a baby elephant called Ganesha who helps solve crimes. But I was happy to find that Kahn is now writing another series, this time a historical series set in Bombay just after Indian independence: The Persis Wadia series. The main character, Persis Wadia, is the first woman policeman in Bombay. Shunted off to the district office where they send all the losers (in her case because they don't know what to do with a woman policeman) this is sort of a Slow Horses set in India. I raced through all the books I could find in the series including the first book Midnight at the Malabar House, and hope he continues it. 

Martin Edwards, a British author, has written a series called the Lake District Mysteries set in the present time and in which the main characters are a historian and a police woman in charge of cold cases. I like the locale of these mysteries although the plots are sometimes a little too melodramatic for my taste. He also has another series and I read the first book, Gallows Court.  It was a real page turner but  ... strange.  I remember thinking I would definitely read more in the series but when it came down to it I chose the Lake District Mysteries first. Edwards is also an editor of the British Library Crime Collection Series, of which I have read a few over the years. This year I read three from that collection, two of which were books of short stories that were edited by him.  Capital Crimes: London Mysteries was a book of short stories set in London.  Short stories are never my favorite type of read, but in this case had a couple of very good ones that I enjoyed. Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries was another book of short stories edited by Edwards. I took it on vacation because each mystery occurred while the detective was on vacation. Again, I'm not really a short story reader but there were a few good ones in the collection. Finally, I read Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon, for which Edwards wrote the forward. This was the last of the BLCC books that I inhereited from my mom and I saved it to read for Christmas. It was a story that reminded me of something a young Alfred Hitchcock would film. 

Julia Spencer-Fleming writes the Russ Van Alstyne/Claire Ferguson Series set in upstate New York. The mysteries are solved by the local chief of police and the local Episcopal Priest (who is a woman). I like the different viewpoints they bring to situations although sometimes the situations that Spencer-Fleming puts them in makes me roll my eyes. The first book is In the Bleak Midwinter which is set in the 1990's. The others followed every few years. The latest in the series, At Midnight Comes the Cry, was released in time for Christmas this year which was appropriate since it encompassed the Christmas season. 

If you had told me I would enjoy a series where a cryptozoologist solves mysteries involving mythical creatures I would have thought you were crazy. But I have enjoyed Annelise Ryan's Monster Hunter Series set in Northern Wisconsin despite the wacky premises. I read  A Death in Door County, Death in the Dark Woods and Beast of the North Woods. Despite the "monster" premise, the mysteries all have (so far) perfectly rational solutions.

A new novel I read, which is the beginning of a new series, was Rob Osler's The Case of the Missing Maid. Set in Chicago in the late 1800's the main character is a woman detective who has to prove herself. If you are familiar with the neighborhoods of Chicago, it makes it extra fun to read. The next book will be released in January. 

Another new author for me was Nev March whose novel Murder in Old Bombay won a First Crime Novel Award a few years ago. I enjoyed it despite its length but I think you might need to be interested in a lot of Indian history to get through it. It is the first in a series and I will probably get around to reading the others. 

Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin is a first time mystery by an established romance writer and was a very good start for her. Set in Canada (mainly Toronto) the main character is a Muslim widow who, in this book, is called on to prove that her daughter did not commit a murder. The process drags up issues from her past that she must come to terms with. I liked the older main character and want to read more about her.

I picked up The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall before I left for vacation based solely on the fact that it was set in Cornwall. The main character, Ally Bright, is a widow in her sixties (I love this new trend of having older main characters).  She joins up with a young newcomer to Cornwall to solve the mystery of a missing woman and a man who fell or was thrown from a cliff. This was a perfect summer read and I will read more in the series.  

Laura Lippman is one of my favorite mystery writers and I was excited to read her latest, Murder Takes a Vacation, which I believe is the start of a new series for her. I loved her Tess Monaghan series and the main character in this novel, Muriel Blossom, at one time worked for Tess (who has a cameo in this novel). Muriel and a friend are taking a river cruise in Europe (something I've always wanted to do, but single supplements are outrageous). Murder occurs (of course) and Muriel must solve it. You don't have to know much more than that. I found it somewhat hard to believe that Muriel was as naive about travel as she was at the beginning, but she caught on and hopefully will be a pro at it in the next book. 

Mystery Series (Continuations)

In addition to new authors, many of the series that I have been following for years had new installments issued (or I found installments that I had missed in previous years). One reason I like to recap the reading year is so I have a place to look to see what mystery series I've been reading so I can see if there are new books. 

