"Farewell, My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler's crisp, laconic, sharp, caustic, dazzlingly evocative writing is always good for what ails me.  Especially when what ails me is a mild case of summertime SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and its accompanying discomfort in my own skin.

I try to limit myself to one Raymond Chandler book a year so that there is always enough time between my reading of any single book to make it feel fresh again with each reread.  So far, that's been working pretty well.

In Farewell, My Lovely, private investigator Philip Marlowe accidentally encounters an ex-con named Moose Malloy.  Moose is fresh out of prison and single-mindedly hunting for the love of his life, a singer named Velma.  He corrals Marlowe into helping him look for her, then accidentally commits a murder while trying to get information out of a black saloonkeeper.  Marlowe has to report the murder to the cops, but this is early 1940s California, and nobody really cares about an accidental murder of a black man who wasn't rich or famous or important in anyway.  Marlowe is told to forget about it, and the cops will track down Moose in their own good time.  The injustice bothers him, and he makes a lot of snide remarks about it to various authorities, to no real avail.

But Marlowe keeps getting sucked back into Moose's quest to find Velma.  Sometimes things happen to him that seem unconnected to Moose, like getting hit on the head and waking up to discover a murder, or getting hit on the head and waking up in a private hospital for recovering drug addicts.  But he starts to realize everything is all connected, eventually.  It feels for quite a while like a meandering spiral of a story, but that spiral is getting pulled tighter and tighter and tighter like a watch spring the whole time.

Particularly Good Bits:

I didn't say anything.  I lit my pipe again.  It makes you look thoughtful when you are not thinking (p. 91).

Aster Drive had a long smooth curve there and the houses on the inland side were just nice houses, but on the canyon side they were great silent estates, with twelve foot walls and wrought-iron gates and ornamental hedges; and inside, if you could get inside, a special brand of sunshine, very quiet, put up in noise-proof containers just for the upper classes (p. 119-120).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for violence, including not-overly-detailed descriptions of some gory murders, as well as innuendo (mainly in dialog) here and there, some bad language, and the aforementioned casual racism and some racial slurs common in the era.  This is hardboiled detective fiction from the 1940s, so it's not actually smutty, but most of the characters Marlowe encounters are not nice people.

This has been my 6th book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.

"Secrets of the Revolution" by Megan Soja

This second book in the Harbor of Spies series by Megan Soja did not disappoint!  It builds upon the first book, Spark of the Revolution, but could also be read as a stand-alone.  (But you do find out how the first book ends, if you care about spoilage.)

This book centers around William Abbott, older brother of the main female character of the first book.  His plans for the future entirely change with the receipt of a single letter, and he wholeheartedly embraces the Patriot cause as a result.  He stays in Boston and becomes a spy.

Along the way, he meets Hannah Pierce, who runs her aging father's apothecary shop.  Not only is she keeping her father's failing health and mind a secret, but she becomes involved in the growing Patriot spy ring as well.

And, of course, William and Hannah fall in love.

I especially enjoyed how many real historical people, places, and events Soja includes in this series.  And I appreciate how the Christian faith of both main characters grew and changed over the course of the book.  I liked book two even better than book one, and I'm glad I'm only halfway through the series, because that means I still have two books to look forward to!

Particularly Good Bits:

Silence hovered between them, begging to be filled (p. 29).

"Perhaps many memories hold a touch of the bittersweet, but I believe that makes them all the more precious.  They remind us of the experiences that shaped us.  And in recognizing how fleeting and fragile life is, they spur us on to fully live each day that God gives us" (p. 91).

It was not a failure to close one chapter of her life and begin another (p. 276).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for sweet romance including lightly described kisses, plus some descriptions of mild violence.  No cussing or smut.

This has been my 7th book read for my #RevolutionaryWarReads challenge!

Top Ten Tuesday: Have We Met?

This week's Top Ten Tuesday subject from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books I want to read by new-to-me authors."  So, here are ten books that I have on my physical TBR shelves that are by authors I haven't read anything by before.

Since I haven't read these, I'm grabbing publication years and genre info from their Goodreads pages, and linking their titles to their Goodreads listings in case you are interested in learning more about them.