This year I read the last two books in Lindsey Davis' Flavia Albia series set in Ancient Rome: Death on the Tiber ,which I did not care for much because I thought the pacing was off, and There Will be Bodies, which I very much enjoyed. Davis clearly does a lot of research for her novels and I have felt for a few years that the research has gotten in the way of the pacing. She seems to want to give the reader a lot of background narrative, all of which is interesting but does not move the story along. I felt that she remedied that in There Will be Bodies which takes place near Herculaneum in the years after the eruption of Vesuvius. I very much enjoyed that novel and hope she is back on track since she has always been one of my favorite mystery writers. 

Kate Atkinson put out her first Jackson Brodie mystery after five years, Death at the Sign of the Rook. I enjoyed it but wouldn't place it at the top of my list of Kate Atkinson books.

I read the Louise Penny novel The Grey Wolf  in January. The latest in her Three Pines series I had saved it to savor after the holidays but was a bit disappointed in it. Later in the year I read her follow up novel, The Black Wolf, which I liked better. In an afterword she admits that her fans wish she would go back to solving "Three Pines" mysteries and while I don't particularly care if the stories stay in Three Pines, I'm not really interested in international thrillers (which the last two books have bordered on). I'm looking for murder mysteries.  

Jane Pek published The Rivals as a follow up to her first novel. I had originally assumed she intended to write a series of mysteries featuring the cast of characters she created in her first novel in which they investigate the backgrounds of people on dating apps but she seems to have planned a trilogy with a beginning, middle and end. The plot involves a conspiracy involving AI - and reality seems to have caught up with the plot. I enjoyed this novel but I do think it helps if you've read her first novel. 

I began Stephen Spotswood's Pentecost and Parker historical series last year and this year I caught up with it. Set in post-WWII New York, Pentecost is the most famous woman detective in NYC and her associate, Parker, is a former circus performer. This year I read Murder Under Her Skin, Secrets Typed in Blood, Murder Crossed Her Mind, and  Dead in the Frame. The last two books focus on Pentecost and her mysterious past and it looks like the next book will too. 

Alison Montclair writes the Sparks and Bainbridge mystery series and I am slowly making my way through those books. Set in 1940's post-war London it involves a woman owned detective agency. I read A Rogue's Company and The Unkept Woman in March. The plots of this series always require a certain suspension of disbelief but the two main characters are so enjoyable that I don't mind. 

Anna Lee Huber writes two mystery series that I read. The Verity Kent series, set in the 1920's, is usually my favorite but the latest two books in that series have been set in Dublin during the fight for Irish independence and I haven't enjoyed them as much as the earlier novels. It was a very violent time in real life (essentially a war zone) and, perhaps because of my Irish background, I find it difficult to read about. I read The Cold Light of Day in March and then I read the latest, A Moment's Shadow, later in the year. Huber's other series is the Lady Darby series, set in pre-Victorian Britain. At first I thought these stories, while enjoyable, were a little too pat, but the series has grown on me more and more as she incorporates true historical situations into the plots. I caught up with it this year and read A Fatal Illusion in March and A Tarnished Canvass in July, both of which are based on true stories. I especially found the second one very interesting from a plot point of view.   

This year C.S. Harris published Who Will Remember, the 20th installment in the Sebastien St. Cyr series. This is one of my very favorite series and Harris always delivers. Set in the years immediately following the Napoleanic Wars, it is a period I wasn't too familiar with before I started this series and was happy to learn more about. I constantly recommend this series to everyone who will listen. You can read them of course in any order but I always recommend starting with the first in the series due to the continuing evolvement of St. Cyr's personality and life story. 

The Wrexford and Sloane mystery series is set in about the same time period as the Sebastian St. Cyr series. What differentiates it is that Andrea Penrose likes to incorporate a scientific discovery or invention that is being worked on at the time into the mystery. Murder at Somerset House involves the attempt to build what will eventually become the telegraph machine. It also goes (deeply) into the workings of the London Stock Exchange.

The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson is the second in a series set in post-WWII Edinburgh and featuring a social worker (which was a new concept at the time). In this mystery there is a dead body, boiled to death in a bath house. Very gruesome. I've enjoyed both novels in this series and hope she continues it. 

It always surprises me that I am a fan of C.J. Box's Joe Picket series, but I am.  This year I read his latest, Battle Mountain. The plot was just as eye-rolling as all of the Joe Picket plots but it still swept me along. And, as usual, in real life Joe would be dead but as usual he is saved. I believe it is the setting that really captivates me. Box really captures the beauty of the mountains. 

Apostle's Cove was the latest mystery by William Kent Krueger in his Cork O'Connor mystery series. This series is mostly set in Minnesota in the Boundary Waters region, not far from where I vacation each year and I enjoy it almost as much for its sense of place as its characters. This installment in the series has Cork looking back on the first murder he solved long ago when he was the chief of police. Did he get it wrong?

I'm a big fan of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club mysteries and The Impossible Fortune was released this year. The gang is back together solving mysteries, this time with Joyce's daughter. The mystery is never really the point with these novels. The point is that old age doesn't mean that you can't still be living your best life. 

One of my very favorite mystery series is the Inspector Rutledge series by Charles Todd. The author is actually a pen name for a mother/son writing team. Unfortunately the mother died a few years ago and the son has been tied up in estate issues (let that be a lesson to authors - be sure to have your estate planning up to date). A Christmas Witness is the first story issued since her death and it is really a novella. I found it very disappointing. It should have been a short story, it was extremely padded to bring it to novella length. A full length novel is to be released in 2026, so we'll see if he can write alone without his mother. 

Ann Cleves writes so many excellent mysteries. When she finished with her Shetland Series I thought we had seen the end of Jimmy Perez. He was heading off to Orkney with his pregnant girlfriend/boss. But she has now picked up his story in Orkney with The Killing Stones and she is still in good form. Orkney is a place I've always wanted to visit so I loved her evocation of place in this novel. 

Back in 2023 I read the first novel of a proposed new historical mystery series set in Fiji during World War I. This year the second book, A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao,was released. The main character is a Police Sergeant named Akal Sing, who is a Sikh from India. As an outsider we learn about Fiji through his eyes. If you read for a sense of place, you would enjoy this. The mystery was fine but the characters other than Sing could use a little more development. 

Standalone Mysteries

Surprisingly, I did not read many stand alone mysteries this year. 

The Lake House by Kate Morton was a stand-alone mystery that I had on my shelf for many years. I finally read it this year. This is a dual timeline novel in which a modern day detective on leave in Cornwall tries to solve the mystery of a missing child that occurred many years earlier. Sometimes dual timeline novels slow the pacing of the novel down, in my opinion, but Morton made it work very well and the structure didn't bother me as much as it has with other author's writings.  

I assume that Guilty by Definition by Suzie Dent is a standalone novel. The main character works for a (thinly disguised) Oxford English Dictionary and is trying to determine what happened to her sister who went missing ten years earlier. The mystery was good and the characters were well drawn. 

I intensely disliked Venetian Vespers by John Banville. Set in Venice in the late 1800's the first person narrator is a pompous ass who is also too stupid to figure out what is happening. I figured out most of the mystery very early on and didn't find the characters that interesting (mainly because we see them through the narrator's eyes). Not recommended. 

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson is the story of Hannah Cole, a widow who operates a confectioner's shop in London in the 1700s. The business is failing because her husband's estate is tied up in probate pending the resolution of the investigation into his death by murder. But one day a stranger introduces her to "iced creams" and this new concept increases her business. Is the stranger to be trusted, however? This book has a very (VERY!) complicated plot but not as complicated as her last novel. And I did not see the end coming. I'm not even sure I should categorize this as a mystery because it isn't your usual mystery, but I think this is where it belongs. 

Fiction

Historical Fiction

My favorite kind of fiction is historical fiction (you will notice that even my favorite mystery series include a lot of historical fiction). This year I read quite a bit of historical fiction, probably because it was a way to avoid thinking about what was going on in the present day. As I said in my Favorite Books of 2025 post, I read a lot of books that I enjoyed but that did not make by favorites list, mostly because they just didn't stay with me after I put them down. I'll try to note the ones that I didn't like, and why. 

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane is set in the southern Australia Outback in the 1800's where a family (a whole town really) is living from day-to-day trying to raise sheep and grow wheat, all of which is dependent on the weather. One day a six year old boy wanders away in a dust storm and the town is called out to find him. 

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry is set in Idaho in the 1800's. Most of the characters are Irish or Cornish immigrants. A mail order bride arrives but ends up running off with another man in town. Her jilted husband puts together a posse to find them. I didn't particularly like this novel, which was nominated for many prizes, but it had the advantage for me of being short. 

I never knew that Belfast suffered a Blitz during WWII until I read These Days by Lucy Caldwell.  There are three nights of bombings and the novel is divided into three parts, basically following the fates of one family and their domestic servants. I thought it was very good.

Radio Girls by Sarah Jane Stratford is the story of the early days of  BBC radio including the story of Hilda Matheson, the real head of "Talks" programming of BBC radio in those early days. The story is fictional, not a biography, and is told from the point of view of a fictional assistant. The BBC was one of the few places that a woman could get ahead in the job market in those days. 

The Joseph O'Connor novel, My Father's House, made my list of favorites this year and I wanted to read more novels by him. His 2020 Walter Scott Prize winning novel Shadowplay is the story of Bram Stoker before he wrote Dracula, when he managed a London theater and was the personal assistant to a famous actor. I think the only reason I did not put this on my list of favorite books of 2025 was because I liked My Father's House slightly better and didn't want to include two books by the same author. 