Boundless by Amy Caldwell -- 2023, Christian, contemporary, clean romance, ranch, modern cowboys

The Weight of Air by Kimberly Duffy -- 2023, Christian, historical fiction, circus performers, clean romance

Not Quite Miss Austen by Kim Griffin -- 2025, Christian, historical fiction, 1950s, clean romance

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome -- 1889, classic, British lit, humor, travel

Passing by Nella Larsen -- 1929, classic, African American fiction, New York City

The Lady and the Loyalist by Stephanie McRae -- 2024, Christian, historical fiction, American Revolution, clean romance

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley -- 1917, classic, humor, New England, book-lover main character

The Betrayal of Eden by Erin Phillips -- 2025, Christian, young adult, fantasy, retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo

Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter -- 1904, classic, young adult, Indiana swamp

The Moonstone's Curse by Sam Siciliano -- 2017, mystery, historical fiction, Sherlock Holmes pastiche

That's my list for this week!  Have you read anything by these authors?  Do any of these titles catch your eye too?  Did you do a Top Ten Tuesday post this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Making it Easier for You to Find Book Reviews Here

Over the past couple months, I've had some folks asking me for suggestions of specific kinds of books, or how to find my reviews of those book categories or genres.  I point them to this blog, and mention that I have specific pages for Clean Kids Books, Clean Teen/YA Books, and Clean Adult Books. 

But one person was specifically looking just for Christian fiction, and wanted an easy way to find a list of those reviews.  So, I added a Christian Fiction reviews page.

Then another person asked me if there was an easy way to see all my reviews of a couple different book series.  And I had to admit there wasn't, because I alphabetize the reviews on my Fiction Book Reviews page by title.  But I read a LOT of series, and there are quite a few that I have reviewed all the books in over the years.  So, I created a Book Reviews by Series page -- I just made it live today.

You can always find all those pages in the toolbar at the top of my blog, along with a lot of other handy ones like the Christmas Reads page.  If you're using a mobile device, they show up as a dropdown list right under my blog header.

Hope that helps some of you find things on this blog!  When you've been sharing book reviews for almost 15 years, and you read 50-100 books a year that adds up after a while!

"Sifting Through Chaos" by Sarah Everest

Book two in the Untouched series picks right up where book one (Breaking Triviality) left off.  That's a great thing about a serialized series -- you aren't left wondering what happened between books!  I appreciate that.

In Sifting Through Chaos, modern-day teens Marit and Cas have time-traveled back to 1940s Rotterdam right when the Nazis were overrunning the Netherlands.  They meet Annelies and her family (who were in the split-time first book too) and work together to escape the bombings and take shelter at the family's farm cottage outside the city.  But that cottage isn't meant for living in, and they must find another solution.  

Along the way, they've acquired an elderly woman and an orphaned toddler to care for as well.  That gives Sifting Through Chaos some found-family elements, which I always appreciate.  The bulk of the book is about figuring out how to keep these people safe while also searching for a way to get Marit and Cas back to their own time.

Marit has had a crush on Cas for years, and she finds her feelings growing deeper as she gets to know him.  Cas has a girlfriend back home in their own time, but they have been drifting apart for a long time, and he begins to wonder if he should break things off with her if/when they return to the present.  This is partly because he is developing feelings for Marit, but also because he realizes his girlfriend is not someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with.  Meanwhile, Annelies realizes she is falling for her knew Dutch soldier friend Bastiaan.  All of this is handled with believable teenage emotions and ways of thinking.

Sifting Through Chaos doesn't end on quite as much of a cliffhanger as Breaking Triviality did, but it definitely makes me eager to read book three, Setting Time Free, which will release in August.

This book releases next Tuesday, July 14. I was privileged to be selected to read an advance copy from the publisher, but I was not requested or required to review the book; all opinions are my own.

Particularly Good Bits:

So many crushed dreams were scattered around my feet (Cas, chapter nine).

...there was just no right way to tell a three-year-old phoenix she would rise from the ashes and become the best, warmest, most understanding grandma a girl could ever ask for (Marit, chapter twenty-one).