I very much enjoyed each of the two Robert Harris novels that I have read and I wanted to read more Harris so I picked up Precipice. This novel involved the true story of a love affair during WWI of the British Prime Minister and a much younger London socialite and the rash way that he told her about state secrets in his letters (all of which she kept but never disclosed). I very much enjoyed it. After finishing Precipice I wanted to read another Harris novel and chose Conclave, which had been made into a film last year that I had never seen. I liked this one even more that Precipice. It involves the selection of a new pope (which was a very appropriate theme this year) and is excellent. Whereas Precipice sometimes gets too much in the weeds about WWI which might lose some readers (not me), I think anyone could read and enjoy Conclave. Each of his novels that I have read takes place in a different time period with plots that are completely different. At this point I think I'm going to become a Harris completist and search out all of his novels. 

A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey was the story of a 1950's car race around the entire continent of Australia. A husband and wife team enter and take their neighbor as navigator. The novel explores relationships between men and women as well as white people and aborigines. What was disappointing to me was that it, surprisingly, didn't really have much of a sense of place.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams was chosen by my book group to read a couple of years ago but since I was going to miss that meeting I did not read it. It sat on my shelf for two years until I picked it up this year, and I was glad I did. It is the story of Esme and her growth from childhood to womanhood, but it is also the story of the birth of the Oxford English Dictionary which was just as fascinating. 

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry involves a child who goes missing during WWII. Her older sister, years later, is shocked to find a children's book that contains the story she made up for the missing sister years ago. Thus begins a search for the now grown child. This novel had a good premise and the author was very good at capturing the plight of children evacuated during the Blitz, but there were too many "coincidences" for my taste. 

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci was a pick by my book group that I unexpectedly liked very much. I compared it to an adult Enid Blyton book in terms of style and (a bit) in subject matter. The two main characters are teenagers living through the Blitz who are taken in by a friendly bookseller. 

Love Forms by Claire Adam is a delightful book about a woman who grew up in Trinidad and Tobbago and gave up a child for adoption after she got pregnant as a teenager. As an adult she is searching for that child she gave up 40 years earlier and remembering her life when she was young. I didn't know much about the history of those islands and I found it interesting. 

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood almost made my list of favorites this year. Set in the 1950's, Thomas is a "shanker", he scrapes for shrimp along the coast using a horse drawn cart. His life is a life of drudgery as he supports himself and his mother. He is secretly learning to play the guitar and longs to be a folk musician. He is too shy to ask out the girl he admires. Then one day a Hollywood film director comes to town looking for a location for his next film and Thomas' life begins to change.

Flashlight by Susan Choi is the story of a family. The father is Korean but was raised in Japan during WWII. He marries an American woman. One day he and his daughter take a walk along the shore. She is found unconscious, he is presumed dead by drowning. The main point of this story was a true historical event that happened in Japan after WWII. This book was a favorite of many people and while I appreciated the history in the book, I felt it was too expository even when the exposition was being shown through what happened to different characters.  

The winner of the Walter Scott prize this year was The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is a very good novel set in the early 1960's during a famously cold winter. The story involves two couples. One husband operates a farm, the other is the town doctor. Both wives are pregnant. This is in some ways a "slice of life" novel.  Although there is a plot the real interest lies in the characters and the evocation of time and place. I think the reason it did not make my list of favorites (even though I've thought of it since I read it) was that it was set during my lifetime and that makes me feel old. But I very much recommend it.

Other Fiction

My favorite novel in 2024 was James by Percival Everett, so I decided I needed to read more books by him. The Trees is hard to describe. It starts as a murder mystery, evolves into a zombie story and is also incredibly funny. It is set in the town of Money, Mississippi which is the town where Emmett Till was lynched.  And that is the lynchpin (get it?) of the story. I almost put this novel on my list of favorite novels for the year but I didn't feel that I thought enough about it after I read it.

I enjoyed The Wedding People by Alison Espach enough that I recommended it to my book club to read and they seemed to enjoy it too. The main character, Phoebe, finds herself staying at an inn at which every other guest is part of a Wedding Party. Phoebe, who is in the midst of a deep depression, gets to know the bride-to-be (who is a likeable Bridezilla) and other guests and it helps her put her own life in perspective. This makes the novel sound serious but it is written in a fairly light manner that makes it easy to read. I hesitate to call it a beach read but you could certainly read it on a beach. 

If you are looking for a really good beach read, try Sandwich by Catherine Newman. Set literally at a beach house it is a story of three generations of a family that come together each year in the same rented house. Similar to The Fortnight in September (see below) but set in modern times, this would be especially enjoyable for you if you have been vacationing at the same rental house for many years. 