Tears of defeat threatened to overflow, but a surprising defiance welled up inside me.  I wouldn't give the enemy the pleasure of stealing my hope (Annelies, chapter twenty-eight).

My entire world had been shuffled into ruin and nightmares (Annelies, chapter thirty).

Minutes ticked by to the steady rhythm of our feet (Cas, chapter thirty-five).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for wartime violence and an incident where a German soldier attempts to haul away a teenage girl and rape her (the word 'rape' is not used, but his intentions are clear, as is her growing fear of what could happen).  No gore, no bad language, and no smut.  

"The Fighting Ground" by Avi

Well, that was different.  I'm not entirely sure I liked The Fighting Ground, but I definitely found it interesting!  Especially the idea behind the format of the story.  Instead of having chapters, it's broken up into sections by time, each section relating what happens every five minutes or so.  Depending on your reading speed, that can make this feel like it's happening in real time.  That was a nifty conceit.

The book focuses on a thirteen-year-old boy, Jonathan who aches to join the Patriots and fight against the British.  His father was wounded in the war and has come home to recover, but Jonathan doesn't see his father as a hero.  He sees him as a boring and tired adult who doesn't want Jonathan to have any fun.

So, Jonathan seizes his chance when there's an opportunity to borrow a gun from a neighbor and go fight some Hessians in the neighborhood.  Except the skirmish he ends up taking part in has little glory or excitement.  It's noisy and confusing and scary, and Jonathan decides he has had enough of war.  Unfortunately, the war has not had enough of him.  Before he finds his way back home, he faces some terrible people and learns some uncomfortable truths about himself and about war.

This is probably not a book I'll keep on our shelves.  But I think it was a timely thing to read right before the 250th anniversary of our nation's birthday.  It's a good reminder of the toll that the war took on ordinary people of all ages, and of the fact that war isn't glorious or fun -- it's dirty and dangerous and uncomfortable and scary.  For me, that's a good reminder of how much respect I owe those who choose to serve our country in the military, both now and in the past.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-10 for several cuss words, a scene of battle and bloodshed, and lightly described encounters with death and dead bodies.  This is a middle-grade book, but some younger readers may find it too scary or disturbing.

This is my sixth book read for my #RevolutionaryWarReads challenge that I've set myself.  You may notice I've made a new graphic for this challenge... and I probably will need to make another new one before the year is over, because I keep acquiring more books about the American Revolution!  This will do for right now, though.

"Pigeon Post" by Arthur Ransome

Every time I read an Arthur Ransome book aloud to my kids (who are now teens, but I still call them my kids), I think I can't possibly love it more than the previous Swallows and Amazons books.  And I am usually wrong.    They tend to be better and better the farther we get in the series.

(We actually didn't like Coot Club much and decided to skip it for now after a few chapters, but that was because it was mainly about Dick and Dorothea, and we wanted to read about the Swallows and the Amazons, not the Ds.)

We adored Pigeon Post.  First of all, it was a jolly good adventure.  One part toward the very end made us all laugh so much that I had to stop reading, wipe my eyes, and blow my nose because I was crying from laughing so hard.  And it took several starts before I could really move on, because the laughter didn't want to stop.  Man, what good stuff.  And the final quarter or so of the book was absolutely thrilling -- I read until I was hoarse and we still didn't want to stop.  

Pigeon Post is all about the Swallows (John, Susan, Titty, and Roger) and Amazons (Nancy and Peggy) and Ds (Dick and Dorothea) deciding to go prospecting and find gold so that Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim (aka Captain Flint) would settle down near home and stop wandering all over the world having adventures.  They figure if they find gold, he will be too busy gold-mining to go galivanting.  

Being their typical resourceful selves, they figure out a way to convince their parents to let them go camp far away from the lake to do their prospecting, using carrier pigeons to relay messages every day assuring the Natives that they are well, safe, and happy.  And, in the end, one of those carrier pigeon messages ends up saving the day for more people than just the prospectors.

I'm not sure kids ever have been this awesome and jolly and free to roam around doing cool things.  But I like to believe there was a time and place when it was possible.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some perilous and intense things happening at the end.

This is my 5th book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.