I read a couple of books this summer simply because many people were discussing them and not because their premises necessarily appealed to me. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is a novel about Cyrus, an Iranian immigrant who is an addict and a poet who is obsessed with the idea of martyrdom. I thought this novel was very well written but I never really felt connected to the main character. Similarly, All Fours by Miranda July, did not work for me. A woman sets out on a cross country trip but basically only makes it to the suburbs of Los Angeles where she checks into a motel, redecorates the motel room and has an affair. I never related to the main character and didn't particularly care what happened to her. 

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano is a funny book about a divorced writer who gets mistaken for a hit man. The premise is absurd but the book is funny. I would classify this as a beach read. I will be surprised if it isn't picked up to be a film on a streaming service. 

 Flesh by David Szalay was the 2025 Booker Prize winner. It didn't appeal to me although I admit that the author created very realistic dialog, albeit by an uncurious, monosyllabic man. 

Audition by Katie Kitamura was on the Booker Prize shortlist and on many people's list of favorite novels in 2025. The structure of the novel is interesting (albeit slightly confusing) but to me it read more like an exercise in writing than a fully completed novel. I never attached to any of the characters. 

Universality by Natasha Brown was on the Booker Prize longlist and so I read it. I'm not a big fan of satire (mostly because I don't usually "get" satire) and this was a satire of the present day.  It's hard to satirize the present day because the present day is so absurd all on its own. 

Classic Fiction

I probably would not have read as much Classic Fiction if it were not for the BlueSky Book Club. I should say that I use a pretty broad definition of Classic Fiction - basically anything really old that I always felt I should have read. 

The Fortnight in September by RC Sherrif was a delightful book that I discovered through someone on BlueSky who listed it as a favorite book from last year. This 1931 novel is about an ordinary British family that goes on a two week holiday to the shore as they do every year but this year they are all aware that it may be the last because the children are now grown. 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This was a BlueSky Book Club readalong. I tired of the constant themes of pedophilia, incest and rape and did not particularly enjoy this read.  

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov.  Another BlueSky Book Club readalong, this was in part a 1,000 line poem and in part the "notes" to the poem (which are really what comprises the novel). This was, to say the least, an odd book. I didn't really enjoy it but I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it in one or two sittings rather than slowly over a month.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Yet another BlueSky Book Club readalong, this novel was a complete success for me. The writing in this book is brilliant. Highsmith made me care about what happened to Tom Ripley even though I didn't like him. 

The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges was another BlueSky Book Club readalong. The group actually chose short stores by Borges that were included in this book and others but I only made it through this book. Short stories are not my favorite type of reading and while I appreciated Borges' writing I did not particularly enjoy the stories. 

I picked up a copy of The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham last year after reading a novel that featured Maugham as a side character. Set during a cholera epidemic in China, Maugham is great at evoking a true sense of place. The main character is a woman whose husband, a doctor, finds out she is cheating on him so he takes her with him to the cholera ravaged region perhaps in the hope that she will die. Although this sounds depressing I did not find it so. It is a short, beautifully written novel. 

I'm not sure if What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies counts as a classic but I will put it here. More people need to read Robertson Davies, a Canadian author. This novel is the story of Francis Cornish, a talented artist from a wealthy Canadian family who trains to be an art restorer but his career is interrupted by WWII. The novel is a fascinating look at art restoration and asks the question "what makes great art" but in a way you won't expect. This was a re-read for me, my only re-read of the year. 

I can't remember why I picked up The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald but it ended up not being for me. It is historical fiction about a German poet I had never heard of.  It did not make me want to find his poetry. 

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton was another BlueSky Book Club readalong and I am so glad that I participated. The story is set in the late 1800's in New York. The main character, Newland Archer, is engaged to the lovely, traditional May but enamored of her more non-traditional cousin Ellen. This is really a story of how people are trapped by the manners of the day. What surprised me so much was that Wharton was so funny! This ended up being a very easy read. 

Finally, last but certainly not least, I participated in a Blue Sky Book Club year-long read of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. I chose the translation by Edith Grossman. We also tried to watch the lectures of a Yale professor about the novel that was available on YouTube (although I still have not finished that).  Many of the people who started the novel dropped out through the year but I am so pleased that I finished it. It is a true classic and surprisingly modern. Divided into two "books", I admit I enjoyed Book 1 more than Book 2. 

My Favorite Books of 2025

2025 was not a great year of reading for me. I was constantly distracted by things going on in the world and found myself unable to concentrate on reading for long periods of time. This led me to mostly read for escape, which meant that I relied on mysteries because those are my comfort read. I did read some very good mysteries which I will summarize in my yearly reading wrap up (coming next). 

Although I read a number of books that I enjoyed when I was reading them (some of them I enjoyed very much) most of them didn't stick with me through the year, probably because my mind was so distracted by current events. I did not want to put any book that did not stick with me on a "favorites" list at year end. Because of that, I found that I could not come up with a list of ten books to put on my favorites list. Rather than include books that I liked but didn't think of as a favorite I decided that I could live with fewer than ten books on my favorites list.  

The following were my favorite books of 2025. In each case I enjoyed reading them and then found myself thinking about them long after I finished them. In each case I have provided a link to the post in which I originally wrote about the book. 

I don't particularly want to rank my favorite books but, without a doubt, Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood was my favorite book of the year. There was a time in my life when I would immediately re-read any book that I loved, mostly to see if I could figure out how the author evoked that reaction in me. I seldom do that now, mostly due to time constraints. But I immediately re-read this novel and even wrote a separate blog post about it. Set in Australia, the unnamed narrator has taken up residence with a group of nuns. The narrator is not a nun and is not religious and it is not completely clear why she has decided to live at the convent. In the course of the novel, three "visitations" occur: the bones of a former nun are returned for burial; a non-cloistered "activist" nun arrives; and an infestation of mice (an infestation of biblical proportions) occurs. Each visitation causes our narrator to contemplate, among other things, life and death, grief, forgiveness, how to live a life where you do no harm, and how to make change in the world. I found this novel unexpectedly uplifting and have thought about it regularly throughout the year. 

My remaining favorites are in no particular order.  

It was pure serendipity that the first book that I read in January, The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard, ended up being one of my favorites. I knew, of course, of the downfall of Oscar Wilde, who famously had his life ruined when the Marquess of Queensberry accused Wilde of having a homosexual relationship with his son. While the author rightly makes clear what a travesty the British laws against homosexuality were for the men directly affected, he is mostly concerned with the affect on the people related to these men, specifically in this case Wilde's wife, mother and sons who ended up changing their name because of the publicity. Although Wilde is portrayed as a loving father, his sons never saw their father again after the trial. This is a novel that could have been "preachy" but isn't, and yet he gets his point across well. The novel is also structured well, moving through a long time period with ease. 

Have you ever read a book somewhat grudgingly and it unexpectedly becomes a favorite? That is what happened with My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor. Not being that interested in WWII, I read this only because it was on the Walter Scott Prize longlist for 2024 but I ended up being completely blown away by it. Irish priest Hugh O'Flaherty is stationed at the Vatican during the Nazi occupation of Rome. He organizes a group to smuggle people out of Rome under the noses of the Nazis. It is dangerous work and it is unclear throughout the novel who will survive. The structure of the novel makes this story suspenseful as the reader does not know if a character is referred to in the past tense because the specific narrator is referring to events in the past or because the character is no longer alive. I have recommended this novel to a number of people this year who generally don't like the kind of books I usually like, but I assured them they would like this novel. And each of them did. This novel led me to seek out other books by O'Connor and I was so pleased to have discovered him. 

Last year, a backlist book by Carl Zimmer made my list of favorites so this year I was excited to pick up his newest book: Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. A fascinating non-fiction book about aerobiology, I learned so much from reading this. Zimmer traces the quest to prove that diseases can be airborne, focusing on both crop diseases (e.g. rust) and human diseases (e.g. tuberculosis and measles), among other things. Zimmer writes for the New York Times and knows how to put complicated subjects in layman's terms. I found the portions of the book where he described the military's investigations into the ability to spread anthrax chilling. 

I picked up The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer without many expectations. This was a novel that snuck up on me, gradually drawing me into its story. Among the main characters are the painter Edward Hopper and his wife who are vacationing in Cape Cod. They become involved with a nearby summering family, including two young boys each struggling in his own way with the aftermath of WWII. The novel paints a picture of a complicated marriage while at the same time showing the effects of war and questioning the meaning of the American Dream. It also made me search out images of Edward Hopper's paintings to refresh my memory. 

I like to read books set in India so part of me was looking forward to reading The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai. The other part of me was concerned that this would be a very long, multi-generational saga told in linear fashion starting one hundred years ago and slowly making its way to the present, which is not my favorite form of novel. Desai does create a multi-generational saga but she does so in an organic way, filling in the reader on the back stories of characters as necessary. Sonia and Sunny meet on a train in India, although their parents tried to arrange a marriage for them years earlier when Sonia was going to school in Vermont and Sunny was working in New York. It pleasantly surprised me that the story takes place not only in India but in Vermont, New York, Mexico and Venice. I admit to being taken aback by the length of the novel, but I found that it moved along quickly. 

Finally, a reason not to publish your "favorites" list in November is because you may read something later in December that should make the list. That happened this year with Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor. Set on an island off the coast of Wales in the late 1930's, the main character is a young woman who dreams of traveling off the island but feels she must stay to care for her younger sister. One day two Oxford scholars arrive to study the culture and stories of the island and, since the main character speaks English, they ask her to be their assistant and interpreter. The Whale referenced in the title is an actual beached whale that rots on the beach until mainlanders scavenge it for meat and oil, a metaphor for the people on the island perhaps and for our main character, all of whom are being "scavenged" by the scholars. This very short novel is a fast read but O'Connor's few words build a vivid picture of the island and its inhabitants. 

December 2025 Reading

I usually post my monthly summary after the end of the month (because I'm usually still reading on the last day of the month) but with the New Year's holiday I'm posting this today because I know I won't finish any books until after today. 

I knew, going into December, that this was going to be a fairly light month of reading for me. The holidays take up a lot of time. I also was spending time watching television (catching up on an old Masterpiece Theater series that I had missed) instead of reading. I also had some books that I wanted to save for the New Year and didn't want to crack open in December. Because of that, I resigned myself to mostly comfort reads that I knew would be quick reads. But those turned out to be quite entertaining. 

These are the books I finished in December:

A Moment's Shadow by Anna Lee Huber

The latest in the Verity Kent mystery series finds Verity and her husband still in Ireland seeking some missing phosgene gas. This is a direct continuation of the last book which I read in March and I feel about this one the same way I felt about that one. Huber clearly did a lot of research into the Irish situation in the early 1920's and of course she wants to use every bit of that research. She seems to reference every single attack by the IRA and retributive attack by British forces - even though usually Verity is nowhere near where they occur and reads about them in the newspaper or hears about them from friends and acquaintances. Huber does a good job in setting the stakes for Verity. Phosgene gas was the gas used in World War I that killed so many people and left others injured for life. That part of the story kept my interest, but I kept hoping that once the gas was found they would leave Ireland and we could leave the Irish struggles behind. Unfortunately, the book ends on a cliff hanger which means the next book will at least begin in Ireland. I generally like this series and the time period it is set in, I'm just not that interested in the Irish portion (even though I'm very Irish). 

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor

One reason not to make a list of "best" or "favorite" books for a year in November is because you may read a real gem in December. Whale Fall was a real gem for me. Set immediately prior to WWII on an island off the coast of Wales where many of the inhabitants don't speak English, the main character is a young woman who has learned to speak English from the nuns and longs to leave the island. She is kept there tending her younger sister while her father plies his trade as a fisherman. One day a whale washes up on the beach and the carcass sits on the beach until, scavenged by the mainlanders for meat and oil, only the skeleton remains. Shortly after the whale washes up, two Oxford scholars arrive to research the folklore of the island and they enlist our main character to be their secretary and interpreter. The story doesn't really involve the whale which is a metaphor for life on the island and how the islanders are "scavenged" by the scholars. This is a short novel and the chapters are very short so it is a quick read. O'Connor builds a picture of the island and its inhabitants that is vivid even though she uses few words. The writing is beautiful and I felt emotionally attached to the main character. There isn't much of a plot but I still felt dread as the story went on that our main character would not achieve what she wanted. This will go on my list of favorite books this year. 

The Killing Stones by Ann Cleves

When Ann Cleves ended her Shetland series, we thought we were finished with Jimmy Perez forever.  He was moving to Orkney with his pregnant girlfriend/boss. Well, Ann Cleves may have been finished with Shetland but she wasn't finished with Jimmy Perez. This novel finds Jimmy and Willow happily living in Orkney and expecting their second child. In fact Willow is technically already on maternity leave, anticipating celebrating Christmas with her family. But the murder of one of Jimmy's close friends puts both of them on the case. Visiting Orkney has always been on my bucket list and this novel only made me want to go there more - but not in winter when there is no light most of the day. The mystery is good, as it usually is with Ann Cleves. Jimmy is still Jimmy and I liked Willow more than I remember liking her in Shetland. I'm glad Cleves decided to continue the story. 

Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon

This was the last of the British Library Crime Classics I inherited from my mom and since it was a Christmas theme I saved it for December to read. A group of people are traveling by train on Christmas Eve during a blizzard and end up stuck on the tracks. Rather than staying with the train (as sensible people would) they head off in the storm and end up in a mysterious house where the door is unlocked, fires are going, the larder is fully stocked and tea is laid out, but there is no human being in sight. Although this novel is dated in many ways, and went on a little longer than I would have liked, I still enjoyed it. The story reminded me of the kind of story that a young Alfred Hitchcock would have used for a film. In fact, the plot reminded me very much of a plot on an episode of the British TV series Endeavor, which I was watching at about the same time I read this novel. I've found the BLCC books to be hit or miss for me over the last two years and I was happy that this one was a hit.

Venetian Vespers by John Banville

I was barreling along thinking that this month I was going to enjoy all the books I read when I ran into this one. In the late 1800's Evelyn (yes, in Britain that is a man's name), a hack English writer (as he describes himself), marries Laura, the daughter of an American billionaire, and they leave for Venice for their honeymoon. However, Laura's father dies unexpectedly and it turns out that he has disinherited the daughter due to some unexplained rift. Venice in winter is cold, damp and, to the narrator, mysterious. The first night there Evelyn cannot sleep so he heads out to visit Florian's in Piazza San Marco where he runs into a man who claims to have been at school with him (although Evelyn cannot place him) and the man's beautiful sister. The next morning he wakes to find Laura missing. What happened to her? As I've often said, I dislike mysteries written in the first person because in order to make them work, often the narrator has to be either a liar or stupid and I tire of being in their heads. In this case he's a pompous ass who is also stupid. I did not like this novel at all. I've read other John Banville novels and liked them but I've never read any of his mysteries before. I figured out the broad outlines of the mystery pretty early on (although not the specifics). The main character was too pompous and stupid for me to enjoy (I also found his behaviour abhorrent) and the other characters are seen through his eyes. There was a sense of place but it is seen through the main character's eyes so it is unclear to me if Venice in winter is as horrible as depicted. All in all, not recommended. 

At Midnight Comes the Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

The latest installment of the Russ van Alstyne/Clare Fergusson series, this was issued in the fall of 2025. It was very good but the plot hit very close this time, involving a white militia group that hates Jews and anyone else who is different. Spencer-Fleming kept the tension ratcheted up without necessarily putting her characters in ridiculous situations as she has in other books.  It isn't necessary to read these books in order but it certainly helps with the back stories of all the characters. 

A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao

This is the second novel in a fairly new series set in Fiji during World War I. I read the first novel, A Disappearance in Fiji, back in 2023. I was only moderately interested in that novel but, since it was a debut novel, I thought I might read the follow up. I liked this novel much better. The main character, Police Sergeant Akal Sing, is a Sikh from India and an outsider in the Fiji community so we learn about Fiji through his eyes. In this story he is asked to escort two ladies, relatives of the local newspaper editor, to a different island in the chain and while he is there he is to look into a report that Germans have landed on the island. This seems unlikely and he believes that, as usual, his superior is giving him pointless tasks that no one else wants. But almost immediately he is pulled into a murder investigation. Just as with the first novel Rao creates a wonderful sense of place that makes the reading worthwhile. The plot of this novel is much better than in the first and she moves the story along. The characters other than Sing could be developed more and I found some of the actions of the young woman character with respect to Sing a little hard to believe, but not enough to stop me from enjoying the book.

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Back in February of 2024 I read Laura Shepherd-Robinson's novel The Square of Sevens. It was a page-turner but very complicated and I had a vague feeling that the author hadn't played fair when I got to the ending. So I started this novel with some trepidation. Hannah Cole is a recently widowed women living in London in the 1700's during the reign of King George II (of whom I know nothing). She runs a confectioner's shop in the newish St. James area but her husband's estate is tied up in probate because he was murdered and the murder is being investigated by none other than the magistrate Henry Fielding (yes, the author Henry Fielding). She is in danger of losing the store due to debts when a stranger named William Devereux stops in one day and tells her about "iced cream". He then helps her find a recipe for it and instructions on how to make it. The iced creams become a sensation. But who is William Devereux? Should she trust him?  Should she trust her feelings for him? Like her earlier novel, this novel has a complicated plot - I think Shepherd-Robinson likes to create puzzles and she is very good at it. This time I had no qualms about how she got to the ending and yes, it surprised me. 

And last, but certainly not least:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes tr. Edith Grossman

Yes, I finished my year-long read of Don Quixote! This was a Blue Sky Book Club read-along and I don't know how many people who started with me in January finished (or almost finished) by the end of December. It seems that most people dropped out or at least stopped posting. (I can't complain, I dropped out of the year-long read of Clarissa). I'm very glad that I read this classic novel which was much more modern than I expected. The novel is divided into Book 1 and Book 2.  I have to admit that I enjoyed Book 1 much more than I enjoyed Book 2. In Book 1 Don Quixote and Sancho have all the adventures you usually hear about - tilting at windmills, mistaking inns for castles, calling a shaving basin a golden helmet, etc.  It was fun. And I enjoyed comparing it to how it was interpreted in the musical Man of La Mancha. (The biggest difference was that Dulcinea is an actual seen character in the musical.) But Book 2 seemed to have been written as a reply to an unauthorized book written by someone other than Cervantes that continued the adventures of Don Quixote. All the characters in Book 2 had read Book 1 and, usually, the unauthorized sequel (which, yes, seems a very modern concept) and instead of Don Quixote and Sancho having (relatively) organic adventures, they had adventures that were "created" for them by people who had read Book 1. I mostly thought this was mean of them and I tired of it. But I kept reading and finished on time. And I'm glad I did.